Gadgets

My Dell laptop is running loud, fan is almost always on full speed

David Vidmar — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:11:10 GMT

Lately my Dell Latitude D820 has been running very hot and loud. I tried to help it cool with various desk and lap positions, but things went from bad to worse. Google search confirmed my suspicion that dust has killed it’s cooling capabilities.

I could take it to repairs, but that’s no fun. And since times at Vidmar family are very stressful, what better way to take mind off troubles that some“screwdriver fun!?

First, I ran I8kfan GUI, a free tool to monitor temperature and change fan speed of Dell laptops. My CPU was hot, and speeding or slowing down didn’t do nothing to the temperature. Another proof, that dust is was in the way.

Getting to the fan is not easy, as one has to:

unscrew every screw you find on the bottom and back of the laptop,
remove battery,
remove keyboard,
remove hinge,
remove display.

Luckily Dell provides instructions, so it’s not that hard as it seems. Instructions also tell that you should also remove hard drive, wireless card and RAM, but it’s not true.

After opening my laptop, this is what I found.

This is how it will look after you take your laptop apart (glasses optional).

After cleaning laptop is running 15-20°C cooler than before.

One more piece of advice before doing what I just did – there are three kinds of screws. Black, fat and short for hard drive, silver for display and black and longer for everything else. Keep that in mind when putting machine back together.

Free software for Nokia Symbian phones

David Vidmar — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:07:36 GMT

Following one of most popular posts on this blog about Free Software for Nokia 6600, this is some more free titles, collected by Robert:

Tools

Calcium - Slick calculator.
S60SpotOn - Handheld torch.
Tasky - Task manager.
Y-Browser - File manager.

Information

Mobile Weather - Weather forecast application.
Papyrus - Time management. ($19.95!)

Games

S-Tris 2 - Tetris.

You can find a more software in lists on N95 blog and Lifehacker.

Google Apps good news

David Vidmar — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:29:57 GMT

Robert has dropped a two good bits of news about Google Apps as comments to this weeks Links of the week.

First, Gmail mobile application is finally available for J2ME (Java) phones!

Just surf to http://m.google.com/a on your mobile phone and you'll have a chance to install the app. It works like a charm. Easily best mobile email client out there.

What is strange is that the Google Apps info page doesn't have anything on it and I haven't seen any news about it anywhere (but I didn't looked very hard).

Second, there is a new setting in in the control panel of Google Apps that should turn on new regular Gmail features sooner.

I haven't turned it on more that 24 hours ago, but I don't see any changes yet. So I'm not sure if it just doesn't work or I just don't get it. If you try it, please report back.

Technorati tags: google, google apps, mobile, java

Find great jobs and hire the best talent

David Vidmar — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:44:39 GMT

Users that actually visit vidmar.net site have probably noticed there has been job board embedded in this site. At first I tested the field with my own version of it, but that was later replace with a professional service Hidden network by Alex Papadimoulis, legendary MVP for MS Paint and author of The Daily WTF.

I believe this service on my blog will be of use for both job seekers and employers!

If you are looking for a new challenge, just browse jobs and subscribe to the feed. Just don't forget to report back when you get that dream job, ok?

If you are employer, you can post your jobs for free (international) or with a huge discount using these codes:

100OFF0712 - $100 discount ($199 for first listing)
200OFF0712 - $200 discount ($99 for first listing)
299OFF0712 - $299 discount (free first listing)
INTLFREE7 - free international (non US/CA) listings

When you apply, please enter my referral number 1159. Thank you!

Take a look at some others blogs that are part of Hidden Network:

Technorati tags: job, job ads, employment

Free GPS software for Java phones

David Vidmar — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:19:35 GMT

I'm not a big fan of car mounted GPS devices. I find them cool but I really don't see why average Janez (~ Joe, but from Slovenia) would need one. But I really like Bluetooth GPS devices you can connect to your laptop, PDA or even phone. So I got myself one!

I was investigating who has in my sailing crew had a big and expensive phone I could stick mapping software onto I found that you don't need a state of the art phone at all for task like that. There is a lot of cool software for regular old Java enabled GPS phones that do the trick!

Here is the list of what I found...

Google Maps Mobile

I didn't know that Google Maps are actually available on Java phones! Docs say you can connect to GPS, there is even a pictures of Bluetooth device I have, but only for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and N95.

Mobile GMaps

Luckily there is free GMaps that connect to GPS and display Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Windows Live maps and more. Amazing piece of software that is still actively developed and every couple of days there is something new.

J2ME Map

Another Google Maps browser. It integrates with Flickr.

Trek Buddy

This is probably the best offline map browser. This means you should preload your maps and not use expensive bandwidth. There is little more work to be done as you should prepare your maps, but once you have them it's totally free and very fast.

TrackMyJourney - Mobile

It can do navigation, location tracking, map display and route plotting. Check out this amazing screenshot and remember - it's just a regular Java phone you need!

I found more software, but I didn't test all of them...

If you'll dive into offline mapping here is short list of software you will need to easily create maps for TrekBuddy:

Any has any experience with this?

Technorati tags: gps, gsm, phone, java, software

Logitech QuickCam Messenger in Windows Vista

David Vidmar — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:07:11 GMT

When I tried to install my old Logitech QuickCam Messenger on laptop running Windows Vista it found 2 out of 3 drivers. I downloaded latest QuickCam software from Logitech and installed it but that didn't help. I still couldn't use the camera.

Fortunately there is a hack to use Windows XP driver and my problem was solved.

Instructions: Trick to Use Logitech QuickCam Messenger in Windows Vista

Technorati tags: logitech, webcam, drivers, vista, hack

Tomato firmware for Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS

David Vidmar — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:43:01 GMT

If you own a Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS router you are probably aware that there are few alternative firmware's out there that squeeze more out of hardware that original hardware. Especially if you are doing some P2Ping, since default Linksys's settings are sub-optimal.

I have been running DD-WRT for a while know and it treated me nice. But after yesterday's IM chat with a friend I decided it's time to try something new.

Tomato is a small and simple replacement firmware by Jonathan Zarate, who has also developed another well know firmware HyperWRT +Tofu.

What is special with Tomato:

simple, efficient and modern Ajax enabled UI
build in traffic monitor with really nice SVG graphs
excellent preset QoS that actually works and also has graphing abilities which help a lot when "debugging" QoS
pre-configured with high connection limits for for P2P

This alone is compelling enough and since development of DD-WRT has somehow slowed I decided to switch. So far things look very good, but I have only run Tomato for a day.

When doing a firmware upgrade, be sure to follow instructions and read read-me files.

My two hints:

Check that you want reset your router settings after upgrade. Do this if you upgrade from DD-WRT. If you fail to, check Tomato's read-me for 3 possible solutions if you get stuck.
Although official site say there is little documentation, there is a nice Wikibook about Tomato firmware with tons of hints and suggestions.

Some screenshots:

Canon EOS 400D/XTi firmware 1.1.0 released

David Vidmar — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:51:08 GMT

If you missed the news - little over a week ago Canon released updated firmware for 400D/XTi to 1.1.0 exactly 3 months after release of version 1.0.5.

According to Canon there are only two new things in this release:

Adds support for the new Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) USB protocol.
Corrects errors in the Simplified Chinese menu screens.

I don't use Chinese menus and have no idea why I would need MTP but I upgraded from 1.0.5 today. I just like updating my hardware's software!

The process is simple if you just follow the Canon's instructions:

Format the CF Card
Download the firmware update file
Copy the firmware update file to the CF card
Start the firmware update

Since there is no hacked firmware for 400D as there was for 300D updating with original firmware is your only way for getting more out of your camera hardware-wise!

Bonus: You might want to grab new version of EOS Utility and Digital Photo Professional, which were also updated this month.

ABC inside out

David Vidmar — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:07:08 GMT

If you are from Slovenia, you probably own ABC (electronic toll collection system). And I bet you always wondered what's inside that little white box. Well, now you can...

The story goes like this: couple of months ago my ABC tablet reported more than 8.000.000 EUR on my account. That lead DARS (Motorway Cmopany in Slovenia) official believe that it's broken. I tried to convince them that the balance is real, that I'm REALLY that rich. They insisted that the life span of ABC tablet is 5 years and that mine is more than 7 years old and that I should get another one. I had no choice, so I did.

And I also opened old one, just to check if there are really 8 millions € in there...

You guest right - they weren't there. Go figure.

Want a free 4GB USB key?

David Vidmar — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:33:18 GMT

Just surf to Ceneje.si, a kick ass price comparison site for Slovenia and answer a really easy sweepstake question.

Good luck, but don't be sad if I win, not you.