Unlocking the iPhone 3GS on 5.0.1 using iPad's baseband

Talk about perfect timing. Just when I wanted to take my iPhone 3GS to Sri Lanka, they released the unlock for 3GS. I had iOS5 installed on the 3GS, and the new jailbreak and unlock works for 5.0.1.

 

So following the guide below, I managed to unlock my 3GS, which is on the new bootrom. BTW, I unlocked it on the MacBook Air, because the PC doesn't have internet yet. :D

 

 

Since I don't have a SIM card of another carrier, I thought maybe if it worked fine, it should also recognize the Softbank SIM card without a problem. Maybe it doesn't really mean it is carrier unlocked, but I wanted to check.

 

So I removed the MicroSIM card from my iPhone 4S, and inserted it to the 3GS using the MicroSIM card adapter I had bought from eBay a while back. When I booted iPhone 3GS, it worked fine. The service was recognized. I was happy. Maybe it didn't mean anything. Only way to find out if it really worked was by using my Mobitel SIM card back in Sri Lanka.

 

New laptop

I moved to a new apartment. It doesn't have Internet so I went to apply for a new connection. You usually get great discounts if you buy a new PC with the new connection. So in my case, I was thinking of replacing my slow UL20A with something that suited 2011.

There were only options really. Either get an Asus UX31 or a MacBook Air 13". Both were available so I tried both of them before deciding which one to go for.

The Asus felt so much snappier and it was much easier to use. I felt right at home with Windows 7. However, the track pad was impossible to use. It was jumpy and this was with the updated driver.

Then I compared it to the track pad of the MacBook Air. It was great but kind of slow. But that could be adjusted. However, when I tried to use the laptop, it was so difficult. I didn't know the keyboard shortcuts. (apparently they are long cuts if you look at the default key combinations.) Anyways, when I tried typing on it, it was so much easier. The mouse pad didn't distract my typing.

Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT) for a data drive – worth it?

Background

This all started when Seagate launched the new MomentusXT 750GB drives. I was wondering if getting two of them to replace my 2TB RAID-0 data drive (2x1TB Samsung F3s)  was worth it. After checking the current prices of the MomentusXT drive, I gave up the idea. Each drive cost 18,000 JPY which is outrageous (for just 750GB per drive). Anyways, the “idea of caching” didn’t leave my mind right there.

Instead of getting all new drives, I could buy the OCZ Synapse Cache drives to get the same effect. OCZ have specifically released an SSD for caching. The cache management is done by their proprietary software.  I could not find it online in Japan, but the Newegg prices are pretty steep as well. $150 for 64GB, which is about $2.4/GB. You can get 120GB SSDs almost for that price these days. For example, the OCZ Agility 3 120GB is ~$152 (JPY 11,980) these days.