Revive Dead NiMH Rechargeable Batteries

I have Kodak rechargeable AA batteries that are meant for digital cameras and I thought it would be okay to use them on other things like flash lights and battery powered toy cars. It turns out that once the batteries are completely drained, especially in flash lights, they become dead and can't be recharged again by a conventional charger.

After reading more information on the internet, I learned that once the battery's voltage drops below 0.9V, chargers would 'think' that the battery is dead and would stop charging it. This is to protect the charger and also prevent a genuinely dead battery from exploding. In the case of my batteries, they are not actually dead, because they still can light a bulb, but the remaining voltage is below 0.9V which is too low for the charger.

I found a way to revive my dead batteries.Charging them for a few minutes with a 9V battery will bring up the voltage to 1.2V, which is the normal voltage for rechargeable batteries. Putting them back into the charger makes them resurrected from the dead.

Disclaimer. Do this at your own risk. I'm not responsible if your batteries blow up in your face and for whatever else that happens.

The positive of the rechargeable battery is connected to the positive of the 9V battery. Likewise for the negative. The batteries become warm after several minutes when it is time to disconnect them.

The batteries are revived!

It is a good idea to put keep rechargeable batteries cool. An old heatsink from a dead Intel Pentium 4 processor can cool them nicely.

A Vulgar Breakfast

While having my breakfast at a coffee shop in Miri, I noticed the waitresses wearing a blue tee shirt with rather vulgar and amusing language printed on them. The words read...

...Borneo Ball Breakers and Halloween Party...
...Shit Face, Billy Boy, Cha Me Hoon, HIV, ..., Ta Pao, Cucumber Man, Rum Lan Chau, Yo Lampa Heart, Wet Fucker, Herb Fucker, Fish Fucker, Shit Fucker, Gear Box Fucker...

The Miri Hash House Harriers logo is printed on the shirt. From that, I can only imagine that those words could be the nicknames of the members... in which in case I would pity Gear Box Fucker for having to endure the most pain :)

Haze in Miri

Print Your Own Poster

A downloaded high resolution photo of Lord Howe island.

It is really easy to print your own poster. Just Google for "high res photos" and download anything bigger than 8 megapixels. Then arrange and crop the photos in Powerpoint. Of course there is online software that does the job quicker and simpler, but I like the predictability and flexibility of Powerpoint. Finally print and paste your creativity on the wall, the ceiling, windows or any object you fancy.

Looking Younger

Sigh! Being 34 and looking 25-ish isn't really a good thing, especially when people equate youngness with immaturity, resulting in one being not taken seriously. In a world where everyone wants to look younger, there exists the few of us chaps like myself who don't seem to look any older as the years pass. I wonder... is this a blessing or a curse?
Sigh!

Cambridge Audio A1

The internals of my Cambridge Audio A1 amplifier, bought in 1995. It was awarded 5 stars by What Hi-Fi? magazine. The sound is still great after so many years of operation.
The amp paired with a Technics SL-PG570A CD player which is also a 1995 model.

Fedora 11 Audio Bug

The audio in my Fedora 11 is cracking and the volume controls are not working smoothly. I Googled the problem, and found that there's a bug with PulseAudio. I know for a fact that my laptop worked with ALSA in the past, so I decided to remove PulseAudio.

yum remove pulseaudio

After rebooting, the sound is smooth and clear, and the volume controls work like a charm. ALSA definitely works better than PulseAudio.