Page 49 – Krunk4Ever!

May 15, 2008October 3, 2008

Comcast Blast Speed Tier

So Tekman IMs me today about this new Comcast Blast Tier (16Mbps down / 2Mbps up) and says that the D-Link DCM-202 cable modem (which I recommended) wasn’t compatible with it and it maxed out at ~8Mbps.

So I started digging around the internet for this and apparently many users were having problems getting the higher speeds from Comcast with this D-Link cable modem. Some people claimed that Comcast uses some proprietary “Burst” technology which wasn’t compatible with all cable modems. According to their FAQ, if you’re renting a modem from them, you can always ask for an upgrade to a newer model which is compatible. Others were saying that even though the Burst technology required DOCSIS 1.1 and the D-Link cable modem was DOCSIS 2.0 compatible, there was some header configuration screw up, where Comcast would only detect the cable modem as DOCSIS 1.0, which capped the transfer speeds to 8Mbps/768Kbps. Apparently if you call in and keep on escalating to a knowledgeable tech support, they would be able to manually set your DOCSIS to 1.1 and you’ll be able to get the higher speeds.

So first thing I go check is what tier I am on. Apparently I’m on the 8Mbps/768Kbps tier and Tekman said he was able to get the 16/2 Burst Tier for $42/mo. A bit bummed, I decided I could live with 8/768 for $30/mo.

However when I got home today, I received a letter from Comcast stating:

RE: 16 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload High-Speed Internet for no additional charge
…

I didn’t even bother reading the rest of the letter till later and went ahead decided to try flashing my modem. Apparently there’s a Comcast specific firmware you’re suppose to use. You can find the firmware on D-Link’s website: Product Support Resources for DCM-202. I thought it was a bit weird that the Comcast firmware was 2004 while the newest one was 2007, but I decided to go with the 2.0.1 Comcast firmware anyway.

The included PDF documentation was pretty straight forward, though they only included instructions for Windows XP. There was one missing instruction and that was the fact you should connect your computer directly to the cable modem’s ethernet port. When I was first trying to connect over the switch, it wouldn’t see the cable modem. Once I was able to ping it, the flashing was pretty painless. They did screw up the login information. The web login information remains dlink/dlink and not admin/hitron.

My newly flashed cable modem shows:

Class ID: 2
Max Downstream Rate (bps): 17600000
Max Upstream Rate (bps): 2200000
Upstream Channel Priority: 1
Guaranteed Min Upstream Data Rate (bps): 0
Max Upstream Transmit Burst (bytes): 0
Privacy Enable: 1

Unfortunately, I don’t have what it showed beforehand as I was too excited to get the newer speeds.

So I went and did a speed test and the results are:
comcast burst tier speed test

Sweet! 16/2 Burst Speed Tier for $30/month! I guess that might be ending soon, since it was only a 6 month promo. At 16/2, this matches Verizon FiOS’ $52.99 plan. Did I mention how sweet this is?!

UPDATE: Apparently it wasn’t the fact that Tekman wasn’t getting the higher speeds with the D-Link DCM-202 cable modem, but they weren’t as high as when he had tested the connection with a Motorola cable modem. He was getting 12000-16000Kbps down / 1000-1500Kbps up with the D-Link DCM-202, while with the Motorola cable modem, he was consistently getting 18000-20000Kbps down / 2000Kbps up. I did notice my upload speed was a bit on the weak side for 2Mbps. Looks like the cheapest Motorola cable modem on Amazon is ~$55.

May 11, 2008May 11, 2008

Tri-Weekly Top Posts (4/20/2008 to 5/10/2008)

Here’s this past 3 weeks’ top post:

3 weeks ago…

I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since I posted a weekly top posts entry. Maybe the next time I post one, it’ll be a month. ;p

Once again, summer is approaching and it appears people are desperate for some Six flags discount. Unfortunately that deal I posted last year has already long expired.

I do want to bring up #11 (even though it’s not in the top 10): 組曲『ニコニコ動画』 – Kumikyoku [Nico Nico Douga]. Recently I saw this video from Digg: This Hands-Free Super Mario World Level Plays Sweet, Sweet Music. The music that it’s playing is nothing other than Nico Nico Douga!!! I never knew different colored Koopa Troopa shells made different noises!

Hopefully I’ll have posts queued up for you guys for the next few days. Finally finished watching House, M.D. Season Two. Not a nice way to end a season as I was desperate to see how he turned out.

May 11, 2008May 11, 2008

Happy Mother’s Day

I hope everyone got a chance to wish their mother a Happy Mother’s Day!

You don’t get to be mom if you can’t fix everything just right. – Calvin

May 10, 2008May 11, 2008

House, M.D.

Ohfuee had introduced me to House, M.D. a long time back, but I was never really a fan of hospital shows like ER or Grey’s Anatomy, so I never really bothered looking into it. However Xyon convinced me to give it shot and it has turned out quite interesting.. The fact that Xyon owns both season 1 and season 2 on DVDs gave me another incentive to watch. It meant I didn’t have to go “procure” them some other way.

You can blame House for my absence in posting blog entries for the past 2 weeks, but who besides Gregory House can make words like “me likee” and “thingies” sound cool.

I was also very intrigued by the intro music. Apparently the song is called Teardrop by Massive Attack. Once again it has that dramatic feeling that I like.

There was a funny thread going on at work. Someone had claimed they missed Monday’s episode of House. Someone replied saying he’d save him the time from watching it:

Someone was sick.
House tried to cure them but it was only 20 minutes into the show so the cure made them worse.
Then someone else tried to cure them, and House got mad. The second attempt was at 30 minutes so it didn’t work either.
Cuddy got mad, House made a pass at her and was rejected again.
The patient got worse and they couldn’t figure out why. Someone said it was an infection, someone else said it was a fungus, someone else said it was a tumor. None of them could prove it.
House came up with some great idea and everyone said it wouldn’t work but he did it anyway.
The patient got better and everyone was happy.
13 still doesn’t have a name.

Then there were these responses:

That must be a unique episode from the rest, neither MRI nor lumbar puncture was involved.

You forgot Lupus.

And of course someone shouted:

Spoiler space man!!!

I will admit that it does get repetitive, but then again, I watch Detective Conan religiously, which is 500+ episodes in and the theme is basically:

Someone gets murdered
Conan looks for clues
Conan figures out how the culprit did it
Conan tranquilizes Mouri Kogoro (Ran’s father)
Conan uses Sleeping Kogoro to explain the case (who would believe in a elementary boy?)

I sort of got screwed over watching Season 2. For some reason Media Center had listed them out of order (partly blamed by the My Movies plugin, partly blamed by the fact my file server doesn’t list files in alphabetical order). Apparently the 1st disc I watched was disc #5. When things started to not make sense like why *cough* needed an HIV test or how *cough* miraculously got cured with no explanation, I realized I wasn’t watching the DVDs for Season 2 in order. After resorting them, I was still wrong and actually ended up watching disc 2 out of 6 2nd to last.

I’m down to the final disc of season 2 and then I’ll have to decide if I want to continue watching House instead, or should I resume blogging. ;p

April 29, 2008

Diploma

I finally got my college diploma! I’ve always thought I’d be back in Berkeley to pick it up myself, but every time I’ve been back, the timing wasn’t right. The office was either closed, or I didn’t have time, so on and so on. I’ve dreaded to have them mail it to me, because I can’t see how they can justify charging $12 for it.

Anyway, apparently they only hold your diploma for 5 years and given that it’s almost 3 years since I graduated (my brother inviting me to his graduation reminded me), I decided that $12 it is.

I went to the Office of the Registrar website, and apparently they don’t take credit cards. !@$#$*&&!%&!$*!@#*!&%! Apparently I am forced to write them a check, and you know how I hate checks. I decided if that’s what it’ll take to get my diploma, so be it. I wrote them a $12 check and mailed it off with my application. By god, I can’t believe I still remember my student ID number without giving a sweat.

So what did $12 net me which would’ve cost me $0.00 if I picked it up in person? Apparently the following:

1 cardboard envelope with a “DIPLOMA – DO NOT BEND” note on it
2 paper-sized cardboard pieces to keep the diploma from bending
1 UPS label to ship 1lb to anywhere in the USA
Someone putting this altogether and dumping it in the outgoing mail bin

Yeah, I feel gypped too. You’d expect it to at least come with a frame or something. Haha. ;p Oh well. At least now I have proof that I graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. degree. If my mom was here, she’d probably frame it. Knowing me, it’ll end up in my pile of junk. Plus don’t forget, I know have Arnold Swarchenegger’s signature!

P.S. This may be my last post in awhile. Been watching a lot of Genshiken and now I’ve started watching House.

April 28, 2008May 24, 2008

Guitar Stand (Rock Band Dork)

So there was a sale on guitar stands last week and I contemplated on getting one for my Rock Band/Guitar Hero III guitars. People on the thread were saying the guitar stands work fine for Rock Band guitars. I told Ungsunghero about my plan and he said he would start calling me “Rock Band ~~Nerd~~ Dork“.

The double guitar stand they were selling ($14 shipped) was out of stock, so I contemplated about getting 2 of the single guitar stands (also $14 shipped). However I thought too long and those sold out before I could purchase them. The only thing left was the triple guitar stand ($20 shipped), so I decided since I do technically have 3 guitars, that’ll work out. I originally had 1 Guitar Hero III wireless guitar and 1 Rock Band wired guitar, but Ungsunghero had gifted me an additional wireless guitar since I had told him I was thinking of getting another wireless one.

I got the stands on Saturday morning and putting them together was rather simple. It was a bit flimsy, but seems to do fine. For $20, I can’t really complain.

(from Rock Band album)

I haven’t figured where exactly I want to put it, but I’m planning or changing the layout of my living room anyway.

UPDATE: Ungsunghero corrected me and said it should’ve been Rock Band Dork and not Rock Band Nerd.

April 27, 2008May 24, 2008

Deep Fried Pot Stickers

So after enjoying my 1st deep frying experience, I’ve been itching to use it again. However, my fridge is lacking in things I could deep fry. Ungsunghero has recommended that I DO NOT deep fry eggs. I’ll heed his advice for now, but I’m interested in see what the outcome is.

Anyway, he’s suggested a bunch of things such as cream cheese wontons, breaded chicken breast chunks, breaded vegetables, spring rolls, etc. I said those seemed like a lot of work. He said then I should just do the whole chicken breast. Haha. The topic of deep fried Twinkies and deep fried Snickers also came up. I actually had a deep fried Twinkie in Las Vegas. It was pretty good, though for those that know me, I have a sweet tooth that can’t be satisfied. You’ve probably heard me say there’s no such thing as “too sweet”. I also asked Ungsunghero about deep fried tofu (mmmmm 揚げ出し豆腐 Agedashi Tofu), but he said those were messy.

Anyway, I recalled I had deep fried gyozas at Sushiland and they were pretty good, so I asked him about deep fried pot stickers and he said those are amazing. I had a big bag of Ling Ling’s Pot Stickers, but unfortunately they didn’t have instructions for deep frying, just pan frying. Ungsunghero says as long as the outside turns golden brown, it should mean its ready.

I didn’t want to over fry the outside and not have the inner get hot enough, so I tried frying at 325°F for 5-6 minutes, which the outside had started to turn a golden brown. Tried one and it wasn’t as good as I expected. Ling Ling’s Pot Stickers skin is a bit too thick to be deep fried, but it was still pretty good. Next time I’ll pick up some pot stickers or dumplings with a thinner skin.

(from Food album)

Hmmmm, I think I may have eaten too much fried food lately as my throat is starting to feel dry and irritated.

April 27, 2008

Changing Amazon Affiliates ID

So now that I have multiple places where I link to Amazon.com items using my affiliates ID, I’ve decided to create multiple Amazon affiliates ID to track where things were coming from.

I knew there was a way to mass edit strings in my blog posts and a quick search resulted in: How to Find & Replace Data in MySQL

To find a string in a certain field and replace it with another string:

update [table_name] set [field_name] = replace( [field_name], '[string_to_find]', '[string_to_replace]' );

So a quick update wp_posts set `post_content` = replace( `post_content`, 'krudoethekrue-20', 'krunk4everblog-20' ); did the trick.

Now I’ll be able to track if people are coming through my HD-Trailers site, my HD-Trailers blog, or my Krunk4ever! blog.

April 25, 2008May 24, 2008

Deep Fried Fries

Awhile back, I picked up a Euro Pro deep fryer from Linen ‘N Things for either $10 or $20 after rebate. I never got a chance to use it till today. When I first wanted to use it, I noticed it said not to use olive oil, which was the only type of oil I had around. They said corn oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil , canola oil, etc were all fine. So later, I picked up a giant jug of canola oil from Costco, since that appeared to be the healthiest of the bunch. Speaking of which, did you know that canola stood for: “Canadian oil, low acid”? I had always thought canola was a plant! Also, wouldn’t the world oil be redundant here, sort of like ATM machine (automated teller machine machine).

Anyway, I had the giant jug of oil and it just sat around as I was too lazy now to test out the deep fryer.

I was talking to Xyon today about how even if we had a bread maker, we’d be too lazy to use it. I then said that’s probably why I haven’t used my deep fryer ever since I got it a couple months back. He commented and said aren’t deep fryers meant for lazy folks. That got me thinking… how do I clean it up? Is it messy? It turns out that I can leave the oil in there for years and reuse it. If it starts turning brown or black, I should change the oil, but given that I won’t probably be using it that much, it might even last a lifetime.

Anyway, I got hungry tonight and decided to give it a try:

(from Food album)

I have to say, these deep fried fries are 100x better than anything that can come out of the oven, microwave, or even pan fried! Mmmmmmm. Now I just need to find more things to deep fry!

Speaking of which, I guess now would be a good time to put in a word about a new photo service my friend Derek and Tekman have started: photosleeve. If you look at my sidebar, you’ll notice I have a new link: PhotoSleeve which has all my digital photos from 2002 to 2008. There are problems with my 2001 digital photos which I’m fixing before I upload them. It’s still being beta tested, but you can sign up on their homepage or if you send me a message, I can probably speed up your application. 😉 Maybe I’ll delve more into their features when I get a chance to write a dedicated post for it.