Sharing Files On A Windows 8.1 PC

Setting a Static IP for the PC (file server side)

Putting your PC on a static IP have various advantages. This step is optional but is strongly recommended to avoid problems in the future. Normally, the local IP is assigned by the router through a DHCP server. The router will assign any available IP and it may be different from time to time. Putting your PC on a static IP allows softwares to easily find your PC.

- Open up Network and Sharing Centre

- Click on your network name in connections

- Click Properties

- Open Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)

- Click Use the following IP address

- Here's the tricky part. You need to know the IP of your router. There are a few ways. First, it is the IP address that you use to login to your router settings. If you don't know that, refer to the previous image and click on details until you see the IP of the default gateway.

- You may pick an IP address of your choice. Just change the last 3 digits, the first 3 boxes must be the same with your router's IP address. Example, if your router is 192.168.0.1 use 192.168.0.xxx for your static IP. If your router is 192.168.1.1 use 192.168.1.xxx. Replace xxx with any number.

- Subnet mask will be filled in automatically, it will always be 255.255.255.0

- You can choose to use 8.8.8.8 (Google DNS) as your preferred DNS server or just leave it blank / auto.

Click OK and you're done setting static IP.

Creating a Local Account

It is strongly recommended that you create a local account with password and share files only to the accounts you created. This protect your files from unwanted guests. You should never share your files to "public" or "everyone", unless you are fine with others looking at the files being shared.

- Go to Control Panel

- Under User Accounts and Family Safety

- Click Change account type

- Manage Accounts will appear

- Click Add a new user in PC settings

- Click Add an account

- Click Sign in without a Microsoft account

- Click Local account

- Fill in the User name and Password of your choice and click next

- Almost done! Click Finish.

Sharing a Folder

- Right click on the folder that you wish to share

- Under Share with, select the user that you want to share with

- At this point of time, the person that you share with can only read.

- To allow write permission, read on.

- Right click on the folder and click properties

- Under the sharing tab, click Share

- Select Read/Write to the account that you'd like to grant write permission.

To access the shared folder from another Windows PC (or your own to verify), go to file explorer and look for Network. You'll be able to see connected devices / PC on the network. Open and you'll be able to see files that are shared on the network. When asked for User name and Password, just input the one that you've just created earlier on.

In the next post I will write on how to access the shared files from a mac and an android smartphone.

MagSafe Power Adapter - DIY Strain Relief

Frayed Cables

It's no surprise that most of us have seen a frayed Apple cable be it a charger or an earphone throughout our ownership of an Apple product. This is due to the lack of a strain relief in the design of the cable. Unless Apple decides to include a strain relief of some sort in their design, be prepared to fork out money for the purchase of a new charger from time to time. Fortunately, there are a few ways that may prolong the life of that cable. An easy way would be using a spring from a retractable pen as a strain relief. There are already quite a handful of guides on the Internet on this topic but I wish to share a few additional tips.

Extending the Spring

Prior to winding the spring onto the cable you have to extend the spring (especially on the ends) so that it can fit on the cable, doing so also makes the winding process easier. I do not recommend winding a spring that is tight onto the cable as it may damage your cable during the winding process. You can support the spring on the tube of the pen when extending to get a straighter and more evenly extended spring.

Winding the Spring

To wind the spring onto the cable, start from the thick end first. If you start from the thin side, the spring will tend to slide down when winding and this makes it difficult to cover the thick side. Estimate by yourself how much spring it takes to reach to the end of the cable. Take note, to make this work you need to make sure the spring covers both the thick side and the thin side. Some tutorials online only wind the spring onto the thin side of the cable and this has no meaning. The spring must be wound across the weak point to act as a support. As mentioned earlier, for maximum effect try to estimate so that the spring ends as near as possible to the end. Below is the finished product. Also make sure that the end of the spring does not have sharp ends poking into the cable. If there is, use a cutter to trim the end slightly.

Strain Relief Loop

In addition to adding a spring, I think that by making a loop and hold it down with the clip on the cable you can reduce some strain on the MagSafe connector. For better results, make sure the loop is pressing on the desktop. The loop should also be at the back if you need to use any of the ports on the side. This idea is actually inspired by antenna installations where a loop is usually made at the point of connection with the antenna as a mean of strain relief. Apparently the loop is known as a service loop.

Redmi Note - Reducing Power Button Wear and Tear

Mobile Phone Addiction

"Youngsters check their phones every 10 minutes. One in 20 looks at their mobile every minute of the day" says an online article. True enough, with all the social networking apps, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, etc. we tend to feel the urgency to check and provide immediate responses to the person on the other end of the line. So much so it became a habit programmed into our daily lifestyle. (we as in young people, I guess..) It gets even worst when we are bored or caught in a boring event or occasion.

Unresponsive Button (Broken?)

The physical button on your devices like all mechanical parts are prone to mechanical failures. That is why it is wiser for phone manufacturers to use capacitive buttons instead of physical buttons. A good example is the dreaded iPhone home button. Nowadays, there are other method to wake up our phone apart from using the power button. Gestures like "slide to wake", "tap to wake", "knock to wake", is a bliss to us mobile phone addicts. Unfortunately, at the time of writing the developers for MIUI did not gave us these options. You can try bugging them to include those options over at MIUI forum though or at least hope someone is kind enough to develop such options for the MIUI externally that we can install / flash into our MI products.

Lock Widget

While we may not have the tap to wake function at the moment, you can probably reduce the wear and tear of the power button by half by using the "Lock" widget on the home screen. Just follow the steps below.

1. Tap and hold a blank spot on the home screen

2. Tap Widgets

3. Tap Toggles

4. Tap and drag Lock onto anywhere convenient on the home screen.

From there on, just use the Lock widget to off your phone when you're done with your business.

1. Tap Widget

2. Tap Toggles

3. Drag Lock onto home screen

Redmi Note - MIUI v5 - Screenshots

Intro

Of late, the Redmi Note is selling like hotcakes here in Malaysia. 15k units sold within minutes while the Mi3 has lost it's momentum probably due to the launch of the Mi4. The power banks are still selling like crazy though. Why not? These products from Xiami are worth every cent spent. Simply said, they are value for your money spent.

Specs War

While the major players out there are competing specs with specs, who has the most processor core, fastest clock speed, biggest ram, camera megapixels and so on, up goes the cost to manufacture those flagship big brothers. At the end of the day, consumers are the one bearing the costs. Seriously, does your phone really utilize all the muscle power built into it? Not like it'll be running CAD programmes..

This is where Xiaomi took a different approach. Without compromising specs, they used less "premium" brands for their components to produce cost effective products. The Redmi note's overall design and built is great. Specs aside, it is the software namely the MIUI that is something to boast about. I guess apart from its attractive price, the MIUI also helped much with boosting their sales.

Well Designed Themes

Worth mentioning is the MIUI themes library. Most of the themes can be downloaded for free with the built in theme browser. Themes availability differs from region to region. Apparently, the China ROM have more variety of themes available for download. (You can always flash to the China ROM if you know how). The themes used in this blog entry is called, Brave Legend. There is an option where you can display the current connection speed at the top of the screen. It may prove useful to some people. It is the current connection speed similar to BitTorrent download / upload speed and not the link speed of the connection.

What I like about MIUI themes is that I don't see "laziness" all over its design. Meaning to say that, the icons, layouts, buttons, etc are all nicely designed and drawn. For other phones where you download the themes via the world wide web, most of the themes come with poorly designed 2D icons and most of them are counter intuitive. It takes some time (and brain juice) to figure out what does the icon mean, not with MIUI themes! Take a look at the "tools" screenshot below. Having them for free is a bargain!

Managing the home screen like arranging icons, grouping icons, deleting icons, etc is like a stroll in the park. For instance, to move an icon to the next page instead of dragging to the edge of the screen and waiting for the page to flip, you can hold the icon with one finger and flip the page with another finger. That's so much more intuitive the dragging to the edge and wait. There's also a way to delete multiple icons easily. These "tips & tricks" will not be discussed here as it can be found all over the Internet.

-> MIUI Secret Features <- for the lazy people..

Phone Screen - Clean Design

Security Tools

The security tools that are built into MIUI are self explanatory and it is surely a good to have. I particularly like the data usage and power tools to monitor data and battery usage respectively. Again, the interfaces are intuitively and nicely designed. The security and cleaner tools can be used to optimize and clear unwanted cache and ad files that may linger in your phone. I have not a clue about their effectiveness, though.

Tools

These are the ordinary tools or apps that usually come with other phones. It is the graphical interface that makes MIUI stands out from the crowd. Have a look for yourself. I think they look better than those found on iPhone.

MIUI Updater

The MIUI updater also made it easier for users to update their phone to the latest software available. User can choose to check for updates and update over the air or they can download the latest ROM available from xiaomi's website and flash it to their phone using the updater. More details -> here <- Such a blessing in disguise.

Voice Recorder - Shape of a cassette - Old school but nicer than iPhone's microphone

Compass with LAT LON position

Torch - I particularly like the design of this..

Music Player

Voice Call Recorder - Not unique but great to have! Don't forget your promises made!! *grins*

MIUI Theme Library

Verdict

The Redmi note is a Made-In-China phone. People perceives made in China products as a "NO-NO" these days. Here in Malaysia, when we are buying things that are made in China the sales person will always tells us this,

"Nowadays, everything also made in China but made in China also got good and got bad. Then they'll start quoting this product that product (famous brand) also made in China."

Yes, I've seen many horrible made in China fake copy phones before but the Redmi Note along with the other xiaomi products are non alike. That being said, to be fair there are also other players in the market who is fairing quite well in Malaysia such as huawei, oppo and vivo but their sales are still lacking behind xiaomi. Guess, xiaomi's marketing strategy plays a big part in boosting their sales. You put limited number of phones for sale every week and let them sold out every time. Then the mass public will perceive it as "everybody wants it" and then they also tries to follow the crowd and "fights" for one. What xiaomi is better than Apple is that,

1. They don't make people que in front of the store for the whole night just to buy a phone. Instead, you can "fight" for one at the comfort of your home or office.

2. They control their sales that is maybe 15k units every week. Predictable, instead of a sudden release of units then goes out of stock for an indefinite amount of time. By then you've already lost some of your fishes.

Don't know about other countries but at least that's the scenario in Malaysia. 

Pay Streamyx Bill via Maybank2u

Some of you may have already know that under maybank2u payee list there are two options available to pay your streamyx bill. Sometimes, this is confusing as we don't know which payee to pay to. Some will say pay to either one but how to make sure that you pay to the correct payee?

First, login to your account at TM website. If you do not have an account, create one. Once you're done, go to the Bills section. Then click hide details.

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Once the account details are hidden, look under service. This will tell you whether you should pay to "Telephone & Multimedia" or "Streamyx".

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