I made a trip to Washington and Oregon State recently and realized that my cell phone (Blackberry Bold) would still have its data services while roaming. I still wanted to receive calls in case they were urgent, but I didn’t want to pay an enormous bill for receiving emails that could wait a few days. This is especially important when you are roaming outside of North America because data roaming charges are far more expensive.

I found a feature to disable data services on the Blackberry while roaming, or just turning it off completely.

Step 1) Get into the Blackberry Menu and click on the Options icon.

Step 2) Scroll down to the “Mobile Network” option and click it.

Step 3) The Data Services tab should be on my default even during roaming. Click on it for the options of: On, Off, or Off When Roaming. Choose Off When Roaming and leave it on that setting unless you are required to use data when roaming out of your primary cell location.

Now I leave my Blackberry on when I cross the border and don’t have to worry about receiving a surprising bill when I get back home.

I recently got a Blackberry Bold and have been tethering via. USB to my Windows laptop ever since I got it. I wanted to tethering the phone wireless to my Macbook via. Bluetooth, but I could not figure out how.

I searched everywhere for this information and managed to compile the list of steps I took. Hopefully, this will help you too!

Initial Setup:

1) Turn on Bluetooth on Your Mac. Now we need to pair the Mac and Blackberry together. Pairing means linking 2 devices together for communications.

2) Download and Extract this Modem Script:  http://eugenedong.com/uploads/BlackBerry 3G CID1.zip

3) Place the extracted modem script in the Macintosh HD->Library->Modem Scripts folder.

4) Set up Pairing:

On the Blackberry Bold: Go to Manage Connections–>Turn on Bluetooth by checking Bluetooth–>Set Up Bluetooth–>Select Listen for a device to find me.

It should say “Waiting for a connection…” and the name of the phone below it. Default: “BlackBerry 9000″

I have omitted the last steps, but they are quite straightforward. The Mac will display a set of numbers that you have to enter into your Blackberry to finish pairing.

On the Mac: Run the “Set up Bluetooth Device…” wizard under the Bluetooth icon. Follow the steps as shown in the pictures below: (click to enlarge)

On the “Select the services…” dialog, make sure you select “Access the internet with your phone’s data connection” before proceeding to the next step.

5) On the Mac:

For the Phone Vendor: Choose Other and for the Phone Model: Choose Blackberry 3G CID1 (the script you put into the modem scripts folder)

Enter the Carrier settings to login to your data plan settings. (Make sure that your have tethering included with your plan)

I’m using the Rogers 6GB for $30/month plan that includes tethering and the login for it is:

Rogers Wireless (Canada):
User: wapuser1
Password: wap
Phone Number: internet.com

If you are not on Rogers, you will have to find the settings specific to your carrier.

Everyday Use:
1) Make sure Bluetooth is turned on in the Blackberry connections. Now under the Bluetooth Menu: Click on your “Blackberry 9000” to initiate the connection to your phone over Bluetooth.

2) Then a modem icon (looks like a phone) should be near the Bluetooth one on the Finder. Click on “Connect Bluetooth” and it should set the phone in modem mode and connect to the network.

The phone will show “Modem Mode Enabled.”

You’re Done!

Now you just have to run the 2 steps in “Everyday Use” to enjoy wireless internet wherever you go!

I have a rant with Logitech’s SetPoint software that I installed to get the extra functions on my Logitech Wave Keyboard.

This software has a feature that protects you by coming up with a screen to detect possible security risks like a keylogger when you are entering a password or credit card number.

The point of the program is to make sure you are safe by entering a key combination of: Ctrl + Alt + F12. If this worked, I would not be complaining. It does not work!

Wordpress for iPhone was released today! Infact, I am posting this on my first-generation iPhone upgraded to the 2.0 firmware.

The major quirk I have with this application is that it doesn’t supports landscape mode with the larger keyboard. I’m not used to using the keyboard in portrait mode.

It will encourage me to post more often though. It even supports photos directly from the camera! (attached below)

There are a few ways to know when a hard drive is failing:

• Loud Clicking Noises
• Bad Sectors
• S.M.A.R.T. Status Failure (not necessarily accurate…)

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any prior warning. My drive refused to mount late last year with me thinking a cable was loose. It was worse. I smelled burning coming from the hard drive. On closer inspection, this is what I saw:

The logic board had fried and I was able to clearly see a burned area.

This is a 250GB Seagate Hard Drive (PDF specs).

Fortunately, I had a backup of about 90% of the files on the drive. There was some work that I had not yet backed up as it hadn’t reached that cycle yet.

I knew my normal methods of getting data off a drive wouldn’t work:

• Taking the drive and shoving it into an enclosure
• Putting it into a spare machine and running SpinRite for days

This was because the drive is not detected in the BIOS during a boot-up. I decided to leave it alone as I thought it was hopeless.

A few months later, I saw a website about drive recovery, I suspected that I could pull the logic board of the drive and not void my warranty.

I managed to find another drive that had the same model number in another computer. I quickly took apart the drive and swapped the logic boards and then put it into my enclosure. It Mounted! I transferred everything I hadn’t backed.

Since it was under warranty, I decided I wanted to RMA it back to Seagate. I formatted the drive using a 7-Pass format to reduce as much possible data recovery as possible. Then, I swapped the defective logic board back in and sent it to Seagate.

A few days later, my new drive arrived! It was a refurbished drive of the same model. Yay!

What I learned:
- Hourly Backups (to another drive)
- Daily Backups to Internet (Apple iDisk)
- Buy Drives in Pairs (spare logic board and backup usage)

What have you had to do for data recovery? I would love to know. Please comment =)

I have been a laptop user for a few years. I started off with an IBM Thinkpad R50e, but my current primary laptop is an Apple MacBook.

Heat has always been a concern when I was working with my laptop. Unfortunately, it has become more apparent recently with my 16-month-old MacBook. The fan speed would go up to maximum of 6214RPM (rotations-per-minute) for just going to a few websites, especially when playing flash video.

The temperature, when new, would max at around 65-70℃. It is closer to 85-90℃ now. This would especially happen when I hook up an external monitor to it, which I do often at my desk. This is expected because it is using an Intel Integrated Graphics Card (GMA950). What I am using to measure the temperature is smcFanControl2, a donationware application can adjust the minimum fan-speed as well as monitor the temperature.

Typical Temperature and Fan Speed:

Fortunately, all of these temperatures are within Intel’s Processor Thermal Specifications of 100℃ (MacBook & Thinkpad). Therefore, it shouldn’t damage the CPU. But, I am just not used to having a loud annoying fan running all the time when I’m trying to concentrate on what I’m doing. Maybe that is just how I tend to work and it may not be as annoying to others. Recently, I have been using my Thinkpad a little more often for some Windows work and it is near silent even under load. Remarkably, even if it’s running a second monitor at 1680×1050 resolution.

Specs:

Apple MacBook Late 2006 Edition (Core 2 Duo T7200 - 2.0Ghz)

• Idle: 45-50℃ (4400RPM, set using smcFanControl2)
• Load: 85-91℃ (6200RPM)

IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad R50e (Intel Pentium-M 725 - 1.6Ghz)

• Idle: 35-40℃ (silent; managed through Notebook Hardware Control)
• Load: 70-77℃ (near silent)

If anyone has thoughts on this or similar problems, please leave a comment. I’m exercising my options to see whether I will do some repair work on my MacBook, as it likely has too much thermal paste appied (similar to: Air & Pro).

After years of wishing, dreaming, and laziness, I have finally decided to start up my site again!

I will be featuring my Product Reviews, Tutorials, Projects, and Opinions. The posts will be geared towards projects that I am working on related to my expertise, as listed in the About page.