Thursday, February 28, 2008

Razer Diamondback Resurrection

After a while, during my free time, under my curiosity, I have decided to open up the old diamondback, to find out if it can be repaired or not. Under the teflon mousefeet, lies the one and only screw to open the mouse in half (luckly its a philips head skrew).


Opening......


Ripping the shell out......... Gently......

The Main Chip. See the problem ?



Close up look on the problem area. Munching buttons, scary isn't it?


For those that did not notice the problem, the left switch broke(have to remove the broken top of the switch to show, cause my camera cant see the difference in the damaged area with the top on it)

I have decided to resurrect the mouse, in pink. Once I have time that is. I will switch the green LED's to pink, once i got to Jalan Pasar (the only street I know in Malaysia that sells electronic parts). I need to get a new soldering iron too, the cheap soldering irons cant last long. I have switched 2 times in the past one and a half years. The device just cant handle heat.

To be continued.....

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Decisions

ma·tur·i·ty (mə-tyŏŏr'ĭ-tē, -tŏŏr'-, -chŏŏr'-) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. ma·tur·i·ties
    1. The state or quality of being fully grown or developed.
    2. The state or quality of being mature.
    3. The time at which a note or bond is due.
    4. The state of a note or bond being due.
    1. The time at which a note or bond is due.
    2. The state of a note or bond being due.
  1. Geology A stage in the development of streams or landscapes at which maximum development has been reached or at which the process of erosion is going on with maximum vigor. Maturity of a landscape continues throughout the period of maximum topographic differentiation or until about three fourths of the original mass is carried away by erosion.


[Middle English maturite, from Old French, from Latin mātūritās, from mātūrus, mature; see mature.]

Obtained from www.dictionary.com

What is maturity in your mind?
Is it as stated above?
How about mature thinking?
Are you mature in thinking?
These were the questions that basically what an individual who is maturing will ask.
What is maturity in my mind?

Well, in what I have seen in life, working with people in different age groups, it begun to change my idea of 'maturity of the mind'. Maturity does not necessarily mean that the individual, a lady or a gentlemen, will act like one. For example, I seen a 12 year old kid play computer games. I seen a 30-year old guy play too. I herd that old retired people in Japan play playstation to pass their time. Is that immature? In my opinion, this action does not mean a thing. It does not signify that the person is an immature person. For me, the way I see if the person has a mature mind or not, is by the way they handle responsibilities. It's the way they think, the way they make wise decisions and choices that they will hold on to for the rest of their lives.

It's the choices that people made, that makes them who they are
On the outside, an individual might look mature, but it depends on how the individual handles responsibility, that makes them mature
We must respect ones dreams and decisions, because its not easy making them.

This reminds me of my ex-girlfriend, a lady with big ambitions, big dreams. I just can't let it shatter. I don't wan to be in her way at all. Saying harsh words to her is the only way I could set her free. I don't want her to understand what I did. Even though its the hardest thing for me to do. I love her, thinking of her everyday, even now. However, I want her to think I am the most horrible person on earth, so that she can move on with her life. Its a decision that I have made, painful as it is, but I will carry it all till the end. Women must not know men's suffering, now and then.

Sometimes, the best way to care, is to let go.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Sony's Noise Canceling Headset Review

Erm, during Chinese New Year, we got lotz of ang pows (red packets, a symbol of wealth and prosperity for the new year. With a random sum of money inside). Forget about that.


Erm, since I bought my NW-S703F walkman 2 years ago, with the special noise canceling headset which I loved so much, my bro got quite fond of it, so he decided to buy this. Luckily, Sonystyle Times Square were sellling this for 50% discount(wat a bargain!). When it comes to music, we really emphasize on sound quality. We are very strict on choosing our headsets, making sure its good quality, and in sound, not too much treble nor base. We have a lot of headsets to begin with, about more than 7 of them(maybe little for some people). We tested them under different conditions, like rain, traffic, even in silence. After getting bored with the conventional 3.5mm driver headsets, we set out to get the silicon earbud headsets. It did an excellent job on blocking the outside, with increased sound quality spectrum, clearly can be herd. However, the driver is too tiny, even when we crank up the bass in our walkman's, it still not clear enough. At that time, we have to choose, everytime we go out, we either bring the conventional 3.5mm driver earphone(for bass driven songs like rock, pop), or the silicone one(for treble driven songs like sentimental, oldies). Well, mostly we will bring the conventional one, because we are more to jpop songs(Japanese POP). Now, after this noise canceling headset was made, it was like a godsend to us. This headset has 3.5mm driver, for clear bass, silicone earbuds + active noise canceling for clear treble.


The Contents: The earpiece itself and instructions, instructions, instructions......

Currently, this is the best headset I ever had. I never fail to take them out for my skating training's.


Batteries needed for noise canceling. One AAA battery


Noise canceling controller.(too bad no volume controller)


Strap location

Lastly, many will ask, what is noise canceling?

The answer:

Noise-cancelling headphones reduce unwanted ambient sounds (i.e., acoustic noise) by means of active noise control. Essentially, this involves using a microphone, placed near the ear, and electronic circuitry which generates an "antinoise" sound wave with the opposite polarity of the sound wave arriving at the microphone. This results in destructive interference, which cancels out the noise within the enclosed volume of the headphone.

Keeping noise low at the ear makes it possible to enjoy music without raising the volume unnecessarily. It can also help a passenger sleep in a noisy vehicle such as an airliner.

Retail noise cancelling headphones typically only cancel the lower-frequency portions of the noise; they depend upon traditional noise suppression techniques (such as their earcups) to prevent higher-frequency noise from reaching the interior of the headphone. This approach has three benefits:

  • The demands on the electronic circuitry are vastly simplified.
  • Because of the shorter wavelength of the high-frequency sound, active cancellation is much less effective at higher frequencies. To truly cancel high frequency components (coming at the ear from all directions), the sensor and emitter for the cancelling waveform would have to be adjacent to the user's eardrum, an impractical situation.
  • For the same reason (shorter wavelength), effective passive isolation becomes easier with rising frequency.
Picked from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise-cancelling_headphone Thanks wiki!

If thats a lil too complicated, in short, active noise canceling blocks outside noise(like car engine sounds, speech and stuff) by sending inverted sound waves to cancel them(so the outside sound cant reach your ear).

Imagine this: passive noise cancel(silicon earbuds) + active noise cancel(inverted sound waves). You are totally deaf wearing this headsets!

Warning: Do not wear this while driving or crossing the road. You are basically deaf and cant hear the horns!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Razer Lachesis Review


After using my bros old razer diamondback for too long, It seems that its time for us to depart with it. Time seems to fly so so fast. Sadly, since the all venomous snake-mice died on us a while ago (on my hands....). I was charged of murder, and so I bought him this.


A mighty looking mouse with a tough attitude! The Razer Lachesis, the bringer of silent death.
Another mouse to trash. Hehehe......


The Specs


The Definition & Comparison


The Opening Ceremony


The box of wonders, amazingly full of stuff. It includes the CD driver, set of instructions, 2 piece razer logo sticker and a congrats note.





The Design. Wow!


Includes a 7 foot non tangle cord with gold plated usb connector



The Razer Glow, I like it! (but my bro wished its in green..... sobz)

Once connected to my pc, I am quite satisfied with the 'feel' and 'look' of it. Playing Crysis with it is super! I could even aim under heavy recoil of the machine gun. I never been able to that with other mouse.

After a while, I noticed the cursor sometimes jumps unexpectedly, even with the drivers installed. After a few searches in the web, found the new beta firmware 1.64, flashed it, and problem solved. After that, only on very rare occurrences that the cursor will jump, keep up the good work razer!



Another problem I might find a bit troublesome is the profiles stored in the 32kb onboard memory. When changing the profiles, the mouse will restart itself, and its quite long (about 10 sec or so). Quite a waste of time. I did not have time to set the automatic profile switcher (will post it up soon).

Problem II is that the paint coat on top of it. It gets very ugly when exposed to sweat. lolz no picture (might be getting later).

Currently, at early test run, only got 2 problems but a lot of benefits. Price wise however its more affordable than logitech. Performance wise it's unnaturally super! And my bro loves it!

Introduction

Hi, and welcome all to my blog. lolx