Fixing the faders on a mixer or DJ controller

Back in the old days, I used to do my own repairs on faders in DJ mixers. I remember I came upon this old mixer once with a busted fader. I just took the mixer apart and looked at the faders. I noticed that the busted fader was the same type as the other faders that were not used too much. So what I did was to swap them around. I made new fader “lugs” by soldering wire and attaching them to the old lugs. I was not afraid of training the new logs with hard fader transitions because the fader cases were screwed into the mixer. After that, it was working as good as new!

This video is very informative. My old Hercules DJ controller (posted below) gas one of the channel faders exhibiting the same issues as this guy in the video. Maybe it is time I took this controller apart and fixing it. Hey, you never know. A little maintenance goes a long way!

The case for the Hercules DJ Control Starlight came yesterday

I ordered the hard case for the Hercules Starlight controller and it came yesterday. It looks something like this. I could not get it through Amazon as Amazon does not ship to these parts. I bought it from Aliexpress and this case had free shipping to Singapore. I like the case and I can finally pack the Hercules Starlight in my bag with no worries about the oversized packing box. I might look to Aliexpress for more cases like these for the rest of my equipment. To heck with Amazon and their no-shipping policy to Singapore.

Let The People Have Him

These past few days, I have been captivated by this book on Mr Chiam See Tong, the much-respected opposition member of the Singapore Parliament. The book, written by Loke Hoe Yeong, covered Mr Chiam’s life when he was born, his education in Singapore and overseas and what made him do what he did. In short… it is the biography of a man who, through his accomplishments and devotion, struggled to build a fairer, more balanced and diverse country.

I have met Mr Chiam on a few occasions and he always struck me as a very dignified and humble man…a politician that the people felt was “like one of us”. And he certainly was. He was respected by many and even by his opponents. There is a lot I learnt about Mr Chiam in this book…and a lot of his deeds described in the book make you realise what a giant of a man he was in humility and determination.

If you can, go and read this book. It is worth it.

New keyboard for my Dell N5050

A couple of weeks back, the keyboard on my Dell Inspiron N5050 (which is 7 years old by the way) started to have issues. When you pressed certain keys, they did not work. I thus had to attach an external wireless keyboard to my laptop, taking up a spare USB slot and most of the time, I plain forgot to switch off that external USB keyboard. So I told myself, get a new keyboard.

Now many of you may be thinking. That laptop is as old as the hills. It is running Windows 7 which will expire in February 2020. But I feel a kind of attachment to this notebook. It has served me well and it just works great. So I went online and on Lazada, I found a replacement keyboard that only cost about $12. Nope. You did not hear that wrong…$12. So I ordered it online and it came to my place yesterday and that is when I fixed it up.

It was not too difficult to fix up. All I had to do was to release some tiny catches above the keyboard and slowly take the old one out. Then I detached the ribbon cable and put the new one in. After that I fired up the computer and hey presto…brand new keyboard working great!

The old keyboard, as you can see, is pretty worn out. Some of the letters have been rubbed cleanly off and the G key is about to come out. So for $12, I get a brand new keyboard that just works!

1604 cases of vaping-related illness in the US

I was not surprised when I read this article on ChannelNewsAsia online. I have always said that vaping is dangerous and it can lead to serious illnesses and even deaths. This is what the article says:

REUTERS: U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 1,604 confirmed and probable cases and one new death from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the total toll to 34.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,479 cases and 33 deaths from the illness and announced plans to start testing aerosols from vaping products as part of its investigation.

The deaths have occurred in 24 states, as of Oct. 22, among people whose ages ranged from 17 to 75 years.

Investigators have not linked the cases to any specific product or compound, but have pointed to vaping oils containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, as being especially risky.

The agency has said there may be multiple reasons behind the outbreak and that the cause of the illness may not be the same across the country.

So to those that are vaping or even smoking. Please, please, PLEASE give up the filthy habit. I mean, use common sense. I do not think that you will deliberately inhale exhaust from the exhaust pipe of a car. It is just common sense. You do not know what kind of toxic gases there are in it besides carbon monoxide. Same for vaping and smoking. You do not know what chemicals there are in it. Just do not start vaping….or smoking for that matter.

Norwich – 1 Manchester United 3

This was a very strange game if I do say so myself. Manchester United beat Norwich City 3-1  despite missing two penalties to claim their first Premier League away win, moving up to seventh in the table.

Scott McTominay scored the first goal and what a cracker it was! The the first penalty was given to Manchester United when James was shoved out of the way while heading for goal. But all of us who saw it believed that it was not really worth a penalty. James did not put up much of an appeal either. But VAR came into effect and the penalty was give, Rashford went up to take it but he kicked it rather poorly an it was easily saved my Krul. In my mind, I think he did not want to score it either because he thought that the awarded penalty was unfair. I do not know but it certainly seems that way.

That was however short-lived when Marcus Rashford scored another goal by halftime. Then something strange happened again. Manchester United were awarded another penalty…this time by a kick by Fred hitting the arm of a Norwich player ion the penalty box. Once again, VAR was consulted and a penalty given. This time, Martial stepped up to take the penalty but it was saved by Krul…again! But then again, I felt that that penalty awarded by VAR was rather harsh again.

The second half started and in the 73rd minutes, Martial scored another goal following a slick interchange with Rashford. Really a beautiful goal and well-deserved! I thought that was going to be a clean sheet for Manchester United but I was wrong. Cuban winger Onel Hernandez grabbed a consolation for Norwich with a fine solo goal two minutes from time. Top marks to Krul though. That goalkeeper kept right at it despite injury.

We are improving slowly but surely. As I said, we moved up to seventh place. Still a work in progress but we are improving. Glory Glory!

Happy Deepavali 2019

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Hindu friends, relatives and colleagues a very Happy Diwali 2019.

Indian national yells at condo security guard, using profanity

Here I was, browsing Facebook and all of a sudden, I started see a video in all my feeds. Something was going viral and it was this one. A video of a man yelling at his condominium security guards and hurling vulgarities at them. The man, who identified himself as Ramesh in the video, was pissed off by a parking fee he was told he needed to pay for his guests to park inside the condominium. Apparently, after 11pm, you have to pay to use the facilities. It is similar in HDB carparks where the signs in many of them saying that parking is for residents only.

A police report has also been made by the officer in the video who was the security supervisor on site.

This silly bugger Ramesh could have just paid for it, not kick up a fuss and then square it off with the condo management on the next working day. However, this bugger decides to take it up, identifying himself with his name and telephone number. Pretty soon, his details started appearing on many sites, with people unearthing his work and private details. I will say one thing. This Ramesh fellow is not going to forget this year’s Deepavali.

********** EDITOR’S NOTE **********
Even Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam weighed in on this incident

I am the darkness

One of my friends posted this very cute meme of a bat claiming that it is the darkness, but can give cuddles. Love it!

A tricky way for the Health Promotion Board to install their app on a mobile phone

Yesterday, after church, I was queuing up to buy my lunch. After I bought my lunch, the hawker gave me this coupon pictured above. He said that it was for a lucky draw spin-and-win. Now I am very suspicious about “good fortune” like this. There is always some catch involved. So after my lunch, I went over to this makeshift stall, manned by three young people. This stall had a spin-wheel on it, something similar in that show Wheel Of Fortune. I showed them the coupon and asked them what was the deal? They told me that I first need to download an app on my phone before I could spin the wheel to win something. Ah-ha! That was the catch! So I told them “no thanks” and went on from there

So to the Health Promotion Board that is doing this. If you seriously want to give people a chance at winning something, find some other way to do it. The way you are doing it now is really unethical. We do not want another app on our phone just to win a prize! It is already bad enough that people are still wary of what happened last year when HealthHub accounts were accessed without authorisation. Try a better way next time