Pakitong

The Samsung Series 9 is one of the most amazing laptops that we have tested recently. It has everything to be called an ultrabook, yet it has been branded as a notebook by Samsung. Nevertheless, the blazing performance, the ultra slim form factor and the exquisite build quality are truly awesome. It costs a lot of money, but then again, this is the best option for a Windows ultrabook which actually competes with and beats the MacBook Air, overall. Add up your savings, or beg, borrow and steal to get this one!

Very rarely do we get a laptop that is completely unique and leaves us awe-struck. Quite frankly, we cannot remember when it last happened, till we got my hands on the Samsung Series 9 laptop. Samsung insist on calling this a laptop, but this machine surely matches all the criteria you need for an ultrabook. And then some!

Build & Design

Ultrabooks are meant to be slim and sleek, as much as possible, keeping the dimensions in check and the weight down. There are a lot of devices running around that aren’t the slimmest by any means, but do get classified as ultrabooks. The Samsung Series 9 deserves that tag more than anything.

Straight out of its very premium packaging, and you literally have to rub your eyes to be doubly sure of what you are seeing. The Samsung Series 9 is slimmer than even the MacBook Air! The Series 9, at its thickest point is 12.9mm thick, while the MacBook Air tips 17.2mm at its thickest point. That didn’t stop Samsung from fitting in 2 USB ports, mini HDMI out, the 3.5mm jack and a memory card reader. You get adapter options for LAN and VGA out, with the LAN adapter a part of the package. Even the power adapter is a thing of brilliance, with its compact design small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

The Series 9 has corresponding chunky portions on the sides close to the display hinge side, and that is where the ports are fit in. From there, a flowing design seamlessly slims down the machine without any fuss. The curves carry on where the lid meets the hinge, and is very much appreciated when the Series 9 is placed on a table with the lid closed.

The Samsung Series 9’s 100% aluminum chassis mostly consists of Duralumin. This is used to create what the company calls a “slim and aerodynamic design”, and is usually used in aircrafts. The result is a solidly built laptop that is very light to pick up and move around.

The Series 9’s brilliance doesn’t end there. The mineral ash black colour is rather rare. Materials used are premium, and critically, the display hinge tautness is among the best, if not the very best. The overall design has a dollop of sharpness about it, something that gives the aura that this is an attentive ultrabook. Open it up and you will notice the slim bezel. The keyboard layout has not been compromised in any way, and as if to give out a lesson to other ultrabook manufacturers, Samsung’s keyboard responds with the same brilliance as the one on the MacBook Air. For others who claim that key travel and response is slightly impacted by the slim form factor, this ultrabook rubbishes that theory. It is the best built ultrabook by far, and priced appropriately.

The display hinge is quite strong, and a whiplash doesn't send the lid scurrying all the way back.

Features & Specifications

No shortage of power on the Series 9. This is powered by an Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3517U processor and paired with 4GB of RAM. This processor clocks at 1.9GHz and Turbo Boost takes it up to 2.4GHz.

For your data storage, the Series 9 comes with a 256GB SSD. This drive is one of the fastest ones around, something that we will explain in greater detail in the performance section.

The display is not reflective, and that helps the Series 9 score well in the display tests.

The Series 9’s 13.3-inch display has a resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels, which is much higher than the fairly common 1366 x 768 pixels. This difference shows up clearly, with absolutely amazing clarity of text. Readability on this screen is by far the best among all ultrabooks we have tested, helped immensely by the sharpness and the largely non-reflective nature of the display. Black level depth and white saturation levels are slightly on the lower side, but the display does very well in the pixel stability tests.

Excellent keyboard and a generous sized touchpad add a lot of functionality to this brilliant design.

People have often claimed that keyboard usage experience on an ultrabook is more of a compromise since the dimensions dictate that the keyboard not spread out too much and the key travel is not adequate. However, with the Series 9, Samsung would beg to differ. The keyboard on the Series 9 is like a tasty dish served up by a five-star chef! The key layout, despite a smallish real estate, is perfect with good key spacing. And the most critical bit, the key travel, is perfect. There is a distinct feel of precision and sharpness to it, very much like the MacBook Air. Shifting from the Air to the keyboard on the Series 9 was a breeze, and didn’t take much acclimatizing. And that cannot be said for a lot of ultrabooks out there.

Performance

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Series 9 powered by the Core i7 processor is the fastest among all ultrabooks that we tested. The PC Mark Vantage score of 12972 is the only one breaching the 10000 mark, with the second highest being the 9966 scored by the HP Envy 4. The PC Mark 07 score of 4647 is again the highest, with the Fujitsu Lifebook U772 quite some way behind in second place clocking 4221. If you remember reading a bit earlier about the fast SSD on this machine, the drive test score of 41503 is pipped only by the 128GB SSD on the Lifebook U772, with a score of 42453. All other SSDs are considerably slower.

Despite being razor thin, there are still a lot of connectivity options.

All the scores are mentioned here to give you an idea of how good the performance of this machine is. In any usage scenario, the Series 9 will not struggle or get bogged down, no matter what you load it with. The overall snappiness of the system is seriously boosted by the excellent drive performance. We used this machine quite a bit, and this one fit almost all usage scenarios perfectly – home and office work, multimedia viewing and the road warrior.

The battery life offered by the Series 9 is a delight. Quite frankly, we were surprised to see this clock 246 minutes in the stressful battery test. But the surprise element was that this is by far the best battery backup time clocked by any ultrabook, including the less powerful Core i3 and Core i5-bearing machines! In a typical day at work, this should give you around 6.5-7 hours of battery backup.

One of the best built laptops out there.

Graphics capabilities are rather toned down on this package, particularly because the idea was to make this the slimmest ultrabook in the market. The integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics will offer the barebones basic, but then again, no one is buying the Series 9 for gaming surely. Admittedly, there will be some who will argue that for so much, you should be able to get an all-rounder laptop, but that would just be nitpicking!

Ultra thin chassis, thinner than the MacBook Air.

Bottom Line

As we said earlier, not many laptops and ultrabooks make us jump out of our seats. But the Series 9 seems to have done that quite successfully, doing everything right. Right out of the box, the exquisite build quality justifies the money you have just spent. Switch it on and the performance is a delight. Battery life ensures you can almost last one full day of usage at work without reaching for the sleek power adapter. All in all, the Series 9 does it all. You can flaunt your bank account’s strength without compromising on functionality and performance. This is the closest a Windows machine has come to a MacBook Air overall, and that is a compliment in itself. - source

HCL surely had the correct idea when it came to ultrabooks. The market is more than ripe for the inexpensive versions as well. However, from what we can see, HCL has gotten the implementation slightly wrong.

Build & Design

On the looks part, the HCL ME Ultra 3074 does look fairly premium and classy. The lid has a light aluminum finish, while the keyboard deck has a slightly darker brushed metal look. The underside is again of a lighter colour, and that spills over on to the right and left sides as well.

Open the lid, and you see a fairly clean keyboard deck. The layout and the size of the keys is fairly similar to the MacBook Pro, at least that’s how it looks on the outset! Touchpad is fairly decent in terms of real estate space, but the Dell Inspiron 14z’s touchpad is slightly bigger and wider. Not that it made any difference with Windows 7, but with Windows 8, the more space you have for the multi-touch gestures, the better. Port placement is shared between the right and the left side ports.

While the looks of the HCL Me Ultra have been well handled by HCL, the build quality and the overall solidity of the package is slightly less than the best. There is a fair amount of flex everywhere on the chassis. The lid isn’t the thickest one out there, and any extra pressure on it will make it dip. What is really worrying is the amount of play the keyboard deck has near the display hinge. Open the display, or change the tilt angle, and you get a fair amount of movement on deck. Clearly, not something that will last very long. Press down hard on the keyboard and there is a pretty profound dip in the middle. This is not to say that the Dell Inspiron 14z is the best ultrabook in the budget segment, but it is much better built than the HCL ME Ultra. Well, good looks will only take you so far. At least that is true for most ultrabooks!

Specifications & Performance

The moment you compare the spec sheets, the difference is fairly evident. The Core i5 in the Inspiron 14z is by far the better performer, expectedly, then the Core i3 on the HCL ME Ultra. The benchmark tests clearly peg the Inspiron 14z ahead. For illustrating this point, we have the Inspiron 14z’s PC Mark Vantage score of 7404 shows the advantage it has over the 5558 for the HCL. Even in real life performance, the Dell ultrabook is fairly quicker than the HCL ME Ultra. Both ultrabooks have the 500GB primary storage drive and a 32GB mSATA.

Again, where the Dell is considerably ahead of the HCL ME Ultra in terms of gaming and graphics capabilities. Another look at the spec sheet clarifies the reason why HCL is lagging behind again. Inspiron 14z comes with an AMD Radeon 7570M (1GB) chip, while the HCL ME just makes do with the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics. We don’t even need to compare the benchmark test scores to illustrate that the Dell Inspiron 14z is the better deal.

However, there is no running away from the fact that the ME ultrabook offers some excellent battery backup. The battery lasted 207 minutes from full charge to complete discharge in our stressful battery test. This is among the better scores among all ultrabooks, and this should last around 5 hours in a typical office usage scenario. For that reason, and that reason alone, we are even bothering with this ultrabook.

The 14-inch display of the HCL ME Ultra has the fairly commonplace resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, but we like the overall package of the display. It is not reflective for starters, and with matte displays rather rare, this is a huge surprise. Colour reproduction is not very vivid, but the text is handled very well, making text readability easier. It does lose out quite a bit in terms of black levels, but more than makes up for it in the overall scheme of things.

The HCL ME Ultra came preloaded with Windows 7 Basic, and the website still suggests that a Windows 8 update has not been done for this ultrabook. Dell, on its part, has upgraded the Inspiron 14z to Windows 8.

Bottom Line

The HCL ME Ultrabook is directly competing with the Dell Inspiron 14z in terms of the price. Between the two, the Dell has a better build quality, better specifications, and inevitably better system performance, apart from a a dedicated graphics chip for a bit of gaming. The HCL ME on its part offers very good battery life. But that surely cannot be only reason to buy an ultrabook. It is a disappointing effort from HCL, primarily because of the poor build quality.

New research from iHS Suppli has put the expiry date for the Netbook category by 2015. The netbook market sales have been dipping since the advent of tablets and off-late we are seeing a lot of 11-inch and 13-inch notebooks powered by ultra-low-voltage processors from both Intel and AMD that make the sub-11-inch netbook a hard sell.

According to the iHS Suppli, total netbooks that will ship in 2013 will just be around 3.97 million units which is a fraction of the 32 million units shipped in 2013 – a whopping 87 per cent drop ion three years. Last year saw sales of 14.13 million units which just shows the rate at which the sales are decelerating. Production of netbooks is expected to stop later this year and in 2014 sales unit will amount to just 250,000. Finally in 2015, there will be no netbook sales – the category will be dead and gone.

The death of netbooks was imminent thanks to the rise and rise of the tablet category, which lets you do pretty much most of the work you can do on a netbook. Add in the sleek form factor, better battery lives, better graphics processors and the ability to add-in a keyboard if you so want, tablets make more sense to the current consumer. And why just tablets, even current generation smartphones pack in more power than say older netbooks.

It’s quite simple really, our expectations have evolved and netbooks, although quite useful three years back, aren’t really bringing anything innovative to the table.

Source - Fudzilla

Microsoft has revealed that it has entered into an agreement with Foxconn, the company that makes the iPhone and many other Android devices, to start receiving licensing fees for patents being used by Android devices. According to the agreement, Foxconn will pay a licensing fee for every device that it makes that runs on Google’s mobile operating system. Microsoft has been chasing Android manufacturers for a while now to procure licensing fees for Android features that it has long claimed are protected by its patents.

While Microsoft hasn’t revealed which Android features are covered by its patents, court documents filed in 2010 during Microsoft’s lawsuit against Motorola and Barnes & Noble reveal some of these patents. Microsoft’s patents include one from way back in 1996 that revolves around length of file names in the same file system, a flash storage memory monitoring system filed in 2003 and a contacts management system filed in 2005 among many, many others. Microsoft has said that a majority of Android handsets are being made by companies that have agreed to join Microsoft’s licensing program and now with Foxconn joining the program, it’s a certainty that Microsoft will be raking in cash from its patents, some filed almost 20 years ago.

Ars Technica points out that Foxconn makes about 40% of consumer electronics sold worldwide today and is employed by not only Apple but also companies like Acer and Amazon. Since a company can’t get licensing fees for the same patent from two different sources, the decision to pay Microsoft’s licensing fees will depend on the contract between the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) like Acer and Amazon, and the ODMs (Original Design Manufacturer) like Foxconn.

However, it hasn’t been an easy road for Microsoft to get its licensing fees from Android device makers. Google famously referred to Microsoft’s move to seek licensing fees as “extortion” in 2011 (which Microsoft equated to a spoiled kid crying) and Microsoft is still fighting a court battle against Motorola (now Google owned) for patent infringement. This all seems particularly ironic in the context of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates’ memo in 1991 where he warned against patents running amok and how in the future a large company could patent “some obvious thing” and steal profits away from other companies.

22 years later, many would argue that Microsoft is doing the exact same thing that its former chairman had warned against.

Sources: Ars Technica, Network World

Alcatel has launched two new mid-range Android smartphones, the One Touch Idol and One Touch Idol Ultra, for Rs.15,800 and Rs. 21,000 respectively.

One Touch Idol Ultra (left) and One Touch Idol (right)

Alcatel has launched the One Touch Idol and Idol Ultra smartphones in India, which are supposedly the lightest and slimmest (respectively) devices in their segments. Both run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Called the ‘slimmest’ phone in the category, at 6.45mm thick, the Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra is priced at Rs. 21,000. It is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor along with 1GB RAM. It also has 16GB of built-in storage, which cannot be expanded. It sports a 4.7-inch 720×1280 pixel AMOLED screen with 16 million colours. The screen also comes along with an oleophobic coating, which makes it screen fingerprint resistant. The phone is equipped with 1,800mAh battery that is rated to deliver up to 12 hours of talktime, and 400 hours of standby time.

The One Touch Idol Ultra also has an 8MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash that is capable of recording videos up to 1080p. The phone also has a 1.3 megapixel camera at the front. It runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The phone is available in black and red colour options, and weighs in at 115 grams.

Called the ‘lightest’ phone in the category, at 110 grams, the Alcatel One Touch Idol is available for Rs. 15,800. It has a 4.7-inch IPS LCD display with an oleophobic coating and a 540×960 pixel resolution. It is powered by a 1GHz dual-core MT6577 processor coupled 512MB of RAM. In addition, it is equipped with an 8MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash and HD video recording. It has a 2MP camera at the front. The One Touch Idol boasts of 4GB built-in storage, expandable up to 32GB using a microSD card. It is powered by an 1,800 mAh battery that is rated to deliver up to 7 hours of talk time, and 415 hours of standby time. It is available in 4 colour variants i.e, silver, slate, cranberry pink and red, and is 7.9mm thick.

The latest progress of my freeBSD port for CNS21XX and ThinkLink Hot-e was three weeks ago. The CNS21XX network driver and Hot-e network driver was completed. I haven’t touched anything since then because I had to work on weekends at the office. This weekend, I could have continued coding, but I don’t feel like coding, so I did a hardware project: adding serial port and SD card slot to my D-LINK DIR-300 that I bought April last year.

This is not a difficult project, I already added SD/MMC card to my WRT54GL about 2,5 years ago. The difference is that there isn’t much guide about the hardware part (which GPIO pins to solder), and the software part (how to activate the drivers). So here is a short guide to anyone who needs it. Note that I already installed OpenWRT Kamikaze using the guide from: OpenWRT site.

This is what the front side of PCB looks like:

On the bottom right, you can connect a serial port (note: 3.3V, you will need MAX3232 or use a data cable from phone, don’t connect directly). Many guides are already available for connecting serial port (for example: here, here, here, and here), so I wont write about it. Just note that you will use the 3.3V and GND for the SD card module.

This is what the PCB looks like from the back:

I found the GPIO pins from this posting by guidoa:

SES Button Blue led (Enable=ON)
WiFi led
SES Button Red led (Enable=ON)
SES Button (Pressed=01)
Reset Button (Pressed=01)
Status led (Enable=ON)

I have confirmed it using voltmeter and gpioctl command line tool. The SES button is the button on the right side of the unit. As far as I know, SES button, and the LEDS (red and blue) are not used by default, the Wifi LED is used to indicate Wifi ON/OFF. So we can use GPIO 1,3,4. We need another one: we can use GPIO 6 or 7. Since The status led is not used, I prefer GPIO 7. You can see the location of the GPIO pins that I used from the above picture.

Now, look at the SD Card Pinout (you can search it in Google, or just look here).

You need to connect SD Pin 4 to to 3.3V (see the serial port above), Pin 3 and 6 to GND. The rest is up to you (we will configure this later in software). This is what I use:

Pin 2 (Data In/MOSI) to GPIO 4 (SES Button)
Pin 7 (Data Out/MISO) to GPIO 7 (Status LED)
Pin 5 in SD Card (CLK) to GPIO 1 (blue LED)
Pin 1 in SD Card (Chip Select) to GPIO 3 (red LED)

After you solder them, you need to install these packages using opkg: kmod-mmc, kmod-mmc-over-gpio, kmod-mmc-spi, kmod-spi-bitbang, and kmod-spi-gpio. We need to edit /etc/init.d/mmc_over_gpio. The line that you are looking for is the add_device "default". There are some numbers in the following order DI, DO, CLK, CS and SPI_MODE. You need to fill in the GPIO that you use for each of that pins and just fill in 0 for SPI_MODE. In my case I edit the line to become: add_device "default" 4 7 1 3 0.

Now I can start the SD card using: /etc/init.d/mmc_over_gpio start. You can now mount the card. To remove the card, umount the card and /etc/init.d/mmc_over_gpio stop. The SD card speed is to slow, I will look on to this later, but for now the speed is enough for me.

This is my final result (I am really lousy at soldering):

This is the picture of the back side of the pcb after soldering:

Doesn’t look too bad from the outside for the SD Card:

This is the dmesg log after /etc/init.d/mmc_over_gpio start

gpio-mmc: Failed to request mmc_spi module.
mmc_spi spi32765.0: SD/MMC host mmc0, no DMA, no WP, no poweroff
gpio-mmc: MMC-Card "default" attached to GPIO pins di=4, do=7, clk=1, cs=3
mmc_spi spi32765.0: can't change chip-select polarity
mmc0: new SD card on SPI
mmcblk0: mmc0:0000 SD512 495488KiB
mmcblk0: p1

But I made a stupid mistake for the RS232 port. I put the port on the wrong place, and I can not drill for the screw on the right side of the port. Fortunately this is not fatal, I just glued the port to the casing.

Via tinyhack

Finally found a way to flash back a DIR-300 (running DD-WRT) back to D-Link firmware. It is a great thing that they have included the emergency web server in the RedBoot. DD-WRT version of RedBoot had stripped it out though. So the first step is actually restoring the RedBoot to the one DIR-300 originally had.

Note: It seems like x will not be represented as alphabet “x” after copy and pasting. Do take note of this.

Files that you need
RedBoot file: Download file
board config: shadowandy_board_config.bin (refer to section Generating board config)

Mirrors for RedBoot file

Noticed that D-Link Czech Republic and Poland has hosted the copy of my RedBoot. If you are having trouble downloading from my site. You can get them from these mirrors

D-Link (Czech Republic)
D-Link (Poland)

Generating board config

Refer to this guide (Generating DIR-300′s board config) on how to generate the board config file shadowandy_board_config.bin. This step is necessary to restore wireless lan security functionality in the D-Link original firmware.

Getting into Redboot

Connect the network cable to your ethernet port and the WAN port of DIR-300.
Configure your System IP address (static) to be 192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0.
Prepare your telnet client to connect to 192.168.1.1, port 9000.
Power on the DIR-300 and telnet in the instance your ethernet link is up. Hit Ctrl+C the moment you see Executing boot script in …
You should be greeted by the DD-WRT prompt. DD-WRT>

Changing back to the original RedBoot

Ensure that you have extracted the file dir300redboot.rom into your TFTP server directory. Follow the following command to flash back to original RedBoot.

DD-WRT> ip_address -h 192.168.1.2
Default server: 192.168.1.2
DD-WRT> fis init
About to initialize [format] FLASH image system – continue (y/n)? y
*** Initialize FLASH Image System
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0x80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> load -r -b %{FREEMEMLO} dir300redboot.rom
Using default protocol (TFTP)
Raw file loaded 0×80040800-0x800607ff, assumed entry at 0×80040800
DD-WRT> fis create -l 0×30000 -e 0xbfc00000 RedBoot
An image named ‘RedBoot’ exists – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbfc00000-0xbfc30000: …
… Program from 0×80040800-0×80060800 at 0xbfc00000: ..
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0x80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> reset

The router should reboot at this point of time. Wait for a while (30 seconds) before proceeding to the next section.

Preparing your system for board config recovery

Connect the network cable to your ethernet port and the WAN port of DIR-300.
Configure your System IP address (static) to be 192.168.20.80/255.255.255.0.
Remove the power from DIR-300

Flashing back the board config

Ensure that you have placed the file shadowandy_board_config.bin into the TFTP server directory. Follow the following instructions to flash back the board config partition.

Ensure that the DIR-300 is not powered on
Hold on to the reset button and power DIR-300 on
Hold on to the reset button for about 30 seconds while DIR-300 is booting
Telnet to 192.168.20.81 on port 9000 You should be greeted by RedBoot>
Follow the following commands

RedBoot> load -r -b %{FREEMEMLO} shadowandy_board_config.bin
Using default protocol (TFTP)
Raw file loaded 0×80036400-0x800463ff, assumed entry at 0×80036400
RedBoot> fwrite -f 0xbfff0000 -b 0×80036400 -l 0×10000 -e 0×80036400
About to write image into flash – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbfff0000-0xc0000000: .
… Program from 0×80036400-0×80046400 at 0xbfff0000: .
update image info..
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
RedBoot> reset

Note: For those who are interested. You can issue the command “x -b 0xbfff0000 -l 0×100″ and ensure that memory location content starts with “5311.}..Atheros”

Your router would reboot after the reset command.

Preparing your system router recovery

Download the D-Link firmware for DIR-300 from your respective region support page. For me, I would be downloading from DIR-300 firmware page at D-Link Singapore.
Connect the network cable to your ethernet port and the WAN port of DIR-300.
Remove the power from DIR-300

Getting into Emergency Recovery Page

Ensure that the DIR-300 is not powered on
Hold on to the reset button and power DIR-300 on
Hold on to the reset button for about 30 seconds while DIR-300 is booting
Open up your web browser and go to http://192.168.20.81. You should be able to see the emergency recovery page as seen below.

Emergency Firmware recovery page

Uploading the original D-Link firmware

Click on the browse button and locate the firmware you have downloaded from D-Link firmware page earlier
Click on the upload button to start flashing the device. Follow the instruction on screen as seen in the image below. When it is done, reset the device by power cycling it. It will be running the D-Link firmware after rebooting

Flashing process

After the flashing process. Remove the power from the DIR-300. Wait for 30 seconds before proceeding to the next section.

Doing the final touching up

Ensure that the DIR-300 is not powered on
Hold on to the reset button and power DIR-300 on
Hold on to the reset button for about 30 seconds while DIR-300 is booting
Telnet to 192.168.20.81 on port 9000
You should be greeted by RedBoot>
Follow the following commands

RedBoot> fconfig img_entry_addr 0×80040000
img_entry_addr: Setting to 0×80040000
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbfff0000-0xbfffffff: .
… Program from 0×80036400-0×80046400 at 0xbfff0000: .
RedBoot> fconfig img_flash_addr 0xbfc20000
img_flash_addr: Setting to 0xbfc20000
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbfff0000-0xbfffffff: .
… Program from 0×80036400-0×80046400 at 0xbfff0000: .
RedBoot> fconfig img_length 0x003c0000
img_length: Setting to 0x003c0000
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbfff0000-0xbfffffff: .
… Program from 0×80036400-0×80046400 at 0xbfff0000: .

Power cycle the DIR-300 by powering off and on the DIR-300. Wait for the DIR-300 to power up. Set your system to DHCP and connect to the LAN port of DIR-300. Surf to http://192.168.0.1 and you should be greeted by the admin page.

DIR-300 with restored firmware

Enjoy your restored DIR-300.

Credits to vcn and fluffy@prog.ru for discovering the address for board config partition [forum thread] - source

If you are a big fan of Facebook then you’ll be pleased to know that the social networking giant has finally released the Facebook Home app over at Google Play. Don’t be surprised if your device isn’t seeing it yet as it’s being released gradually so some devices will have access to the app while some won’t.

So far the app is only available for use in the U.S. and only on selected devices. The device list is as follows

HTC First
HTC One (officially supported, but not yet available)
HTC One X
HTC One X+
Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Samsung Galaxy S3
Samsung Galaxy S4 (officially supported, but not yet available)

Installing the app can easily be done by downloading it on your device and opening it.

For those whose devices aren’t on the compatibility list then you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for the app to become available.

A way to use Facebook Home on the Nexus 4 and possibly any other non-compatible device was discovered by Krzysztof Bryk. This method requires that you manually install the three .apk files required to run Facebook home and do a little editing on the build.prop file. If you are up to the challenge then you might want out check out the procedure.

Facebook Home is the new interface from the social network that allows you to easily access your Facebook account on your Android device. You’ll just need to glance on your phone to view updates from your friends, there’s the new chat heads feature and it comes with bigger and bolder notifications.

Some of the features of this new app include

Cover Feed: As soon as you turn on your phone, you see posts from your News Feed, so you always know what your friends are up to
Chat Heads and Messenger: Install Messenger to send and receive texts and Facebook messages from the same spot.
Notifications: Notifications from Facebook appear right on your home screen and stick around until you need them. Open a notification with a tap or clear them away to see your cover feed.
App Launcher: Launch your favorite apps and post to Facebook from the same spot

via google play

This is the simplest type of JTAG cable, the easiest to construct and the cheapest to make. The original cable was introduced by Xilinx and has a full name "Xilinx DLC5 JTAG Parallel Cable III". Someone removed a buffer and changed it with a four 100 Ohm resistor. Popularized by the Hairydairymaid de-brick utility software for Linksys routers, many people have successfully built their own unbuffered JTAG cable.

It consists of only a few cheap resistors, a 25-pin parallel port connector and a ribbon-cable with a 12-pin connector that slides onto a header soldered onto the PCB found inside the cases of Linksys WRT54G and WRT54GS routers. The chief limitation of this type of cable is that it must be very short; the length must be 6 inches or less (15 cm) to avoid problems with electrical noise. Note : you can safely replace 100 Ohm resistors with couples of 220 Ohm connected in parallel. 220 Ohm (Red-Red-Brown) is a much more frequent value found on electronic boards of recovery.

JTAG-to-LPT mapping

TDI - DATA0 - pin 2
TDO - SELECT - pin 13
TMS - DATA2 - pin 4
TCK - DATA1 - pin 3

The Linksys WRT54G and WRT54GS routers are based on Broadcom CPUs which are a type of MIPS32 processor. Broadcom has implemented EJTAG version 2.0 in their chips. This allows the use of DMA transfers via JTAG which, while slow, is faster than the implementation of EJTAG v2.5 and v2.6 which do not support DMA transfers.

Whether we like it or not, advertisements are a vital part of our Web browsing experience. It’s what enables us to read, watch or listen to most online content for free, like the website you’re on right now. But sometimes these ads can be intrusive or slow down your browsing experience. Hence the popularity of ad-blocking software like Adblock Plus. Now someone’s come up with a hardware equivalent of such software.

Invented by Chad Russell, the AdTrap is an open-source device that has a wider reach than any ad-blocking program. The AdTrap blocks online ads for all devices – from a desktop computer to a smartphone – in the same network. You simply plug the AdTrap in between your modem and your router, then reset your modem. Any and all ads should be gone when you’re back online.

Fortunately the AdTrap also has a whitelisting feature so you can instruct it to display ads on certain websites – *hint hint* – or let certain ads through. You can actually do much more than that if you have the know how, because the AdTrap is designed to be hackable.

As of this writing a pledge of at least $99 (USD) on its Kickstarter fundraiser qualifies you for an AdTrap. If this device is successful, I’m guessing Russell and company are going to come out with a router (or a modem-router combo) with AdTrap built-in.

The Internet is flooded populated with advertisements today. There are AdBlock plugins for browsers. But how about mobile devices like non-rooted or non-jailbroken Androids and iOS devices?

I recently came across a Kickstarter project called AdTrap. It introduces a small zero configuration device that removes advertisements from your Internet connection before they reach any of your home devices. This device is connected between your modem and home router. Sounds cool? Yes if you are willing to fork out US$132 (inclusive of US$12 shipping if outside US / Canada).

Do I need the Kickstarter project to achieve that? No!

So I gave it a thought – with dnsmasq on the TomatoUSB-enabled router (e.g. ASUS RT-N66U, Linksys E4200), I could probably achieve ad blocking with DNS Cache Poisoning on the TomatoUSB-enabled router. Too geek? In simpler terms, I can make the TomatoUSB-enabled router resolve known advertisement domain names / hostnames to invalid addresses like 0.0.0.0.

As a result, I am able to filter advertisements from the Internet before they reach any of my devices at home.

I started to google around to see if anybody has used the DNS Cache Poisoning technique (using dnsmasq) and found that somebody actually did the scripts (http://goo.gl/mhykQ)! Did a little modification to it and here it is.

Pre-requisites

TomatoUSB-enabled router like ASUS RT-N66U, RT-N16, Linksys E4200
Flashed to TomatoUSB firmware (I am using TomatoUSB on my RT-N66U)
Geeky mind to do some troubleshooting

Inserting the AdBlocking script

Using a web browser, login to the TomatoUSB web administration page
Navigate to Administration -> Scripts -> WAN Up tab
Copy and paste the contents below. Then save and reboot the router

## ALL-U-NEED Ad Blocking v3.9e
## http://goo.gl/mhykQ
## Original script by YAQUI
## Updated by ~nephelim~, Syl, jochen, groosh, ng12345, ray123, mstombs
## base64 decoder by Danny Chouinard's

sleep 10

ADB="/tmp/ADBLOCK.sh"
{
cat <<'ENDF' >$ADB
#!/bin/sh

OPTIMISE="Y"
GETS="1 2 3 4 5 6"
TRIM_BEGIN=2
S1="http://mirror1.malwaredomains.com/files/justdomains"
S2="http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts.txt"
S3="http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts"
S4="http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt"
S5="http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts"
S6="http://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.asp"

USEWHITELIST="Y" # N/Y/R for remote
WURL="http://example.com/whitelist.txt"
WHITE="intel.com
www.shadowandy.net"
BLACK=""

USEPIXELSERV="N"
PXL_IP=192.168.1.10
PXL_EXE="/tmp/pixelserv"
PXL_URL="http://www.example.com/pixelserv"

UPLOAD="N"
FTP_SERVER="example.com"
FTP_USER=""
FTP_PASS=""
FTP_PORT=21
FTP_PATH="/gen"

ADD_CONF="N"
USEHOSTS="N"
ROUTER="Y"

NIP="0.0.0.0"

ENDF
}

UPDATE="Y"
AUP() {
if [[ "$UPDATE" == "Y" ]] ; then
if [[ "$(cru l | grep AdUpd | cut -d '#' -f2)" != "AdUpd" ]] ; then
cru a AdUpd "0 4 * * * $ADB"
fi
fi
}

#### DO NOT EDIT BELOW ####

b64="openssl enc -base64 -d"
[[ "$(echo WQ==|$b64)" != "Y" ]] && b64="b64"

b64(){
awk 'BEGIN{b64="ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"}

{for(i=1;i<=length($0);i++){c=index(b64,substr($0,i,1));if(c--) for(b=0;b<6 data-blogger-escaped--en="" data-blogger-escaped-b64="" data-blogger-escaped-b="" data-blogger-escaped-c="" data-blogger-escaped-cat="" data-blogger-escaped-echo="" data-blogger-escaped-else="" data-blogger-escaped-gunzip="" data-blogger-escaped-o="0}}}}" data-blogger-escaped-obc="" data-blogger-escaped-printf="" data-blogger-escaped-system="">>$ADB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ENDF
}

chmod 775 $ADB
$ADB
AUP

Verifying that the script is running

After the TomatoUSB router has rebooted, ssh into the router
Verify that script_wanup.sh is created by typing “ls /tmp” without the quotes
Verify that the adblock script is running by typing “cat /var/log/messages | grep ADBLOCK” without the quotes
It should show that it has N amount of entries for hosts and dnsmasq is running
Congratulations! Ad block is running!

How do I remove the script?

To remove the script. Simply delete the content of the WAN Up tab, save and reboot. The /tmp/script_wanup.sh should go away.

What is in the base64 block

All scripts in TomatoUSB have a 4096 characters limit hence some contents are converted to base64. The contents of the base64 block is based on the following script. You can also verify by checking the file /tmp/script_wanup.sh to verify. You do not have the copy and paste this script anywhere. I am showing here for illustrational purposes only.

#!/bin/sh

{

cat <<'ENDF'|gzip|openssl enc -base64 ARGS=$# GEN="/tmp/gen" TMP="/tmp/temp" CONF="/tmp/conf" HOSTS="/tmp/hosts" WFILE="/tmp/white" if [[ $ARGS != 0 ]] || [[ "$(ps | grep -e '--conf' | grep 'nobody')" == "" ]]; then rm -f $GEN.md5 rm -f $GEN.last fi CLR() { rm -f $GEN rm -f $TMP rm -f $CONF rm -f $WFILE } PXL() { if [[ "$USEPIXELSERV" == "Y" ]]; then if [[ ! -x $PXL_EXE ]]; then wget -O $PXL_EXE $PXL_URL chmod +x $PXL_EXE fi ifconfig br0:0 $PXL_IP if [[ "$(pidof pixelserv)" == "" ]]; then $PXL_EXE $PXL_IP -n br0; sleep 1 ; else kill -SIGUSR1 $(pidof pixelserv); fi if [[ "$(pidof pixelserv)" == "" ]]; then logger ADBLOCK ERROR: cannot start pixelserv else eval "NIP=$PXL_IP" fi fi } NC() { UNDEF=0 for i in $GETS; do eval url="\$S$i" P1=$(echo $url| sed 's|^http[s]*://[^/]*$/.*$$|\1|') H1=$(echo $url| sed 's|^http[s]*://$[^/]*$/.*$|\1|') for x in 1 2 3; do time=$(echo -e "HEAD $P1 HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: $H1\r\nConnection: close\r\n"| nc -w 5 $H1 80|grep -i Last-Modified:|tr -d "\r") if [ "$time" != "" ]; then break; fi done if [ "$time" == "" ]; then UNDEF=1; fi echo $time>>$GEN.new

done

if [ $UNDEF -eq 1 ]; then rm -f $GEN.last; fi

if [ -f $GEN.last ]; then

MD1=$(md5sum $GEN.last|cut -d " " -f1)

MD2=$(md5sum $GEN.new|cut -d " " -f1)

if [ "$MD1" == "$MD2" ]; then

logger ADBLOCK: no changes since last time, exiting.

rm -f $GEN.new

exit

fi

fi

mv -f $GEN.new $GEN.last

}

TRIM() {

sed -ie '

s/\#.*$//

s/^127\.0\.0\.1[ \t]*//

s/[ \t]*$//

s/^::1[ \t]*//

s/localhost$//

/^$/d' $TMP

}

DS() {

for i in $GETS; do

eval url="\$S$i"

if wget $url -O - | tr -d "\r" > $TMP ; then

if [[ $i -ge $TRIM_BEGIN ]]; then TRIM ; fi

cat $TMP >> $GEN

logger ADBLOCK: $url

else

logger ADBLOCK ERROR: cannot get $url

fi

done

}

TST(){

MD5=$(md5sum $GEN|cut -d " " -f1)

if [[ -f $GEN.md5 ]] && [[ $MD5 == $(cat $GEN.md5) ]]; then

logger ADBLOCK: no changes since last time, exiting.

CLR; exit

else

echo $MD5>$GEN.md5

fi

}

LWHT() {

if [[ "$USEWHITELIST" == "Y" ]]; then

for site in $WHITE

do

sed -i "/$(echo $site|sed 's/\./\\./g')/d" $GEN

done

elif [[ "$USEWHITELIST" == "R" ]]; then

if wget $WURL -O - | tr -d "\r" > $WFILE ; then

logger ADBLOCK: whitelist $WURL

sed -i -e '/\#.*$/ s/\#.*$//' -e '/^$/d' $WFILE

for site in $(cat $WFILE)

do

sed -i "/$(echo $site|sed 's/\./\\./g')/d" $GEN

done

else

logger ADBLOCK ERROR: cannot get whitelist $WURL

fi

fi

echo "$BLACK" |sed 's/[ \t]*/\n/g'|sed '/^$/d' >> $GEN

}

OPT() {

if [[ "$OPTIMISE" == "Y" ]]; then

logger ADBLOCK: sorting hosts...

if [[ "$USEHOSTS" == "Y" ]]; then

sort -u -o $TMP $GEN

else

awk -F '.' 'BEGIN{ORS=""}{for(i=NF;i>0;i--)print $i"#";print "\n"}' $GEN|sort|

awk -F '#' 'BEGIN{ORS="";d = "%"}{if(index($0,d)!=1&&NF!=0){d=$0;print $--NF;

for(i=--NF;i>0;i--)print "."$i;print "\n"}}' > $TMP

fi

logger ADBLOCK: hosts sorted.

fi

mv -f $TMP $GEN

}

CNT() {

TOT=$(wc -l < $GEN) logger ADBLOCK: $TOT entries } FTPUP() { if [[ "$UPLOAD" == "Y" ]]; then if [[ "$ROUTER" == "Y" ]]; then ftpput -u $FTP_USER -p $FTP_PASS -P $FTP_PORT $FTP_SERVER $FTP_PATH $GEN else ncftpput -u $FTP_USER -p $FTP_PASS -P $FTP_PORT $FTP_SERVER $FTP_PATH $GEN fi fi } FDNSM() { if [[ "$USEHOSTS" == "Y" ]]; then cp -f $GEN $HOSTS chmod 644 $HOSTS sed -i -e 's|^|'$NIP' |' $HOSTS sed -i -e '1i127.0.0.1 localhost' $HOSTS else sed -i 's|^.*$|address=/&/'$NIP'|' $GEN fi } LCFG() { if [[ "$USEHOSTS" == "Y" ]]; then cat /etc/dnsmasq.conf >> $CONF

cat >> $CONF <> $GEN
fi
}

ADDCFG() {
if [[ "$ADD_CONF" == "Y" ]]; then
if [[ "$USEHOSTS" == "Y" ]]; then
eval "CFG=$CONF"
else
eval "CFG=$GEN"
fi
cat >> $CFG < dhcp-authoritative
cache-size=2048
log-async=5
EOF
fi
}

LBLK() {
service dnsmasq stop
if [[ "$USEHOSTS" == "Y" ]]; then
dnsmasq --conf-file=$CONF
else
dnsmasq --conf-file=$GEN
fi
}

FS() {
if ps | grep 'dnsmasq' | grep 'nobody' ; then
logger ADBLOCK: dnsmasq is running
else
logger ADBLOCK ERROR: restarting dnsmasq...
dnsmasq
fi
}

CLR
PXL

NC
DS
TST
LWHT
CNT
OPT
CNT
FTPUP

if [[ "$ROUTER" == "Y" ]]; then
FDNSM
LCFG
ADDCFG
LBLK
FS
fi

CLR

ENDF
}

The AdBlock Sources

I have actually updated the AdBlock sources to one that is more suitable for me. The codes that are responsible for the AdBlock sources are:

OPTIMISE="Y"
GETS="1 2 3 4 5 6"
TRIM_BEGIN=2
S1="http://mirror1.malwaredomains.com/files/justdomains"
S2="http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts.txt"
S3="http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts"
S4="http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt"
S5="http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts"
S6="http://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.asp"

You can choose which hosts files will be downloaded to block ads, update the variable GETS. I am downloading all of them.

A little explanation about TRIM_BEGIN=2:

S1 contains hostname only, it will be copied without formatting. While S2 to S6 are file formatted to replace hosts file, these files will be formatted to works with AdBlock. TRIM_BEGIN tells AdBlock which sources need formatting (from S2 to the end). Well usually you don’t need to touch this. Yes, you can add new blacklists to it.

If OPTIMISE=”Y”, AdBlock will remove duplicated entries.

Custom Whitelist and Blacklist

You can add inline whitelist and blacklist to the script by updating this chunk of the codes:

USEWHITELIST="Y" # N/Y/R for remote

WURL="http://example.com/whitelist.txt"

WHITE="intel.com

www.shadowandy.net"

BLACK=""

Auto Updating of AdBlock sources

By setting UPDATE=”Y”, AdBlock will update the AdBlock entries at the time specified in the cron rule.

UPDATE="Y"
AUP() {
if [[ "$UPDATE" == "Y" ]] ; then
if [[ "$(cru l | grep AdUpd | cut -d '#' -f2)" != "AdUpd" ]] ; then
cru a AdUpd "0 4 * * * $ADB"
fi
fi
}

Getting Pixelserv to work

Pixelserv is a super minimal web server whose sole purpose is to serve a 1 x 1 pixel transparent gif file regardless of request. When USEPIXELSERV is enabled (set to “Y” instead of “N”). The adblock-ed hostnames are resolved to PXL_IP (which actually points to the router itself). This result in your web browser requesting resource from Pixelserv.

USEPIXELSERV="N"
PXL_IP=192.168.1.10
PXL_EXE="/tmp/pixelserv"
PXL_URL="http://www.example.com/pixelserv"

To get Pixelserv to work, simply do the following:

Download Pixelserv V27
Unpack the package and upload it to your webhost or the public folder of your Dropbox
Update PXL_URL to point to the location of pixelserv on your webhost or Dropbox without the https (e.g. http://dl.dropbox.com/u//pixelserv)
Update PXL_IP to a unused IP address on your network (e.g. 192.168.1.10)
Update USEPIXELSERV to “Y”
Change TomatoUSB Web Admin page to run on port 8080 (TomatoUSB –> Administration –> Admin Access –> HTTP Port)
Save the changes and restart the router

Do note that you will need to append :8080 to your router IP if you intend to access the Web Admin in the future. - source

TomatoUSB is an alternative open source firmware for Broadcom-based routers like the ASUS RT-N66U Black Knight. It is a modification of the famous Tomato Firmware but with built-in support for USB port, wireless-N support. Check out this entry for an overview of the ASUS RT-N66U Black Knight.

Some of the TomatoUSB features are:

Very advanced QoS (Quality of Service) configuration
Advanced wireless configurations (WDS, wireless client modes, etc)
Graphical bandwidth usage monitor
Printer server: access USB printer from LAN
Media server DLNA
Built-in support for USB – 3G, Storage

You can view more information about TomatoUSB here. You can always flash it back to the original firmware by following this guide and specifying the original firmware instead.

Not sure why are you flashing third party firmware?

I am flashing TomatoUSB into my ASUS RT-N66U due to the following:

DHCP reservation in the original firmware do not work really well. For some reason, some clients just do not get their reserved IP correctly despite having the correct MAC address
DHCP reservation in the original firmware does not give clues what you are reserving for. I felt that besides allowing you to enter the “MAC address” and “IP address”, it should allow you to enter “Hostname/Comments” so that I will know what that line is for
Basic implementation of QoS in original firmware. This is subjective, to some, the QoS is just fine but the one in firmware 3.1.0.3.90 keeps assigning lowest priority to the first 3 custom rules. To be fair, this is fixed if you flash up to 3.0.0.3.108
No option of defining range of DHCP client list in original firmware. For some reason, it just distributes ALL available IP addresses. For me, I prefer to cut my available IP addresses into 2 blocks – one for static machines/servers and the other for any clients

So are you ready to flash TomatoUSB onto the RT-N66U? If yes, just proceed on.

Warning: Flashing third party firmware will void your warranty! I will not be held responsible if anything goes wrong.

What are the required files?

You will need to have the following:

ASUS Firmware Restoration Utility
TomatoUSB (Shibby) firmware

Getting the ASUS Firmware Restoration Utility

Open another browser window/tab and navigate to http://support.asus.com/ServiceHome.aspx?SLanguage=en
Search for support for RT-N66U
Select the “download” link
Specify the OS you are using
Download the latest Utility for RT-N66U
Install the package

Getting the TomatoUSB (Shibby) firmware for RT-N66U

Open another browser window/tab and navigate to http://tomato.groov.pl/download/K26RT-N/
Look for the latest build for “RT-N66U”.
Download the firmware (.trx) file. If you do not know which to download, just download the one with “mega” or “BT” in the filename

Great! By now, you should have the ASUS Utility installed and the latest TomatoUSB (Shibby) firmware downloaded. Lets proceed to the next section.

How do I flash the TomatoUSB firmware onto the RT-N66U?

The steps are simple, you will need to:

Start the firmware restoration process (using firmware restoration utility in the ASUS Utility package) so that it is searching for router
Put the ASUS RT-N66U into firmware restoration mode and quickly start the firmware restoration process

Before you proceed, pull out the power cable to your RT-N66U and have a pen ready to press the reset button (between the USB ports and WAN port)

Preparing for firmware restoration to TomatoUSB (Shibby)

Launch the firmware restoration utility (this is one of the tools in the Utility you installed earlier)
In the firmware restoration utility, browse for the TomatoUSB firmware you have downloaded earlier
Start the firmware flashing and a prompt should appear stating that it is an incompatible firmware. Proceed to the next step.

Putting the RT-N66U into emergency firmware restore mode

Press and hold on to the reset button
While holding down the reset button, plug in the power cable so that the RT-N66U turns on.
Note: Keep holding the reset button until the power led starts to flash (on and off). When power led starts flashing, release the reset button and proceed.
On the firmware restoration utility, agree to the prompt saying that it is a incompatible firmware.
The utility should be scanning for device. Quickly proceed to the next step
Wait until the flashing is complete
Power cycle the router when it is complete

Finally, clearing the NVRAM before you use TomatoUSB

It is always a good practice to clear out the previous settings (in NVRAM) whenever you flash to different firmwares. In this case, it is required to flush out the NVRAM.

You can either flush the NVRAM either through key presses or through web admin.

Clearing NVRAM via key presses

Power off the RT-N66U
Press and hold down the WPS button
While holding the WPS button, plug in the power cable to turn RT-N66U on
Keep holding the WPS button for 30 seconds before releasing
The router should reboot
Congratulations. The NVRAM has been cleared.

Clearing NVRAM via web admin

The TomatoUSB administration web should be at http://192.168.1.1 . If it is not, do a “ipconfig” or “ifconfig” and navigate to the gateway address with your web browser. If you are not able to get an IP address from DHCP, you might want to set your computer’s IP address to 192.168.1.2 (255.255.255.0).

When prompted for a login, the default is:

User: root
Pass: admin

Once you are in, follow the next step to clear out the previous settings

Navigate to Administration -> Configuration
Under Restore Default Configuration, select “Erase all data in NVRAM memory (thorough)
Click “OK”
Wait for the router to be ready

Your RT-N66U is now running TomatoUSB (Shibby). Have fun exploring and configuring the RT-N66U. Do update me if there are anything wrong with this guide so that I can fix it. Thanks!

The term "Jewish hijab" is sometimes used to describe the head covering worn by some Jewish women after marriage. It should be noted, however, that the term "hijab" is not used within Jewish communities to describe this garment or the practice of wearing it.

The reason why some people describe a Jewish woman's head covering as a Jewish hijab likely has to do with the common association of head coverings with Islamic modesty standards, which are collectively known as hijab.

Modesty codes in Judaism, on the other hand, are properly known as tzniut. The nature of a Jewish women's head covering and standards of modest dress are different from that practiced by Muslims, however, and the styles worn as part of both Muslim and Jewish hijab are also distinct.

Modesty standards vary within the Jewish community, with some branches of Judaism rejecting strict modesty codes while others embrace them. Some women in Orthodox Judaism practice a custom of covering their hair in public after marriage, reserving the sight of their natural hair for their husbands. These women may choose to wear a wig, known as a sheitel, while others may tuck their hair under a hat, snood, or headscarf. Unlike many Islamic head coverings, those worn by Jewish women do not typically cover the wearer's neck or chest. Nor is a woman usually obligated to wear such a covering until after she is married. Unmarried women and girls are not required to cover their hair, although they may still be expected to dress modestly by covering their legs and arms while in public or in the presence of others.

In Muslim communities, women are typically expected to dress modestly from the age of puberty. Modest dress is often defined as covering the entire body, with the exception of a woman's face and hands, in a way that does not reveal the woman's body shape or hair. While these dress standards are known as hijab, the headscarf or head covering worn by many Muslim women is also colloquially known as a hijab. In countries like the United States, where the majority of women do not cover their heads while in public, the wearing of a headscarf is often associated with the Islamic practice, leading some to refer to head coverings worn by women of other faiths as either a Christian or Jewish hijab, even though the women who practice this custom may not refer to their headscarves in this manner.

Android tablet prices have dropped and dropped and dropped for the past couple of years, but I’m sure you never suspected you could get a quad-core Jelly Bean-based slate for less than 100 bucks. That’s just crazy, isn’t it?

And yet it’s true. Ainol, a manufacturer that has been on our radar in the past with such dirt-cheap tabs as the Novo 7 Crystal, Novo 10 Captain and Novo 7 Venus, has done it again! The spanking new Novo 7 Crystal 2 looks better than its predecessor, has cooler specs and is also cheaper, all while coming with free international shipping via LighTake.

Sure, you should not expect a level of performance closer to, say, that of the Nexus 7, but for just $94.89 the Novo 7 Crystal 2 is an amazing bargain, no matter how you look at it.

But you know what the absolute craziest thing is about this 7-incher? It doesn’t even have the worst specs in the world, as you might thing. Yes, the LCD capacitive screen is sub-par, boasting a 1,024 x 600 pixels resolution.

And yes, the 1.5 GHz quad-core Cortex A9-based ATM7029 CPU is likely slower than several dual-core chips around. But the Novo 7 Crystal 2 comes with 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of on-board storage and microSD support.

There’s also a front-facing camera, albeit a very modest 0.3 MP one. And what can one not like about the on-board Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with full Google Play support? I’m telling you, Ainol could have priced this baby at $120 or $130 and it would still look like a tab with a decent quality-price ratio.

Granted, the thing is not exactly the thinnest or lightest, but it weighs in at 338 grams and measures 10.5 mm in width, which is almost identical to Nexus 7’s numbers.

Other features include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Flash support and a decent 3,700 mAh battery, but sadly there’s no GPS or Bluetooth. Then again, Ainol did have to cut a few corners to keep the price so low, right?

Regardless of that, I said it once and I’ll say it again. The Ainol Novo 7 Crystal 2 is an amazing bargain, and, if you’re in the market for a portable tab that won’t make you break the piggy bank, you’d be fools to pass on it. Are you in or are you out?

Via [GizChina]

A Thermoelectric generator powered by a tealight. It started as an experiment of how much power I could get from one candle. But I liked the idea and it worked really well so I built this electric-mechanical ornament. I did not use a high temperature TEG-module, but instead a cheap TEC-module. That can still handle 200 degrees Celsius which is good enough.

Concept:

It is also called a peltier element and when you use it as a generator it's called seebeck effect. You have one hot side and one cold. The module generates power to drive a motor and the motor fan/air flow will cool the upper heat sink. Higher temperature difference => increased output power => increased motor RPM => increased air flow => increased temperature difference and so on. The airflow will spread the heat into your room, which is the purpose of this construction.

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

If you unmounts the basement you could also use it as a stove-fan or move air from other heat sources. The motor start to turn at about 15 degrees difference, which to my surprise worked when I just went outdoors with it and the upper heat sink got cooler than the basement. You can place it in hot water, on an ice cube, a pizza and it works just as fine.

Total cost was about 50€ (incl. shipping costs). I used some spare parts but I bought most of it.

Components used:

CPU-cooler (cold side): Zalman CNPS5X (Base plate: 33x33mm)
CPU-cooler (hot side): From an old PC (WxLxH=78x63x67mm)
TEC-module: TEC1-07110T200 (30x30x3.3mm)
DC Motor: 1,5-3V
USB-fan (metal, only needed the fan)
Thermal paste: Arctic MX-4
A piece of wood
Two pull springs
Four M4 bolts and two M3 bolts
Aluminum tubes (optional)

TEC specification (at ΔT=68C):

Vmax: 8.5
Imax: 10
Qmax: 52.7
Tmax: 200 degrees Celsius
Source: http://www.termo-gen.com

Construction:

First of all, it does not need to be exactly those components. Other heat sinks, TEC/TEG, motor, fan, thermal paste, bolts and base plate can be used. Main concept rules are:

A TEC or TEG module (smaller dimension than upper heat sink base plate). Specifications are not that important but make sure it can handle high temperature. Many modules are only 100 degrees C and then you need to modify the construction as it gets warmer than that.
One hot side that is not hotter than TEC max-temp (My candle flame never touches the surface)
One cold side, an efficient heat sink (heat pipes) are a good choice
Good thermal paste to maximize temperature difference
Low voltage motor, around 1V. I prefer it to be quite (low dB)
Fan with high air flow at low RPM
Base plate that adds stability, holder for light, isolate heat

The lower heat sink (hot side) was cut and polished to get it nice looking. I kept 5mm of the fins to absorb the heat well when the light flame burns and increases distance to the surface. New dimensions are 78x63x15mm. 4 holes are drilled through the heat sink and threaded as M4. 4 bolts will hold the lower heat sink on top of a wooden platform. Bolts go through the platform from below, covered with aluminum pipes for a better looking design and are screwed into the heat sink. The distance between wood and heat sink is 35mm but I would make it 40-45mm as the flame almost touches the surface. You don´t want that because it creates black soot. The lower heat sink gets really warm but at the same time it works as a cooler to not get TOO warm, that would melt the TEG-module.

Two springs attached to M3 bolts fixate the upper heat sink on the lower, with TEC-module and thermal paste in between. Both surfaces of the TEC are covered with a thin smooth layer of thermal paste. The springs adds pressure as well as isolate the heat to travel to the cold side. The upper heat sink could also be screwed into the lower heat sink but then you need isolated screws.

The TEC is directly attached/soldered to the motor and the motor is attached to the upper heat sink by another small piece of metal and a cable tie. The fan is attached to the motor with a small belt wheel and glue.

Result:

I think the hot aluminum part get to about 100-150 Celsius, I measured the temp with a grill thermometer covered in thermal paste but can´t tell how accurate it was. I measured 0.4V and 0.25A with one candle and 0.67V and 0.54A with two. That results in 0.1W resp. 0.36W output power. The efficiency to produce electricity this way is not that impressive though. A candle produce about 25 Watts, that means 0.7% efficiency.. But who cares, everything this machine does will eventually end up in heat any way =) That is a bit interesting, you increase the room-heating speed (I think) but looses nothing..

Thermoelectric Fan Powered by a Candle

It is a bit noisy to have running all the time. To find the optimal motor/fan => airflow/noise level will require some more experimenting.

Mod Proposals:

Skip the base platform and bolts and use it as a stove-fan.
Use two/four TECs side-by-side to multiply output power. Add a 5-10mm thick copper plate that covers all modules and then place the CPU-cooler on top of that.
Use a brushless DC motor and a suitable fan to make it noiseless.
Build in a slow motor beneath the platform to make the whole thing spin 360 degrees.
Put wheels on the platform.

Edit:

I have changed the motor to a "Tamiya 76005 Solar Motor 02 (Mabuchi RF-500TB)". Got it on Ebay. It´s incredibly strong at low RPM and I give it only 0.5V. A very good motor, but best of all, it´s quiet! I cannot hear it at 2m distance at full speed. It also gives stronger air flow. Now I can run it all time =) source

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Amazing Thermoelectric Fan Powered by a Candle?

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