I have a love-hate relationship with my D-Link DNS-323 NAS (network attached storage device). Most of the time, I love it. It just sits there quietly, downloading torrents and generally playing nice with the other computers on my mixed PC/Mac home network. It now even works as a DLNA server after re-installing Twonky Media Server. I can stream movies and music directly off the device to my PS3 and Xbox 360.

Then there’s the times when I really hate it. Like the time it REFORMATTED MY MAIN DRIVE when I installed a second drive even though the screen clearly said all my data on the first drive would remain intact. I lost over 60 GB of data. If you are installing a second drive, make sure you have all the data from the first drive backed up!!

Problem 2: Sometimes, it’ll lock me out of the BitTorrent web management page on random occasions, forcing me to reboot it. I can still access the web configuration page to reset the device, but can’t manage my torrents. When it reboots, all the torrents have to be checked again before resuming, which can take up a lot of time.

Problem 3: With firmware 1.6, a lot of people are also getting complete lockout of the web manager. They can’t even get to the reset page, so they have to do a hard reboot by powering the unit off manually. When trying to access the IP address of the NAS, you get this:

Access Error: Site or Page Not Found
when trying to obtain /web/login.asp
Cannot open URL

You can read more about the problem here. But chances are, if you’re seeing this error and you’ve found my page, you already know what the symptoms are.

I think I’ve isolated the issue. It started happening when I stuck in a second drive. Before that, I don’t remember ever having this issue, even with the 1.5 firmware. I can say for certain that having a second drive in there causes the NAS to go bat-shit. I experienced this several months ago, took out the second drive and was problem-free afterwards. I decided to put the hard drive back in last night and the problem came back.

I do not think it’s related to drive size. I have a 250GB in slot 1 and a 500GB in slot 2.

My friend Mary found this children’s ABC book of people and nationalities, written in 1901 by T. W. H. Crosland. A is for Arab, B is for Boer, C is for Chinaboy… Crosland was probably English, as the letter E is particularly flattering.

As a product of it’s time, it’s funny to see. Most of the letters are benign or even cute, but some are pretty racist by today’s standards. Like J for Japanese (”little Jap”) and K for kaffir. The author probably thought he was being progressive or fair-minded, if grossly inaccurate or stereotypical. He takes many artistic liberties for the sake of a rhyme:

Russia is noted for its tar
its leather, and its great white Czar

Caviar would’ve kept the rhyme with czar and would’ve been factually correct too. Thanks Mr. Crosland, for spreading ignorance to a generation of children.

U is for United States. Americans are portrayed as bustling industrialists and millionaires living in 20-story buildings.

And from a web geek’s perspective, the interface is not user-friendly.

While the page flipping animation is nifty, it quickly wears out its welcome and leads to a bad user experience. There’s no way to bookmark a particular page, or copy the URL to send to a friend. You cannot go to a particular page if you wanted to. If you’re on page 30 and want to go to page 2, you have to click the book 28 times.

These are can crushers outside my neighborhood Key Food, a New York area supermarket chain. You can take your cans and bottles here to get back your 5¢ deposit. Rubberized rollers inside the hole suck the can or bottle in and spin it around for the laser eye to read the UPC code. I tried these today with some old cans in my recycling bin. They’re quite a lot of fun to operate. Any can with a valid CRV (California Redemption Value) gets kicked to the left by a mechanical arm and where it goes CRUNCH. Any can that doesn’t gets kicked to the right and falls back down to the reject bin. Not all cans with CRV’s redeem. The machine rejected Pepsi cans and Monster Energy drink.

In the past, these machines gave out coins as refunds. At some supermarkets, Pathmark in particular, this led to some unpleasant shopping experiences as homeless people congregating around the redemption machines with giant bags full of cans and bottles. Now they print out paper receipts which can only be used towards groceries in the store. A little LCD strip shows you how much you’ve redeemed. Once you’re done, push the little green button and a receipt comes out the slot to the left. Today I got back 50¢ and brought home some bottom round roast and a giant 16 pound Butterball turkey.

In Japan, every governmental organization has a mascot. It’s a national obsession. Most are so bad, all I can do is laugh and shake my head and wonder what they were thinking. In this post, I’ll share with you some of the particularly bad ones (in no particular order). Unintentional comedy follows. Enjoy!

1. Yokohama 150th Anniversary Festival

This mascot is holding his abdomen and looks like he’s about to pee himself. Just look at the expression of effort in his eyes. He’s really holding it in!

Take a few minutes and see if you can guess what he symbolizes. Then highlight the next paragraph for the answer.

Highlight here >>> His name is Tanemaru. He is the mascot for Yokohama’s 150th Anniversary commemorating Admiral Perry’s arrival in the port and subsequent opening up of Japan to the west. “Tane” means seed, and “-maru” is a suffix given to ships. The “pants” of Tanemaru are a boat, so the meaning I’m guessing is the sea-borne arrival of new ideas (the seed of progress, etc). On the official site though, it says: “Tanemaru embodies the spirit of the camphor tree that stands in the courtyard of the Yokohama Archives of History, watching over Japan since the opening of the country 150 years ago.” Admiral Perry’s famous “Black Ships” were.. um… black.. but Tanemaru’s bottom is red, so he must just represent the port and not one of Perry’s boats. On the Japanese website, he is able to fly around like a helicopter with his seed propeller, which is totally unnecessary and destroys the concept of him as a boat, not to mention copying this famous character:<<< END.

..or this one..


“Bon Appetit! my pants are about to fall off.”

2. Nara Prefecture: Sento-kun

This next one is positively creepy and just plain wrong. Nara is famous for 2 things: its native deer population, and the giant Buddha statue at Kamakura (pictured to right). What could be better than combining both aspects into one mascot, right, right?

WRONG!

This unpopular mascot is a fine example of tax yens at work and the poster-boy for design by committee. It reportedly cost 5 million yen ($50,000 USD) and has sparked widespread criticism and even a backlash. Did the government officials not realize that having antlers sprout out of the Buddha might just be seen as just a tad sacrilegious and offend people? It’s like putting a kangaroo pouch on Jesus.

This is just plain scary.

Now there are 2 mascots: this hideous deer-Buddha thing, and one chosen by the people called Manto-kun, which looks like a tater-tot wearing a cape. His name is a pun the word “mantle/manteaux”. His hat is the shape of a temple roof. I guess he’s a deer because he has hooves and antlers.

.. Chopper from One-Piece.

3: Noppon Brothers: Tokyo Tower

Next up is another shitty mascot. Quite literally. They look like rectal suppositories..

.. or worse…

Why do they have to be pink? Tokyo tower is fire-engine red. They have letters on their shirts, just like these 2 other brothers from Canada.

4: Ugly Prefectural logos

Prefectures are like states. Japan has 47 of them, and each one has a logo. The majority of them are as ugly as these breasticles/Fallopian tubes you see below belonging to Kanagawa Prefecture.

For non-Japanese speakers, you can click the links in the green box on the right to see all the prefecture pages.

When I opened my PS3 for repairs, I completely destroyed the rubber plug under the security sticker trying to get it out. At the time, I didn’t realize it was necessary for securing the top cover back in place. Without it, the screw just spins in place and has nothing to grip onto. The hole is too big for the screw. Not finding any information on the web about this problem, I concocted my own solution and am posting it here in case others find it useful.

I won’t duplicate the disassembly guide because it’s been done better by others. There’s a good one here.

Original non-voided sticker and feet

The intact sticker and rubber plug on my white PS3

1. Replacing the Blu-ray drive

On the left is the working drive I bought on eBay; on the right, the dead drive. Replacements are hard to come by and in high demand, so expect to pay around $130-150. I got mine for $140, which is only $25 less than sending my PS3 back to Sony, but because I opened my unit, that was no longer an option. The replacement came without a daughterboard, so I removed the one from my old drive and installed it in the new one. Those of you braver than I am can try replacing just the laser (about $50-70).

..now onto the security cover problem…

2. Torx screw hole

The hole for the Torx screw, which as you can see, is U-shaped so there’s nothing for the screw to grip onto.

3. Tools & Preparation

So what I did was take a plastic screw anchor (the kind used for drywall) and cut it with a wirecutter so it fits inside the screw bay of the PS3 cover (location circled in a previous photo). You can get the wirecutter and screw anchors at any hardware store. If you are lucky and can find an anchor of the same diameter as the Torx screw (circled in red), then you can just screw the cover back on. My anchor was too wide for the Torx screw, so I needed to find a replacement of the same length.

In the photo above, I’ve already cut the anchor. I also cut the screw, but the pieces flew off somewhere and I couldn’t find the head, so I eventually found another screw that fits. For some odd reason, my wirecutter says “Durex”, but I assure you it’s not the condom company. And “screw” in this article does not mean that meaning of screw.

4. Simpler Alternative

Alternatively, if you have a nut and a screw like this, you can just drop it inside the slot and be done with it. Unfortunately, the screw pictured above was too thick to pass through the securement hole of the top cover and also too long. I didn’t feel like rummaging through my toolboxes to find a nut of a smaller diameter so I used the drywall screw anchors.

5. Another angle of the hole.

Drop your cut screw anchor into the location circled here. The anchor should fit perfectly and the holes will be aligned without any fussing around. Slide the PS3 cover back on, screw it back into place, and you’re done!

This is something sure to make American PS3 owners steaming mad, particularly those of us with broken units. UK owners can buy additional warranty protection for their PS2, PSP, and PS3 after the standard 1-year warranty expires, under a program called Continuous Play. For the PS3, it’s £4.99 a month ($7.30) to protect the system. PSP and PS2 are cheaper, as little as £2.49/month. It covers:

The replacement of your Equipment, normally with no bills to pay, following mechanical or electrical breakdown, or damage by accidents.

Not only do UK owners get cheap protection for their entertainment investment, they get a replacement fast! As part of the plan, Sony will:

replace your PlayStation® system within two working days if it develops a fault after your manufacturer’s warranty expires or if it becomes damaged by accident.

UK owners can join it at any time after their original warranty expires and cancel at any time, making the cost of repairs only £4.99. If the PS3 breaks down, join the plan the next day, have it sent back, then cancel.

Continuous Play is not available to US customers. Americans and everybody else are screwed and will have to pay $150 to repair their PS3 if it breaks after the warranty. I only learned of Continuous Play recently, through an ad in the UK edition of LittleBigPlanet. My PS3 suddenly ceased working last July, a few months after my warranty expired, and has been a nice doorstop ever since. The Blu-ray laser died. PS2 games, DVD’s, CD’s and downloaded games are fine. Just no Blu-ray games or movies.

To fix it, I’d have to send the unit back to Sony for $160 ($150 + tax), making my TCO (total cost of ownership) shoot way up. Unfortunately, I tried to open the unit up myself and voided the repair warranty, so I can’t send the unit back for repairs anymore. Understandably, if Sony offered the Continuous Play plan in the US, it would get soaked. A sizable number of people have Blu-ray drive failures and parts are hard to come by. Demand on eBay for replacement drives is very high, making the purchase of replacement almost as much as sending it back to Sony.

American PS3 owners ought to complain to Sony about this unfairness. We are definitely getting the short end of the stick.

Winter is going out with a bang! We’re expected to get up to a foot of snow today.

Taken at 9am this morning, outside my front steps with my Samsung still photo camera (hence the awful video quality). Already the snow is about ankle deep outside my side door, where the wind has swept it up into a deeper pile than elsewhere.

a quick little sketch while I was watching TV

Welcome back, dear reader.

I switched hosting providers last week and migrated over to Host Gator. The old provider, Midphase, was giving me a lot of downtime and I finally got fed up with them.

Moving is never fun, whether it’s packing boxes or sorting through old directories. There’s years of old junk and lots of stuff I forgot I had on the server.

Update: 4/2/2009
If you are contemplating hosting with Midphase, don’t. Aside from the problems I had with downtime, getting a refund was a hassle. I wasn’t able to move all my stuff over in time, so I renewed my plan and prepaid for the entire year ($150), thinking I can use an extra few days to move my stuff over then cancel and get a pro-rated refund. My fault for not reading the TOS, yes, but I assumed refunds are standard business practice.

Not so. A billing representative sends me a terse 1 sentence response and a cut & paste block from their TOS, which states that refunds are not issued once your credit card has been charged: “If you cancel your account after the first 30 days have passed, or after your account is renewed then unfortunately we will not be able to issue any refunds.” I used less than a month of the new contract. They’d keep more than $140?!?

I was pretty mad at this point and contemplated taking the issue up with my credit card company and the Better Business Bureau. I was finally able to get a refund after persisting, but it was a hassle I didn’t need. Being polite probably helped a lot. I was always courteous in communications to their staff. Their TOS has this strange bit in it: “midPhase also reserves the right to cancel your account with 72 hours notice should an event occur in which proper evidence exists that a customer was exceptionally rude or vulgar in communications with our staff.”

They must get angry customers a lot.

I’m now an award winning animator!

This is a Flash piece for FS/TEC 2007 (Oct 10-13 in Atlanta), one of the biggest annual restaurant tradeshow in the US, attended by some big names in the biz like Sharp, Toshiba, Panasonic, Microsoft, etc. My client wanted something to portray his company as a younger, hipper newcomer to the field of restaurant management software. This animation would be played continuously on a 40″ monitor over their booth as well as on the PCs placed around the floor. He specifically wanted a cartoony illustrated look and showed me some visual styles he liked, especially a designer named Paige Pooler.

Cartoony illustrations are something I specialize in, if you’ve looked around my site, so I felt right at home working on this project. The storyboard and narrative progression came to me really quickly and I sketched it all out in Autodesk Sketchbook. I presented that to the client and got the go ahead to start animating.

That’s where the drudgery starts to kick in and at some points, I felt a sense of dread at the sheer amount of art I had to draw and animating that still lay ahead. I always had a clear idea of what I wanted, but getting there took a bit of time. Specific things were the look of the restaurant, which was one of the last things I nailed down, and all that decor to fill up the vast amount of space this Flash was spec’ed for (1200×800). After 2 weeks of intense drawing and animation, this is what I came up with.

The client was very pleased when he saw this and said everyone loves it. He also said how he loved the look of the restaurant too, so I got it right. I told him this would turn a lot of heads at the convention, having full confidence in the quality of the work I do. Little did I know just how many heads this would turn. He emailed me the Sunday after the show to tell me they had won the First Time Exhibitor Award (scroll all the way to the bottom)! A lot of work went into this and people noticed.

This was a really fun project to work on. Lots and lots of details, but they all paid off. I’d like to do more fun projects like this.