Tech at Play

In my first post of 2010 (Yes, I know it’s already February), I am proud to announce that I’ve just launched a new site over the weekend. TheTechBlogger.com is meant for me to express my views on various topics pertaining to areas such as IT, technology, and blogging.  And yes, this includes book reviews and updates on what I’m currently writing/working on too.

In a way, it’s also like a catch-all site for anything that doesn’t fit with my paid gigs, if you must peg a description to it.  Anyway, you can read more about my rational at its about page.

In any event, TechatPlay.com remains the blog for me to talk about more techie stuff on topics such as enterprise IT and mobile computing.  And yes, I promise I’ll update on a more regular basis this year.  Really.

In fact, I am typing on a review unit of the Microsoft Arc keyboard now, which I’m very eager to share about.  For now, I’ve waiting for my post for AsiaOne Digital to go live before doing a comparison of the Arc keyboard with the Apple wireless keyboard.

Well, there’s all I have to say for now, so stay tuned.

The HTC Tilt 2 arrived yesterday.  I haven’t had the chance to unpack it yet, given that I had an evening appointment and arrived home late.  This isn’t my first Windows Mobile smartphone, though it is my first WM 6.5 device.

Basically, I’ll be using it over the course of two weeks as a part of a challenge put together by AT&T.  The relevant site isn’t up yet, so I can’t tell you much at this point.  Let’s just say that I’ll be blogging a lot more about the HTC Tilt 2 though.  Anyway, I’ll link to the “challenge” site once its up.

The maker of the REDFLY Mobile Companion has just announced support for the RIM BlackBerry smartphone.  According to Celio Corp, the BlackBerry solution will be offered free-of-charge for existing and new owners of the REDFLY Mobile Companion C8N and C7.

The actual launch of BlackBerry support will be mid-Q4 2009, with initial compatibility for the BlackBerry Bold 9000, BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Tour 9630.  Plans are in the pipeline to support additional phones as they are released by RIM.  At the moment, the REDFLY is compatible with more than 70 Windows Mobile devices.

If you are wondering what the REDFLY is, you can check out the below description which I got from the REDFLY product page:

“REDFLY is a smartphone terminal with a large screen and full keyboard with no OS, no CPU, and no storage that lets you use your smartphone like a laptop. REDFLY links to your smartphone via a USB cable or wireless Bluetooth connection.”

At this point, I’m not so sure about usefulness of the REDFLY Mobile Companion given that a new wave of ultra portables like the Sony Vaio X series – weighting 700 grams and just 15mm thick – is due to be released soon.  Then again, I’ve never used the REDFLY before, so I might find it useful yet.  As readers will know, I am a BlackBerry smartphone user, so I’ll check back with my opinion of it once I can get a review unit with the new BlackBerry driver.

A spokesman for Celio Corp told me that it might be a few weeks more before review units are available, as the company is still developing the BlackBerry solution and wants to make sure it works really well first.  In the meantime, you can see the video of the BlackBerry support in action.

I decided to bite the bullet last weekend and activated BitLocker encryption on my Windows Vista Enterprise laptop.  Before you start looking for the BitLocker option in your Control Panel, this is only available for the Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Windows Vista.

Anyway, what the process does is encrypt my primary hard disk partition. Essentially, because the encryption key is kept securely on the TPM chip in the laptop, it will no longer be possible to access it by using the old trick of removing the hard disk drive and connecting it to another machine as a secondary device.

Of course, if you own a Sony Z, you will know that cracking it open to take out the hard disk in the first place is definitely not for the faint of heart!

For more information about BitLocker and why it might for you, do check out my SMB blog over at ITBusinessEdge.com where I elaborated about why BitLocker is relevant and how it works.  I also talked a lot more about my experiences with BitLocker so far, so you might want to check it out too.

Read more…

Did I mention that I finally subscribed to the femtocell service by StarHub in Singapore called Home Zone?  Yup, did that last week, and StarHub was kind enough to offer me the original promotional rate of SG$16 (About US$11) per month, which is half of the standard rate.  Anyway, it appeared that the model I was been using has since been retired, so StarHub delivered a newer model to my place today at no additional charge.

The new unit looks slightly slimmer than the previous set, but otherwise features the same connections: a power connector and an RJ-45 port.  A SIM card could also be found pre-installed  in the SIM slot in order to authenticate the access point.

Performance

I only had it for a few hours so far, but I can say that the reception for this newer unit is definitely improved.  I must confess that I insisted on installing the access point unit in my study room – where it can be on the same rack as my server and gigabit switch.  This setup was convenient to me, though it wasn’t ideal from a technical point of view – there were at at least three concrete walls between the unit and the kitchen area.

As you can imagine, the previous femtocell access point has some trouble reaching that particular blind spot; not so with this unit though.  In addition, the transfer from Home Zone to the normal base station appeared to be completely seamless with my BlackBerry Bold now.

Other observations

A peek at the box yields some interesting information.  As you can see from the sticker on the box, Huawei does make an “Enterprise AP” variant of the femtocell access point.  At this point, I’m not sure what “GSM Sniffer” means, since the femtocell access point works only on UMTS and is clearly labeled as such.  And probably due to government regulations pertaining to maximum broadcast power in Singapore, the unit was capped at 20mW of transmit power only.

Interestingly, the user manual inside the box does warn for the device to be kept “at least 20cm” away from people for “personal safety.”

Anyway, that’s all I have for now.  I will blog again if anything significant turns up later.

This guest piece is written by David Walsh, editor at WebHostingSearch who loves to explore and evaluate anything hosting related. When he’s not geeking out about things such as cheap hosting and dedicated server hosting, you can find him sipping on a glass of red wine while listening to an old Stones record.

Servers are today a critical component of any business operation. If anything should happen to the servers, your entire business could potentially shut down. Having a monitoring service or software application monitor your server is a wise decision. Consider it as similar to buying insurance. The cost of your business shutting down could be millions in lost sales, not to mention the expense of fixing your servers and the lost time spent fixing all the problems associated with it. Compared to those potential costs, the cost of server monitoring seems insignificant.

Below is a list of 10 server monitors you can find with a simple search on the Internet.

Read more…

Just bought a new Apple Wireless keyboard to use with my Sony laptop mid-week.  I’ve been eyeballing it for a while now, due to the much smaller footprint compared to my Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution keyboard that I have been using.

As you can see, I have decided to document my thoughts on it.

Why Apple Wireless Keyboard?

Having used computer keyboards since the days of mechanical – and noisy! – full-stroke keyboards, I suppose it is somewhat ironic that I now consider the shallow depth of laptop-style keyboards to be superior where reduced typing effort is concerned.

I guess what really tipped the balance is my increasing fondness of the chiclet style keyboards found on my Sony laptops.  And yes, contrary to popular speculation, Sony didn’t “rip” that one off from Apple.  After all, Sony had laptops based on that design as far back as 2003.  And even then, chiclet keyboards have already existed for a while.

Read more…

As of 17 July, 2009, StarHub customers on MaxOnline Premium will get a speed boost up to 100Mbps when accessing locally hosted online content.  The changes are done purely at StarHub’s end and no configuration or reboot of equipment is needed.

Obviously, you can only get the full 100Mbps if you already have a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem.  Customers with a DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem – that’s me – will get a speed bump of up to 32Mbps instead.  Internet access to international sites will remain capped at 12Mbps.

According to the official press release that came in to my mailbox last week:

Ms Ong Bee Lian, StarHub’s Vice President of Home Solutions said, “As an award-winning broadband player in Asia-Pacific, we continue to push the envelope in delivering more value on our service offerings to our customers. This new upgrade will empower our MaxOnline Premium customer base to experience true next-generation broadband speeds now.”

This is a free upgrade, I am certainly not complaining about the additional bandwidth.  You can see the test I did above with Speedtest.net; below is my download speed as recorded by StarHub’s own speed measurement applet.

Samsung sent me a Samsung PB22-J 256GB Solid State Drive (SSD) to review last month.  That’s 256 gigabytes of blistering fast flash-based storage for you.  Only when it was in transit did I realize that my Sony-Z16GN laptop was quite different from other laptops.  You see, there was no friendly, user-accessible compartment underneath the laptop from which to remove the hard disk drive unit!  None!

Instead, I came to the belated conclusion that a disassembly was in order before I could even see the hard disk.  I love technology, but I’m no technician or engineer.  Time to call for help.

Sony PR in Singapore responded initially, and then my request to speak directly to a technician fell into a black hole.  Could have been the mention of the Samsung SSD, but I can’t really be sure now.

At my wits end, I turned to Google, and thankfully managed to find a copy of their actual technician’s manual that documented the process of opening it up.  Yes, I cheated.

Anyway, before I could snap the above picture, I had to take out 10 screws, remove the battery, use a modified paperclip (my idea) to shift two hidden, sliding locks into release position, and begin a careful, heart-wrenching pull to forcibly release the keyboard from their snug plastic indentures.  Ouch.

Seriously, I would have permanently damaged my laptop without the technician’s manual.  So don’t try this at home.

In the meantime, do check out the rest of the pictures (I’ll spare you the exciting screw-removing portions) I took of the process!

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I posted a couple of posts at the ITBusinessEdge.com blogs recently, drawing upon my previous work and freelance experiences working with the PHP programming language.

A scripting language written in plain text and hosted by a compatible Web Server, some might scoff at PHP being nothing more than a glorified scripting tool.  Yet the fact that a C or Java programmer would feel very much at home with PHP is probably fueling its popularity beyond the wildest dreams of its creator.

Indeed, PHP is probably the prmost popular Web development language at the moment!

Some of the advantages of PHP looks like this:

• Availability of code samples
• Diversity of functions
• Popularity

PHP is not a perfect language though, and have its fair share of weaknesses:

• Complex project demands a certain level of experience
• Not everything in PHP is easy to do
• Code is available in plain sight
• PHP is Web development

I elaborate more on the above points in Advantages of Web development using PHP and Disadvantages of Web Development Using PHP, so be sure to check out my SMB blog there.

I am no iPhone hater.  However, I find myself getting annoyed when I come across reports around the Internet proclaiming that the iPhone is “finally” ready for the enterprise.  And this seems to be happening every time that Apple announces improvements to the iPhone.  The fact that people are truly in love with their iPhone aside, I had to do something to set the facts straight.

First of all, let me qualify that I think of the iPhone as a very nice smartphone to have.  In fact, it certainly raised the bar for mobile devices in terms of attractiveness and intuitive usability.  In addition, the iPhone team has made strong inroads in its enterprise-centric capabilities – specially at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2009 last week.

Having said that, there are still many areas where it lags behind in the enterprise.  To straighten matters out, I wrote a blog pitting the Apple iPhone against the RIM BlackBerry.

I highlighted three crucial areas where the iPhone falls behind where the enterprise is concerned.

• Data efficiency of the BlackBerry
• Installing third-party software
• Weak enterprise management of the iPhone

For the details, do check out my Why the BlackBerry will continue to triumph in the enterprise article over at TechRepublic.

The DisplayLink USB Graphics Adapter just arrived today.  The package bewildered me for a moment, since I was expecting a parcel or at least something bulkier.  However, the small dimension of the adapter actually allowed it to be shipped via a UPS envelope-type packaging, with just some bubble packaging for protection.  Whatever the case, I have no complains.

Anyway, the DisplayLink USB Graphics Adapter is essentially a graphics card that is connected via USB to a laptop or PC.  With a maximum supported resolution of 1600 x 1200, DisplayLink technology is increasingly finding its way into monitors such as the UbiSync range of LCD monitors from Samsung.  While it won’t allow you to play even the slowest 3D game, you can daisy-chain up to 6 UniSync displays together for working on spreadsheets and Web surfing.

Of course, the truth is that the graphics is emulated entirely via software drivers on the host laptop or PC.  Interesting stuff huh?  I’ll write more on this later, so stay tuned.

StarHub in Singapore has become the first operator in the Asia-Pacific to commercially launch its HSPA+ network.  The availability of HSPA+ effectively increases StarHub’s mobile broadband network capacity to support speeds of up to 21Mbps, up from 14.4Mbps previously.

Of course, there are limited HSPA+ devices at the moment, so your mileage might vary.  Additional shipment of devices are expected next month however, so you should be able to get your hands on it soon.  A report by local newspaper The Straits Times noted that StarHub intends to charge about SG$100 for the service.  StarHub currently gives a 50% discount for its top-end mobile broadband plan for existing customers, so you can probably expect a similar pricing structure on this front.

In the meantime though, StarHub is offering 100 customers the opportunity to pilot test this mobile broadband service.  For a chance to be selected as a pioneer user of the HSPA+ service, you can register online at www.starhub.com/hspaplus.

In the past, I have written that 3G networks just isn’t that fast in practical terms.  Well, I should be able to get one of these HSPA+ trial device next week, so stay tuned.

This guest article was written by Daniel Shain from LaptopLogic.com. You can read more about the latest Lenovo laptops here.

Laptop security is a tricky thing.  Many people store sensitive information on their laptops, but the fact that they are so small and portable makes them easy targets for thieves.  Login passwords and physical locks are no longer sufficient to ward off would-be burglars, and modern self-encrypting software can be limited and reactive.  For example, hard drives that don’t encrypt unless you’ve shut down the computer completely, or unless the thief leaves a certain area or manually connects to the internet.

Assuming you’ve figured out a way to get your hands on the laptop, it wouldn’t take too much head scratching to figure out the laptop is left on hibernate during lunch and the Starbucks on the first floor is conveniently in range.  If you were a victim of laptop theft, all you could do is sigh and hope the villain slips up.  Wouldn’t it be great if there was something proactive that you could do?

Read more…

You might have seen this report (subscription required) in this Friday’s edition of The Straits Times, which talks about the state of broadband penetration of Singapore – a staggering 99.9% as of last December.

Titled simply “S’pore is most wired nation,” the article by journalist Weizhen attributed the 99.9% figure to the fact that many households have more than one broadband line – a home connection, and a portable modem, for example.

I was quoted right at the bottom, excerpt as follows:

User Paul Mah, 30, is among the masses of wired Singaporeans with more than one broadband line: He has a connection at home and a portable modem.

‘It is useful when I need to do work outside urgently, or to kill time in between appointments,’ said the part-time polytechnic lecturer and freelance writer. ‘It’s the lifestyle now. I want my laptop and stable Internet access when I’m sitting at Starbucks having coffee.’

Though I don’t think I put it quite so eloquently on the phone! – Ha.

Coincidentally, I have posted a couple of articles related to wireless broadband over the last two weeks prior to speaking to Weizhen.  I wrote them based on my experiences with the state of 3G broadband, as well as the island-wide Wireless@SG Wi-Fi network in Singapore.

I also discuss the various merits of the two technologies in the below articles.

Wi-Fi or 3G: Which is better for mobile users?

Having used both Wi-Fi and 3G data networks for accessing the Internet on-the-go for more than a year, Paul Mah shares his experiences with each. Is there a clear winner?

3G networks don’t deliver speeds users expect

Despite the hype and billion dollar investments, anecdotal evidence – and now a study by Gartner – suggests rapidly diminishing returns on higher-tiered speeds of mobile broadband.

Certainly, while wireless broadband isn’t quite as robust or fast as a wired one, there is plenty of headroom of room for growth for mobile broadband.  In fact, StarHub is already upgrading their networks to HSPA Plus (or HSPA+), which promises speeds 1.5 times faster than the 14.4Mbps that their network is currently capable of.

Stay tuned.