Key Points

Yahoo Email

lawnz — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:38:19 +0000

My friend sent me an invitaion for a dinner party to my Yahoo email, I read it, but reply message got problem, I re-tried three times, still didn’t work, I click reply link, it just sat there thinking …, I had to call my friend’s phone number to tell him about the dinner. I told my friend my Yahoo reply email is broken. later I want to find out it is my computer problem or it is Yahoo web software problem, so I search on Google, I agree with other users also complain Yahoo email becomes a crap,

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110624061353AAKnJ3i

without support from Hollywood advertisements Yahoo might be wiped out from earth, we have two Hollywood media, one is paper version People magazine, the other is online version – Yahoo : )

Craigslist model

lawnz — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:02:51 +0000

I am working for a high tech company, the founder owns one patent for our product, we have a great team of engineers including some with PhD degree, one of my coworkers is still in graduate school, he probably knows more than most of his professors, our products consist of both hardware and software, especially very sophisticated software, many of us could not figure out why we have only one customer for the last year, I remember one time in the meeting, someone in marketing said she has hard time to tell people what our product is, because this is a new revolutionary product. today I was thinking what about Craigslist, when they started business, it sounded like non-profit organization, all posts were free, their web software supported very limited features, not the greatest software to me, developers could not even parse URL links correctly, sometimes URLs are clickable, sometimes not, took them a while to fix a simple parsing, it is not to parse unicode yet, so why their business is successful, I think they had a killer app and knew how to enter the market, with only product features that users want to use, simply to use for all computer users, continue adding advanced features useful for users, another interesting thing is Craigslist never did any advertisement for themselves, their marketing is done mouth by mouth, many high level managers overlook a model like Craigslist, in my opinion we can learn a lot of things in business from Craigslist model.

Text message service providers in USA

lawnz — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:52:16 +0000

I am working on an application software which requires SMS or MMS texting communication, It is strange that it is hard to find a good text message service provider in USA, I found some providers recommended on Internet, but they are not based in USA, Nexmo has office in Palo Alto, CA, so I gave it a try, they are ok for simple pure text messages, but inbound message with binary format just does not work, the technical support said it is network carrier limitation, I sent a picture from my Sprint HTC Android cell phone in Fremont, CA to the virtual phone number (from Nexmo) in USA, I got nothing in the inbound message, I sent it to my friend’s cheap cell phone LG Tracfone, he got it, and even replied with the picture to my cell phone. I have to try a different SMS or MMS provider, I have contacted Routo Messaging http://www.routomessaging.com/ , this company is also in UK, it is strange none of the tech supports Nexmo or Routo knows if their service or gateway supports inbound messages with binary data! I am lucky that one of the Routo support guys will forward my question to their developers, so I simplified my question as I can, the question is “can I use API to extract a picture from the message sent by a cell phone”, here is a good description on MMS, it is easier to understand the description if you have done some web application software,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service

updated 12/26/2012

after reading API document from Routo, I found same result, there is no support for inbound binary message in USA.

Nexmo replied there are following restrictions made by US and Canada carriers,

-Numeric sender only
-No handset delivery receipts (if we don’t reject the message at submission time it means we were able to reach the network)
-Binary, Unicode and long SMS are not supported
-Multipart (concatenated) messages are not supported

this starts making sense to me why there is no SMS MMS service providers I can find in USA, with the restrictions above developers can only create a application software with very limited features, there is much less success rate for this kind of business in USA, it also makes sense to me why there is much less spams to cell phones in USA.

updated 12/31/2011

Routo Messaging replied, they don’t even have virtual numbers in USA, I will stay with Nexmo, and the software will support inbound message for text only without binary like pictures taken on cell phones.

My probiotic

lawnz — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:33:16 +0000

I have acid reflux problem, doctor suggests to take Prilosec, I read some articles about Prilosec, it has side effects, it can reduce immune system function, besides it does not cure acid reflux, I started looking for alternative medicines, I saw a program on KQED TV, the host suggested alternative medicine supplement probiotic to be used for digestive health problem, good probiotic should have at least 15 billion CFUs, lasts entire shelf time, with delay release,

I found Benebiotics on Amazon, it matches the description from KQED TV program, it got very good reviews, and it is rated the best probiotic by Kaiser according to one reviewer, this link is on Amazon website,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050FKPU0/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

Benebiotics 18-strain Multi-probiotic Supplement with Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Bifidobacterium Infantis, Saccaharomyces Boulardii, and Prebiotic

Human grade dog food

lawnz — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:34:00 +0000

I don’t have pets, because I don’t have time to take care of pets, I like to see people have pets though. It was very interesting to hear from my friend how he made human grade dog food, he has a pitbull, the dog is allergic to corns, most dog food contains corns, he really loves his dog, he did some research on Internet, starts making dog food himself, he bought most ingredients from Smart and Final store, potatoes, brown rice, chickens, broccoli, tomato, etc, he put the chicken bones into oven, baked it till it can be grinded, he grinds the chicken bones into powders, and mix it into dog food, I asked him if he can tell his dog like the food made for her, he said his dog would come back couple times to finish the dog food he got from stores, but his dog always finishes all the food he made in the bowl at one time, and licks the empty bowl couple of times, he calls the dog food he made - human grade dog food, his dog seems agree : )

How to print a nice borderless picture

lawnz — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:16:07 +0000

I am an amateur phtotographer, I have a Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II inkjet printer, it can print up to 13″x19″, it came with Adobe Photoshop Element 6.0, it really bothered me that I could not print borderless pictures, after google and test for hours, now I can print the perfect borderless pictures, I got some nice and cheap frames from Walmart, put the framed pictures at the bar room in my house, I look at them more than the nice paintings on the wall, now I don’t have to go to Walgreens or Costco for photo prints, just need to buy ink and papers from Amazon : )

here is the steps to print a nice borderless picture:
1. resize the original picture in Edit mode of Photoshop Element
if the picture size is not proportioanl like paper size, choose either max width or max height to fit the paper, say the picture size is 9″x15″, paper is 8.5×11, I would resize picture height 15 to 11, keep proportional resize.
2. choose printer Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II
3. choose color handling by Photoshop Element (not printer to handle color)
4. choose printer profile (paper type) say Canon paper plus glossy II
5. choose rendering intent Perceptual

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex vs Western Digital My Passport usb hard drive

lawnz — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:20:48 +0000

I bought a Western Digital My Passport usb hard disk 1 terabytes, I used it as an external backup hard drive, after using it for 4 months, the Clonezilla software starts showing bad sectors on hard drive when I was doing backup on my Asus Windows 7 laptop, I have spent many hours to try to recover it, there was no way to recover from physical sector damage, I was looking for another external usb 3 hard drive on Amazon, I found someone made a very good comment on portable external usb drives,

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-Ultra-Portable-External-STAA1500100/dp/B00455MCRA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1323374924&sr=8-3

the construction of the drives is very important, according to his review, Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external usb 3 has best construction, this usb 3 drive is also backward compatible with usb 2, now I remember I dropped the Western Digital hard drive one time, that was light drop, I used other hard drives before, never seen a hard drive so fragile like Western Digital My Passport hard drive, I will get a new Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5 TB hard drive to replace Western Digital My Passport hard drive.

How to choose a laptop computer

lawnz — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:05:27 +0000

How to choose a new laptop pc? my suggestion is to buy cheap ones with a good battery, Sony has good battery, you can get a cheap Sony laptop at Fry’s Electronics or Best Buy for around $400 when it is on sale, or to buy expensive ones with full HD display resolution 1920 x 1080, you will love it when you play full HD video on your large screen HD LED TV, Asus has some nice high end models with native full HD display, I am not a big fan for Apple laptops, look at the specification of MacBook Pro

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html

native display is 1440 x 900 which is not full HD.

Updated 2011-11-24

My friend just got a low-end Sony laptop, it even has WiDi (Wireless Display), it is nice to be able to play video to new LED TV (WiDi compatible) without a HDMI cable.

Updated 2012-01-21

Another friend’s laptop got really bad virus, nothing important is on his pc, I said you need to find someone to help to find the restore function to restore Windows 7 to original software, he restored Windows 7 software to original state, I told him he made a good choice to have a high performance pc, it takes much less time to restore software than low end pc, he feels pretty good with the money he spent on a high end pc : )

Is Steve Jobs master inventor?

lawnz — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:48:56 +0000

I read AP (Associated Press) article calls Steve Jobs master inventor,

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/24/steve-jobs-at-apple-master-inventor-marketer/

here is a list of his patents,

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/08/24/technology/steve-jobs-patents.html#patent/voicemail-manager-for-portable-multifunction-device_7996792

All his patents are about packaging, user interface of computer or device, I would not call him master inventor, that title should go to inventors like Tesla,

http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm

what is the difference between AP and People magazine? :)

A cheap cell phone vs a professional circular saw

lawnz — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 05:43:14 +0000

I had a contractor to help me build a storage shed in backyard over last weekend, after he finished the job, he left around 9 pm really late, just 5 minites after he left, I heard door bell rings, I opened the door, it was the contractor, he looked in shock and asked if I saw his cell phone, I said no, I started calling his number, we heard the rings and found his cell phone wrapped around in a piece of cloth in his car, I looked at his cell phone, it was not iPhone, not HTC, it looked kind of cheap, he was so relieved, then next day I found a nice Makita circular saw in the backyard, I called his cell phone, left a voice message, after two days past, he has not called me back for his saw, we have an appointment he is supposed to come back for a different job this weekend.