Fixing my Sony Vaio U3

Plastic either gets harden (and then crack), or soften (and then break) over time. There is no exception to the "mouse button" of my Sony Vaio U3.



To fix it, I have replaced it with a soft pad which is of similar size, the motion is now perfect.



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I always wanted to expand the capacity of my Sony U3, and a memory stick seems a good option. However, after some research, I found that the memory stick slot supports only the original plain old memory stick up to 128M only, so it makes no sense to buy a 4G one for it.

WD40, Thermal Paste and CPU Fans

Computer is dust sucking machine! If you ever open the system case, you will agree with me.

Dust is the number one killer for fans, and there are usually many fans inside the system case. As time goes by, the fans will die. A natural solution (or workaround) is to spray WD40 there.

However, be warned if you do this with your CPU fan. WD40 is excellent to fix those fans, especially to solve those dust issues, however, it is also a great dissolver! A great dissolver to the thermal paste beteen your heat sink and your CPU! Once those thermal paste was dissolved, the function of the heat sink will become very weak, so the temperature will increase quickly.

Therefore, remember not to apply WD40 to your CPU fan, or even anywhere near the CPU.

Interesting Crystals

Guess what are they.

They're crystals, they're crystals of soy sauce! Before the birth of my kids, we didn't cook too often, and many strange things happened. Among them, one of them is to let all the liquids dried by themselves.

So the above is one of those interesting remains.

Cable modem and Signal Splitter

One day I found that my internet connection is having problem. What is so hard under this situation is that, I cannot even find the customer server phone number! I've to dig through the pile of documents to find out that number.

The guy came, and after checking, he said that the signal was too strong. He added a signal splitter there and everything go fine afterward. Interesting.

Until after several months afterward, it happens again! This time for the same reason, so that guy added another signal splitter there. The first one was a 1-2 splitter, and the second one is a 1-3 splitter, so I'm effectively using 1/6 of the original signal as I did in the first day!

That guy is helpful, he even explain to me why. Since the analog signal was too strong that it saturates, and that's why signal splitters work.

Doulton Water Filter System

This is a great piece of stuff.

First of all, the installation is simple, no tool or any special skill required. It's also reversible at any time.

Best of all, it is very effective. You only have to clean the filter once around a month, if you are not cooking actively. And everytime you clean the filter, you will feel lucky that you have it. The ugly brown stuff deposit there ended up in the filter but not inside the body of your family members.

This is the filter before using:-


After several weeks, you see those brown stuff... they're the rust gathered from the pipe from the reservior to your home:



The reason is that, from the reservior to your home, there is a very long pipe. Part of it is even out of your control. You simply cannot change it. And if your building is not under good management, the water tank could be dirty as well. So this kind of filter actually helps.

There will be a switch near the tap. You will want to use the filter only when you will use the water for cooking, and for drinking. You won't need to use it for washing, and you cannot use it for hot water, for it will damage the filter.

You will need to replace the filter once it got weared up. Everytime you clean it, it will get slightly smaller, and how fast you used one up depend on how actively you use it.

Highly recommended.

Express Hair Cut

Just back after having a very fast hair cut.

Finger nails and hair just keep growing non-stop. You need to have them cut. For finger nails, they're easier for most people since you could cut them by yourself. However for hair, you can hardly cut for yourself.

If you were just like me, who simply wanted to get the job done, i.e. clean and tidy, EC House could be a quick and simple (also cheap) solution to you:

http://www.ec-house.com.hk/

I have been using their services for more than one year, and it's just quick and simple. I feel satisfied as well. At the first few visits, when they're still new to the market, I see only men inside. But right now, I could see students, ladies of all ages, children customers inside. That means they should be able to fulfill your hair cut needs if you are not specially care about the style, etc. Don't get me wrong, everything will be elegant and tidy, they just won't do anything fancy.

For $50 HKD, and within 10 minutes, it's just fantastic.

While I was having the hair cut just a few minutes ago, I found it's one of the things which adsense could easily help you to pay fully even my blogs are not even popular with only a few clicks per month.

Body check

Body check is something for urban populations.

Urban life is just unhealthy by its nature. We eat unbalanced meals, we stay indoor for most of the time and sitting, we did very little physical exercise unless you are strongly determined to do more.

While we can eat whatever that we wanted, that means nutrition is non-issue except having too much. So, there's nothing that can go wrong if we properly control ourselves.

Therefore, the only conclusion from a body check is to:

1. do more physical exercise consistently and persistently
2. eat less unhealthy food, eat more healthy food
3. or it's already too late! ;-)

So act now!