Empty tutorial

Wednesday again. Last wednesday there was only one audience attended the Wednesday Tutorial. Yes, that's me. How's this week then? The same. Well, not exactly - even the tutor didn't show up this week. Could it be due to the 2 weeks vacation in the campus? Not knowing what to do, I went to the couputer lab, take a look on their facilities (for the near future and partly for killing time) then came home early. By the way, I met Rosamund, Tomoko and new group of Japanese students. They're excactly new students, yet are also quite old - most of them are 75 or 80 years old. Good on them.

IELTS review ?!

I never imagined that I'd have to review IELTS things several months after the test. A relative of my relatives is introduced to me for asking about the IELTS things this afternoon. He said he'd taken some language course in TW and in NZ for a while yet none of them are specialize on IELTS preparation, thus was considering to transfer to the Waikato University Language Institute recently. Unfortunately, I've sorted out almost all documents about IELTS recently - just one or two weeks before he contacted me. Now what I can do for him is just provide some advice through email or online chatting or so. He really should have contacted me a bit earlier...

The yesterday's "photographer" is...

...Ketherine. I told Christina - the only coordinator of orientation - what had happened yesterday, and she explained that they're surveying each homestay if their students were living in good condition. As there're hundreds of students at the Language Institute and certainly she couldn't do that just by herself, she'd asked someone else to help her doing this job. Besides Kethirine, also Carol and Rosamund are helping doing the servey. Hmmm...it's good of them to make records of their students. Yet I still hope they can inform their students previously; it is their private after all. ...Eh? Their could be a chance that they have informed the Turners, but the Turners had forgotten to told me...

Co-ordinator with black hair??

The Turners told me that there was a teacher or the Language Institute came to visit them this afternoon and took my room's picture. As they'd forgotten her name, I could just guess from their description of her looks. 1. She once taught me before. => I've been taught by many teachers. 2. Young kiwi female with black hair. => Could be Kethrine, Jenifer, or Kylie. 3. She said she's a co-ordinator => ???? None of them match this one... Now I doubt who on earth that was. Actually, I'm a bit upset because nobody told me previously that someone would come and take photos of my room. :(

I'm the only one...

There is a tutorial for international students in my department...well, there should have been. In fact, I was the only one audience today. What a shame. Alison and Nikki were somewhat embarrased as there was no audience today (except me). However, I'm glad that I went to the tutorial hall as Nikki, the tutor of today, used to be Prof. Molan's student. Hence, rather than the tutorial, I got some information about the lab, Prof Molan (chief supervisor) and Prof Cursons (another supervisor). Althogh not much, at least it's a good start of my PhD study.

Tangi

It's unusual that Andrew was still home when I left this morning. Instead, he dressed in black. Actually there was a funeral for his Maori coworker today. The black suite shows respect in this situation. Nobody knows why his coworker passed away at Sunday (or Monday?) night. All he's known is that the Maori's eyes was moving strangely. Since it's Tangi ("funeral" in Maori language), they might sing Po Atarau as well... Po atarau ♪~♪~♫~~ (3-1-23--) E moea iho nei ♫~♫~♫~~ (33-24-7.1--) E haere ana ♪~♪~♫~♪~ (1-2-2#3-1-) Koe ki pamamao ♪~♫~♫~♪~ (2-17.-12-2#-) Haere ra ♪~♪~♫~~ (3-1-23-) Ka hoki mai ano ♫~♫~♫~~ (33-24-7.1--) Ki i nga tau ♪~♪~♫~ (1-2-2#3-) E tangi atu nei ♫~♫~♪~♪~ (14-36.-7.-1-)

Cold

I've never been home so early like today since I came to NZ. Actually I came home reall early today - 12:00. Of course I have to - I'm sick. I was well this morning - until arrive at school . There're many "patients" in the library at school, and I reckon I've been infected by them. AAAaaa~~~~CCCHHHOOOoooooo~~~~~~

Another tutorial mail

Following last Wednesday's tutorial informing mail, today I got another one. Basically it says there're only 3 students attended last week's tutorial, and is encouraging more other students to join the every Wednesday's tutorial. Mmm...Hmm...it's quite understandable that there're only 3 since, in my case, the inform letter wasn't received until that night. Anyway I'll see what's on the tutorial this week.

Professor on news

~~~ On BBC News ~~~ Harnessing honey's healing power ========================================= ~~~ On The NZ Herald ~~~ NZ's healing honey under microscope Taste of honey no ulcer cure Manuka honey doesn't cure pepctic ulcer...at this moment. This news might somewhat disappoint some medical persons. Philippa Stevenson: Time for honey's day in the sun Philippa Stevenson: The secret of Christmas pies revealed This one does nothing with manuka honey but with professor's Christmas mince pies. Anyone wanna make it as well?

Several manuka news

~~~ On BBC News ~~~ Honey 'weapon against superbugs' Honey scare sparks shortage Honey from China is banned because it includes antibiotics...I personally am not surprised by the fact. ======================================== ~~~ On The NZ Herald ~~~ British hospitals want honey dressings Mauka honey used in hospitals. It looks like the law in Britain finally admits the use of honey in medical ways (I might be wrong). Honey team claims medical first Medical grade manuka honey values 10 times as much as traditional uses do. How's the price range, Sir? Honey NZ signs lucrative export deal The HNZ (see the previous news) also exports their honey not only to the US but to Japan. Price sting in honey shortage Suffer from bad climate and varroa mites, the production of honey in NZ dropped dramatically - by approximate half in 2002. Manuka deal looks promising Looks like the yield in 2003 was recovering. But who knows - it was just the beginning of the year. It was a good start though. NZ's healing honey under microscope Another news about the Professor :) Beehives destroyed near Nelson It's somewhat surprising that there is vandalism in NZ as well. ...and some problems around manuka honey such as fraud, fake, labelling, advertising, law and government (yes, stupid government again) : Manuka honey buyers 'often ripped off' Your manuka honey may not be pure Honey producer pooh-poohs rivals Mr. Bray (in the previous news) again. Honey puffs stung by advertising rules Healing honey runs foul of act over label Honey firm stung over false labels NZ$ 35,000 for fake labelling is somewhat a big money. Hope the fine for fake (or fraud) in my country can also be as hish as this level (otherwise the fine in TW never works).

Rosetta finishing

According to yesterday's forum on Grid.org, the Rosetta jobs (Human Proteome Folding Project) having been running on worldwide computer (including mine ^o^y ) have been finishing much more quickly than we had expected. That means following Smallpox Research Grid Project and Anthrax Research Project, another grid task is finally going to be completed. That's really good. Now then I will let my laptop concentrates on United Devices Cancer Research Project.

Somewhat odd tutorial mail

There's a mail sent from my department just now. Yes, just now. It says "there'll be a tutorial at the of science and engineering for international students, at 1:00 pm on this Wednesday." ...I wonder why they sent this information now since it's been night

Professor away oversea

Just received a mail from professor. It says he'll be in Australia and Hong Kong for the next one week. That could be for some conferences there. Don't work too hard, professor.

Culture shock - ear wax

Somehow Andrew's listening ability is worse than mine today. It seems like because there'is wax stuck in his ear. To my mind, we all have to tidy our ears up with cotton tips regularly (say weekly or, if longer, monthly). I wonder when was the last time he cleaned his ears. "About 10 years ago." Andrew said. Cracking me! How could he stand so long?! According to him, the Turners don't use qtips to pick their wax out; instead, they'd see doctors and suck or flush (?!) the wax out. Actually, he'd made appointment with doctor and would tidy his ears up on Wednesday. But why not qtips? He said because he considered qtips were not good for ears (such as... it would push the wax into the ear rather than pick it out). Well...I can't take it.

Anatomy of laptop

The cleaning work was once interrupted by the battery issue (I hadn't even started yet though :P) Yesterday I bought another set of batteries,and this time the batteries can be packed into the cleaner.

This time they can be packed into it.

Pray to Jusus and Budha make myself calm down, a big work is going to start~~~!! 1.Battery, HD and cables Before every thing goes start, check the laptop's battery, HD and cables (power cable, head phone, mouse, etc) has been removed. Also make sure to touch some metal things (such as door knob) frequently during the whole process lest static charge should ruin the laptop.

	Seagate 30G harddisk...
	...and its other side.

2. Top cover First of all, I have to remove 2 screws on the rear side of the top cover (otherwise I can't remove the cover). Then start to pry the top cover from right, middle, to left with flat-blade driver carefully.

	Pry from the right...
	...to the middle...
	...then to the left.
	Pry up!
	This side as well.
	Top cover front side.
	Top cover back side.

3. Speakers

Under the top cover

There are two small black speakers on both side. Here we can see the speakers are covered with dust.

Dirty speaker...

It looks much different after cleaning with vacuum cleaner.

Much better after cleaning. :)

4. Keyboard Removing the 4 screws beyond keyboard, I can flip the keyboard toward me and then find its cable. Unlike normal keyboard and cable, this one is so thin that any strain would damage it. (I personally would call it plastic sheet rather than cable). The cable is fixtated with a knotch underneath the main cover. Carefully lift up the knotch, the cable will (literally) “pop out”.

	Flip the keyboard.
	What a thin cable...
	Keyboard removed.

5.Speakers and Switch board Unfortunately the speakers on my laptop can't be removed as their cables seems to have been stuck onto the hooks by glue (or that sort of things). Deliberately pull them out will split them into segments and the speakers will never work again. Although leaving them will make my work a bit harder, here I just keep them intact.

These cables (and thus speakers) can't be removed.

Unplug 2 cables on switch board carefully (again, they're really thin and delicate), the switch board can be lifted and its cable can be found underneath. Unplug it and the switch board can be removed.

	Switch board front side.
	Switch board back side.

6.Monitor The monitor is fixed on right and left stand, each of which have 3 screws. Note that there is a land wire on one of the left screws.

	LCD screws (left).
	LCD screw (right).

Here the monitor cable is a big problem as the cable is thicker than the ditch which the cable is in, and also the cable slot is too close to remove the cable from it. Of course it can't be pulled out forcefully, hence this is a bit tricky and need some technique to make it “slide” out of there.

	Taking out this wire can be a bit tricky.
	LCD cable.
	LCD cable.

7.DVD-ROM drive Actually at the point I remove the keyboard, I'd been able to take DVD drive out. There are 2 screws in the hole denoted with the red circle. Unscrew them, stretch finger into the hole and push toward the right, the DVD drive will pop out from the bay. Watch out that the edge of the hole is somewhat sharp and don't get injured.

	Can you see where the DVD is?
	Put finger into the hole and push DVD drive out.
	DVD drive for laptop. Much different from those for desktops.

8. Main cover By main cover I mean the part on which I put my hand and arm. Touch pad is also on it. Here I have to remove nearly 20 screws from the main cover and also the bottom of the laptop.

So many screws...

Since I've removed those screws, I can now remove the main cover, right? But wait then. Lift the cover slowly, we can notice that there's a cable connecting to underneath.

	The white cable is connected to the touchpad and the power signal lights.
	Touchpad cable.
	Another viewpoint.

This is similar with keyboard's cable, except that this one is much narrower than the previous one. Again, lift the knotch, release the cable and finally the main cover is removed and we can see the mainboard, heatsink module, heaps of chips and others.

	Another thin plastic layer.
	Finally reach the motherboard.
	The other side of the main cover.
	VGA chip "ATi IGP320M"

Now we can see how dirty in this laptop is. (compare with cpu fan, these can still be called “clean” though...)

	The bottom of the speaker.
	Floppy drive bay (there's no floppy drive on this laptop, by the way).
	HD drive bay.
	Battery bay. It's amazing that never short even like this...
	Thermal pad.

9.Heatsink module The heatsink module (including cpu fan) is fixated with 3 tiny screws. Unplug the fan cable before removing the module.

	CPU fan. Made in Taiwan.
	Fan module (front).
	Fan module (rear).

Also the cpu fan is fixated with another 4 tiny screws. Unscrew them and see how it is inside...

	Erh! What a filthy...!
	Oh! Yuck!!
	...No wonder there's no airflow.

Errr~~~ it's yuck isn't it! What I can say other than dirty is still dirty. And this is where those cleaning kit is really needed.

	Dirt on the qtip...
	...and dirt in the dust bag of vacuum cleaner.
	After cleaning.
	After cleaning.

The cpu is AMD Atholon XP-M, and like other Thoroughbred-B core, there's no heat-spreader on it. Clean the surface of the cpu and heatsink carefully with lint-free paper (with isopropanol on it) and spread a thin layer of thermal compound on it with a plastic card.

Athlon XP-M with thin and smooth layer thermal compound.

10. Reassemble Lastly, reassemble all parts and reboot it to check if anything goes wrong. Fortunately nothing wrong and the temperature also decreases significantly even if cpu is full loaded. The airflow is also much stronger than before. That's all of it (well, not exactly). It's somewhat a big work, but I suppose it worths the effort. “Sam~~~! Dinner.” Marivic is calling me. Meal after an exhausting big work ...it must be particularly yummy~~~