MobaXterm: free X server for Windows

I work under Linux and Windows on a daily base, so from quite some time I was looking for simple, free and reliable X server for Windows. Just to mention that I have tried several solutions before: X server under Cygwin, Xming, and some commercial software as well.

Cygwin: I have tried that solution long time ago, perhaps now it is way better. At that time, it was quite slow, heavy and not that simple for occasional purposes.

Xming: That is in principle what I need. It works... almost... I have problems running it under limited user account, I heard about problems under Vista, as well...

As result, I kept using alternative ways to avoid using X. Usually, as awkward as: NoMachine (or VNC over SSH) to Linux machine at work, then to the target Linux machine... This solution is still acceptable for occasional use, since I have already everything setup to connect at work. Of course, this "solution" is very inconvenient for occasional use to a regular Linux machine.

Anyway, today (yes, it is only one day and I am already excited) I have found another free software that completely fits my need!!! MobaXterm. It has embedded all the tools one needs and some extra in a single PORTABLE file of 13 MB! No installation (well there is such possibility if you insist) - just run and enjoy. You get more than what you can expect. 

• X server - you can turn it on/off interactively
• Simple file transfer - very neat
• Remote XDMCP session - certainly handy
• Local applications: mc, wget, vim, ssh - just to mentions some...
• rsync - this one is just a jewel (providing that ssh environment is available)
• Many more, not that important... I keep exploring...

Exactly what I want. I can't imagine what could be better... Do you?

Voltcraft IPC-1L

This is rather old news but let me have my say anyway.

To start with, it is how a battery charger should be done.

Once you use it, you will realize what a "cheap" simplification you had before. At least in my case, despite the fact that my old charger was among the decent ones, it had only 2 channels and other disadvantages. Anyway...

IPC-1L takes care for each battery separately. By default it charges with 200 mA current that will require about 16 hours to charge a common AA NiMH battery. You can select 500 and 700 mA as well that will, of course, charge faster. Once it is fully charged it will keep the battery full by topping it with low pulse current. And this is one feature that makes it quite useful and requires changing your usual habit of charging batteries.

Finlux 32FLD882H - brief review

This will be really short, since it really does not deserve more.

TV broadcast programs become more and more redundant with time and for me they are already old story (official local news are the only get my serious attention). Anyway, the point is that we needed a simple LCD TV to replace my old and bulky 28'' CRT TV.

We bought Finlux 32FLD882H on sale because of the price and couple of obvious features. Before you start searching for the specs - save your time - it doesn't worth it. If I have to buy it again (even cheaper) probably I would not do it.

Pros: (only in comparison to my old CRT)

• VGA and HDMI inputs, (DTV that is a standard nowadays, not an advantage)
• The best of all - AVL (Automatic Volume Limits). It normalizes the sound level, so the abnormally loud commercial breaks are just leveled down!

Cons: (taking into account that this a cheap TV-set)

• Very bad picture quality.
• Sound that does not sound stereo at all...
• Humming noise - this is really bad! Can't believe it that someone can make TV that is not quiet...
• The first labels from the remote control start to peel off on the second day!?
• bulky remote control (not that I use it anyway...) 
• No support for DTVB-C (Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable) - there is only support for DTVB-T ( - Terrestrial)
• many more...

Overall assessment: BAD! Perhaps, sale price is the only reasonable price for this TV... If you are serious about LCD TV - wake up, you are in the wrong section in the shop...

Update 20.01.2013: To be completely fair, 2 years later the TV is working just fine without any problems or hassles. It feels like money well spent for what one gets.

Select wifi channel in a crowded neighborhood

It seems that this will become a routine task for me.

Recently, I was suffering from serious network speed deterioration. I use an 802.11g wireless router to connect my computers and mobile phone to internet. As it turns out, there are about 24 wireless access points "visible" from my computer. Earlier, an year or so, I have easily selected channel 11 since most of my neighbors were using the default channel 6. Anyway, a quick check with NetStumbler reviled the horrible situation - all of my closest neighbors were using channel 11 - same as me...

Well, it was looking quite OK to move back to channel 6 since that channel looked least crowded and with the weakest signal. I did it.

Today, I have tried another tool inSSIDer that again reviled  a horrible situation. My neighbors were using routers that span over 2 channels, and the first program showed only one of them. After reconsideration I have moved to channel 4 - you can easily see the reason for that on the screen  snapshot  (the bold red curve is for my router). It could be particularly bad. Apparently one of my neighbors delivers stronger signal than my own router located in the same room as the computer... 

It is obvious that I will need to check the frequency spectra quite often... and inSSIDer will be the best tool for that.

Update: There is one more complication. Newer routers can also automatically select the best channel(s) that make my efforts useless. It seems that the easiest and better solution is to upgrade my old router, in other words, buy newer.

Samsung Jet S8000: use as modem (via Bluetooth) to connect to Internet

One way to use your phone Internet connection on your computer is through Samsung New PC Studio (NPS). It is very simple. Connect the phone to the computer by USB cable and choose "Internet Connector" from NPS. This, of course, requires NPS to be installed and running on the computer - a bit inconvenient for a small Netbook computer or for a quick share to some other computer.

Connection over Bluetooth
This solution has the advantage that any computer with Bluetooth can be paired to the phone and consequently to use the phone as modem to connect to Internet via your telephone provider.This is extremely convenient for occasional uses where you need quick access to Internet from a computer - because the phone browser is not rendering the page at all (what a surprise), to use your regular e-mail client or just because you want to use the keyboard to type your message..

Here are the key point you need to accomplish to make it work:

1) Make sure you have paired the devices, so the computer can connect to the phone.

2) In you hardware options, modem section, find something that says "Standard Modem over Bluetooth", select the advanced options and enter the following extra initialization command  AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet". /make sure you have enabled the Bluetooth on the computer first/

3) The number you have to dial is "*99#" /without the quote marks/. Another alternatives, if the default does not work for you, are "*99***#", "*99***1#", "*99***2#"

4) Depending on your provider you might need to provide user and password on the dial dialog.

Note: Point 2 is specific for Samsung Jet S8000 devices. All my previous phones were just fine without this additional initialization command.

Hint: Although you might be able get Turbo3G connection on the phone, the Bluetooth connection will still remain the speed bottleneck. The latest versions of the Opera browser have the so called "Turbo" mode where the data is compressed and optimized for slow connection - just the case.

This configuration works for me at two different computers that run WinXP SP3, with Jet firmware S8000XPJA1.

Sennheiser RS 170 Wireless Headphones: review

First to mention some decent and fair reviews:

• TrustedReviews
• YouTube by (ThatSnazzyiPhoneGuy)

This should be quite enough to get the overall picture. I will just stress on some personal observations that might overlap partially with the reviews above.

Overall impression: Ultimate sound performance for it's class - any comparison to other headphones I have previously experienced (TMR-RF850R and MDR-RF840RK) leads to imaginary results! This is really how wireless headphones should be made. Worth every cent I have spent!

Let me mention few distinctive features that are still worth mentioning.

Samsung Jet S8000: eduroam settings

Very briefly, for those that might be interested to connect theirs Jets to the eduroam roaming network. Here are the settings that I use and are confirmed to work at Uppsala University and KTH, Stockholm (S8000XPIJ7 and S8000XPJA1 firmwares):

1. SSID: eduroam
   
2. Auth type: WPA2
3. Encryption type: AES
4. 802.1x settings ===============
   4.1 use 802.1x: selected
   4.2 Validate certificate: unselected
   4.3 EAP-Method: EAP-TTLS
   4.4 Authentication type: PAP
   4.5 Username: username@user.uu.se
   4.6 Password: passwordA
5. Everything else left unchanged

Here you can find some really nice instructions (in Swedish) for other devices or OS:

• iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
• Android
• Windows Mobile

Samsung Jet S8000: firmware update from NPS

Recently, I have updated to SAMSUNG New PC Studio (NPS) version 1.5.1.10064_2 from May.12.2010.

My previous firmware version was S8000XPIJ7 and I have selected Germany as my location during the installation of the software, just to be on the safe side (I was aiming at S8000XPJA1).

And it worked. The very first time I have connected the phone I was offered to update the firmware! Great. The manual says only "follow the instructions on the screen"... fingers crossed.

Warning!!! After the upgrade you will loose all contacts, events, etc - any data stored on the phone!!! Make sure you have backup of this data.

Here are same camera snapshots from the upgrade since I didn't dare to interfere with screen grabbing software. No need to remove the SIM card or the SD memory card (there ware no instructions to do so).

Step 1
The first step says select firmware but I was offered only one - S8000XPJA1 - so I am not quite sure if one can select.

Step 2

Step 3


Step 4



At the end of step 3 there is no progress bar, so you really need to be patient.
After the final reboot I got the phone set in German language but this is how I got it from the online shop, anyway. It is easy to switch back to English.

You have to perform also the camera firmware update to complete the upgrade. Here is a post how to perform the camera update.

Well, the phone is completely reset, so you have re-enable the navigation features (Route66) but apparently the software is installed on the SD memory card, so it works straight away after the activation.

Samsung Jet S8000: second round

Wow, brilliant! But who put phone features on this media player device?

Well, I can't resist. After having the phone for about 3 months I have to share what are the most common and unbelievable annoyances with the model (Firmware: S8000XPIJ7)... Let's get started:

Phone:

• My oldest phone (Siemens S35i with B&W LCD) performed better than this phone. I have switched off the 3G connection because it makes it worse, so the comparison is fair - only GSM connection. I have mentioned already that the phone (that is smarter than smart phone) can't recognize the phone numbers correctly if the country code is included.
• During the call there are 6 buttons on the screen (hold, mute, hang up, speaker...). If your ear touches by mistake one of the 6 buttons (well, you have to admit, that the probability of your ear to be found in this vicinity is quite high) the call will be disrupted or it will be put on speaker if you are lucky. New firmwares have moved those six buttons on the bottom of the screen... - very smart.
• If somebody calls you, there is a dial-pad button on the screen that if you mistakenly press (I have done it on the very first day) you will find yourself in a situation where you can't do much but cancel the call because the answer button does NOTHING. Well, the proper actions are to push back symbol on the screen and answer the call the usual way.
  
• If this was not enough - can you believe this? There is a call answer lag (delay between the moment you push the "answer" button and you actually receive the call) ... and the fix for that - reduce/delete all call logs!?!?!? Link to DF forum: Answering lag
  We are 2010! What kind of software designers are working on this phone?
• Nowadays, you have some decent number of contacts in your phone, aren't you. With respect to that, I usually buy phones that a bit more advanced, so I can manage the contacts from a PC. I would rather save my keyboard than commenting on the official bloatware you are offered from Samsung. Well I will only summarize: in 279 MB (not including the drivers) you get limited possibility of editing your address book, calendar, notes, alarms etc. BUT you can't backup your phone!? You can't update the firmware, can't synchronize SMS (only to copy them to your PC). BUT you can covert and upload any video format to your "phone". Wait a minute - the last has nothing to do with the phone...
  Update: latest NPS 1.5.1 was able to update my firmware - I have to admit - that was incredibly easy and simple!
  
• Something that also miss badly on this phone. When the phone is locked, single push brings the light ON on the locked screen. But that's all. I can see what is the time but not a single chance to peek on the battery or signal status... or the bluetooth is still connected - nope - nothing.
  

Music player:

• Well the sound quality turns out to be related to the quality of the headphones you use - not very surprising. What is annoying is that regardless that you put your song in a separate folder and your ring signals in the RingSignals folder if you don't play your songs from a playlist (in other words - preselected the songs) your songs are mixed with the ring signals. And yes this is not a bug it is a feature and the only fix is to use playlists... Again, what year we are?

Wifi:

• Here I am impressed. The phone connect easier to some particular protocols than WinXP... For example "eduroam" hot-spots connection that needs special software under WinXP. But. There is but again. If you have connected through wifi, the internal "Dolphin" browser will use this connection before the WAP even if WAP is set as default in the "Connection" profile. This is good but it is not the case for Java applications or the GPS+ update features... So, every time I manually switch between the connection profiles to make sure that I use the one I want. Again - was it smart phone or smarter than that?
  

GPS:

• It features Route66 LSB software. Free maps, fast fix on open space, accurate and very expensive navigation fees... So, I found myself using the navigation as an "off line version" of "Google Maps". Well, not bad for free service - indeed, it has very good features. Reading trough the DF forum I could not find anybody who has payed for the navigation service... Perhaps I am not the only one that thinks it is a bit expensive...
• WHAT!?! I can't upload custom list of points of interest (POI)? Nonsense! Please, make sure you understand how seriously bad is this. 
• Update, June 2011: A year later, there are still no updates for the maps!!! Pointless...

Touch screen:

• I can't just skip this. No, really I can't. On the box it says "Brilliant Touch Performance". Here I don't know - shell I laugh or shell I cry!? I haven't tried that many other touch phones, but I cant imagine worse performance than that on the Jet. My colleagues were simply lost with my phone responsiveness while I kept repeating "wait, it will come... wait..., no, no you didn't push... well not that hard... it gets better once you get used to it..."
  Well, honestly, I will rather have high or fast touch performance than brilliant...
  Update: latest firmware S8000XPJA1 performs slightly better...
  

Here is the place to mention some other, less important to me.

• Widgets - don't know what to say? None?
• Games - I am not really interested but the situation is not very bright there as well.
• Additional software limited to J2M, virtually no support from Samsung.
  

Smart phone:

I think you got the picture until now that there nothing smart in the phone. Actually it as a brilliant mobile device besides the phone and touch screen features. Perhaps I can formulate it this way "Wow, brilliant! But who put phone features on this media player device?"

Concerning the proprietary OS, the opinion of most of the users in the Net can be summarized in one sentence - 'anything else but "TouchWizard"'. I don't need to rephrase it for you...

If you continue reading and still have the passion to know more let's mention very briefly the positive features: The "phone" has excellent media features, very nice form factor (dimensions), reasonable battery life, excellent connectivity, document viewer - very nice features that barely compensates for the annoyances mentioned above and as it appears I will be stuck for some time with the whole package...

Here is also my first impression review on the device.

Samsung Jet S8000: my personal opinion

I will keep it, as usual, to the bare minimum.

Here you can find very detailed specification and some complete reviews, so I will try to not overlap with what you can find there.
Samsung S8000 Jet - Full phone specifications

To start with, I more or less agree with the reviews, although I have to admit that phone features are a bit disappointing. My old SE K750i works better as a phone set...

Perhaps, this is the fairest review I have seen on the net:
Cnet.uk: Samsung Jet review (make sure you hear the conclusion!)

In few words: not that bad for a NON-smart phone but a bit overpriced for its capabilities and features!

Update: my second round review Wow, brilliant! But who put phone features on this media player device?

Windows to Linux file synchronization over ssh: Dokan solution

Apparently, the Unison solution that I have posted before was not very good solution after all...

Well, it worked well as expected, just it was always very slow to index the files (well, i wanted to be safe so I am using "fastcheck = no" setting) and the file transfer was very slow as well... Probably, I should not blame Unison for that but... Anyway, here is one more solution that is more than "file synchronizations"...! Well, what about free Windows SSHFS?! Here it is - Dokan!

That simplifies everything. After installing the libraries and the SSHFS part you will be able to mount any remote folder with ssh access without any need of any additional software on the remote host (well, running ssh server is a prerequisite).

There is nothing more I need to say. You will simply have the remote folder mapped/mounted as a local drive to your Windows computer (you can select the drive letter). Then you can use any regular file synchronization software...

Note: ExpanDrive (former SftpDrive) is the shareware solution to map remote folder with ssh access.