Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart

I only heard of this band today and I love them. Their music is very soothing.... and beautiful women singing along to violins... what more can you ask for :-)

How to recalibrate touch screen on Toshiba e-Studio 202 copier/printer

Sometimes settings get messed up for no apparent reason and it can be very frustrating. I had problems with the touch screen on a floor standing copier where you had to touch the top left of the images of buttons for the machine to recognise the button you wanted. The touch screen calibration has gone off and needs to be recalibrated. It is a Toshiba e-studio 202. The process to fix it is as follows:

Press the energy saver button
Select 'Shutdown' and wait for the machine to turn off.
Press and hold the '0' and '8' digit buttons together then with the digits still pressed, switch the power button to ON.
After a few seconds you will hear a beep and then see a blank screen with 'Test Mode' on the top.
On the number pad enter '692' and press the 'Start' button.
You will see two cross-hairs with a pointer next to #1. Press the center of cross-hair #1 and then the center of cross-hair #2.
Note: you can use the top of a pen to accurately touch the screen and you may have to touch slightly off the center to get it registered.
After you press the center of #2 you will go back to the blank screen.
Turn off the machine with the power button.
Turn on the machine with the power button and try out the touch screen.

Note: You may have to repeat the process to get the calibration right. What worked for me is touching the top right of #1 and the center of #2 for the copier to be usable again.
This same process should work for other Toshiba e-Studio floor standing copiers/scanners.

Wicked surround sound demo

This is a very cool demo on how surround sound should work. You hear things not just front back and sides but below and above you too... yea with stereo headphones. Don't believe me?

http://www.2loop.com/hsound.html

Flow IP

I was on the same flow IP for at least the last 11 months at home even though I do not pay for a static IP. I cannot remember before that but today I noticed it has changed. Is there a one year expiry on it?

Blackberry data roaming outside Trinidad

According to Digicel, when you carry your blackberry anywhere outside Trinidad and Tobago, you will be charged the regular data rates for roamers as listed by the network you connect to in that country. Digicel Trinidad does not charge you for roaming.

What a week

So the last 7 days have been something else, very eventful. It started off with me thinking about my personal problems and now I am wondering about my higher purpose. I have gone on many ups and downs and hopefully that will end soon.

Last week I had to work on a couple projects that were stressfull.

On Friday I went with friends to NAPA for a classical indian music show that was excellent. NAPA itself is much better than Queen's Hall, my knees do not even touch the next row in NAPA but I cannot close my legs in Queen's Hall. The taps in the gents FAIL but there is tons of headroom by the urinals, unlike Queen's Hall.

On Saturday I went looking for a new window regulator and springs and shocks but I did not find the regulator. The window is working for now though... mayb those few accidents I made with the hammer on it helped. Also there was a failed DJ show in Space La Nouba. You definitely had to be drunk to enjoy that. The show in Zen was 50 times better, no drinking required.

Sunday I went to a meeting for a group that is trying to help themselves by helping the country. One day I think they will succeed.

On Monday I got a heap of responsibility I hope I can handle.

On Tuesday I got more details of my new role that I got on monday and I got called for an interview I was nervous for.

Today I went on the Interview and was told I was over qualified for the vacancy, which I agree with but why was I called for an interview if they already saw my resume? Anyway, I did offer to set up their website because they need one, then they offered me a spot on their managerial board ... interesting eh. I will see how that goes.

Wow it's been a ride.

Eddoes Choka Recipe

So it's about time I tell you all about how to make eddoes choka.

Ingredients:
2 kg eddoes (one pound, or 5-8 eddoes)
Salt
Pepper
Onion
Garlic

Directions:
1. Wash and peel the eddoes
2. Boil for 20 minutes (or until soft) with water covering the top of the eddoes
3. Drain the water and put the eddoes in a bowl. Use a pestle(or fork) to crush the eddoes into a smooth paste.
4. Add salt, pepper, onion and garlic to your liking.

This goes best with sada roti and serves 2-3 people.

Bon Appétit!... I mean, Enjoy!

3.

Lotsa visitors

Since I started this blog early last year I have gotten over 10,000 visits. This turns out to be about 5,500 unique visitors. I think that's alot and I hope that I helped people learn things. It is interesting to see where these views are coming from, in countries I did not know existed. Google automatically translates my pages into other languages so really anyone gets to see what I say which is very cool.

The most popular page by far is the Playdium review. This is followed by the Novatel MC727 Driver.  I try to write things that I cannot find the answer to online so other people will get help finding it in simple English.

Connected to network but not getting access to internet

I had a laptop that was connecting properly to the network and getting a valid IP but did not get access to the internet. Manually configuring an IP sometimes let the computer get access for a day, sometimes for a couple minutes and sometimes not at all. Norton Anti-virus did not pick up anything and I could not switch to another AV program to do a proper virus scan. The laptop had the same behaviour on wifi in the office but the internet was working on wifi home. I installed a free firewall which showed hundreds of connections being made to a handful of servers and the connections being started and shut down every few minutes.Eg. there would be 20 connections (a normal amount) one minute and a couple minutes later it would start increasing up to 700+ for a couple minutes then go back down to 20. It was infected and every so often it would try to send something out.

It turns out the office firewall was blocking it when it detected a flood of connections coming from the laptop.The problem was solved by formatting the machine. I had already spent many hours trying to clean it but got fed up of it so formatting was the way to go.

Ouch

I cannot straighten or curl my left hand. My bicep is damaged from over working it yesterday for exercising. It was funny last night when I could not touch my face with my left hand, brushing my teeth was impossible, showering was half impossible, eating was hard. This morning was hard changing the stations on the radio, driving was ok. If I relax the arm it stays bent about 60 degrees from vertical, kind of annoying. Hopefully it fixes soon. This never happened before, but maybe I never pushed myself so hard either.

4 weeks out of it

I think it was 4 weeks ago that I last did a P90X routine and it shows, I can hardly keep up. I have 14 more days for the program and I intend to finsh it soon. I only made 10, break 10 in the mason twist, poor.

Hi blog

Ryan checking in here... I had a gd day today, hopefully took a turn in my life that will move me closer to where I want to be. Made a couple new connections I should have made a long time ago. Also, I took a look at some very cool pics, who knows- maybe I will get to have pics as cool as those some day :-).

Waiting

I spent about 6 hours this weekend waiting for something. Like anybody else I hate waiting, especially when I don't expect to. As always I learnt something from it, so hopefully I won't have so much waiting in the future.

HP Deskjet light keeps blinking

I had an HP DeskJet 1360 that just kept blinking the one led it has on it. This is obviously not helpful at all. In windows it said the printer is offline. It turns out the black cartridge had gone bad in the middle of its lifespan and made the printer refuse to print. If I took the black out leaving just the color cartridge in then it worked. The black ink is simulated from the color ink and makes a kind of brown result. I think this would be similar for most DeskJet printers. The DJ 1360 uses HP 21 and 22 cartridges.

AVG Free 2011

 

AVG has released the latest versions of their multiple programs. I recommend upgrading to the latest version of the AVG Anti-virus Free Edition 2011 for the best protection. There is one nag with the new version which is for PC Analyzer the first time it runs, but otherwise it is the same silent program from the previous versions. Get it here http://free.avg.com/ww-en/homepage

7.5 GB free from gmail

Yesterday I noticed the counter on the gmail page passed 7.5GB, a large amount but there are some people who are meeting this everyday. I am still at 20% of that. Gmail still has the best spam filters, user interface and features-priority inbox, and labs add ons. Yaye for gmail!

Bmobile cannot forward calls to digicel

Another reason to go with Digicel. Bmobile cannot forward calls to digicel (or any other network). Digicel can forward to anybody else.

10 pounds lighter

It is now about 14 weeks after I started an exercise program. I have lost 10 pounds and over an inch on my waist. I am not doing the program completely as I am basically still eating my regular meals with lots of rice, bread, and massive amounts of roti, but I cut back almost completely on snacks and sugar in general. Another thing is I still have a big dinner 8 or 9 pm which is soon before I go to sleep which may be why I have not lost more weight. I am actually in week 9 of P90X, I skipped exercise some days and repeated a couple weeks in between but kept the routine in order. My stamina is increased, I need to organise a beep test and see how much better I really am. When I find my body fat caliper I will check that too.

Lyndon Lai Tan in concert

Lyndon's annual concert was on the 14th August at the Naparima Bowl. Tickets were $150 and had a door prize of an electric guitar. I did not think the Bowl could look like that, laser lights, clouds of smoke, rockers on stage. One fan had an air horn that was fired off after each song. Lyndon was the lead singer with his band behind him and a couple guest performers that deserve a concert of their own. The electric guitarist was on the ball all the way through with perfectly timed epic rifts and each tone in harmony with the rest of the band. The drummer and bass guitarist who are brothers were the heart of the melodies. The audience was mainly the younger crowd with a small section of older folks in the middle of the room but I am sure everyone thoroughly the show. Close to the end there was a mini mosh pit and screaming fans at the front of the stage. With the right opportunity this band can make it huge. I hope they do. There will be another concert sometime in December.

Menu border missing in Joomla

I am using Joomla 1.5.x but I think this works in earlier versions also. In the default theme I made a new menu in the default template (rhuk_milkyway) and the border does not show up. To fix this go to Extensions--> Module Manager--> Select your problem menu --> Advanced Parameters section--> put '_menu' without quotes in the modules class suffix field. Voila!

The picture on the left is before and the one on the right is after the fix

Honda Vehicle Recall August 2010

"Honda will recall approximately 197,000 Accord and 117,000 Civic vehicles from the 2003 model year and roughly 69,000 Element vehicles from the 2003 and 2004 model years in the U.S. to prevent a malfunction of the ignition interlock feature of these vehicles.... The ignition interlock mechanism can be damaged or worn during use. If this happens, it may become possible to remove the ignition key when the shift lever is not in Park. If the transmission is not in Park and the parking brake is not set, the vehicle could roll away, and a crash could occur."

It seems kind of silly to me, leaving a car without the parking brake on and in neutral and stepping out of it is not the smartest thing in the world to do. There is a complaint that the mechanism that keeps the key in the ignition if the car is not in Park gear is failing. I am sure this problem does not break any laws but something IS wrong with the car since it is not working as it was designed to. More info here

TOBAGO!

This was a very good weekend. I took a plane into Tobago on Friday night with some friends. We met a group who took over a couple cars on the boat a few hours before. The house we stayed in had everything except a pool, which is fine because the beach was better. For three days we went to Pigeon point and it was free entry on Sunday. We had 3 year old identical twins with us so we needed shade on the beach which Store Bay did not have. The sunset Sunday was a masterpiece: blue, red, pink, gold with clouds on the horizon and sun beams around it. The sunlight making shadows on the unevenness and footprints in the sand was a nice detail. From the water looking at the shore I wished I had my camera to get a shot because the now yellow sunlight made it look very picturesque. On Saturday and Monday there were weddings on the jetty, this is wedding season after all, too bad they missed the sunset on Sunday. Also on Sunday was the Tobago Emancipation Day Celebrations in Pigeon Point. I was sitting there thinking- WOW this is cool, under a noni tree on this great beach while I am listening to African Drums, Steelpan and Tassa playing all at the same time.

We rented a couple scooters and I went for a drive one night. I need to sharpen up my cornering but I have the basics right. We did not make it to Little Tobago, only to Buccoo Reef and the Nylon Pool. It rained for a few minutes on the boat ride there but just stayed overcast while we were out of the boat so it turned out well with no stinging sun. In Pigeon Point the banana boat rides gave me bruises from tumbling into people and jumping off the jetty probably helped that too.

Back home we had what felt like unlimited food, drinks and snacks. A modded Wii with a few dozen games on it, big screen TV with cable, karaoke setup, musical instruments and ofcourse Rummikub kept us busy while we were there. I was on the bottom of a bunk bed, I played it safe incase the bed could not handle the weight on top, since I definitely came back home heavier, I did not check the scale yet but I am guessing 5 pounds more. Back on to P90X ASAP.

To top off the weekend I had to worry about missing my flight back to Trinidad. One girl in the group changed her ticket to go home a day earlier but what Caribbean Airlines does is cancels the booking for the group involved. In this case we had two other people in this group of tickets so without us knowing we lost our space to go back to Trinidad. I had to wait standby on the next flight (which was also the last one out for the night) and the second girl was lucky enough to go on the same flight that we were supposed to.

This was a very good weekend :-)

Just bought SC2... now to just go home

did a full mason twist again

...so proud :-)

Full mason twist...

O yea...

StarCraft 2

After 10 years we are finally getting the sequel. The MSRP for the standard retail box is $60 but Dell USA has it for $45. There is a Collectors Edition for $100, that you can find for a little less if you look around.

For Dell SC2 is item # A3794324, free 3 day shipping in the Business section. It looks something like this
SC2    $44.99
Tax     $2.70
Total   $47.69

I laughed when talking to the Dell CSR:  
A_Ricardo_V: this is basically a CD and once it is released this coming July 27 , and you have a pre-order, you will be prioritized for it and sent to your home asap. Would you like to place an order today for this upcoming great game from Blizzard ?

Sued for gum

You know how we say that in the US you could sue for anything? well...

http://www.eclipsesettlement.com/

You are entitled to a reimbursement if you purchased gum that has been found to falsely advertise the "germ kill" benefits it claims. Eclipse gum pays off, Literally :-)

I got crazes!

I recently noticed my teeth looking like they were cracking up and I was worried but it is actually a natural part in the life of teeth.

http://www.doctorspiller.com/Cracked_Teeth.htm

Water pump with smart head not coming on

Before doing work on your pump disconnect the power and shut off both the inlet and outlet pipes. Have something ready to collect water because there will be water stored in the pump.


If the pump is not coming on at all on its own make sure there is power going to the pump. A breaker may have tripped if too many things were running at the same time from shared or common outlets. If there is power and you press the manual start switch/button on top the smart head, the pump may come on. If you still do not get any water being pushed, there is probably air in the pump. This manual button must be used sparingly, it runs the motor even if there is no water in it.

Make sure there is no air in the pump. If there is a bleed screw, open it very slowly until either only water or bubbles comes out. When you see this stop opening and wait until only water comes out. Ideally you should have a union on the inlet and outlet pipes close to the pump so it can be removed easily. Instead of the bleed screw you can open the union a couple turns to let air out as if you are using it as the bleed screw until only water comes out. Get ready to collect water coming out of the union. Try the pump again to see if that was the problem.


Another thing to check is if your tanks are clean. The sludge in the water in some areas is so bad that it settles at the bottom of the tank and if it is high enough the pump will pull it in and get damaged.

Please click an ad to support this blog if this was helpful.

Check Bmobile voicemail for FREE

Bmobile charges 20 cents every time you dial your voice mail number '*91'. You can dial 619-3269 to access the same thing but this time ITS COMPLETELY FREE!.

UPDATE: Since November 1st 2010 this free 619 number has been disabled. You have to pay now using '*91'.

Water problems

It is a couple weeks now into the rainy season, and it has been raining regularly but not enough to get the water dams close to where they normally are this time of year. It has been 5 days since my area has had water from the mains. That is the length of time it takes for my house to use out our two tank reserve with regular use, ie. washing, showers, toilets. The latest news from WASA is "low suction at the booster pump". They can't say when the problem will be fixed, and a truck delivery still takes "3-4 working days depending on the number of requests". What we are left with is the options to either buy a truck load or go live by a neighbour. It is about $400 for a truck load that is delivered usually the same day or the next. The problem is it always somehow a very brown colour, and has a bad scent, basically what you find in a river. This comes from both the official WASA trucks and the paid ones to your house. I can't imagine that they use a WASA main to get it, somebody in QA/QC not doing their job.

The schedule that was made back in February was never followed in my area. We got water more regularly during the drought than we did in the previous 18 months. Now that we are back in the rainy season it is the same ole', same ole' i guess. Ah Trinidad...

Loreena Mckennitt - The Mummers Dance

An excellent song and video.

Also, this is my 100th post. YAYE.

Great Nokia 5800 (or N97) theme

I think I found me new fave theme! It is based on fire.
The icons are great. The colors are great. Everything looks sharp. Well done.
The theme name is not in english but it works as it should on my phone.

http://gallery.mobile9.com/f/843111/

Nokia 5800 firmware version 40.2.005 update (latest for 2010)

Updated to 40.2.005 from 31.2.101 today. I had to install Nokia Software updater (34 MB) and the firmware itself was a little over 130MB. I tried to update it on a Windows 7 machine but the phone kept switching off right before the update process and did not come back on until I power it on myself. It was successful on a Windows XP SP3 machine. It looks the same, I think the screen is a little more sensitive, but I know some days the phone is more responsive to me, my hands change. All my contacts, SMS, apps, theme are just as it was before the upgrade.

The kinetic scrolling in the contacts is a big improvement, no more peeling back my silicone case to find the scroll bar! The main menu screen does not have it but the sub menus do. The slide to answer will take some getting used to. I am not comfortable moving my thumb across the screen and I will be answering with one hand only. It is easier to press once. I like that turning it to landscape changes to full-screen keyboard and the default in portrait is the alphanumeric keys.

BUT, the letters are STILL missing from the number keys to dial!
GPS still takes over a minute to lock on.
When scrolling contacts sometimes I get two screens' worth of writing together one in front the other, so I just see gibberish, the old writing is not removed when the new writing is put on, very ugly. It happens the worst when the first name on the current screen is selected and I scroll up. If I go up again it works correctly but I am now past the name I may have wanted.
The profile list when you click the date on the home screen has kinetic scroll, WHICH IS USELESS! The entire list will always show on the screen as it does not change to landscape. It is annoying when the list moves and does not get selected. Why would it have kinetic scroll there and NOT in the main menu?


More info here

Water pump coming on too often or taking too long to come on

If you live in Trinidad, you probably know about water problems. A water pump to feed an average house is at least $1500 TTD now. Calling a plumber of electrician is costly and you can do simple checks to fix a pump yourself. This article deals with a pump equipped with a pressure tank and pressure control switch, not with a smart head (a cone shaped attachment).

For info on a smart head pump TRY HERE.


Pressure tank vs. smart head
If you are considering buying a new pump, I recommend getting a pump with a pressure tank, it comes on less frequently and has pressure stored and waiting for you to use. This pump only comes on when the reserve in the tank is used.
The smart head pumps usually suffer from a lag where after you open a faucet/tap you get low pressure then a few seconds later the pump comes on. This is annoying and means that a pump would be running the whole time a tap is open! Imagine the pump running for the whole time you are in the shower vs a few times on and off! The smart head changes the rpm of the pump according to the needs at any point in time.A faster RPM would give a higher pressure in the line.
Both types will eventually get noisier as the bearings go bad and need to be replaced. In most parts of Trinidad and Tobago this is about three years after getting a new pump/bearings, if being used continuously.


Before doing work on your pump disconnect the power and shut off both the inlet and outlet pipes. Have something ready to collect water because there will water stored in the pump.

If you have problems with your pump it is usually one of two things: the pressure tank, or the pressure control switch.

You can get a pump now that has a smart head which replaces the pressure tank and switch. The pressure tank consists of a metal outer case and an inner bladder/diaphragm (balloon). It works by having water pushed into the diaphragm and the diaphragm expands to occupy the case and stores high pressure water in it. The diaphragm contracts to release water into the house's plumbing system. The switch tells the pump to come on if the pressure is below a minimum pressure and to stop running when a certain cutoff pressure is reached on the pump's outlet pipe.

Pump coming on and off very frequently
If your pump trips on and off rapidly, say once every 10 seconds or worse every 3 seconds and there is no open tap the problem is the pressure tank (The float on a toilet was broken and water kept filling into a toilet which made the pump run continuously and I had to figure out it was the float and not the pump to be fixed).
The tank has a standard air valve on the top which needs to have about 20 psi in it. Just checking the pressure releases a significant amount of pressure from it so keep that in mind when measuring it. Use an air pressure gauge to see if there is sufficient pressure in the tank. If it is low them pump it up.

The diaphragm can burst and so no pressure is kept in the tank as the tank becomes filled and does not empty. The switch tries to maintain the high pressure so with any slight leak the pressure drops to below the cutoff and the pump comes on to build it back up. This process happens very quickly so you will hear the pump going on and off rapidly. The tank then has to be changed by unscrewing it. If the pump is not securely bolted to the ground then I advise you disconnect the pump from plumbing before you attempt to unscrew the tank. Putting pressure on plumbing can break pipes and joints and crack old glue which will cause leaks and give you extra work to fix later. Ideally you should already have a union on the inlet and outlet pipes, if not now is a good time to put it in. One person can hold the pump and the other can turn out the tank. A WellXtroll two gallon tank is about $450 TTD. Remember to use thread seal tape on the tank. Another (more thorough) explanation is found here.

Pump taking a long time to come on
If your pump takes a long time to come on after if has released the stored water then it is probably a pressure control switch problem. It is rare for a pressure control switch to die. In Trinidad we get dirty water often and there can be large particles of sediment, or rust from inside the pump in the small opening going to the switch. These particles stick to all plumbing internals and encourage rusting and clogging. The outlet hole where the switch attaches to the pump is small and can become blocked. The space and pad that detects the pressure change can also become clogged and not detect the pressure as it appears in the rest of the system. If the hole is almost completely blocked it takes longer for the switch to detect low pressure in the line. This is most annoying when you are in the shower and have to wait a minute for the pump to trip on to give you water. The switch can be unscrewed (after disconnecting wires to it) from the body of the pump and cleaned out. You may need to remove inlet or outlet piping to allow the switch to spin out depending on your pump setup. I have seen both male and female ends for the switch to the pump body. The male end was a plastic head which cracked when I overtightened one of the 6 screws on it. There was a very slight leak because of this. The female end had a metal head so it could not crack but over tightening would damage the threading which you do not want either. Do not forget thread seal tape on the switch when reinstalling it after cleaning.

Pump running continuously but not pumping water
If the pump runs continuously and there is no water being pumped out there may be air it. Switch off/unplug the pump. If you have a union close by on the outlet line of the pump, open it a couple turns water starts to flow through. You can just loosen it with two or three turns instead of taking the collar completely off. Once a constant stream of water starts to come out you can tighten the union. There is an O-ring that can come loose inside the union. If water leaks when you retighten the union the O-ring is probably out of place. Take the collar completely off the union and reseat the O-ring.

If you do not have a union, there is a air bleed screw somewhere on the top of the pump. Loosen the screw a couple turns until you hear the air coming out then tighten after all the air comes out and water starts leaking out. Switch on the pump and the pressure should start to build in the line now.

Testing the pump
When the pump is ready to be tested, first open the valves to run water through the pump before you power it on. The pump should never run dry, water lubricates and cools it. Stand by the power switch and valves to shut off if something is wrong. The first time the pump runs there will be air in the tank which will be corrected the first time a tap is opened. Check all joints for leaks. Slight PVC joint leaks can usually be fixed by applying PVC glue to the joint and letting it dry.

If the pump does not come on when you power it on you may hear a hum coming from it or nothing at all. If there is a hum and the shaft/fins are not spinning, it has ceased up. Unplug it and use an appropriate screw driver to turn the shaft. It should be moving smoothly. If you hear nothing there is probably no power getting to the pump. Ensure the outlet has power to it, check the breaker panel to see if it tripped and finally double check the wiring in the pressure control switch.

Lastly, you should be aware of how your pump sounds. If it was quieter and had gotten louder this is a sign that the inner bearings are failing. They can be changed but it requires completely stripping the pump by a professional.

Tips: - Do not leave the pump on unnecessarily, switch it off when going to bed or when leaving the house. This extends the life of the pump and saves electricity.
- Reduce the cut off pressure (keep the same cut on pressure) of the pump by adjusting the appropriate screws on the pressure control switch. This saves water by having less wastage on taps and the pump also runs less to reach the lower cut off pressure.
- Tighten valves under on sinks or hoses so that a lower pressure comes out even if the tap is opened all the way. This saves water and will even money when the pump is run for less time.

2010 Taurus: How things should be done these days

Earthquake Activity in the Caribbean region

The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) has a nice display of current and past earthquakes from around the globe. The link below shows Central America which includes Trinidad and Tobago and you can press 'Return to World Map' to choose another region
http://www.iris.edu/seismon/zoom/?view=eveday&lon=-64&lat=13

The main page for IRIS is here

I saw Megatron

 
I saw a 10 ton dumper truck named Megatron this morning. It was a light blue and had the logo on it too. I am wondering when the law for illegal stickers etc. will be enforced. A few weeks ago I saw a Bently Continental hard top. I really liked the full width brake lights on top the rear windshield.
Check out the Bentley here

Oath of a Minister in the Parliament

Currently the ministers of the next Cabinet are being sworn in with he following oath:

I (Ryan) do swear by the (holy book) that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Trinidad and Tobago and I will uphold the constitution and the law, that I will conscientiously, impartially, and to the best of my ability discharge my duty as Minister of (Music), and do right to all manner of people without fear or favor, affection or ill will.

The full list of representatives can be seen here

May 26th, 2010

What a day eh? The day the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago is sworn in. The first heavy rain showers of the season and widespread flooding and damage and loss of property. My one week mark for doing the P90X program.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar I think sounded the way a Prime Minister is supposed to sound when she speaks, and says she is going to follow through on her promises. When she was outside after the ceremony she made her body guards loosen the area around her to get more intimate with the barrage of reporters. I think this speaks mountains about her and what we can expect to see with transparency and openness with her government. The first thing the new Prime Minister said is going to deal with is the flooding disaster, see what was immediately needed and put it into action, sounds simple enough. Maybe now the local government will get proper manpower assigned to them. We have more rain on the way so promises need to be kept.

My muscles and ligaments all over are sore from exercising everyday for the last week. The P90X program is about 1 hour workout a day with different routines each day. Yesterday it was my calves in pain, today it is my shoulders. I love the idea of working out without using big machines, only using dumbbells and my own body weight. I still have to get the eating part right as I am still eating a large meal for dinner and junk during the day.

I also watched Slumdog Millionaire last night, good movie. It showed the dirty parts of India without being too dirty. Many people really do have it badly in India and we have it quite well here in Trinidad. Appreciate what we have and do not take it for granted.

Trinidad Election Results 2010

The People's Partnership has won the May 24th 2010 general elections. In fact it was a landslide victory of 29 seats against the PNM's 12 seats. This gives them the coveted two thirds majority to change the constitution.

This national victory is 4 months after the internal elections and the defeat of UNC founder Basdeo Panday with Kamla Persad-Bissessar winning on a 10:1 advantage. This means she has without a doubt the faith of the UNC supporters and now the whole nation in her.

She will be sworn in today as the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Read more about it here http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/nart?id=161677244&weba=NWSNews
and http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161679412

Voter meggie

Juice in a Sony Vaio laptop

This is what happens when you let juice go into your laptop and don't immediately power it off completely and dry it before checking to see if it works. The first picturs is of shorted out resistors. The second is a chip with many pins shorted and burnt next to more shorted resistors. This particular laptop is a Sony Vaio VGN-NS10L (PCG-7144M)

You would think that with all the brains in sony they would put a cover to access the hard drive just as they did with the memory and as most other laptops are made. In order to get this hard drive out I had to remove 25 screws. It is a standard sata hard drive so I cannot imagine why it is not accessible easily like the ram. Bad Sony. The motherboard is mounted upside down so when I tried to boot the machine with the cover open I had to be careful not to shift parts when I opened the laptop to press the power button.

Review: The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans

Waste of time watching this. The iguanas were absolutely unnecessary, then add the bad camera work to it, poor. The Bad Lieutenant Port  of Call New Orleans gets 1 star.

More about FOOD mmmmm

More trini food recipes, for free
http://www.trinigourmet.com/

 

The Naparima Girls Cook Book is around $200 TTD at bookstores in Trinidad but $70 USD for the soft cover right now on amazon.com WOW!

The Uff Report

http://www.knowtnt.com/node/140

Take a read of the report from the above link for serious proof that the current government does not deserve another term in office.

Polar bears and penguins

Polar bears live at the North pole. Penguins live at the South pole. The only time we see them together is in illustrations on ads and post cards which may be why it is not widely known that they live on opposite sides on the globe.
The word 'Arctic' comes from a greek word that means bear and 'Antarctic' comes from a word that means without bear. 

I recommend checking these
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PolarBearsAndPenguins
http://sciencewoman.blogspot.com/2006/11/polar-bears-and-penguins.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic

My Blood Type

My blood type is B+
What's yours?

HP Pavilion dv 6915nr laptop not booting, all lights on steady

I saw an HP Pavilion dv6915nr laptop that was basically not booting. When it was powered on all lights stayed on on steady, no beeps, blank screen. The problem was one of the ram slots is bad. There was one 2gb stick and one 1gb stick installed. In the slot higher off the board both sticks work but the system fails to boot if either stick is placed in the slot closer to the board. The system is stable with one stick so the 2gb stick stays. The machine is running Vista 32 bit SP1.

Trinidad poverty rate

I heard the minister of finance last night saying Trinidad is not being mismanaged and that we have money in the bank and high employment rate. She backed it up with particular numbers from the Central Bank and International reports.

She failed to mention that Trinidad also has a high number of people still below the poverty line. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_pop_bel_pov_lin-economy-population-below-poverty-line

Over $400 BILLION spent and people still suffering. That is gross mismanagement.

We may have a happy and healthy economy but not a happy and healthy population.

How to check for Wifi interference

Many people set up their own wireless networks without being aware of other networks in the area. There are basically 3 non-overlapping channels available. You can use any one but how do you really know which one to choose or which is the least congested and at what times. The most obvious symptom of interference is not seeing the network at all or intermittent dropping. These can also mean a defective access point (AP) or wifi card but I am assuming they are working properly.

You also need to minimise and be aware of interference from other electrical devices as outlined here.

Wifi has intelligent features to be able to work in an area with multiple networks but with more congestion you lose bandwidth and throughput. Your AP will transmit at a slower rate when other AP's are in the area and using similar frequencies. Multiple AP's using the same frequencies is as if each AP is a person talking to someone next to them in a small room. If both talk at the same time(transmit) they will not always be understood by a listener (your computer).

If you stream data via wireless in a congested area you will be bottle necked and might have regular breaks in the video or music as it buffers. If you are just browsing the internet of opening work files via wireless you will probably not notice the bottleneck as these are not as bandwidth intensive as streaming videos or music. The default on most access points is channel 6 so it will probably the most common as most people will not change it.


 inSSIDer is a tool that lets you check for other wifi networks using the wifi card on your own computer. It does not matter who the owner is, your neighbour, work, apartment building, etc. It gives a visual representation of other wifi networks in the area and what channels they use. I am not sure if it detects 'a' and 'n' networks but I am sure it sees 'b' and 'g' networks. Choose a channel that is empty or that has the least activity. If you do not stream from one computer to another via wifi you should at least get your full internet throughput on your wireless device. Check your throughput on www.speedtest.net on a wired computer and then check it on your wireless computer, they should be very similar.

Check out this article to boost your signal strength: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cover-home-find-remove-wireless-blind-spots/

If you like what you read please leave a reaction or comment!

TTD being wasted

http://www.newsday.co.tt/businessday/0,119127.html
http://guardian.co.tt/business/business/2010/01/24/trini-train-track
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/trinidad-chooses-trinitrain/305605.article

Lots has already been spent by the government on the Rapid Rail project and the people of the country have YET TO BE consulted with and the project is destined to cost 10's of Billions to build and maintain. The farmers and their families are unlikely to be fairly compensated and the country will further suffer from a lower supply of crops. I was listening to 103.1 and they had the man who made the original 2020 plan for the PNM government and he said Patrick is not following the plan. First you develop utilities and infrastructure, the people and other assets etc. Lastly, closer to 2020, you build your showpiece capital. Patrick has only used the parts of the plan that suits him best, why was his house the first to be fixed and not the rest of the country. Yes a lot has been spent on community projects and education, but too much wastage and corrupt deals with foreign entities is not what the current government should be asking us to let them keep on doing.

The God of data

           

                  VS

 http://www.alexpooley.com/2008/03/26/google-the-god-of-data/

For some reason I have been wondering who(or what) is the God of Data, or who it should be, as in a mythological person type thing (is that proper English?). I did a search (on google, yes) and found the link above as the first hit, because it seems to be the only page with that title. From the old days you have other Gods as explained here. Currently there is no question that Google is the biggest data monger and is the company others are trying to be. Google has crawlers for the whole net and cached versions of pages kept for who knows how long, no doubt in redundant locations. This along with millions of users' emails accounts each with a capacity of over 7 GB put them in control of an almost unimaginable amount of data. I really hope those negative predictions of them from years ago do not come through. Those predictions were from 5 or more years ago, before Latitude, Maps, Earth, Sky, Blogger, Youtube, Books, Voice, Chrome, Android, Docs, Calendar, Video, Apps marketplace, Code, fee based storage, free email and Sites, etc etc... I probably missed a few too but that is a long list of well used services that has given them more reach than anyone else right now. Microsoft has tried and failed with their remade search engine aka Bing, it looks and maybe even 'feels' better than Google but it does not return results as well. The fact that 'google' was officially made a verb says the company is a household name.

This young generation does not know a world without it, and nothing is wrong with that. Knowledge should be easily accessible to everyone.So far they have seemingly managed to walk the right path for data management. Apps for every kind of device have been put out to make accessing Google easier. They have followed orders to censor sites by the Chinese government although they turned that around recently. It is also quite likely that they work hand in hand with the US and European governments to at least monitor traffic. The Gmail service went down twice that I remember last year but with no reported loss of data, though I'm sure some productivity was lost. Android has so far been a big hit and looks like it will continue to gain momentum as more people see it in action from friends and devices start to come down in prices. I am a fan of their services as they usually get it right, although Wave and Buzz have seemed to not quite cut it.

This article talks about Facebook vs Google. It has been and will continue being a bitter battle as both companies offer unique services but both are chasing revenue from targeted ads. Facebook has work hard to hide its data from Google and you can't blame them as Google digs pretty deep into sites. I can see that the Facebook version of search in the future will be more useful as search results will be more 'localised' with opinions from friends and other people in your region. If they add the depth and scope of a Google search they may have the winning formula down the road. Facebook too keeps data cached and with over 400 million active users it has an astonishing amount of data to dig into. I think one key selling point for both companies is their services are mostly free, you pay for extras but even then it is still cheap.

In the future we can expect apparently a much more diverse set of services from Google. Health (or whatever the name is) will likely be a place to keep your medical records and related data in a central place easily accessible when you need it. Google Energy is going to expand most likely into something on a grand scale and at least allow Google to perhaps be self sufficient and maybe even be able to sell the excess energy. Facebook will eventually allow parental controls and be a serious search engine. It is definitely something exciting to follow.

Both companies trace your movement on the internet, keeping note of where you go, when, for how long and what you say as in the case of your emails being read in Gmail and ads displayed accordingly.Neither of them will ever give up ownership of their data, Google is more open about letting users transfer out and export data but it still keeps it afterwards, Facebook locks you into their site and keeps all data indefinitely.

Right now Google is probably the winner but the battle is on and it will be one of the greatest battles ever.

Trinidad speaks English

I was looking a laptop on the TT version of the Dell site and realised they had a bug in their site, on one page part has English and part Spanish. I of course am perfectly fluent in Spanish so I had no problem with it, but I am sure many other people would be lost. Trinidad is put under the Latin American dell site which is the source of the problem. Dell is not the only one with language problems, I have seen many others in much worse conditions, supposedly localised sites for Trinidad without an option to switch to English from Spanish.

Bulging(swollen) capacitors on Dell motherboard

I worked on a Dell Dimension 8400 with some bad capacitors on the motherboard causing random freezing and crashing. The chip is a P4 with HT and ram is 512mb DDR2 400mhz.The dell board is on a plate that can be removed from the case to work on the motherboard but the holes on the board and plate are non standard. I planned to just switch the board and use the same case but the non standard holes did not allow it so I had to use a new case. I only realised I had to get new ram when the new board would not boot with the dell ram and I checked to realise the board needs 533mhz ram at least and refused to use the Dell 400mhz stick. Thankfully DDR2 is cheap right now so it was easily fixed. The heatsink on the dell was a large heatpipe stack and large fan but with custom holes and mount for the dell board so I am using a stock Core2 Duo heatsink which is a freebie from a friend who used an aftermarket cooler instead.

The state of 4G: it's all about congestion, not speed

A very informative article on current and future cellular technology from http://arstechnica.com

The state of 4G: it's all about congestion, not speed

Modern Warfare 2: WOOOOWWWW

I've been playing this for a couple weeks now, it is so good.

Compromised email account

I got a popup in red at the top of my gmail this morning saying my account was recently used in the US when I was not there, not sure why it is only now showing the warning as the incident is dated march 5th. I have been seeing a popup in yellow for the last couple weeks telling me my alternate email address that I could use to retrieve my password but I thought it was a regular reminder.

El Sistema - We need something like this in Trinidad

If it works everywhere else, it could work here

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/11/60minutes/main4009335.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Sistema

http://elsistemausa.org/

How to open and convert docx or xlsx files for FREE

So you have Microsoft Office 2003 or Offixe XP installed and for years you have been working with no problem and then you get a file that is supposed to open in Word and it can't.

The problem is your version of office does not know how to open the file made in Office 2007 or later which has a default extension .docx for Word files or .xlsx  for Excel files etc.

Office 2003 or XP uses .doc or .xls etc. extensions.

Do NOT pay money to convert files. There are web sites that convert the files for free but if you are critical about privacy this is not an option. There are a few free solutions but these are what I recommend.

• Download and install Open Office which is a suite just like Microsoft Office but it is open source software, so it is totally free, no catch to download and install, no adware, no malware, no popups. The current version 3.2 opens .docx files and allows you to then save in a variety of other formats, though not in .docx. This newly saved file can be opened by anyone with either Microsoft Office or Open Office, or any other appropriate program.
  
  I recommend Open Office as it has a smaller footprint on your computer, using less hard drive space and system resources while it is running. You can install Microsoft Office 2007 but it uses at least twice as much hard drive space and take longer to perform any task compared to Open Office on a machine more than 3 or 4 years old. Did I mention Open Office is free? It is totally legal to share a copy with your friend too. The download and install is easy and straightforward as with most other programs in windows. It also looks and feels just like the MS version. One thing to note, after you install you will want to edit the default Save As type in the options, eg. .doc for word documents, .xls for spreadsheets etc. so that you will always make files other people can open easily by default.
  
  Download Open Office HERE (Download from an http site close to you. The file size is ~150MB)

• Download the official Microsoft patch for Office 2003 or Office XP. If you install this patch without having MS office installed and try to open a .docx file, it will convert the file to .doc and let you save it. If you have MS office installed you can open and/or save .docx files as you would normally do in Word. To create a .docx, choose it in the 'Save as type' when you go to File -> Save As.
  
  This is the simpler option but still leaves you with a heavy program on your system.
  
  Get the patch from HERE. (Click the Download button on the left, it is 37 MB)

Windows 7 feedback form

Have you experienced Windows 7 yet?
Let MS know what you think, just maybe it might count for something.

The input box has a limit to the number of characters it accepts, but micro$oft did not bother to mention what the limit was, so save what you write somewhere else then paste it into the box incase it gets erased when you submit.

http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Windows%207/Feedback.aspx?formID=195

The Right-To-Die Debate

A suicide  advocate from Australia argues for England to make suicides easier to do.

61-year-old driver keeps control of a runaway Prius that reached 94 mph :-| Good job guy!

 

Link to the story here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/09/national/main6281187.shtml

Energizer Battery Charger Has Hidden Trojan

What is the world coming too?

Energizer Battery Charger Has Hidden Trojan

Hangover from eating sugar

Ever noticed that you feel the same way in the morning if you were drinking alcohol or had a lot of sweets the night before? This article explains why.

" Too much alcohol, just like too much sugar, affects your kidneys, liver, stomach and small intestines, which explains some of what is happening in your body. Dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, gastrointestinal disturbances and disruption of sleep are some of the results.
And if you are aware of the symptoms of candida, they too carry a similarity.

Candida floods your body with a toxic by-product called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde produces similar symptoms to an alcohol hangover.

This serious toxin is poisonous to your tissues, is not easily eliminated and accumulates in your brain, spinal cord and muscles. Keeping in mind that your heart and intestines are muscles, you may now understand why you have symptoms of brain fog, muscle weakness and even pain. "

http://www.bodyecology.com/08/09/18/sugar_hangover_physical_emotional_symptoms.php

Bottom line: Sugars are bad for you.

No Lie! Your Facebook Profile Is the Real You

No Lie! Your Facebook Profile Is the Real You

Posted using ShareThis

New Eco-friendly Mustang

Mustang Makes ‘Big Statement’ With Power and MPG

Something I could read

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet

I saw the author on The Daily Show, the book looks really interesting.

--

The world of tomorrow belongs to the person who has the vision today

Playdium Arcade, Gulf View, Trinidad (Behind Sting Nightclub)

May 2014: Playdium has moved to a different building on the same compound. 


The review below is for the old venue.

This game room and restaurant opened last Saturday and I visited on Sunday evening. You have to drive in the entrance in front of Ma Pau and then go to the back of Sting to get there. The parking lot is missing painted lines on the ground so it can be a problem with people who do not park straight and block you somehow or you get boxed in by people who block both ends on a path without watching the other end. Some spots on the road surface was soft and moved when cars drove on it so I imagine it could be messy during the day with heat from the sun making it softer. There is a ramp as well as steps so wheel chair access is easy. There is a guard/ bouncer at the door. Inside, there is one large open room with games to the right and food to the left. After the initial awe of noise and blinking lights I realised the games were limited. Tokens are $20 for 8 and most games (the good ones anyway) are 4 tokens to play.

There is a handful of regular joystick and button game boxes and the rest are more immersive. The most fun one seems to be a simulation where you sit in a mock Hummer (there is space for 2 in the ride) and drive through a stage. The seats are articulated and move all directions to give the feeling of being in the vehicle. Then there is another simulation where 2 people lie back on the seats and it moves to simulate a roller coaster. Fans that blow air on you during the ride. I do not see the sense of rides like these because we already have bad roads, dangerous drivers, poorly maintained cars, steep hills etc on our roads. Take a normal drive on many of our roads and your get more value for money. The games are obviously targeted for people who are not accustomed to our regular driving conditions.

In one row has 4 or 5 simulation shooting games, you get a gun and have to aim and kill the enemies, 2 tokens per play. Need for Speed Carbon is a car racing game with a cockpit style wheel and pedals that can be linked for 4 players or independently. I can't remember the price to play.

Further along there are 4 air hockey tables, 4 tokens to play. Then comes a 2 lane mini bowling alley that is poorly lit. I suspect it is intentionally so to hide the unevenness of the lanes as it was hard to get the balls to keep straight, or maybe the balls are not balanced, either way, 4 tokens to play per lane. Three strength games rate you, one you hit a hammer on a pad, one you box a target and the other you kick a football. You can race to fill a target with a water cannon, jump rope (lights), shoot out a horse's teeth or stop a running light on a target for tickets.

The biggest game physically I think was the pirates theme styled shooting gallery. 4 tokens give you 20 shots and you see how many targets you can hit to win a prize of tickets. You get tickets for playing some games and there are a couple ticket stations that eat your tickets and spit out a nice small receipt for the tickets it ate. The lower (affordable) prizes are the regular disappointing  cheap plastic non-sense or sweets or stationery. The better prizes are 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 tickets etc. By the time you do get that amount you would have spent well over the worth of the prize itself.

The food is one counter and a wide area with seats and tables. I didn't check the menu or check out the prices. You get a chance to win a Toyota MR5 car when you spend $40 or more on food according to a banner, but it didn't say when the draw was or any other details and I didn't ask. There were a set of rooms above a part of the games with glass walls that advertised space for rent so there may be more attractions to come and 3 or 4 similar rooms were also along the side of the arcade.

This is a good way to sink allot of money without realising it and it does offer an experience like nowhere else in Trinidad. The setting resembles a mini Dave and Busters in the US. Note that there is the other new arcade Fun Station behind KFC which was open for a few months now. They have different games so it is what you prefer. I will not be visiting either of them again soon because I prefer to game on my new PC.


Update 3rd May 2010:

I heard the food tastes good, you pay by the weight, call it approx. $35 a box.

Update 18th July 2010:
Their official website is http://playdiumtrinidad.com/

Update: 4th September 2012
There have been a few new games installed and a bumper car section that takes 4 tokens for approx. 5 mins.

 You may also like:
Zip lining
Caroni Bird Sanctuary tour
Top things to know about Tnt
Aerial tours

Google lets your data roam free

http://dataliberation.blogspot.com/2010/01/stickers-from-data-liberation-farms.html

 

cool stickers

Italian verdict on Google privacy sets dangerous precedent

Content providers are responsible for what users upload? RUBBISH

Italian verdict on Google privacy sets dangerous precedent

Australian IT news

Australian IT news

http://whirlpool.net.au/

Google Buzz- Prepare to be violated ppl

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-10451428-256.html

I only read about all this today, wish I knew sooner

Hum tum

This was the best thing to watch on tv tonight and it was nice. It was
released in 2004 and has the usual drama and a couple songs but all
bearable. I recommend it.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hum_Tum

Shooting star over Princes Town

Last night I saw a shooting star above Princes Town. It was going from
west to east. It was the brightest one I've ever seen, so it had to be
a big meteor. I saw it for about probably 5 seconds before it went out
of view behind a house. The brightness fluctuated while I watched it,
it was hard to miss if you did not see it at first. I made my wish a
few minutes later when I remembered, will I still get it?

Monitor going blank but not turning off, xfx 5770 catalyst 10.1, win 7, fixed with 10.2

So you set "Turn off monitor" to a sane value like 10 minutes and your lcd monitor goes blank but you can still see light coming from it, the backlight is still on. This defeats the purpose of the function as power is still going to the main power drainer, the backlight. I have this problem and I am using an XFX HD-577X-ZNFC with Catalyst drivers 10.1 on Windows 7 64 bit. I read on a forum that this is only an issue as of 10.1, if you use the previous driver (9.12) you will not have this problem. As of today, the 17th February 10.2 is released and I installed it and the problem no longer exists, the lcd goes off as it should.

Choose your version of Catalyst driver here: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Sleep and hibernate work as they should and the monitor goes off as expected. I use a Dell S2209w that goes into "Power Save Mode" when it is not being used by the PC and the lit power button on the bottom right goes from white to orange when not in use.

i5 gaming rig build Feb 2010

I put together a new pc last week with the following specs:

Intel i5 750 (quad core, 2.66Ghz, turbo boost)
4GB DDR3 RAM (Corsair XMS3 1600mhz)
XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon gpu (XFX 5770, 1gb, DX 11)
Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 H57 motherboard (usb3, 7.1 audio, xfire, raid)
WD WD1001FALS 1 TB SATA hard drive (7200rpm, sata2)
OCZ OCZ600MXSP ModXStream Pro psu (600w, modular, 80+)
Thermaltake VI1000NWS M9 case (2 x 120mm fan, toolless, bought locally)

The parts I already have are:
Logitech MX518 mouse
Dell S2209w 22" LCD (5ms, 1080p, DVI-D)
Logitech x530 speakers (5.1, 70w rms)
MS Keyboard
Sony MDR-XD200 headphones
500VA UPS
HP 3050 AIO


Most things were ordered from amazon.com and in abount 8 days after ordering it I had it here in Trinidad. This was after free shipping from amazon. The system came alive after my second attempt to power it up. The first time I did not switch the power supply on. All parts ram straight out of the box. The only thing I changed for specs was to select an XMP to get the memory up to 1600mhz from the 1300mhz it was on.

Windows 7 took some extra long pauses when setting up but it went smoothly. After I loaded up the drivers I loaded a couple games. NFS Shift runs well although I just played for a few mins. I am playing Wolverine:  X-Men Origins now. It is now an 'old' game but looks amazing. I have seen slowdonw in a couple seems with water and fighting, but for stock settings... WOW. Pics and benchmarks will be up soon.
 
Here is a screenshot of the the win 7 assessment with stock settings.

The motherboard came in its own box. The ram was the smallest package as expected, althought it could have been smaller if the package was made for only 2 sticks instead of 3.

The gpu had the most sturdy box of the lot.

The hard drive was just the drive in a static bag in a 'padded' cardboard box, true OEM style. No cables etc. The motherboard came with 2 sata cables and the case came with plenty screws so no problem here.

This is a shot of the back ports on the motherboard. The next shot is a closeup of the cpu area on the mobo.

The GPU has the egg shaped cooler setup which I read is the 'revised' version. The back of it has nothing worth mentioning. It comes with a 6 pin PCI-E power adapter but my supply has 2 of these built in so I will not use the adapter. There is also a DVI to VGA adapter. The card is 2 slots tall so I had to remove one back panel cover, one was missing already.

This cooler design does not push air straight out the back of the case as the other cooler did but I guess with my case fans I should be okay.

I am using the stock cooler to see what results I get and decide if i need to upgrade it. The gray 3 sectioned circle is thermal paste exactly as it was shipped to me. The fan is a 4 pin connector, so it can be throttled as necessary.

The power supply comes with a carrying case for the unused cables and a standard 3 pin power cord. One point to note is as I was lining it up to screw it onto the case, I scraped a bit of paint off the power supply where it rubbed on the case. There was no force applied, I was just sliding the case around to line up the screw holes. Be careful when attaching the power supply to your case.

The Thermaltake M9 case is a decent case. The worst aspect I think is the hard drive attachment method. You have to load your HD into a 3 storey case that has a fan attached to the front. This case fits into the 5.25inch slot area and is held in place with plastic clips. The clips line up with the standard screw holes and the middle turns to lock/unlock the clip onto the case. Standard HD screws are used to keep the HD in the tray and the opening to attach the screw coupld have been much wider to maybe use your fingers, instead you are forced to use your screw driver to balance the screw into place.

If you have more than one HD, in order to take it out you must remove the 3 drive tall tray from the case. If you have a long video card or alot of cable this can be a problem if the tray is not placed in the lowest slots, even then it can be difficult. The clips are only used on one side but I think they are sufficient. I did have to take a riser from my old case to keep the board from flexing in the case. I used all the risers from the M9 bag-o-screws-n' stuff and there are 6 built in risers in the case (of which I used 4) but one corner was still left unsupported. Lucky thing for old spare parts. The M9 includes a single 3.5 or 2.5 to 5.25 inch adapter tray to use for a card reader or floppy drive. This is what takes up the top open space in the pic below. This too is held in by the same clips used for all the other slots. I took it out and put my burner here. The two fans that come with the M9 use big 4 pin pass through connectors so their rpm cannot be monitored. The cables going to the front of the case for USB, audio, power sw etc are long enough to get snaked around the outside of the motherboard. The right side of the case does not have any channels to pass wires behind or under the board to make it neater.

Link to other m9 VI1000NWS review here