Tao’s Blog

On my Windows Media Center PC, from time to time, Windows Explorer will be closed by DEP (Data Execution Prevention). I am pretty sure that my computer is virus-free, and I updated my Windows quite frequently. I just updated my Windows to SP3. Other than the Windows Explorer randomly being closed by DEP, everything else seems normal.

I tried to disable DEP for Windows Explorer, but after I disabled DEP, Explorer will close by itself without the warning message, which is more troublesome. At least before I disabled DEP, I can choose to delay the closing, so I can wait for the completion of copying or moving operations; but when the Windows Explorer crashes by itself, all the copying and moving operations will be terminated, leaving the files in uncertain state. For me, DEP closing Explorer is just a nuisance, but disabling the DEP made it a real problem.

After some extensive internet search, I believe that the problem is caused by some third-party Windows Explorer shell extension. During the years, I installed and un-installed tons of software, along with them, countless shell extensions. Maybe some of them are the culprits?

To remove those third party shell extensions, I need some tools, I discovered two tools useful for this purpose:

NirSoft’s ShellExView

and

Microsoft’s AutoRuns for Windows

Somehow, I suspect that Mediafour’s MacDrive 6 may cause the problem, but I am not sure. Since this software is very important for me, I cannot afford to remove it from my system. However, it seems the Windows Explorer crashes less after I remove all other third-party shell extensions.

Some software provides the option to remove the shell extension or shell integration, such as WinRAR, WinZip, but others don’t, such as yenc32 or Symantec anti-virus. Anyway, with AutoRuns, I can remove all the third-party shell extensions I want.

Of course, it helps to clean the registry with Eusing Registry Cleaner.

Since Spring of 2004, I started to show symptoms of allergy: running nose, sneeze, red and itchy eyes. It seems that the symptoms are getting worse each year. This allergy season is the worst, and I hope it will not getting worse next year.

This year, my allergy started on 4/25/2008, and now it is tapering off, and today is 5/19/2008, about three weeks. The end of April till the middle of May, are my worst three weeks of the year. I guess I am allergic to certain tree pollens, but without consulting an allergist, I will never know for sure which species makes me allergic. Next year, if my situation gets worse, I am going to consult an allergist, maybe try something called de-sensitization therapy.

I tried both Claritin-D (Loratadine + Pseudoephedrine) and Zyrtec-D, with limited success. Loratadine and pseudoephedrine can control my running nose and sneeze, but cannot control my itchy eyes. It feels terrible. I am glad the allergy season is gone, at least for the year 2008.

I have a Canon PowerShot SD 1000 Camera. Recently, I discovered that there is a hacker tool, called CHDK, can be used to provide extra functionalities to the camera, such as RAW format, etc.

I began to use the ebooks web site of New York Public Library a couple of years ago. Interestingly, when you access this site with a desktop computer, it will show a desktop version of the website. However, if you access it with a mobile device, it will automatically swich to the mobile version, which is much easier to navigate on a mobile device.

This is very good. However, I just hope they can make their main site behave similarly. It would be very nice to be able to renew normal books through a mobile device. I tried my mobile Internet Explorer, it cannot pass the log on screen. Without a computer, the only option is to call Leoline 212-262-7444 to renew. However, it is not as convenient as online transactions.

I am a fan of David Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done) method. For a vide introduction to his GTD method, see the following video link:

David Allen: Getting Things Done Video Introduction

The simplest way to implement his GTD methods, at least for me, is using the Palm Task application and it’s categories. Actually, David Allen himself suggested Palm Task method is his method of choice on a mobile device.

Since recently I obtained a Windows Mobile Smartphone, a T-Mobile Dash, I was pondering doing GTD on Windows Mobile. After all, the qwerty keyboard is much easier to use than the on-screen vitual keyboard of my Palm Tungsten E. However, the way Windows Mobile organizing the tasks does not render it easy for GTD way. With some internet search, I discovered the following method to implement GTD with Windows Mobile:

Fast GTD on Windows Mobile

This method makes more sence on a Pocket PC, which has touch-screen, and has the ability to create categories on the mobile device. On my Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone, which does not have a tough screen, and it does not allow me to create categories on the mobile device, this method is not very practical.

Of course, if you have internet connection most of the time, and you have access to a desktop or laptop computer, the online application Nozbe should be a very good way to implement the GTD method.

Nozbe, GTD web application

I read some review on Nokia N95 phone. Since I have a T-Mobile Dash, I can’t help comparing them.

Both are very powerful smartphones, Dash runs Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone edition (no touchscreen), and N95 runs Symbian. N95 has GPS and a 5 Mega pixel camera, Dash does not have GPS, and has a 1.3 Mega pixel camera. Both have QVGA display (320x240). Both have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc., those usual suspects.

It seems that N95 is a better gadget, but there is a problem: N95 has only numeric keypad, using T9 to input text into the gadget. Dash sports a qwerty keyboard, which is very handy when entering web addresses, email addresses, and names. Without a qwerty keyboard, you cannot do much with a smartphone. On my previous phones (a Motorola SLVR L7 and a Sony Ericsson T610), I used T9 and iTAP (a Motorola version of T9). I can type pretty fast with both predictive input methods, but they are not good when entering people’s names, web addresses, and email addresses. For normal text, they are OK. But a qwerty keyboard is much easier to input, especially when used with XT9, a predictive input methods for qwerty keyboard. It can shorten input time significantly.

I don’t travel a lot, so I don’t really need a good travel-sized sub-notebook computer. However, it would be nice to have a computer light enough to carry around. It seems there are only two serious contender for this niche:

HP 2133 Mini-Note

and

Asus EEE PC

It seems to me that EEE PC is more attractive, cheapter, smaller, easier to carry around. However, HP 2133 has a better keyboard (easy to type, 92% of full-sized keyboard). But, as the reviewer of Ars Technica mentioned, after a couple of days practice, it is OK to type on the smaller keyboard of EEE PC.

A couple of days ago, I realized that the email program of my Nokia 770 always displays wrong time. For example, a friend send me an email, in the letter head, the time is indicated as

Fri, 9 May 2008 06:45:20 -0700

It indicated that the mail is sent on May 9, 2008, local time 6:45:20 am, and the time zone is UTC-7, which is PDT, Pacific Daylight Time. Converted to Eastern Daylight Time (EDT, UTC-4), the time is 9:45:20 am.

However, the mail program of my Nokia 770 always display 16:45:20, which is UTC + 3, although I triple checked the time zone setting of the device was set correctly to EDT, New York time. Later, I realized this is the summer time for Finland. As we know, Nokia is a Finnish company.

So there is a bug in my Nokia 770’s mail software. Regardless the time zone settings of the system, the mail program always suppose the local time zone is Finland time.

The Tablet OS version of my Nokia 770 is the latest for Nokia 770:

Internet Tablet OS 2006 edition

Version 3.2006.49-2

I was reading Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash recently, just finished it last night. In the book, I met the word “fubar” used as a verb. I checked both Concise Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., cannot find such a word.

Searching the internet, discovered that FUBAR actually is an acrynym meaning Fucked Up Beyond All Repair. It starts as a military slang, then entered the cilivian vernacular. A similar word is SNAFU, meaning Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.

Recently, I get myself a T-Mobile Dash, a smart phone running Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone Edition. It’s a nice Windows Mobile device, can do Wi-Fi, EDGE data, has a qwerty keyboard, and has Microsoft Office Mobile software package installed.

I spent sometime playing with it, quite satisfied with it. The gadget is smaller than most of the Blackberries, and the keyboard is easy to type and very tactile. I managed to whip out quite long email messages on it with ease. I pretty much mastered all the keyboard shortcuts, since it does not have a touch screen, keyboard shortcuts can be essential to increase interactive speed.

It can also access Gmail (via IMAP4), Google Docs & Spreadsheets (read-only), Google Calendar, and Nozbe.

The only issue I have with this device is that I use Chinese extensively on Google applications and Nozbe, so when I access those online applications through the smartphone, I cannot read the Chinese characters. I must stop using Chinese in the online applications, or I give up access those information from my smartphone.

I know that I can install some Chinese Windows Mobile firmware to my Dash, but that’s another chore I want to avoid. So far, the only reasonable solution is just refraining from using Chinese characters in those online applications.

I installed eReader and MobiPocket eBook readers on it, and they both work fine. One thing I like the MobiPocket reader is the full-screen mode. For a small screen, full-screen mode is quite handy.