Serious Samurize

Serious Samurize is a nifty system monitoring program for Windows. The program allows for system information to be displayed right on the desktop. It is similar to widgets, but allows for more robust system monitoring schemes and overlays of image and text files.

The program can be found on the serious samurize project website: Samurize.com.

Samurize also works on Windows 7, just like on Vista, and can be used alongside existing desktop widgets. I have been using a simple clock and calendar config and a bar graph system monitor.

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Update 1

1) [END] MSI Wind U100 -

My MSI Wind U100 finally kicked the bucket in late April 2010. I have taken it apart and kept the HDD, lcd screen, wifi card, bluetooth module, touchpad, RAM, and touchscreen controller and panel for future hardware hacking.

2) Summer 2010 Gadget Modding Projects -

Electrical components for my summer gadget modding projects sadly did not make it during my trip back home. I was traveling back home when I was faced with much concern over the suspicious looking contents of my hand carry luggage. I had last minute packed all my electrical components in my hand carry luggage, which showed up clearly in the airport security x-ray and gave quite a scare to the airport personnel. Thankfully, I was allowed through, but only after much explaining and waiting. I figured it would be best to just leave behind my gear in the next layover to prevent further ado, and so bequeathed my electronic components to the airport trashcan. :( I figured more airport scans of my luggage would just yield to more delay. Sadly, I no longer have my electrical components for my summer modding projects, which included my arduino decimilia and microchip on a breadboard.

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Nikon D3000

Latest addition to my gadget arsenal is the Nikon D3000. I wanted to get into photography with a simple starter dlsr and chose the Nikon D3000 for it's size and ruggedness. The camera has performed fairly well, as I have used it for the past few months and experimented taking photos in different lighting conditions.

I purchased the Nikon D3000 a few months ago while on sale from Newegg and have been buying some accessories for it. I have purchased the wireless remote ML-L3 and the hood HB-45 for the kit lens, but I haven't had the time to test them out in the field. I will most likely get to use then later on during summer break.

I have taken some night-time and dusk shot which I have up on flickr. I don't really use flickr often, so I only have a few photos posted.

I'm generally interested in landscape, night-time, and macro photography. It would be nice to get into full-time macro photography, but most dedicated macro lens are quite expensive. Thus far I have been practicing photography by taking close-up shots of mosses along the forest trails nearby and landscape shots of the changing seasons.

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Modded BIOS

I obtained a modded bios thanks to Svet in the MSI HQ forums. I was trying to find a more recent modded bios for the U100 that switched the left ctrl key with the fn key, since I had used a modded bios once with the two keys switched. I found it easier having the ctrl key on the left of the fn key like on a standard keyboard. Since MSI regularly publish bios for the Wind U100, I could no longer find a modded bios for the version I was using - BIOS file name: EN011IMS.10E

I found out that the modded bios files could be downloaded from the MSI HQ forums and so requested for a modded version of the bios I was using, version .10E (it was the first Win 7 compatible bios published for the MSI Wind U100).

I had tried to mod the the .10E bios myself using a key swapping app I found online. However, it didn't work as the bios file read empty when I attempted to flash from the usb drive.

The bios I received was a modded version of the latest EN011IMS.10G file. I was hoping to have the bios version .10E modded as I preferred the display driver for Windows 7 in the .10E bios compared to the more recent bios versions. It still works though and I can finally use the switched fn and ctrl keys.

Link: EN011BKM_10G_Fn
Warning: Flashing your bios is done at your own risk.


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Sentelic Touch Pad

I replaced the original sentelic touch pad with a synaptic one available from the asus e-store. The mod was fairly easy to do, and it just required a lot of pulling to remove the old touch pad.

It was also a fairly cheap mod, as it only cost $17.00 in total.

Very satisfied with the vertical side-scrolling of the synaptic touch pad compared to the tapping of sentelic, but will require some getting used to.


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Thumbwin - thumbnails for xp

Enlarge

Thumbwin is a free software that enables you to add small thumbnails of minimized windows in your desktop. It's a cool little app for arranging your open browsers and is fun to use with a touch screen.

It's an old app that I installed from a while ago. I haven't been using it much, but it helps out in organizing your open browsers.

Thumbwin can be downloaded directly from the creator's website at: http://www4.point.ne.jp/hiro/ThumbWin/thumbwin.html

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SparkFun Free Day!

SparkFun will be holding a "free day" on January 7, 2010 starting from 9:00 am MST. It looks to be quite exciting as they are offering $100 worth of free items for anyone purchasing using their paypal account or credit. The "free day" will go from 9:00 am to 11:00 pm MST, or until 100K worth of free items have been given away.

Hoping to get into the action so I'll be setting my alarm clock for 10:00 am here in Maine. It looks like a lot of people have taken note and there is now a countdown banner on their website in preparation for "Free Day".

Head over to their site for more details at: SparkFun Electronics



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