Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Tiny Core Linux on Sony Tablet P using Limbo PC Emulator

Tiny Core Linux on Sony Tablet P using Limbo PC Emulator

I've used the Tiny Core Linux on Sony Tablet P. It is pretty cool to be able to use Linux on top of Android (although Android itself is based on Linux).

I used Pentium 3 emulation with 128MB of RAM. I used Hacker's Keyboard as the keyboard, and the keyboard is much smoother than the stock Sony keyboard. It is nice to have up, down, left and right keys as well.

This Tiny Core Linux will come in handy when I want to scribble notes and tinkering.


tc@box 

vi running

showing directory

Monday, December 7, 2015

After Considering between Vaio Pro 13 mk2 and Macbook Air 11inch...

After considering between Vaio Pro 13 mk2 and Macbook Air 11 inch, I've decided to buy a Macbook Air 11 inch 256GB model with 4GB of RAM. I also bought a copy of Windows 10 Home and Office 2016 for Mac.

I'm typing from Windows 10 Home on top of Macbook Air 11 inch using Virtual Box. It gets a little bit laggy since I'm running iTunes, and Tiny Core Linux at the same time. Currently 3.76GB of RAM is used. (2GB is used for the Windows 10 and 512MB for Tiny Core Linux).

The Tiny Core Linux is interesting because it's minimalistic, and I'm running Hackedbox as X window manager.

Mohawk Search Beta running on Lillo 3 SSL Ver.


In the coming months, I'm going to study HarvardX, LPIC, and alot of Perl & Python. I also want to build an application like Silk browser to accelerate webbrowsing using Raspberry Pi 2 cluster. It will probably be a very good experiment.

I think I will save up for the Vaio Pro 13 mk2, but I don't know what will happen as I hear 3 companies, Vaio, TOSHIBA, and Fujitsu are going to merge and become Vaio or something.... It will be a crazy mix breed.... lol


Wednesday, December 2, 2015

What Gadgets I am Using Part 1


So, one thing you might be wondering is just what gadgets I have been using lately, and that is a question that has a LONG answer, so if you get bored easy, better move along, otherwise, grab a snack, a drink, and sit back! I have decided to split it into parts, all pictures will be posted in the final part!

First off, lets start with the first, and main, desktop. I have a motherboard that a friend of mine had sent me a little while back, which also included an Intel Core 2 Quad processor, a Q9http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312820400, running at 2.66GHz, and 8GB of DDR2 memory. The sad thing is that the RAM is maxed out so there will be no upgrading that any more.

Just a few weeks ago, it was upgraded further. I had actually changed the power supply over the summer as well, so the next logical step was a new graphics card. I was using a PNY 9800GTX card, with an amazing 512MB of VRAM. This card wasn't enough for Fallout 4, so I traded a Sharp IS01 to my good friend who sent the motherboard, and got an Asus GTX750 TI OC 2GB card. Now I can play Fallout 4, which I just run on medium settings.

Keyboard wise, I either use a Logitech K810 which uses Bluetooth, or a wired ThermalTake Poseidon Z keyboard, which is actually a gaming keyboard. Both are backlit, but the K810 lacks a number pad. The other keyboard uses Kaihl Blue switches, which are a clone of Cherry MX Blue switches. The patent ran out, so Kaihl is able to make them now as well. Also, Razer keyboards uses these switches as well. I use the K810 at night since the mechanical one is definitely loud! I don't like to keep my parents awake, so I use the good keyboard in the day.

The desktop is running Windows 10, since I do need at least one good computer with Windows on it for stuff like Fallout. It is hooked up to a 22" Samsung TV which has a resolution of 1680x1050. Not a bad setup but I wouldn't mind a new display one of these days, and a new case for this computer would be kind of nice too, but for now, everything is staying as is.

The second desktop is a Late 2009 Mac Mini. These things are more like cars than computers to me anymore. It is a sad thing when we need to use a year to refer to a computer in my opinion. Anyway, it is a Core 2 Duo model, running at 2.53GHz, with 4GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive. This will never be upgraded as I refuse to open it!

It is running Mac OS X 10.11.1 otherwise known as El Capitan. I am not a huge fan of this as to me, it feels slow. Facebook has broken XMPP so Adium can no longer connect to it, and unlike Pidgin, they are unlikely to fix it if you ask me. With Pidgin, on both Windows and Linux, I installed a new Facebook plugin that actually works.

These two reasons are the main reasons I am not using it that much, other than as a second desktop for times when I want to put a document on the screen really. I have a Dell 17" 1280x1024 monitor setup for it, so it just sits there until I decide what to use it for I guess. If they ever fix Adium, it would be far more useful for me, and I have been debating putting it back to something like 10.8 or 10.9 instead.

So now onto laptops, which there are FOUR I use. The first of which, is the one I use most often. That would be the Lenovo ThinkPad X140e, which I just mentioned in the last post about Linux. It is a smaller laptop, which is actually designed for the educational market, hence the "e" at the end of the model name.

It uses an AMD A4-5000 running at 1.5GHz. It is a quad core processor, but they only used a single channel memory controller, so even though I have 2 sticks of RAM to add up to 8GB of DDR3, it will forever be in single channel mode. Kind of annoying, but the rest of the laptop is nice. It uses an 11.6 inch screen with a resolution of 1366x768, so it is smaller than my other ones, which is why I use it as the main laptop.

Now, this is a ThinkPad so it has the TrackPoint which is the best thing in the world when you get used to them. I would love if every laptop had one, and NO TOUCH PAD at all! It isn't a touch screen model or anything like that, but I have a 120GB SSD in it, and with good battery life, it makes a great laptop to take places.

I got this laptop in a trade with a friend, so it had needed a hard drive, which normally I would have had on hand but it needed a 7MM drive. That is why I opted for the 120gb SSD instead. They came with Windows 8, which I used on it, upgraded to 10 when it came out, and now I run Ubuntu on it instead.

The second laptop is the other one I had installed Linux on. Actually, the one I had installed it on first really. It is a 15.6" Lenovo G500s, but the screen resolution is the same as the X140e sadly. There is also no pointer nub, as it is not a ThinkPad but rather one of the budget models. I got this after my last laptop died, the ThinkPad X200s because it was a good value.

It uses a Core i5 processor, running at 2.4GHz with 8GB of DDR3 RAM. That is the reason I had went for it, as for 500 dollars, it was quite nice. It came with a 1TB hard drive as well. Overall it is a no frills laptop but it does have a number pad which can be rather nice when doing a lot of stuff like spread sheets though.

That was running Windows 8, I downgraded it to 7 at the time, found I didn't really seem to like how it ran on 7, went back to 8, and then got the free upgrade to 10 when it came out. Now, it runs Ubuntu. I think a driver could have been bad or missing as it ran sluggishly even with a fresh install.

Now, onto the two other laptops that I use occasionally, which won't get as much detail as the first 2 did. The first would be a ThinkPad T41, that my friend sent me. He found it a thrift store in the scrap bin for 20 bucks, he tried it and it powered on so he sent it to me. Sadly, UPS damaged it during shipping so when I got it, the hinges were broken and the case cracked. I repaired the hinges, but never did the bottom case yet though I have a bottom case piece somewhere in my room!

Spec wise, it has the 14" high resolution screen so it runs at 1400x1050! Now that I like! It uses a Pentium M 1.7GHz and it currently has 1.5GB of DDR1 RAM. I have a 60GB hard drive in it, with Windows XP installed. It is mainly used to sync up my various old PDAs that need an older computer as well as some occasional writing.

The final laptop is the most recent one actually. It is a PowerBook G4 12 inch. The story of how I got this one is kind of funny really. I was cutting a yard for a new customer, and started talking about computers. I mentioned as a joke that I would accept electronics as payment, and he tells me that he has an old Apple laptop, but it is missing the charger. He goes to get it, I take a look at it and its in pretty decent shape for a 10 year old laptop. It has some small dents on it since its aluminum but screens good, keyboard feels okay, all that good stuff.

So now I have no idea what specs are on this thing, as I can't power it up yet! I ordered a charger, and finally got it running. Turns out it was a top end model, meaning it had 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 processor, 1.25GB of RAM (that 1GB DDR1 stick is now in the ThinkPad T41 actually), 100GB hard drive, and at that time, a SuperDrive meaning DVD ROM CDRW drive. Not a bad machine at all!

I installed OS X 10.5 Leopard on it, and though it is PowerPC, there is some old versions of software that will work on it. It is not a very useful computer though as the fan is making noise. I am NOT willing to take it apart to fix it, so I use it for writing and stuff like that. I will turn it on, and use it until the fan comes on then take a break. The battery still holds a charge on it too!

So, as this is getting longer and longer, I think it is time to call Part 1 done, and thus. this completes the first part of the new series…. What Gadgets I am Using! Tune in soon for Part 2!

Back to Root


Well, I have been trying to figure out just how to start this, but I am back to my old root. Okay, I had to get a geek joke in at least once. I have gone back to Linux. Yes, you read that right. At first, it started off rather simple. I had taken my Lenovo G500s and figured as I haven't been using it much lately as Windows seemed to run pretty slow on it, after a reinstall even.

So I downloaded Zorin to try. This ran well but offered far to little customization for me. That is one thing that I love doing, so it was a big deal for me. The thing for me is that I am a big fan of Gnome 2, as I cannot stand Gnome 3, KDE 4, or Unity. I had two options here, the first of which was to install a different desktop. I tried installing Mate but it was glitching out far too much to even be usable. So I went with option 2 and downloaded Ubuntu Mate 15.10 and installed that.

So now I have what I had been after in the first place! So I started installing all the things I needed, including a dock. I wanted to install Avant Window Navigator but I couldn't find a version for this as it hasn't been maintained in some time, so I tried Cairo Dock, which was nice but too glitchy for me so I settled on Docky. So now everything is running great on the G500s. I have everything tweaked as I like it, and unlike setting up Windows, most of the stuff I need is actually preinstalled.

So the next morning, I decide that I am going to install it on the ThinkPad X140e as well. So, back up the files, and one installation later, I find out the WiFi needs a propitiatory driver since even in 2015, BroadCom still hasn't released an open source driver, but they do provide a driver at least so after telling it to use the driver, it seems a little slower than Windows, it works good enough for me to use it. Now I have two laptops that are setup the same, one a 15.6 inch and the other a 11.6 inch.


Monday, November 30, 2015

Old Post Revival: Sigmarion 3 Detailed Review


Sigmarion 3 Detailed Review

Note: This was written by Tsubasa Kato on Sigmarion3.com in 2007.

The best thing about the Sigmarion 3 is that it is very useful for making reports, editing text, and even surfing the web on the go. There are many enthusiasts all over the world, and since I am exporting Sigmarion III to users all over the world, they seem to be getting many new patches for the device created by individuals, on sites like HPCFactor. The best feature of this device is the instant on/off, unique to the Windows CE devices.


The light weight (455 grams) is very good, and it is much better than carrying a heavy laptop which sometimes can be about 3 kg.

You can use the Wifi at 54Mbps by buying the IODATA 54Mbps card or the Planex 54Mbps card. There are also many 11Mbps Wifi cards that are supported by this great device, including WLI-CF-S11G and WLI2-CF-S11G. You can also use SDIO Wifi card from Sandisk and such.

The best option for the Sigmarion 3 will probably be the extended battery, which is very rare and quite expensive. This allows 3000mAh of power, which means you can use for about 16 hours straight without recharging. This will make the Sigmarion 3 even more trustworthy, and you won't have to worry about bringing several batteries on the go, which will cause quite a bit of hassle.

Most people think the small factor of the Sigmairion 3 quite impressive, even after 4 years after its initial release (the device was put out of line in 2005). The display size is still impressive, being WVGA (800X480) instead of the regular VGA (640X480). Watching movie files on Sigmarion 3 is quite good, which you will need to use the TCMCP player available for free.

Also, there is a hack of increasing the video memory to 8MB, in which I found it to have some effect on the speed.

Overclocking the Sigmarion 3 is very easy, and can be done using a software, and it will increase the speed to 796 Mhz (unconfirmed). I tried overclocking it myself to 520 Mhz, which made the device faster, but a little unstable when connecting to Wifi. The utility I used is called xclkcfg.

I am hoping NTT Docomo or some other company will revive the Handheld PC device soon, because I am very sure there will be many new users who will find such device very valuable if they put out the latest OS on it. It will even be more interesting if NTT Docomo decided to make a Windows CE 6.0 upgrade to the Sigmarion 3, providing a ROM upgrade. I think they can even make the device over 100,000 yen. Personally, I am hoping that comanies other than NTT Docomo to make such a device, like Softbank or Au.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Running Tubuntu Ruby (Trinux) on my Life Touch Note

I ran Tubuntu Ruby (Trinux) on my Life Touch Note using Limbo PC Emulator. First, I had trouble running it because it had the old Limbo PC Emulator on it, but I fixed it by uninstalling and rebooting the machine.

shutdown command doesn't work so I used halt command to stop the OS.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Simple study of Scheme on EMONSTER S11HT (HTC Tytn II) using Pocket Scheme


EMONSTER S11HT (Tytn II) running Pocket Scheme 
As you might know, Scheme is a computer programming language that is a dialect of Lisp. I've been fascinated with Lisp and Scheme ever since I borrowed a Japanese book from the local library called 「素数夜曲 - 女王陛下のLISP」which is translated as "Prime Nocturne - Her Majesty's Lisp". The book contains interesting Scheme tutorials and story of mathematics, and is a fun book to read.

The book is quite pricey, currently selling for 3,888 JPY or $32.17 USD at the current exchange rate.

EMONSTER S11HT is a perfect machine for scribbling Scheme because it has keyboard, which sadly most smartphones nowadays lack. The Internet Explorer is okay as a browser, but Opera Mini is more decent to use, so I use that to lookup Scheme tutorials.....

Pocket Scheme can be downloaded here: http://www.mazama.net/scheme/pscheme.htm

Until Next Time,
Tsubasa Kato  (stingraze)

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Link of the Day: Turing's Zeta-function machine

Link of the Day

Turing's Zeta-function machine, 1939



AMT/C/2
Blueprint, 'Zeta function machine', signed D.C.M. and dated 17 July 1939.


The reason I put this up for today's link of the day is because I was reading Cryptonomicon I borrowed from the library. In it, it was saying that Zeta function was used as a random number generator.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Tried NetBSD on Sharp Zaurus SL-C700

Tried NetBSD on Sharp Zaurus SL-C700 today.
It worked flawlessly by following the steps on this Japanese page here.

First I had to write the image file into the 1GB SD card by Rawrite32.
Then just following the steps on that page made it work! :)



Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Twitter automatically puts Star Wars emoji on your tweet!

Seems like Twitter automatically puts Star Wars emoji on your tweet!

Mine had Millenium Falcon. Click on the photo below to see it better. :)



The available emojis are: 


Emojis from Twitter

Friday, October 9, 2015

Thursday, September 3, 2015

How I connected to my Raspberry Pi 2 Model B from Sony Tablet P

In this tutorial I will show you how you can connect to Raspberry Pi 2 Model B using ssh. The difficult part about using ssh via Android is that many Android devices' software keyboard doesn't have the "Ctrl" key. The "Ctrl" key is essential in quitting programs, and many other things.




The solution to that is simple.

1. Download an app called Keyboard with Ctrl key here.

2. Setup so that you can input using Keyboard with Ctrl key by making that the default input method.

3. Download an app called SSH Client by Anstudios Ltd here.

4. connect to Raspberry pi 2 via SSH Client like this: pi@192.168.1.20 (whatever the Raspberry Pi 2's IP address is)

Wallah! You're done! :) Happy hacking!

Friday, August 28, 2015

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Learn Swift on iPad with Swifty



You can learn the computer language Swift using Swifty. I liked the UI of this app very much.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Playing with Sharp Pocket Computer PC-G801

Today, I'm playing with Sharp Pocket Computer PC-G801.
BASIC is working, and I just tested to print "HI". :)

And I'm off to do some research of AI... See you in the next post !

-Tsubasa Kato



Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Neat! - Mac OS 7.5.5 running on my Apple Watch

Neat! - Mac OS 7.5.5 running on my Apple Watch

I found a video of Mac OS 7.5.5 running on Apple Watch via Gunosy, an app that curates web articles. I thought it was pretty neat.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

My Favorite iPod nano


My Favorite iPod nano is this.
This is a 3rd generation iPod nano for those who don't know, and I bought it for 6,000 yen (about $48.61 USD at today's rate) at Amazon.co.jp, used. I put in videos, podcasts of software development, and music (of course).

I like the silver back of this iPod nano, and I usually use the Sony noise cancelling earphone I bought in San Francisco International Airport back in 2011 with this iPod nano.

A little tangent, but I used to have a iPod mini 2nd generation 6GB with iPod Linux on it. I miss those days, where the average MP3 player had black&white screen. Also, do some of you remember that in circa 2004, CREATIVE's muvo 2 was taken apart to take out the then expensive micro drives? :)

Back to iPod nano, but I wish Apple didn't take away the click wheel on their latest and the one before. Click wheels were the symbol of iPods.... Now I must say they don't care much about iPod nanos as they used to... :(

I'm expecting Mikey to give a review of his new gadget from SAMSUNG soon. So stay tuned!




Thursday, April 30, 2015

Final Fantasy Agito

Final Fantasy Agito is something I've been playing on my Xperia Z3 SOL26.
It is pretty fun, and I like how you can create your own character.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Sony Electronic Book Player DD-S35 (DATA Discman)

Electronic Book Player DD-S35 (DATA Discman) is something I bought today.

I am amazed by the quality of this Electronic Book Player / Electronic Dictionary.
The design reminds me of Vaio Type U which I used to have.

DD-S35 was made in Japan in 2000, selling at 43,800yen.

This retro DD-S35 screen is very well made, and very easy to see.
I think I like it better than my old SEIKO one, because it's Sony and because of the design.

The DATA disc contains bird chirps and it includes Azure winged magpie chirp. That made me really happy because I used to have an Azure winged magpie called Q-chan for 13 years.





Monday, February 23, 2015

Could successfully (?) Run DSL on NEC LifeTouch Note

Could successfully (?) Run DSL on NEC LifeTouch Note which runs Android 2.2.

The thing is, the GUI movement is very slow...

The terminal app is working well, so I may as well get a very old distribution of Linux on Limbo PC emulator to test out. Until next time.




Mohawk Search on Nokia N800


Mohawk Search on Nokia N800 Woot! It works!

Thanks Mikey for showing it via Skype!

Friday, February 6, 2015

Link of the Day

My first computer had a Windows 95 OS in it, but folks older than me probably remember minicomputers if they are from those era. I found a good site called old-computers.com where they showcase lots of retro computers.

Here's a link to PDP-8.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

GAME BOY Advance


I've been a bit fascinated by GAMEBOY Advance and other GAMEBOY, since I like retro game and game consoles.

The GAME BOY Advance has a spec of: CPU: ARM7TDMI(16.78MHz)+Z80 Custom(4.2/8.4MHz)

It also uses a Sharp TFT, which is amazing. I remember me wanting one a bit long time ago, but our parents didn't really want me to have a portable game console. I had only GAMEBOY Pocket and PS2 which I rarely played.

 The interest for me now is that I want to someday run UNIX on it described here (yes, I mentioned it the other day too).  Which reminds me, maybe I'll buy another Sigmarion 3 to put some Linux on it...

Friday, January 23, 2015

Newest Additions Part 6: Desktop, Blackberries, and Droid 4



Now the final three things, which would be the motherboard, processor, memory, which are being counted as one thing, and the two BlackBerry phones had also come from my good friend Nathan as well. Kind of funny when you think that a lot of the stuff came from one person but in different shipments.

The motherboard and other parts were given to him and he sent them to me so that I could seriously upgrade my aging desktop PC. I went from a 2.2GHZ AMD dual core to a blazing 2.66GHz quad core Intel! With FOUR times the memory as well. So while I am still using the same old 9800GTS graphics card, it is still one nice boost for sure!

He had also sent two old BlackBerries that he had found for me as well. One is a Storm 2 and the other is a 8900. There is not much too really say about these except that the 8900 is far nicer as it has a keyboard! Typing on the Storm 2 is far more annoying than it is really worth for me in the end.

I want to end this post, and the current series here by talking a little bit about the Droid 4. It is a slider device and is amazing for writing on as it has one of the best keyboards that I have ever used. It isn't the fastest, or the latest and greatest device out there, but it does the job.

You may have noticed none of these posts had pictures, and I would like to apologize for that. I will be doing reviews of the ones I didn't break soon, with a ton of pictures.

Newest Additions Part 5: UX50 and X140e



The next three things came as a group, but one was bought locally. Technically, the local one is a part for the thing that came from a friend. Since this was a part for something else, I didn't include it in the original list of new additions.

I picked up a 120GB PNY SSD at Best Buy since a friend of mine wanted to do a trade. So he sent me a very nice Clie UX50 and ThinkPad X140e. In return, I am sending him back the NVidia Shield and a graphics card that he had sent me.

When he mentioned the trade, I was a little unsure what to do but I had given it some thought, and in the end, I was powerless to resist. Resistance is futile when you involve two of my favorite things! I will start with the Clie first since it was what really started off the trade. Originally, we were going to trade for just the Clie, and I was going to send him the Sharp IS01 I have, but then he mentioned the ThinkPad for the Shield.

Now, the Clie for me is special. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that this was the number 1 PDA on my list. I have wanted to get one of these for a good 11 years now but never wanted to spend the money on it. I am in love with it, and the fact that it is pretty much brand new made it even better yet! It was the one Clie that I have wanted most of all for the keyboard, but I have been spoiled by the Droid 4. That isn't to say I don't still love it mind you. I just need to use it more and I will adjust to it.

Even if I don't adjust, I can still use it to get my thoughts down faster than using onscreen keyboard on my Nexus 7 sadly. I have said it more times than I should have too but on screen keyboards SUCK! That isn't the point of this though, so moving on. It was the only landscape clamshell Clie, not counting the UX40 as the only difference was the lack of Wi-Fi. The other ones always used a portrait screen so they had a far narrower keyboard. Personally, I prefer the landscape in the case of only comparing Sony devices since I have had 3 other keyboard equipped Clies. They would be the NR70, NX70, and NX80.

This one uses the Sony Handheld Engine CPU running at 123MHz at most. The premise with this was the processor scales to the load to save battery life. This was also a way for Sony to get away from paying someone for a processor as well. Sony has always loved doing things they're own way though, like memory stick instead of SD card support, or using custom APIs for things like wireless and music.

This was due partly to the fact that the stuff was added by Sony to Palm OS, but also due to the fact that when Palm started to finally catch up, they chose to use their own API as well. This meant that when software like Pocket Tunes started to gain more popularity, it wouldn't run on the Clie models. Luckily, they did start using the Palm sound API in OS 5.2 Clie models. I need to check the UX50 later and see if that was one of the ones they changed it on.

The other thing that was in the box as stated was the Lenovo ThinkPad X140e. This one is still current and even had 110 warranty days left when I got it. The computer was used for 2 months before he gave the hard drive to a friend of his and put it away. Since he didn't get a drive for it, he let it sit in a box since. Since it requires a 7MM thick hard drive as opposed to the far more common 9.5MM drive, I had decided to opt for the SSD. It really is a better option anyway so in the end I am glad that I did but I would have loved to have a large spacious 1TB drive instead.

So by adding the 120GB SSD, I have a very nice and extremely well built little laptop. I love the thing, and it has great specs too! It runs on an AMD A4-5000 quadcore APU and has 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and with the SSD it really runs well.

Since it gets great battery life, and has a great keyboard, I really see this one being amazing for writing. It may end up replacing my Surface for some use, but one thing I know for sure is I still really love the Surface so this is more of a compliment to it.