A COMPLETE TRANSFORMATION

Did a complete transformation of my MSI McWindtosh to a Macbook Nano. Had been searching high and low for a laptop sticker cover with an Apple logo. Yesterday, went to the supposedly IT Centre at level 3, East Coast Mall, Kuantan, Pahang. The supposedly called IT Centre is just two or three shops selling mainly PC accessories. Other things are just boring. Just browsing the accessories and stumbled a good looking Apple laptop sticker. Bought is for RM15 and did the complete transformation that night.

PLAYING MOVIES IN MAC

My McWindTosh is so small and portable. With 500GB hard disk around, it would make a great DVD player. Playing DVD movies, need you to have an external DVD drive. However you can also use Handbrake to convert your DVD movies to either MP4 or AVI. To play the movies, you can either use VLC media player for Mac OSX or Quicktime. However, quicktime has a limitation on playing MOV format only. Installing Perian, called the swiss army knife for quicktime solved all these. With perian installed, quicktime can play AVI, MP4, FLV and etc. Now, where did I put all my DVD collection. Need to convert them all to fill up my hard disk. Hehe!!

SUBSPECIALTY IN MEDICINE. IS IT WORTH ALL THE TROUBLE (OR TROUBLES)?

Continuing education never ends in Medicine. Learning is a life long process. The day you finish your first degree be it MD or MBBS, you have to think about postgraduate education. The day you finish your second degree or masters, you have to think about subspecialty or fellowship training.

Subspecialty training or fellowship training is a different ballgame if you want to compare to masters programme. At this point of time, most of us is settling down with many commitments either personal or family.

To even start thinking of a subspecialty training is already a major decision. You have to start looking for training centres either locally or in other foreign countries. Usually in many centres, there will be at least 2 or 3 years of waiting list, unless you have close contact to the training consultant. Even after you have secured the place, it might be difficult to secure a working visa for you in the particular country for you to work. Even after you have secured both the training centre and working visa, some of you may not be able to secure any scholarship for the fellowship training. I have a colleague who took a MARA loan to do her fellowship. She is still paying the loan now.

After all these troubles, then it came to the time for you to go for your fellowship. The scholarship is usually not enough to cover your living expenses for the whole duration of the studies. You need to fork out your live savings for the studies. Sometimes you have to spend your credit card up to the limit and do the payment later. One of my colleague spend to the limit, two of his credit cards while doing his fellowship. The credit card payments were only settled after 2 years later on. Comparing to a non medical personnel who did masters or PhD overseas, we don't have the luxury to do odd jobs to cover for our living expenses overseas. This is because you usually work the whole day and sometimes doing on calls, without pay. If you compared to your colleague in Singapore, they were usually given a bigger scholarship. Their scholarship were given by the Ministry of Human Resources. As a comparison, 5 years ago, our scholarship to France is Euro500, whereas their scholarship is Euro1500, a Euro1000 difference. Now, if you go to Europe, you will get around Euro1500 per month if your bring your whole family together (maximum 4 children will be paid allowances).

Then, your wife or husband may have to take unpaid leave or resign from his or her job. This is another loss of income, which will deprive you of your spending power while you study. Then, your children, who need to go to school in a foreign country. It is fortunate for them, if you are doing your fellowship in an English speaking country such and UK or Australia. They can go to the country's public school. The fees are usually cheaper or free. If you are doing your fellowship in a non English speaking country, you may have to opt for International School. With the current scholarships that were given to us, we can never afford International School. Only if you work with Malaysian Embassy, you can afford International School. If you can't afford it, would your children miss school for a year?? That is for you to decide.

After the long one year of fellowship, you came back to your current employer or university. With it, you were confered a Fellowship or etc, etc. But with it, you also carry unpaid credit card bills, bank loans, your children missing school in Malaysia and your wife not working for a year. Your house would surely be in a mess, after leaving it for a year.


One year gone, you missed the CLA5 (Penilaian Tahap Kecekapan 5) and you miss the boat for your promotion. Your colleagues who graduated the same year with you got the promotion earlier since he didn't missed the CLA5. Will you get any extra increament?? NO. Will you get recognition for the work you have done?? NO.

So, the question is, is it worth all the troubles???? This is a difficult question to answer. For me, a big YES. However since I dare not sacrifice my children's education and I can't afford to spend a lot of money for overseas fellowship, I have done my fellowship locally. I still need to spend a lot of money for weekly traveling from Kuantan to KL and also spending for the house rental. The scholarship of RM1000 (RM900 + RM100 extra COLA) is not enough to cover it all. You have to sacrifice something to get something else. The extra amount of money I spent is peanuts if compared to others who had spent doing fellowship in France, Turkey, UK or Australia.

Why do doctors still go for their fellowship, with all the troubles and suffering for them and their families?? I can list some and others can add more.

a. Personal satisfaction: If you like to do something, you will go for it, no matter how big the obstacle is.

b. To be better: In a more challenging world now, being a generalist is not an option. In the past, when you passed as a doctor, you resign and opened your GP clinic after 3 years. Your clinic will be prosperous. However now, you may not survive 2 years if your open a clinic.

c. For promotion purposes: As I mentioned above, you won't get your immediate increament or extra allowances after you finish your fellowship. However, it could become a platform for your promotion. In a university setting, if you planned or decided to apply for a Professorship (VK7) in 5 years time, it would be easier for a subspecialist. You will receive specific cases for your subspecialty. From there, you can collect and have a database of your specific patients and cases. With the databases, you can conduct trials, studies, publish papers, give talks, conduct conferences, conduct courses, becoming consultants to other centres and etc. All of these will give you extra points for your promotion.

d. To start a new service in your current centre: No subspecialists in your current area of expertise is available in your current centre and you want to give something to the public. It is quite noble I think.

d. Greener pasteure (not sure if it is a correct spelling): Some people use this as a platform to go to private. In a competitive world now, being a subspecialist increase your value in private hospitals. You can command more salary and cover more hospitals and doing specific cases if you are a subspecialists. However after saying all these, please remember that the public is paying for you subspecialty training. Please give them at least 5 years of wonderful service and then resign. The 5 years will increase your skills, add value to your work ethics, satisfy the public service. Lastly, please still do come and give 'amal jariah' to the public hospitals after leaving.

Lastly, please make sure you pay your WIFE and CHILDREN handsomely after all these troubles. They are the ones who suffered a lot when you did your training, doesn't matter whether it is locally or in another country.

CLONING THE HARD DISK

Cloning your hard disk is good for two reasons. First is as a complete backup of your hard disk. The second reason is to migrate to a bigger hard disk. For windows, there are a few softwares available such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. I used Norton Ghost 14 to clone my Windows XP partition and both my data and backup partition to my new 500GB hard disk. For OSX, Norton Ghost won't work since it is a HFS partition. For Mac you can use either SuperDuper (Shareware) or Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware). I used Carbon Copy Cleaner to clone my OSX partition, since I felt very lazy to do a complete reinstallation of the OSX to my new hard disk.

Since I have already put in the 500GB hard disk in the MSI Wind, I booted my OSX partition on my old 160GB hard disk via USB. It booted well and my new Dell 1390 miniPCI wifi card was immediately detected. Opened the network configuration. Added a new network configuration with Airport and the icon came out and it began to search for any wifi network. My home wifi network was detected immediately. Punch in the WEP key and I began surfing wirelessly. I open the Mac OS Device info, the card was detected as a third party wireless card. No other information available.

Then started the cloning process using Carbon Copy Cloner to my new 500GB hard disk which was already installed in the McWindTosh. It took about one hour for it to complete. After completion, I restart the computer again. It failed to boot!!!! No problem. Ubuntu Live 8.04 USB stick is available with me. I used it to boot the notebook and put the Win XP partition to boot instead of the OSX partition. With the Darwin bootloader I managed to run both Win XP partition and OSX partition.

However I noticed that there is a slight slownees in the booting of both Win XP and OSX partition in the new 500GB hard disk as compared to the old 160GB hard disk. Maybe it is due to the bigger size of the new hard disk. *** EDITED: I also noticed that the clock in the McWindTosh becomes very slow. Playing movies in Quicktime is also slow. Searched the forums for solution. Found it. I installed the old Chameleon EFI. I am supposed to install the new Chameleon DFE for hard disk. I downloaded it, which is about 10MB and reinstall the DMG file. After that, there is a slight change in the Darwin bootloader. However everything goes back to normal. No more lagging clock. Movies in quicktime is also much faster.

Now I have a MSI McWindTosh with a megasize hard disk with working wifi, bluetooth, vga out, ethernet, sound, webcam and 3G (with Huawei USB modem). The VGA out to external monitor or LCD projector works only with extended desktop mode. The mirror display doesn't work unless you install the new GMA950 video driver. However with the new GMA950 driver, there will be a severe lagging and mouse trailing seen when you use any Microsoft Office products. So I decided to only use the extended desktop mode for the VGA out and not to install the new GMA950 driver.

Next project is to do an upgrade to Leopard 10.5.6, for me to use ILife 09. This is slightly more difficult since you have to use many Kernels and drivers. But for now Leopard 10.5.4 is good enough.

UPGRADING THE MSI MCWINDTOSH

My hands are getting itchy for the last few weeks. Really satisified with the Leopard installation in my MSI Wind, even though it is only version 10.5.4. Browsing ebay Malaysia to look for a mini PCI Dell 1390 which should work for both Windows and Mac OSX. I am not very keen on using the Realtek driver for the stock mini PCI card in MSI Wind, since you don't get the wifi icon when you are using Leopard. Found from a few sellers from Hong Kong which gives free shipping to Malaysia. One of the seller is selling here. I got it at around RM65 from a different seller. The package arrived within less than 2 weeks. Since I will be opening the MSI Wind to change the mini PCI card, why not upgrade the Hard Disk too. So, for this upgrading, I bought myself a 500GB Western Digital Scorpio SATA hard disk at Digital Mall PJ. The price is the same with my current portable Western Digital Passport 320GB Hard Disk which I bought 6 months ago.

The surgery is quite simple. I just need to remove 9 screws from the bottom of the MSI Wind. Then remove the screw from the mini PCI wireless card. Then remove the Wifi miniPCI card first. Then remove the screw under the Wifi miniPCI card. Then lift up the hard disk and pull it out of the socket. Turn the Hard Disk over, and remove the bracket which is attached by 2 screws. Put the bracket back onto the new hard disk. Put it back into the socket. To insert the new Dell 1390 miniPCI wifi card, i had to remove the extra bracket from the motherboard. This is because the Realtek Wifi miniPCI card has a flat back, whereas the Dell 1390 miniPCI card has a slightly elevated back. The extra bracket can be removed using a plier easily. Then put the new Dell 1390 miniPCI card into the wifi slot and screw it. Make sure you put back the 2 wires for the antennae, which are grey and black in colour. After finishing all these, you can put back the back cover and put in all the 9 screws back in.

Restart your computer and pres DEL a few times to go to the setup menu. Check the IDE part to confirm that your new Hard Disk is detected. Mine was detected immediately, as a 500GB hard disk.

Before installing the hard disk, i managed to copy the Windows XP partition and both my Data and Backup partition into the new hard disk using Norton Ghost 14. It was so easy, much easier than using Acronis software. I didn't copy the OSX partition since I don't think Norton Ghost can do it well. With a 500GB Hard Disk, I have a lot of space. I gave OSX a 265GB partition, since I want to keep all my patient datas for Osirix in the hard disk. Windows gets 50GB, Data gets 60GB, Backup gets 60GB. I also reserved a 40GB partition for movies, music and etc.

Upon installation of the hard disk, I immediately start using Windows XP. Norton Ghost 14 did a good job of completely copying all the Win XP partition into the new hard disk. The new Dell 1390 miniPCI wifi card was detected immediately. However it cannot find the driver. So I downloaded the driver using my 3G line. It took around 15 minutes to finish downloading the driver since it is a 52MB file. After unzipping the file, using device manager, I reinstalled the driver from the folder and the card was detected as a Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini Card. However the only disadvantage of this Dell 1390 as compared to the stock Realtek mini card is the absence of 802.11n. Dell 1390 card only support B and G only. This is not a major problem for me now.

Next step is to do a new installation of Leopard using the MSIWindOSX86.iso using the Leopard HD install method. Since I have already done a last backup using Time Machine, I hope I can do a fast restoration after the installation. This is for the next writeup.

AZTECH 3G ROUTER

I am using an unlimited Celcom D50 3G package as my primary internet connection at home. This is shared with my wife and kids. It is used with a Sierra 875U USB modem. Since there are 4 notebooks at home, I need to plug and unplug the Sierra modem to whatever notebook I want to access internet with, which is quite troublesome. Due to this, the search for a cheap 3G router starts. There are a few models such as DLink, Huawei and Vodafone Zuhause. Most are priced around RM500 to RM800.

At last I found the Aztech 3G Router, which cost me only RM320, at Digital Mall, PJ. It accepts most of the USB 3G modem available. In the box, it mentioned that Huawei E220 works well. However I tried it with my Sierra 875U USB modem with the enclosed adapter. It works without a flaw. The only problem is that it only have one RJ45 output, so it means that all of your notebook or PCs have to be connected via wifi. So I set up the WEP key and got all of my notebooks connected via the router.

Since Celcom had recently upgraded their 3G and HSDPA coverage in Kuantan, my house was covered with HSDPA since last year. I don't think there will be a slow down in the internet speed with all the 4 notebooks online.

Now to setup my wife's Nokia N85 for wifi and teach her how to do it. She might get the hang of chatting or blogging with it later.

Next step is to hang the router high up on the wall, probably in my store room to ensure a very good strength of the wifi signal around my house and the balcony.

TURN YOUR DUMBPHONE TO A SMARTPHONE

After taking over the S40 Nokia 6151 from my wife, I have fallen in love with the phone due to its simplicity and size. However to fully utilize the phone, i need to install softwares which will help me to do my daily work. In my Treo 750v, the common applications which i used are emails, web browser, calendar, SPB finance, Vehicle manager, quran, prayer times and IM. Due to this I have searched the suitable replacements for these applications.

a. Emails: Since all my emails are using Gmail, installing the GMAIL java app (m.google.com) is the solution of my email woes for Nokia S40 device. The Gmail 2.0 allows multiple emails account via the same application. It is very fast and allows you to type email even when there is no phone signal around.

b. Web Browser: Opera Mini (mini.opera.com)is well known to be a great web browser for any smartphones. It works very fast on the Nokia S40 device. The good thing is that it allows you to sync your bookmarks with your online account.

c. Calendar and contacts: For calendar and contacts, i sync the Nokia S40 phone with my Macbook using Isync. However to sync with Microsoft Outlook, you can also use the latest Nokia PC Suite.

d. IM: Fring is the best application for a unified IM for a S40 device. Just download the application from m.fring.com. You can have all your IMs such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ and Google talk within the same account.

e. Prayerminder: For prayertimes, Azan 2.6 from SearchTruth.com gives you qiblah and prayertimes of all the cities in the world. It is free too.

f. Quran: For a complete quran, Quran 1.0 or Pocket Quran gives you a mobile quran. However it still cannot replace Pocket Islam.

g. Encrypted Notes or Password manager: Enigma is quite good for you to keep your bank account numbers and etc. However i am not sure about the level of encryption of this software.

The two application in which i could find (a good one) is the replacement for SPB finance and Vehicle Manager.

But as for now, these application had make my Nokia 6151, a S40 phone a smartphone minus the size. The advantage of Nokia 6151 over Treo 750v is the small size and the battery which lasted for at least 2 days. It also has a FM radio, which my Treo 750v hasn't. However to type long emails using the Nokia 6151 is a no no, very very slow.

NOKIA 6151 SOFTWARE UPDATES

I have been using a Nokia S40 phone now as my primary phone with my Digi line. I took it from my wife who has upgraded to a Symbian Nokia N85. Since I took over the phone, I noted that it has been buggy with the SMS centre always missing. So I decided to upgrade the phone software using the Nokia Software updater. However I need to buy the cable which is the CA-53 model, since bluetooth cannot be used for the updating process. The updating process only took less than 15 minutes.

The updated software repaired the missing SMS centre and the MMS. However i noted that i cannot install the GMAIL java application which resulted in 'invalid application' post installation. Googled a few websites and found the solution here. I need to download directly the GMAIL java app using the Nokia Web browser using this URL : (http://m.google.com/app/gmail.jad?dc=gorganic&ver=v2.0.6). Post installation it works as before. This is maybe due to a buggy jar app downloaded directly from m.google.com.

HOW TO SYNC MICROSOFT OUTLOOK WITH ICAL USING GOOGLE CALENDAR

Since I am currently using both Windows XP and Mac, I need to have my calendars seen in Microsoft Outlook in Windows and Ical in Mac. How do I do it? It was a headache previously. However recently Google adds CalDAV support to Google Calendar. What is CalDAV support? This is taken exactly from Google blog. "CalDAV is an open protocol that allows calendar access via WebDAV. CalDAV models calendar events as HTTP resources in iCalendar format, and models calendars containing events as WebDAV collections. This allows you to publish and subscribe to calendars, share them collaboratively, sync between multiple users and sync between multiple devices." To see the google calendar in your Ical in Mac, just download the setup tool here and follow all the instructions.

So, in simple term, you can have an online google calendar in your ical and all your calendar editing in ical is synced with google calendar. To sync Microsoft Outlook with google calendar, you need to install Google Calendar Sync in your Windows XP PC. Make sure the setup in the Google Calendar Sync is two way instead of one way.

So, guys, your Microsoft Outlook, Ical and Google Calender events will be synced all the time. But all these have to be done manually.

With this, it doesn't matter if your smartphone or dumbphone is synced with Outlook or Ical, all your events in all your calendars will look the same. Even if you left your notebook, macbook, smartphone or dumbphone at home, you can still edit your calendar in a cybercafe at Google Calendar and all the changes can be synced in all the calendars.

END OF THE QUEST

The quest has ended. I have managed to install a dual boot Win XP Pro and Mac OSX on the MSI Wind. Using this tutorial from MSI Wind forums. It was just a breeze, finished the installation within half an hour. But i did a mistake of not removing the recovery partition, making the MSI Wind unbootable. It is supposed to be rectified easily by using Ubuntu 8.04 Live USB stick, to make the windows partition bootable. However since i don't have a good internet connection at that point of time, i made a mess of the installation. So, i have to remove or reformat the whole HD and do a complete installation of both OS.

To install Win XP for the MSI Wind, i need to use a USB method using USB multiboot software and download the whole Win XP Pro CD into the 4GB USB Stick. It took about an hour for a complete installation. Then the HD is repartitioned using Partition Magic 8.0 into 4 partition. One for Win XP Pro, one for Mac OSX, one for data and one for the MSIWindOSX86.iso. Then i folllowed the tutorial again. However at this point of time, i already have a bootable Ubuntu 8.04 live with me. The Mac OSX installation was a breeze, completed within half an hour. After the complete installation, the MSI is unbootable. However managed to reboot using Ubuntu 8.04 live USB stick and i make the Win XP partition bootable. After that, using Darwin kernel, i managed to dual boot the Win XP and Mac OSX for the MSI Wind.

However the MSIWindOSX86.iso is using a 10.5.4 version of OSX. Haven't got time to upgrade to 10.5.6, since you need to use severel kernel or kext help methods. But i am happy with 10.5.4, which is good enough for me.

Next plan, is to upgrade the SATA HD to a 320GB SATA HD and do a complete installation of both Win XP Pro and Mac OSX again. That would be in a few months time. For the time being, the 160GB HD is good enough for me. Will be using an 80GB or 160GB USB portable HD for my OSIRIX datasets, since it will also be hooked into my Macbook too.

The Leopard HD Install Helper is a great help. It reduces the difficulty of using a USB stick or the need to buy a USB DVD drive. By using the Leopard HD Install Helper, a dual boot Laptop or PC, can be easily be done either using the Kalyway DVD or even IATKOS DVD.

With this Leopard HD Install Helper, I will try to do a dual boot on my Dell D420 and Lenovo G400 laptop at home. Need to find a time first to do that.

FAIR OR UNFAIR?

Life is full of choices. Its your own decision to make. As for me I have a choice to stay in government service or join a private institution. Both has the pros and cons. But what I want to discuss now is not the pros and cons of working in a government institution or working in a private institution. This is about the care of patients in a government or private hospitals. Let me start in my specialty first, ie Radiology Department before we discuss about other departments.

In most private hospitals, there are usually one radiologist as compared to a government hospital in which there are at least 4 radiologists. The number of radiologist and the efficiency of the radiologist will usually determine the patient care.

1. Reporting.
In PH (Private Hospitals), reports are done fast, usually within hours after the examination was performed. In Government Hospital (GH), reports are usually late, taking up to 3 days. But usually, urgent cases are also reported within hours too. I usually try to finish all my reports within the same day too. Most of the time in PH, you can report comfortably and decisively. However sometimes, probably less than 5% of cases, you are not sure or undecided. You are pressed to release the report since both the patient and attending doctor are waiting. You don't have the luxury to discuss with other colleagues or to refer to reference books in a very short time. So do you release a vague report or you delay the report? In a GH, you will have the luxury to discuss with other colleagues or to refer to specific reference books. If you release a vague report, will the patient care be compromised? So in this case, will a GH patient get a better care than a PH patient?

2. Image Quality
In most PH, machines are usually cheaper than in GH, since profits are more important. You tend to get less quality images. This could be attributed to less quality machine or less trained radiographer. So, when reporting on these images, do you think you will give a good report? In cases with less trained radiographer, usually PH radiographer do multitasking. So they tend not to be very expert in all modality. In a GH, usually there is a radiographer who is expert in certain modality. This specialized radiographer usually tend to give you high quality images. If you get low quality images in GH, you will usually ask them to repeat and repeat it until you get one. Or if you still can't get a good image, you may postponed the study t the next day with a better sedation. In PH, when you get a poor quality images, sometimes you don't have the time to call your radiographer to repeat the study due to the bulk of films in front of you waiting to be reported. Even when you ask your radiographer t repeat it, you might not get what you want due to the less experience in doing the imaging. It might not be his or her fault. It could be due to lack of experience in doing that type of case. So in this case, will a GH patient get a better care than a PH patient?

3. Physician's feedback
In a GH, we usually have weekly radiological conferences. In these conferences we will update ourselves on the findings of our reports in comparison to the operative findings. We also discuss on what the physicians or surgeons want in the report. With this, there will be learning in both ways. In a PH there is rarely a conference or any discussion with the physicians or surgeons, unless you make your own effort to ask. Sometimes you don't have the time to do it. With this, you will never know whether your report is correct or not? And also you might not learn new things from the physician or surgeon. So, in this case, will a GH patient get a better care than a PH patient?

I will add somemore when I can think of something else.
Comment??

LOCUM PART 2

One of the busiest radiology department I have worked in. You are alone, reporting 40 plain films, 7 MRIs, 6 CT scans and doing 20 ultrasounds. Luckily fluroscopy cases are very rare. All must be finished by 5 pm on the same day. It seems that you are doing the work of 4 radiologists, if it is a government hospital. I don't know how the resident radiologist can cope with this all this years. I couldn't cope with it, too tired after a few days. Can't wait for all of this to end.

MSI WIND U100 : The Best Macbook Nano

Is it true? Maybe it is true, since the recently released realtek Wifi driver for MSI Wind, makes it a complete working Macbook Nano. It is a very good buy now, selling at RM1699 with a 6 cell battery. Upgrading another 1 GB RAM, is another RM50 adding up. However since MSI Wind is also using a WD 2.5 inch SATA Hard Disk, upgrading the HD would be a breeze. So for you out there who wants a very big HD to keep all your data, you can upgrade it to a 320GB SATA hard disk. A WD Passport portable HD 320GB costs around RM350, about 2 months ago. Would be much cheaper now. So in total, upgrading the RAM to 2GB, HD to 320GB, the total cost of the upgraded Macbook Nano would cost you RM2000++. Anyone for a Macbook Nano???

CELCOM ONLINE REGISTRATION

As mentioned in my previous post, I did an online registration for Celcom Postpaid Executive 20 package together with the Unlimited 3G package. This registration was done on the 1st December 2008. After more than 2 days, i didn't receive any call from celcom about the delivery of my SIM card. I went to Celcom Centre in Kuantan, yesterday. Checked with the officer in charge. They couldn't find any information about my registration at all, even though my credit card was already charged. I forwarded her, my completed registration form, for checking. She will check with KL Main office about my registration and will inform me back tomorrow (Tuesday 9th December 2008). For this, thumbs down to Celcom again. It seems, that the online registration service is not connected to their online registration network. Peh!!!

HP MINI 1000

I am really spoilt for choice now. HP had just released its update of their netbook. The old Mini Note 2133 using VIA chipset was updated to a new Atom based Intel netbook, ie the HP Mini 1000. The specs are quite impressive, reviewed here by www.notebookreview.com. The reviewer had given it an Editor's choice due to a good keyboard and good screen. However the disadvantage of it is that you need to buy a proprietary adapter for the VGA port and also it is using a slow 1.8 inch 4200 rpm HD, maximum at 60GB. Now, need to find whether anyone had done a Hackintosh on it. It shouldn't be difficult since it is also using an Atom processor too. Will need to take a closer look at it during the PC Fair this weekend.

CELCOM 3G INSIDE BUILDINGS

I have mixed experiences for Celcom 3G signals inside buildings. As a radiologists, we usually worked inside rooms, mainly barium plastered rooms to shield the radiation from radiation emitting sources such as CT or Angiograms. Have mixed experiences on Celcom signals. In Kuantan Hospital, when i am inside the room, i only get GPRS signal. No 3G. Whereas, for Digi, I managed to get EDGE signal. However in Cheras, within the hospital building, Digi signal is very poor, to get a GPRS signal is very good already. However for Celcom, I can get full bar HSDPA signal. In Batu Pahat, Johor, I only get a GPRS signal inside the room. However for Digi, i can get an EDGE signal, even though it is only 2 bars. At home in Kuantan, as i mentioned in the previous post, I can get 3G signal for Celcom. Maybe this is due to the positioning of the Celcom and Digi towers. Or is it due to the wavelength of the Telco signals? Only a technical person can tell me about this.

CELCOM 3G AND HSDPA IN DAMANSARA KUANTAN

Mobile internet anyone? Since using a smartphone for 4 years, i need to have an always stable GPRS line with me. I have been subscribing to an unlimited package since then. For the last 3 years, i am using Digi EDGE as my primary line together with the RM66 unlimited data package. But ever since a few months ago, this digi edge has becoming unstable. I couldn't get signals or no EDGE in certain areas. As you know, Digi coverage is not as good as other telco coverage. Since I also don't have any internet line at home, i also need to have another unlimited data package for my kids at home. I noted recently, probably since October 2008, Celcom has increased its 3G coverage in Pahang. My house has already been covered with 3G. I don't want Streamyx or Slowmyx, have bad experience with them. Very unstable line. Digi has been very slow to increase its coverage in Pahang, it is still GPRS at home. Due to this, i terminated my supplementary RM33 SIM for data with Digi and subscribed to the Celcom 3G line at RM68. This is for use at home. My children don't need the HSDPA speed. However sometimes, we got the HSDPA signal at home. Thumbs up to Celcom in Pahang. Thumbs down to Digi in Pahang.

LOCUM

My first locum after 6 months. Do i need to do locum? Yes, I need to do it for the money. But the job is very dull and boring. My hands is getting itchy to do all the interventional procedures which I have been doing for the last few months. I also need it to polish back my general radiology skills. After doing subspecialty in interventional radiology since August 2008, i didn't do much general radiography, mammography, ultrasound, CT scan or MRI scan readings. 4 months without doing all this, will makes you rusty. So, this is a good reason for me to do locum, besides the money. Haha! Now to find another good reason for it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

It's my birthday today. I am one year older today. Got a present from my wife and children during lunch time. Just wondering, should i get a present for myself. Should i change my smartphone? Nah! Both my Treo 750v and Dopod D810 is working wonderfully. Couldn't find any new smartphones which could replace my Treo 750v. Should i get a new notebook? Nah! My new Macbook 12 inch with 4GB RAM and 250GB HD is working well, using dual boot with Windows XP Pro. For portability, i am using my Asus EEE PC 900. New notebooks doesn't interest me at all now. New smartphones also doesn't give me new adrenaline high. Maybe i am getting older. Trips to Low Yat or PC Fair is getting very boring now. Nothing new excites me. So, i don't think i need a birthday present for myself.

QUEST FOR A MACBOOK NANO

After using a Macbook since the last 3 months, i need to carry it around with me replacing my 2kg Dell Latitude D420. A Macbook usually weighs at least 3 kg, if you include the charger. Due to this, i will usually leave it at home or in the office and carry the sub kg Asus EEEPC 900 instead
Since netbook becomes a hot seller after the successful story of Asus EEEPC 700, many hackintosher managed to build a netbook running Mac OSX Leopard. These Mac OSX netbook is usually called a Macbook Nano. However most of this netbook will suffer some non functioning hardwares, depending on which model, due to unavailability of Mac drivers for the hardware. You can use either use the Kalyway 10.5.2 which can be upgraded using the Kalyway 10.5.3. Some also use the IATKOS v4. However most of them will use the MSIWindOSx86.iso, which is actually made for MSIWind.

Below are the few guides on installing a Mac OSX leopard on a netbook.
1. MSI Wind

2. Acer Aspire One

3. Lenovo S10

4. Dell Mini 9

5. Asus EEEPC 901 or 1000

Out of these 5 netbooks, Lenovo S10 had the most impressive specs which include an express card slot. However Lenovo S10 will suffer a non working Ethernet. Acer Aspire One is also a good candidate with a working ethernet. However the specs is not that good, with no bluetooth and only a 0.3 MP camera. Besides, the wifi won't work unless you change to a Dell 1390 or 1490 mini PCI card. Asus EEEPC 901 also suffer the similar fate of Lenovo S10 with non functioning ethernet.

So, you are left with either MSI Wind or Dell Mini 9. MSI Wind has an impressive specifications similar to Dell Mini 9, with the only difference of a much bigger hard disk (using a 2.5 inch notebook HD). It has its own MSIWindOSx86.iso which is about 4.3GB in size. The only problem with MSI Wind, is that the native wifi card won't work at all. You usually need either a Dell mini PCI card model 1390 or 1490 to get the wifi working.

At this point of time, for me, the best candidate for a Macbook Nano is Dell Mini 9. The specs are quite good with built in BT, 1.3MP camera and Wifi. Only that the maximum HD is 16GB which is a SSD. SSD would be better for a netbook, since it can stand more impact and fall compared to a normal HD used by MSIWind. Besides, other than the HD, it share similar specs with MSI Wind, so you can also use the same MSIWindOSx86.iso DVD for this hackintoshing purpose. The best thing is that, most of the hardware will work, including the wifi.

With this in mind, i went to the Malaysian Dell website to order my customized Dell Mini 9. Upon logging in, i found that the Dell Mini 9 is only sold at Dell Retailers, not online. For retailers, the Dell Mini 9 specifications are standard with only 0.3MP camera and 8GB SSD. I emailed Dell Malaysia asking whether i can order a customized Dell Mini 9. Got a reply after a few days later. No, we don't sell Dell Mini 9 online since it can only be sold by Dell Retailers with the standard specifications. My only hope to get a customized Dell Mini 9 is to get is from ebay or ask my cousin in US to buy it for me there.

However MSI Wind is also a good candidate for Macbook Nano. Only that i need to buy the Dell miniPCi Wifi card first. I will take a careful look at MSI Wind on my next trip to Low Yat Plaza. Meanwhile will be searching the Dell miniPCI card in ebay before that trip.