Tony Chan's Blog

演藝人協會四川大地震賑災主題曲 <<承諾>>

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:07 GMT

China Starts 3 Days of Mourning

Sun, 18 May 2008 22:58:08 GMT

Today, China starts 3 Days of mourning for earthquake victims. Fund rasing effort had been stepping up in the past few days in Hong Kong SAR in support of the rescue and rebuilding effort in Sichuan and had collected over HK$200 million which had been handed over to the State Council. I made my donation through WorldVision on Saturday as part of my contribution to the community.

In return President Hu make the following response:

"Wow" with SoapBox 2 - Vista and Office 2007 Worldwide Presentation

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 02:12:24 GMT

Part 2 of the "Wow with Soapbox"

The "Wow" with SoapBox - MSN's YouTube killer

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 01:47:06 GMT

If you found YouTube quality disappointing for you to distrubted video? Try MSN Soapbox currently in Beta, it has a higher quality then YouTube.

Sample video is Microsoft Windows Vista Commerical for China.

Is official: Windows "Vienna" is now Windows Seven

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:17:21 GMT

Microsoft shared a bit more information on the next client version of Windows at the Microsoft Global Exchange Conference in Orlando last week. The next version of Windows codename: Windows Seven (formerly: Vienna) will come in 32-bit and 64-bit version. Microsoft suggested that they will address both the consumer and the business segment with Windows Seven though no information on how many SKUs are going to be released.

Microsoft is also mulling the concept of how to extend Windows Seven into a subscription based service similiar to the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) currently offered to Software Assurance customers.

More Info CNET

Remote Desktop on your Windows Vista Home Premium

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:07:17 GMT

A lots of my friends had been purchasing Vista lately and most of them selected the Home Premium edition with the missing Remote Desktop Connection server capability. Needless to say Remote Desktop had been very useful to us IT geeks. I currently have 5 computers in my home which I need to manage and the two of them running Windows Vista Home Premium including one running as our Media Centre had been my greatest headache. Initially they have a VNC server installed but I feel the performance of VNC running on both machine is poor compared with Remote Desktop.

After lingering around TheGreenButton while I tried to reconfig my Media Centre from XP MCE to Vista Premium the crazy users at The Green Button had created a hack that would put Remote Desktop back to Vista Home Premium (I say back because Vista Home Premium should be the same as XP MCE) and what's more it even allows concurrent users! After a month or so testing I am happy to say the hack is in fact working perfectly with no side effect.

Steps to Add Remote Desktop to Vista Home Premium:

Download termsvr.zip here
Extract Termsvr.zip to a temp directory
Start "Command Prompt" in Administrator mode (Run As Administrator)
Run the corresponding batch file for your Vista edition
Allow TCP Port 3389 on Windows Firewall or any other firewall product.
Done

Skiprearm - Vista Activation Extenstion trick? Doesn't work!!! Ha Ha

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:21:42 GMT

On 15th March Brain Livingston published an article suggested that the use of of SkipRearm registry key can push back the activation date of Windows Vista. Subsequently a lots of websites had published this trick. The trick is even published in the latest issue (Issue 729 17 July 2007) of the Hong Kong's PCM Weekly - Vista's Tricks and Tips Guide.

Little known to the general public Brian Livingston have since published an updated article on 5th July verifying that the Skiprearm trick does not work as they thought on 15th March, though you can still extend the activation period for Vista using Software License Manager (slmgr -rearm) to a maximum of 120 Days.

For those people wishing not to pay Uncle Bill their operating system but also wants all the updates and benefits of Windows Genuie Advantage; sorry guess you either fork out the cash for Windows Vista or get yourself one of those Vista Activation crack available on most search engine and prepare for one day WGA will stop your Windows.

Of course there is a third way. If you are lucky enough living in North America and Europe - follow my footstep buy a Mac!!! (Though as a member of MSDN I have Windows Vista running on my Mac too!).

Is Hong Kong ready for Mac? Steve get your service provider ready first

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:59:19 GMT

I have had my first generation MacBook Pro for just over a year now, it had been performing great. There were a few issues with the main logic board and the battery with the Mac but AppleCare in the UK had been extremely helpful and resolved those issues in a timely manner.

This is not the case with AppleCare in Hong Kong. I had a case where a white MacBook purchased on 27th January had speaker problem and the infamous stained top case problem. We called AppleCare which suggested us to bring it to an Authorised Service Provider in Hong Kong for repair.

About a month ago the MacBook was with Brilliant Ascent Development Limited - an authorised service provider for Apple in Hong Kong. Their staff to stay the least know very little on the recent service notes released by Apple and had been circulating around the Mac communities overseas for a few weeks. I had to literally point them to the service notes released on Apple's website and asked AppleCare to tell them what to do. Anyway to make the long story short they in fact completely damaged the "new" logic board they suppose to replace on the MacBook by butting excessive amount of thermal paste!! What kind of technicans / engineers they have there???

AppleCare Hong Kong did not perform any better either, after the incident it had come to our conclusion that only a complete replacement is acceptable but AppleCare Hong Kong's Customer Relations Representative initially said Apple Hong Kong does not do replacement only repairs only after I reminded him under section (2) of the Apple Warranty policy replacement or even a complete refund is always available as an option. How these operators mislead their customers to avoid replacement is beyond me and since it looks like continue speaking to the staff in Hong Kong will not result in anything I wrote a 2000 words letter to Steve Jobs and for those people who do not know him he is the founder and CEO of Apple Inc.

A few days later Steve's asked one of his assistance who oversee the operations in the Asia Pacific region based in Australia contacted me and offered a brand new replacement machine as well as a free .mac account for a year worth US$99.95. Yesterday, the replacement Mac arrived and to my surprise Apple even upgraded the processor, hard drive and wireless LAN card to the latest MacBook specification. This is what we call service.

The moral of the story?

1) I am not thinking like a Chinese (as if this is news) that's why I resorted to writing an extremely detail letter to Steve Jobs than hackling in their office, this is how we do things as "gentlemen".

2) The chinese speaking staff in AppleCare Hong Kong and their Authorised Service Provider are incompetent in resolving serious customer issues and they have a hidden agenda of putting business before customer service. Oh! they forgot their business comes from their customers.

3) Do not be railroaded by call centre staff, do your homework and know your rights, they will make up things to achieve what they want (not to replace the Mac). As long as you do your homework you can always "remind" them they are wrong.

4) Make sure you can write English that people like Steve Jobs can understand. It is no use to write Chinglish or Hong Kong English but proper English (UK or US). Record every detail happened during the service all and the interactions between yourself and Apple.

5) Steve may needs to fire all those people working for him in Hong Kong. It is no point to employ someone to service a customer who knows more about Apple than they are.

Choose a Vista? Get a Mac today!

Thu, 10 May 2007 21:00:55 GMT

Finding difficult to choose the right Vista Edition? Need to spend some to upgrade before you can run Vista? Watch this!

Microsoft Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" and IIS 7.0 hits BETA 3

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 20:43:04 GMT

Just recieved an email from Microsoft. Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" and IIS 7.0 Beta 3 will soon be available to download for all Microsoft Connect members who are enrolled onto the Longhorn Beta Programme (That's Me!).

Also Microsoft Home Server Beta Programme had also posted an updated build.

I will be evaluating both products next week. Keep you posted.