HOWTO: Samsung SCH-u740 Contacts Backup

In the past I have written about how to unlock Samsung SCH-u700 (Gleam) and SCH-u740 (Alias) to load ringtones into them. Recently I was contacted by reader Matt M. regarding how to backup contacts from Samsung SCH-u740.

Verizon Wireless's Backup Assistant is charging customers $1.99 plus tax per month to have the ability to backup their contacts. That is approximately $50 they are fleecing off from each customer after a two-year contract.

As of right now, Bitpim 1.0.6 has yet support contacts transfer for Samsung SCH-u740 (as least when I tried it).

However, Samsung has a handy little tool called Samsung Contacts Copier, which its only purpose is to backup mobile phone's contacts. It is absolutely free and works with most Samsung mobile phones.

The version I used is 1.2.2.6.



The Backup option transfers all contacts from a Samsung mobile phone to a .pbo file (phonebook data file), which can be opened with spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel.



The Restore function has the ability to let user to choose which contacts to be transfered back into the mobile phone:



It takes a few minutes to backup all your contacts and save yourself $50.

"Antispyware-review.biz" Scareware Removal

It started last Friday where my notebook computer would randomly pop up Windows Security Alert messages about trojan spyware.


Figure 1 - Scareware pop-upmessage masquerades itself as legitimate Windows Security Alert with warning about "Trojan-Clicker.Win32.Tiny.h"


Figure 2 - Scareware pop-upmessage masquerades itself as legitimate Windows Security Alert with warning about "Trojan-Spy.HTML.Bankfraud.dq"


Figure 3 - Scareware pop-upmessage masquerades itself as legitimate Windows Security Alert with warning about "Trojan-Spy.Win32.GreenScreen"


Figure 4 - Scareware pop-upmessage masquerades itself as legitimate Windows Security Alert with warning about "Trojan-Spy.Win32.KeyLogger.aa"

At first glance, these messages appeared legitimate with technical information and its graphical interface consistent with most Microsoft Windows.

However, when the "Enable Protection" button is clicked, it hijacks user's web browser to a website, www.antispyware-review.biz, which sells rogue software PC Antispy & PC Clean Pro.


Figure 5 - www.antispyware-review.com sells rogue software PC Antispy & PC Clean Pro


Removal:

In this case, there were three new startup processes in the registry "HKCU:run" which I have never seen before, nor I could find any information on them:


Figure 6 - "apien", "O94r7l940x", & "enwin" are spyware lingering in registry as automatic startup

With help from CCleaner, I was able to remove these registry entries and prevent them from starting. Additionally, I used Spybot Search & Destroy to scan & immunize the system.

Talk Like A Pirate Day 2008

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2008

Is SolarCity's SolarLease Right for You?

A friend of mine emailed me a few days ago about SolarCity's SolarLease program. Instead of purchasing solar panels upfront, SolarCity offers a leasing option would only charge an initial fee of $1,000 and rest are paid off in potential electric bill savings.

In a local news broadcast, SolarCity claimed it would save customers about 20% of their current monthly electric bill. Assuming customers could pay the initial $1,000 downpayment and their monthly bill must be $150 or higher to see the savings.

According to SolarLease Calculator from SolarCity's website, the 20% saving claim is correct if the customers are using APS (Arizona Public Service Company) as their utility provider seen in Figure 1.


Figure 1 - APS customer's potential saving if switched to SolarCity


Figure 2 - SRP customer's potential saving if switched to SolarCity

However it is not true for SRP (Salt River Project) customers.

In figure 2, it shows SRP customers would need to spend a monthly average of $800 on their electric bill before SolarCity's program would save them any money.

Matter of fact even at that rate, SRP customers will never recoup their initial investment even after 15 years!

There are other limitations about SolarCity's program, such as customer's credit score must be higher than 720, and it only serves small territories along Oregon, California & Arizona.

SolarCity's SolarLease is a nice concept, however it is not for everyone, definitely not for SRP customers.

For now, let us all hope it would not turn into like the ZAP car hype.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro is Great!

For over two years, I have been using Cooler Master's Hyper48 as CPU cooler for my Intel Prescott 3.6 GHz. Although it does a good job of cooling the CPU, one thing really bugged me was its loud noise. Since its fan is pulse-width modulation (PWM) controlled by mainboard's BIOS, whenever the CPU load increases, so does the noise.

A few days ago I saw Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on sale at newegg.com for US$24.99 including shipping, so I gave it a try.

The improvement was amazing!

Figure 1. BIOS screen of PC operating with Cooler Master Hyper48

With the ambient temperature at 29C, PC operating with Cooler Master Hyper48 is showing CPU temperature at 44C and fan speed at approximately 2400RPM. The noise level is at 31.7 dBA.


Figure 2. BIOS screen of PC operating with Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

After replacing the CPU cooler with Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, the CPU temperature dropped to 41C and its fan speed to 1500RPM. Keep in mind both CPU coolers use 92mm diameter fans. The noise level has significantly reduced thanks to slower fan speed.


Figure 3. Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro suspends its fan from heatsink body to reduce noise caused by vibration


Figure 4. Cooler Master's Hyper48 clips its fan onto heatsink body where smallest vibration could be amplified into a loud rattle

There are three areas of improvement I saw between Cooler Master's Hyper48 versus Arctic Cooling's Freezer 7 Pro.

First, Arctic Cooling used rubber tips to suspend the fan away from the heatsink body. Any noise-causing vibration coming from the fan would be minimized by these four little rubble tips. Less vibration equals less noise.

Cooler Master's Hyper48 clips its fan onto heatsink body via an aluminum clip. Even the smallest fan vibration is amplified into a loud rattle.

Secondly are the fans' bearings. Arctic Cooling uses ceramic bearings, which produces very small friction between shaft and housing. Cooler Master uses traditional steel rifle bearing (also known as plain bearing), where the shaft grinds on its bushings. Although rifle bearing is much cheaper to produce, Hyper48 is about average US$40 retail and Freezer 7 Pro is US$25.


Figure 5. Gigabyte GA-8S661FXM-775 mainboard with Cooler Master Hyper48


Figure 6. Same mainboard with Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

There are also differences in heatsinks. Six heat pipes were used in Freezer 7 Pro, where only four in Hyper48. Hyper48 is over 820 grams in weight, however since copper's density (8.96 g*cm^-3) is higher than aluminum (2.70 g*cm^-3), the excess weight did not increase cooling fins' surface area (heatsink: 105x94x70 mm; fin area: 2,200 cm^2). Freezer 7 Pro used aluminum fins to both cut weight down to 520 grams and increased cooling fins surface area (heatsink: 104x58x126.5 mm; fin area: 4,700 cm^2). For convection cooling, more heat dissipating area is better.

In conclusion, Arctic Cooling's Freezer 7 Pro is much quieter than Cooler Master's Hyper48. It also provided better cooling at much lower cost, which is a good news for consumers.

Dear PC World, Is 43.2% Good Enough?

Dear PC World magazine,

I was at my local Border's bookstore today and saw your latest issue. However after briefly browsing through it, I have noticed there is a significant amount of full-page advertisements.



Not including the front and back cover pages, I have jotted down this actual content list with their starting page number :

5 - Content list
8 - Credits
11 - Techlog
13 - PCW Forum
18 - Forward
41 - Consumer Watch
47 - Business Center
53 - Security Alert
60 - Reviews & Ratings
82 - Main Article, Get the Most Out of Your Laptop
95 - Article, Stay in Sync
105 - The Best TV on the Web
116 - Here's How
131 - Magazine Contact Information
132 - Full Disclosure

Now let's count the number of full-page ads shall we?

Pages 1-4, 6-7, 9-12, 14-17, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33-40, 43-46, 49, 51-52, 55, 57-59, 65, 67, 73, 75, 79-81, 89, 91, 93, 99, 101, 103-104, 109, 111, 113-115, 123, 125-130.

That does not even include the half-page ads like on pages 68-71 & 76-77:



Out of 132 printable pages, the total number of advertisement is 72 pages. That only left readers with 60 content pages.

If we subtract pages 5 (content list), 8 (credits), & 131 (magazine contact information), the end result is actually 57 pages.

I don't know about you, but 57 out of 132 is only 43.2%. If you are a student, that is definitely an "F" on your report card.

Just like the Reviews & Ratings section in your own magazine, what would you do with a product that only scored 43.2%? Would you recommend it to someone else?

I don't think so.

Jackie Chan's Hong Kong Hideout

When MTV's Cribs interview celebrities in U.S. about their residences, most of them would boast about their private entertainment room, numerous luxury vehicles with over-sized wheels, & other superficial wealth.

Jackie Chan on other hand decided to be as low key as possible in Hong Kong. Living in an old factory building with rusty roller gate as entrance, the world famous movie star's ride is a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO, & enjoys collecting tea sets & wine.

Following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Chan donated ¥10 million (925K Euros) to help those in need. In addidtion, he is planning to make a film about the Chinese earthquake to raise money for survivors. In June 2006, he announced the donation of half his assets to charity (HK$500 million or 40.5 million Euros) upon his death, citing his admiration of the effort made by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to help those in need.