Fixed my PS3

Worked with Tom Haynes. It was so much fun. Tom has a workshop setup to
work on all the electronic stuff. Very cool.

Symptom:
Nothing happens when powered on, no lights, no sounds, out of warrenty.

How we fixed it:
We opened it up and clearned it.
We found there is no DC output from the main power source
We tried various way to power the system up with other power sources to make sure the system is fine.
We use current limit device to power it but the current is not big enough.
We use the 12v connector from PC ATX power and tried to power it up, it didn't
quite work since we don't have the power for the control panel.
We found the original power source for the control panel was working and when we
connected it to system and turn it on, we found the main power source also started working.
We problem fixed it just by cleaning and tightening up a few connections.
It continued to working after we put it together.
Saved me $150 (Sony's standard fixing fee)

Things you should do in a week:

Get sun burned on Sunday.
Make money on Monday.
Twitter on Tuesday.
Get marrid on Wednesday.
Drink nothing on Thursday.
Eat toast on Friday.
Don't lie down on Saturday.

PS3, XBOX 360, Netflix

Got PS3 and xbox 360 together and have been playing with both of them.
xbox 360
pro:
has more game selection - does matter to me since i don't play that many games
streams netflix pretty well, it even supports jump among tracks

PS3:
can play blue ray, which has amazing picturs
con:
cannot stream nexflix. It could be made to indirectly using a PC running a media server, such as playon. However the performance was not satisfying - it pauses sometime and you cannot fast forward/backward at well.

Setting up 51mike in dual monitor mode

After two nights of trial and error, i finally set up my online KaraOK system to play one dual monitor - one monitor shows the video playing and the other monitor shows the playlist.

PS. The KaraOK system I use is from www.51mike.com. It cost less than $20 to become a life time member!

To enable the dual monitor mode, you first need your video card support. In my case, i have an ati card, so you need to enable its theater mode - download its control center and under video category, enable theater mode.
also, you need to enable your windows media player's overlay mode, since 51mike software uses that internally. In my case, i am using windows media player 10. Go to tools -> option, performance , advanced , video acceleration and check use overlay.

Trip to Santa Cruz

Last weekend, went to santa cruz beach.
Went to the beach close to the town, which seemed to be quite crowded, since there was an amusement park there.

Then i went to the light house beach, where there is a light house and many people were surfing there.

Finally, I went to the natural bridge beach, where there is a big piece of rock shaped like a bridge.

The west cliff drive was a nice drive with good view and it would be ideal for a walk/biking as well.

AdSense Tryout

The following is a test for my Ad Sense Training
I used to have a nissan Altima, it broken down
Then I had a Ford Explorer, I sold it
Right now, I have a Toyota corrola
Are you looking for your perfect car?

Randy Pausch's talk

Today , i listened to Randy Pausch's talk, an CS professor with amazing achievements. there are several things i learned from his talk:
1. if you don't like someone, wait long enough and you will see the good side of it
2. working is having fun
3. "what's your secrete of success"
call my office Friday 10pm and i will tell you about it