Review: Asus RT-N65U Router

The Asus RT-N65U Router is the successor to the RT-N56U in the form of ultra-slim routers. Looking for a successor to my old router, which tended to drop its connection once every few days for a small period of time (this prevents me from playing any online game due to the very possibility of being kicked due to a disconnect), I turned towards the ASUS routers for its high reviews and ability to share files.

I found both the N56U and N65U at Fry's. One Fry's store didn't have the N65U in their store, claiming that it was a 'discontinued' model. After looking at both models, I've determined that the RT-N65 would be a better choice for $20 more, due to the fact that it not only offers 450Mbps speed but provides two USB 3.0 ports for remote storage, which more than doubles the transfer speed to newer external hard drives. There were very few reviews on Newegg regarding this product but that's to be expected since it's quite new.

Router from the front side

Notable Features: Able to plug in hard drives and access them either via network or over the internet. Abiilty to create print and media servers. Can create a guest network (very useful if a friend with a laptop wants to connct to your router but don't want them accessing whatever you had lying around in your Shared Docs folder). You can safely plug in 2TB hard drives into the router for sharing - it's possible to connect drives with capacities higher than this, but there's no support if something goes wrong. Increased wireless speed (on a speed test I've found that my wirelessly connected laptop has a faster download speed than my wired gigabit connection.)

Drawbacks: With extra speed comes extra heat. In short, it runs extremely hot. So hot that it tends to overheat within a day of use, causing the router to shut down entirely* (and thus disrupting internet, local file sharing, and remote laptop operation via Mouse Without Borders.) It will power back on after a while, but it clears the logfile (meaning there's no way to figure out what caused the outage) and resets the router's internal clock. Also, any drives connected to the router will no longer be recognized, so you'll have to disconnect and plug them back in.

I bought the router a week ago and have yet to see it go through two entire days of continuous uptime.

Final Words: It's fast, it's easy to set up, but it's certainly not stable. I really like the ability to share files and faster wireless speeds, but the fact that it overheats very quickly means that I simply cannot rely on this router for a constant internet connection. Time to switch to the RT-N66U router.

Fall 2012 in Concepts

Things change - people come and go, and in the long run, the only thing that matters is the big picture - there's a whole world to see and explore. As well as a handful of close friends to share experiences and stories with.

Fall 2012 in Concepts takes a different approach to images - it focuses less on just displaying pictures and places emphasis on various concepts - such as the programming side, covering a variety of topics set for this semester. Although originally started in 2012, this page contains info that goes well beyond that.

Universal Studios Annual Passes

Costco: Selling enough passes for Universal Studios that they have their own line to handle them.

Unlike Boardwalk / California State Fair, which Costco has sold in the past, there's a line to handle passes for this one simply because they sell tickets at a very good deal. They only thing they don't cover is VIP tickets, which send you to the front of the line once per ride and some other additional perks.

Recommendations: If you're planning a trip here for several days (note that you only need two to see everything during peak season), you should probably only get tickets at a Costco in the LA area, because that's where they sell those five day passes for $60 (if you can't find them, annual for $70). Elsewhere (at least in the northern CA area), the only option available is a 2-day pass for $64, and you'll never know when you might return.

Also Note: What you save in ticket costs, they make up for it in food sales. Especially at Ben and Jerry's, where it's $7 for a medium sized ice cream scoop, and that doesn't even include the waffle cone.*

Entering: Long Beach

This year's trip concentrates on the Long Beach area.

Summary:

• 4 Fry's Locations visited (Fremont, Oxnard, Woodland Hills, Fountain Valley). Only two remain before I see all of them in CA: San Marcos and Manhattan Beach.
• 4 malls explored: Northridge Mall (Salinas), Lakewood Mall, Westfield Promenade, Santa Maria Mall, I've seen at least six more malls not visited yet that might complete that one goal.
• Ronald Reagan Historical Museum - contains a lot of interesting / informative things and provides a tour of (a previous) Air Force One. It's much larger than you think, and the small cost of it makes it a good deal. Combined with the Disney exhibit, it makes it worthwhile. Remember, you simply can't do it in under three hours.
• Mariott Hotel (Note: Long Beach location has no separate monitor support, basic internet free.)*
• Piccolo Books - well worth visiting for one dollar books. Don't expect to find guides for software in recent years.
• There's a lot of stuff at Long Beach - lighthouse, Queen Mary, Aquarium, etc. Combined with walking, there really wasn't enough time to go through everything in this area.
• I recommend Long Beach Cafe. Its large portions and low cost (around 10 dollars or so for a dish) makes it worth it.
• First time seeing a Costco Car Wash (at Oxnard) and another Costco close to a mall (Lakewood Mall)
• KBD. Lower amount of tickets for jackpots than you would normally find in Storm Stopper or those other coin games. Plays are 1-2 dollars each, but some tend to pay quite high (see the balloon game and the large one next to it), and ticket values appear to be worth double.
• California Pizza Kitchen's Pizzas are better ordered and eaten inside rather than takeout. When additional toppings are given to you on a separate container, it looks like it could be eaten as a salad alone.
• Go to Universal Studios later at night - parking is cheaper and ride wait times are generally shorter. Allow at least one more hour per show since most shows seem to run at the same time, and they're usually 20 minutes long.
• Jurassic Park water ride - brief zero-g at drop.

Keep Running

Training for a potential 5K run, and saw this graffiti mark twice. So does that mean it's an official course? Maybe not. (An official measurement of the run path maps it to 2.8 miles, the same run distance that was in running the 5k in the 24hr Fitness class.)

Anyways, managed to reduce my run time down from last year at UOP by approximately 25%, down to approximately 36 minutes. Getting better and being able to run for longer periods of time without stopping. However to complete a marathon and place decently I would be required to finish this course in less than 20. That means doubling stride length.

While I can run on this course faster each time, there are a few cases where there is simply no running away from, and will be required to face head on at some point. Like messaging someone that was mentioned on an earlier post.

I have concluded that I cannot finish a decent art project that includes them in a reasonable amount of time at this time, so I'm stuck with a one-liner message at best. I don't expect the resulting convo to go too far.

Zuma Blitz Level Modding

Testing out a Zuma's Revenge map in the Zuma Blitz game engine.

I've always had an idea for the past few months to play new maps - every week has been an exact repeat of a previous board (this week's board was done in March), and apparently they ran out of curve ideas.

With a bit of modification, it's entirely possible to change the ball path entirely. Though I took the curve from Zuma's Revenge, it's apparent that we can actually build new curves. Research on reverse-engineering curve files in order to create a new board is underway in an attempt to build up creative levels.

Note: Doing it this way with boards found in Revenge are harder since it wasn't designed for Blitz play (with five colors and balls are easier to clear). Expect a difficulty spike.

Findings:

• Number of colors of balls that occur, as well as some other things (like curve speed how frequently colors appear in groups, etc.) is within the curve file.
• Skull position is determined within the curve file, not in the level xml file
• Zuma Revenge boards work on Zuma Blitz (board images may need to be adjusted however)

Limitations:

• No 'frog on rails'. I like to have this (and so do many people), but it's not implemented in ZB.
• No lily pads either, but you CAN choose where your frog will be at (it doesn't have to be at the center). Keep in mind the size of the board is 800x600px when choosing a position when modding the xml file. It's scaled down appropriately from there.
• No more than two curves.
• On Kroakatoa, board mods are permanent - this may or may not be a good thing.

How-To:

This might be a bit complicated for some to do, but I'll try to explain briefly. This is client-only, meaning only you will see the changes. Will post detailed instructions later.

• You'll need xampp, popunpak, and a copy of Zuma's Revenge (for example boards).
• Run xampp on your system - this will create a web server on your computer.
• Copy the board image/curve files (.dat files ingame) from ZR to the htdocs folder.
• Use Fiddler to redirect board/curve requests to files on localhost.
• Play ZB as usual while traffic is being captured on Fiddler. You should have the new board layout.

Test:

NOTE: Not guaranteed to work on all systems.

• Disable secure browsing on Facebook
• Install Fiddler
• Run Fiddler, Go to FiddlerScript, add this somewhere in the OnBeforeRequest function (between the curly brackets) and click on Save Script:

    if (oSession.uriContains("/level.xml")) {
     oSession.url = "bchantech.dreamcrafter.com/zumablitz/custom/level.xml?v=114";
    }
     if (oSession.uriContains("grotto2-2.dat")) {
     oSession.url = "bchantech.dreamcrafter.com/zumablitz/custom/Jungle5.dat?v=114";
    }
     if (oSession.uriContains("grotto2.jpg")) {
     oSession.url = "bchantech.dreamcrafter.com/zumablitz/custom/jungle5.jpg?v=114";
    }
     if (oSession.uriContains("splash.jpg?v=")) {
     oSession.url = "bchantech.dreamcrafter.com/zumablitz/custom/splash.jpg?v=114";
    }
  

• Ensure Fiddler is capturing traffic
• Run Zuma Blitz, make sure it's not https in the address bar, if so change it to http
• Start the game and you should have a new board.

Youtube: Unlisted does not mean unsearchable

Upon looking at my video stats today (I typically check a few times a week), I've noticed that one of my unlisted videos are surprisingly getting pageviews. According to the definition of 'unlisted video', it means only people who have the link can see the video. I looked into where the views were coming from.

(This video, if you were wondering, is one of my perfect game recordings on Solitaire Blitz, doing a full 67 card run without drawing any cards from the deck. I switched its setting to unlisted after it was panned for playing too slowly. It's three seconds short from a perfect time bonus, however, which makes it insignificant. You can see it here.)

Apparently, the only pageviews linking to this video came from not direct links or external websites, but instead from Google Search. I did the keyword search myself, and apparently Google has no problem linking to an unlisted video.

I cannot rule out the definition of 'unlisted video' is wrong because it explicitly states it can't be found publicly on Youtube. Although some unlisted videos can be found online using search engines using some very specific keywords, I am more surprised that one of my unlisted videos can be found with conventional keywords. (the search term was 'solitaire blitz perfect game' in this case)

If this is the case, I wonder what privacy issues can arise when people who have belief that their videos are private are having their unlisted videos being viewed by other people.

Summary: If you want a video to be completely unlisted, make sure you have it unlisted when you upload it before it goes live. Otherwise that video, whether it's unlisted or not, is not guaranteed to be search-proof.