MLai - Reflecting my Life

Just had a reencounter with a laptop from about a year ago with the same problem. It’s a Sony VIAO VGN-C25G/B. The problem is that the computer will not wake from hibernation. It gets past the bios, but no further. One thing to note is that this laptop has always gone without a battery, so I’m not sure if that is a crucial factor in this or not. It is running Vista Home Premium.

The solution, or workaround - depending upon how you want to look at it, is to take out both sets of memory and only insert one stick. Basically to change the amount of memory in the system. Swapping the memory will not make any difference. You will need to force the bios to realise there is a change in the amount of memory which then causes the following error message to appear:

Your computer can’t come out of hibernation

Status: 0xc0000411

Info: A fatal error occured processing the restoration data.

File: \hiberfil.sys

After this message, you are prompted to hit the enter key to continue. Vista will startup just fine. Properly shutdown the machine and then reinsert all the memory and everything should be fine again. The owner of the laptop will be taking it to Sony this afternoon regardless to hopefully find out that there is a patch of some sort to remove this issue.

Written by Milton Lai

Second day back at work and this problem arose and as I should’ve been doing a whole lot more of this, I thought it was time to get back into it. So the reception computer, which had phone software running on it - meaning external calls may have not been able to come in into reception, would not show the desktop after logging in.

Task manager was able to run using Ctrl-Alt-Del and if you check the services a whole heap were missing - namely explorer. I attempted to run explorer.exe, but it gave me an error saying that Windows cannot find explorer.exe which was a bit strange, because I could actually see it inside the windows directory. I renamed explorer.exe to explorer2.exe and explorer.exe was recreated immediately. It would also not run, but explorer2.exe would open up an explorer window.
After a short google, I found my way to http://pctechnow.blogspot.com/2008/08/cant-find-explorerexe-when-run-from.html which sums up what I have been describing.

It talks about removing the explorer.exe registry key from [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options]. Make sure you back up your registry first before deleting anything. We noticed that inside the folder, there was a key which was a debugger which ran a wuauclt.exe from a non-standard location. The file actually didn’t exist, well it did, as a virus, but was removed by symantec and so actually wasn’t there. So during startup, it would try to load this debugger, but nothing was found, and all error messages were suppressed and so nothing else continued to load. So symantec removed the trojan, but left the machine in a state where nothing would work. Most people end up reformatting or doing a repair install, but I have to say to give this a try first, especially if you notice that there is something strange alongside the explorer key.

Written by Milton Lai

I plugged in my old IDE hard drives from my old machine and wanted to copy all the data across to my 2TB drive. Dragging and dropping left me with errors of corrupt files and so my command line trick is to use XCOPY.

So you would normally navigate into the directory you wish to copy from cmd and type: “xcopy *.* “D:\destination\” /s /e /c”

Now I’m not too sure why I use the s in the parameters and possibly you could do without it, but what it does is copy all the data from the directory you navigated into to the destination directory, including subfolders and files (hence ALL) but it continues if it hits and error (for example a corrupt file and therefore is unable to normally copy the file). In the case, the file is still not copied, but at least you can the look back at the history and check out which file and try to salvage the file.

The problem I just had was I received an “Insufficient Memory” error, which is related to the filename (including drive letters and folders - pwd if you may will give you this in unix) is more than 254 characters. To get around this - either find the file and change its name - but this may not solve it completely since there might be more files - in which case, install xxcopy. This program works just the same as xcopy and has no limitation to the length of the names.

Written by Milton Lai

I’ve had this issue since last week, but I havn’t had much time to have a look into it, but basically, when the lid closes, the laptop will go to sleep. Once the lid is opened again, normally, the laptop would wake up, but it seems as though the laptop wakes up, but the screen doesn’t. I’ve tried setting the closing of the lid to go into hibernation, but that has the same results. The users are currently holding down the power button to shut it down, before restarting the machine.

I’ll be looking for a fix for this later in the week hopefully and will update this post once I have a solution

Written by Milton Lai

As I explained in the backlog, I did get myself a new computer on a budget. So the whole system cost about $1000. The reasons for most of the parts would be price. I didn’t want to spend too much, but a machine that would run quite well and quiet.
So the specs are:

Antec NSK6580 Case with PSU - $135

I needed a case, with a PSU to cut down the price. There are a lot of cases out there, but this one’s internals is quite easy to work with. Not too flashy, but gets the job done.

ASUS P5K-E WiFi - $203

I’m am upstairs from my wireless router so wireless was necessary. I already have a PCI wireless card, so no real reason why I needed this motherboard. There are 6 internal SATA ports, and 2 e-SATA ports, HD-Audio - through coaxial and optical - again, I had a Sound Blaster card with optical/coaxial out already, so it was a bit of a splurge. It does have everything you would need though.

Intel E6750 2.66 Ghz - $229

This was a price decision, since its a $100 jump to the E6850 which is the same price as the Q6600. This one runs just fine for my needs (being surfing, photo editing, watching videos, downloading videos and some light gaming).

Corsair Twin2x PC-6400 DDR RAM (2x 1GB) - $91

There is cheaper RAM out there, but this had better latency and has heatsinks over them - not necessary, but in the event I wish to start overclocking, its there.

Leadtek Winfast PX8600GTS TDH Lost Planet Edition 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 - $218

This was the best for the budget range. The next step up would be the 8800GT which is another $100 on top - although it does have another 256MB on the memory.

WD SATA II 500GB 7200rpm 16mb Cache - $132

This is quite a standard HD. Now as much as I would love to have a raptor drive running my OS, the price would get me another 500GB HD.

So a total of $1006 for the whole tower. I already have mouse (G5), keyboard (Mac Keyboard) and monitor (Benq FP241W).

Here’s a few pics of the install - taken with Vince’s new D3 - this was a few days after he got it.

All the gear: F2.0 1/249 ISO6400 50mm

Closer shot of the gear: F2.0 1/60 ISO800 50mm

The motherboard in the case: F2.0 1/60 ISO800 50mm

The CPU box: F2.0 1/60 ISO500 50mm

The actual CPU: F2.0 1/60 ISO900 50mm

The socket without the CPU in it: F2.0 1/60 ISO1800 50mm

The socket with the CPU in it: F2.8 1/60 ISO1400 50mm

Attaching the fan: F2.0 1/60 ISO1000 50mm

Less crowded shot of the fan: F3.2 1/60 ISO2800 50mm

The graphic card: F2.8 1/60 ISO1400 50mm

Written by Milton Lai

OK… SO.. a whole month as gone by… without a single word from me. As lame as this excuse might be, I just haven’t had to time, and I have been trying to find the time. So the last time I blogged, was before Nick’s 21st dinner with the family. It was a top dinner - peking duck pancakes… mmmm… The week following lead to his 21st party, which was an unforgettable event. Having been to one his of sisters 21st, it followed suit, and being able to catch up with everyone was really good.

On the 11th I had a wedding, which I’ll finally put up. On the same day, I had Tony’s 21st, which, as every year for the past.. 6 years… has been as his place with his mums great food. Having finished the wedding, I was also the photographer for his party.

On the 26th, I went mountain biking with nick. It was kind of a wet one, so headed to the Manly Dam track, since it was a lot closer. It did have signs throughout the track saying it was closed, but it had dried up slightly, and the puddles added a degree of fun. Its a quick ride - only taking an hour. I also did manage to stack it again… this time, it was me heading down the same bit of track (we did a small loop), and, having locked my shocks off previously, forgot to unlock them, hit the second rock down, no absorption, and flew sideways, over the handlebars. Only a small graze on the leg this time.

Finally - few pictures of my baby:

Last weekend, had a friends birthday dinner, before Justin’s and Mary’s 21st party. Again, great to meet everyone again. Prior to that night, I had a shift at telstra stadium for the.. souths v roosters. Didnt get to watch any of it, instead was handing out the Rabbitohs News. Fun 3 hours… On the sunday, headed out the Parramatta stadium to watch the Bronco’s get thrashed 68-22 by the Eels…

So with work… my current project, 1st stage for release is end of september.. which is drawing closer. I hit a milestone just this week and I am confident in being able to deliver the project on time. There is still so much testing needed to be done. In short, RealBasic doesn’t handle undo stacks that well… if at all. I have a whole structure of objects which is displayed on a ‘bench’. Every drag and drop is recorded and is popped off my stack. Seems simple enough, and the idea of it is simple, but implementing it frightened me a bit. But it did end up not being so bad. My nested arrays of objects are driving me mad� but just as long as I understand whats going on… its all fine… well thats what the other guys are saying… So it has been busy.

Uni, well the project which is due on the 26th of this month, isnt so bad. Its building a car auction system in VB.NET. So talking to a database and having to implement business rules. My only challenge is the different/similar syntax it has with realbasic, and only wishing that I could use the framework I currently work with at work. The application itself would be very similar to which I currently do at work, but with a lot less functionality. I’ve been spending my weekends, well what I have of them, at work doing my assignment as well as project work. So it has been quite busy, and not too much spare time. The pressure is building with work and uni, and I am starting to stress… a lot, but i get through the day, putting in more hours just to make sure i get to a satisfactory point, where I can say I’ve done enough.

Tech wise… cant say i’ve bought too many things.. or upgraded that much… or have I…. I’ve now got 4gb of ram in my MBP. Its running like a charm. Got myself the Nokia 6120 Classic through 3. Its a great phone, simple to use, simple interface, not too flashy, and has the latest Symbian OS on it. Also got myself a Holux GPSlim 240 bluetooth GPS receiver from eBay - which is currently working with TomTom on my mobile. Its really handy when you get stuck somewhere and need directions. Alternatively, you could go for the Nokia 6110 Navigator, but it is way too expensive. I just wanted a phone, which, when I do end up signing up to X-Series, I’ll be able to hook it up to my lappy and surf the web.

My aim… and whether or not I can do this is another story. I would feel as though I’m bludging if I do this, but I would like to be able to blog a lot more often, so hopefully, I boring read everyday, but an update nonetheless, on tech news and whats happened during the day. I also need this for uni, since I will have to write a report in the coming months about what I have been doing at work, and what I have learnt, challenges and all those sorts of things. So I’ll hopefully attempt to do this at the end of every working day.. or close to.

Written by Milton Lai

So, I have been way too busy with work. Started off with my 10 day project. Was able to get it done after 6, and 4 days of testing. There was just too much testing. I was able to get it done, and was quite impressed with the speed at which I was able to get it done. This project was finished in the week of 18th June.

On the 23rd, I had a shift at Telstra Stadium at the Swans v Collingwood match. Didn’t get to watch too much of the game, though I was at the entrance to the Legends Room. Let through quite a few TV personalities majority of who are from Home and Away. This game was followed with a quick trip to Sydney Kebabs in Yagoona. Its open 24/7 and a top place to go for a late night feed.

This was then followed by a week of Michael Buble. Yes I am a HUGE fan, quite jealous really. First appearing on Rove Live on Sunday night (recorded by a guy at work), then appeared on It Takes Two on Tuesday night (again, recorded), appeared on Sunrise on Thursday (also recorded) BUT I had made the effort to go there, so now I can proudly say “I’ve seen Michael Buble LIVE!” (through glass though) and here is evidence:

I wasn’t able to see his performance since there were obstructions, and there were also quite a few screaming girls (quite possibly one of a few guys in a sea of girls). This of course also meant that I saw Mel and Kochie:

That brings me to JP’s 21st on Friday night. Was at scruffy murphys which is a top spot of a nice cheap dinner and drinks (although drinks arent so cheap). Good night overall.

Project wise, I started my 6-10 month project just last wednesday. Lots of pressure on me to get around so much. Basically the whole data model is changing and the whole application is going to be redesigned by me! Trying to steer clear of any distractions so to make sure I do the best I can with this project, and so far its not so bad, but i know in a couple of weeks the programming will start and I’ll be head deep into it.

Well news on my toys - MacBook Pro. Oh its soooo sweet. So I opted for Apeture to use for my indexing and quick editing of photos. The other choice was Adobe Lightroom which does exactly the same thing. So far, I’m liking Apeture (it was also cheaper!). One thing to point out maybe, since im storing the photos on my 2.5inch external HD, when I first imported them in and disconnected the drive afterwards, on reconnecting, Apeture wouldnt find my pictures for me to edit. Managed Referenced Files, is the button you need to press and link back ONE photo, and the rest will find themselves as long as you do not move the folders. What Apeture does is write meta data for the photo rather than editing the file. This just means the original is not touched and you can do so much with the photo. Once you are happy, you can export the photos out. You can make the decision as to which one you would like yourself - here.

I’ve moved all my calendars over to iCal. It now subscribes to Vince’s wedding calendar and I’ve published my calendars to a website, so now my calendar is accessible anywhere. Also, for a PC, when you close the lid, you can set whether or not your laptop will go into standby or hibernate or do nothing. I had it doing nothing so i could listen to music without the screen showing. On a Mac, there is no option to do such thing. I did however find myself an application called Insomnia X which allows a mac to do such a thing - turning your mac into a GIGANTIC ipod. I’ve also installed MenuMeters which is a great tool to keep an eye on CPU usage, RAM usage as well as Network throughput. iStumbler is also a really great tool to see what wireless networks are around and whether they are secure or not and the signal strength (great for wardriving).

No new toys yet though. Been spending some time shopping since its sales time, as well as being able to catch a couple movies - Oceans 13 and Transformers. Both are top movies. Oceans 13 - you wouldnt expect anything less. Transformers - loved the special effects, they are really unbelievable.

So having given my bike to a mate of mine, I’ve got to start looking for a new one. So I’m currently eyeing the Giant Alias, Giant Talon and also the Avanti Montari. The later two retail around 1200. The Alias retails at just under 1000. It’ll just take me some time to find out good prices as well as which parts are better than others and whether they would suit me.

I do hope I can have more regular updates with some more tech related posts, just so I can remember what has happened (so I can write this damned report for uni).

Written by Milton Lai

So, rain, rain, and more rain. Started at Sebel Pier One. Nice hotel, nice rooms. Ceremony was supposed to be at Observatory Hill, but the weather was… terrible to say the least, and it was moved to the receptionplace - WatersEdge. Formal pics followed at the Park Hyatt as well as Observatory Hill, before the reception. Here are a few pics:

Observatory Hill:

Observatory Hill but on the bike track - it was quite wet as you can see:

The boys inside the Park Hyatt:

Night shot outside WatersEdge:

Bridal Party:

Challenging day with the weather and all.

So, been a busy week regarding work and projects. Time management is having to kick into place - although it is a long weekend. Basically have 10 days to get this project started and finished. I am confident i should have it all ready - bit worried about testing since i always seem to miss SOMETHING. Was able to get myself a Pioneer P7650DVD unit second hand. I managed to install it today after planning it yesterday. Main problem I had was that if I was to get a Y-Splitter RCA cable and install it that way, would the signal from one head unit feed into the second head unit and damage it. I ended up building a switch box, with the help of my cousin, that would switch the signal from one head unit to the second head unit to reach the amplifer. Couldnt buy one simply because I needed it to switch 3 pairs of RCA’s to 6 pairs. In total, the whole project cost me about 15 dollars. Only problem to solve - well its already solved, but to fix is that I need the Alpine headunit on to have sound when the Pioneer is on. Cousin figured it out, and silly me for not realising, but the remote cables running from the amplifiers arent connected to the Pioneer, so Ill need to do that next weekend.

Now of course, my new baby - the MacBook Pro. Oh its nice. No complaints at all about… i think. I am having trouble connecting it to my monitor. Basically it wont display 1920*1280 on my 24 inch. Instead I get a blank screen. 1280*768 runs fine though (of course stretched and horrible). Other than that, been installing everything that I need, well want. Another problem is exporting my calendar from outlook to iCal, I’m losing all my fancy colour schemes. So I’ll need to change them all manually, and for some reason, about 6 months of dates doesnt export across, no matter what I do. I’ll have to figure that out later.

So thats been my quick rundown of the past few days, well my whole long weekend. Not too productive. Everyone is studying for their exams, so hope all goes well. So far it seems, all my contributions have paid off, so its good news. Until next week (since there is a wedding on)…

Written by Milton Lai

So here comes probably the longest (I’ll try to make it as short as possible) post I should be doing. So for the past month I’ve been… really busy. Had enough time of course to put the wedding pics up but other than that, havnt had any time for a personal post - really just to catch up on everything so I remember it in the future.

1st week of April - Finished my 3rd? project at work. Basically, I had to have the database of a client converted and implemented into our database and running with our applications. There was one problem which stood out from others this week. We had a laptop which, after connecting to our network and getting an IP, was able to visit websites, unable to PING websites, able to PING the server, but unable to connect to the server. No firewall, unless it was hiding somewhere. So basically stumped. The user of the laptop still hasn’t come back (she said she would bring it back after a week). So this problem is still outstanding. Also, had a guy at work, go on holidays for 3 weeks, which had me inheriting his parking spot! It’s 5 minutes walk to work - made me so lazy and loved it so much! Too bad parking costs too much.

2nd week of April - This week is a blur (dont have a summary - well cant find it at home). I do believe I was working on my 4th project (which was running alongside the 3rd) and was able to get it done by the end of the week. No testing or commenting had been done though. Shouldve been commenting WHILE i was coding, but for some reason, i just dont. Bad habit? I did, with a perl programmer at work, make a solution to a problem which people seem to just avoid. So when moving from a mac to a PC and using Eudora as the mail client. Basically, importing mail over onto the pc would mean that you lose the connection between the email and the attachment. People can generally handle that. So this migration involves opening outlook express and importing the mailboxes. If you then wish to get the emails onto outlook, then you will need to open outlook and import emails from outlook express. The problem, apart from losing the link to the attachments is losing formatting. So HTML emails become plain text. So I had a look at the plain text of the emails and spoke to my Perl friend, and was able to make a script which converts the html emails over to HTML and keeps the plain emails as plain text. This just stopped the HTML emails from appearing as html code. Ran the script, imported them into outlook express, imported them into outlook and everything works a treat!

3rd week of April - Week of testing for project 4, and commenting. Thats all that seems to have happened. Seems like a bludgy week. Nervous leading up to John and Em’s wedding. I do believe it was an unbelievable week though…

4th week of April (last week really) - Seems like another bludge week. Well to me, testing is bludging, testing Vista is the worst thing ever! I can go into that later (if i remember / have the time). Went out for lunch a couple of times. Got introduced to project number 5. Its framework related, so its a big deal, and it looks fun. So currently am getting stuck into it. Spent the week also clearing out our store room, and our office. New guy starting on monday - making the store room into an office which possibly I might be moving into. Basically the new guy will be helping my boss with design and modelling of databases. Also helping with developing applications. I am also into developing applications., moving away from operations. I do love operations and solving all the problems that are thrown my way, but development is.. preferable as a career and the rewards seem so much greater. The move hasnt started yet, so will be doing both for a little while to come.

Now apart from all that, spent the first 2-3 weeks helping a friend with their assignment. Linked-lists are my FAVOURITE! Oh they are so bad, I hate them forever - especially since you would never use them ever again (well I havnt anyway). Basically I’ve been coding every day / night for about 3 weeks. As of last week, been staring at john and em’s photos… slowly getting them together.

I think thats a reasonable summary of the past month. Missing many things im sure, but many things to come!

Written by Milton Lai

Very long, but eventful week. Project wise, I was able to complete half of it. Basically the functionality I was after, I acheived on Thursday, which is fantastic news, and meant that I didn’t feel like doing too much work after that. Monday and tuesday had me modifiying my stored procedure, since there were confusions about a few of the columns and their links with our database.
Many problems this week have been blamed on the Intel Mac. Basically since support for printers and particular applications have ceased and so there are no updated drivers or versions of software that will work on the new Intels. On thing to note, is Adobe Reader 8 is the only one with the plugin that works with Safari on the new Intels. I have yet to call HP to ask for updated drivers for their printers since the Intels appear to lose the connection, and need to be re-added to work.

Friday I was given the chance to be the “offical photographer” at a symposium held at my work. Also being the I.T. support - on rotation throughout the day, I headed down to get a few photos of each of the speakers. I just hope I get given more opportunities in the future.

My brother had entered in 6 prints into the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) NSW photo competition. Monday was when the judging was, and that night was the presentation. I received a call from him during work to tell me that one the photos I had taken, “under his direction” received a Silver award! He got this news since he had a colleague who was present and recognised my print. So we headed there that night, hoping to have received more, but it was only the one. Still, first time we’ve entered any competition to come out with a silver. Some of the other photos were amazing, but some were… rather ordinary. I will say that, I have taken pictures similar to others that received silvers and golds, but personally thought it was a bit weak to enter - and a huge risk, but i guess its up to the judges and what they are into.
Here is our winning picture:

Monday night - studied for networking as well as completed my 2 online exams at the library. Tuesday night - had networking. Received 7/10 for a quiz done in the second week of class, and this weeks class was a lot more productive than anticipated since I was able to fly through the exercises. It seems as though something has clicked and programming routers isn’t so hard anymore. Wednesday night - had a break from staring at my code, so instead went to the library to read into realBasic, but it didn’t help as I realised that our data infrastucture is quite different from what books tell you. Thursday night - star gazing. Friday - headed to Sneaky Sound System at the Manning Bar at University of Sydney. Was very crowded, but had a fantastic time. Thanks to the people who got me out of the house. Yesterday, had to get a screw removed from my rear tyre, which took about 5 minutes. It appeared as though he put a strip of sticky of hot rubber inside my tire, and that was it. Bit sceptical about what he had done, but so far, the tyre seems fine. Had myself a haircut, then off to another wedding which I’ll post up after this one. I was able to grab this shot from an apartment I was in on Friday night before heading out to the Manning:

I did receive a call from my cousin on thursday telling me that he got a call from LifeStyleStore, saying my speakers had arrived. I was thinking that it is really bad service. They claimed it wasn’t their fault last friday, and that it had been dispatched and will arrive on monday. Instead, it arrived 2 weeks after I ordered them, even though I was told originally it would arrive after 3 business days. Planned to have picked it up today, but on the site, it says that they aren’t open, so I will now have to wait till next thursday to pick them up. Guess I can just keep using their ones for the moment. Here is a pic of my amplifier and speaker (note the little dent in the tweeter - was already there when i got it, then again, its not mine, so its ok)

Currently, I’m at the library studying for networking, reading over from C books, and having the time to get some photos ready for when I’m home to upload. Today is the Harbour Bridge’s 75th Birthday, and there isn’t much traffic. Of course people were told that roads would be closed and not to drive in. Looking forward to some lunch now. So after lunch, headed out and about to check out the Bridge’s light show. Very lovely night, and the lights gave a unique feel to the harbour. It was changed a few times during the night. Had dinner at Pancakes at the Rocks - Chicken Tandoori Pizza and Thai Chicken Crepes. Was fantastic.

One of the best days / productive days / best week / productive week in a long while. Thanks to everyone!

Written by Milton Lai