House of Chua - Jeffrey Chua » Reviews

Asus Xonar DX

Jeffrey Chua — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:06:10 +0000

After reading so much bad reviews of the onboard sound chip, i finally decided to get a standalone sound card. I also gained insight into the different pricing strategy:

1. Expensive and Very Good

2. Expensive and No Good

3. Cheap and Good

4. Very Cheap and Never Good

I decided on the ASUS Xonar DX after reading some reviews online. This sound card is not a latest technology product. In fact it was selling since 2008. I did not do much homework on this. You can google/yahoo it to find them.

It belongs to the Cat 3 above. I bought it with some interesting encounter. ..

I went to the shop to check out. The shop was selling it at a much higher price. So i confronted the seller

“Hey, your website priced it at $$$”

Seller: “The best price is >$$$” (112% of website price)

“Then i don’t want it”

Seller: “Please wait for a while” Made a phone call. “It’s a deal if you can pay by cash”

“Deal”

ASUS Xonar DX

It is cheap but the build quality is there. Just look like all the solid state capacitors. No wonder ASUS can provide 3 years warranty!I wonder why Creative is not using them? Food for their thought.

So i hooked it up to my Roland MA-12C monitor speakers i got more than 10 years ago. They are still working and they are Made in Japan.

I tried playing different style of music with it and they are really clean (the front channel is 116db SNR). When i played my dance songs (all the 10 standard dances , the beats are so clean, i wonder whether my ears have improved. I realised i have been using inferior product for the past 3 years! *HORROR*

Series of product failure – DVD writer issue

Jeffrey Chua — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:59:48 +0000

I made a honest mistake and bought a wrong dvd writer. I have mistaken the Labeltag (from Lite-on) and Labelflash (from Yamaha) to be the same.

Nevertheless, i noticed i have been able to copy the Japan Hour image from the DVD recordable at 5 mins! When i was still on the old IDE writer, i need around 30 mins to copy 2 x 1 GB files. When i used my USB external writer, i can copy the same files in around 17 mins. This new SATA writer can do it so fast!

Pioneer DVR-S18L

Good buy!

Series of product failure

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100

Jeffrey Chua — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:47:25 +0000

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100

I decided to pick up the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100 to many people’s surprise. Below are my initial impression of this product:

1. Physical

Very light – It weighs just 540 grams (with battery). The bulk of the construction is plastic which means “not so good” to some people. BUT it depends on how you see this area. Do you want to bring a much heavier camera such as the commonly used magnesium alloy that weighs around 1 kg? I have used a setup that consisted of a DSLR + 70 – 200mm lens that weighs 2.5 kg. It became 15 kg when fatigue came in. The good news is this is Made in Japan. So we can rest assure of the quality.

2. Bundled gift

For my package, it came with a Kingston 8GB SD card and a simple case. This Kingston SD card is also Made in Japan. Isn’t this rare?

Kingston SD card

I bought an expensive B+W UV filter to protect the lens. This is my first experience with Panasonic. Below is my initial usage impression:

What is good about it?

1. 25mm wide angle – please do not buy those with 35mm wide.

2. Flip out 3.0″ LCD – Useful for low or high shooting. Also can be use for self shoot.

3. Leica lens

4. 24x Optical Zoom

5. Full Manual Control

6. Full HD Movie – Simply superb quality.

7. 11 fps Burst Shooting – Others paid $6000 for 10 fps.

9. 1 cm Marco shoot

10. Built in EVF view finder – This is cool but i wonder how many people will use it.

What is not so good?

1. Very noisy after ISO 400 – It support ISO 6400 but i have not tried yet.

2. Irritating focus assist light

I am still trying to figure out the sweet spots of this camera. Hopefully i can bring it out for field shooting tomorrow.

Going from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet

Jeffrey Chua — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 03:10:00 +0000

My first Gigabit switch, D-Link DGS-1005D

D-Link DGS-1005D

I ran into challenges when i tried to implement my vision of a central storage with hardware redundancy. I tried to move my RAID 1 (or mirrored) 1.5TB hard drives from my PC to the D-Link DNS-323. The hard drives already contained around 1.3TB of data that i have collected from the past years. The backup was painfully long and made me think twice about data restoration. What if i upgrade to gigabit network? You know, just a small high speed data high way between the DNS-323 and my PC so that i can transfer my backup data quickly between the two devices? I decided to do some experiment with the result below:

100 Mbit (My Prolink H9300G ASDL router)

Direction	Data Size	Time (seconds)	Throughput (Mbit/sec)
NAS to Windows	1.2GB	180.8	68.68
Windows to NAS	1.2GB	196.2	63.29
NAS to Windows	83.3MB	9.8	85.8
Windows to NAS	83.3MB	12.7	66.53

Gigabit

Direction	Data Size	Time (seconds)	Throughput (Mbit/sec)
NAS to Windows	1.2GB	140.1	88.64
Windows to NAS	1.2GB	169	73.45
NAS to Windows	83.3MB	9.5	88.63
Windows to NAS	83.3MB	11.6	72.43

Gigabit with Jumbo Frames

Jumbo Frames 4088

Direction	Data Size	Time (seconds)	Throughput (Mbit/sec)
NAS to Windows	1.2GB	144.4	85.99
Windows to NAS	1.2GB	149.1	83.29
NAS to Windows	83.3MB	6.5	129.22
Windows to NAS	83.3MB	9.2	91.49

Jumbo Frames 9014

Direction	Data Size	Time (seconds)	Throughput (Mbit/sec)
NAS to Windows	1.2GB	113.208	109.69
Windows to NAS	1.2GB	229.630	53.9
NAS to Windows	83.8MB	7.7	109.08
Windows to NAS	83.8MB	13.098	64.0

I tried to transfer the files using WS_FTP. You will notice that the throughput change from fast ethernet to gigabit ethernet is NOT 10 times.

D-link DNS-323 problems

Jeffrey Chua — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:45:14 +0000

D-link DNS-323

I picked up my new toys on thursday night. That was the first day of the Comex 2010. I only managed to get the D-link DNS-323 and a portable 1TB hard drive (Made in Japan).My initial impression of the device is it is very well built. It did not feel cheapskate like most of the things “Made in China”.

D-link DNS-323

After some lengthy backup of my Tera-Byte data, i moved the 1.5TB hard drives into the DNS-323. The installation guide was simple to follow. Now i am restoring my data back for the RAID1 protection. My router is transferring data at 30GB in 30 mins. Another 64mins to finish the transfer, maybe i should get a Gigabyte switch or router next.

So far i have encountered a problem. Problem 1.

When i shutdown my PC and the DNS-323, i will not be able to connect to the mapped drive. I can ping the IP of the DNS-323 but i just could not connect to the previously mapped drive letter. I noticed the DNS-323 is missing from my network neighborhood. I did some check and suspect it was the hostname to IP resolution. I saw it has appeared in the network neighborhood. I will reboot my PC after the current data restore. Yes! It fixed the problem.

I encountered the next problem when i tried to restore my data back to the DNS-323. Problem 2.

The transfer is super slow. I got close to a Tera Byte to transfer! Another idea appeared in my mind. Why not i upgrade my LAN to gigabit network? I checked the cheapest D-Link gigabit switch and found a 5 port D-link DGS-1005D at $65 to build my data super highway. Hey! I am becoming a D-Link supporter. Off i go to Comex 2010 again. Hit and run and also picked up 2 CAT5e cables. The crowd was terrible.

D-Link DGS-1005D

Just for laugh:

While squeezing in the crowd, you get to hear and see strange things.

1. “Did you smell something? I think someone just fart.” “A lot of green vegetable smell…”"

D-Link DGS-1005D

So i got home and plug in my new Gigabit switch and try again. No improvement. I did some calculation, the uploading speed really sucks! I am uploading at 6.67 Mbps only! I start to do more research online. See my other article on “Going from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet”.

Just i thought i have wasted my $65 on something that can’t improve my situation, i managed to track the problem down to the firewall. The Zone Alarm firewall was causing all this upload slowdown. There were many articles online by other users. After i disabled it, my upload speed jumped more than 10 times. YEAH!

Mac os x on netbook pc – hackintosh

Jeffrey Chua — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:57:16 +0000

For the past few weeks i have been reading up on the Mac OS X. I read of OS names like Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. I also read of people paying for the original OS or downloading hacked version to install on the normal netbooks and pc. The result is called a Hackintosh.

Mac is Unix based and we know many good things about Unix. It boot up fast and rarely give blue screen. Mac on the other hand is well known for its nice user interface.

So for the past few weeks i tried to download some images to test. The images are not small but range from 1.4GB to 7.3GB. This is the first time i deal with those .dmg (or compressed Apple format) and many more times with the ISO format. First is trying to convert the DMG to ISO and then comparing the MD5 checksum to verify the images have not been tampered with. All the images did not match their MD5. I also had a few coaster of DVD+DL discs. They failed to work.

I was about to give up when i found an image for my trusty old netbook. It was Asus’s first netbook, an Eee PC 701 with the 4GB SSD. The image was an outdated Mac OS X and some of the hardware such as ethernet and wifi were not working. Please tell me what is the image good for if the particular two devices are not working???

I decided to proceed and try to load it into the netbook. Goodbye Ubuntu 10.04. I was testing Ubuntu a few weeks before. This is really unsuitable for the normal IT folks or my skill must have degraded. I managed to load ity after some struggle with the boot image program. Then with some good luck, i plug in the extra wifi dongle i had. The Dlink DWL-G122 works! I need not need to do anything extra. Yes! I have a working hackintosh! A second life for my netbook.

Unless you have amber of free time or serious to learn some advance installation, then taking on this project may be suitable for you. If not, you are better off to buy a real Mac.

Hackintosh netbook

—

This article was written with the hackintosh netbook.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

Jeffrey Chua — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:43:37 +0000

It is very interesting to observe how a company is selling their new products nowaday.

Panasonic Lumix LX5

Current known launch dates:

Japan - 20 Aug 2010. It is OUT! O-U-T!!

USA – late Aug 2010. Consumer has yet to see it.

Singapore – 14 September 2010. The Panasonic Singapore has put up a website to count down the release. (Click on the Panasonic Singapore link).

Personally I think Panasonic can do better by launching a global release date but they could be doing so intentionally to create the hype. For those desperate to put their hands on it, they will not hesitate to buy it from Japan. I have seen those Japanese shooting with it and sharing the pictures.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100

What to consider before buying an Apple IPad?

Jeffrey Chua — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:35:36 +0000

Apple iPad

The Apple iPad is a impressive product and it came in different prices due to Wifi 3G features and amount of memory onboard.

1. Determine why you need an iPad?

What is the primary reason of usage? Is it for reading ebooks? Is it for games? Is it for internet? Is it for photos?

2. Determine how long you intend to use it?

We call this “rate of deppreciation” in accounting. It also start you thinking how much data storage you need. What you are putting in could double or triple in the 2nd or 3rd year. In addition, if you need to use it for more than a year, you may want to consider to extend the warranty if possible to safe guard your purchase. I almost want to use the word “investment” but iPad is NOT an investment. All digital products have no investment value.

3. If you need it for photo sharing

Check to see whether it can support your camera’s format. Most cameras support JPEG format, no issue for that. But I like to shoot Canon RAW format, so some homework to do. Also you need to check out the accessories to allow you to transfer the photos into the iPad.

4. If you need it for reading ebook

Check whether your ebook format is supported. If not, how to get it to support? The current most popular format is PDF.

Ask around, ask the Apple staffs, as the Apple representatives before you make your purchase.

What to buy next and reasons

Jeffrey Chua — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 08:38:42 +0000

This could be my biggest expenses for the year 2010. I have many things to buy on hand. Here is my hi-tech shopping list:

1. Panasonic Lumix LX5 (YES! I am going travel soon!)

Panasonic Lumix LX5

A new compact camera to replace my 3 years old Fujifilm F31fd. Why i chose Panasonic Lumix LX5 is because of the below strong reasons:

i. 1:1 format. I like to experience with square pictures without post processing.

ii. Long battery life just like my trusty Fujifilm F31fd.

iii. Movie recording on AVCHD.

iv. Leica len! What else?!

v. I did not own a Panasonic Lumix LX3. Wahaha…

2. Dlink DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure

Dlink DNS-323

I have been toying with the idea of moving my mirrored hard drives from my PC to external for very long time. Recently due to some issues, i caused the mirrored to be broken. This is a good opportunity to redo my data protection with a central storage concept. Why i chose Dlink DNS-323 is because of the below strong reasons:

i. CHEAP! It is the cheapest in the market right now. I am holding my purchase till the coming COMEX 2010.

ii. No hard drives purchase needed. My current 1.5TB hard drives are certified.

iii. Colleague’s strong recommendation. He used one himself and is a very satisfied user.

3. Lite-On LabelTag writer drive

Lite-On LabelTag

I have tried those CD label stickers and those LightScribe burning. They are still not good in my opinion. Why i need to buy a new drive is because of the below strong reasons:

i. The old Lite-On is dying! Yes, i am very certain and it support LightScribe.

ii. Time to move onto SATA bus.

Good inspiring books to share

Jeffrey Chua — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:17:24 +0000

Great men read great books?… or men became great after reading great books?… or men became great after great men wrote great books?… or men became great after great men shared their books? Hmm…

Here is a list of great books recommended by my sifu:

1. The master plan to success – Napoleon Hill

Hard to find but i have placed my order.

2. Think and grow rich – Napoleon Hill

3. The master key system – Charles F Haanel

For Entrepreneur-to-be,

4. The E-Myth – Michael E. Gerber

I will provide a short review after i have read the books.

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