rebelpeon.com

Category: electronics

  • Amazon Customer Service

    After reading the Zappos book, and hearing mixed things about Amazon customer service, I finally had an issue that I needed to actually call them.  Now, I’ve used their online returns before, and have never had an issue.  However, on my trip to PVR this weekend my Kindle’s screen cracked.

    It was working fine on the plane, and then I put it back in my bag.  However, when we arrived at the house, and I went to go lay in the hammock, I flipped it on and Bam!, Etch a Sketch screen where only some of the sections worked.  Needless to say, I was a sad panda since I wasn’t able to use my Kindle the whole time there.  Plus, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to have it for when I fly back to SIN on Sunday (man I fly a lot).

    Anyways, I digress.  As I’m now back in the States, I gave Amazon a call this morning.  Barely any wait time later, Renee greeted me and helped me through the process.  Since I didn’t have an order number (it was a gift from Yow-Yow), I gave her my email, name, and address for verification.  She then asked what was wrong, if the screen was physically cracked or not, and then the normal questions:

    • Did the Kindle take any tumbles recently?
    • Has there been any pressure on the Kindle recently?
    • Has it been exposed to liquids or water?

    Thankfully none of them applied to me, as it was just sitting there in it’s protective covering.  I then asked if I could have it next day, and would be willing to have it shipped faster (I need my Kindle in SIN).  She said that it is complimentary 1 day shipping and I’ll have it tomorrow!

    So tomorrow, I should have a functioning Kindle again.  Talk about a painless process!  Mad props to both Amazon and Renee for making my morning!

    Update:

    New Kindle did arrive on Friday as promised, and it works great!  All my books have been transfered and things look a lot better.  Just in time for my flight too!

  • Easy XPath Queries

    A guy in the office was asking about a better way to do XPath queries.  Well, since everyone uses Notepad++ (right?!), you can use the following plugins.

    XML Tools

    Libraries

    Restart NotePad++ and checkout the Plugin menu.  Under XML Tools there is now an evaluate XPath Expressions.  Very handy!

  • Ninite

    I know that I previously posted about the various pieces of software I installed on each rebuild, but I was just pointed out to a piece of software that basically does everything for you: Ninite.

    As I look through my list, and compare it to their app, it looks like I only have a few outstanding apps.  Granted, I don’t really care about getting all the apps installed or how long it takes.  Usually I don’t even remember until I need the app and it isn’t there.  Regardless, could save someone some time.

     

  • Where's My Disk Space?

    WinDirStat will tell you!

     

  • Large File Transfers

    One of the problems I know I’ve had in the past, especially at work, is transferring large files between two places.  Usually this happens with virtual machines, and developers needing access to the originals.  There has never been a good way around this.  I’ve tried various things: FTP, Dropbox-esque cloud sites, sneaker net, etc.

    However, I stumbled upon a new site that is doing things a bit differently.  Basically their system just maximizes the route between two endpoints and then you send the file directly.  Obviously this isn’t a good choice for upload once, consume a lot items, but if you just need to get things sent once, it could work pretty well.

    The site is called Sendoid, and they have both a web and desktop application.  Looks pretty basic and worthwhile.  I haven’t tried it yet, but it could also work well for distributed backups (house my files on someone else’s computer like my parent’s).

  • MSDN Downloader Link

    I hate when I go to MSDN and am downloading a large ISO only for something to happen and the download manager closes.  I don’t have a shortcut on my desktop to it, so it is a pain to find.

    In case this happens to you, here is the link load it back up.

    “C:WindowsDownloaded Program FilesTransferMgr.exe”

     

  • IIS Log Analysis

    Some good things to use when trying to do analysis on IIS logs:

    • TXTCollector – This will make all your individual IIS log files into one large file.
    • Log Parser – Write SQL queries against your IIS Log files
    • Visual Log Parser – No command line (but sometimes a pain in the ass to install)!
    • Log Parser Lizard – Visual Log Parser doesn’t want to install anymore, so a new tool it is!
    • Log Parser Studio – Free from MS!

    Some common Log Parser queries:

    select cs-uri-stem as url,
cs-uri-query, cs-method,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as pagecount,
 sum(time-taken) as total-processing-time,
 avg(time-taken) as average,
 Max(time-taken) as Maximum
from <logfile>
group by cs-uri-stem,
 cs-uri-query,
 cs-method
order by average desc

     

    select cs-uri-stem as url,
 cs-method,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as pagecount,
 sum(time-taken) as total-processing-time,
 avg(time-taken) as average
from <logfile>
where cs-uri-stem like '%.aspx'
group by cs-uri-stem,
 cs-method
order by pagecount desc

     

    select top 500 cs-uri-stem as url,
 cs-uri-query,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as pagecount,
 sum(time-taken) as total-processing-time,
 avg(time-taken) as average
from <logfile>
where cs-uri-stem like '%.aspx'
group by cs-uri-stem,
 cs-uri-query
order by pagecount desc

     

    select cs-uri-stem as url,
 cs-method,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as pagecount,
 sum(time-taken) as total-processing-time,
 avg(time-taken) as average,
 avg(sc-bytes),
 max(sc-bytes)
from <logfile>
where cs-uri-stem like '%.aspx'
group by cs-uri-stem,
 cs-method
order by pagecount desc

    UpdateI’m just adding more queries I frequently use, and fixing the formatting.

    select quantize(time-taken,5000) as 5seconds,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as hits,
 cs-uri-stem as url
from <logfile>
group by url, quantize(time-taken,5000)
order by quantize(time-taken,5000)

     

    select
 quantize(time,3600) as dayHour,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as hits,
 avg(time-taken) as averageTime,
 cs-uri-stem as url
from <logfile>
where url like '%.svc'
group by url,
 dayHour
order by dayHour

    select
TO_LOCALTIME(QUANTIZE(TO_TIMESTAMP(date, time), 3600)) AS dayHour,
count(cs-uri-stem) as hits
from <logfile>
where cs-uri-stem like '%/page.aspx'
group by dayHour
order by dayHour Asc

  • Installed Items

    Again, this post is purely for me to remember and it is in no particular order:

    Optional Items (depending on machine):

  • Kindle 3 Reboots

    Every since getting my Kindle 3 for Christmas I have mysterious lockups, restarts, etc.  It has been driving me bonkers, especially since it kept losing my page in the book.  It seemed to be reverting to a previous state all the time, and I couldn’t figure out why.

    So I emailed Amazon support.  Their response was that I should be hitting the “Home” button every time I wanted to stop reading.  Talk about an awful answer, so I emailed them again and said that was an unacceptable answer and that it needed to be fixed.

    I received a similar response back.

    Then the day after sending those emails my Kindle was completely locked.  I couldn’t get it out of sleep (no green light when you slide the power button).  I tried to hold down the power button, but apparently not long enough.  I called Amazon and they basically had me hold it down longer.  At least I was able to use it then.

    I also noticed that it happened more in the cold.  For example, when it just sat around my house I never had a problem, but whenever I went into work with it (barring it to the colder outside) it would always lose my spot and restart.

    Well, it turns out that they symptoms were correct, but my correlation to why it was happening was not.  Turns out it wasn’t because it was cold out, it was because it was getting jostled around more when I was carrying it than when it sat at home.  I am not the only one that is having this issue.  It is all because of the Kindle Cover – Without A Light.

    One of the new things they’ve done is created a cover that draws power from your kindle (lighted cover).  It is pretty slick because the hinge is metal, which plugs into the Kindle, makes contact with a electrical pad, and powers the light.  However, the cover without a light also has a metallic binding, but there is no where for the charge to go and so it just shorts out causing the Kindle to do all sorts of strange things.

    It looks as though Amazon is now aware of the issue as all Amazon branded non-light covers are now not being sold.  However, any other non-light cover that has the Amazon binding seems to be having the same issue (the Kate Spade and Timbuktu covers too).  It should be an easy fix for them, just make the binding some sort of ABS plastic, but talk about a huge oversight.  I mean, common sense.

    Back to my story, I’ve since put packaging tape (thinest tape I could find) over the bottom hook of my binding, and today I haven’t had a restart.  I’ll probably update this story in a few weeks one way or the other.

    Update:

    After using the cover with the fix for 3 weeks, I can attest that the tape fixed the issue.  No more reboots means lots of carefree reading!

    Update #2:

    Over two months later, and still no reboots.  Consider it fixed!

  • Kindle for WP7

    And it is out.  Go and grab it!

    AppsFuze Description