which is faster: file transfer via LAN+wifi or wifi+wifi

I got one of these, a USB wifi N adapter

Source


So, I was thinking, what would be faster between my laptop and my desktop via my belkin wifi N router: the desktop connected via LAN and the laptop connected via wifi or vice versa


So i tried transferring some files from my desktop to my laptop. And here are the results

both connected via wifi = ~3 MB/s
laptop connected via wifi, desktop connected via LAN = ~8 MB/s
laptop connected via LAN, desktop connected via wifi = ~8.5 MB/s

this is unusual since wifi-N is supposed to be 150 mbps or 18.75 MB/s

the end

94% off Amazon digital sale

Here is a great pack composed of square enix games on Amazon.

1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Augmented Edition [Download]
2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution - The Missing Link DLC [Download]
3. Hitman: Blood Money [Online Game Code]
4. Just Cause 2 [Download]
5. Just Cause [Online Game Code]
6. Quantum Conundrum [Download]
7. Supreme Commander 2 [Download]
8. The Last Remnant [Online Game Code] 

Total price would normally be $131.52 but the sale price is $9.99. A Steal!

Notes:
* sometimes the error "This item is currently unavailable" is seen. If you see this, wait say half an hour and try again
* These games are digital downloads and/or online game codes. So no DVD's
* As usual, amazon will not let you buy a digital download unless you use a US address.

link



the end

Fake eneloops in the philippines

Here's an ad in the October 7, 2012 Issue of the Philippine Daily inquirer warning about fake eneloops. Small resized image below.

For a full size 1998x2999 pixel image, click on the picture below.

The end.

smart bro prepaid always on - is it really faster?

Hi, Long time no post. Sorry but being busy in real life and having nothing unique to post sometimes happens. Anyway, lets talk about smart bro prepaid, specifically smart bro power plugit and the Always on plan which is supposed to be faster.

Go to the smart bro power plugit page. You'll see that both for the prepaid and postpaid, it says:

Speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps*

 Notice that there is an "*". That means there's fine print. Now scroll down to the "*". It says

*Upgrade to Always On to experience speeds up to 7.2 Mbps.

The smart bro starter plugit page has something similar but in this case, its only up to  3.6 mbps and they make no mention of pre or postpaid.

 Ohhhhkay, lets upgrade to the Always on plan and see what happens. As a background, using  the normal 10 peso per 30 min or the 50 peso/24 hour prepaid plans I get the same speed. Its variable maybe 300-800 kbps DL and 500-600kbps UL, well below the claimed 2mbps. Testing is actual downloading and with speedtest.net. I live in Pampanga so I though maybe its slow in the provinces. Since then I've tested it in other places like Quezon City, Cubao and Mandaluyong with similar results of 300-600 kbps DL, 500-600kbps UL. Signal strength doesn't seem to be a factor since Cubao and mandaluyong had a slightly higher 4-5 bars versus 2-3 bars in the other places but the speeds were slightly slower even with the better signal.



Go to the smart bro Always on page. You'll see several plans. I tested the ALWAYS ON 10 plan which costs 10 pesos and give me 5 megabytes. Mega not Gigabytes.

So here's how it went. First I disabled images from firefox to maximize the time and number of webpages that would fit the cap. I then ran a bandwidth monitoring program. Specifically I used Netpersec. I reset the counter on Netpersec so that it would start at zero, counting how many bytes were uploaded and downloaded. Then I plugged in the power plugit. The software dialer automatically loaded and once it started to dial I canceled it. I went to the text messaging tab and sent the appropriate text to smart. I then received a reply stating that the always on plan was active. I started a speedtest.net test. My result was around 350kbps DL and 300kbps UL. Sorry, forgot to link the result picture since images were off. Looking at Netpersec, I downloaded a bit over 1 megabyte.

I continued to surf on smart bro's webpge and opened blogger to start this post. I received a text later on stating that 4 out of 5 megabytes of my allowance was used up. Looking at netpersec's total, I show 3.6 megabytes downloaded and 0.8 megabytes uploaded for a total of 4.4 mb. Pretty accurate IMHO if we allow for the fact that the text message probably took a few seconds to arrive and I took a few seconds to check the text and netpersec. Later on I received a text message stating that the 5 gigs were up and I'm reverting to the usual 10 pesos per 30 min. Looking at the smart bro dialer, it has a timer showing how long the current dial up session is active. I used up 5mb in around 8 minutes.

CONCLUSION

Is always on faster in my location (pampanga) compared to the usual smart bro prepaid? No.

ANALYSIS

So, does this mean that the claim is false? Unfortunately there is still room to doubt my results.  Since I only tried one power plugit unit in one location at one time, its not impossible that there may be other explanations such as:
* I was unlucky because I got a defective power plugit
* I was unlucky because smart's network was slow then

And my favorite possibility
* there is no difference in my test because smart's network is so congested in my area that any difference would be swamped by the congestion. Analogous to trying out the speed of a normal car and a multi million peso sports car on roads with traffic, you'll get similar lap times.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Yep, more tests. At the very least I should try areas that are non congested. Maybe if I go to a major metroplitan area, I'll look for areas where the regular smart bro prepaid can go a full 2 mbps. If it goes at 2mbps I assume its not congested. After that, I need confirmation from other testers.


the end

Alpha Protocol review: interface and performance

Alpha Protocol NON-Review

I'll be concentrating on the user interface and the performance. I know that this is slightly unfair and biased since I concentrate on only one aspect, BUT other people/websites have reviewed this game before so go to them if you want a balanced and thorough review. So be warned, this is not a real review. Its more of a rant about the performance and interface flaws. The graphics and story and gameplay are OK though.

Okay. I have a decent system, 4 gigs ram, geforce 560ti, core 2 duo e8200, maybe a little light on the CPU but its ok.  I tried all the video options on and also tried the game with them all off. As with most console ports, the video options are a bit limited. I'm using the version I bought on Steam.

I see that this game suffers from consolitis and lacks polish. The loading times are too long, even for something as simple as loading a checkpoint then dying then reloading the last checkpoint. Loading time is also too long for such simple stuff as opening the map or opening one of the menus such as weapons or gadgets. When loading a save or loading a new level at least there's a spinning AP logo on the screen but  otherwise, the game looks like its frozen.

Then there are lots of pauses. Example, you are running forwards then make a 90 degree turn to your left to a stair or ramp, after turning a few degrees there is a split second pause then you find yourself turned 270 degrees so you have the stairs behind you and you're face into the wall or sometimes its 180 degrees and you're going back the way you came. The scrolling is horrible in menus. The mouse wheel works but if you have say 2 windows like in the email window, scrolling the mouse wheel only scrolls the list of emails on the left while the message on the right window cannot be controlled by the mouse wheel. You can always click on the scroll up and down buttons but they are soo small. Plus there are pauses scrolling to an email or a weapon that's on the next page of a list.

The menus like the PDA and the weapon menus don't recognize the ESC key. So for example if you are in the map to go back to the game you have to mouse click on the "back" button then press TAB. For the weapon/skill/gadgets menu you can only jump from say the weapon to the skill menu only by mouse clicking on a small left-right arrow. You can't use the keyboard shortcut keys. And for exiting those menus going back to the game you can't press ESC, you gotta press the key assigned to it. Clunky and difficult if you're stressed out fighting in game.

Very Very poor interface design. A shame since the RPG system, the story and the combat is OK. Like mass effect your choices and actions determine how the story branches. I blame this on consolitis.

Oh and there are checkpoints, I hate checkpoints. I want save slots.

Overall I would  give this game 5/10. For the gameplay, maybe 7/10. For the interface and performance 2/10 each.

the end

Reloading smart bro using a smart buddy card

Reloading smart bro using card

Load smart bro another smart cellphone

You can load a smart bro 3g/3.5g prepaid internet account using another smart cellphone if you use a smart bro prepaid card. Yes we know that works. Other websites have documented it. For completeness, I'll quote the procedure

On any Smart GSM cell phone, text Reload <Smart Bro Prepaid number> and send to 1510.

Okay, what if you DON'T use a smart bro prepaid card. Instead, what happens if you use a smart buddy card, the normal card used for prepaid cellphones? Well lets see. I'll use the term "smart buddy" to refer to any smart prepaid cellphone plans.

I bought a 500 peso smart buddy card (actual cost for me is around 490 pesos) in my local SM from the SM kiosks which sell prepaid cards. Forgive me for the blurry cellphone picture below.

It came with small stapled cardboard strip which contains another PIN number good for 15 pesos load. Sorry but I don't have a picture. This is supposed to be a limited promo according to the saleslady so get one while supplies last. The promo is supposed to be over but there are some left over in my local SM. The text on that small cardboard strip says that the 15 peso load is good for both smart bro prepaid and smart buddy cellphones.

OK. I tried the above procedure with the 15 peso load on my smart bro prepaid. It worked. I later on tried it with the 500 peso card, it didn't work. I got an error as a text message from 1510

VD# 0002 Invalid keyword, cannot be processed. REF: xxxxxxxxxxxx.

I then replaced the smart bro prepaid number with my smart buddy cellphone number. It worked

CONCLUSION:
I am unhappy to report that indeed, the smart buddy prepaid card does not work with smart bro prepaid. I was disappointed since I began the experiment as I was writing this blog post and I fully expected it too work.

I wonder why SMART decided to have 3 kinds of load, one for smart bro prepaid, one for smart buddy and one for both. For efficiency sake, having a universal load might be better. Also, the error message seen is another example of a non-user friendly error message, since it does not give any indication of what the problem is.

So I'll just use PASALOAD to transfer load from my smart buddy to my smart bro or use E-load

the end

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S&R Pampanga sale 2012 part 2

< Back to Part 1

OK here is a list of some interesting items. I did not list any not worth it too expensive items except for a few. For most of these, I give a per piece or per liter or per kilogram price. Some items may actually be non-sale items but I include them anyway because it's a good deal. Items with a x2 are buy one take one items. Also some prices are rounded off, i.e. php 39.95 becomes 40 but I did not round off the per gram values

Tissue paper rolls

Kirkland embossed bath - 1150/36 =Php41/roll

Scott 1000 - 1200/36 = Php33/roll

Charmin ultra strong - 900/24 = Php37.5/roll

Member's selection - 500/20 = Php25/roll

S&r - 450/20 = Php22.5/roll

Velvety soft - 489.95/48 =Php10.2/roll. 220 sheets/roll = 0.0464/sheet

Velvety soft - 250/24 =Php10.4/roll

Extra - 399.95/24 = Php16.67/roll, 600 sheets/300 pulls/roll = 0.0555/pull

Pure - 399.95/12 = Php33.33

note: deciding which to buy is difficult. First of all, I am ignoring the quality. Second, each roll is a different size so I did eventually realize that a per roll computation might be inaccurate. Ideally I would like to weigh individual rolls but that is not possible here. So as a compromise, I looked at the number of sheets/pulls per roll. Unfortunately, some brands interchange the terms sheets and rolls. A single square of tissue paper is a pull. If it is 2 ply then 1 pull is made up of 2 sheets. 

Due to lack of time I was not able to write down all the per sheet data. On a per roll basis the 2 cheapest are Velvety soft and Extra. On a per pull basis, I had a little problem because Extra did not say how many pulls it had, only sheets. Judging from a quick visual estimate, the rolls of Velvety soft are slightly smaller in diameter so if velvety soft made a mistake and reported sheets instead of pulls, a value of 220 pulls per roll seems accurate. So on a per pull basis, velvety soft is the cheapest.

Cereal

Frosted mini wheats - 679/1.98 = Php342.93

grape nuts - 400/1.81kg = Php221

Koko crunch - 185/0.5 = Php370

Raisin bran crunch - 700/1.6kg = Php437.5

Raisin bran - 370/1.98kg =  186.87

Kellogs special k red berries - 480/1.05kg =  Php457.1

Post cranberry almond - 170/0.368 = Php462

Kashi go lean crunch - 700/1.27 = Php551

Nestle clusters almond = 100/0.240 = Php416

Nature's path pumkin flax granola - 550/1 = Php550

Quaker granola - 150/0.2 = Php750

Quaker oatmeal - x 52 = Php550

note: raisin bran is the clear winner, but it doesn't taste too good alone.

Cereal bars

Nature valley oat & honey - 144/6 = Php24/pouch

Nature valley sweet salty peanut - 900/48 = Php18.75/pouch

Kirkland variety - 900/20 = Php45/pouch

Planters - 630/25 = Php25.2/pouch

Frozen food

Southern valley mixed veg 1kg  = Php100

Nonpareillis frozen broccoli 0.907kg = Php165

Sunny select leaf spinach 10oz/283.5g = Php60

Parklane hash brown - 200/1.27kg = Php157.48/kg

White river cobbler fish fillet = Php160/kg

Fast fixin chicken burger - 250/1.02kg = Php245/kg

toiletries

antabax soap - 85g  x 5 x 2 = 140/10 = Php14/bar or Php 0.16470/g

Safeguard with aloe 113g x 8 x 2 = 350/16 = Php21.875/bar or Php 0.19358/g

Colgate total whitening 170g = Php100

Miscellaneous

Kirkland fish oil 400cap = 500/400 = Php1.25/cap

Kirkland daily multi vitamins 500 caps- 700/500 = Php1.4/cap

Tramontina saute pan teflon platinum 8 &10 inch bundle = Php1200

Tramontina fry pan 20cm x 2 eclipse coating = Php1000

Tramontina fry pan 30cm - Php1200

S&r deluxe mixed nuts = Php700

splenda 1000 packets = Php1140

Member's selection canola oil 5L = Php550

S&r palm oil 5L = 430 = Php86/L
olive pomace oil 5L = 1000/5 = 200/liter * did not get the brand

Krklnd tomato Basil bisque 530g = Php65

Healthy choice chicken with rice x 2 = Php100

Amy's organic soup x2 = Php170

Soyfresh soymilk 1L = Php40

Carnation bfast essentials x 22 = 550/22 = Php25

Act 2 butter lover's popcorn x 28 =400/28 = Php14.29

Orville redenbacher butter popcorn - 500/28 = Php17.86

Kirkland weight loss shake - 325ml = Php45