tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77140573034635395992024-03-05T22:16:22.775+11:00Chronicles of NushyAnusha Dharmasena's blog.Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.comBlogger719125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-86070068133166340292019-01-01T01:00:00.000+11:002019-10-23T16:02:03.544+11:00Built a new PC and jumped into Ryzen ship<div align="justify">
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDQluf0dpnFnF-jo6NJV61bdgM7nKmzmUJjlqN4-Hdn0HBn-VlqPlAtV7XPuY-7rsi57YwXE_hW8WMWgfBPSmyn4ggq9Sc47QBZSFdnugzcIIWfmWjl4hi0fD4p4xrFLyOxBzaWU18YInD/s640/241010.d02b05cf52ca114de809e0a1c538eb22.1600.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>It's been a very long time since I've posted something, so here goes.</p>
<p>
In December 2018, I built a new PC because I just wanted to. The old one wasn't terribly slow or anything. Just wanted to have some fun. <br /><br />This time I went with an AMD CPU. Last time I had an AMD chip was in 2006. <br /><br />Not all parts were brand new though. The video card and the display were bought from Overclockers Australia trade forums second hand.
</p>
<div style="border: 1px solid rgb(236,235,236); padding: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 16px;">Specs</h3>
<strong>New parts</strong>
<ul>
<li> CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz </li>
<li> CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S</li>
<li> Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC</li>
<li> Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CMK16GX4M2Z3200C16</li>
<li> Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB SSD</li>
<li> Case: Fractal Design Meshify C</li>
<li> Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 850 W</li>
</ul>
<strong>Second-hand parts</strong>
<ul>
<li>Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G</li>
<li>Monitor: Asus PG279Q ROG Swift 27.0" 2560x1440 165 Hz (I've added a second monitor since then)</li>
<li>Case Fans: Fractal Design X2 GP-12 (x2)</li>
</ul>
<strong>Old parts</strong>
<ul>
<li>Keyboard: Corsair K70 LUX</li>
<li>Mouse: Logitech G602 Wireless (I've upgraded it since then along with the mousepad)</li>
<li>Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-AD500X</li>
<li>Storage: Western Digital Green 4TB x2</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
I have never won the silicon lottery and it's same this time too. The CPU barely goes past 4GHz without ludicrous volts. The GPU core also doesn't overclock that much. So are the memory. Not the happiest camper, but love the change.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-71653325268695313412018-08-25T21:49:00.002+10:002018-08-25T21:49:44.851+10:00Hit the kerb<div align="justify">
<p>
Today was a very sunny day indicating to us that the winter is coming to an end. We were planning to go out to a place nearby, but my son wanted to go to the beach. We picked St. Kilda beach.
</p>
<p>
It was not too bad, but I wished it was a bit warmer. The water was cold and hardly anyone was in the water.
</p>
<p>
The route Waze picked for me back home was not familiar to me at all. It routed me through many small streets. Turning to one of those streets, I hit the kerb and hit it hard. I didn't realise how narrow the street was!
</p>
<p>
Thankfully, the wheels are steel and it didn't damage the wheel. If it was an alloy wheel, I bet I would have to change the wheel. That would have been painful because it was already dark.
</p>
<p>
But the impact damaged the wheel hub.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOS0t3JUqH0E884oBVcyU-9dleR7PXTCF6lKu0FKoQxTMWSnH4VpQCHQAQuh6b7pjnBr4LOYvPv20mFFa1r5svZrabKsmK-sWQMZzLskMXvZRMP2JcRBxNYBfg7Hmzj7JnyC_ENRogvrxP/s320/IMG_20180825_214444.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
Although it is an eyesore for me, I won't be replacing the wheel hub right now because brand new OEM hubs cost about $45 on Ebay. Super Cheap Auto is selling 4 piece hab caps for cheaper, so I might pay them a visit. Perhaps they have hub caps that show less of the ugly steel especially with that slight rust. That would be a win after all.
</p>
</div> Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-22315360840921190692018-08-25T21:27:00.000+10:002018-08-25T21:27:39.319+10:00Decided to finally do something about the MacBook Air's battery<div align="justify">
<p>
Since buying the Metabox N850HJ laptop, I had been using it as my primary computer. Yes, I didn't use the desktop PC as much as the Metabox laptop.
</p><p>
My wife has been using the aging MacBook Air. She hasn't been treating it well though. Its battery was in a very bad shape, and she doesn't keep it charged. So every time she wants to work on it, we have to first let it charge for a few minutes, otherwise, it would be very sluggish. I started observing this behaviour after upgrading to macOS Sierra. After upgrading to High Sierra, it is still behaving the same way.
</p><p>
This is the current state of the battery. It only holds 30% of the original capacity. It's funny how it says it's only done 713 charge cycles. I thought the battery was good for 1000 charge cycles before degrading seriously.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUQIBOLRsdDW6w96FGO05n0ezazcytpSStdvc1L1bn43PGJzkLTF296HzE9mCy4b6kMZWA_15a19dgwR6LR3WBKjACdIX3ulrwpiqqGYxzZPLDCMxxYeSdePlsf6ZakWMykLXOR_9Vikdi/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-08-25+at+8.46.09+pm.png" data-original-width="256" data-original-height="482" />
<p>
This could well be the last MacBook I would own because I cannot justify spending Apple prices. So I decided to buy a replacement battery for it. Apple would charge $189 for their "battery service" which I think includes a new battery but I wouldn't be surprised it didn't. I didn't want to pay that much especially for a 7-year-old laptop, so I went on eBay and ordered a <a href="https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/302418044028">cheap compatible battery</a>. I don't expect it to be as good as a genuine OEM battery, but if it gives me several hours of battery power without blowing up, I would be happy.
</p><p>
The battery should arrive next week and this will the first time I open up a MacBook Air. Hope I don't kill it.
</p></div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-47176653095914605402018-06-04T21:51:00.000+10:002018-06-04T21:51:06.880+10:00Bought a "new" CPU for the NAS<div align="justify">
<p>
When we moved to our new house, we had to buy some new stuff and among them was a new TV. Since I don't like to spend big bucks on brand names, I ended up choosing a TCL which was full of new features. The model number is <a href="https://www.tclelectronics.com.au/products/series-x-55-inch-x2-qled-android-tv/">55X2US</a> and I'm happy with the purchase. Any TV would have been an upgrade since we used my 27" QNIX monitor for watching movies before.
</p><p>
I have some movies in my NAS and I set up PlexTV to make it a media server - among other things. I don't use on-the-fly transcoding PlexTV supports because the movies I have, play just fine at full source quality. It's not as if I had a choice though because the G1610T Celeron chip in my NAS is hardly a capable CPU. I've been experiencing slowdowns, especially when opening a movie (which I almost always have to do twice, because it errors the first time) and using the time-slider.
</p><p>
So, I had been waiting to upgrade the CPU in the NAS to a 45W quad-core Xeon. There are higher wattage Xeons available for the platform, but I am concerned about the power consumption of the NAS. The best overall chip is the E3-1265L V2 which is an IvyBridge one, but they go for $250 used. The next best one is the E3-1260L which is a SandyBridge CPU, about 10% slower than the IvyBridge, and it goes for half the price. Needless to say, this was the CPU I had been eying. I waited for few months until finally, I had had enough and I pulled the trigger on a used CPU on eBay from a US seller. The total cost of it was about AUD 120 including shipping. I might have been able to find a Chinese seller for a slightly cheaper price, but the delivery takes about a month.
</p><p>
Oh, I also had to buy a tube of thermal paste. I settled for Arctic MX-2 which set me up for about AUD 10.
</p><p>
Installing the CPU wasn't that hard. I followed this video to get an idea of how to take the motherboard out. I didn't run into a single issue during the entire swap.
</p><p>
I would be lying if I wasn't 100% confident it would work. It's not because I wasn't confident in the server motherboard or my installation, but because it was a second-hand CPU. It was from a top rated seller though.
</p><p>
The server managed to detect the CPU without any trouble. Once booted, I fired up CPU-Z and Realtemp to see how the CPU was doing. I started an H265 video transcoding job. It was amazing how cool the CPU ran. After an hour, it only managed to hit 71C on the hottest core. This might not sound amazing, but the CPU is cooled by a tiny passive cooler with one case fan responsible for maintaining some kind of an airflow.
</p>
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7U50J-U4ALO3KrHOn-fHwEZiuNeypqVHIooSAbg2BlCXsWw2wjs6zn_BqXc8LE9pWDioTuDaFZB1fysjSNGH2fuHL6nXE0c2S-__qoWYuGsTtZWkWqweTtKHPtoEHiDqJ9t4jUZB9IXxK/s1600/E3-1260L+temps.PNG" width="100%" />
<p>
I haven't measured the power consumption - I should - but I think it consumes fewer watts than with the Celeron because the CPU utilization is significantly less. This means the CPU is almost idle most of the times. Even at full load, the new CPU has only a 10W higher TDP.
</p><p>
Now my PlexTV experience is better as well. Pretty happy with the purchase.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-17538085553898191762018-03-21T22:10:00.001+11:002018-03-21T22:10:43.476+11:00No birthday present this year? :P<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOKs8AgWZF1SHL9EwOgDs93-1dk7zgJgYme1IKs_SuTlnZp1gK4nvh-hLbiYRS8X8IwIxkRLtpr9Fu7Y5zwtb_66sCHfF989t11pmFUbgFj7H0jz6SAC6YL6rIa6dm4-P-4j8Q1g6rSPI8/s320/IMG_0266_%25281%2529.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
I used to buy some kind of a tech gadget for my birthday ever since I had started earning. But this time, it didn't happen. That's because I bought it a month and a half in advance.
</p>
<p>
It's a Google Pixel 2. That's my 2nd phone purchase since moving to Australia. I got it from Telstra on a $59 per month plan with 15GB free monthly data allowance. That alone is a good deal, but I got $100 gift card from JB HiFi and a Google Home Mini (which I will write about later) with it.
</p>
<p>
I was upgrading my phone from a Samsung Galaxy S7, which had become very sluggish for no apparent reason. I was paying $65 per month for it with only 7GB monthly data, so this is a good deal.
</p>
<p>
I got the White one. But I got a black case for it so the white body hardly reveals anymore. I loved the Spigen case that I had on the S7, so I had no reason to look for another brand. This new case has a sturdier kickstand than the old one.
</p>
<p>
While the Pixel 2 is a newer phone, it lacks so many features not only comparing with phones from competitors that were released around the same time but also the S7.
</p>
<h3>Improvements over S7</h3>
<ul>
<li>Super snappy UI and fast app launches</li>
<li>Tapping the fingerprint sensor takes me into the phone. With S7, you need to "press" the home button.</li>
<li>No bloat (read: no bundled Samsung apps)</li>
<li>Squeeze feature</li>
<li>Better camera</li>
<li>Full quality unlimited photo uploads to Google Photos (for 3 years at least)</li>
<li>Stereo front facing speakers, but not really louder than the S7's single speaker</li>
<li>Simpler but effective stock launcher</li>
<li>Faster OS updates</li>
<li>Double the internal storage</li>
<li>USB type C (i.e. modern and reversible)</li>
<li>Bluetooth Headset's battery level is displayed</li>
<li>Double tap screen to wake</li>
</ul>
<h3>Things missing after switching to the Pixel 2</h3>
<ul>
<li>Battery level is not displayed on always on display (but should be fixed via software)</li>
<li>No hardware buttons despite having a large chin (i.e. software buttons taking up screen space) and slightly smaller screen size (5 inch vs 5.1 inches)</li>
<li>The fingerprint sensor on the back (i.e. have to lift the phone up to get into)</li>
<li>Terrible automatic screen brightness adjustments (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/78v7en/pixel_2_xl_adaptive_brightness_sucks">reddit post</a>)</li>
<li>Large bezels</li>
<li>No inbuilt Smart Stay functionality (screen won't keep awake while reading)</li>
<li>The power button is hard to press (to double press to launch camera)</li>
<li>No headphone jack and no bundled earbuds (but I use Bluetooth Earbuds almost all the time so not really a deal breaker for me)</li>
<li>The battery is smaller, but I probably the S7 died sooner than the Pixel 2</li>
<li>Photo shooting gestures missing from photos app (should be added to the Camera app)</li>
<li>Supports USB type C which is also a disadvantage because now I had to buy new cables (I blew the $100 gift card on cables)</li>
<li>No IP68 water resistance (only has IP67)</li>
<li>No MicroSD expansion</li>
</ul>
<p>
So it doesn't feel like an upgrade across the board, but I give a larger weight to the snappiness of the phone, so it definitely is a worthy upgrade for me.
</p>
<p>
Other than those deficiencies over the S7, I have experienced few things that I have never experienced on the S7.
</p>
<ul>
<li>Bluetooth crashed twice!</li>
<li>The phone has rebooted a couple of times out of nowhere</li>
</ul>
<p>
But these things don't happen often, so I am not infuriated by it... yet.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-40088486655508646552018-01-14T23:47:00.004+11:002018-01-14T23:47:45.551+11:00One expensive purchase<div align="justify">
<p>I apologize for not writing much on the blog in the last few months. A lot of things happened and I'll talk about the biggest one of them all.</p>
<p>We bought a house.</p>
<p>This is by far the most money I've paid in my life. The one before that being the car at almost 1/50th the price of the house. :D</p>
<p>Now, the house we ended up buying was very small - 3-bed-roomer with a single garage - compared to what we originally thought we could afford. The land is a mere 220m3 in area. The Melbourne market is really competitive and house go for unreasonable prices. It is still a bit saner than Sydney market though. </p>
<p>Also, the area we bought was an area we didn't even consider initially. We bought in Mernda, which is about 35km North of Melbourne. 35km is not bad at all, but I work in South Melbourne, which means I have to travel through the city to get to work and back home. The average speed in the city is about 10km/h (i.e. it takes 30 minutes to travel 5km).</p>
<p>We had a decent amount of money saved up, but since I'm the only earner in a family of four, the amount we could borrow from a bank was very limited. We bought through negotiation because we couldn't handle the risks of going to a public auction, although we could have saved some money with the latter since it is transparent. The risk was that at the auction, your offer is unconditional. When buying through negotiation, you can do a conditional offer - subject to finances getting approved being the most common. If the bank doesn't lend you enough money, then you don't have to go ahead with the purchase. You don't have that option when buying at an auction and the broker advised against it because if the valuation doesn't come at the market price and the bank won't lend you what you need, you will have to find some mean to fill the shortfall. If you have the backing of the family (locally, that is), then there is less risk because you can find someone to lend that money easily. But not for us.</p>
<p>By the way, we didn't have to pay stamp duty for the house because we were first home buyers and they didn't have to pay stamp duty if the price of the property was below 600k and ours was well below that cutoff.</p>
<p>I don't want to say how much the house was, but it was between AUD 450,000 and 500,000. The mortgage is for 30 years at 3.69% fixed rate for the first 2 years. We put AUD 110,000 towards the house and the rest came from the mortgage. Our mortgage is not that large because we put a large amount in, and the monthly loan repayments ended up being about $150 more than what we were paying for rent at where we rented before. Not too bad, but it will rise in the future. Hopefully, I will be earning more by then which will cancel it out or put us in a slightly better position. Hopefully....</p>
<p>I'm happy that finally, we have a house. It would have been great if we could go for a double garage house because we would need to buy another car at some point and the Aurion being the beaten up one will have to settle for parking on the driveway.</p>
<p>I will write about things I learned in the house hunt in the coming days. Might come handy for someone or for me again in the future - who knows.to get to work and back home. The average speed in the city is about 10km/h (i.e. it takes 30 minutes to travel 5km).</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-72841338071101898672017-10-20T22:01:00.000+11:002017-10-20T22:02:23.126+11:00Cutting down on waiting times <div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja1cZF3oBxd7SaAgsToHue6Tqj9Qxf1KRagwsuETl5aFsTu0r-StzX5rVyHbDlF8SmJUIW-m7RHHMxXYJnZ3eSlWjNCUYinUoN9G8EHRaE9kcItA4D7qaSxSjvmxfldf-s9_vQePtOJq75/s320/F107_3595.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
I wrote in a previous post that I got a new job in the city. While I love the job and the work I am doing because it is both challenging and I get to learn a new thing almost every day, there is one real inconvenience I have to face every day. That is commuting to work.
</p>
<p>
I have gotten used to the 1hr commute on the public transport. On a perfect day, it can be 50 minutes, but it can stretch as much as hours and 20 minutes. The actual I am on the move is about 35 minutes: 5 minutes on the bus, 15 minutes on the tram and 15 minutes on the train. The additional time comes from the transfers.
</p>
<p>
The trams and the buses are the real pain because they can get delayed a lot depending on traffic. That doesn't mean trains are always on time, but they are at least on time more than the other two.
</p>
<p>
There isn't anything I can do about the buses but today I found out that I can do something about the trams. At South Yarra station, which is where I transfer from the train to the tram to go to work, there is a digital display which shows when the next three trams are going to arrive. But there is no such display at the tram stop where I get aboard the tram to return home.
</p>
<ul>
<li>On a good day, I will arrive there just time to catch the tram.</li>
<li>On a normal day, I will only have to wait for a couple of minutes before the tram arrives.</li>
<li>On a bad day, I will see the tram leaving, while I wait on the other side of the road not being able to cross to catch the tram. I have to wait about 10 minutes to catch the next tram.</li>
<li>On a very bad day, I will see two trams pass me while I wait on the other side of the road!</li>
<li>On a terrible day... I don't want to talk about it because cannot do anything about it.</li>
</ul>
<p>
If I knew when the tram actually arrives, I would know when to leave work, effectively scraping away the unwanted wait times. And guess what? There is an app for that!! That digital display at the South Yarra stop, right in my hand. So I know exactly when the trams arrive at my stop and I can plan my return a little bit better. Plus, it will also show my service disruptions as well, so that I can take another route.
</p>
<p>
This app is called <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yarratrams.tramtracker&hl=en
">tramTracker</a> from PTV.
</p>
<p>
There are of course negative reviews about it on the Play Store, but that is to be expected. I thought 3.7 rating was pretty high for an app released by a government office. And I will also praise it until it drives me insane on of these days. But I feel that having the information handy is better than having a static timetable which is wrong more often than not when there is traffic involved.
</p>
</div>
Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-3664132888116172802017-10-19T23:44:00.001+11:002017-10-26T20:37:54.810+11:00Why I like credit cards<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7Qofk1e8rNpumuUqJCDKIlKP22MUil5r9DbuHAqDdTLTixi1ZBX7y4esZYJhyphenhyphenCfZJavyPl7o4cxtza94IzAns9EBOrkGUF3Z1Ge8drDecjnEbMHiUHJaZFs8q3lFGuRzxHtm60bDrdAO/s320/Amex+Essential+C+ard.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
There are three reasons why I like credit cards. First, I don't have to pay multiple bills (at least, ideally). Seconds, I get to keep money in the bank account for longer thus earning interest. Third, I get rewards points.
</p>
<p>
When I was in Japan, I had two credit cards - EPOS and Rakuten; both VISA. The Rakuten card was the best because you could pay with Rakuten cards when shopping on Rakuten website and there were deals like 10% points on products sold there. But I had to use my brain a lot because it wasn't always beneficial to buy from Rakuten because Amazon was cheaper even after considering the points. Plus, I was anyway getting 1% points on every purchase I made using the card. I had earned over JPY15,000 in a couple of years I had it. It's a shame that I didn't get it sooner.
</p>
<p>
I earned some points from the EPOS card too, but the benefits were limited. The only useful thing we used them on was gift vouchers which we gave our friends when visiting them or use them for ourselves.
</p>
<p>
Now in Australia, I use an Amex Essentials Card. I get 1 point for every $1 I spend (normally), but the actual conversion is like $7.41 for every $1000 spent. And you can use these points to pay for the credit card bill itself, which is great. There are other offers like $xx off if you spend $xxx or more at a certain store. The most recent such spending was at a BP fuel station where they offered $10 back when spent over $40. They also credited me $50 when I spent more than $750 in the first 3 months of getting the card. I use the card as much as possible, but <a href="http://amex.com.au/refer/colamddm4m?XLINK=MYCP" target="_blank">Amex</a> is not widely accepted as VISA or MasterCard, which is a shame. But I have added it to PayPal and sometimes some shops allow PayPal but not Amex directly. Also, there are benefits for people who fly a lot, but that's not for me.
</p>
<p>
Today I was wondering if I could pay the bills using the card, but it doesn't look economical as they all charge a credit card processing fee. Optus charges 0.385% and ClickEnergy charges 0.6%. Technically they are both less than the points I earn ($7.41 per 1000 points or at 0.741%), but I found out that Amex awards only half the points when used on utility payments. So I would be only earning money at 0.37% which is less than what both Optus and ClickEnergy charges as fees.
</p>
<p>
Yarra Valley Water, which is the water company, does not even support Amex, but they don't seem to charge a processing fee. I could be wrong though.
</p>
<p>
The other thing I found weird is that Costco in Australia does not support Amex anymore. When we were in Japan, Costco accepted only Amex (or cash)! It's the other way round here. You can pay with VISA or MasterCard at Costco.
</p>
<p>
I guess I will just keep using it on grocery.
</p>
<p>
Oh btw, I forgot to tell that all these credit cards I mentioned in the post do not have an annual fee. And also I don't care what the interest rate is because I always pay the statement balance on the due date, and you should too.
</p>
</div>
Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-40314579967846196192017-09-03T23:57:00.000+10:002017-09-10T09:11:33.066+10:00Resume gaming?<div align="justify">
<p>
After almost a year of not playing any games on my desktop PC, I decided to resume gaming. But I don't have the urge to play games as I used to. Probably it is because my PC is getting old. Well, it is only about two years old and it is working perfectly well.
</p>
<p>
Or probably because the Internet in my apartment is pathetic.
</p>
<p>
Or maybe both.
</p>
<p>
One thing I noticed, which I had noticed when I was playing games before as well, is that the PC run pretty hot in the small shoebox sized case. There is nothing much I can do about it though. I want to keep my overclocks, which is conservative because I care about the power consumption, but they are not helping the situation either way. Funnily though, the video card, which is the biggest power eater inside the case, never hits 80C. The CPU, on the other hand, loves to hit 85C while using Handbrake.
</p>
<p>
I don't think the video card is causing the CPU to run hot because the fans of the video card do not spin when I'm not gaming; which means there is no way that it dumping hot air into the case has anything to do with it. Besides, the CPU cooler is my 6 years old Antec Kuhler 620, which is mounted at the front of the case pulling cool air in from the outside of the case. So I don't think the GPU would affect the CPU temps at all.
</p>
<p>
Too bad I cannot test it. The display I am using needs a Dual-Link DVI port and my CPU's integrated GPU cannot drive it.
</p>
<p>
But I wonder if the effectiveness of the coolant inside the water cooler has noticeably deteriorated over time. I didn't even use the cooler for about 3 years and I switched to this when migrated my PC to my current case in 2015. In that span, I had 3 coolers which I used for more than a month.
</p>
<p>
Now that I have settled down in Australia, I was thinking of upsizing my PC back to ATX size, to give me more cooling and expansions capabilities. But that would be an expensive upgrade.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-59912623918341067412017-09-03T21:15:00.001+10:002017-09-03T23:47:15.018+10:00Exciting things at the new job<div align="justify">
<p>
At uni, I studied to become an Electronic Engineer. I joined a software company after that and I worked as a Software Engineer for more than 5 years in Japan. After that, I moved to Australia and got a job as an Embedded Software Engineer. Finally, I ended up as React JS Software developer!
</p>
<p>
I love what I do. It is really challenging and exciting. That is not to say that the work I did before was not challenging. It sure was, but it was not exciting.
</p>
<p>
Why I call the work I do is exciting is because I am working with a modern technology stack, which is something I always wanted to do. So little of the technologies I used to work with is currently being used in the product we are developing.
</p>
<p>
Here are some of those technologies we are currently using in our project.
</p>
<ul>
<li>React Native</li>
<li>React A-Frame / A-Frame VR / THREE.js</li>
<li>Redux</li>
<li>GraphQL</li>
<li>Feathers.js</li>
<li>Styled Components</li>
</ul>
<p>
Those are cutting edge technologies used in the front-end market. Funny thing is that I had no experience with any of the above technologies before I joined the company. I knew about Redux and that's about it. Of course, I knew about React from the previous project but we used a very limited set of technologies in that project. I should still be thankful to the CEO and lead software engineer for believing in me.
</p>
<p>
And top of that, I am working on a brand spanking new Mac Book Pro 13" with Touch Bar. The dongle life is real though. I have two 27" displays attached with USB Type-C to HDMI adapters, a Corsair K70 Lux RGB and a Steelseries mouse attached via a USB Type-C to USB-A dock. Ans we have a multitude of Samsung Galaxy S6, S7 and Google Pixel XL phones and Gear VR, Google, Google Daydream and Google Cardboard HMDs for testing.
</p>
<p>
I won't talk about the app that we are building because it is not released to the public yet. When it is released, I sure will post something about it here.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-72419151059753404842017-07-30T22:55:00.000+10:002017-07-30T22:55:28.829+10:00Installed Control Center on my Metabox laptops - count up to the first freeze begins...<div align="justify">
<p>
There was something I forgot to write in my posts regarding the random freezes on my Metabox laptop. That is, I posted about this on the Whirlpool forums. One thing that I was specifically asking for was about where I can download all the drivers from. Kris from Kong Computers (that's the store I bought the laptop from) had come across that thread and he informed me via email that he contacted Metabox about this and he gave me two links to download what I wanted. One of the links was to the full suite of drivers for my laptops. It was a 2.5GB-ish download. The other one was for the latest Control Center software (version 5.0001.1.33). Oddly though, the full suite had a slightly older version of Control Center software.
</p>
<p>
I was quite confident that the laptop was working well so far without a freeze, so I decided to give a shot at this latest version of Control Center. Of course, I created a restore point before installing it.
</p>
<p>
The setup went without a hiccup. The Flexikey app got installed along with it as well. Finally, I was able to get rid of the dreaded blue backlighting (I won't who's idea it was to use blue as the default backlighting colour!) and this time I settled with white. It's not perfectly white, especially on the bottom most row you can see blue and green tints, but it is useable.
</p>
<p>
I did not double click the Control Center software though. That probably is a bad idea.
</p>
<p>
Later on, I set up ThrottleStop using this guide. I don't need Control Center to do that for me. ThrottleStop is was more powerful.
</p>
<p>
So, the count up till the first freeze begins. Fingers crossed.
</p>
</div>
Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-5253864298344681652017-07-29T21:37:00.000+10:002017-07-29T21:37:02.417+10:00Resolved the Metabox N850HJ's random freezes? <div align="justify">
<p>
A couple of weeks ago I had some time to format the drive in my laptop and install everything from scratch, in the hopes of fixing the random freezes that I had been encountering since buying it. I played safe this time. I didn't install any drivers manually; I left Windows to take care of it. I only installed the application software because I knew they were not going the cause any system stability issues.
</p>
<p>
Luckily, Windows managed to recognise and install all the required drivers resulting in no visible exclamation marks in the Device Manager. This was including the webcam and the fingerprint scanner, two of which are notorious for not wanting to be discovered by Windows.
</p>
<p>
I think the problem is gone. I have not experienced any freezes since. I think two weeks is long enough to conclude that the laptop is finally functioning as it should.
</p>
<p>
There is one issue though. I cannot change the colour of the backlight on the keyboard. It requires a software called Flexikey, but you cannot install just that software. It comes with another software called Control Center, which I have no use for. It messed with the power saving features and I am quick happy with the ones Windows offer out of the box. Besides, I would be using ThrottleStop to under-volt the CPU and do it manually. I am almost positive that the freezes were caused by this. So this means, I will be stuck with the stupid blue keyboard backlighting.
</p>
<p>
I will probably wait a bit longer and decide if I want to install Control Center and see if the problem comes back. I haven't checked; maybe I don't have to have it running at startup. When I checked back then, I couldn't find it being launched as a Startup program; so probably it was launched via a service. If I can just get the keyboard software launching at startup and not the Control Center, I won't be too worried about having the Control Center installed. Let's see.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-39759292839520490102017-07-10T21:32:00.000+10:002017-07-29T21:21:52.757+10:00Issues with the Metabox N850HJ laptop<div align="justify">
<p>Rememeber I <a href="http://www.anushand.com/2017/04/bought-new-laptop-to-replace-ageing.html" target="_blank">bought a new laptop</a> few months back?</p>
<p>For the most part, it is running very well. The keyboard is my favourite part. I can type way faster on this keyboard than the Corsair K70 LUX mechanical keyboard I have on my desktop PC.</p>
<p>But there are two issues with it that I haven’t been able to fix so far.</p>
<h4><a id="Track_pad_is_garbage_6"></a>Track pad is garbage</h4>
<p>The track pad is rubbish. I don’t know how they managed to make this so bad. The benchmark - the MacBook Air - is leagues ahead of it. But the MacBook Air wasn’t that great in Windows. So I believe it is partially due to the software.</p>
<p>Fuunny thing is that this laptop has the Microsoft Precision trackpad. It never advertised like that. I tried with various settings in Touchpad settings pane in Windows Settings (that’s a lot of settings) application, but I still haven’t been able to settle down with something that I liked.</p>
<h4><a id="Random_soft_freezes_12"></a>Random (soft) freezes</h4>
<p>I experience freezes every now and then. I initially thought they were hard lockups, but then by chance, I found out that if you put it to standby (by closing the lid), it would go into standby. If you open the lid, it would resume fine with no sign of any lockup. I thought it was the graphics driver. But running with either the Intel driver or the NVidia driver did not make any difference. It could be something else.</p>
<p>It is really difficult to troubleshoot this because this doesn’t happen often. It could happen daily. Or it might not happen for a week. There aren’t any errors in the Event Log either. I don’t have much bloatware installed because the laptop didn’t come with Windows installed in the first place. I installed it. But I am using this tool called Obsidian Tools to download and install all the latest drivers and software for it. So it could be one of those drivers that is messing with things.</p>
<p>I think reinstalling Windows and only installing the bare minimum set of drivers would probably be the way to go. If it works fine, then I can create a back up of it and experiment with one new driver per week or something.</p>
<h4><a id="The_audio_output_is_terrible_20"></a>The audio output is terrible</h4>
<p>This is a real issue but this is not fixable. This is how it is and I have to live with it. Both the quality of the sound output and the volume are terrible.</p>
<h4><a id="Conclusion_24"></a>Conclusion</h4>
<p>I think I would be able to fix that 2nd issue (freezes) by reinstalling Windows. I should do this when I have some time.</p>
<p>The laptop is decent otherwise. It is holding up as well as I expected. It was not that cheap honestly, but I got a lot of hardware for that money. Sure, there were couple of better deals during the End of Financial Year sales in June on similar SKUS, but I have no regrets jumping on the purchase a couple of months before that.</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-4194255488540823852017-07-10T21:05:00.001+10:002017-07-10T21:05:25.920+10:00Life updates<div align="justify">
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6FjoaTNLg3JUL6L88wAcWE3ILa4_LN29Sf_wnK3P11xjl6_PSi3vVarM0b74JqMdY0aElTuU5AJpYzZyHCzMXyn9cf0aVTcHpHRrWW3Ij_S4G9Uhk8RoDRJnGAQsX5nHDem1yfCB9kDV/s1600/melbourne-city.jpg" width="100%"/>
<p>It’s been a while since I last posted on my blog.</p>
<p>One very important thing happened during that time. I got a new job.</p>
<p>It is kind of a fresh beginning for me.</p>
<p>Perhaps you had read the post I wrote about how I got my first job in Australia. That was an Embedded Software position. I used to develop Canon printer driver related applications for more than 5 years before that, and that is what got me my job.<br>
But thankfully, the work that I directly carried out at my previous workplace was not related to embedded development at all, although the project that I was in was actually an embedded project. I had to work on the front-end of the product which we were developing. And it was a web based front-end, something that I had very limited experience on. To make thinks more dramatic, the front-end was to be built using the most popular front-end library as of today: Facebook’s React.</p>
<p>It was scary at first. But I felt that this was an amazing opportunity to work with a fancy new tech stack and start my career fresh. Not to mention, React.js developers are of high demand in Australia.</p>
<p>There weren’t any senior web developers who could guide me or mentor me at work. I had to learn everything from scratch by my own. And I did that both at work and at home. I made learning about the React ecosystem my hobby. If you know me, my hobby used to be playing PC games - Crysis 3 mostly. Would you believe me if I said that I haven’t gamed for more than 10 hours in the last whole year??? (Funny thing is that even after getting the job, I haven’t resumed gaming yet. I still have a crap load of things to learn. The crazy speed at which these libraries evolve and new libraries pop up are not helping either.</p>
<p>So, now I am a React developer now - officially. The project that I am working on at my new workplace, although I have only glanced the shell of it, it amazingly complex. Here’s a spolier: it’s a virtual reality, React-Native project. How much more bad-ass can it get? We already have a working app which we continously improve. The next step is to get it on the Google Play store. And this is only one of those fancy projects.</p>
<p>Oh and I am working on a brand new MacBook Pro with dual 27" screens attached to it. I also have a Corsair K70 Lux RGB CherryMX Red keyboard and a Steelseries mouse (cannot remember the model) connected to it. The dongle life is sooooo real. Probably I should have asked for an iMac, but the portability might be helpful.</p>
<p>The only catch is, the now 1-hour commute feels like an eternity compared to the old 5-minute commute. The new place is in South Melbourne. Because of the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project, I have to take a longer route for a few days. After that, it will become a 50-minute commute.</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-64431633882218662182017-04-15T13:20:00.002+10:002017-04-16T23:25:36.357+10:00Bought a new laptop to replace the ageing MacBook Air<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZSXaEdKDGWf8FfG88_NTTWXfPBs8nRT0hdw7wHdFf5eiWupKoM2kRbwQylOh8cQhicrrsG9tQg_SUzLKlLtfcWw32kMBkwOn2prqZe7YHBQisg4PVu1b6pdYu-2P-97D5-eH-Ulo-Pws/s320/20170415_122230.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
I finally pulled the trigger on a new laptop.
</p>
<p>
I didn't go with Apple, Dell or any other mainstream brands. I went with Metabox. Yes, you read it right: Metabox. They are also known as Clevo in other parts of the world. Gigabyte also seem to have these laptops sold with a Sager branding.
</p>
<p>
The model I went with is called <a href="http://www.metabox.com.au/store/b218/Metabox-Alpha-N850HJ-Laptop">Alpha N850HJ</a>. It's cheap (for the specs) and pretty fast for what I want to use it; that is everything, but gaming. I don't plan to game on this laptops. The memory, storage and Wi-Fi options are user configurable, so I simply took the base model, upgraded the memory to 16GB and added the Intel 8265 Wi-Fi card. They had a promotion on the Hynix 512GB SATA M.2 SSD, so I went with that instead of an NVMe drive. I won't benefit from an NVMe drive; it's only for the bragging rights. I also decided not an operating system as I have a license I can use with the Windows 10 Creators Update, which just came in time for the laptop.
</p>
<p>
It ended up costing me AUD 1,487 although if you tried building it on Metabox website it would have cost AUD 1,507 + AUD 30 for shipping. I bought it from Kong Computers which saved me $50 including shipping. It took a week to get the laptop built, tested and delivered.
</p>
<p>
In terms of future expansion options, I can add another 16GB RAM card, a 2.5" SSD and replace the battery if it goes bad. Of course the existing M.2 SSD and the Wi-Fi cards are replaceable as well.
</p>
<p>
I will talk about my initial impressions about it in another post.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-51103143407317253022017-04-15T09:22:00.001+10:002017-04-15T09:22:22.359+10:00CPU temps of the Mid 2011 MacBook Air<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9FGvkVUzx6XOkuPvDPYYam_QxZ4_GWUK31s67euwPLtZckSxdUHQOSXr1tB60HYdCTBjy3F7Ryr_vjJ5QNqIbPw7Dnystb3dhjTcOBvLYmrdu2Y8ckZS6NpEdQ8WcC4FopJUyVx_EVxpq/s1600/MacBook+Air+cover.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
I know my MacBook Air can get pretty warm, but I never measured it quantitatively. I don't know what people use to measure those in OSX; but luckily I have Windows 10 installed via BootCamp (i.e. natively) and I am familiar with the tools in Windows.
</p>
<p>
I downloaded the trusty duo: CPU-Z and Realtemp. This is the Mid-2011 MacBook Air from the SandyBridge era. The CPU is a Core i5 2557M, which runs at 1.7GHz with a max boost of 2.7GHz.
</p>
<p>
I didn't want to run any stress tests straight away. But I ran Windows Update and updated the other software installed in there while monitoring the temps. It was astonishing to see the temps hover around 85-90C with a CPU utilisation of around 50% according to task manager, while hitting a max of 95C. I have no doubt it will throttle if the CPU runs at 100%, and probably burn a hole in the bottom of the aluminum unibody chassis if I attempted to run Prime95. So I didn't. This was good enough proof that the temps were terrible in such a thin chassis. I wonder if dust has something to do with it, because it is a 5.5 year old laptop. It cannot be free of dust.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFJem9GH4_TC3-WECFn0Rbk5aqr-VpuNYwvRtkPWqSD7xov2WY9xdYCnz5JPfspUDym16nn6-yfhpZql-E-fvh_CfeJ5kBp_TuER-QbAi-ly34Ovi1tHUoea9LMCJynAkqlpP0wpCobS9A/s1600/About+the+MacBook+Air%2527s+temps.JPG" width="100%"/>
<p>
I wonder if it is worth getting it serviced at the Apple store along with the battery. It won't be cheap @ <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-au/mac-notebooks/repair/service/pricing">AUD 189</a>. Honestly, I don't want to spend any money on such an old laptop.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-65176954051679078832017-03-20T11:35:00.001+11:002017-03-20T19:59:41.136+11:00New goal for 2017: 100wpm average in TypeRacer before the end of the year<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUjsxJsp987kaD6TEEHp3zDRrPSUouqqgotRkUOf5MJnFIDqN-r9ssMAAgy0j_tHO5NxqQTVCLy8tbJkZjUmo5XKFHsbW2VbcxlSG-1qUrI_goEyN4ZWkqorB1u6Ha4NfiXTOHqdeo9bbU/s1600/Capture1.JPG" width="100%" />
<p>
When I was watching YouTube reviews on mechanical keyboards before I bought my mechanical keyboards (note the s after keyboard, because I had to buy two), I came across a site one guy used to test how well he could type on the keyboards he reviewed. It was called <a href="http://play.typeracer.com/">typeracer</a>.
</p>
<p>
What you do on that site is, type - as fast as you can. You are given a paragraph to type and it shows the realtime words per minute. You have to type in the correct case, type the punctuations and type with correct spellings (correct, according to the paragraph) to finish each test. To make it fun, they have made it like a game, hence the name typeracer. While there is a practice mode which doesn't record the performance into your profile, this racing mode which you race against other people (or racers) records your performance into your profile. Of course, if you are cheap, you can close the race midway if you feel you are not going to get a good score and it will not be reflected in your profile. By default, you will be racing against some random people who are logged on like you, but you can also race against your friends by inviting them to a race. I haven't used this feature yet, but I think that is the most fun part of it.
</p>
<p>
So far I have done over 500 races and I average about 70 words per minute. There are people who can type faster than 150 wpm and you can check some videos on YouTube where they do it in real time. It is amazing how fast some people can type. Buy they have few tricks up their sleeves which I don't use. If they misspell a word, they would quickly press Ctrl + A to select all the text you typed into the text box, and type the word from the scratch. I don't do that. I use backspace to erase letter by letter and correct it. Doing the former method would save a lot of time in typeracer, but you cannot do that in real life when you are writing a document. I want to improve my real-world typing speed by improving accuracy, not by employing these typeracer specific "tricks". So I will probably continue to do it the way I do now.
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>
I am hoping that I can reach close to 100 words-per-minute (wpm) before the end of the year. At the first 50 races, I was at around 60wpm, but I have improved it to 70wpm in a couple of months. I have done over 100wpm (103wpm to be precise) once, and when that happens, they ask you to take another test to prove that you are not a bot. They don't measure the accuracy in that test; they only need it to be within reason. I managed to pass the test in the 2nd go and I got to keep my top speed. I was worried that I would lose that.
</p>
<p>
I do a lot of 80wpm races nowadays than I used to. Otherwise I would not have been to improve my overall average to 70wpm. I think it has a lot to do with practice. I am not a proper touch typist nor have I attempted to learn it correctly. I don't use the small fingers at all when typing and I don't use the notches on F and J keys as references. My typing speed is where it is at because of my years of experience using PCs. That's all.
</p>
<p>
In addition to improving your typing speed, you also get to improve your dictation, and learn some valuable things. Those paragraphs are taken from books, movies and songs. They are not made up by the typeracer crew.
</p>
<p>
I had been waiting to buy a mechanical keyboard for a long time and typeracer is one reason why I decided to actually go ahead with the purchase. I bought it for my birthday, so if it wasn't the keyboard, it would have been something else.
</p>
<p>
Achieving 100wpm is difficult that I thought, especially when I have only gone past that figure once. I guess 80wpm average by mid year would be a more realistic target. Let's see how it goes. One of the things that is acting against it is that I use three different keyboards almost every day. The Corsair K70 Lux mechanical keyboard at home, the MacBook Air keyboard at home as well as at work and the HP Probook 4530s keyboard at work. (Yes, what you think about that last part is correct. I work on a laptop!)
</p>
</div>
Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-79394928651652080062017-03-20T07:38:00.003+11:002017-03-20T07:38:45.962+11:00Serviced my car for the first time<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbHpPfO0PO4p9PnU5FTNrs2nyf8tRAFquj_d8KjRXW5z5XVkp2Yh_AmOtrEyiXwT2weXs-I6ftrWTjRlWQw_N_UkQ0Sl5PgYsGwwG2roVH1EtwQtKzDBm1ySOAAg6XBn_PpCD4NfJEuXxo/s1600/20170221_084526.jpg" width="100%"/>
<p>
According the service manual, my 2007 XV40 Aurion only requires an annual service if driven under normal conditions. I don't drive the car often - I don't have to. When my parents were here, I hardly drove to work. I walked to work because it took only 20 minutes and because my wife had all the support she needed. There was no real urgency to get back home.
</p>
<p>
Since owning the car, I had only done about 7,000km, out of which about 1500km was for driving practice (my wife and I).
</p>
<p>
After the VVT-I hose burst incident, I wanted to get the service done as soon as possible. But I didn't know where to take the car to for the service. Toyota dealerships are known for ripping off people (as that is where they make up for the little margin they make selling cars) and some others are known for misdoings (like magically finding issues that were never present in the first place, leading people to believe that they did something).
</p>
<p>
After a bit of looking around, I came across a site called fixedpricecarservice.com.au (which they have renamed since to autoguru.com.au) where you can find mechanics to get the service done. They gave me several options with mobile mechanics. Mobile mechanics would come to your place and perform the service then and there which was not only convenient, but also you could monitor their work to make sure they weren't doing anything 'naughty'.
</p>
<p>
I contacted the highest rated one, but it didn't work out. Then I contacted the 2nd highest rated one called Australian Mobile Mechanics and they arranged the service to be performed next day. I told them that I had bought some parts (engine oil, filter etc) on sale and they deducted the cost for those parts. I lose the warranty on the parts, but the 1 year warranty on labour is applicable. The service charges ended up being $134, for the 105,000km logbook service. I was at 102,500km at that time. It is not cheap, but it is not that expensive either. Car service in Australia is expensive, because labour is expensive.
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgquxUWW8mdRRKAdo9CW-AO_Rb-7M5RwZ4-bu9Riatt4gKjQ8YROID5vBsI59UXxnVNkICdU0xM38Yc-cQduHLSyGUT7qq_zlifE4GsO4JpQaZMxXGsS_BD_gol9guaZZXyN7npl_-PN_LV/s1600/Car+Service+Collage.jpg" width="100%"/>
<p>
There was a problem with the parking brake (it didn't work on an upward slope) and I got it fixed as well. Unfortunately, it was not included in the service checklist, so I had to pay extra. But the guy was reasonable with it. Getting the hand brake to engage the right rear wheel took a lot of effort. But he had quoted me a fixed price, so he had no choice.
</p>
<p>
Anyways, the service is done and I don't have to think about it for a while.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-69675302652224076932017-02-05T10:29:00.000+11:002017-03-20T07:39:35.309+11:00Fixing the Edifier Exclaim E10BT BlueTooth issues<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE7A537qRDoq9ra2z5sw54X_JYT3IocbBO_8pZ0pKA8PEWBppjA74syND4iooTarYfLUkFv7VUleiCE_xhhhk9YT5-NAdC6YDgkY-_ZbeT60pbRqPUY3EkNQk4TMIs-wAVgoxOw4qqgbm2/s1600/20170205_102456.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
About 9 months ago, <a href="http://www.anushand.com/2016/04/bought-new-speakers-for-desktop-pc.html">I bought a new set of speakers for my PC</a> called <a href="http://www.edifier.com/au/en/speakers/e10bt-exclaim-bt-connect-bluetooth-computer-speakers">Exclaim E10BT</a> from Edifier. They sound superb and they have a very small footprint. Both of those features were equally important to me when I was searching for a set of speakers.
</p>
<p>
However, it has a feature that I didn't really want or use, but it has started causing me a lot of inconvenience. That is BlueTooth connectivity. You can connect to it from your phone and play back music via BlueTooth. It sounds like a handy feature to have. But it doesn't ask for a key to input when you connect to the speakers. Anyone with a BlueTooth device can connect to it.
</p>
<p>
This would not be a problem if you were living in a big house. But I am currently living in an apartment and there are other people living near me. Someone has paired their TV or device to my speakers. Every now and then, they would connect to my speakers and I would start hearing nonsense through the speakers.
</p>
<p>
There is no way I can disable BlueTooth on these speakers. The manual doesn't have any information relevant to my issue.
</p>
<p>
However, I figured that I might be able to do something about it.
</p>
<p>
When the speakers are connected to a device via BlueTooth, another device cannot automatically override it. You have to terminate the existing connection by pressing the power button on the speakers, and then try to connect. So, if something from my end can connect to the speakers before that other pesky TV does, at least I have the control. Luckily, my desktop PC which the speakers are connected to, has support for BlueTooth. So, that device on my end can be the desktop PC.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjlrmedqSy7KbZAcZW8slMF4-nqo2YsKAwLY2DKpxdCy6FZpEKhVZHI3KPWk5La7SZXTPXp3sMR2xZN7Q86EJBOUJaZxq0BcGK3gPIifLsl_HxKDZ5P3TO17soGywMW-bw5OevwkPgzKNi/s1600/Settings_2017-02-05_09-15-12.png" width="100%" />
<p>
I connected the desktop PC to the speakers via BlueTooth and observed its behaviour.
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<ol>
<li>When the speakers are ON, but the PC is OFF:
<p>
If I turn on the PC now, it will boot into Windows and automatically connect to the speakers via BlueTooth. This is awesome.
</p>
</li>
<li>
When the speakers are OFF, but the PC is ON:
<p>
If I turn on the speakers now, it will automatically connect to the PC. Double awesome!
</p>
</li>
<li>
When both the speakers and the PC are ON and connected via BlueTooth:
<p>
I was concerned about what would happen if I switch to the wired mode (by pressing the power button once). When this happens, it gives anyone else the opportunity to connect to the speakers. If I connect back to BlueTooth, then it wouldn't be a problem. However, I couldn't find a straightforward way to do this. The speakers won't automatically go back to BlueTooth mode just because the device it was paired with it available. You have to manually connect to the speakers from the device.
</p>
<p>
Windows Settings does not have a function to manually connect to the speakers. You have to turn off BlueTooth altogether and turn it back on, then the PC will automatically connect to the speakers. My wife won't be able to do this. The easier option would be to turn off the speakers and turn them back on. Then the speakers will automatically connect to the PC.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMw5lFb6tAcLbp2MFjekJ9XYSvXmR3AVo422mogXIf1JRYaimKRyAZwvzBxjPOhHSWEFkb9ofniMvP_geZtyBxX3w0KQo7vUmiyJrlvQnLyGqh_TETm0PAqDjwGpkGi_IqeT3a3-9c6Mzh/s1600/Settings_2017-02-05_09-15-45.png" width="100%" />
</li>
</ol>
<p>
So, for the time being, this problem is gone. It might come out in a way that I didn't expect though.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-44511958311963068362017-01-31T07:42:00.000+11:002017-01-31T20:31:32.541+11:00My wife's driving<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNhR2lWAgaovkL6lIoiYCfgqrYssZkUW6iNNKMarjyjxIs8l6LZOeHSiZAOnACDgOMVn2TkECb-Nu31Y5LFjju5ge6cwmiHwv6mrOp3LhRSYRh3EpM0WFTiqE49QZ77isMm7NFwv3wu_ER/s1600/20170126_105935.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
<a href="http://www.anushand.com/2017/01/car-less-for-three-days-after-engine.html">Not having the car for a couple of days</a> didn't affect our day to day life much. We had bought all the groceries for the whole week during the last weekend and it's only a 20 minute walk to work. However, we were worried about one particular thing. My wife's drive test was scheduled for Friday morning!!!
</p>
<p>
I towed the car to Chadstone Toyota on Monday. Thursday was Australia day, which was a public holiday. So, if I didn't get the car by Wednesday, my wife wouldn't be able to practice driving on Thursday and we probably wouldn't be able to go for the test on Friday. (Friday was a holiday at work, although it went out of our annual leave.) My wife has never taken the bus or the train by herself, which is the reason why this was a problem in the first place. I have to take her to the test. The VicRoads test centre we picked was about 40km away from home, as the routes there were less complex. Besides, the instructor was more familiar with the test routes there.Luckily, we got the car back on Wednesday and my wife was able to practice driving on Thursday.
</p>
<p>
On Friday, we could go for the test as we planned, and by some miracle, she passed it!!! This particular Friday was a good day for the drive test because there were less cars on the road, because many people were taking the Friday off to make it a four-day long weekend. The schools were still in holidays until 1st of February.
</p>
<p>
I would like to talk a bit about the events that led to this day.
</p>
<p>
My wife had to start the journey to obtain the Victorian driving license from taking the road rules test at VicRoads which happened in September. After passing that test in the first attempt, she applied for a learner permit which allowed her to practice driving with a full license holder on the passenger seat. If you are on a permanent resident visa, you can drive up to 6 months in Victoria with your overseas license. The 6 months is calculated from the first point of entry, which happened in October 2015 for us. By the time my wife moved here in April 2016, her 6 months were already up, so she had to get the learner permit anyways. (I had a couple of months before mine expired as I arrived in February, so I could practise driving myself.) After getting the learner permit, she took the Hazard Perception Test and passed it in the first attempt as well. This brought her closer to obtaining the Victorian license. Only thing remained was passing the drive test. (It's much easier to get the full license for people who have a overseas full license, otherwise it is a lengthy process.) Since she had not driven a car in almost 5 years, we decided to take some driving lessons first. The driving school we decided to attend was a Sri Lankan one called <a href="http://www.learningpedals.com.au/">Learning Pedals</a>. The instructor assigned to my wife was a female, and at the beginning she came to pick my wife up. After a couple of lessons, we had to decide where we would take the test, and we had to practice on the test routes to familiarise about the tricky spots. We could take the test at Heatherton or Burwood, but the routes were known to be a bit complex. We were hoping to take the test before my parents returned to Sri Lanka on the boxing day. So the instructor recommended that we go to <a href="https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Pakenham+Licence+Testing+Centre/@-38.0750645,145.4800991,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x9c9be3634e9bd0c4?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZvbKc3erRAhWFKJQKHYnrBAIQ_BIIeTAK">Pakenham</a> for the test because the routes were simple and it was easy to pass in one go. Since Pakenham was about 40km from our place, I had to drive her there for the lessons on Sundays. We had to take our baby girl with us as well, because she would need a feed. We left our son with my parents.
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>
We must have visited Pakenham at least 10 times before the test. Sadly, my wife's first attempt didn't go well. She was too tensed on that day and made too many mistakes which forced the examiner to declare her unsuccessful. None of the mistakes weren't severe ones that would have failed her on the spot. She didn't even go to the second stage where you would have to drive on roads with a speed limit more than 60km/h. We took that test after my summer vacation had started, so I didn't have to take leave specifically for that. That was the only positive about it.
</p>
<p>
We wanted to book a test again ASAP, but there weren't any vacant slots for many days. Finally we found a slot on a great day, and relievingly, she could pass the that time. Phew! She got the 3 year license for the same reasons as I did.
</p>
<p>
Unless you live in the city where the public transport is decent, you have to know how to drive a car if you are living in Australia. When you go further away from the city, the public transport services start to diminish. The country is very big and there usually aren't any shops within a walking distance. Most households have two cars: one for each adult. While we don't have any immediate plans to buy another car, I think it is inevitable. There is not urgent need for her to drive at the moment, especially we live in a well developed area and I work very close to home, but we cannot afford a house around here. So we have to move further if we want to buy or build a house and that is when she would have to drive as habit. But one wouldn't magically begin to drive confidently overnight. It takes time, but I hope my wife will get there in time.
</p>
<p>
My wife's plan is to drive my elder kid to kindergarten and playgroup. Both of them are only a few minute walking distance from our current apartment. But we might have to move to another place soon; the 1 year contract for this apartment will be ending in a month and a half. Then she might have to drive him there. She still hasn't driven without me on the passenger seat. The first time she drives the car alone will be a real test for her.
</p>
<p>
My other concern is that she is too tensed when driving the car. She hardly wants to talk or turn the radio on. It could just be the exam stress back then. She had to pass the test this time because I cannot take too much time off from work to take her for lessons/practice/test. I'm sure it was bothering her mind. Or probably she is too watchful because I cannot do anything if something goes wrong; there is no handbrake in our car - it has a foot operated park brake which only she can access.
</p>
<p>
I hope she doesn't take too long to confidently drive the car without my on the passenger seat. Otherwise, her getting the license wouldn't have made my life any easier.
</p>
</div>
Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-12666619921185024172017-01-26T09:37:00.002+11:002017-01-26T09:37:45.891+11:00Gave another shot at a mechanical keyboard<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2aZPx9OTAUwfEiHwCbDp78-cmcHsgWTk8lYQKsKt62rb6ez5s6w_1ZmDtbkcpD4RVMNlG0b3stsluAQ-f-B1gYEJegU1VpalNthVBUcqgOTj69UW2t4kWrXYgF-ovGu5GfsaYoEgRzQl/s1600/20170125_183100.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
After that <a href="http://www.anushand.com/2017/01/the-update-on-turtle-beach-impact-700.html">bad experience with my first mechanical keyboard purchase</a>, I decided to buy another one from a local store. Luckily for me, there are many computer shops within a 5km radius. PC Case Gear, Scorptec, PLE, CentreCom, MSY and CPL to name a few. Furthermore, I wanted to buy a keyboard from a reputed brand name this time round. (I'm not saying Turtle Beach is not a reputed brand, just that it is not widely known.)
</p>
<p>
I kept a keen eye for deals for a couple of days on ozbargain, but none showed up. So I decided to visit the online store of those computer shops and searched for a decently priced keyboard.
</p>
<p>
The Logitech G610 and the Corsair STRAFE (non-RGB) were around $130. They were good products but I wanted to get the best bang for the buck. That's when I came across the Corsair K70 Lux (non-RGB) for $135 on CentreCom. This is better than both of those keyboards for just $5 more. Better than the G610 because it has dedicated media keys and better than the STRAFE because it has an aluminum construction compared to plastic. There were cheaper mechanical keyboard from reputed brands such as Ducky but they had some kind of a compromise - some had no backlighting, some had switches other than Cherry MX, some weren't in stock with no ETA and some didn't come with Cherry MX Brown switches. I was all set on the MX Browns, because I actually type more than I play games so I needed tactile feedback, at the same time I didn't want to noise MX Blue switches. Browns were the middle grounds, and middle grounds are better in life.
</p>
<p>
The only concern I had about the Corsair keyboards was their software suite and the keyboard requiring two USB ports.
</p>
<p>
But after some research, I came to know that you could do just fine without the software (you mainly lose the macro functionality and fancy lighting patterns) and you don't need to plug in both USB cables if you plug it into a USB 3.0 port. Honestly, I do have many unused USB ports on the back of my PC, so that 2nd point was not really a big issue; just something that I didn't like.
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>
$135 is still not cheap by any means, for a keyboard which I used to pay for about Rs. 400 back in the day. It's also about $30 more than the Impact 700 which was a DOA. I figured I would never come across a deal as the Impact 700 locally, so I decided to place the order for the K70 Lux. I wanted to pay through PayPal, which added a 1% processing fee and I wanted to pick it up locally (although I was ordering online) to save on the delivery charges. The whole trip wouldn't cost me a dollar, whereas if I had to pay for delivery, it would have cost me more than $10. My only gripe is that they said it would take at least 2 business days before the keyboard could be collected. I placed the order on 19th of January, which was a Thursday.
</p>
<p>
On Monday evening, I received the email saying the keyboard is ready for pickup. But I didn't have my car due to <a href="http://www.anushand.com/2017/01/car-less-for-three-days-after-engine.html">the breakdown</a>, so I had to wait will Wednesday to pick it up. That was the errand that I had to take of which I mentioned in that blog post.
</p>
<p>
Just like the last time, my kid was the most excited about the unboxing of the keyboard. I plugged just one of the USB connectors to a USB 3.0 port and the keyboard became alive. I had also decided not to install the Corsair software, and it worked just fine without it. I care less for macros (since I don't play RTS or Moba) and I don't really need fancy LED lighting effects. I like to keep things low profile.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJGK1MmsddQBXjhzCXhWaxJkR2b1nGVdr9jkN38mlYLI3ws8oHtyV48LfU5GA2Pn3JCiUoTA8ijVAnTFFBpb8kNWEBK7OwgZl6tD28F-hrzFgFhj11_86EwvgwMnSu7i6XbPMaWfHyoyG3/s1600/20170125_181259.jpg" />
<p>
The keyboard is really heavy because it an all aluminum keyboard. Because of that and the nice rubber feet, it does not move on the desk at all. You need a significant amount of force to slide on the desk. I installed the included palm rest as well, which looks pretty nice and gives good support to my palms.
</p>
<p>
With the Impact 700, I didn't really get a chance to experience how mechanical switched performed. I am typing this whole post on this keyboard and I also typed the one about the car using the K70. I feel my typing speed is negatively affected at the moment, but I heard that it takes a bit of getting used to. I don't want to test on the typeracer just yet. Let's see how I would do in a week. I will keep writing blog posts and do a status update then. One thing though; the keyboard is noticeably noisier than typing on my ancient Logitech Easy Touch PS/2 keyboard.
</p>
<p>
For the time being though, I am happy that I had the guts to make the switch to mechanical and that this keyboard is working as Corsair expected. My birthday is coming up, so I guess this is my birthday present?
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-72300143977744684252017-01-26T08:57:00.001+11:002017-01-26T08:57:26.699+11:00Car-less for three days after an engine oil leak<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf-xR7LunJoDlyTBZRHc6y_XXTl_9w8nHOV1QHRFc_vFvdCkctRUL-m-TmcXm_a1nL7zuuG86TE_tk6UduU9DRjd4MAG8mdr4AlPs88pO3NIYq-bogQ-J7Z6RFSvaFVv9GpJP4kppH2JV4/s1600/20170122_142424.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
Last Sunday, we went for a driving lesson for my wife (her drive test is coming up shortly) and on the way we visited Costco to fill up the fuel tank and have pizza for lunch. The petrol (ULP 91) prices have hit 140c per litre everywhere, because of the high demand in the summer, yet as a Costco member, I could buy them at 118c, which was about 15% cheaper. We filled up the tank and came home.
</p>
<p>
After I reversed the car in the car port at my apartment, I noticed a trail of liquid on the driveway leading to the carport. After a while, I noticed there was a bit of an oil spill under the car. It was a little spill, and I had to rush to a birthday party in the evening, so I went there and came back. I could notice more oil where I parked the car as well. Worried, I smoothly drove home (I drive smoothly anyways) which was only a 5 minutes away. I was watching for the low oil pressure warning whole through the trip back home, but it never came on. I never could feel or heard anything out of the ordinary from the engine either.
</p>
<p>
Once I parked the car, there was a new oil trail close (parallel) to the old one. So it was still leaking. I called my father and asked what I can do and he told me to check the oil level immediately even though I had driven the car few minutes earlier and even though it was not a perfectly flat surface. The carport floor ramps slightly forward. I saw NOTHING on the dipstick. NOTHING! I initially thought all of the engine oil had leaked out. The oil spill under the engine was much bigger now as well.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzG2kpN-yOmxC8QbSvbQqOaisvJX6HH_UT3HqSsG12wB86MjccIIYRPu2B1F0b5fMLe6tG01bJ-59WzZBgnuR-kXeN7yfXBniGmG3CNPlHbyfb0XI4Tq2D7Vo-fwFsemavbLx9QRKE8ph/s1600/20170123_090701.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
So, I couldn't move the car. I talked to a mobile mechanic and he told me that there is a known issue with the Toyota Aurions prior to 2008 where the oil cooling hose which has a rubber midsection can get damaged over time and leak oil, and Toyota should replace it free of charge.
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>
I checked when Chadstone Toyota would be open and gave them a call at 7:30 in the morning, and made an appointment to bring the car for a checkup. I had a subscription to Budget Direct Roadside Assistance and I rang them up and asked them to tow the car down the Toyota. They took more than an hour to get to my place though. When they arrived, they quickly loaded the car up (they have to start the engine) and I went with them to Toyota. I left the car with them, and called few times to hear about it.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhCK5YlXfQF_H8PvfgHVYyBWDwBHO67lLOS5I2Ntbweaf4Pi5hdaXuz1fYfiQlWeTxdk7EEiMy-kxaxF6yjsnWZVdX4a-FR90reksKu0n9pyK38aEtRwdK_RWVVXZPCl7bk-l3fH1V1WPR/s1600/20170123_090850.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
They initially told me that they were busy with the service appointments and could only check the car ones they were done for the day. Towards the end of the day, I received a call telling me that the rear VVT-I line had a damage and the oil was leaking from it. Sadly, we had to pay to fix it and it wasn't cheap. $520. Much of it is the labour cost, which is crazy high for dealerships as I heard. I did research on the matter, and several people have had the exact same thing happened to them, and they told me I would have to pay about $500-600 to get it fixed. They were spot on with the cost.
</p>
<p>
If it was the oil cooling hose, then as far as I know, they would have replaced it free of charge. I told them to replace the oil cooler hose with the all metal one as well, because one guy was saying he had his VVT-I line and oil cooling hose burst within a gap of a month!!! I didn't want to go through this again. Sadly for me though, they would replace it free of charge only if it broke. They seem to have a 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it' policy in place.
</p>
<p>
So, the full cost of the repair/replacement/modification was $680. Yikes! That's almost the price of a GTX 1080.
</p>
<p>
On Tuesday morning when I checked with them, they said they were waiting for the parts from wherever they bring them in. They had the all metal oil cooler hose in stock but not the VVT-I hose. On Tuesday evening, when I checked back with them, they said the repairs were done, and they had to do a road test the following day and I should be able to take the car back on Wednesday. At 12 noon on Wednesday, I received a text message saying the car was ready for pickup. I took an extended lunch break from work and went there by bus. I paid from the debit card (I don't have a credit card in Australia yet) and collected the car. They told me that they had to top up 4 litres of engine oil, so at least it was NOT empty when I checked the other day. It probably didn't show anything because of the slope.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXt3e99VI53fIIiXAzIQfF1jHryxuJ4T3-znOb9uwUc0bQ2RsWas5m_HIPRwqifqmAfyAihPH1uAWtQytQAms9Jcb97VBsXz84sWXvkaKKjtrn4IwcqLBB0Gda01t69ApjnNQjYtSfCYR/s1600/20170126_075902.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
I drove for a bit and parked the car and let it settle. Then pulled out the dipstick and checked the oil levels. It was showing oil levels exceeding the high mark. I also checked if oil was leaking but it didn't appear to be so. I had an errand to do and quickly came back to work.
</p>
<p>
When I came back to the car after work, I checked if there was an oil spill under the car and to my relief, there wasn't any. I know if something goes wrong with the repairs Toyota did, they have to fix it because of the 12 month warranty. But the thing is, tomorrow is Australia Day which is a holiday and Friday we have an important thing to do which needs the car. Friday is also a holiday at work because everybody wanted the 4-day long weekend.
</p>
<p>
I understand these things happen, but now I will be wary for a while. Then you will forget it until a similar incident happens. I probably should have bought the car with an extended warranty, and I will probably do that the next time. I'm just glad we weren't stranded in nowhere with a broken car!
</p>
</div>
Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-10487344649861238332017-01-20T00:41:00.001+11:002017-01-20T00:41:26.553+11:00The update on the Turtle Beach Impact 700 keyboard purchase<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRAV8dTXzsW6ouZ_2spRj9azCQGQQavGX6RBcMWAyh-9Be_9nVG4zo5Z1hSPNeWZwb5SWCFunRwD0ogjpYNIYXJugwjt4SM-_LjO-HE6avyN4q__kLtWk9GaI10yFK6E3gTvhy-YZjjvZH/s320/20170110_185936.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
In the previous post I mentioned that I placed the order for my first mechanical keyboard. It arrived a day earlier than the seller predicted. The postman was kind enough to deliver it to me just before I left for work. But I had to rush to work, so I decided to play with it when I returned home from work.
</p>
<p>
I unboxed the keyboard with my son sitting along side. It was way more fun for him than myself. I am not that amused by unmoving packages; I just want to to get it working asap. But I took some photos just to post here.
</p>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5LoB8wqyqFk-GgGOGm8FCe3MKOEjtjQfifKMxU8my6a7cjKVvTPNiupYJcyFRYP8fB-Ml9YY4CMsNczDNGWTgxUDmQoDdf3UiYbQr5vw5dXVPD7yJ3ThE79Qx3C4qwHMbCY-Aga2JHpQ/s320/Untitled.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
The keyboard has two USB ports. I think you can do with just one, because the second one is just for USB passthrough. But I connected both because I have ample USB ports on my PC.
</p>
<p>
To test the keyboard, I opened up notepad and started typing some words. I noticed that the spaces weren't registering between them. I hit the space bar several times and I wasn't dreaming: the spaces really weren't registering. I disconnected the keyboard and reconnected it to see if it was just a random Windows error. But the space bar still wasn't working. I connected the keyboard to two different ports on the back as well as the front. Same story. Then I tried it on the MacBook Air, and no change. The space bar was not working!!!
</p>
<p>
Yikes!
</p>
<p>
The keyboard doesn't have a companion software. That was one reason why I was happy to buy this keyboard in the first place. An additional software layer means more input lag. So this wasn't caused by me forgetting to install a companion software.
</p>
<p>
I went through the manual to see if I was doing something wrong. Honestly, what more should one do to get a keyboard working with a PC? Anyways, the manual did not mention anything special we had to do, nor any troubleshooting guides, so it wasn't a setup issue.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Conclusion: the keyboard was a <abbr title="Dead on Arrival">DOA</abbr>!!!</strong>
</p>
<p>
I have not had a DOA in a long time. The last one was a MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G which had one of its fans not working, but it wasn't totally DOA.
</p>
<p>
I wanted to see if the space bar was the only key that was not working. It was not. Several keys were not registering the key strokes. Namely, the Delete, down cursor, Num Lock, Num7, Num4 and Num1 weren't working. If I had to guess, all these keys were connected through the same electrical wiring to the controller.
</p>
<p>
I uploaded a video to YouTube showing the fault.
</p>
<div align="center">
<iframe width="600" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oqcRVb4u6ZU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<p>
I went online to see if there were similar claims, but it seems I was the only (un)lucky one.
</p>
<p>
It was time to RMA the keyboard. I first messaged the store through eBay. I was told that they would most probably have to refund due to stock being exhausted. I asked how to proceed with it, but I did not received a reply back. It was late night anyways. I was lucky to have received the initial response in the first place.
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>
Next morning, I called the store and explained the situation. I was told that since I bought the keyboard through eBay, the refunding has to happen through eBay. I had to wait for the reply to my questions on eBay.
</p>
<p>
The same day I wrote a reply to the <a href="https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/286057">thread on ozbargain</a> which originally mentioned about the deal about my situation. Luckily a store rep was monitoring the thread there and responded to me. I showed them the video I uploaded to YouTube and he said since that footage was good enough proof that the keyboard was defective, he provided me instructions on how to return the keyboard. I told him what the person at the store told me about the RMA needing to go through eBay, but he told me that the refunding will be through eBay, but it was OK for me to return the keyboard by post now. I asked if I had to pay the return postage and he said they will absorb the loss and gave me a return postage paid link to Australia Post to arrange it. For them, they can claim "the loss" on tax anyways. Not for us.
</p>
<p>
The next day, I packed the keyboard and posted it back to the shop. I messaged them that I posted it and they replied back to me saying that they will confirm it when they receive the package. I got a tracking number and I added it to the Australia Post's Android app and I kept monitoring the status of the package. Next Monday the package was delivered to the store but I didn't hear from them, so I messaged them on Tuesday morning asking about the status of the RMA. I was messaged back saying that they have contacted the distributor along with my footage of the problem and the refunding shouldn't take too long because of that proof.
</p>
<p>
They were true to their word and I got a refund through PayPal in a couple of hours. I transferred the PayPal money to my bank account and the money was credited to my account the next day.
</p>
<p>
So... the mechanical keyboard dream was shattered.
</p>
<p>
I am still looking for a keyboard to buy, but I cannot find anything reputable around that price tag. All of them are close to $150, which is a lot of money for a keyboard. If I am spending this much money, I would as well buy a top-of-the-line keyboard which does not need to be replaced for a decade! (if one exists, that is)
</p>
<p>
I guess I will have to do with the decades old Logitech PS/2 keyboard and the MacBook Air keyboard with the Japanese layout for few more months. I reckon I won't be improving my typeracer scores anytime soon then. Sadness....
</p>
</div>
Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-57700682515241741322017-01-05T23:21:00.000+11:002017-01-05T23:21:32.216+11:00Finally...placed an order for a mechanical keyboard<div align="justify">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocrP-ni8IPLjsX6hR4AhjNlGMxdwp3Dfirn8OEvlEg_FFOYEE8pl5q9wFj59myclx7I1UanN5xDO2yJXWsCYlPam1F8BQ7csRsuCWfszFLSawZGdk6pJFkfj-u1iQUt2KJQQ4-u8k0C92/s1600/Browns.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
I had not bought anything "fun" for myself in almost a year and I finally had to do something about it. Today I received a $20 off coupon code from eBay and I thought this was my chance. I looked around for deals on <a href="https://www.ozbargain.com.au/">Ozbargain</a> because a great number of deals pop-up when there are discounts on offer from major retailers.
</p>
<p>
There were few for SSD and hard drive deals, but I was not in the market for either. Well, I am in the market for the 4TB hard drive, but I still haven't had time to go over the idea of strengthening my backup policy I discussed <a href="http://www.anushand.com/2016/11/the-backup-plan-end-of-2016.html">here</a>. There were two deals for mechanical keyboards: one from JB Hi-Fi and one from eBay. The JB Hi-Fi offers weren't really cheap because you could find the products they have on sale for cheaper if you knew where to look. But the one on eBay (well, it wasn't directly from eBay but you could buy it from their eBay store as well) looked solid. A backlit mechanical gaming keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches for AUD 100. While it still sounded expensive, it was not as expensive as the AUD 150+ normal price for mechanical keyboards from well-known brands like Corsair and Razer. Hence I decided to take a look at reviews if this was my chance to own a mechanical keyboard for the first time in my life.
</p>
<p>
The keyboard on offer was a <a href="https://shop.turtlebeach.com/us/impact-700-premium-backlit-mechanical-gaming-keyboard">Turtle Beach Impact 700</a>, which was unheard of. (Note: If you visit that link, you would know that there is a huge discount on offer on Turtle Beach's US store as well) If you are into gaming, you would know about the brand "Turtle Beach" mostly from their headset lineup. But I didn't know that they made keyboards until today.
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>
The Impact 700 didn't seem to be a very popular keyboard (only 41 reviews on Amazon, with an average of 4 stars) and had only a handful of reviews. They all spoke about the same pros and cons. What I was worried about was the cons specifically, and there seemed to be only three: The price, lack of RGB backlit and existence of NO software to program macros. This particular deal dealt with the price (the RRP is AUD 249, and we could get it for AUD 100!!!), it still supported red colour backlighting for the keys which was good enough for me and the lack of software meant that there would less of an input lag in games, so all the better. Everyone had agreed that the keyboard was very high quality and offered an amazing typing experience, which were what I was after. I was looking for Brown switches because they were suitable for both typing and gaming, while being less noisy, so this keyboard incorporating Cherry MX Brown switches also fitted my requirements perfectly.
</p>
<p>
I could order the keyboard directly from <a href="https://www.gamesmen.com.au">The GamesMen</a> at AUD 99.95 but then I would have to pay AUD 12.21 for shipping, bringing the total tally up to AUD 112.16. They were offering free delivery on eBay but that had a AUD 24 premium, probably to cover the eBay charges. The AUD 20 off coupon code on eBay brought it down to AUD 103.95 which was the cheaper option in the end. Plus, I could pay with PayPal with buyer protection, so I went with that route.
</p>
<p>
The ETA is Wednesday next week, which is bit of a long wait for in-shore shipping. But hey, I think I got a good deal on a quality product. I'm hoping it won't disappoint. I wonder if it will improve my "words per minute" <a href="http://data.typeracer.com/pit/profile?user=nushydude&ref=badge">score on TypeRacer</a>.
</p>
</div>Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7714057303463539599.post-77479568368680375992016-12-25T00:14:00.001+11:002016-12-25T00:16:07.390+11:00How I mount my Galaxy S7 phone in the car<div align="justify">
<p>
I had been complaining about the GPS issues with my phone in the past (read about it <a href="http://www.anushand.com/2016/04/downgraded-from-android-marshmallow-to.html">here</a>). That's because I use them for navigating when I am driving the car. The GPS issues were resolved after buying the Galaxy S7 and disabling the My Optus app (read about it <a href="http://www.anushand.com/2016/08/galaxy-s7-on-optus-network-stuck-in.html">here</a>). But I never talked about how I was mounting my phone in the car.
</p>
<p>
Initially, I ordered a <a href="https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/handsfree-bluetooth-smart-phone-holder/">Handsfree Bluetooth Smart Phone Holder</a> from Kogan as per my cousin's recommendation. However, the ETA for it was a bit too long, so I cancelled the order.
</p>
<p>
I then went to the JB Hi-Fi and bought the <a href="https://www.jbhifi.com.au/phones/Phone-Accessories/cygnett/cygnett-dashview-universal-car-mount/96685/">Cygnett Dashview Universal Car Mount</a> which was much cheaper and I could buy it on the spot. It wasn't a great product and the price probably reflects that. The arms of it which held the phone in place scratched the body of my phone's case because they were so tight. The tightening dial (I don't know what it is called, you just have to tighten it for the mount to stay fixed on the windshield) would loosen every now and then, although the mount never came off all by itself. But it at least got the job done.
</p>
<p>
But few weeks ago, I ran into a new problem.
</p>
<p>
I was in Beaconsfield and heading towards Melbourne City on the Monash Freeway M1. The phone lost GPS and never recovered. The phone felt hot and very sluggish, so I cleared all apps and when it didn't do anything, I rebooted the phone. Still it did not recover, so I just switched to my wife's phone for the rest of the trip. A few days before the first incident, I installed Optus Sports app to watch cricket on the phone. (I could use it freely with my plan) I thought that app messed up my GPS, just like the My Optus app did a few months ago. The phone had gotten a bit slow as well over the months, so I decided to do a complete factory reset and start from the scratch. I didn't get any issues with GPS afterwards, and I thought that it was just a software issue and that it was resolved.
</p>
<p>
And it occurred again on another day, around the exact area!!!
</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>
I was familiar with my route as I had done a few trips to that area, and I just took the phone off the mount. It was, again, really hot (very hot to even touch the case) and sluggish (really, really sluggish - few 5 seconds to respond to home button kind of sluggish).
</p>
<p>
I asked about this on the Whirlpool Forums, and one guy asked me where I mounted my phone in the car. When I told him that it was on the windshield, he told me that it was a bad idea to mount the phone on the windshield in the summer. (This is the summer in Australia) While it was a coincidence that the phone would lose GPS in the exact same area, the reason why it happened was because the phone overheated, and with some Googling I found out that the S7 becomes very sluggish when it overheats. Some people have claimed the screens of phones and GPS navigators would crack in the extreme heat of the summer, which made me really scared and made me want to look for alternative ways to mount the phone in the car.
</p>
<p>
The timing was ideal as I won a <a href="http://www.imore.com/weve-teamed-vena-give-away-new-iphone-7-and-accessories">prize at a contest done by iMore</a> who teams up with Vena who makes phone accessories. (Colambage D is my entry) My prize contained seven iPhone 7 cases (which are useless to me at the moment) and a magnetic car mount which would fix itself to the air vents. While the gift pack was intended to be used with the iPhone 7, the car mount seemed to work fine with my S7, so I gave it a shot.
</p>
<p>
This is what was in the box.
</p>
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRn9ouWFiaSCAUe3_sFNxxLw1nx0_StKBy3nLqcwGx3go74oFhhKtmhO5JwcjT5iSIsEV4xxIDBMpC-8sX-HnAH_BEJl2okYtLFn0sNGIVMQNTb7SZFZu0kknxFtvsfiK0v1u-UO7MNb_/s1600/Vena+Magnetic+Air+Vent+Mount.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
The phone would mount magnetically to the base which fits into the air vent. There was a rectangular metal plate which would go between the phone and the case if you were using a case, or a round metal plate which would stick to the back of the phone if you weren't. Since I was using a case, I used the rectangular one. Of course I could have used the rounded one and stuck it on the case of the phone, but it would look ugly. I tested how firmly the base attached with the phone afterwards and it was satisfactory.
</p>
<p>
Then it was time to install the base in the car. I sadly could not install it with the brand name aligning properly, but I could install it. I positioned it so that the weight of the phone was not completely carried by the base (and the vent). The top edge of the head unit was protruded a bit which could support the weight of the phone partially.
</p>
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkuci2uzfwtqn6MMBon3WjwBo6dcW_GXOG7lgb7FZotCbCA5VTpTZwqDtJmuY0sUYhpyi6KX6NfrbXY3zPMb_Zf0bg3MePVkE9Qj4FSwVPJUJSwYSfrhtxeCS_D_-SbtG5DQaIfxvuP4b/s1600/Mounted.jpg" width="100%" />
<p>
I tested it on the road and it never came off if the phone was properly supported. But I think I could get a better attachment with the magnetic base if I moved the metal plate a bit towards the top of the phone.
</p>
<p>
Overall, I am pretty happy with it. While I had to get used to the new position, there were no distraction or covering of the view when mounted on the vent. Plus, the phone runs cooler and the micro USB cable from the car charger (if I needed to use it) would not run across the dashboard anymore. I was not pumped about winning that gift, but now I am pretty happy that it really save me some money!
</p>
</div>
Anusha Dharmasenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04171185453891677370noreply@blogger.com0