Ho Ho Ho...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my cubicle @ work.... Yep, I've been working from Tuesday...

Went hiking on 23rd @ Pinnacle National Monument, we were the 2nd car there. At the end of the day, when we came back, there were only a handful of cars there, and we didn't see anybody as all during out hiking, that was sweet. Then we had dinner @ Asian Garden Seafood Restaurant(somewhere on Bascom Ave), they make a very unique baked fish. Well, the menu says it's grilled, but Carol keeps calling it "baked fish". I think she might be correct. The fish came out butterflied, with a thin layer of flour crust on the skin side, browned, with sesame seed and some spices and drizzled with some sauce. Very nice. To eat it in traditional way, dip rice paper in a bowl of water, put the paper in a plate, let it sit for a minute or two till it's softened. Add bean sprouts, veggie salad and fish to the rice paper, make into a roll, then dip in sauce(fish sauce and fermented shrimp sauce). Oh, BTW, eat it with hands - the traditional way. Sure you can try fork and knife, chop sticks etc. - but good luck to that... It was a big fish, even though we ordered the smallest one, we still couldn't fish it. We got the big shrimp dish too, it's alot less greasy than the last place we tried in down town San Jose, and the source sweeter. I was supposed to go training, but I was so full and tired, I flaked out :-(

I was "parent sitting" mom and dad during Christmas, since my sister went to ski. We went to have lunch with Carol on 24th at the Grand Century Plaza - Carol said it has the best Pho place in town. The bowls are BIG! Soup is yummy, and the Vietnamese style coffee was great(very strong, smells very nice and taste good too) - even my mom loved it.

Got my parents Columbia watches each, dad's one has back lit button, he loves it. Got a new 7MP digital camera for my sister, she said it's just what they wanted, great resolution, great video, convenient AA batteries, and 2GB memory card! Now, we can let the good 'ol Fuji 3MP camera RIP(it has only a 128MB SmartMedia card), and my good 'ol Digital Wallet.

GTG

I was going to put up with constant "New Hardware Found.." crap whenever booted into Windows. So, I tried to fix it by reinstalling drivers... tried at least a half dozen times to no avail... I was going to give up. So, I thought I'll download the latest diver again. So instead of Nvidia nForce4 ultra drivers,I downloaded nForce4 430 drivers this time, installed... and bingo! All's working now. Also updated JAlbum and DivX, and Ghosted a new image. It's all SET. Still at work today...

BB Pre-test #2

Had a blackbelt pre-test last Saturday... just as bad as the previous #1 pre-test... :-( This is by far the most difficult test I've every done... maybe I should change to something else... Aikido? Kendo?

First, stuffed up pattern "Ge-Baek", messed up twice actually, got confused with other 2nd Dan patterns... and finally got it right the 3rd time. I've been practicing the 2nd Dan ones, and well as all the color belt ones.... except the 1st Dan ones... doh!

Then breaking...didn't break the suspended board with reverse turning kick... :-( now I got a bruised heel... But, did break 2 tiles with a downward knuckle punch... I wasn't allowed to use a knife hand, elbow(or head ;)) will be too easy..., so I opted for knuckles. The right hand is not to bad, I don't feel anything now, but left hand is still a lil swollen and bruised. This is the first time I did breaking with knuckles since I broke my right hand 2 years ago. Guess I won't be testing in January... *kewl*... one thing less I don't have to worry about...

It's alive!

After research on the net, I found many utilities that can read/write MBR: some can save it to a file and then restore from the file, some just zero-out the MBR, and other you can edit it to what ever you like(very risky...).

http://www.techenclave.com/forums/excellent-list-of-hdd-utils-81131.html
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/partitioneditors.shtml
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?swid=1
http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/MBR_in_detail.htm
http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/BootToolsRefs.htm

....

However, none worked for me. Some works only in Win32, and when I boot use PartitionMagic, it's pure DOS... And CHKDSK won't work off the CD... And although the WD/Zap worked by zero-out the MBR, when I boot from the Windows install CD, it still can't detect the HD. Hell, I even tried install Redhat on the HD... installed successfully, but when I booted from the Win2K CD - still can't detect the HD...

Arrrg... As a last attemp:
copied my backup Ghost image to the laptop;
installed Ghost onto the laptop;
connected HD via USB;
then restored Ghost image to the HD(via USB)

And booted... boom... it's there... That's it for me... not more stuffing around... I put on the covers for the case, and it's quite noisy... worse than I'd expected... and a lil worse off than my old Sonata... So much for the downgrade...

Another thing really bugs me... it always says ..."detected new hardware: nVidia PATA RAID device...", but when comes to install driver, it will always have error, even with the latest driver downloaded form nVidia. Hmmm... to fix or not to fix...

One Dead PC...

The downgrade was going very well, until I decided that I wanted to remove the dual boot... And then when I tried to install new OS(or restore old drive image), it said it can't find any disks... *great*... :-<

Tried every trick I know of: delete partition, repartition, boot using Partition Magic CD/Norton Ghost CD, fdisk... Partition Magic 8.0(blue/white PowerQuest version and Symantec yellow version) can detect the disk, and let me repartition, but once I booted from Window 2K CD or Norton Ghost, it can no longer detect my disks...

And BTW, Norton Ghost suck! I'd much preferred the old PowerQuest Drive Image, it let you image/restore your boot/active partition, where as Ghost, you'll have to reboot to do that ...

Googled web, and found another couple tricks:
"fidsk /mbr" rewrites the MBR or "chkdsk /r" fixes disk MBR. I'll try tonight see if they work...

Downgrade report

So, here's the pics I took with my cellphone when I did the downgrade...

A comparison of an ancient Intel 486 processor(right) against the new AMD Athlon X2 dualcore socket 939 processor(left). Look at the size! The old 486 is actually bigger than the new dual core processor!

A look at the heat sink and fans, on the left is the for the 486, on the right is for the dual core...

Top down view of the same thing, right hand side is a monster...

Processor and video card installed.

The DDR2 memory modules, OCZ PC3200 Premium Series, 512MB x 4 = 2GB!!

The memory installed in the motherboard, they're practically touching each other...

Sliding in the motherboard tray, notice the tiny gap between the case and the fan, and video card. The heat sink and fan is standard issue that came with the boxed version of the processor. If I were to use a more fancy heat sink/fan, it most likely won't fit...

Motherboard fully slided in, and font panel controls plugged in.

The gap between the CD ROM drive and the power supply, barely have room for cables. Planning have become very important for this case... I installed the CD drive first, then tried to plug in the cables - it just didn't work. I had to unscrew the drive from the mount, slide it out completely to plug in the cables - I actually did this twice... What a pain in the butt!

The first HDD installed(74GB 10K RPM WD Raptor) - on top of the CD drive. There's a 3.5" bay under the CD drive, but there's no way I'm going to remove the CD drive for the 3rd time... So I looked around and found some old drive rails in my box of tricks, exactly what I needed. Gotta save those old parts...

The 500GB WD twins(RAID 1) in it's cage...

The drive cage installed in case.

Plug in power and boot...

Front panel showing the CPU temperature.

Last night, the adult students had dinner at the Dave and Buster, and we had a lot of fun playing the arcade games.

Midnight downgrade

I started the "downgrade" last night @ 11pm, and by 3am the machine was up and running... The space inside the case is really tight, no room to spare. After installed the video card and CPU/heatsink/fan, it barely clears the case by 1/4"(or less)! Since the space is at a premium, you really need to plan the steps of what to install first, even whether to plug in the cable first or install the drive first.

Everything booted correctly at the first try, it was kinda loud without the side and top panels. After the initial boot, the noise die down a bit, the fan must have variable speed control. And good thing, I didn't have to reinstall the OS, just updated all the drivers, and it's up and running. But I do have some issue, when the BIOS set with CD as the 1st boot device, HDD as 2nd boot device, the boot just halts says can't boot from CD, and must insert a bootable CD ROM... I had to manual interrupt the boot sequence and select to boot from HDD, and select the HDD I want to boot from... kinda of a really bother...

This morning spend a couple of minutes connecting the front fan and LCD display, boot... and boom... I can see the temperature of the CPU.

Another box

I got another package today... I wonder what's in it... :-)

Ultra MicroFly

...received the case today, the motherboard and memory are supposed to arrive tomorrow.

Weekend

Well, didn't start my weekend so well, I was working late on Friday to to get more work done, a lot of work to be done but I have only 3 days to do it. I have it till Monday mid night to finish it... when the clock strike mid night, my car will turn into a pumpkin... kidding... While everyone partying away at the company wide Christmas party, I sit in my tiny cold cubicle coding away... *weep*...

After work, meet up with Carol to eat dinner, we gave the Korean House in Cupertino village another try, I ordered tofu this time... it's not as good as the Gaesung House of Tofu (2089 El Camino Real) in Santa Clara, but the short ribs are still very good :-) Gaesung is the best tofu house!

Afterwards, we went to see Apocalypto, unfortunately, the tickets are sold out, so we opted to watch a Jet Li DVD "Once upon a time in China" at home, it's one of his early movie, great fight scenes!!!

Had In n Out for breakfast, and watched "Once upon a time in China 2". Today I went shopping for some linen, I never paid attention to those thread count before, but now after used 600 thread count linens, I can tell ya, they're very different. The high threat count ones feels sooooo good, smooth and solid.

City Kabob

Had lunch with a couple of friends today @ City Kabob(755 S. Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale). This is my 2nd time here, and I ordered lamb kabob like last time. It's very yummy, tender, and fresh off the grill. The onion is grilled just right, well done, not under cooked or over cooked - so it doens't have the storng onion smell or taste. The rice is also very good, there's some sauce in rice, I don't know what, but it's yummy. The food is good, but the service is a bit ad hoc though. We waited for a lil over 30min to get our food, the table arrived after us got their food before us... maybe the lamb takes longer to cook?

Christmas presents

Just order some presents for myself :-) I know I just bought TV/DVD player/receiver/speakers recently, but they're too early for Christmas presents...

Ordered Micro Fly micro ATX case, a new motherboard Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS(nVidia GeForce 6150 chipset) and OCZ Premier 1GB PC3200 ram(matches my existing ram).

Well, this is actually a downgrade.. kinda of...since I'm changing to a smaller case, and a smaller motherboard... Oh yeah, got another WD5000ks 500GB drive yesterday, so now I have RAID 1 hook up, hopefully my precious travel photos will be safe...

Cafe Yulong

That's where Carol and I had dinner last night, it's right off the Castro St, Mountain View, serves northern Chinese cuisine. I never been there before... since I don't usually eat Chinese. Translate literately, Yulong means "jade dragon".

We ordered stir fried lamb - yep, I love lamb. This one came lightly stir fried, with a dash of black pepper, and very tender. Carol doesn't like lamb normally, but she said this one doesn't smell lamb at all, she liked it too. We also got the house made noodles - "Dan Dan Noodle"(? forgot the English name), came in a bowl(dry noodle, no soup), with finely chopped strips of cucumbers and bits of water chestnuts, and topped with tasty light and mild peanut source - you will need to mix them up a bit. We also got dumplings - Chinese cabbage and pork stuffing. Carol initially wanted shrimp dumplings, but I pointed out that northern China doesn't have a lot of seafood, Chinese cabbage and pork is more authentic - at least that's what my mom used to make anyway. It tasted much better than the ones we had in the Cupertino Village. One slight critic though, the dumplings are slightly over cooked - the dumplings skin are no longer smooth instead a lil sticky like over cooked pasta - I'm just being picky, it doesn't change the taste though. Use the dumpling sauce provided - light vinegar with chili, but it doesn't taste very hot - even I can handle it.

This place deserves a 2nd visit.

OMG!

A slow Sunday, not much to do, so I decided to play some computer game, haven't played Oblivion for a while, so it's good time to continue. Launched Oblivion, and be hold! My saved games are all gone!!! Oh, I hate fracking M$! I had a virus not long ago, so I restored Symantec Drive Image, only took a few minutes, not too painful. But, the fracking game saves its data in the fracking Document and Settings directory! Why the hell can't they just save it in the game directory?! Frack, I'm not going to play the game start from the scratch again, who designed this stupid 5h1t!!!

Yung Le's Fusion

Just had dinner there, we didn't order any Chinese fusion dishes... but anyways, the food is not bad. But, then again I'm a lil biased, since my sister did all the ordering. However, my sister absolutely loved it. Chef Le is a very nice person, she came to our table and talked to us, so I asked her about the "Sweet and Sour Pork"...she said she cook it differently from what you normally get from the Chinese take out joint, use less flour in the batter, and less sauce, and not so greasy. One of the dish is salmon wrapped in banana leaf, with some sweet sauce on the side. However, for tonight, we got 2 sauces to go with it - she happened to made a different sauce which is quite spicy. She said she got that from an Australian recipe, it uses dry shrimp, sugar and chili pepper and whole bunch other ingredients, grind them etc. etc. and it took a long time. She said she probably won't make it again, since it took too long. It was nice, I liked it too. The grilled wild shrimp is nice, tasty but a lil on the salty side. All in all, I had good experience, not a lot of people there. The server lady was friendly, and chef Le actually brings out food to the table and talk to all the patrons. I think I might go there again when I'm in the neighbourhood.

Tomorrow's dinner...

Well, not exactly what I'm going to eat, but where I will be eating tomorrow for mom's b'day dinner...

Yung Le’s Fusion
1317 S Winchester Blvd
San Jose, CA 95128

Looking at their menu, I'm not so sure it's a nice place to dine - despite my sister's claim of it's raving reviews. Then again, it is in Santana Row. Just a few examples from the menu: Lemon Chicken, Broccoli Beef and Cashews, Mongolian Beef. Wait, there's more... what's Chinese food without Sweet and Sour Pork?! Well, I'll have to find out tomorrow...