Windows 7 BSOD boot chkdsk /f

After having uninstalled an application, I rebooted my system. Windows 7 would not boot. I got a BSOD problem suggesting that I try "chkdsk /f" - going into the recovery or repair console I went to the command prompt and entered that, but to no avail. The system reboots and returns to the same problem.

Somehow my system restore was off. I could not restore my system !

I look up a solution that requires that I enter the recovery console :

1. at the command prompt enter "regedit"
2. Determine the latest loaded driver or program correspond to the latest driver
3. HKLM - file->load hive>system32\config\SYSTEM - name as OFFLINE
4. Remove the keys / entries related to the latest installed hardware
5. Unload hive

Reboot.

If that does not work, make a back up of all your personal data on another disk. Leave your whole user profile as it may cause problems with future installations of windows.
Install Windows 7 on a clean partition and re-install all your software.

It may not seem as straight forward as old XP where you could reinstall to repair problems, but it does eliminate the risk of old problems coming back from lingering drivers or system files.

Smartphones are not good for the environment

Print out a page of where you want to go. Print out 1000 pages. Still it will take less resources than manufacturing many of the components of your touchphone.

Take a regular "feature phone", drop it on the concrete floor. Pick it up, keep on using it. Try that with a glass screen iPhone.

I can access e-mail, google maps, etc, on my 2006 phone, why should I pay 4 times as much for a limited data plan and get no real additional functionality.

An FM radio has a longer life than 64 GB of music or podcasts etc. There is something nice about having someone else do the programming.

If your current phone only needs a new battery, that should be no more than 5$. At least you will be able to change that battery.

iPhone 5 features voice and SMS communication

You probably heard that yet another iPhone is coming out: The iPhone 5.

According to reports, it will be just another touch screen phone. Although the were plans to make the screen bigger, it seems like it will remains at a size large enough to fit in a blazer pocket.

One of the greatest features of the phone is ability to use voice. Given that SMS currently dominate the use of mobile phones, the reintroduction of voice communication will allow people to communicate in real time without text.

Assholes usually get bad customer service

Have you ever worked in customer service or tech support?

It may not be much fun, nor does it pay well, but is something that is needed in today's economy so that a company can stay afloat. Sometimes the associates at tech support are less knowledgeable than they should be. It is a job rather than a passion or hobby. Could you imagine a tech support line for English grammar or bad hair days?

When I look at people's complaints about technical service, I understand as I have had my fair share of poor tech support over the phone or through e-mail. When dealing with customer support, it is important to be courteous, polite and patient. I recall a few years ago I helped a friend with a Apple iBook which had a display failure. Apparently there was a recall for the video chip that got partly unsoldered from the logic board, but the recall did not reach everybody. I took the responsibility of contacting customer support, and eventually going to the local shop. Although tech support did provide a solution not going to cost that much money (200$), the retailer's technician was incompetent. He changed the LCD before changing the logic board. The problem was not resolved, other than me spending about 350$ towards a new MacBook that my colleague bought. I just wanted the problem to go away and not have to deal with person who I was intending to help.

The internet has hopefully reduced the costs that companies have to spend on tech support, but it may have also contributed to the calls that support technicians receive that cause them to roll their eyes.

Slim margins - bad corporate social responsibility

In the past number of years, I have bought more electronics than I should have. Taking them apart for fun, or trying to fix them has allowed me to understand some aspects of design, assembly and costs.

Unfortunately some manufacturers, or should I say small entrepreneurs, may omit some parts to save on costs. For example, one can easily find a 7-portUSB hub without the capacitors that should be found at each port to avoid a power down of the hub when a new device is plugged in. Sometimes a 12MHz crystal is missing making the hub only USB 1.1. The costs of electronic manufacturing have dropped significantly, but being competitive is only possible if you are not having to recall products.

Ì feel guilty when I have to tell sellers on ebay that the items are defective, plain knock offs or just not working properly. If the products were advertised properly ie. USB N with true range of 15m I doubt that anyone would complain if they knew what they were getting, but sometimes the products just don't work at all.

Leaving facebook because it is obsolete

Refusing facebook?

Maybe I missed out on things in this world because I did not facebook, as I had no interest in exposing myself. I should mention that few of my friends were interested in social media as well.

OSX 86 PCI configuration begin hang

If you are having problems with booting OSX after you installed a kext here are some solutions :

1) At boot, try to boot in safe mode
-x npci=0x2000

2) If you had the problem just after installing sleepenabler.kext
Try a boot flag
-x npci=0x2000 pmVersion=0

3) If you have the original Snow Leopard OSX boot disc and an EFI boot disc, go the the installation using the EFI, then OSX disc. From there you can go to the /Volume/YOURDISCNAME ... System/Library/Extensions and then remove the problematic kext.

4) If the problem persists, you will have to access the drive to remove the problematic kext.
Puppy Linux was the solution for me. You need to access a HFS+ partition

In a command terminal I entered :

# modprobe hfs
# modprobe hfsplus

# mount -t hfsplus /dev/sdb2 /mnt/flash/


Open the /mnt/flash directory in ROX (or the command line)
Go to System/Library/Extensions and remove the kext

Single blog post vs forum solutions

I am trying to install a version of OSX on a PC. Given the lack of support from Apple for their operating system, people have to struggle to get the drivers working properly.

Why are forums useful ?
Interaction, assistance, requires one to think on how to write for an audience

How do they compare to single solution blogs ?
- A lot of information
- Need to dig around
- references back and forth between users

Next post on my blog will serve only for statistical purposes. I want to know how many people have accessed my solution.

MacBook Air - useful or just fashion ?

Apple is a great name and Steve Jobs did a good job in being demanding, however the attitude to make computers like "homes" is not quite correct. We use computers, they are tools, but not the extensions of our consciousness. A Macbook Air is more a product for prestige than a tool for computing. Perhaps I should say that a MacBook Air does not offer any more functionality of an Acer that goes for $350. Battery life is overrated. The struggles of dealing with a battery, estimates time and "power saving" features are rarely useful considering that most people are comfortable plugging in their system and using a computer for a number of hours.

As for the metal case, I think it looks good, but it is an overkill. Few people keep machines running for more than 5-6 years. I do have a couple ThinkPads that date from early 2000s and the plastic casing is just fine. A great deal more energy is needed to produce aluminium and is often overkill for a device with a short life. Could it be that CNC machining the aluminium costs less than having a plastic mould?

Regarding thickness. Thin keyboards do not mean that they are more comfortable. Yes it may take less room in a backsack, but I never had any problems lugging around a 35mm textbook.

I agree with a few points in the general design :

1. A SSD should not take so much space and could be integrated as a card or directly on the motherboard.
2. Optical drives are occasionally useful. A 35$ USB addon would make all laptops thinner an lighter. When I travel (on bicycle), I usually remove the battery and the DVD drive as I always have access to an outlet. I cycle for about an hour so less weight is nice, but I will not give up a silent machine with a WUXGA screen.
3. Max out the RAM if you can. The Intel memory controller can take up to 16GB RAM, through it in. It may only be useful if you are working with photos, there will be some innovation to determine a way to work with the additional RAM to make the computer more efficiently. 

Keyboard quality specifications

Like it or not, a keyboard is the most useful input device on a computer. The tablet computer is only useful when you have a keyboard : you know where each key can be found, it become second nature. The location of inputs on a touch screen can be equally known, but the small bumps on reference keys make a great difference to know that you are typing "pleasure" and not "-peas8re". When you get used to typing, you do not event look at the screen.

Regarding laptops, the last thing you want is a bad keyboard. If you look at reviews, not everyone agrees on what makes a good keyboard : spacious keys, shape, deflection, lit, pressure etc.

How can we make keyboard quality measurement standards?
- tests to determine accidentally hit keys
- repetitive stroke fatigue
- force required per key
- ease to use for high pace typing
- use of Shift, CTRL, TAB, SPACE etc.
- Combination keys for alternate characters


Like an LCD ( either lit by a CCFL or by LEDs - all the same to me, but CCFLs have a better colour gamut ) there could be measure standards that would be sufficiently objective.

I propose :

Deflection per key with standard force
Noise emissions
Keystroke life
Suitability for different hand sizes ( children, teens, adults, elder, large hands )
Reduced risk of repetitive stroke injury
Dependence on mouse for navigation ( Internet, multimedia keys etc. )
Temperature ( for laptops )
Ability to move key caps
Surface resistance to wear ( some keys become shiny or glossy with wear which makes them a little less comfortable. )


Do you have any suggestions on how to qualify a keyboard's usability?

Error 1324 Invalid Character Program Files(x86) - Solution

for the 1324 error see the note about Steam below

Downloadable games are a great idea. However there are some problems. Especially with PCs.

I just got Metro 2033 from Gamersgate, thus far the experience has been horrible.

First the downloader just downloads to the directory in which you received the installer.
You have to move it to another directory ( possibly drive if you are using a small SSD ).

Next you will get this login with an awful flaw : changing fields using the mouse instead of the typical TAB key. Therefore you have to manually click the fields and the login button to advance.


Next you must install STEAM. This was causing me the error 1324 Invalid Character. To resolve the problem
- Start Menu -> Run -> regedit
Search "steam.exe" -> Delete the key -> F3 etc.
You must remove every single key with reference to steam.exe and the reference directory that Steam was originally installed.
Here are some more instructions from Steam

Exit Steam.
Navigate to your Steam directory. (Typically C:\Program Files\Steam or C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam
If you wish to save your game files for a future installation of Steam, copy your steamapps folder outside of your Steam directory.
Delete all of the contents of your Steam directory.
Go to Start > Run and type in regedit.
For 32-bit operating systems:
In the left-hand column of your registry editor, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Valve\.

Right-click on Valve and select Delete.

For 64-bit operating systems:
In the left-hand column of your registry editor, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Valve\.

Right-click on Valve and select Delete.
In the left-hand column of your registry editor, navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Steam.
Right-click on Valve select Delete.
Close your Registry Editor.


After you manage to get Steam installed, you will then be required to enter the serial. It seems like all of this would have been easier with a game purchased in a retailer...

24/08/2011 update : I finally managed to get the game working. A 2.2GHz Dual Core CPU is not enough. My Nvidia Quadro FX 570M GPU is barely under any load. Steam will download other things for a couple hours.

HP Touchpad is a forecast for all Tablet makers

Tablets are cheap to make :

Screen
Mainboard (including connectors)
Battery
Cables
(maybe a few buttons)
(maybe a camera)

Compared to a car, or a laptop, the limited amount of components makes them a manufacturer's dream. With fewer adjustments in assembly and manufacturing, or in region based customization, there is a net reduction in production costs compared to full notebooks or smartphones with keyboards.

However, the prices asked for tablets were nothing more than coopetition. Would a manufacturer make a straight launch with a 150$ far better than the iPad, it would not have the prestige, nor the guarantee that it will sell in sufficient volumes to be profitable.

Regardless, there is reason to think that the tablet fad is over: other than flash games or netflix, they have yet to be useful.

UPDATE: I guess I was wrong. Price point is a really important thing to consider. The HP touchpad is selling quite well.
However the more I try using tablets, or touch screens in general, I find the navigation of touching the screen rather distracting. I like my keys, mouse wheel etc. I can see the screen the whole time!

With HP tablet out of the scene, who can challenge Apple?

The sudden death of the HP tablet line does not look good for iPad competitors. All electronics eventually become junk. With the exception of my FM radio, or a stereo receiver, very few things have life longer than 5-10 years. It may also be the case for laptops, even though a year old ThinkPad a31 is used for 5 hours a day by my 70 years old mother. Tablet may have a similar life, but how much more often can we use the internet?

Regarding the Lenovo ThinkPad tablet, it may be the most promising device. Having a screen under my graphics tablet, I may find it a little easier doing graphic editing /drawing. Security features are also plus for the ThinkPad tablet.
As for challenging the iPad - Apple has a mass of consumer who are just happy with whatever they release. I am happy with my Lenovo ThinkPad T61p, but I know that any design can be improved.

I have no need for a music player, nor for social networking, so any device would be fine assuming speed and build quality are up to par. Having fixed buttons is a step up from other tablets as the less you touch the screen the more efficiently you are browsing, reading or enjoying whatever you are doing.

Really less paper in the future? The cloud to store tablet doodles?

I wonder if people will use paper less. If I ever reread what I post on this blog, I am ashamed and think that I should rewrite the post. Often enough, I will.

Looking at my desk, pens, notepads, and folded pieces of paper get much less attention than my keyboard and screen. I am tempted to print out a book or a document that really can be read on screen. The art of highlighting and annotating is disappearing perhaps? That does not seem like the case with long time integrated tools found in word processors or PDF readers.

What about the case of using printers, a pen to write in cursive, having character with script and paper to manage. Sometimes, it is easier to manage paper. One simply has to limit the amount that is kept at hand. In boxes, there may not be enough patience to go through things, but there is a certain reward to revisit old texts, and things that we have produced. It can also be very painful to see how badly something was written.
As for electronic documents, I occasionally see myself sifting through emails to find something, or look at articles or texts that I have downloaded, but it feels rather monotonous: screen, space bar, read, spacebar, mouse roll, etc.

I have yet to read Steve Jobs' biography, but I will not be surprised to learn that he must do most of his thinking and work at a desk, in quietude with a pen and a pad a of paper.

Keyboards not made for typing : Vaio & Macbook

I am not an author, but yesterday I had an awful time using another friend's computer : MacBook Pro. It was the same experience I had a few months earlier with a Vaio.

Regarding the use of a laptop, battery life, thickness or a webcam, they are really at the bottom of my list of priorities. A good keyboard, high PPI screen and low noise is by far the most important if you have to do anything that requires any concentration:

- missing keystrokes or hooking a finger on the wrong key breaks your train of thought;
- when working with a big spreadsheet, you often want to have a lot of data, graphics in front of you. You may also want to have several graphs of the same data to determine what is the best way to present the information;
- noise from a fan, hard drive or anything else, including blue LEDs, is enough to break a stream of thought.

Most of the time, I will set my laptop on a desk and type from there. Therefore I need to concentrate.

Can a hipster be a hipster without complicated hair ?

There still no clear idea of what a hipster can or cannot be. Rides a fixed gear bicycle, knows more about music than world politics, spends more on fashion than Kraft Dinner and wears complicated hair? Has more ink in permanent body art across the body than has ever used through the tip of a ball point pen?

Oh, I forgot to mention that an iPhone and eating granola for dinner is part of the equation.

CH-03 or BT-09 Bluetooth mouse update

I feel like saying the mouse is a horrible device, but it may be more of a way that Windows tries to make power savings all while improving security :

The Bluetooth adapter may be turned off for power reasons
The Bluetooth may invisible to avoid other from bluejacking your system...

I still prefer using the trackpoint, but the mouse is occasionally useful.

Colour inkjet vs Colour Laser - Quality, Cost, Function

I have two colour printers : Samsung CLP-310 / CLP-315 and a Canon All-in-One MP490. I acquired the second by pure chance - someone was throwing it out due to an object that was stuck inside.


The laser printer offers :
Fast multiple prints (17ppm)
Excellent black and white fine prints
Slow to start up ( cold start or from sleep because it has to heat the fusers )
Waterproof and smudge proof printing
No calibration
Better choices of media for printing ( except sandpaper )
High output capacity ( 20 000 pages a month )
Duplex models exist ( saves time to flip pages over )

The inkjet printer offers :
Stellar photo prints
Quick start up
Compact space usage
Easy to refill cartridges


Regarding noise, I find that they are about the same. Nothing unbearable from either, but the inkjet can cause the desk to move when printing as the head moves back and forth on its carriage.

As for cost, the initial price of both kind of printers are not so far apart. However, if you only do occasional prints, a laser printer may be the better option : you avoid the risk of ink drying out.

As for energy costs, the laser printer is a compact room heater. It takes a lot of electricity to bring the fuser to temperature. I am unaware if the cost per page takes into account the energy costs.

To summarize, if you are printing a lot of documents, whether colour or monochrome, go with the laser. If you need to make good photo prints, go with an inkjet.

Not even my inflatable doll would use an iPad

You can go a retro store and find a whole lot of classic items which make you laugh as they bring a sense of nostalgia. Many items are still used today : cups, clothing, ashtrays (sort of), can openers, syrup jars etc. Other items are just trends of technology : a tape deck, record player, massager.

Although I spend far too much of my time in front of the computer, I have a hard time seeing people being nostalgic about an iPod in 5 years time, even less in 20 years. The electronic apocalypse, a world in which all our abilities are extended by tools, is very far off, however I wonder what will be items in the past decade that we will become nostalgic about.
Then again, those are things that only 20-30 year old people would care about. Once you make money, you realise that all objects are replaceable, and later on, they will be replaced again...

Samsung CLP-310 CLP-315 Reset

If you have a Samsung CLP-310 or CLP-315 you have probably already looked around how to reset the memory of the cartridges.

Refilling the cartridges and replacing the chips in one method, but a messier and more elaborate approach is to get right to the main board.

Look for U1 Amtel 24C64 a 32K EEPROM memory which is written to each time you print a page, and makes the default cartridges unusable after a number of prints regardless of what quantity of toner is left in them.

Before you start changing things you may want to take the measurements of components that may be removed if you have to remove the EEPROM.

For example
U1 24c64
Resistor Values
R1 2.0k Ohm
R2 2.0k Ohm

If you are still on the default cartridges and have no less than 300 pages left per color (CYMK), you can change the connections of U1 : Unsolder pin 7 and bind it to pin 8. This will write protect U1 preventing the printer from writing the number of prints, thus allowing you to refill your original cartridges.

If you are equipped with a PIC programer, you can get the original programming image from the 24c64 according to your firmware ie 1.29.11.52 or 1.29.01.17 then reprogram the chip. I believe there is a service port on the back of the printer, however you may have to be sure of the connections. Otherwise you can remove the chip, solder it to a board ( the pins are too fragile to solder wires to it) reprogram it then solder it back on.
I've read some posts where connections from the programmer were just soldered on to the pin's leads that may be safest : you reduce the risk of ripping out the traces on the circuit board.

AMD FX CPU Standard water cooling?

Having a SSD, top notch CPU and graphics card, would be really satisfying playing games. However, if the computer is making so much noise from the fans, that may not be such a good thing.

It seems that AMD is planning to put in liquid cooling in stock heat sinks for the FX Bulldozer CPUs.

It that does not affect cost too much, it sounds like a good plan. Air is fine, but there is the risk of dust build up.

Is there a difference between surfing social networks or looking for computer parts?

Myspace died and nobody cared.
Facebook is about to take a faceplant, and people will still make asses of themselves online.

Forums which precede the social networking boom are still around. They will continue as not everybody wants to put too much effort in merging their online socialization.

Crackberry, the Police and the State

If the use of encrypted communications were the make and break of the outcome of the Second World War, rioters in England should not be too confident. Blackberry phones are used by government, military, organized crime, and people in industry because the encryption is great. It has yet to be cracked by top security officials.

Regardless, how will the image of RIM be affected by the scandal of looter and rioters?

Electronic rapture party

Kill facebook on November 5th ? What would be the point of that. I thought we mostly have discovered that facebook users are middle aged people who play games and have mostly forgotten to go out for a beer, tea or try to have sex in the park.

Should hackers take down Facebook, I personally will not feel any loss. It will just be really sad for those who seem to rely on the network for their day to day communications.

What the hell is an iPhone good for anyway?

I use the Internet when I want to find something. Some questions can be thought about, others you just need the information to answer a certain question that you may have.

Receiving e-mail on a phone is a good thing, but taking a break from communication, status updates etc. is equally healthy. Today's world asks us to keep up to date with all the socio-economic, political, environmental and technological changes. In knowing what defines our world, we can relate to people. If the changes on the world's activities obscure our relationships, or that the technologies of communication drive a more self-centred form of expression, it may disrupt what we have conventionally seen as a way to socialize.

So the iPhone can be used to take and share videos, photos and sounds, go on the Internet to gather or distribute information right? Is it a tool to live in the moment, or one that could be used detract us from the challenges of planning, coordinating and communicating to set things ahead of time.

I am satisfied with the internet on my computer. I tend to be productive and social when I am offline.

IQ low Safari Internet Explorer like user stupid

People use whatever tools are available. Lynx did a great job in the day that the internet was text based. It was quick and efficient. Using the mouse less is a step in the right direction.

Regarding the study claiming that IE users have lower IQ, it means nothing. A tool that is standard works best because people can communicate about ways to use the tool. However that common tools is also prone to attacks.

I would perhaps use IE if it had all the addons that Firefox has to offer. But knowing the keyboard shortcuts and other perks such as search as you type, makes FF the browser of my choice.

The future of smartphones - Nokia, RIM Blackberry, Apple iPhone, Android or Windows?

Being too conspicuous is something that large manufacturers hope to do when they want to make a name. The shocking prices that people spend on technology that is worth less than a disposal fee in a few years.

Regardless, looking at the use of cell phones today, people are using text more frequently than making phone calls. If you come upon this blog, you would think that there are millions alike - I could include videos, photos etc. but really who will spend time to read it?

Smartphones can be tools for consumption as much as they can be used for publishing and two way communication. It seems however that most of us use the internet to consume the works of others rather than produce our own. However considering that texting is becoming more common than phone calls, I strongly believe that smartphones will continue to have a real keyboard, but will probably all include a touch screen. Real keyboards give tactile feedback and generally much less prone to errors when typing.

Employment for identity

North America has become the shitting hole of human culture. No colonial history is fair, but the Americas are particulary ugly when it comes to the recognition of the rights of the indigenous people.
Regardless, the lack of rites, carnivals, collective festivals, make the residents of Canada and the US people who will have no choice but to define their identity.

Many people see employment as only a source of revenue. I unfortunately see work should be an activity through which one will be able to forget to eat and sleep. A passion is what we are looking for.

我覺得找工作更難因為我不想聯絡。　我沒有身份認同因為沒有人覺得我值得什麽事！

Rusty Hearts - System Requirements - I guess

I really like the style of Rusty Hearts. It is a knock off of Devil May Cry, but you can change the weapons, etc. There is a lot less freedom if you compare it to Devil May Cry, as the scenes or lands feel limited, but I have yet to comment as it will probably improve post closed-beta.

With any game you should just try to install the game (or demo) and see if it runs
here.

However the requirements are much more like the ones found on the Perfect World site

Operating System
Windows® XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, or Windows 7

CPU

Intel® Pentium® 4 at 1GHz, (Mid to High Range Dual-Core 2.5GHz CPU or better recommended.)

RAM

1GB of RAM (2GB or more recommended for XP, 3GB or more for Windows Vista and Windows 7)

Hard Disk

5GB of Hard Drive Space or more (14GB or more preferred)

Graphic Display

3D video chipset with pixel and vertex shader model 1.3 supported. GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB or ATI Radeon 8500 64MB or newer for Windows XP. For Windows Vista and 7, a GeForce FX 5200 128MB or ATI Radeon 9500 128MB or newer is needed.

Sound Drivers

DirectX 9.0c compatible sound chip or onboard audio capability with the latest sound drivers

Network

Broadband Internet connection required



My system is just over the min specs :
2GB RAM
1.7 Ghz Pentium M ( considerably more performance than Pentium 4 1.5GHz)
128MB Graphics adapter with Shader model 2.0 ( Quadro FX Go700 should offer better performance over the GeForce FX5200)

Maybe I should try in Windows 7 - I get a WEI 3.2 for Aero and 3 for games !

The game is more less unplayable from the intro - it takes me 5 minutes to log in. My GPU is not under stress, however the CPU is 100% the whole time. I believe the game is not optimized.

Perhaps the game is more CPU dependent, however until recently there was nothing that I could not do with my old Dell M60...