My 2nd post for the month... won't be the last, so stay tuned for more. I have been running 2 Wifi Access Points(AP) in the house as the coverage was never good. One AP is located at the lower level and another unit upstairs. I never liked the idea but it provided the best coverage.

Armed with an extension cord and Aztech Homeplug Wireless AP unit, I ran around the house and looked for a good spot where I only need to install one unit of AP. The best area was at the stairs but I did not have any plug points there. All I had was an alarm main unit which is housed in a metal lockable case. 

So today I modified the alarm unit to have a mains extension and installed the Aztech Homeplug Wireless AP. It provided good coverage in the house including the rooms and also the kitchen area. 30 minutes work and I am satisfied... 

Good job!

Still to come... my crazy 11TB Network Attached Storage... 

Latest Gadget... Cool Wireless SD card

I have been pretty quiet since my last post in June as I was pretty tied up with work. Well nothing has changed, still lots of work but that pays the bills...:) I have been wanting to buy a new SD card for my DSLR(Nikon D90) was looking around and found a very special card which was only available in the US. Eye-Fi, sounds cool and it seems to be a unique card that has only 8GB of storage and a WIFI module built in. Yes you heard me... both memory and WIFI in a standard size SD card.

The Eye-Fi card can actually transfer your pictures live to either your PC, MAC, IOS or ANDROID device. You can preview your pictures as you take them from these devices. Pretty cool... I shot my daughter's ballet concert from the front of the hall and my wife was previewing the photos on my IPAD unit. It works in both wifi network(connects to a wifi network via SSID) or direct mode(wifi network is not available) with any of the devices above. In addition to that, if you have an online photo album it can automatically upload to the account once internet access is available.

Best of all it works with any cameras that accepts a SD card or CF(can be used with a SD to CF adapter). Therefore this investment stays with you. Next I am going to try Geotagging via the Eye-Fi card. Never used this feature before but I am sure it's going to be another cool one. Next up, I did a massive upgrade to my home Network Attached Storage(NAS) unit that I built a couple of years back. I should update the blog in a week's time after returning from Jakarta. Enjoy...

Naza/Kia Rondo - ATF Cooler

My Naza-Kia Rondo is about to run out of warranty soon so I decided to go ahead with the long awaited ATF cooler project. We have reports from the field that an ATF cooler would greatly prolong the life of the ATF and Auto Transmission Unit.

First had to remove the radiator. It needed to come out first because the standard ATF lines runs into the radiator. After removing that, out came the front grills. Notice the horns? I need to shift them in order to place the ATF cooler on the left.



Most installers will use cable ties to tie the ATF Cooler to the front air-cond honey comb.(silver mesh looking piece behind the horns) This will normally create a problem when you need to service the air cond as the complete unit will need to be removed to be washed. Also in the long run the ATF cooler may rub against the honey comb and cause it to puncture. So I went with custom made brackets.



Ah Sang(my partner) making the brackets for the RONDO. In total we made 3 brackets to secure the ATF cooler unit. No holes drilled, used the available mounting holes on the car itself.



All done... ATF cooler in place, now just need to remount the horns on the right and spray paint the brackets black...:)



Horns are on... 2.5 hours of work all done.

I will testing the car next week on my trip up to Penang. Stay tuned for my review and see if there is infact a difference.

Ciau!!!!!

My Travelling Gadgets...

I started travelling for work after switching to my first regional role in a multinational company in 2008. I forgot to bring lots of small little stuffs that made my life simpler when travelling during the first few trips. Gadgets, that's what I call them, mainly for work and making life easier away from home.

Here goes.... most important item, either you are travelling for work or pleasure, the travel adapter. If you are travelling within ASEAN be prepared... lots of different types of wall socket outlets within this region. Bring the wrong one and you are screwed, bring too many types you carry a pouch wherever you go...:) So my best pick is the unit below from Wonpro... Small, lightweight and has all the types in one.

Next item... I am sure everyone travels with at least a notebook/laptop. Some laptop adapters can be pretty heavy and bulky. So buy a replacement adapter from ACBEL, these guys make smallest adapters in the market and lightest too. Check it out.... less then 300grams and slightly bigger then a wallet. These adapters are normally 2 pin sockets, when used with the above travel adapter you will still have 1 more 3 pin socket left. Neat, so now you can plug in a second device into the travel adapter.

3rd item... regional job means lots of calls. Either via skype, softphone or via the handphone... some of these calls can last up to an hour or so...:( so you need a handsfree kit. Nope not the one that plugs into your ear. That's good for a 5 min conversation but not a 60min conference call... So get yourself a bluetooth handsfree car kit system. It's small, it's light and it's bluetooth...

4th item... small but very useful... everyone travels with at least 1 USB cable. Short or long is entirely up to the individual. Now if you have a newer generation phone you will realise that it uses micro USB and some of your other devices(like the bluetooth handsfree above) will still be using the older mini USB. So you bring 2 cables??? Nope... you get this... mini to micro USB converter and try to get one with a lanyard and tie it around your cable so you won't lose it.

There are always surprises when you travel and one of them would always be a dead phone because you have been busy SMS/emailing while you wait for your flight and realised that you have used up all your juice. So item 5 is... backup battery charger. It's able to charge my Samsung Galaxy S 2 -3 times and it's good to power the next important gadget too... Also do travel with the provided USB power adapter(left of the picture) as it can plug into the travel adapter easily to charger anything on USB 5Volts.

Next up... internet, without it... I would be dead, at least when I am working...:) The problem is when you are travelling you can have various kinds of access. 3G if you have a local SIM CARD, hotel broadband which normally comes in either wired or wireless. So it's always better to travel will a router. Best if the router can do everything... I have one, I call it the king of travel routers. The Sapido pocket size router does everything from wired/wireless router, wifi repeater, wifi adapter, 3/4G with USB stick and best of all USB powered... so if you have the item above you can power it on the go...

Last item is very important, a clone of your current HDD contents, all in a USB thumb drive and make it bootable so you can reload everything. USB thumb drives are pretty big capacity nowadays and can fit almost all your 'business' info including your OS. I have seen some cases were travellers are hit with a corrupted hard drive and you will be stuck if you don't have a backup. If you are on an SSD, you ought to have a complete hard drive with you. When SSD goes down, 90% of the time it's dead and there is no reformating or cloning. The only option is to swap the drive out with a new one.

Once you have all the above items you should be safe 99% of the time travelling and you will be ready for almost anything. IMHO if you do lots of travelling, buy a lightweight notebook, something that weights less then 1.7Kgs... there are lots of options out there. Light and powerful but it doesn't need to break the bank. Travel light but travel smart... that's the key.