No Wi-Fi

A little hard to live blog on the first round because of lac of Wi-Fi. My Maxis prepaid is running out of quota so this will be challenging.

 

 

Router tantrums and how to fix disconnected IP 169.x.x.x

This is a common problem. You log in to your WiFi networ either at home or some free WiFi outside of home, it "kicks" you out. All indications that you are connected, only that you are actually not!

How do you know? 

Your browser says there is no connection.

You then check your IP you get the above. 

The router gives you an IP that starts with 169.X.X.X which means it hates you and won't allow you to use the internet.

This happens very often to me, especially if the router has been turned on non-stop for weeks or months. So the solution which I know most of us will do is reboot the router. That almost always solves the problem.

The problem is on public WiFi. It's a little more difficult to get the owner of the establishment to reboot the router. I tried this at my local mamak shop and the worers reply is that "Sorry. Boss takde. Tak tahu camner nak tutup and on balik router".

The solution is to assign your own IP and not the useless 169.x.x.x that the router assigns you.

This  can done on any phone, tablet or notebook.

Example. Here's my settings:

The 188 is abitrary. You can choose any number between 1-255 except '1' because usually the router takes that IP number.

Advantage is pretty clear. Since no one else is connected except me, I have the internet all to myself :)

My usual snack while getting my internet fix at my mamak shop.

HAPPY MERDEKA 2015

Why la PostoExpresss no outstation?

I really wanted to use that new PostoExpress, that new local Uber-like service that uses crowd sourcing to deliver your goods. However they don't deliver outside of Klang Valley as far as I know.

I am sure they will in the near future and I can't wait to use it then.

The above is my Petai plant delivered by DHL from Muar to Teluk Intan for RM 15.

No prizes for guessing petai is one of my favourite food and with the prices skyrocketing lately, I thought it would be nice to plant my own petai.

Anyway, when they do go nationwide, I will definitely use our own innovative local service PostoExpress. Seeing our currently bleak economic climate, it's good to support local !

Also, I don't mind earning extra cash delivering their stuff around my town on my bicycle !! :)

P/S: Their iOS app needs a bit of fine tuning as I couldn't select my address. It kept pointing to a school which is not where I am at.

OMG !!

 

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What the hell Malaysia?

What the hell Malaysia ? What is happening ?

Uber model for Express Delivery ?

At the post officenow to send a hgeavy package.

Ok la.. rm 31.80 to send 10 kg of parcel.

Hmmm here's an idea.. use the Uber model to get anyone interested in doing delivery within the area to make the delivery ad-hoc!

 

Name the service and app "UberPost Expresso". :)

 

Customers win coz they get their delivery fast and cheap. Wins for Motor cyclist, motorist without work can become part delivery workers to earn extra cash .

I for one wouldn't mind paying RM 20 for instance instead of RM 31.80.

 

Downside of course is the trust issue. Just like Uber, do I trust the rider/driver? But unlike Uber the dangers are less as it is the package at risk and not my person. All of it can be elleviated with driver/delivery rider ratngs on trustability and personal record.

 

 

Will be in direct competition with Dhl, post laju etc.

 

Good idea, yes?

 

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My RM15.70 (USD 4.15) DIY Aquaponics

Fascinated by the many Youtube and Pinterest I seen (just go and search!) on aquaponics, I decided set up one for myself.

According to Wikipedia, aquaponics is

"a food production system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animalssuch as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In normal aquaculture, excretions from the animals being raised can accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity. In an aquaponic system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrification bacteria into nitrates and nitrites, which are utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water is then recirculated back to the aquaculture system."

Cost is pretty minimal at RM15.70. Mineral water from Giant supermarket cut into half. Bamboo from outside my house, some perlite I got from Ace hardware and zip ties and I was done. I got 3 cheap guppies from a pet shop nearby. Didn't want to get the goldfish (RM 8) which has a high risk of dying by my hands :)

Ulam Raja plant, one chili plant and 3 recently germinated durian seeds in perlite.

3 red eye guppies.

Mineral water bottle   RM 4.75

Fish (red eye guppies) RM 3.00

Perlite                RM 7.95

--------------------------------

Total                  RM 15.70

================================

Price exclude water pump (not in picture) as I already have an old one lying around.

My only problem is the water pump is too big and powerful for this small system. I am manually scooping the water up a few times a day to the perlite for the moment. There are tiny holes made in the bottle cap so the water will slowly trickle down back to the fish.

Recycle

 

Recycled water bottle cut in half.

Pandan plan discarded at the side of road after some road construction dug up the soil nearby.

Nothing wasted.

P/S : rag cloth act as wick so no need to water as often. useful for a lazy geek like me.

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Remember the video taping days ?

Want to see that favourite TV show but not around to watch it during it's show time? Just video tape it. That's what we did 20 years ago. Those were the days..

Today we have YouTube, torrents, Astro DVR etc. Show the kids today what we used to watch our favourite media and I think they would think it's hilarious.

Anyway, today this is what I use.

Some "cloud" storage and some free service to "tape" my favourite shows :-

showRSS (showrss.info)

This is where I find my TV torrents as soon as they are available. It's a free service to track all your favourite TV shows. 

I even have another free service from IFTTT to popup notification on my handphone and iPad as soon as a TV episode is released. Gone are the days of watching the TV program section of the newspaper to know when your favourite programs are on.

Many of the shows are so recent they are almost always ahead of our local ASTRO cable tv.

I use a "cloud" storage service like btcloud.io when I am away from my normal broadband connections. Services like TMNet Streamyx on a slow 1mbps connection actually throttle your internet downloads speeds to 2-3 Kbps if you are downloading torrent. They don't slow down UNIFI though. Double standards if you ask me. Anyway using cloud services like btcloud.io I get  speeds of 100Kbps which is the max speed on a 1mbps account anyway.

BTcloud.io is a paid service but they have a free limited account too you can register and get 1 Gb of storage with maximum of 5 torrents. That's more than enough for me to get all my regular TV shows.

Starbucks getting petty

Visited Tanah Rata after a long time. Early morning only the mamak shop and Starbucks is open so I chose Starbucks. Pretty empty compared last time I visited around the morning. Probably it's the off peak season. Nice to have the whole place to myself.

Starbucks main feature beside their coffee is their WiFi. But their "free WiFi" is now password protected. Fair enough, they don't want free loaders who steal WiFi.

One pin number is given in each Starbucks receipt meaning one device use only.

No sharing !!

Quite disappointing if you are there with more than one person.





Internet speeds? Starbucks Cameron Highlands still a little backwards with their internet. 1Mbps?? Probably a year ago it's ok.

My nasi lemak stall in Shah Alam is still 10x faster.. :(




Ok to be fair, Unifi is not yet here but old Streamyx is available in 4Mbps. Time to upgrade.

Asked for their members card and it's now RM 20 to get one. I got one last time for free after buying some coffee.

One of the selling point for Starbucks for me is their friendly atmosphere and comfortable chairs I can 'lepak' with my tablet and notebook. 

The 'pettyness' vibe I am now getting from this place does not jive well with the old Starbucks I used to know.