The battery myth

Yesterday when I went to buy camera with Sam and as usual the sales person advised the user to charge the battery for at least 8 hours before first use. Almost all the seller will advise you the same thing.

So, what is real reason behind this first time full charging advise?

Back to long long time ago, when mobile phone was introduced, the rechargeable battery technology started from Nickel Cadmium. One of the major flaw of NiCd battery is that it has "memory". If you charge the battery until 80% and stop, then the battery will assume the 80% is the maximum charge that the battery can hold. Same happen to discharge, if you discharge until 20% and then start recharge it back, then the battery will remember that the 20% is the zero charge of the battery. Therefore the total charge that a battery can hold and supply is getting narrow and narrow if the battery didn't charge until full or didn't discharge until empty. That's why the seller will advice the user to charge their battery until maximum before first use, normally 8 hours or more.

However, gadgets nowadays are usually equipped with Li-ion battery instead of NiCd and Li-ion doesn't suffer the memory effect which NiCd was suffering. You can actually use the battery immediately without charging it and you do not need to charge it for 8 hours for the first time. Most of the gadgets are now equipped with auto-cutoff charging circuit when the battery is fully charge, therefore, you just need to plug it into the power socket when the battery is flat and the charger will do the job for you. But, if the charger does not has cutoff circuit, then you need to use a timer to disconnect the charger to avoid overcharge which will eventually spoiled the battery or worst, explode.

One of the drawback of Li-ion is that it can't be over discharged. If the battery has been over discharged, for example the battery has not been used for few months, then the battery will no longer able holding any charge.

So, next time you can tell the seller that this 8 hours initial charging is no longer valid for Li-ion battery.

Chrome for iOS

Yes it's true! Just open your app store to get it now.

Google I/O 2012

It's just over, and hello Jelly Bean, hello Nexus 7, hello Nexus Q, hello Project Glass, hello offline maps, and hello Android's Chrome.

I personally are more excited toward Nexus 7 and offline maps. An USD199 tablet with latest hardware is kinda attractive to gadget mania like us. Offline maps is actually the most environment friendly design, at least it save some power to connect to the server to download maps info over the 3G or LTE. Now the phone battery can eventually last more longer if you are road blind like me.

Look at these big IT player, Google, Apple and Microsoft, they are non-stop giving us waves of new ideas and products. I believe they can't stop, unless they planning to close down their operation and go back kampung to plant banana.

So thanks to them for all the ideas and also sucking our hard earn money for their hard works.

KL Marathon 2012

So, I finally went to this marathon alone again, fanshu and cutebanana is flying me airplane as expected. I finished the race in 1hr27minutes, quite a poor record. Few factors, I can think of.

First, I haven't been practicing much this time, I only started since a month ago and I know it is insufficient.

Second, I didn't sleep since yesterday and go straight to the marathon. Yesterday was a busy day and I reach home around 12 midnight and after settling all the things, I start to lay down on the bed around 1 am and I just can't get myself sleep. Didn't know whether I slept or not, but 4.30am I start to prepare myself to go for the run.

Anyway, the main reason is that my left leg KOed at 9km and I finished the balance 1.6km by walking only. Seeing all those lenlui running passing by me make me want to cry T.T, and my sweat is helping me to cover my hurt heart, and not to mention a almost 60+ aunty potong me at around 10km T.T

Talking about my left leg, I only remember when I was young, very young that time, I believe is around primary school, I got a very bad fall down and I hurt my leg. And after that incident, when I stand up from the squat position, my left leg will make some sound. And I make it worse after running for 21km marathon last few years. Since then, my left leg always giving me problem.

My next race will the King of the Road on Sept. I think I will skip this one first. Need to monitor my left leg first before I go for another run.

By the way, yesterday is the dumpling festival and hope it is not too late to wish everyone a happy dumpling day.