Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Micro dusts on the sensors of mirroless cameras

All the Olympus, Panasonic and Sony mirroless cameras share one thing: out of box, there are some micro dusts on their sensors:


To check the sensor dusts: set camera to manual focus mode and focus to infinite; set camera mode to aperture priority and set aperture to f/22 or the smallest; set zoom to 50mm equivalent or so. Open Notepad on your computer and maxmize it so you get a white screen. Put your camera possible to the white screen, take a shot while moving the camera slowly from the left to the right. Now open this image in XnView (or Photoshop), click Image, Map, Automatic Levels. Then you'll see something like above. The black dots you see are the dusts on the sensor, a dot on the left upper corner will appear at the right bottom on the sensor, vice versa.

To remove the dusts, you need these:


Don't use an Alcohol that contains either too much or too less water. Never touch the cotton tips to keep them from oil. Shake the swab as hard as you can to drain out extra alcohol before its touches the sensor. Move the swab to the edges of the sensor to minimize the trace.

This is how it looks now:


I also use this same method to clean lenses. Use a blower before and after above procedure. You only need to do such cleanup once, afterward it is almost impossible to get such factory dusts again. From now on, any dusts should be easily blow off.

Abstract in Chinese

我发现无镜相机出厂时传感器上都带有少许很细微的尘埃,吹不掉,要用酒精棉才能擦掉。

把相机拨到A模式,光圈22或最小;用手动对焦,对到无穷远处;用中等焦距(减少暗角)。对着白色的电脑屏幕,在慢慢移动相机的过程中按下快门。不对焦和移动的目的都是为了不把屏幕上的灰尘照下来。用XnView或Photoshop打开这张照片,做auto levels,如果传感器不干净的话,就可以看到上面第一张照片上的那些黑点。黑点和灰尘的位置是倒过来的,比如左上角的黑点对应的是传感器右下角上的灰尘,反之亦然。

酒精的纯度不要太高也不要太低,否则清除能力都不好也容易留痕迹。脱脂棉最好有一头是比较尖的。沾上酒精后,使劲甩掉多余的液体。不要让手碰到棉球,以免沾上油。把灰尘擦到传感器的边缘后抬起棉球,以减少留痕。棉球变得比较干了的话,效果会变得很差,再沾点酒精或换一根。

在这之前和之后都用吹气球吹吹。以后一般不再会粘上这样的厂家带来的特殊尘埃了,普通的灰尘吹吹就掉了(千万别用嘴吹!)。 我用同样的方法清洁镜头。

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Save even more with the Watts

How many years have the Watts Premier Hot Water Recirculation Pump been in service in my house now? Somehow I never thought about tweaking its timer until recently.

First, the timer should be set to on only for the hours when anyone needs hot water. I did this since day one.

Second, for these needed hours, the timer does not need to be always on, because it takes a while for the water to cool down after the time goes off.  Therefore, it is a very good idea to set the timer on for only 15 minutes for the hour (i.e. off for the rest 45 minutes). It's been working flawlessly this way for several weeks now.


Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Current laptops

There are currently three classes of laptops: Atom, Celeron/Pentium and Ultrabooks.

Atom laptops:


Like this ASUS X205, they usually use the Intel Bay Trail Z3735 CPU with 2GB RAM and 32GB or 64GB solid storage. Yes, they are powerful enough for your daily work and entertainment and they are fanless, I have been using one (the Lenovo Miix) for a year now as my only computer. You can easily add more storage with a 64GB SD card for about $25. This ASUS looks and feels very good - thin and light, and unlike all other ugly ASUS, the frame is elegantly thin and matte. While the screen is sharp, clear, bright and contrasty, the up/down view angle is narrow (the left/right is wide) and color is cold (dark-blueish). These two things, narrow view angle and cold color, are pretty much the only imperfections about this perfect laptop ever.

There is a fast version of Atom, the Z3775, which is used in the ASUS T100. It is clocked higher to be as fast as Celeron and Pentium.

Celeron and Pentium laptops (2-in-1):

They are basically Bay Trail clocked at higher frequencies for increased speed. Celerons (such as N2830) are dual core while Pentiums (such as N2930, N3530) are quad core. Not all of them feature the Intel Quick Sync technology found in Atom Bay Trail for real-time superb video compression. This is a very good thing to have if you ever need to convert a video from one format to another or to reduce its size for sharing. Usually N##20 (e.g. N3520) do not have it while N##30 (e.g. N2930, N3530) have it.

For example, this Lenovo 2-in-1 selling in BestBuy has an old N3520 CPU and therefore you'd better not buy it due to lack of QuickSync:


The Toshiba Radius found in BestBuy and the Dell 3000 found in CostCo and everywhere are very similar to the Lenovo 2-in-1 but both have QuickSync. The Toshiba has a Celeron N2830 while the Dell may come with either a Celeron N2930 or Pentium N3530.


These Celeron and Pentium 2-in-1 laptops usually come with 4GB RAM and 500GB HDD, adequate for everyone. You may add more RAM. You may also replace the slow HDD with a SSD for much better performance for very little money. They run 64 bit Windows which is far more reliable than the 32 bit on Atom laptops/tablets, due to absolute enforcement on driver signature.

Ultrabooks:

All the sales men in stores will push these expensive craps to you. They are rip off without any premium stuff in and out, stay away from them unless you see one below $500. If you are willing to pay a premium, then get the Apple Macbook Pro 13" with retina screen. The touchpad alone is worth the money. Yes, Apple touchpad is that good, go give it a try in BestBuy with your two fingers scrolling down and up within a web browser.  If you need Windows, then install Windows on it. The cheapest configuration is enough for everybody, any higher options are totally more rip off. It is thin and light, no longer need to bother with any Macbook Air.


If you need 13" and do not want to spend a thousand on a common tool, then take a look at the HP Stream 13.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

A $1 tripod mount for smartphones

This article is still in progress.

Ever want to mount your phone on a tripod and don't want to spend $30 on a Joby GripTight? Now you can do that for just one dollar. Extremely easy too, all you need to do is drill a 1/4" hole on a piece of thin plastic, every one can do it, no any special tool required.







Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Dual-SIM Phones

This article is still in progress.

Some comments first:
  • I won't buy a dual-sim phone for more than $300. Actually one hundred something is the comfortable amount. Most of us use a dual-sim phone to save money; it does not make sense to spend too much money to save money, does it?
  • Moto G XT1033 is the only one that has 3G support on both SIM slots. Not at the same time, of course, no device can do that. All others can have 3G on SIM1 only. This is not a big deal though - just use a dual-SIM adapter.
  • They all can dual standby. For example, you can use data on SIM1 while still able to receive calls on SIM2.
  • They all can do voice calls and use 2G data in all countries.
  • If you need 3G on other countries such as China etc., you need at least 2100. If you need AT&T 3G, you need 850/1900.  If you need T-Mobile 3G, you'd better get 1700 (some locations now adopt 1900 as well).
  • Lenovo K910 is the only one that has both 1700 and 2100 (it has CDMA/EVDO too!).  This means: if you need full coverage on T-Mobile and meanwhile need to use 3G in China and other countries, this is your only option.
I did a search in Amazon and these were interesting to me for their 3G coverage:

The followings work on 3G on AT&T, T-Mobile and in other countries

Lenovo Vibe Z K910
850/900/1700/1900/2100 CDMA/EVDO
5.5"
$272

The followings work on 3G on AT&T, T-Mobile (1900 area only) and in other countries

Galaxy S4 Mini Duos GT-i9192
850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100-LTE
4.3"
$250

Lg G Pro Lite Dual D686
850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
5.5"
$200

LG OPTIMUS L7 II DUAL P715
900 / 1900 / 2100
4.3"
$160

BLU Life One L120
850, 1900, 2100
5.0"
$180

Motorola MOTO G XT1033
850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4.5"
$220

iRulu Newest V1 Phone
850/1900/2100
5.5"
$135

Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 S7582L
850/900 / 2100
4.0"
$142

The followings work on 3G on AT&T and T-Mobile (all area)

Posh Mobile Titan HD E500
850/1700/1900
5.0"
$180

BLU Studio 5.0 II
850/1700/1900
5.0"
$112

BLU Studio 5.0C
850/1700/1900
5.0"
$108

Friday, November 7, 2014

Dual SIM Adapter

This article is still in progress.

Simply put, as long as you can manage to put this adapter into your phone, then it is super convenient to change your SIM cards without physical swapping and rebooting. Works for both voice and data (2G/3G/4G/LTE). No it cannot dual standby, that's what a dual-sim phone does and you do can use this adapter in a dual-sim phone.

I bought the adapter from Newegg for less than $6, other similar adapters should work as well. I have tested it in my LG F6 and BLU NEO 4.5, work like a charm. To use it in my LG G2, which has a SIM door like iPhone, I have to leave the adapter outside and hold it by using a phone case (I usually don't use cases).

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

LG F6

This article is in progress.

Root is very easy with TowelRoot_v1.apk. Just download, install and open the app, then click on the button. Then install eu.chainfire.supersu.apk immediately.

Installing recovery is also extremely simple, just download, install and open LG-F6-TWRP-V3.apk. But this is optional.

You may also install stericson.busybox.apk. Again, this is optional for some apps that require some Linux system commands in addition to SU.

You may use FolderMount to link/move some folders (e.g. DCIM, iGO, Tencent) from the internal storage to an external SD card.

If you still need more storage for installing more apps after the following blotware removal, then you may use App2SD or Link2SD etc.

List of removable blotware:

AAT.apk
ApplicationManagerbin.apk
ApplicationManagerbin.odex
Books.apk
Books.odex
CABLService.apk
CABLService.odex
ChromeBookmarksSyncAdapter.apk
ChromeBookmarksSyncAdapter.odex
ChromeWithBrowser.apk
ChromeWithBrowser.odex
DmfAdmin.apk
DmfAdmin.odex
EasySettings.apk
EasySettings.odex
ECID-release.apk
ECID-release.odex
GoogleBackupTransport.apk
GoogleBackupTransport.odex
GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.odex
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.odex
GoogleDrive.apk
GoogleDrive.odex
GoogleFeedback.apk
GoogleFeedback.odex
Hangouts.apk
Hangouts.odex
LGBackupbin.apk
LGBackupbin.odex
LGBrowser_JB.apk
LGBrowser_JB.odex
LGEIMEbin.apk
LGEIMEbin.odex
LGEmailbin.apk
LGEmailbin.odex
LGQRemote.apk
LGQRemote.odex
LGSearchWidgetProvider.apk
LGSearchWidgetProvider.odex
LGSetupWizard_JB.apk
LGSetupWizard_JB.odex
LGSetupWizardApp.apk
LGSetupWizardApp.odex
Magazines.apk
Magazines.odex
Memobin.apk
Memobin.odex
MemoWidgetbin.apk
MemoWidgetbin.odex
MLT.apk
MLT.odex
MusicWidgetbin.apk
MusicWidgetbin.odex
MyMetro.apk
MyMetro.odex
Phonesky.apk
Phonesky.odex
PhotoAlbumWidgetbin.apk
PhotoAlbumWidgetbin.odex
PlayGames.apk
PlayGames.odex
PlusOne.apk
PlusOne.odex
QMemobin.apk
QMemobin.odex
QuickSet.apk
QuickSet.odex
QuicksetSDK.apk
QuicksetSDK.odex
SetupWizard.apk
SetupWizard.odex
SmartShare.apk
SmartShare.odex
SmartShareProvider.apk
SmartShareProvider.odex
StreamingPlayerbin.apk
StreamingPlayerbin.odex
Street.apk
Street.odex
TagGoogle.apk
TagGoogle.odex
talkback.apk
talkback.odex
Upsell.apk
Upsell.odex
Velvet.apk
Velvet.odex
Videos.apk
Videos.odex
VoiceDialer_JB.apk
VoiceDialer_JB.odex
VoiceSearchStub.apk
VoiceSearchStub.odex
VuTalkbin.apk
VuTalkbin.odex
WeatherMultiCPbin.apk
WeatherMultiCPbin.odex
WeatherThemebin.apk
WeatherThemebin.odex
WifiCall.apk
WifiCall.odex
WiseScreen.apk
WiseScreen.odex