strangnet.tech

I recently purchased a solid-state drive, aka SSD, for my laptop. I had grown seriously tired of the long loading times the 500 GB 5,400 rpm drive was giving me. It also had a tendency to never really be quiet — always these clicks every so often which can be a bit annoying when it’s quiet all around.

So, said and done, I went and got the Intel 320 160 GB SSD for about 2,400 SEK, which is about $380 incl taxes. And what a difference it was. I can safely say that this has prolonged the laptop’s life with about a year, if not more. Now it takes about 15-20 seconds to boot up to the Desktop in Windows 7. And starting applications and multi-tasking while loading is a breeze. Starting Eclipse is now just a matter of seconds as opposed to almost a minute or so before.

Installing the OS was also a great experience. Since I don’t have a built-in optical drive, and no external one either, my only option was to install from a USB key. I’ve never installed an operating system that quickly: 12 minutes from start to finish. I followed the guide posted on Microsoft’s Technet, from where I got my copy of Windows 7 Ultimate as a subscribing member:

• Download DiskPart
• Start diskpart from the start menu command input (search programs and files)
• Enter list disk to see the drives’ status
• Enter select disk 1 or whichever number corresponding to your USB key
• Enter clean to empty the drive. Make sure this really is the correct drive before. Double and triple check it!
• Enter create partition primary and then enter active
• Now make a quick format of the newly created partition by entering format fs=fat32 quick
• Finish by assigning a drive letter to the USB key, by entering assign.

After this is done, simply copy all the content of your Windows install disk or ISO to the USB key, and reboot the computer. Make sure your computer either boots from USB before the hard drive och enter a boot drive selection screen just after booting. Refer to your manual for details on this, as this differs between manufacturers and models.

As an added bonus, I now have a 500 GB portable disk drive that I can connect with USB. The case for it was cheap, 129 SEK ($20), and quite aesthetic.

I just found a really good barcode reader for Symbian Phones. I’m most probably late to the party, but better late than sorry.

I’ve previously used the built-in code reader that comes with newer Nokia phones, simply titled Barcode, but it only supports those 2d codes you see pop-up here and there (for example in my left column here on the blog). A featue it is lacking is to be able to scan EAN codes you find on products you buy, so for those needs I’ve used a free software called ZebraScan.

Now enter UpCode – an application that does both. It’s easy to install and almost easier to operate. Just point and it even shoots on its own. If it’s a 2d barcode it launches your web browser, or whatever the code is meant to do, and if you shoot a 1d code (EAN), it saves it to the clipboard so that you could paste it into a document or a search field on a web site.

According to their web site, it supports a plethora of phones (tested on 292 models) either as a native Symbian application or in Java.

Now if it only was able to launch a list of web sites, pre-chosen or by the user, that could use the scanned EAN- or ISBN-code for price comparison – it’d be awesome.