Nokia Chargers

broken nokia 2 5mm charger tip

This is what I hate about Nokia’s current 2.5mm charger. I charge my phone, my phone drops with the charger attached and I get a bent charger tip. The charger will still typically work until it’s been battered into submission and gets broken as shown below. This is my second Nokia charger tip to bite the dust.

Instead of buying a new charger I just bought a cheap B$3 adapter from BIT Computer that converts an older 3.5mm Nokia charger to the new 2.5mm tip. Works perfect and if it gets broken it’s just a $3 change. Saves money and recycles an old charger. Win for me, win for the Earth. You can buy this adapter from Deal Extreme.

nokia 3 5mm to 2 5mm adaptor

Just make sure the old charger has an output rating of DC 5.0V, 800mA (I tried on an even older 3.5mm charger that has a rating of 3.7V, 355mA and I get a “Not charging” message on the phone, so you need the right rating)

nokia charger ratings

Ubuntu – I am what I am because of who we all are

With Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Support (LTS) being released this month lets all learn the meaning of “Ubuntu”. It’s a great philosophy and just speaks to me and I hope it speaks to all of us to be better to one another and to make this world a better place.

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity.
We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Source: Wikipedia

What does Ubuntu mean?
Ubuntu is an African word meaning ‘Humanity to others’, or ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

Source: Ubuntu.com

Microsoft Office 2007 – Brunei Activation

MS Office 2007

MS Office 2007

MS Office 2007 Activation Details

MS Office 2007 Activation Details

Product activation for the following version of Microsoft Office 2007 is to done by calling 1800 6738 from a land lineonly, not a mobile phone line.

I was told from TechOneGlobal that there is no recourse for those people without a land line. You will need get a hold of a land line, which isn’t too bad because it is a told free number but still I believe that there should be way to activate without one. By the way, the activation process is all automated and can be done via voice or button presses. The voice interaction with the bot is a pretty interesting experience.

I had a few problems when activating this product without this knowledge:

  1. Activation cannot be done over the Internet: as stated on the box it must be done in Malaysia. You must call the Product Activation phone number
  2. I tried calling the number with my mobile phone: the number was engaged for over an hour and only the next day, did it give me an automated message saying that the number was not assigned. I had to call Tech One Global to find out that I needed to call using a land line in order to get through

Honestly these things should be made clear to the buyer to avoid the inconveniences I experienced. No where is it stated that you cannot activate online and that a land line must be used to call the Product Activation telephone number. Yes, it does say activation in Malaysia only, but it did have the Tech One Global sticker (stuck on the plastic wrap) saying that it is to be sold in Brunei only, so logically, they could have made the necessary changes in the activation process so that these items shipped to Brunei could be activated here instead of requiring customers to call.

Also, since the number is not available to mobile phone callers why did I get the engaged tone instead of the automated message saying that the number wasn’t assigned? It would have at least tipped me off earlier. Perhaps this is a telephony matter but it should state on the sticker that activation must be done via a land line.

Hopefully this will help you guys save time and answer any tech support calls you may get regarding this.

PS: I’m not sure if this is the only version sold in Brunei or if there are ones that can be activated within Brunei. For all to know I bought this at Yappe Computer so I suggest you look elsewhere to see if there are any other versions of Office that can be activated in Brunei

Local Bandwidth Tests

With the recent changes with eSpeed you’d like to know if you’ve been upgraded so here are 2 local bandwidth test sites that should enable you to check your bandwidth with between you and Telbru (and DST possibly)

http://202.160.12.27 (no Flash required)
http://202.160.42.10/index.html (Flash Required)

Note that these will show you local link within Brunei and just because your local link has the full bandwidth doesn’t necessarily mean that all your downloads will get the full speed of connection. To check the speed with the outside world try bandwidth testers like Speedtest.net.

DST and bmobile’s Revised Mobile Plans

Posting this up because I couldn’t find the DST revised plans on their website. All I can say is that this is what competition is all about: in the end the customers win. Now lets just hope Telbru gets competition for eSpeed

DST Revised Prima Plans

$35
Essential Voice Plan
$55
Extra Voice Plan
$55
Extra Text Plan
$85
Executive Voice Plan
$85
Executive Text Plan
$165
Elite Voice Plan
Free Voice (minutes) 300 2000 500 4000 2000 Unlimited
Free SMS 100 200 600 400 1200 Unlimited
Free MMS 20 55 55 85 85 Unlimited
Free Data 1.5GB 5GB 5GB 10GB 10GB 20GB

Source: Brunei Times E-Paper (view newspaper promo advert)

For good measure I’ve throw in bmobile‘s revised rates too

Bmobile’s Revised Plans

Smart $35 Smart $45 Smart $55 Smart $65
Free Voice (minutes) 300 500 1000 1200
Free SMS 100 200 300 500
Free MMS 20 30 40 40
Free Data 1.5GB 3GB 10GB Unlimited

Source: bmobile website (view screenshot)

Brunei National Swimming Pool Opening Hours

For all those swimmers out there, here’s the new opening hours for the pool for your reference:

Monday: 830am-6pm, 7pm-9pm
Tuesday: 830am-6pm, 7pm-9pm
Wednesday: 830am-6pm, 7pm-9pm
Thursday: 830am-6pm
Friday: 830am-11am, 230pm-6pm, 7pm-9pm
Saturday: 930am-6pm, 7pm-9pm
Sunday 830am-6pm, 7pm-9pm

Update (15/Aug/2011): During Puasa / Ramadhan the pools is only open from 9pm-10pm

Brunei National Stadium Swimming Pool Opening Hours

Swimming Pool Opening Hours

Opening Hours During Ramdhan/Puasa 9pm-10pm

Opening Hours During Ramdhan/Puasa 9pm-10pm

eSpeed Upgrade!

It all started with Tiong Loong’s tweet that stated:

Telbru is upgrading our espeed 512kbps bandwidth >>See my test result http://www.speedtest.net/result/762446092.png #brunei
source

So when I got home from work that day I did some speed tests and was pleasantly surprised that it was true!

Bandwidth Test showing 1Mbps down, 300kbps+ up

1Mbps+ down, 300kbps+ up

And so today 1/April/2010 Telbru confirmed it (but honestly what a bad day to pick to announce it)

Plan Old Bandwidth New Upgraded Bandwidth
e-Speed Value Surf 512kbps 1Mbps
e-Speed Lite Surf 640kbps 1.5Mbps
e-Speed Super Surf 768kbps 2Mbps
e-Speed Premium Surf 1Mbps 2.5Mbps
Corporate Broadband Lite 2Mbps 3.5Mbps
Corporate Broadband Max 3.5Mbps 5Mbps

eSpeed Upgrade poster

Speed on Demand page finally loads!

I checked my router IP today and was pleasantly surprised that it has change to 118.x.x.x as show below and was surprised to see that the Speed on Demand page actually loaded!

New Router IP of 118.x.x.x

New eSpeed Router IP: 118.x.x.x

Speed on Demand login page

It finally loads!

So I can confirm that router IPs of 118.x.x.x can access the login page and I presume can use the service as well. Will try test this out in the coming days

PS. The images have been manipulated to hide my exact IP address but this is no Aprils fools prank =)

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