I bought and installed Windows 7 on my Lenovo X61 laptop recently, and here are some free application I find useful and would like to recommend.
Name: imgburn [Site] Category: ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application Size of download: (v2.5.0.0) 2.1MB
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Name: Brava Reader [Site] Category: PDF Reader Size of dowload: (v3.3.0.16) 32.4MB Drawbacks: Expires every few months. Requires uninstall / reinstall to effect.
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Name: FreePDF XP [Site] Category: PDF Maker Size of Download: (v3.24) 1.5MB Pre-requisite: Ghostscript
Name: Notepad++ [Site] Category: Source code editor / Notepad Replacement Size of Download: (v5.5.1) 3.5MB Alternatives: TextPad (v5.31) – Annoying Reminder on Program Startup if not purchased. Simplyjean informed me that this is the only program that could open a 2GB text file.
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Name: 7-Zip [Site] Category: File Archiver (Can open these format: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z) Size of Download: (v4.65) 1MB
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Name: VideoLAN VLC media player [Site] Category: Media Player supporting most audio & video formats Size of Download: (v1.0.3) 17.2MB
Name: Gadwin Print Screen [Site] Category: Screen Capture Program – for capturing a part of a screen and not just the full screen or a window. Size of Download: (v4.3 Freeware) 2.75MB
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Name: xMarks [Site] Category: Browser Bookmark Manager – Works for IE / Firefox / Safari / Google Chrome Size of Download: Depends on browser used. Drawbacks: Requires a separate installation for each browser.
The link to the video was sent to me via email in Facebook via a Facebook group called “In Memory of B Jeyaretnam”. It was an interview between JB Jeyaratnam and FEER editor Hugo Restall in 2008. The video was never released though it seems to have found its way to Youtube some how.
JBJ touch on several topics: such as why he was ‘singled out to be destroyed’ among all opposition members, his disagreement with some of his former party members while in the Workers’ Party, his opinion regarding that disagreement, and also his opinion on civil disobedience as championed by Dr. Chee Soon Juan. He also touched on the inequality which he felt is brought upon by the ruling party and the system it implemented and why he felt the entire system should go.
There is not much of an opinion I can form from a 7½-minute video though I would only like to point out that even if I agree with him that the current system must be abolished, my question would be what kind of a new system would be implemented in place of it?
Whatever the proposed system maybe, I am all ears as long as they do not intend to take out the current one and then figure out what to do next. Unlike China, which could ‘feel the rocks to cross the river’ [摸着石头过河] after the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, could Singapore afford to mill about and try to find new direction as our rivals will be progressing and waiting for the opportunity to surpass us all the time?
We will never know whether Chiam See Tong or Low Thia Khiang‘s version of a loyal, peaceful opposition would be the better one. For sure, even if (and a big if) I do not fear the loss of my freedom, my HDB flat and my livelihood as a normal citizen, I will not bet my future on an abrupt change in government gahmen.
No one should call me a coward for taking such a stand. After all, I have no confidence absolutely with people who rushes in for changes without having a few plans in place. Alas, we’ll never know from JBJ what his plan of an alternate Singapore would be.
This is my first visit and I arrive on Wednesday (16-Sep) to a… rainy Phuket. It was quite a turn off and all of us were quite disappointed, since the main objective was the sun and the nice beaches there. Anyway, the weather did start to clear up a little in the afternoon and the days after, though we get rain often in the early hours of the morning.
The sand on the beach is very fine, not the variety you get at the old playgrounds in Singapore (which we don’t see anymore these days). The waves are rather deceptive and while it laps harmlessly at the shores some distance away at times, the next one could rush up all the way and one would find himself knee deep in water. The pull back of the waves is so strong and I almost fell into the water once. My friends who went swimming had a ‘near death’ experience as they struggled against the waves back to the shore when they got too far out. The lifeguard appeared a little upset as he blew his whistle loud and repeatedly while he waited impatiently for them to come back nearer to the shore. (I personally didn’t understand why he wasn’t down in the water though, but it was later we saw him running back with a surf board while we headed back to the rooms.)
Beyond the beach, my first impression when looking at some of the more urban areas near Karon beach was that it’s like Singapore stuck in the 80s. There doesn’t seem to be too much traffic around either around the beach areas (or at least the areas I am in) and all transport are either by hiring private cars (and if more than 4 then they are SUVs and Minibus) or the ‘Tuk Tuk’. One can bargain a little before the trip starts and usually you might get a 50 – 100 baht discount off the regular price from the drivers. As for taxis, I recalled I only saw one taxi on the way from the airport to the resort.
At the later stage of our trip we have given up on the ‘Tuk Tuk’ and just hire a private car to take us to the Phuket shooting range. There is a counter at the resort’s lobby which will call one for us. Surprisingly, one can also bargain at the counter. The driver will show up usually like 10 ~ 15mins later (or at an arranged time). This is where we befriended one of the drivers and he complained a little about how the ‘Mafia Tuk Tuk’ (i.e. ‘Tuk Tuk’ syndicates) makes life difficult for those driving hired private cars. For e.g. if he gets a call to pick up a passenger in Karon and then drop people off in Patong, he will have to return with his empty vehicle to Karon or respond to another call before he can pick up another passenger. If there’s a prior agreement to a return trip as well, then he park and serve as a tour guide as long as the passengers did not object to it. He seems to be unhappy that the ‘Mafia Tuk Tuk’ work in concert to drive the cost up for all tourists even though he agrees it doesn’t really matter to the White Men as their powerful Euros, Pounds and American Dollars makes everything cheap to them in Thailand after the currency exchange.
I joked with my friends that we have ‘Mafia Tuk Tuk’ in Singapore too, the largest being Comfort Delgro. We agreed that if the government gahmen isn’t strong enough to be in control, then another power will always step in. While it is not necessary good for these syndicates to fix prices and run others out of business, it also creates and maintain some semblance of control. At least now tourists don’t end up being charged / cheated by ‘Tuk Tuk’ drivers quoting ridiculous fares. In a way, it is really a double edged sword and nothing we would complain about.
As for the shops at normal tourist locations like Patong, the driver says that the prices for some items are usually inflated once the people there identify us as foreigners. The ladies in our group usually help us to bargain the prices down and that is when I noticed that some of those shops there are now run by foreigners from Myanmar and India.
After arranging with the driver for another trip, he took us to a place where the seafood is nice and cheap that night. The place looked a little remote and like Punggol in Singapore in the past. On the last day, he took us to the night market at Phuket Town, and also arranged for a minibus to pick us up and send us back to the airport. Apparently, it’s a business some of the drivers in Phuket run at the sides in the face of the limitations placed by the ‘Mafia Tuk Tuk’.
In general, the food in Phuket is nice, and I think they probably watered down their Tom Yam way too much to make it not spicy for the tourist. The coffee they made is great and it puts all the coffee made in Starbucks, Coffee Bean, TCC etc to shame. (Hey, at least I didn’t feel more thirsty after I drink their coffee and I can’t say the same about our coffee here!) There’s obviously no problem with hygiene there since I didn’t get a stomach upset for all the 5 days I am there. Even though the water from the taps in the hotel can come out brown at times, all you need to do is let it run for awhile and it will then be clear. That was a clear sign you can’t drink it off the tap though among the guys, we just boil it and drink it anyway, at times without checking whether the water that comes out of the tap is ‘naturally colored’ or not! Either way, it did taste a little funny but we couldn’t really quite sure what it tasted like.
As to the locals, most of them are friendly though not all of them are conversant in English. None of them were actually outwardly rude. However, it might take one some time to get use of their accent and English pronunciation. Being a non-English speaking country and where it only started teaching English in schools only recently, one has to give the Thai people credit for trying to accommodate us and attempt to speak our language to serve us.
It wasn’t long that our trip in Phuket ends, and because of the weather we didn’t manage to take a boat out to the surrounding islands like Phi Phi. I guess I’ll be returning again to visit those places some time next year.
I went back a second time and spent another $20 on this exhibition, this time with my ‘apprentice’ chillycraps and my mei xinyun. The reason being I wanted to take better photographs of the exhibits this time. (Read my write up on the previous visit here.)
While the exhibits are the same, there is a slight variation in the curator’s presentations and so I learn some new things or at least catch whatever I missed the other time. In the last room especially, the presentation was slightly longer than the previous time I was there and I know more about how Erasmus’ new Latin Bible ensured the accuracy of the Latin translation and root out almost 1000 over years of errors and mistranslations, and also how William Tyndale’s work on the English translation indirectly created the modern English language we speak today. Of course, we also learn how the English translation then go on to influence the translation of Bibles of many other languages. Likewise, the work of Martin Luther (who was a contemporary of William Tyndale) fostered the development of a standard version of the German language. The curator in the last room also touched upon German dock workers facilitated the spread of copies of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses throughout Germany within two weeks, and then throughout Europe within two months.
Anyway, we left the exhibition each learning something new on our own. Please also check out the write up from chillycraps and my mei xinyun.
If you are interested, you might also want to check up on the following documentary on the “Battle For The English Bible” (divided into 6 parts) uploaded to Youtube:
As a result of the acquisition and re-alignment of the business by the new owner, part of the business in Tokyo folded and the remaining staff were relocated to the owner’s office there. Tokyo’s function as the regional HQ is now superseded by the Singapore office and with the departure of staff, that also means Blackberry handsets being returned to the company. Since Tokyo has no use of them, we requested that they ship them to us as spares, just in case a careless user lose or break his / her current one.
So 15 Blackberry 8707h purchased from NTT Docomo were sent to us. When the sets arrived, I unpacked a set and tested it with a Blackberry service enabled SIM card from a local telcos. To my disappointment, it showed that the SIM card was invalid (see screen shot).
Undaunted, I borrowed a SIM card from a colleague (which is from another local telco) and the end result was the same. Fed up, I wipe the handset with JL cmder, and installed the latest version of the device software for the 8707-series downloaded from Singtel. Sadly, the set still showed that the SIM card was invalid, and suspecting that this SIM card slot of this set might be faulty, I tested the 2 SIM cards on another set with the same result.
By now, I was quite convinced that these Blackberry handsets are locked down by Docomo. To confirm my suspicion, my colleague in Tokyo was kind enough to call up and check. Docomo confirmed it, but its sales representative refused to release the unlock code to us. They cited that it is company policy, even though we tried explaining that we need the unlock codes so ‘a colleague from Tokyo who is attached here for an extended period’ can use a pre-paid SIM in Singapore. I even tried asking someone who has a working relation with Research in Motion [RIM] to check with their representative, but there was no luck in obtaining any help from them either.
I refused to believe that I am now stuck with 15 Blackberry handsets that is no better than paper weight or bricks, and began my search for alternatives to unlock them. There were 4 options available to me: obtain the MEP unlock code from the telco, buy the unlock code from third party vendors, purchase a proprietary device that will unlock any Blackberry, or use a software to remove the lock.
So, I began searching for MEP codes, just like someone using pirated software would search for hacks or keygens. No joy there, since I quickly discovered that MEP codes are unique and tied to the IMEI number of the handset itself. While there are sites which would provide the MEP code, they charge a small fee ranging from £12.99 to USD $59 per set. (These codes do work, since a friend of mine bought a Blackberry Storm from Verizon and had it unlocked that way previously.)
As for proprietary unlocking devices, a quick search on Google revealed that it costs at least USD $199 a unit. Since I ain’t into a mobile phone / Blackberry unlocking business, there is no reason to purchase one. Simply put, I am not willing to pay even a cent for a set that is owned by the company, not to mention no one is ever going to approve the cost for any of the above solutions!
I kept on searching and I discovered a remark in a forum whereby someone claimed he is able to unlock any Blackberry using something called ‘MML’. Curious, I went looking up for it and I found that it is actually a software called MFI Multiloader – MML for short (see below).
This seems like a software which copyright is owned by RIM itself. If so, RIM does have the means to unlock any Blackberry and on hindsight, I realized that on ethical grounds alone, RIM cannot and will not help someone unlock handsets sold to a telco. After all, the telcos are RIM’s main customers!
I am not going into the details how I obtained MFI Multiloader. The reason being that during my search, I came across a blog post indicating that RIM has requested for the files to be taken down and I want to keep the source alive so another person can use this solution. It shouldn’t be difficult locating the files and the instructions by searching Google anyway. The pre-requisites are: BlackBerry Desktop Manager v4.7.0.32 (without installing the Automatic Update service), Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, the MFI Multiloader installer itself, and an archive split in eight .rar files. I had Blackberry Desktop Manager v5 previously but MML does not work until I uninstalled it and reinstall v4.7.0.32. The files in the .rar archive are to be restored over the existing ones in C:MML only after MML is installed.
WARNING:
1. This does not seems to be working with the Blackberry Bold and Storm. Try at your own risk.
2. Please first download a suitable device software for the device from the RIM website and have it installed into the PC before proceding with the following.
After all the necessary components are installed, everything was quite straight forward from here on. First, load MML by double clicking its icon on the desktop. Ensure that both the boxes for ‘Full Erase’ and ‘Auto Start’ are checked. Then plug the Blackberry 8707h in and whatever the program is designed to do will kick in (see below).
I did not record how long it will take for the whole process, but MML will wipe the Blackberry handset (more thoroughly than JL Cmder will) along with the lock that the telco (in this case, Docomo) has placed. When it is done, you will be shown the following and you can now exit MML.
The following blurry pictures are what is displayed on the Blackberry 8707h after MML has completed its task. (below, left). Type ‘START’ on the Blackberry keypad, and you will see the next screen (below, right). The set is now ready to be reloaded with its device software. (I tried using JL Cmder to screen capture these without any luck.)
To do so, run Application Loader (loader.exe in C:Program FilesCommon FilesResearch In MotionAppLoader). Anyone who has experience with reloading Blackberry device software onto the handset will be familiar with this and I believe no screen shots are required here.
The screen capture on the right shows the powered up and unlocked Blackberry 8707h after the device software has been reinstalled. It now happily recognises the SIM card from M1 network and has established a 3G connection on the M1-GSM network. While this takes some effort to do, it’s completely free. Of course, if you are an owner of just ONE Blackberry and wish to unlock your set for use with another network, the best option would be to pay and use the unlocking services. It saves you all the trouble and you don’t have to worry about breaking your set.
Disclaimer: I take no responsibilities if anyone breaks (or ‘bricks’) a Blackberry handset following the instructions above. Follow these instructions at your own risk as I believe the telcos will not honor their warranty agreement under such circumstances.
