kelvin quee

I signed up for Mobile Broadband with Singtel and got a free Huawei E169 dongle. It is a pretty powerful thing with a 3G modem, a mini-SD card reader and a emulated CD-ROM drive. Unfortunately, this confuses most systems. Since I don’t really care for the mini-SD card reader or the windows drivers in the emulated CD-ROM drive, this guide will be about how to get the 3G modem to work.

It’s really simple actually but there was alot of trial and error. I’ve tested it on multiple computers and on pro-longed usage. I’m using Ubuntu 8.04 and it works beautifully. It should work with all other systems too. Here are the 3 steps required -

(1) Download the USB Modeswitch. You require this to switch to the 3G modem full-time. Compile it. If you’re on x86 systems and a little lazy, you can download the binary here.

(2) Run -

$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 12d1:1001 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E620 USB Modem

Run -

$ ./usb_modeswitch -v 0×12d1 -p 0×1001 -H 1

* usb_modeswitch: tool for controlling “flip flop” mode USB devices
* Version 0.9.4 (C) Josua Dietze 2008
* Works with libusb 0.1.12 and probably other versions

Looking for default devices
Found default devices (1)
Prepare switching, accessing latest device
OK, Huawei control message successfully sent.
-> See /proc/bus/usb/devices (or call lsusb) for changes. Bye

(3) Now you can dial up using most dialup software. wvdial works best for me. Here is what I run -

$ wvdial /etc/wvdial.conf

The configuration file reads like this -

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”internet”
Stupid Mode = 1
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = *99#
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Username = NA
Dial Command = ATDT
Password = pass
Baud = NA

Somehow, it managed to detect the DNS servers. For Singtel, they are - 165.21.100.88 and 165.21.83.88. If you are on M1, Starhub or other ISPs and have success with them, please share your experience and configuration settings below.

Hope that helps!

A Perl script for exporting HiRes DiddleBug images. Modified from Edd Dumbill’s diddle.pl.

Download diddleHR.txt. You will need to locate DiddleBugHRDB.pdb on your machine. See also Dumbill’s Retrieving images from DiddleBug on a Unix-like system.

I make no warranty and offer no support for this software. You can use this software in any manner you want. Still, as always, I will try to help if you just leave comments here.

The below information is only for the purpose of Fair Use. The workaround is suggested because you already own the rights to the document but its overzealous creators restricted you more than they should. Your first workaround should be to contact the creator of the document to relax the restrictions. If you do not have the rights to the document, it is probably illegal for you to apply any of the suggested methods below. Check with your lawyer.

If you find yourself with a protected PDF (or what some people call “DRM-ed”), there’s a way to get around this. It’s not very elegant, but it works.

Here’s what the document properties window will look like, for a protected pdf, besides the “Lock” icon on your bottom left of Acrobat.

As you can see, it’s very restrictive. I cannot even cut-and-paste.

To work around this, you need to be able to print, which is allowed in my case. You need to print to a new file. Since I’m using Microsoft Windows, I’ve the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer.

1) Print to Microsoft Office Document Image Writer. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, from your print dialog window, choose the Image Writer. It’s pretty obvious if you’re on Windows. For other platforms, you probably have your own workaround, like Mac OSX pdf printing function.

2) Open the .mdi file created. From there, print to your PDF writer, like CutePDF.

3) Open the newly created PDF file and see the document security settings removed and everything else intact.

Note: Printing to a PDF writer directly, like CutePDF, does not work. Adobe probably realised this simple workaround and did something about it. You need to print/convert to another format, in this case the .mdi format, before printing/converting back to pdf format again.

Alternatively, you can try this suggestion here that uses Gmail as a workaround and metioned on Boing Boing. It doesn’t work as well as all methods above, but it’s definitely cross-platform.

Happy Fair Use-ing.

Macintosh, or more specifically, OSX users will probably scream at this. Either that, or they will probably scroff it off as downright loser.

In anycase, it is now really simple to get an Windows XP desktop to look really like OSX, with all the bells and whistles.

Or, even better.

Here’s what my desktop look like after revamping. Go take a look:

As you can see, OSX’s all-too-famous dock is implemented, complete with the magnification. Drag-N-Drog to dock works too. OSX’s Spotlight is also emulated, courtesy of Google’s Desktop Search. There’s also the very useful function of labelling your folders with different colours, just like on OSX.

Perhaps more importantly, you get all the bells-and-whistles of the the pow-wow eyecandy like drop-down shadows, transparency and the, though weak, implementation of the genie-effect.

Incredibly, the author somehow managed to alter the boot screen to show a silverised (think laser-etched) Apple logo against a cool background while Windows loads. The Windows login screen is also emulated nicely.

To achieve this, if you’re lazy like me, just go download FlyakiteOSX. It’s a 30mb download. Warning: The software does extensive changes to your computer which may be irreversible. Make sure you do a System Restore point, which the installer will very helpfully ask you if you want to, before installing.

Otherwise, if you’re a diehard hacker, just go ahead and do it manually and enjoy the process. alang has an extensive and detailed manual to guide you through.

If you want additionally functionality, like the ubercool Exposé which is missing from the package (read: Not free), try Topdesk which is working very well for me. Additionally, Topdesk will emulate Vista’s mode of taskswitching. How cool is that?

Of course all these coolness and functionality comes at a price. While all the addons are surprisingly stingy on RAM, they do use up processing speed. Make sure you’ve a decent graphics card. My builtin Intel Extreme Graphics 2 barely limps along. The sacrifice of speed for functionality is still worth it though.

Still, there’s one major caveat emptor that I’ve yet been able to handle - the uneasy fit of OSX looks on PC (read: cheap) hardware. Seeing the Apple boot screen on a all-so-serious Thinkpad almost made me chuckle out in laughter.

Remember that no amount of emulation will be able to reach what Apple has achieved, that is the epitome of usability. It’s a philosophy, not just looks alone. If you really want to explore usabability on a PC, go get Gnome. You may have to ditch Windows for Linux though.

Or, if you want to know what all the fuss about MacOSX is all about, so much so that even PC users go all-out to emulate it, go read up on its features.

Again, I’ll emphasise on usability. I know getting your desktop to look exactly like OSX is really ubercool, but if your PC will only limp along and crash every now and then, it’s really pointless. I’ll be testing driving this hacked-together setup for a while, to see if it works. So far, so good though.

In a bid to make my old Acer TravelMate 280 more usable for my other family members, I decided to clear away the partitions containing SuSe 9.3 Linux to make more space for Windows (Sorry, Linux).

So I just went bruteforce, deleting all the linux partitions, completely forgetting that GRUB leads to the Linux boot partition. I then rebooted the laptop.

GRUB, obviously, pops out an error, refusing to boot.

I then pop in the Windows XP cd, got to the recovery console. It asked for my adminstrator password, I gave my administrator password. Of course, like all Microsoft products, it will die on you when you most need it. There’s a bug in certain incarnations of XP recovery console. Brilliant, isn’t it? I didn’t know that initially and I thumped every password I know before hurriedly running upstairs to grab my other laptop, thinking of dumping a boot disk into my USB thumbdisk.

Then it struck me that my Acer TravelMate 280 might not be able to boot from a USB thumbdrive. To confirm my fears, I browsed through the BIOS. I shuddered.

XP CD-ROM refused me. The laptop can’t boot from USB. So… I’m left with my floppy.

My Floppy Disk! I then earnestly shook off the layer of dust gathering on my floppy disk. When was the last time I used one? I hope it still works.

Thinking that the tides are with me now, I downloaded the best bootdisks I could find together with some Fix MBR utilities. Time to format a floppy! I felt around my Thinkpad, looking for an indentation indicating a floppy disk drive. No luck. Then it dawned on me that my Thinkpad has no floppy drive.

Cursing myself, I then transferred the compilation into another desktop before producing the floppy. Everything went smoothly from then on. Once booted from floppy, I typed “mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr”. Rebooted. Windows XP loads. Done. :)

Lessons learnt:

1) Know your partitions. List down what they do, contain and their references (0, 1, 2, 3…)
2) Windows XP recovery may not always work.
3) Always keep a couple of floppy disks around, no matter how uncool they look. Also have one thumbdisk around for transferring stuff.
4) Make a bootdisk containing all essential utilities (fdisk and edit especially). Put one image in your floppy disk and the other in your thumbdisk.
5) Remember that computing is in a state of transiting from floppies to usb thumbdrive/network transfers. Note that, to recover most machines, the only way is to boot from CD or floppy or thumbdisk. Many older machines do not support booting from USB. One might not always have the right CDs to boot from too. Clearly, the floppy still offers the most versatile and universal boot solution, no matter how uncool and slow they are.

The folks over at MESS.be are real crowd pleasers.

They have released a patch for MSN Messenger that removes features about MSN that they’ve found irritating.

I’ve tried it and it works like a charm. Don’t be too ambitious and remove all the features indiscrimately (you might regret it). Remove only what you think you don’t need. You can always remove more later. Remember also to backup your contacts before doing patching (Contacts -> Save Contact List…). Lastly, it seems that patching violates Microsoft’s Terms of Use.

Download MESS Patch (there might be an occasional ad)

Rant:

With network effect building in, it seems like there’s no escape from MSN Messenger, though there are always alternatives like Trillian and Miranda. A regret about these viable alternatives is that certain features are broke at times.

MSN Messenger is an inferior protocol. I’ve written about this a while back. Read it and other people’s comments here. What’s even worst is its horrible interface and the lack of offline messaging. Windows Live Messenger (now in beta) seems to tackle this straight on, but the interface is still not good enough. Where’s the tabbed interface that Gaim and Trillian already have?

The only way is to use other protocols, other Internet Messenger, but there are just too many of them.

We need only one protocol and we need an entity powerful enough to shove us all into it. Not Microsoft though. Google will be good.

I scoured the web for easy to follow instructions for burning my SuSE Linux 9.3 using Ubuntu Linux but I couldn’t find detailed ones. Most of them just referred me to use k3b, which I didn’t want to.

So here’s an (hopefully) easy to follow instructions for burning DVDs in Linux using cdrecord-ProDVD.

First of all, cdrecord-ProDVD seems to be a project of cdrecord. Correct me if I’m wrong.

1) Download cdrecord-ProDVD latest binary and license key (cdrecord-wrapper.sh free for non-commercial use).

2) Place them both in your /usr/bin directory. Chmod them if you need to (sudo chmod +x filename). You might also have to rename the binary to cdrecord-ProDVD so that the wrapper can find it.

3) You’ll need to issue a command along this line:
sudo cdrecord-wrapper.sh dev=(device name) path-to-iso

As you might already have realised, you’ll accessing the binary via the wrapper.

To find out the device name to your dvd burner, use mount.

kelvinq@ubuntu:~/Desktop/downloads$ mount
/dev/hda2 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/hda5 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev on /.dev type unknown (rw,bind)
none on /dev type tmpfs (rw,size=5M,mode=0755)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
/dev/hdb on /media/cdrom0 type iso9660 (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,user=kelvinq)


Your device name is then /dev/hdb. You can of course symlink it if you want to, but I don’t find a need.

4) Once you issue that command, cdrecord-ProDVD assumes that you are writing in tao mode. If your drive, like mine, doesn’t support it, you’ll get an error. To find out what mode your drive supports, issue cdrecord-wrapper.sh dev=/dev/hdb -checkdrive

kelvinq@ubuntu:~/Desktop/downloads$ cdrecord-ProDVD dev=/dev/hdb -checkdrive
Cdrecord-ProDVD-Clone 2.01b31 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 J\uffffrg Schilling
Unlocked features:
Limited features:
scsidev: '/dev/hdb'
devname: '/dev/hdb'
scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2
Warning: Open by 'devname' is unintentional and not supported.
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : 'BENQ '
Identifikation : 'DVD DD DW1620 '
Revision : 'B7T9'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW.
cdrecord-ProDVD: This version of cdrecord limits DVD-R/DVD-RW support to -dummy or 1 GB real.
cdrecord-ProDVD: If you need full DVD-R/DVD-RW support, ask the Author for cdrecord-ProDVD.
cdrecord-ProDVD: Free test versions and free keys for personal use are at ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/ProDVD/
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc-2 DVD-R/DVD-RW driver (mmc_dvd).
Driver flags : DVD MMC-3 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE
Supported modes: PACKET SAO


In bold, my drive supports sao. So my final command is:
sudo cdrecord-wrapper.sh -sao dev=/dev/hdb ./SUSE-9.3-Eval-DVD.iso

cdrecord-ProDVD successfully detected my drive type, media speed (2x), type (DVD-RW) and burned the iso perfectly.


kelvinq@ubuntu:~/Desktop/downloads$ sudo cdrecord-wrapper.sh -sao dev=/dev/hdb ./SUSE-9.3-Eval-DVD.iso
Cdrecord-ProDVD-Clone 2.01b31 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 J\uffffrg Schilling
Unlocked features: ProDVD Clone
Limited features:
This copy of cdrecord is licensed for: private/research/educational_non-commercial_use
scsidev: '/dev/hdb'
devname: '/dev/hdb'
scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2
Warning: Open by 'devname' is unintentional and not supported.
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : ‘BENQ ‘
Identifikation : ‘DVD DD DW1620 ‘
Revision : ‘B7T9′
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW.
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc-2 DVD-R/DVD-RW driver (mmc_dvd).
Driver flags : DVD MMC-3 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE
Supported modes: PACKET SAO
Starting to write CD/DVD at speed 2 in real SAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting real write 0 seconds. Operation starts.
Turning BURN-Free off
Track 01: Total bytes read/written: 4488353792/4488353792 (2191579 sectors).

5) As you can see from above, output was pretty bare during the burning process. You might want to tweak it to your needs with cdrecord-wrapper.sh -help to see the available options.

Hope that helps.