Nov 26 2013

Canon T2i built-in flash does not pop up [solved]

Category: Home — Farhan Sabir @ 14:51

Recently I purchased an external flash, used it for a few days. Then I tried using the built in flash. Oops, it wont pop up at all. Not in auto mode, not by pressing the flash button. So I searched on internet and found out that the flash gets stuck and you have to pull it out (BS). Dont do it!!! Some even say you should use WD-40 🙂 I wouldn’t, never.

Problem was when you use the external flash, the contacts in the flash holder (slider) become loose and don’t go back up to the original position to let the camera know your external flash has been detached. Until the camera thinks your external flash is connected, it won’t pop up your internal flash.

The solutions is pretty simple. With your hand nails or something soft, just push lightly the side slider bars of the flash holder (just a bit) and release. The two contacts should be touching up the silver body. Once you do that, the camera knows your flash has been taken off, and it lets you use the internal flash. I was actually trying to use external flash as slave when I panicked to see the flash does not popup anymore.

Canon T2i Builtin Flash Problem 2

Canon T2i Builtin Flash Problem (2)

Sorry for the quality. Pictures have been taken with Galaxy Nexus.

Disclaimer: Use at your own risk 🙂 Never use WD-40 and never try to pull the flash out 😉

 

Oct 17 2013

Flower Pictures with Canon T2i

Category: Canon T2i (550D) EOS DSLR,Home,Photography — Farhan Sabir @ 21:35

Some of the flower pictures I recently took with Canon T2i (550D). These images have not been edited yet.
If you really need it, please use the contact form to request the original image.

***Pictures have been removed***

Oct 05 2013

BestBuy Store #937 – Bad Customer Service

Category: Home — Farhan Sabir @ 01:24

Store in review:
Markville Centre – Unit 4 – Phone: (905) 754-3025
5000 Hwy 7 E, Unit 2070L, Markham, ON, L3R 4M9
https://www-ssl.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/stores/store-locator.aspx?StoreId=937

I pre-ordered “GTA V” for PS3, and went to pick it up on Sept 17, 2013. Got the game from customer service counter and took it to checkout with $20 voucher from reward zone.

The clerk at checkout told me “Oh, sorry the sale is final and you cannot use the voucher”. Now that seemed a little weird. I argued with her politely, but later had to ask for a manager. Instead, another wonderful girl appeared and looking at the screen, told me “oh sorry, we cannot use that voucher for this sale”. I asked if she was the manager, and she smiled, no but i can help. Great help I must say. So eventually I met the manager of the Best Buy store #937 with high hopes.

She also looked at the screen. “No sir, we cannot use the voucher for this sale, however, you can pay the full amount here, and then go to customer service counter to get a refund of $20. This looked really silly. But as I had no other option. I paid the full price, and followed the manager for a refund / adjustment to my invoice.

Now this clueless manager tried altering my invoice for about 15 minutes more. Eventually, the Manager cancelled the transaction (not knowing the customer display shows whats going on). Then sold the game to me again on a new transaction applying that voucher of $20. No shame for wasting my time, no worries, returned $20 and walked away.

They could have done this at the checkout saving me all this trouble and about an hour of my time. Idiotic really. But who cares, they are running the store under the famous name “BEST BUY”. I have read a few bad reviews about this store and couldn’t resist sharing my own experience as well. Not sure what Best Buy is doing about this.

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Feb 04 2013

How to add a custom meta tag in Joomla

Category: Home — Farhan Sabir @ 00:05

After searching google on the subject, i couldnt really find much. so i explored the contents. Here is the procedure to add a custom meta tag to your joomla website. I needed it mainly to do the site verification of a few alias domains.

Edit the file includes/application.php


switch($document->getType())
{
case 'html':
// Get language
$lang_code = JFactory::getLanguage()->getTag();
$languages = JLanguageHelper::getLanguages('lang_code');

// Set metadata
if (isset($languages[$lang_code]) && $languages[$lang_code]->metakey) {
$document->setMetaData('keywords', $languages[$lang_code]->metakey);
} else {
$document->setMetaData('keywords', $this->getCfg('MetaKeys'));
}
$document->setMetaData('rights', $this->getCfg('MetaRights'));
$document->setMetaData('language', $lang_code);
$document->setMetaData('google-site-verification', "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx1");
$document->setMetaData('google-site-verification', "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx2");
if ($router->getMode() == JROUTER_MODE_SEF) {
$document->setBase(JURI::current());
}
break;

Say you want to set google-site-verification, and google provides you the following code:

(I have removed the actual code)

so we will write $document->setMetaData(“**thekey**”, “**thevalue**); i.e.,

$document->setMetaData('google-site-verification', "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx1");

Sep 12 2012

Plantronics Voyager PRO HD – Personal Experience

Category: Android Devices,Home — Farhan Sabir @ 01:07

I bought Plantronics Voyager Pro HD from BestBuy Canada for $73 (Thanks to Price Match).

Reasons for buying based on previous reviews:

  1. Its noise cancelling technology
  2. Multi-point Connection (2 devices at a time)
  3. A2DP Of course

Well, No.1 is not as good as thought it would be; but its really good. The voice quality is really good (after firmware upgrade). No.2 was perfect for me as i can connect my laptop and the phone at the same time. Listen to music or calls on either of them – no problems. I love its auto connect function. and the sensor for phone calls (take it off your ear to activate handset, and put it back on to switch to bluetooth).  I am already in love with this thing 🙂

There is a Voyager PRO UC versions as well, but it has only an additional bluetooth dongle for computers. So if you dont have bluetooth, you can go for the other.

One more thing, the Vocalyst app from plantronics is nice. it reads you the text messages but you have to turn the “whisper” feature on, otherwise everyone can listen to your personal messages 🙂 Its free for one year from the date of purchase.

 

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Sep 01 2012

Samsung Galaxy Nexus ICS 4.1 upgrade

Category: Android Devices,Home — Farhan Sabir @ 05:01

I upgraded Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Fido) to ICS 4.1 and unlocked it on the way along with “rooted”. 4.1 is beautiful, its fast, save on battery ceven with GPS turn on, and a lot of improvements compared to 4.0.2, and gives you a great feeling. The process is a bit complicated and time consuming but is really worth it.

First you need to install the Nexus Tool Kit

http://www.wugfresh.com/dev/nexus-root-toolkit/

Then follow the instructions on:

http://webtrickz.com/easiest-way-to-change-galaxy-nexus-from-yakjuxw-non-yakju-to-android-4-0-4-yakjutakju/

[All credit goes to my friend Umar Q.]

Note that this process is switching your Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Samsung’s android (which has no updates) to Google’s android (which has current version of 4.1.1). The procedure actually updates the phone to Google Android 4.0.4. Once done, you can do the OTA (over the air) upgrade using your phone. This makes Galaxy Nexus upgraded to Adroid OS 4.1.1 also known as Jelly Beans. Not to mention, i don’t like Jelly Beans 🙂

Disclaimer: Please do it on your own risk. Writer of this post or anyone else for that purpose will not be held responsible if you brick or damage your phone during this process.

Good luck.

FarhanSabir.com - bad image of samsung galaxy nexus

FarhanSabir.com – bad image of samsung galaxy nexus

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Apr 07 2012

HTC Magic upgrade to Android 2.2.1 (CM6)

Category: Home — Farhan Sabir @ 03:17

[This post is only to express my recent experience. Please check the links and read thoroughly before doing any upgrades. I will not be responsible for any damage to your phone or if you brick it. Please also check your device for 32A or 32B; You should also know your radio version and recovery version etc.]

I had HTC Magic 32A for a long time (Basically Rogers HTC Magic). I rooted it so no more warranty, no upgrades from rogers and no support. This one had an old hero ROM with HTC Sense and Android 1.5 and i wanted to upgrade it to at least 2.1 as this has become minimum requirement for several apps. I tried several ROMs available, but they did not work. Then i tried the most famous and reliable CyanogenMod 6.1.0 stable. The process was fairly simple with one major problem described at the end. So i thought i better share my experience. Their website described the process in detail.

Cyanogen Mod 6 a.k.a. CM6 bring you Android 2.2.1. Here are the links i followed:

Page-1: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/HTC_Magic_%2832A%29:_Rooting_%283.22.x_radio%29

Page-2: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Upgrading_from_CyanogenMod_4.2_to_CyanogenMod_5/6

Just a quick note, if you have the same phone from rogers, after upgrading the radio and recovery, (and optionally wiping everything), you need three updates:

1) update-cm-6.1.0-DS-signed.zip

2) bc-6.1.0-ebi1-signed.zip

3) gapps-mdpi-tiny-20101020-signed.zip (optional, but i guess you have to)

This upgrade process went so unexpectedly smooth, couldn’t believe i have Android 2.2.1. However, there were a couple of problems with the new CM6.

Problem-1: The phone became too slow after a couple of days i.e., after installing all the apps i had before. icons would disappear for a couple of minutes; at times will become totally non-responsive and i have to takeout battery to restart etc.

Solution: “Home Switcher for Froyo”, “Launcher Pro” with some tuning. Sorry i do not have a link to the original post right now. Will try posting it later.

Problem-2: Auto Rotate did not work 🙁 This was a big mess, no leveling games (teeter, speedcar etc). And above all Google Sky Map doesn’t work anymore.

Solution:

a) replace akmd from an older version and reboot. The link i followed was:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4456785&postcount=23

b) Use app “GPS Status & Toolbox” and recalibrate.

 

It seems pretty simple, but searching for right solutions took me really a long long time. I just hope it helps someone else.
I love using https://play.google.com/apps. If you have Android 2.1 or above, you can easily install all the apps from a computer. No phone connections needed. Your phone has to be connected on WiFi though and using a google account.

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Dec 19 2010

Honda Accord 1998 – Keyless Remote Programming

Category: Home — Farhan Sabir @ 00:26

I bought a used Honda Accord recently and its remote wont work in terms of unlocking/locking the doors. This was pretty irritating. So, i did two things. I took it to mechanic and got the door locks checked for being hard and got them oiled (well, only the rare left had a problem). Second thing, while searching on the internet for the problem, I found a link for remote programming. Its available at:

http://driveaccord.net/PDF/remote reprogram 98-011.pdf

It was pretty easy to program and works fine now. Hope it helps someone.

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Jun 27 2010

Windows 7 and Image Preview (Thumbnails)

Category: Home — Farhan Sabir @ 16:12

Since I got Windows 7, one thing that really sucked was I couldnt view the image previews (or thumbnails) in the folder view. After searching the internet, i eventually foudn a solution. It so easy, I wish i knew how to fix it before.

All you hvae to do is go to TOOLS->FOLDER OPTIONS->VIEW. Now uncheck “Always show icons, never thumbnails”. Thats about it. Click apply, and Okay. You now have thumbnails of all images. Good luck!

Jun 21 2010

Buying a Digital SLR (DSLR) is not as easy as I thought

Category: Canon T2i (550D) EOS DSLR,Home — Farhan Sabir @ 15:24

Hmm … so I need to buy a DSLR, cheaper and quality. Open up Google and you will find prolly millions of links providing detailed guides to Digital SLR world. Frankly, I dont need all those details. I am not even sure what a DSLR is .. I just need a nice Camera to get professional pictures, and then I will learn how to use it 🙂

So, I started my research. In a couple of days I had already shorlisted the manufacturer i.e., Top of the Line: Canon or Nikon. Others just go down the list. So with this I started searching for Cameras. Not aware of the features and stuff, I started with Nikon D3000. Almost ready to buy but delaying …. just in case I am missing something in my research. Next day I found out this one doesnt have videos at all. costs around $450 CAD. Ok, so i move to the next step Nikon D5000. Now this one has video at 720p (better than nothing). 12.3 MP i guess. Looks cool. Priced at around $650 with standard 18-55 lense. Now stuck on this one, did some further research. Sooner, I read reviews stating the video is very difficult and doesnt really produce professional results. I might be wrong, but thats what i gathered the next day. Now, whats the next one …..

I talked to a friend in an arts company and asked for his opinion. “Cheap with Quality” is something that we all ask for and where all professionals laugh. They are right, but what do I do … I need a good one with teh cheapest price. This guy said he personally likes Canon instead of Nikon. Canon lenses are a bit costly, but you get the same quality. Cheap, he said Nikon D3000 is cheap and is good starter camera for still pictures only. So, now, I started looking for something equivalent in Canon. Later my wife said, if you have to spend that much, why not spend a bit more and get a good quality camera instead of regretting later why didnt I buy xxx model. Something like that is hardly expected from a wife, but wasnt bad at all. So i jumped a step up. Was thinking of buying Rebel T1i, but then decided on T2i.

Canon Rebel EOS T2i 550D is really a nice one. Its 18.x MP, deal got me a 16MB SDHC card as well, and a camera cover. And its Canon … so I just bought it for 999 + taxes/warranty.

Initially I was just using it with full automatic mode. Which actually gives you some real nice quality pix, but … thing is, if you want to get pictures like that, why not buy a $200 camera and enjoy the ease of use? 🙂 Thats what my friend told me who has some quality DSLRs. Very true. But when you turn away from automatic, things change drastically. You are suddenly sitting in an aero plan and you know nothing about it. Some experimentation and paying around with image settings,i got around 5 good ones out of a 100 that i took. I specially like its continuous shooting mode. Taking a picture of someone, we normally have sudden unexpected things. The person blinked or moved a little and picture got screwed. In this one, instead of 1, take 2 or may 10 snaps at a time. At least one will be really good. Frankly, I got more than one out of those 10. Yu get pics with eyes closed. looking away from camera and stuff, but you get really nice pictures as well.

I love this camera for indoor and outdoor shooting. Indoor, i still need some tuning and practice to get nice pictures. Kind of the same with outdoors as well 🙂 but outdoors is easy. Sunlight pictures, shaded area pictures, images with backlight, taking a picture with camera facing the sun. I am loving it.

Video, havent tried long ones yet but unlike standard point and shoot cameras, you have t be an expert to record videos. Focusing is a problem when the object is moving. Will post more when i am done with the reading-manual step (hard for me), and watching some more learning videos.

Feel free to leave your comments or questions if you want.

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