Archive for utp

Is this Real? yes it is! a Fake Olympic torch.

June 3, 2008 Theology Comments Off on Is this Real? yes it is! a Fake Olympic torch.


Photo from Mingpao news

Remember I made a post about whats next on the “Keeping it real, truly fake series” earlier?

Quote from Fake ambulance – whats next?
Ok, whats next? Fake Olympic torch/fire? fake Tibet? or fake Lama? (Oh yeah they already have it)..


Oh yes, they did it!

From Mingpao news:
The Intellectual Property Rights Protection Alliance from Hong Kong Customs (海關版權及商標調查科人員) has arrest a 33 years old women, she is accused of selling this Fake Olympic torch on an auction site at a price of HK$700 (appox US$90).

She was arrested when trading with undercover authorities from customs department, and later officials find 4 other Fake torch at her home, 2 was made out of metal, and 3 of them were made out of cotton.

Whats next man?

Link
– Mingpao news – Women arrest for selling Fake Olympic torch. 女子網站賣假奧運火炬被捕
– theo’s weblog – Fake ambulance – whats next?
– theo’s weblog – WorldCup Fever – Fake LV/Burberry soccer ball

QRCode used for learning outdoor.

June 3, 2008 Theology Comments Off on QRCode used for learning outdoor.


Student learning outdoors. (Photo on Mingpao news by the EDB)

Launched by Education Bureau (EDB) – IT in Education Group (教育局資訊科技教育組), Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department (漁農自然護理署), A mobile learning project called Conducting with trees (樹木全接觸) was launched using mobile devices.

The trial was launched with 340 students from 4 primary schools, age of 9~12 in the Lions nature educations center (獅子會自然教育中心), plants were labeled with QRCode, and students were given mobile phones with data connections, they then exploring the learning center.

Related learning information of different plants were loaded from server by taking photos of the QRCode label, providing a new and fun learning experience for student outdoor.

“Student can find what they are interested, close their eyes, feel and learn about the nature, instead of jotting download information and search on learning info when they get back to schools, they can now read on them real time on-site.”
The officer Mr. Chow from EDB says.

Their next target is to get the same approach to arts and and other museums.

Link:
– MingPao news – (Chinese) 手機探索樹木 即拍即瀏覽資料, Discovery trees by mobile, snap and browse information about the nature.
– Lions nature educations center – 獅子會自然教育中心
– Education Bureau (EDB) 教育局
– Education Bureau (EDB) – IT in Education Group 教育局資訊科技教育組

Holux M-241 wireless GPS logger

May 16, 2008 Gadgets, GPS Comments Off on Holux M-241 wireless GPS logger

With a personal interest in GIS/GPS related development and applications, I do use GPS quite a lot, I came across many different GPS devices, from just GPS logger, SD/CFIO GPS, Bluetooth GPS, Car navigation system to PDA/Smartphone with buildin GPS/aGPS/eGPS…

This is what we are going to test this time, the Holux M-241 wireless GPS logger.


Front side view.


LCD Display in the front.


The buttons, Mode and Enter.

Compare to normal Bluetooth GPS on the market, Holux do try to make some difference on this device.

Instead of just a GPS device to connect to other device using BT, M241 itself is also a GPS Logger with a tiny LCD display, which display basic GPS info. example like Long/Lat/Time/Directions etc.

It can work as a GPS logger itself with a storage of about 130,000 point entries and work as a Bluetooth GPS device simultaneously, so if you need extra data/use of the GPS, you can connect to it using your PDA/smartphone, while it keep on it’s logging process.

A bit more spec-wise on the device:
Chipset: MTK
Channels: 32
Display: LCD with backlight 32* 8.9mm 128*32 pixel
Powered by: 1AA battery up to 12 hours.
Connection: Bluetooth SPP, USB UART COM
Storage: 130000 point entries
M-241 Specs – Holux officials site

I love the idea of being able to log and use the device at a same time, so I can keep a full log of my trip, and extra on my smartphone when I needed it.

The search of GPS (Fixing) is quite fast, took about 30~90 secs from start to a fix in a city street next to buildings, signal is good even in a bus.

Thinks Holux did spend sometime on the device, it comes with a few software utilities on GPS (I found out why after, read the nag.) these software include data download, map GIS data to JPEGs, export to KML (GoogleEarth) etc.

Nagging time to the device:
– The device uses MTK Chipset which I found it not working as good as SiRFIII, when devices is moving slowly, example walking or staying in a same place, POS “flows” a lot, common problem on MTK Chipset (of coz, price-wise, fair enough)…..

– Instead of a standard USB Mass Storage Device when user connect M241 to PC, it actually is a COM over USB device, so extra drivers and software is needed to get it working, while the Sony GPS-CS1 does not (Work as a USB Drive with 32MB, and nmea log in txt files), also COM over USB is just slow…..

– The outlook is just……..hum…….. I consider I do not like it, it tries to make itself look like a old style Kodak Film, while a copy cat to the Sony GPS-CS1, and the finishing is…….ar…….below the standard I will say…. see how the battery cover was design, I think it is going to break anytime.


Battery Cover, AA battery, see nagging about the cover.


In compare to Sony GPS-CS1


In compare to Sony GPS-CS1

Overall, with the happy price tag and functions, I am happy about the device, as firmware of the device can be upgrade, hope Holux do fix and add more function of it in the future..

Links
Holux M-241 Wireless GPS logger – Holux Official Site.

UTF8 chars escape, URLencode problem in PocketIE

May 14, 2008 Development, Windows Mobile Comments Off on UTF8 chars escape, URLencode problem in PocketIE

I was doing some web programming for Windows Mobile device, and was facing this problem on Pocket Internet Explorer.

The problem is, for all modern browser, URL request will be encoded and sent in UTF-8, Oprea for PPC (8.65), Netfront (4.5TP) does handle that correctly, only PIE fails to do that, here is the example:

when you process URL:
http://www.google.com.hk/search?q=中文
Browser should encode the URL and process:
http://www.google.com.hk/search?q=%A4%A4%A4%E5

But in PIE it does not handle it at all, resulting in error on the request.

Many developers handle non-ASCII chars in URL by using escape in JavaScript, in the case PIE fail to handle it too, instead of RFC 2279 standard, %nn%nn, it process the escape as %unnnn which was the very old and outdated way of how it should be done. (I consider something that was already fixed in MSIE 5.x and Netscape 4.x was outdated.)

Instead of using escape(foo), use encodeURIComponent(foo) before using the string as URL fix the problem.

Links:
UTF-8 Encoding for Older Browsers – WorldTimeZone

Hum…….Popcorn…..

May 14, 2008 Personal Comments Off on Hum…….Popcorn…..



DIY……..ar………. popcorn!

Made by:
– Popcorn seed, butter, little bit of sugar.
– Tin foil. (folded to a bag)
– Hot air gun (was un-soldering BGA from a PCB)

In Homer’s style:
Popcorn………Yum…

My mod on the Tomy Bit Char-G

May 9, 2008 Do it yourself Comments Off on My mod on the Tomy Bit Char-G


The Skyline GTR R34 from the front, base on a 47MHz AM band Tomy Bit Char-G.


The Skyline GTR R34, from the back, the antenna was replaced with a better wire from a CAT5 Ethernet cable.



From the inside, notice the Lithium Polymer battery inside.
The BCG was originally powered at 1.5V Ni-MH battery at about 50mah, which is now replaced by 3.7V 190mah LiPo battery with a diode to drop 0.5V voltage, the actual design of the BCG can take up to 5V power, but as it was way too fast to run with 3.7V (it flips over all the time when turn), with approximately 3.2V it is now under reasonable control with some weights on the car and better control skills.

Not only greater power, the LiPo battery gives better run time as the discharge pattern LiPo is better than Ni-MH battery with same volume.
One more important reason for replacing the battery to LiPo is the Ni-MH will break and leak acidic liquid, which cause erosion on the PCB and parts, this is one of the main reason most of old BCG stop working.



This is the simple plug for the battery I made, quite easy to do, it is made from pins and plugs found in my old computer parts (IDE pins and case panel plug).



The charging station, it is actually from an older Nokia battery charger, instead of powered by the Nokia power adapter, it is now powered by USB with a 5.2V inverter, I simply open it up, wire the pins out, when charging, the blue LED with flash from left to right.



Blue LED all on when fully charge, LiPo battery protection board was placed on the battery so it won’t over discharge (will not give current when voltage of the battery itself is lower than 3.4V), normal run time of the BCG is approximate 15~20mins with good power. (compare to 2 minutes the Ni-MH battery gave)
Charge time is longer than the Ni-MH battery as over-charge (providing more voltage and current than it was design) is not an option in LiPo battery, it WILL damage the battery and get danger with over-charge, normally a full charge from empty would take 6~8 minutes.

What else?
Some of the mod. was not visible from the photo, example:
– Dual-spring were used in the steering part, which give better centering in the steering as we have way more power in speed now.
– The steering magnet was replaced by industrial use magnet, which gives way more power in steering (at least 2 times stronger than the original).
– Weights were placed inside the body where the Ni-MH used to be to give more stability to the car.

I planed some other hacks on the hardware side too, example:
– Bright white LED in head lights, with optical fibre to the back tail light.
– An Aluminum base cover, to protect chassis from dust dirt, and give better center of gravity as the c.g. is now very high due to the battery position.
– Complete re-design on the base chassis, with better center of gravity, better handle on the motor to gear (now it is very loose and lots of power was wasted) and lighter.
– Some body case mod.
– A BCG main board in a Q-Steer mini RC-Car.

And on the software side, a few very funny application was planned too, but seems it is a bit too early to mention by now, so stay tune.

DigiQ Pullback model car.

May 9, 2008 Gadgets Comments Off on DigiQ Pullback model car.



A DigiQ Pullback, at a very fair price…

Doesn’t it look cute?

Fake ambulance – whats next?

May 8, 2008 Theology Comments Off on Fake ambulance – whats next?


Ok, whats next?
Fake Olympic torch/fire? fake Tibet? or fake Lama? (Oh yeah they already have it)..

News from Singtao news:
Police in Man Kam To, Shenzhen found this “Fake ambulance” with 6 reports filed in the pass month, these vans were deteriorated as a normal ambulance in mainland China, targeted those HKers with needs. (Do you believe medical system in a place where even eggs are fake?)

A trip from travel from Shenzhen to Man Kam To borders (Hong Kong), charges were up to HK$2,800 1 trip (What a rip-off! I suggest a Taxi fee with same distance would be < HK$280).

They suggest HKers do not use service from these “Fake ambulance” as there are no medical equipment on board.

Photo and news by Yahoo HK (from Singtao news)

Oh man, I don’t know………

More
WorldCup Fever – Fake LV/Burberry soccer ball

GoogleMap for Hong Kong has just been updated!

May 7, 2008 Computing Comments Off on GoogleMap for Hong Kong has just been updated!


A Web2.0 apllication I develop for address searching in HK by GoogleMap APIs. (Click to enlarge)

I think the updated was just done today (I was using it yesterday)

GoogleMap for Hong Kong has updated their street view with way more data (building name, places, public transport locations) and a more clear theme!

Check it out!

Ok, I want this too on my OQO02!

April 29, 2008 OQO02 Comments Off on Ok, I want this too on my OQO02!



Some great user aka trf got Leopard working on his OQO02, from the video clip I think it looks real enough……

From what he post:
WIFI/BT/Sound/Power works, the only problem he has now was the display which was stuck at 800×480 due to lack of drivers (VIA), and from the video he post with full boot process, it took about 2~2.5 mins to boot…

Too bad “Embedding disabled by request”
Head to youtube and watch yourself!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSJM4r4PVuY

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