Shortcut to Device Manager

This shortcut I think is more for advanced users. I realised that I have to access the Device Manager quite frequently to check on some information. There is a shortcut to access the Device Manager directly, instead of going through Control Panel > System.

Just do the following:

1. Goto Start > Run
2. Type devmgmt.msc
   

That's it...

Not to stop questioning

I quote from Albert Einstein:

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity


Sometimes I wonder why the world consist of so many people who just follows blindly based on the words, but not the meaning behind it.

Innovation is also because of curiosity. Curious on why does it happen this way. Curious on why it cannot be done in another way. Curious on why your dream cannot be a reality.

If there's no more curiosity, we would all be still travelling around in horses and carts. Stay curious...

Optimize your iPhone 3G Battery Life

Updated 16 Nov 2008: Fully charged battery indicator
Updated 29 Dec 2009: Added turning off of Notifications


Finally have time to write down some of my optimization tips for my iPhone 3G battery life. With an above-average usage of the iPhone 3G (some people think I'm a heavy usage user), the iPhone will last me about 2 days on a charge. On a low volume day, it's about 3 days on a charge.

The tip is very simple. All you need to do is to turn off your 3G/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth by default. To turn it off, do the following:

1. Tap on Settings > General > Network
2. Turn OFF the Enable 3G option
3. Tap on Wi-Fi
4. Turn OFF the Wi-Fi option
5. Tap on General (back) > Bluetooth
6. Turn OFF the Bluetooth option
   

For the newer iPhone OS 3.0. All you need to do is to turn off your Push Notifications. To turn it off, do the following:

1. Tap on Settings > Notifications
2. Turn OFF the Notifications option

That's it. To re-enable it, follow the same steps above, but turn the option ON instead. To further save on your battery life, refer to this tip on reducing the brightness of your iPhone here.

That's the simple part. Now the explanation on why this works. Reasons:

1. 3G is a huge battery drain on any type of phone. I have friends using Nokia and Sony Ericson and they tell me that the phone usually lasts them only about a day.
   
   
2. 3G Network blindspots makes the iPhone 3G works harder, draining its battery life.
   
   This is technically how I think the iPhone works. Basically if you enabled the 3G option, the iPhone will always try to connect to the 3G Network. However, regardless of what your telco say, the 3G network coverage does not completely cover the whole area. It has its blind spots.
   
   The problem comes when you hit the blindspot. For example, in Singapore's underground MRT stations. Underground, the EDGE network is the strongest. If you have enabled your 3G network, the iPhone will constantly try to connect to the 3G network while you're underground, although it is unable to find a 3G network. This actually drains your battery life very quickly as it's trying to scan for a 3G network belonging to your Telco constantly, among all the other signals that's broadcasting over the air.
   
   The EDGE network in Singapore is more predominant, and its even available underground. Disabling the 3G option will stop the constant scanning of signals, which in turn gives you better battery life.
   
   
3. Technically, the 3G technology promises a lot, but fall short on a few things. One of which is constant streaming of information from the 3G network while on the move.
   
   For example, if I'm in the MRT, its constantly moving from location to location. During its movement, your phone might have seemlessly switched between different base stations as the MRT is moving.
   
   The problem comes because you might be downloading something from one base station, but because you have moved out of range, the phone will connect to the next nearest base station. The telco's network would have to be smart enough to detect how much information has been downloaded to your phone, and re-route the rest of the information to the base station you're connected to now for you to continue the download.
   
   Now back to the iPhone 3G. Just by connecting to the normal phone network, the iPhone takes little battery power. The draining of the battery only comes when you're trying to receive data information. Therefore, the iPhone 3G only connects to the data network on a on-demand basis, to preserve battery life.
   
   So if you are currently now using Safari on the iPhone and downloading a very graphics intensive page, the iPhone would have to open a data connection and constantly probe this connection for data until it has finish downloading the page. If you're not on the move, its fine. But if you're on the move, the problem might come because the iPhone would be constantly trying to retrieve information from the base station because it does not detect that the download of data is completed. Sometimes when switching between base stations, the data download might be disrupted, and your Safari would be fruitlessly trying to retrieve information from the base station until Safari time-out, telling you that it is unable to connect to the network. This drains battery life, even if you're on the EDGE network!
   

For the reasons for turning the Wi-Fi/Buetooth off, its the same logic as turning off your Wi-Fi/Bluetooth when you're using your laptop. Without enabling your laptop's Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, the laptop battery lasts longer. Period. The explanation is roughly similar to the above.

Push notifications is something new to iPhone OS 3.0. What it essentially does is to have a small agent running in the background, constantly polling the applications servers for updates. This uses up less memory than having multiple applications open at the same time. However, this also means that the iPhone is working even though your application may not have anything to report. Personally, I disabled it because if I wish to be notified, I'll usually just open that particular application. The only notifications I need are SMSes and missed calls. Likewise, I've also disabled (switched to Manual) the Fetch New Data in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars for the same reasons.

This is based on my own observations on how the iPhone might work. Therefore, I adjusted my usage to optimize the battery life. This is what I've done:

1. My iPhone 3G perpectually is always on EDGE signal as most of the time, I am on the move with the phone. Since EDGE signal almost covers the whole of Singapore (at least for Singtel) except for some rare blindspots, my iPhone will not have a problem connecting to a network.
   
   
2. The iPhone 3G is best suited for burst data, meaning grabbing of small amount of information at any point of time. Example would include using RSS reader, Google Maps, or reading of emails. Therefore when I am on the move, I usually only read RSS feeds (e.g. Bloomberg), or read my emails.
   
   Yes, for emails, its usually working on burst mode, which actually conforms with what the iPhone is meant to do. The retrieval of email headers in Mail is not data intensive, and can even be easily and quickly retrieved even on an EDGE network, although the 3G network will make the retrieval almost instantaneous.
   
   I will only switch to a 3G network or a Wi-FI network when I hang around a certain area, like an office or shopping mall. This I would do on an ad-hoc basis, if I need to surf around.
   
   I will always try to connect to a Wi-FI network first, followed by the 3G network. Reason is because Wi-FI actually uses less battery than the 3G network for some reason. With the availability of free hot-spots in Singapore, it has becomes a habit of mine to search for these hotspots when I need a fast connection.
   
   Before I make my move, I will switch back to EDGE network by turning off the Wi-FI or/and 3G network.
   
   
3. I will only connect to AppStore when I'm charging my iPhone 3G on my laptop. Downloading apps and updates from the AppStore could be quite battery draining so I will only do that when my iPhone is plugged in. Usually I will use Wi-Fi to download.
   

Things to note about the battery indicator on the iPhone:

1. When you charge the iPhone, take note that the battery indicator is charged to full. The first time I charge my iPhone, I've actually mistaken the iPhone to be fully charged, but in actual fact it is not.
   
   The green indicator should extend all the way to the end, with no gap inbetween the green indicator and the top of the battery. Refer to the image below on how the battery indicator will look like if its fully charged.
   
   
   
   It would be good if the next iPhone firmware patch will provide some sort of indicator if the battery is fully-charged. Refer to this post here on the iPhone 3G fully charged battery indicator. Less observant users will always be half-charging their iPhone, because I understand that the iPhone practises rapid charging, where the last 10% of the battery will charge slower.
   
   
2. The iPhone 3G will give off a warning if it falls below the 20% battery life indicator.
   
   
3. The iPhone 3G will give off a last warning if it falls below the 10% battery life indicator. This is the last warning indicator.
   

The last time I hit the 20% battery life indicator, the iPhone actually lasted me about 4+ hours more until I reached home. Yes, I was still using it during this time. :)

Hope this helps...

Retiring IT personnel less than those coming into the line?? Like real

Just read an article recently that states that the people coming into the IT line is more than the ones retiring from it. My first reaction... Like real!

Based on my network of IT friends, almost all have left the IT line, and they are not even in the retirement age. Most have completely switched out of IT.

The problem with IT line, especially in Singapore, is that we're expected to be superhuman. Most of the IT personnel in Singapore is in the software engineering line, making custom software for customers. This is why I think we're expected to be superhuman:

1. We're expected to be well-versed in the technological aspect, inclusive of hardware and software, and yet, understand the different business process that happens in different types of industry
   
   
2. We're always told that anything is possible in software development, even though many of these things are limited by the technology chosen, future scalability of the product, and most importantly hardware. Some aspects directly contradict each other.
   
   
3. We see weird things in the specifications that contradict one another. When we query about it, we were told to just build it. When we try to reason with them, we get scolded.
   

There are many other stupid things that happen in the IT line, and I'm only touching on the developers portion. In project management, its even worst. You get a whole new set of problems. Pre-sales too.

People coming into IT line to replace those leaving? Like real... I've seen many of those supposedly IT personnel. Heck. Even my dad can do better than that, and his previous job is not even IT related. And yes... He's retired.

Nissin's Cup Noodles contain insecticide!!

Now with all the melamine issues with China products, it seems that not only China is guilty of below average quality. Japan, which I once associated with good quality assurance, is also guilty!!

One Japanese 67 year old woman fell ill after eating Nissin's Cup Noodles and tests shown that it contains insecticide!! That is produced in a Japanese plant, not China plant!

Even in Singapore, I've heard of Nissin's Cup Noodles. What on earth is wrong with the quality of products nowadays?? Why is everyone cutting corners??

Force power-up your iPhone 3G

Just today my iPhone 3G started crashing on me after I updated some apps in AppStore. At one point, my iPhone power-off by itself and refused to power up

Normal power-up step:

• Press the power/standby button and hold it there for a few seconds

I tried the above for about 5-10 seconds but nothing happened.

To force it to power-up:

• Press the Home button, hold it there, followed by the power/standby button, and hold it there.

This time, it powered up, but it took a longer time than normal to start-up.

Anyway, I found that the offending application that cause my iPhone to crash should be the "Free RSS Reader". They've just enabled the background notification in the latest patch and it seems that the way they've done it cause it to crash.

After "taking out" the background notification, my iPhone is back to normal. I've known this force power-up for sometime, but I've never got to try it. Good to see that it works. :)

Inflation is up 6.7%

These are the Singapore inflation rates for 2008:
January: 6.6%
February: 6.5%
March: 6.7%
April: 7.5%
May: 7.5%
June: 7.5%
July: 6.5%
August: 6.4%
September: 6.7%

Food and Housing is leading the charge, rising by 8.2% and 14.6% respectively year on year. I'm surprised though that food costs for September did not go much lower compared to August. October might see another spike in Housing costs due to the 21% increase in electricity bills. This should be slightly offset by the lower petrol prices.

Judging from the current trend, inflation for this year will be very close to 7%. Estimation would put the rate at around 6.8%. I've never seen such a high Singapore inflation rate before. Then again, I'm not that old.

Save only 0.4% of disposable income??

Wow! Just read an article that states that according to OECD statistics for 2007, America only saves 0.4% of disposable income, compared to Germany's 10.9 percent and Japan's 3.1%

0.4%?? That's like non-existent savings. Before 2000, their savings have been an average of 9%. No wonder America has been considered a nation of spenders. I think the current crisis in America would have hit them quite hard, as there is no buffer for any kind of crisis.

It would be good for the Americans to reach about 9-10% level of savings again. 0.4% is extremely unhealthy.

Live By Your Words

I quote from John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.


Action speaks louder than words. Give advice all you want, but if you don't live by what you preach, then you might as well not say it. Words are empty, and easy to say.

Shaking with anger

Often in books, I've read "shaking with anger" without truly understanding what it means. The gist of it means that you're very angry.

I finally understood the meaning of shaking with anger. It's constrained anger! The feeling where you really want to lash out at the person, but you can't due to some reason. I have never ever in my life felt this kind of anger before until now. It's seething and its frightening. And yes... You're really shaking with anger.

I think I need to cool down. Ignorance is bad. Believing in your own ignorance is fatal.