1TB hard disks now a reality

Posted by multippt

Hitachi has met the ever-increasing hunger of disk space (probably for storing you-know-what), this time by releasing a 1TB (1000GB) drive (a.k.a, the Deskstar 7K1000). This is a feat, considering that Hitachi is the first company to release a hard drive that breaks the 1TB drive.

Now for the technical details. The hard disk consist of five 200GB platters spinning at 7200RPM, and uses perpendicular recording to achieve the 1TB of space.

In the meantime, Hitachi is working on another 1TB hard drive (CinemaStar 7K1000), that is optimised for home digital entertainment.

This hard drive costs an affordable US$400, and is available as a SATA II or PATA 133 drive. It is also only available as an 3.5″ drive (2.5″ 1TB hard disks are still not available, so don’t bother thinking of using it in your PS3 either). (On a side note, please resist the urge to get this drive, because if it fails…)

Via Hitachi

A long-lasting pen that requires no ink

Posted by multippt

Ever find it frustrating whenever your pen simply runs out of ink at the most inconvenient of times? How about a pencil?

This pen can last for decades, and yet it does not require any ink, nor refills. It is made of stainless steel, and its nib consist of a special alloy that would leave a mark on most paper. The markings on a normal piece of paper look as if it were drawn by a pencil. However, unlike the pencil, the markings are not easily smearged, nor erasable. The pen does not need sharpening, unlike a pencil (furthermore, metal is quite hard to sharpen). The amount of metal which comes off is quite little, and thus, the pen is likely to last for a long time.

However, you won’t see these becoming more common in anytime soon, since a normal pen is still fit for the job of writing.

Via Grand llusions

Multiple hosting services unavailable: Coincidence?

Posted by multippt

Its kind of unusual that multiple free hosting services are suddenly unavailable, just because their domains got put into lockdown statuses by their domain registrar.

There are quite a few hosting sites that have suddenly become unavailable:
-110mb.com*
-awardspace.com
-addyour.net
-1111mb.com**
-Alot more…

*The hosting service has unlocked/resolved the domain
**The hosting service decided to park the domain at the moment

Well, all these might have been coincidence, or might have been due to people misusing the hosting services.

Dell customer support losing quality?

Posted by multippt

Once upon a time (5 years ago), Dell was known for its relatively good customer support. The company’s name is often associated with high quality computers. Now… its a different story.

I guess you have probably known about the bad publicity Dell recently encountered, especially the part of exploding Dell laptops (now phased as “notebooks”), that sparked worldwide battery replacements? Well, here’s more bad news. It seems that Dell is losing their touch of quality on customer support.

Here’s one story (from software.dev):

The blogger’s coworker recently had problems with his Dell notebook and sent it for repairs. (Of course, notebooks tend to sustain more damage due to mobility compared to desktops.) After sending his notebook in for repairs and waiting it for several weeks, he wondered whether he would ever get his notebook back. The customer support kept telling him that there will be more information on his notebook available. One month have passed since sending in his notebook for repairs, and he wasn’t able to get any information on what is being done to his notebook. He finally got back his notebook, with it coming with a form describing what repairs were done:

“Dear customer, enclosed is your repaired Dell portable. The system was diagnosed and extensively tested by certified technicians to ensure the problem was corrected. We take pride in the quality of service provided and are confident the repair performed has fully restored your portable to working order. …”. Ironically, under comments, it said “Ship(ed) back unrepaired. Thanks!”.

Gee…, thats some customer service.

Now here’s my story:

My father was wishing for an upgrade on his computer, especially full wifi capabilty. Of course, there weren’t any Dell repair centres in Singapore, so Dell sent in repairmen straight to the homes of the consumer (very nice idea). During the first visit, the repairman did the “normal” procedures of installing the modem, upgrading the motherboard, etc. After that, he left. When my father came back from work, he realized that the modem was not installed properly (some driver problem). In addition he realized that the “little button” normally used to automatically put the computer to standby whe the lid is closed was  missing. Furious, he called up to Dell support and request that they fix the new problems. During the second visit (same repair personal), he plied out the covering over where the “little button” I’ve mentioned earlier was. He realized that the little button was jammed, and damaged whatever was beneath it. (Yes same repair person who “fixed” the computer and ended up making it worse.) He ordered a replacement for it (something he should have paid for it). Now back to the modem problem. The repairman was frantically looking for whatever might have gone wrong. He received the “no driver” problem on the modem (Something that I also received but fixed it on my own. Of course, my notebook came from Dell too. On a side note, the repairperson never listened to me, maybe because I’m a little too young to be teaching a “qualified” professional like him.) He looked as if he was puzzled (are repairmen supposed to do that?). 1 hour passed and he still couldn’t figure out the problem. He then requested a reinstall of the operating system. Now then, my father is extremely fed up with this repairman that he thought of requesting Michael Dell (of course, that is too extreme) to fix his notebook. Third visit *sign*, another repairperson came and managed to solve every single problem on my father’s notebook. The scenario lasted for 1.5 weeks, so my father is notebookless (except in office) for 1.5 weeks. And, the best part is… my father ended up paying the repairperson who nearly broke down his working notebook. My father have given up Dell entirely, and we are seeking notebooks and computers from other companies.

Nowadays, its just difficult to find a Dell notebook (maye due to low sales?) in Singapore, especially in Funan IT mall.

Part of this story from software.dev

What if you leave a xbox 360 near a dog…

Posted by multippt

Who would have known that animals like gaming too… enough to make them chew on bits and pieces of it! Here’s the story:

Ben Ackerman auctioned off a xbox 360 on ebay. Apparently, after the auction, the buyer sent him an email, stating an incident relating to his xbox 360. It seems that the UPS delivery man (oh dear… bad publicity for UPS) left the package (containing the xbox 360) in the buyer’s back porch, where the seller’s dog suddenly start attacking the contents in that box.

The damage? Well, miraculously the xbox 360 survived the ordeal… without a single scratch! Unfortunately, the rest of the contents are not spared. The power brick sustained damage at the cable, and definitely needs replacing. The wireless controller has a chuck of it ripped off froom the main body (where the left trigger button used to reside). The wired controller only had slight damage to the cable. The dog also have an apetite for nice looking video game boxes (if you’re wondering, the game box which suffered the most damage was “Call of Duty 2″. Wow, the dog have good taste!). Fortunately, the game discs were spared from any damage.

Well, the seller has the UPS insurence, the buyer gets paid for (by the seller during the auction) and managed to improvise ways to substitute for broken parts.

Via Ben Ackerman

James Kim (CNET) family found, however…

Posted by multippt

Earlier, we have reported that James Kim and his family was missing after apparently caught in a severe storm. James Kim’s family have been found a few days ago, in a remote area of southern Oregon. However, James Kim was not with the main group. He left his wife and children in search for help but did not return back. James Kim was found later (several more days later actually) by rescuers. They used certain technologies ranging from thermal imaging down to traking via cellphone signal. However, by the time he was rescued, it was already too late.

The delay in rescue was due to the poor weather conditions, and the relative inaccessability of the area. His body was found within a mile of the family’s wagon which was stuck in the snow. The likely cause of Jamess Kim’s death was due to hypothermia.

James Kim’s body was found 11 days after the family was reported missing.

Via MSNBC

Selling GNU Licensed Software - It’s Just Wrong, Or Is It Right?

Posted by multippt

Personally, I fell that it is simply wrong to sell a person something that is generally available for free. Then again, the GNU license does permit a person to sell the given software licensed under it. So… is it alright to do it? Lets go through the pros and cons of selling such stuff on lets say… ebay.

The Pros

The seller would be can skim off a little profit for something free legally, and the profit gained from selling such stuff would be considerably more profitable than selling other stuff (with some exemptions though). The buyer, in turn, would get to know more about the product/software. Thus, its a win-win situation. Furthermore, what if the buyer do not have a good internet connection speed to download such software (eg, who would want to even think of downloading 1gb of stuff such as live cds?)? Thus, the purchaser of these sold software would be able to get their hands on these software (maybe by CD?), which would have otherwise taken weeks to download. Furthemore, the GNU license permits the selling of the said software, provided the source is made available.

The Cons

How would you feel if you were to buy something, then find out that it can be downloaded for free? Wouldn’t you feel as though you had been conned? Thus, it is this very idea that makes the selling of such software very wrong, even if its legal. Also, what if the means of distribution of the software after paying it is via digital distribution (that is… by download through internet)? Its the same as downloading the same software, except you would have to pay it. Its even worse if the seller just give you the link to the official site after you pay him.

Despite the cons of selling such software, it’s the buyer’s duty to check out more information on what they are buying. Hence, this concludes this scenario of selling free software on internet auctions.

Via Digg