24 core Fiber optic cable

9,000 meters. Divided into 3 3,000 meter wheel weighing 550kg each. Cables are inch-thick and hard. wow.

Password Reset

Password Reset is a useful utility for those who forgot their Windows password. It can be in a bootable CD or floppy. The program can be downloaded from: http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

The program is purely text based and is a Linux boot.

Limitation is if the account you are resetting is AD-based. You just can't.

iLogic Infinity UPS part 2

Continuing from iLogic Infinity UPS part 1

You need a power cord which you have to attach at the back of the UPS. If you don't have an extra cord, you can easily buy one from your local hardware or electronics store. You will have to cut the female end of the cord, strip the wires from that end. At the back of the UPS, take off the cap in the middle. Simply twist the copper fibers around the screws and with a screwdriver, wind the screws tight. The UPS has a manual that tells you which color wire goes to which port. Fortunately, we have pictures for easy reference. Positive wire goes the left, negative wire in the middle and the ground in wire at the rightmost. Afterwards, you attach the cap back.

Now that you have bought your terminal cables and connectors, it's time to connect the UPS to the battery. One nice thing about separate cables is that you can decide how long you want them to be. Gives you an option where you can place the UPS. Isn't that nice?

First, strip a bit of covering from the ends of the terminal cables so there is a bit of exposed copper fibers. Take the O-ring away from the connector cover. Insert the cable's end into the cover and with a pair of pliers, crimp it into place. Then, place back the O-ring into the connector cover.

Next step is to connect the cables to the terminals. At this point, everything is a snap. Just lock the terminal cables' ends onto the terminals of the UPS, locking the screws and nuts together.

Ideally, we wanted color coded cables to match the colors of the two terminals from the battery with that of the UPS. But since we can't always get what we want, simply make sure that each of the terminal cables are connected to the matching colors of terminals in the battery and the UPS. The finished product will look like this. Note that we haven't fully covered the terminals on the battery just for illustration purposes.

Now, your Infinity UPS is good to go.

iLogic Infinity UPS part 1

Not too long ago, we had the opportunity to sell a iLogic Infinity UPS. Now, we've heard of people converting their UPS to be jacked with a car or truck battery to guarantee a longer run time in the event of power failure. However, it almost always involves using a higher end UPS model and the battery may not be properly calibrated for a UPS. If not properly done, the improper calibration may cause damage to the UPS and possibly even the device to which you are connecting the UPS to.

Enter the iLogic Infinity UPS. Depending on what device you intend to jack into it, the Infinity could potentially run up to 10 hours or more.

The UPS itself is pretty light but this is because it doesn't have a battery in it. That's right, there's no battery in the UPS itself but is actually located outside and connected by cables which we will be showing how.

The Infinity comes in three models: a 750va, 1500va and 2500va model. What we have here is the 750va model.

Since our client intends to use it for a biometric time recorder, we will be connecting the 750va model to a Smart 12v 55Ah battery. There are also other higher capacity batteries for much longer run times. There's even a 12v 200Ah that's like the size of a small truck battery. Since higher capacity batteries will be more expensive and we have different power needs, be sure to ask your dealer for recommendations.

The battery comes with two screws, nuts and washers.

Unfortunately, the UPS does not come with terminal cables (a.k.a. power cables) and connectors but these should be easily available from your local hardware or electronics store. So, be sure to look for these:

To be continued in iLogic Infinity UPS part 2

English to Chinese XP

If you can change the language of your Windows XP installation from a foreign language to English, then the opposite must also be true. Such as when turning it from English to Simplified Chinese. Again, you will need to download Windows XP Service Pack 3 but be sure to find the one in the language desired by your client.

The following links downloads directly from Microsofts servers and the available language versions of Service Pack 3 including English:

Windows XP Service Pack 3 English
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Simplified Chinese
Windows XP Service Pack 3 German
Windows XP SP3 French
Windows XP SP3 Russian
Windows XP SP3 Japanese

Before installing the Service Pack, edit the registry first. Go to the same location as discussed before:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\NIs\Language and change the "InstallLanguage"
registry value to the desired language. See table below:

Like the conversion to English, it's not 100% perfect but it's a step in the
direction to make Windows XP usable for your non-English using client.

Changing language in Windows XP. All of it or almost...

Recently, a customer's friend bought a Acer netbook for her from Japan. One problem though, she knows nothing about Japanese and the Windows XP installed is Japanese. Two unsavory solutions immediately come to mind: Buy another Windows license or; customer go the pirated route from someone else and install. Both will require driver hunting.

Fortunately, I found another near perfect solution.

Solution: Obtain Windows XP service pack 3 English version. Before installing the service pack, you must change some registry entries. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\Language registry key, and then change the value date for “Default” and “InstallLanguage” registry value to 0409 for American English. Restart Windows. After restarting, install the English version service pack and enable all updates.

Result: While not 100%, almost every icon and window are now in English. The exception was the mouse and wi-fi in Control Panel or taskbar. At least customer won't have to worry about spending more money for Windows license, or settling for pirated copy (this is Pinas after all), and no need for driver hunting, which is a good thing since Acer Japan website doesn't seem to have XP drivers available.