Apple has updated their product tech spec info

Posted on 05/02/2012 | Leave a comment

I noticed that all the battery life information on the Apple Mac Book products line has been updated. I remember previously they have listed the battery life of a MacBook Air is 10 hours. However, ever since their Battery Problem on Lion, a lot of reports/complaints about battery life. What happened now after they released 10.7.3?? IMO, They are unable to fix the battery problem, but changed their product spec from 10 hours to 7 hours.

I have downloaded the 10.7.3 on my 2011 MBP, when I was using 10.6.8, I could easily get 7 – 8 hours of battery life. After installed the 10.7 (Lion), my battery life dropped to 2 hours only. And then after applying the SMC reset fix, it can last up to 5 hours.

I am testing it with 10.7.3 with 50% brightness, fully charged, 1 hour of web browsing on WiFi, it dropped 15%. So 10.7.3 can improve a little bit of battery life. In my test, it can run for approximately 7 hours.

There are a lot discussions on the net about this Lion Battery Problem. Someone even test this by re-installing the OS, compare SL and Lion. In all the tests people have done, Lion uses more power and need more battery. I think this may be one of the reason, Apple updated the web site, MBA battery from 10hours down to 7hours (due to the bad Lion OS).

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Mac OS 10.7.3 is released. Will that fix the battery problem?

Posted on 05/02/2012 | 1 comment

I’ve just realised Apple has released 10.7.3 update for Lion OS. I have been reading / searching for the update about the battery problem. I did mention that the SMC reset fixed my battery problem, that fix plus the gfxCardStatus Apps helps a lot to improve battery life. However, my MBP is never able to reach that battery life prior to the Lion upgrade.

I am going to download the new update, have the MBP reset back to factory and test the battery life again.

According to Apple, the 10.7.3 will fix the following….
Add Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian language support
Address issues when using smart cards to log into OS X
Address compatibility issues with Microsoft Windows file sharing
Address an issue printing Microsoft Word documents that use markup
Address a graphics performance issue after sleep on some earlier iMacs that use ATI graphics

Resolve a Wi-Fi connection issue when waking from sleep
Address an issue that may prevent Safari from opening before joining a wireless network
Fix a potential issue authenticating to an SMB DFS share
Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras

The graphics performance issues may be related to the battery problem, I will see if that fix the battery problem.

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Posted in Mac Stuff

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Print Screen (Screen Capture) on Mac OS X

Posted on 03/02/2012 | 1 comment

There are few ways to do screen capture in Mac OS X.
Follow the steps below and you will be able to do a screen capture in Mac OS X.

Switch to the screen that you want to do screen capture
Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 3 and release all
then use your mouse to click on the screen
Done. You will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture.

You can also do a screen capture for a portion of your screen.
Switch to the screen that you want to do screen capture
Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 4 and release all key
Now, You will see the mouse cursor will change to +
You can start to drag your mouse to select the portion you wish to capture.
Once finish, you will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture!

If you want to do a screen capture for a particular application window, you can follow this:-
Switch to the screen that you wan to to do screen capture
Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 4 and release all key
Now, You will see the mouse cursor will change to +
Press the space bar once
You will see the mouse cursor change to a camera
Now you can use the camera to select which application window to screen capture
Once finish, you will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture!

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Real Life Fuel Consumption on Lexus CT200h

Posted on 01/02/2012 | 4 comments

Before I get the CT200h, I have already done some research on the web about the fuel consumption. According to the owners in Australia, they are getting 5.2 – 5.5 L/100km. I also get some information from the overseas forums people in Taiwan and Hong Kong are able to achieve 4.1 – 4.5L/100km. There was an extreme case that someone in Taiwan filled up 44.75 Litre and drove for 1208km.

Now I have got my Lexus CT200h, it is time for me to find out the real fuel consumption. In Australia the official fuel consumption claim is 4.1L/100km. I have done 7000km since I had the car. I have driven that in all sort of situations. My experience of real world fuel consumption as follows:

Freeway drive (Hume Hwy from Sydney to Wagga Wagga) at 110km/h = 5.5L/100km

Metro Area Drive with speed limit at 70km/h – 4.2 – 4.7 L/100km

City Drive with always run out of battery and a lot of start/stop pattern 4.8 – 5.2L/100km

The above figure were my best achievement with Eco Mode and slow acceleration. I tried to minimize to put full throttle all the time and try to keep the car accelerate within the Eco section in the dash (you get blue light when you are within the Eco section).

My friend who drives the same car as me, his fuel consumption read 5.3L/100km. He accelerates normally and using normal mode without paying too much attention to save fuel. The Lexus CT200h can do over 800km a tank if you pay some attention during your acceleration, otherwise, the fuel consumption will be above 5L/100km.

Ever since I have my Lexus CT200h, the worst consumption record per tank was 4.9L/100km. The best consumption I have achieved per tank was 4.2L/100km.

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Posted in Transport

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My New Photo Album

Posted on 01/02/2012 | Leave a comment

I have been looking for a way to share some of the photos I have taken and allowing people to see them, rate them and make comment on them. Finally, I found a WordPress Theme to do that and I have created an online album to put not only my photos but also my friend’s photo online. For people from different part of the world to allow to rate and make comment on them.

The url is http://foto.howardtang.com

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Google Adsense does work….

Posted on 31/01/2012 | 1 comment

When you see this post, I believe you have found this via google search or by other cross-link from other web sites.

The reason that I write this post is because I am so suprised with the money generated in Google Adsense. I have opened a Google Adsense Account for many years. I have my own blog for a while back in 2007, however, I have never updated it regularly. Hence, I have never seen any income on the Adsense portal.

Last year, I have written something about the Mac Book Pro Battery Problem after upgarde to Lion Operating System. The number of visitors come to my blog jumped up from 1 digit to over 3 digits daily. Of course not everyone will click on the Google ads, but I still get 4 – 10 clicks every month from that onwards. This blog is now generating $4 a month. It is not an income that can support my living, however, it will be a good motivation for me to write more stuff.

Thank you for visiting my blog. You may not get any usefull information. However, your visit motivates me to write more stuff in here. 🙂

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First taste of a New Shanghaiese Restaurant in Chatswood – Shanghai Stories 1938

Posted on 30/01/2012 | Leave a comment

I went shopping with my wife last weekend in Chatswood. At around lunch time, we felt hungry and we decided to have a shanghaiese lunch at New Shanghai Restaurant. However, there was a very long queue so we decided to have lunch somewhere else.

While we were walking towards Chatswood Chase, we saw a new Shanghaiese Restaurant called Shanghai Stories 1938 in the new building off Victoria Ave. We then changed our mind to have lunch in there.

We ordered the traditional Shanghaiese Dishes – Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Pork and Broth Bun) and Pan Fried Pork Bun.

The food there are nice, although the price is a bit more expensive than New Shanghai Restaurant, however, what you pay is what you get. You get BETTER service, BETTER food, Cleaner environment.

We only paid $35.4 for 2 persons, including tea and 5 different dishes(dim sum).

I will definately go again in the near future and I highly recommend this restaurant for people who like Shanghaiese food.

Their web site address is http://shanghaistories1938.com.au/

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IPv6 no longer supported on my blog……

Posted on 11/12/2011 | Leave a comment

I have received a few emails about my blog not support IPv6. Yeah, you are right, my blog no longer support IPv6. The reason is because the VPS my web site is running on doesn’t support Tunnel. I tried to get around it but unfortunately, the ISP has never come back to me with a solution.

I am sorry for those who are trying to connect to my blog via IPv6. I will seek for another solution to have my IPv6 Switch on again.

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Posted in Network Engineering

How does group deal web site damage your business? Part 2

Posted on 04/12/2011 | Leave a comment

The deals web sites ripped off the business owners. This doesn’t really cause any damage to your business. The real damage to your business is the reputation.

Why? A service or a product was normally selling at $40, but now a customer and use $20 to buy it. Let’s think this from a customer’s prospective…… This is a ripped off, it is now selling at $20 and I believe the company is still profitable but this was selling that at $40. Customer will not come to buy that service/product for the original price again.

This may not cause major impact to businesses that sell products, but it definitely cause damage to businesses that sell service.

People who bought the deal will go to your shop to get the service that they paid for (at a 50% discount price). Will they come again? As far as what I have got told from my friends.. NOPE. Those customers who bought deals will not come back again.

Most of the people who bought deals from those deals web site are “DEAL Hunters”. They hunt for cheap deals and get cheap service. When your service is not selling at discount price, they will not come.

So if your intention is to draw more customers from those daily deals web site, don’t bother to try them. As you will not get any promotion effect out of it. To run a business, you want return customers, you don’t want someone just come once because your price is cheap and never come again.

As a conclusion, daily deals will not help your business, but make you to do something for nothing, sometimes, you even spend money for nothing. You may consider a proper advertisement to advertise your business instead of running deals.

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How does group deal web site damage your business? Part 1

Posted on 30/11/2011 | 1 comment

Business Owners who want to promote their business by offering some discount deal to attract more customers. Most of them will use the popular group deals web sites, for example : groupgo.com.au, groupon.com.au, scoopon.com.au, livingsocial.com.au, deals.com.au, Spreets.com.au, etc.

There are thousands of daily deals web sites nowadays, however, NONE of them will help your business. Why I would make a comment like this??

I have friends who run different sort of businesses around Sydney and engaged the above group deals web sites to promote their businesses. The business types include beauty salons, nail make up, hair salons, restaurants, products, etc.

Your business need to qualify to be advertised on their platforms, most of them request you to provide AT LEAST 50% discount. Secondly, your business need to be interested to their audients. If the number of purchase is less than 100 in the first hour after they listed the deals, your deal will be cancelled. Thirdly, the deals web site often ask for commission up to 50% of the deal.

Let us do a calculation here. If you have a service or product which normally sells for $40, when you list this on those deals web sites, you have to sell it at $20 and up to $10 need to pay as a commission to the web site owner. As a result, a normal $40 service, you only get $10 back. In a normal business operation, business owner will mark up the price for a profit, now you have to ask yourself, in my example can $10 cover your cost for a $40 service/product.

In other words, there is a chance for each deal purchase, you are losing money. The winner will be the web site owners because they do nothing but just sitting there making money from their referrals.

I still haven’t answered my own question how does that damage your business…. Will be continue in Part 2.

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