DieusPrograms.com

Thank you for visiting!  DieusPrograms.com is a new company that we are starting with the hopes of it growing into a self sustaining company. We are a company focused on building useful mobile apps for Android and IOS phones. 

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DieusPrograms.com

Entering the Game Programming World

Story
I've recently gotten into Game programming for mobile devices. I first searched for books that taught how to build TD (tower defense) games, because those are my favorite to play on mobile devices. I found an outdated one on eKobo, and another one on Amazon Kindle. They were very cheap, around $6-$7, and I think eKobo gave me a coupon for $5, so I ended up paying around $1.50 for the book, and the one on Amazon was around $2-$3.

I ended up reading the one from eKobo first, and the tutorial took me to YoYo's GameMaker. I ended up downloading it, and installing it.  I followed the tutorial about half way, bringing in my own assets/graphics for the towers, and I drew new bullets for them using Paint.NET.  I only got as far as putting in a background, a tower, a monster for the tower to shoot at. It was neat how easy it was to do all of that with only copying and pasting a few lines of the sample code.  I was up to 2am working on it, as it was so much fun!  I was going to continue working on it the next day.  Before going to bed, I looked into the pricing for using the GameMaker to deploy to Android and Apple phones, and it was around $400, steep! but it was a one time payment for the license.

Next morning, I woke up, and thought, do I really want to invest all my time and learning into the GameMaker platform? Is it the best platform (Game Engine) to learn? That's when I decided that maybe before I do that I should research to see if there are other platforms out there, what their capabilities are, and pricing.  I spent the morning doing that, mostly did a search for top GameMaker platforms/software, and I checked out a listing that stated "Top 8 Game Engines", "Top 5 Game Engines", and one other.

Choice of Game Engine
Long story short, after investigating all the game engines, and pricing plans. I decided to choose "Unity", because it doesn't require you to pay anything until you have revenue of $100,000, or more. It is popular. And it seems many have used it to create games of many genres.  It seems from the reviews I read that Unreal Game Engine was harder to use if you hadn't been using it all along, which wasn't the case with "Unity".

I didn't like the pricing plan for Unreal either. Also, it was stated in a review or 2 that it was a much steeper learning curve to learn how to use the Unreal Game Engine.

Tutorials
Seems I shouldn't have bought those online books after all, there are plenty of free resources online via Unity, google, and Youtube for people wanting to teach you how to program a TD game. I remember trying to build one years ago, and there weren't as many tutorials, well back then, I actually only found one, and it was teaching using a grid, it shrunk everything down to the bit level, which was horrible.

I worked my way through the interactive tutorials that were built into the Unity Installer, they were pretty neat, but didn't go into how to develop the game. It just walked you through making small changes to fix certain things in a mini-game.

I then jumped into trying to follow an "Intermediate" level tutorial for programming the "Tower Defense" type game, which is what I really wanted to learn from the get-go, but the instructions were really high level, and I just couldn't follow, since I'm very much a beginner.  So, I decided to start at square 1, and choose a tutorial at the "Beginner Level".

So, I worked my way through "Roll a ball", pretty cool what you can do with this Unity IDE, and this is only the beginning.  After creating my game, I had so many issues with building the game, and deploying it to my phone, error after error.  I'll outline my steps at a high level below, hopefully it will help some of you out there trying to start game programming.

Procedure
1. Download and install the latest version of "Unity"
* https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download
* Click, choose your unity and download

2. Download and install the latest version of "Android SDK Manager"
* this part can take a long time if you are crazy like me, and want to install everything.  It probably took 1-2 days for me, my internet is only 30MB/s, so the download is slow, and my computer is about 7 years old, so it's not so fast
* if you only install the Android SDK for your phone, then it shouldn't take long
* https://developer.android.com/studio/
* looks like you might have to install the studio, or maybe you could select the option to install only the "Android SDK Manager", back when I installed it, years ago, I was able to install only the SDK Manager, but it looks like things have changed, but I'm sure you can figure it out

3. Download and install the latest version of "Java JDK"
* http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk10-downloads-4416644.html

4. Make sure you download and install the USB Driver for your phone, if you want to be publishing to it, and debugging
* google search it

5. On your phone, you have to enable developer mode,
* googled it, and it's something like going into your settings, and then go into the about, then tapping multiple times on the "Build" information. It should then display a message onscreen saying that "Developer Mode" is enabled
* you should then be able to access the "Developer Mode" options from the main settings menu
* I enabled "USB Debugging" option, and enabled the "Stay Awake" option

6. When you go to build, File > Build Settings, for testing purposes, I have the following settings:
a. Texture Compression: Don't override
b. ETC2 fallback: 32 bit
c. Build System: Internal

e. Run Device: <your device name should be selected>
* if you don't see it, click refresh beside it
* if you still don't see it, make sure that your computer properly detected it, and the drivers were properly installed
* after the drivers were installed, I had to unplug the phone, replug it in, scan for hardware changes from the Computer > Manager > Device Manager
* I had to reboot my computer after the drivers installed
* when windows loaded, then unplug the phone, and re-plug it in to the USB, then finally it recognized the phone

f. Development Build: unchecked
g. Compression Method: default

h.SDKs for App Stores
* Xiaomi Mi Game Center
* when I click to add this, then built, it caused an error that when I googled the error, people said the cause was duplicate files, not knowing which files were dups, I decided to remove the package, and worry about it later



7. Next, I had to set the "Player Settings" from the "Build Settings"

PlayerSettings: 
* Company Name: <set this>
* Product Name: <set this>

Other Settings
* Identification
** Package Name: com.<company name>.<Product Name>
** Version: <set this>

Publish Settings:
* Keystore
** for debugging purposes, the Keystore uses a default one, so this doesn't need to be created at the moment

Build
* build System: Internal
** this should match what you set in the "Build Settings" window > Build System
** I think this changes automatically to match what's in the "Build Settings" window

8. Attempt to Build
* if you are lucky, it will work, but if you are unlucky like me, you might get an error as follows:

CommandInvokationFailure: Failed to sign APK package.
C:\Android\android-sdk\build-tools\28.0.2\apksigner.bat sign --ks "C:\Users\Dieu\.android\debug.keystore" --ks-pass stdin  --ks-key-alias "androiddebugkey" --key-pass stdin  "F:\Unity Game Development\Roll-a-Ball-Extreme\Temp/StagingArea/Package.apk"

stderr[
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
]
stdout[
Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve enough space for 1048576KB object heap
]

9. I spent all day today (August 24, 2018) searching on google to try figure this out
* well, it was actually 3 or more errors before this, but if you follow my procedure, you should be able to avoid the other errors that I encountered
* so, how did I finally fix this error, I actually didn't find the answer specifically on any post, I ended up investigating the ".bat" file that is used for signing the ".apk" file, in there, I found defaults for the size of the VM that it creates

The ".bat" file is specified in the error message:
C:\Android\android-sdk\build-tools\28.0.2\apksigner.bat

Open it up in your favorite text editor, I used "notepad++",
* the section reads as follows:

REM By default, give apksigner a max heap size of 1 gig and a stack size of 1meg.
rem This can be overridden by using "-JXmx..." and "-JXss..." options below.
set defaultXmx=-Xmx1024M
set defaultXss=-Xss1m

I changed it to:


REM By default, give apksigner a max heap size of 1 gig and a stack size of 1meg.
rem This can be overridden by using "-JXmx..." and "-JXss..." options below.
rem Changed defaultXmx=-Xmx1024M to 512M
set defaultXmx=-Xmx512M
set defaultXss=-Xss1m

Result
When I tried to build again, all errors were gone!! So happy!!

Remember, I'm just starting this journey to learn game programming, so if any of this seems elementary, it's because I've only started 2-3 days ago.

Sorry, no screen captures this time, I only have time enough to write up this story.

Anyways, I hope this helps others out with this error, and with setting Unity up to work in test mode with your device.

If you find this post useful, please leave me a message, it will motivate me to share more often.

Good luck, and happy coding!

Car Won't Start hearing clicking sounds only

Story

My wife's car wouldn't start the other day.  I suspected it was the car battery, since something similar happened to my car after not driving it for a while. All my car did with it's low battery was click, and thanks to the push-button start, I couldn't turn it off after, so the clicking continued until the battery was completely dead. My car started working with the help of road-side assistance, they brought a battery booster, and right away once they plugged it in, everything lit up on the dashboard, and when I attempted to start the car, it started.

So, the other day I was surfing Canadian Tire's website, and found a sale on the 'Eliminator' 1400 Amp car starter for around $150.  Here's the link if you are interested, though regular price is about $200:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-eliminator-1400a-booster-pack-0111913p.html#srp

I ordered it online, and charged it for 40 hours like it said to do.  Today, I hooked it up to the battery, and engine block screw (Honda Civic) like it said in the manual, and right away, I tried to turn on the engine.

SIDE NOTE: Make sure to check your manual to see where to connect the black connector from the battery booster.  From the videos online it says to connect it to any unpainted part of the chassis, but every part appeared to be painted, so I didn't know where to connect it until I checked the manual.

All I heard was clicking.  I turned off the 'Battery booster', and waited a few minutes before trying again like it said in the manual.  Yet when I turned the battery booster on, and tried again, it still didn't work.  The 2nd time, I held the key on so long that smoke started coming up from the engine.  I thought I had fried the starter.  Oh no, I thought.

I came into the house, went to my computer, and did some research to see what I could find, and most people said it was either their battery, or car starter that had to be replaced.  I also watched the demo video on Canadian Tire's website on how to use the battery booster (see the product page, link above).  I saw that I did everything as they said to do it.  I pondered a while, and remembered reading about how the cigarette lighter battery boosters work, and that is that you hook them up in order to charge the battery for 15-30 minutes, unhook them, and then you try to turn on the car.

So, I went to get the battery booster again, reopened the garage door, and hooked it up. i.e. Red to red battery terminal, and black to engine block screw.  I left it connected for maybe 20 minutes.  I kept checking up on it to make sure there wasn't any smoke, or anything burning.  I was crossing my fingers that the smoke I saw earlier was not because I permanently damaged the car starter.

The moment of truth, after 20 minutes I went out to the car, and turned the key, and it started!!  Whoohoo!  I was so happy!  I quickly unhooked the battery booster, shut the hood, and drove the car out of the garage.  I kept it running for around 20-25 minutes, even drove it around on the road a bit.  It worked just fine, but strangely, some warning lights turned on due to the battery being dead before, ABS, Brake light, and power steering light.  I steered the car with ease, and was able to break hard without any problems, so I think these lights may have just came on, and stayed on due to the dead battery problem.

Solution

WARNING: Don't hold the key in the "ON" position for too long as it may cause the starter to burn out, or start smoking.  If it is clicking, then turn the key to the off position immediately.

1. If your car doesn't start after hooking up the booster battery, and turning the key, try hooking up the battery booster (turn on the battery booster once you've confirmed that the connections are correct), wait 20-25 minutes to let the battery booster charge up your dead battery, and then try turn the car "ON".

NOTE: if your battery booster has an "ON" switch, make sure that after you have the cables correctly connected to the car, that you turn the switch to the "ON" position to allow it to start charging your battery.

I hope this helps anyone out there that has encountered this problem

Today is Vietnamese New Years, so Happy New Years to all my readers!

Great Refurbished Wireless Router!

Hi,

I just wanted to share with everyone/anyone that reads my blog about a router I bought recently to help extend my wireless network at home.  I just wanted something cheap to broadcast the network SSID to cover the gaps.

I saw this router on Bestbuy.com:

D-Link Wireless AC Router (DIR-810L/RE) - Refurbished - Online Only  $24.99 + tax

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/d-link-d-link-wireless-ac-router-dir-810l-re-refurbished-dir-810l-re/10374136.aspx?path=664dc14a52c27444024ed9431f58bb89en02

And when I received it, I set it up, and when I tested it's broadcast area... Wow!  It has a really, really, strong signal!  I walked around with my tablet using an app that measures signal strength, and it showed either full signal strength, or 1 bar down throughout my entire house!!  It's amazing, and for so cheap!!  I can turn off my other 2 routers (old, bought them years ago, one was a gift)

So, if you are looking to buy a router, I would totally recommend this router.  You can buy a new one from BestBuy.com as well, but I think the refurbished one works just fine.  I didn't have to pay shipping either, just $24.99 + tax.

If you don't like refurbished, you can buy it new using this link:

D-Link Wireless AC Router (DIR-810L/RE) New $59.95
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/d-link-d-link-dual-band-wireless-ac750-router-dir-810l-dir-810l/10257102.aspx?path=52167797ffe0d43cae39ae405300b88fen02

Tip1: When setting it up, if you don't want to use the setup wizard, just click 'Cancel', and it will let you log into the configuration UI and manually configure it.

Tip2: Required Action: Make sure you setup an Admin login password, because the router comes pre-configured with no password, which is a dangerous situation if you allow remote/wireless configuration.  I believe the remote configuration is off by default, thank goodness!

Hope you have as great an experience that I did!


Dieu
* Share your experience if you have time by leaving a comment

Recent Laptop Comparison - Great Value - The Low-End and the High-End

Story
I was helping my wife pick and choose a laptop to buy really cheap and affordable, but a machine that would not go out of use too quickly.

Uses it must handle:
* browsing
* Skyping
* email
* YouTube

I compared laptops from 3 websites where she lives, but the one below had a better selection, and comparable prices to the other 2 websites, so I'm just going to include the one website:
https://www.thegioididong.com/laptop/?trang=1

If you visit the website, you will see they sell many brands, including:
* Acer
* Asus
* Lenovo
* Dell
* HP
* Mac

What I was looking for

I was looking through all the offerings within the last few days, and comparing the power that each machine offers which includes comparing the following:
* Note: The most important factor to me is the processor, without the right processor nothing else matters!

Factors Considered:
1. Most importantly, the processor
* right now software seems to run okay on 2 core processors, which means the future is more than 2 cores.  I like to buy with the future in mind, because I don't like to buy something and have to replace it so soon after. This meant that I only wanted to look for and find 4 core processor laptops. 

2. The Memory
* right now, 8 GB is best to have, 4 GB is minimum, so anything 4 GB or higher

3. Graphics Card
* if you don't do gaming, which my wife doesn't, an integrated graphics card will do just fine, but if you do some gaming, you should look for one that has a graphics card that is not integrated as it will perform better, especially if it doesn't have to share memory with the rest of the laptop

4. Hard Disk Drive (HDD) - not very important
* 500 GB will do for most people, so anything more than that is bonus


I think, if you buy a laptop based on brand, you are cheating yourself out of finding a good deal.  What you should be comparing first are the above, taking into account your budget.
* Most people say to take into account how you are going to use it, but I think it's best to buy the best machine that your budget can buy you, that way you won't have to replace it so soon after buying it, depending on your budget.

Budget
The budget really was the cheapest machine that would be able to handle the tasks she performs.

In this case, I compared all machines to find a 4 core processor, I wasn't sure I would find one, so I kept a tab on the 2 core processors as well, keeping track of the most powerful one within a small budget.  Small budget means a few hundred dollars. I was thinking $400 - $500 CAD.

Findings

To my surprise, I found a machine that fit my wife's use, and was affordable, and had 4 cores.

Acer Aspire ES1 411, 14" Laptop
* Processor: Intel Pentium N3540 2.16 GHz (Turbo 2.66 GHz)
* RAM Memory: 4GB
* HDD: 500 GB
* Graphics Card: Integrated
* Link: https://www.thegioididong.com/laptop/acer-aspire-es1-411-004
* Cost:$7,290,000 VND  (approx $396 CAD)

Drawback:
I guess a draw back would be that it doesn't have a disc drive.

Intel's Website for Processor Details:
http://ark.intel.com/products/82105/Intel-Pentium-Processor-N3540-2M-Cache-up-to-2_66-GHz


Side Note about the Processor:
I'm not sure what kind of processor this is other than it is an Intel Pentium processor. Usually on Intel's website they would say Celeron if it was a Celeron processor.  I know the website where it is listed is calling it a Celeron, but I'm not sure that is right or not.  I thought it might be an Atom processor, because I came across a posting that talked about the Atom Processor, saying something positive about this release of the processor.
* I usually don't buy Celeron because it is slow, no sure if this one is Celeron or not, though if it is, it's okay, as I was just so happy with it being a 4 core processor that it made it okay

Other Reviews:
I checked out some reviews online, and most people said it was a great value for the price.  Of course at this price range, you won't be impressed with the material, or design, that's a given.  If you are like me though, that stuff doesn't matter, it's what's inside that counts, and this cheap affordable laptop had what counts, and what I was looking for.

I also looked at 2 websites for bench marks comparing it to other processors, but the charts didn't show any of the i3 and i5 processors I was comparing, and so they didn't affect my decision much. I just know that having more cores is better for multitasking.  I'm not so sure I go for the hyper-threading technology.  I thinking having 4 physical cores is better than having 2 cores processing 4 threads (2 threads per core).

Anyways, I sent my wife the findings, and she was okay with going to buy that laptop.  Though, the next day, I found out that she didn't buy it, saying that it was ugly, and she wasn't impressed with the quality of material, and webcam resolution.  I told her that she shouldn't be concerned about those things when buying a laptop/computer, and so after some discussion, she agreed that would be the best laptop to buy. Though, in closing, she added that she wanted to spend a bit more money to get a laptop that would last a while.

Reviewing Higher-End Laptops
Due to my wife's last remark, I decided to have another look at the laptops to see what other 4 core processors the website offered.  I looked through all the i3 and i5 processor laptops, and none of them offered the 4 core processor I was looking for. I even looked up the i7-4510U processor, and it turned out to be a 2 core processor.  There's no way I was going to even think of spending that amount of money on a laptop that had only 2 cores.

On that website, you will see the i7 4510U laptop offerings range from 17,590,000 VND to 19,990,000 VND (approx $954 CAD to $1084.90 CAD)

So, I looked at the even more expensive laptops, and found

Lenovo Y5070, 15.6" Laptop
Processor: i7-4710HQ 2.5 GHz (Turbo up to 3.5 GHz)
RAM Memory: 8GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 860M, 4 GB
HDD: 1 TB
Link: https://www.thegioididong.com/laptop/lenovo-y5070
Cost: $24,990,000 VND, which is approx $1356.26 CAD

Wow!  I thought.  This is such a powerful machine, and it doesn't even cost that much.  Okay, so it is a lot of money, but for the power you get, it's really good value!  It has great design, is pleasing to the eyes, and has more power than a normal user would ever need. Perfect!


So, the next day, I spoke with my wife, and told her to consider buying the Lenovo Y5070.  I spoke to her later that night, and she told me that she went to see the Lenovo, and wanted to buy the Lenovo Y5070, but it was out of her price range, and they didn't offer a payment plan, so she couldn't buy it.  So instead she bought the Acer Aspire that I recommended first.


I did some additional checking to see how much they sell Online to the Canadian market, and the prices are comparable, about the same.  On Lenovo's home website, they offer many different configurations for the same model laptop, Y5070.  Some have more RAM memory, more or less graphics card memory, more or less had drive space, some come with an internal disc drive. 

I think laptops really have come down in price since the last time I bought one which was actually a very long time ago in 2003 but I remember paying $1500 + tax (for my Pentium III 3.2 GHz with hyper threading), or Lenovo has really good prices! For this laptop that has 4 processor cores, 8 threads, you pay only $1029 + shipping + tax. See partial details below. That's the price on the Canadian website.  If you are looking for a laptop, I'd say buy this one!

NOTE:
* If you are more of a gamer, buy the one that has 4 GB of graphics card memory, and possibly more RAM memory, it cost a bit more, but it seems there is a lot of value for a great price. Plus, it should last many years to come as many new software, and operating releases work just fine with 2 processor cores at the moment.
* If you don't need a CD/DVD drive, it can be even cheaper! :0)

This is a direct link to the Canadian website for the laptop. This laptop has 2 GB less memory than the one offered on the Vietnam site which is a part of the reason why it's cheaper. For me, 2 GB of graphics memory is good enough, and should be good enough for normal users up to even light gamers:

Lenovo Y50-70 $1029
* Processor: i7-4710HQ (2.5 GHz, Turbo up to 3.5 GHz)
* Ram Memory: 8 GB
* Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB
* HDD: Hybrid 1TB 5400 RPM+8GB SSHD
* Link: http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y50/?sb=:000001CA:00005F5B:


Anyways, hope the information I've provided helps you in one way or another.  Happy hunting!

AppleSyncNotifier.exe - Entry Point Not Found

Story
Have you ever run into this issue before?  I have, twice now!  It seems to happen every time I install, or reinstall 'apple itunes'.

Here's the error message box I get after I've installed/reinstalled 'apple itunes' software.

Message Window Title: AppleSyncNotifier.exe - Entry Point Not Found
Description: The procedure entry point sqlite3_wal_checkpoint could not be located in the dynamic link library SQLite3.dll

Screen Capture




What a horrible message this is.  It doesn't even tell us what folder it is look for the file in.

Debugging
1. I did a google search for the exact message, and the first result wasn't helpful at all
2. I tried to remember what I did last time to fix this, and I actually remembered.  It was a long time ago, so I can't remember the source, so I'll just include the solution.


Solution
1. To fix this issue, you have to copy SQLite3.dll from one apple program folder to another.  SQLite3.dll should be on your computer, just not in the folder that the Apple Sync Notifier is looking.

Copy file:

SQLite3.dll

from

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support\
* this is where I found the SQLite3.dll file.
* If you can't find it in this folder, do a search in the following path to find the file:
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\
* this is where I found the "AppleSyncNotifier.exe" file
* again, if you don't see the .exe file in this folder, search for it in the folder
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\
and then copy the SQLite3.dll file to this folder

2. Reboot your computer, and the error message should be gone

Conclusion/Comments
Apple really needs to fix that installer of theirs, but until they do, this should fix your issue.

(Again, I like to hear from you if this posting helped you out or not, so leave a message.)

Drobo Pro - Can't Access Files After it is detected by Windows 7 and not detected by Drobo Dashboard - What a Nightmare!!

Story - What a Nightmare!!
I initiated a large folder copy, and move operation to backup a folder on my C:\ drive to my Z:\ drive (Drobo Pro backup).  Windows popped open the normal copy window with the normal calculation... message.  I waited, and waited, and waited, about 10-20 minutes, and the window had still not finished calculating, and still didn't start copying/moving the files.  I decided to wait another 30min-1 hr (forgot exactly how long), when I came back, windows still didn't start moving the files!  Okay, now I'm getting really impatient!!  I decide to cancel the move operation, and windows opened it's cancel window, but nothing happened... waited again, and still nothing happened, already having lost my patience, I decided to force Windows Explorer to shutdown.  It stopped responding, and wouldn't shutdown.  I tried to end the task via 'Task Manager', and it still wouldn't shutdown.  The only thing I saw happen was that the windows task bar disspeared, and everything was frozen on my computer.

Next, I decided to shutdown my computer via the windows key on my keyboard since I lost access to the windows taskbar.  No response.

Last resort, I held down the computer power button until my computer powered off.  I turned it back on after waiting 30 seconds.  I can't remember if Drobo turned off or not at this point.  Anyways, the computer booted back up, but now the Drobo volumes could not be accessed even with 'Drobo Dashboard' displaying the drive, and 2 volumes.

I took off the cover plate on my 'Drobo Pro', and the 2 lights were solid green.  I waited for the 'Activity' light to turn off, but it never did, and I wasn't copying anything to the drive after the reboot, and there were no other flashing LED lights for each drive, so now that I can't access the drive, and I've determined it's not busy, I use the power button on the back of the device to power it off.

Next, I power it back on after it had powered off.  It came back on, but strangely the number of blue lights had reduced from 4 LEDs to 3 LEDs.  This scared me a bit, thinking it could only mean that there was data loss!  This started a slow panic.  I still wasn't sure if the data was lost or not, so I tried to keep my cool.

Next, windows detected my drive, but strangely 'Drobo Dashboard' did not.  Uh, oh, now what?  I clicked on the Y:\ volume, and it displayed the content.  Then I clicked on the other volume Z:\ and explorer stopped responding.  I wasn't able to access my files, uh oh!!
* Now I'm really considering that I've lost all my files, I start to panic!!

Google
I head onto Google to do a search to see if anyone has ever had this problem.  I don't come across any postings that list a crash after a failed copy command, with the drives no longer responding, and Drobo Dashboard no longer detecting 'Drobo Pro'.
* I did multiple searches, and even followed the directions on the following 3 drobo forum pages, but it didn't work:

http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/621
http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/445/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzg4MzcxOTMwL3NpZC9Za0NUdzRKbA%3D%3D
http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/161

I didn't call tech support, as I no longer have the free support.  I think my unit is 3-4 years old, so it's long expired.  Though, I was highly considering the call.

I felt like I was having a nightmare, and started thinking of all the data that would be lost if I couldn't get the Drobo to come back; Photos, files, videos, going back to who knows when that I've never burned up on disc.  Oh boy, I was really regretting not doing that now!  My thought now was, if I get this to start working again, I'm going to buy everything onto DVDs!

I spent the next hour or so, rebooting my computer after it froze from trying to access Drobo, and rebooting Drobo each time as well.  I must have tried this 3 times before deciding it wasn't a problem that could be fixed with a fresh 'shutdown/reboot' of both my computer, and the 'Drobo Pro Unit'.
* now what??

Solution
* Perform at your own risk, I will not be responsible for anything that goes wrong!!  I only know that the following is what I tried, and what worked for me.  Be very careful when removing your Hard Disk Drives that Drobo is off, otherwise it will think the drive failed, and attempt to rebuild, or even fail and you may lose all your data
1. Running on desperation, I decided to do something I wouldn't dare do, but that I read about a long time ago about how you can move your drives from one drobo unit to another.  And from something I had just read from one of the forum pages about what a normal Drobo boot looks like, I decided do the following because I want to see if my Drobo Unit is still good or not.  I also know that removing all my drives with Drobo turned off is okay, as long as they are all reinserted with the power off, before the power is switched back on (as if moving from one unit to another):
i) I shutdown my drobo unit with no activity lights on, using the switch at the back of drobo
ii) After it turned off fully, I popped out every drive that I had in the unit, far enough so that none of them would be detected in the unit
iii) I rebooted my computer - for safety measures (probably not needed, but I did it anyways)
iv) After my computer booted up fully, I turned on 'Drobo', and without any drives installed, it booted very quickly, and lit up one drive LED in red (I didn't take note of what the other LED colours were)
* you may want to remove the power cord for safe measures, to make sure Drobo is fully off
* this seemed normal, so I concluded that there was nothing wrong with my unit
v) Next, I used the power button on Drobo to power it back off
vi) With the 'Drobo Unit' fully off, I reinsert all drives into the Drobo Unit, making sure they all drives are fully inserted
* you may want to remove the power cord for safe measures, to make sure Drobo is fully off
vii) Next, I power on the 'Drobo Unit', and wait it boot
viii) It powers on successfully, but I notice that there are still only 3 LED blue lights instead of 4, but in Windows 7, I'm able to access the files on each of the 2 volumes in my Drobo ... relief at last!!
* knowing this, I suspect the 4th blue LED light is off because the Dual Redundancy checkbox must have been unchecked by the issue at some point
* I check the Drobo Dashboard menu, Drobo Settings > General, and what do you know, the 'Dual Redundancy' was unchecked, so I rechecked it, and clicked 'OK' to save my change
* the lights blue lights changed from 3 to 4
ix) The array appears to need to rebuild itself, estimating 4 hours

Closing Comments
So relieved!!  I can't even believe that the random (thought) removal of the drives, and reinserting them was what fixed the issue, but Boy! am I happy it did!!  I felt like my heart was going to stop for a moment there when I thought all my data was lost!
* so glad I didn't have to call tech support too as I've read many bad reviews on the support provided

To Do List
1. Burn all files in my Drobo Pro to disc - JUST IN CASE!!  :0)

(Please leave your questions, and comments, I'd like to hear if this helped anyone else.)

Setting up my 2nd Drobo 5N

Note: Second Drobo 5N Device Configuration Story
* This is a continuation of my first posting.  This is an update on how my 2nd Drobo 5N setup went.

Story
Even though I knew that a 'Reset' of the Drobo settings would probably make this Drobo recognize the drives, I wanted to see if I could capture the error messages that I didn't capture in the first Drobo 5N setup.  Drobo behaved differently, possibly due to me already attempting to set it up previously but failing to do so.  Yes, so this is actually my 2nd attempt to setup this Drobo 5N.

Here's what happened with this unit.

1. I decided to follow the quick start guide this time.  I put the 2 hard drives (2 TB) into the top 2 slots as shown in the quick start guide.
2. Having already updated the Dashboard software on my computer, I connected the Network cable to the device and the other end was connected to the router.  I connected the power cable, and then turned the device on.
3. Strangely, it only detected the drive in the 2nd slot down , and then it entered data protection mode, and took 1 hour to run, even though there was no data in the drives
* it's like it detected the top most drive, but couldn't recognize it, and saw the 2nd drive, and was able to install it, so it might of thought that drive 1 just died or something along those lines

Below is a screen capture of what I saw in the Dashboard.  It says to add a drive to the top bay, but I had a good working drive already in that slot.

4. Next, I decided to do a full reboot of the Drobo 5N device to see if it picks up the top drive.  When it finished rebooting, the lights on the unit were solid red.  Here's the error messages I got next from the Dashboard:

Error Message - Drobo Dashboard
You may have removed or replaced too many hard drives from your Drobo at the same time. Re-insert the hard drives you removed. Important! When removing or replacing hard drives, make sure you remove or replace them one at a time. Never remove a drive when the drive bay indicators are blanking green and yellow.

Error Message - Error Popup Window (bottom corner)
Drobo doesn't recognize some of the drives you have installed in the data bays. They may have been previously formatted by Drobo or are from another Drobo. To troubleshoot, please consult the User's Guide or visit http://www.drobo.com/support.

 

5. Seeing how I could not get the exact same error messages from my first Drobo 5N setup, and seeing how Drobo 5N wasn't able to detect my hard drives even though they are good drives that should work in the device, I decided to apply my solution that I found from my first Drobo 5N configuration, i.e. Reset the device to factory defaults from the Drobo Dashboard

Solution

6.  Reset the device to factory defaults from the Drobo Dashboard

* Drobo Dashboard > Tools > Drobo Reset > 'Drobo Reset'

7. When the Reset of the Drobo 5N completed, the hard drive lights were all green, and the device was ready to go!!

Hope this helps those of you out there that have encountered this error, and like me spent hours trying to solve it!  

If you found this posting helpful, please leave me a comment!

Thank you for visiting!  Hope you have a good day!

Drobo 5N - Initial Setup Issues - It doesn't recognize my Computer Hard Drives!!

Story
I bought 2 brand new Drobo 5N's recently from TigerDirect.ca for Christmas presents for my sisters.  They were on sale at a good price, good for Drobos anyways. Still high, but it was within the range I was willing to pay for them. It took only 3 days to receive them, not counting the weekend.  I ordered them Friday, and they came Wednesday, today.

I was so excited to open them up, and setup them up with the 2 TB hard drives that I pulled out of my unit.  I had 4 of them ready to go.  I didn't think it would take so long to get the unit up and working, so I started working on it at 10pm. To my surprise, I had so much problems with it that I stayed up until 12:30am on a work night! Yikes! I'm the kind of person that has to solve problems with my computer once I've encounter it, so I got stuck working on it until I fixed it around 12:00am.

Anyways, I should continue with my story.  I opened up the first box, and it was nicely packaged.  I took the unit out. It was smaller than expected, which was nice, since my sister's don't like the big and bulky electronics.  Since having the DroboPro, I decided to not follow the instructions exactly, since it's a pretty smart unit, and it just auto-detects hard drives when they are inserted.  So, here's what I did.

1. I plugged in the network cable
2. I plugged in the power (with no hard drives installed yet)
3. I started my dashboard, but it didn't see my Drobo
* forgot that I had turned off 'auto-discovery', so I turned it back on
* you can access the 'Drobo Discovery Settings' from the 'All Drobos' tab
4. After I turned it on, it found the Drobo 5N which was connected to my router
* though, it showed the Drobo 5N as a 4 Drive Bay Drobo 
4. So, with the Drobo still connected, I visited their website,
    http://www.drobo.com/start/drobo-5n-start.php
and downloaded the latest software version 2.5.2 for windows.
5. After it finished downloading, I ran the install without uninstalling the previous version
* it did ask me if it could have permission to shutdown, and restart the Drobo Windows Service, and Dashboard when it finishes the install.  I clicked OK
6. It completed the installation successfully without issues

Next Issue: Drobo Requires Initialization
1. It reported that 'Drobo requires Initialization'
2. I didn't know what that meant, so I searched google, and found nothing... that wasn't helpful
3. Running on a hunch, I took the drives out, and put them into my StarTech.com Hard Drive dock, and found that 2 of the drives had not been initialized, and the others needed to be formatted
* I stuck one drive into the drive dock at a time, and had the 'Computer Disk Manager' open
** in windows 7, you can get to it if you click on the Windows Button > Right Click 'Computer', and Select 'Manage', then from the list on the left, under 'Storage', select 'Disk Management'
4. With this window open, when I put in the drives that required initialization, it immediately popped up a window asking if I wanted to initialize the drive
* for the first one, I didn't know if it was the correct drive, so I clicked 'no'
* I scrolled down to the drive, and where it lists the title 'Disk #', if you right click there, you can choose to initialize the drive, and then I chose MBR (i.e. Master Boot Record)
* After I initialized it, I did a quick format
* I repeated for all drives

5. I turned Drobo 5N off, then I put the drives back into the Drobo 5N unit, then after I put the drives in, I turned it back on
* I had found an article on the internet that said Barracuda drives can take up to 20 minutes to initialize (Drobo Forum), so I was patient and I waited, and waited.  When it was done, all lights were solid red, and it said it didn't recognize the drives I had installed.  It said I should get the latest firmware updates.
* I followed the instructions, and found out that I had the latest firmware already, so I didn't need the update, but what that appeared to mean was that my hard drives won't work in this unit, that I would have to go out to buy brand new ones - I definitely could not afford to spend anymore money on these Christmas Presents... so... as a last resort, I tried the following.  See 'My Solution' below.

My Solution
I was so fed up at this point that I was willing to try anything.  I was looking through the 'Tools' menu, and thought that maybe a 'Reset' of the 'Drobo' back to factory default setting might do the trick.  And low and behold, it worked!!!
* I reset my unit with the hard drives installed, with the Drobo dashboard reporting that it can't recognize the drives installed
* After the reset, all lights turned green, and the unit was ready to go!!
** I was sooo happy at this point, that I had to write about it!! :0)

Man! The unit had me worried for a very long time. I thought I would have to return it. Instead of an easy 10 minute setup, I spent 2-2.5 hours debugging, trying different things with my hard drives.  I even pull another one out of my DroboPro to see if it would work in the 5N before the reset, and it didn't.  Now I've got to wait for my DroboPro to rebuild itself... uurrrgghhh!!  It estimates 14 hours!  Darn it!

Here's how the dashboard looked after the Reset completed:

Well, I guess the best thing is that I now know what to do to setup the other Drobo 5N.  Start with the 'Tools' > Reset > Erase'.  Hopefully that setup will go a lot more smoothly.

Drobo's Solution
I later found this on Google, but it was after I had already found the solution myself.  I reviewed it, and I think it says to perform more steps than needed, probably to be safe.  My solution worked with just the Reset.  I didn't even have to reboot my computer.  See link below:
1. http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/683/kw/drive


Hope this article helps you out!  If it does, let me know.  It helps motivate me to write about more issues I've encountered, and solutions I've come up with. :0)

Alienware - Door Controller has stopped working

Issue
After installing the latest Alienware Command Centre I encountered this strange error on booting into windows. The lights on my Alienware Case stopped working, and it stopped reporting internal temperature, fan speed, and all that jazz.

Though, like a lot of things, it didn't bother me too much at first, but after a 3 weeks of seeing this error, I decided to look into what it could be.  It seems the latest version that I updated to has some sort of bug in it.

Looking for the Alienware Commend Centre Software
- NOTE: This didn't work, don't follow it, see section below named Solution: Found Alienware Command Centre - using Good Old Google!:

I didn't know where to get the Alienware Command Centre, so:
1. I looked to see if I had the CD that came with my Alienware desktop computer, but I didn't see any disk that included it.
2. Next, I went to the Support.Alienware.com website, strangely it redirected me to Alienware's home page instead of taking me to their support page.  That irritated me.  Nonetheless, I hovered the mouse over "Support" and clicked on "Device Drivers and Downloads" from the dropdown menu.

Next I selected the following from the dropdown lists:
* http://support.alienware.com/Support_Pages/Restricted_Pages/driver_downloads.aspx

1. Select an Operating System: Windows 7 x64 (you should choose your own OS)
2. Select a Component: Desktop Systems
3. Select a Manufacturer: Alienware(TM) Corporation
4. Select an item: <Select the desktop you purchased>

Click Search 

Clicked on Drivers and Downloads, and it took me to Dell's general support website...  
* GRRR, what the heck are they doing????

Oh my goodness!  Can they make it any more harder to find!?

Solution

Found Alienware Command Centre (using Good Old Google!)
1. From here, I decided to use google to search for the Alienware Command Centre
* typed into google:  alienware command center download

2. Then I clicked on the 2nd link as it showed a newer version of the Command Centre 2.7.25.0
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=39XW1

3. Click 'Download File'

4. Uninstall Current Version of Alienware Command Center
1. Windows 7 > Windows Button (Start) > Control Panel > Programs and Features
* Alienware Command Center, click to select it from the list
* Click Uninstall button (above)
* Click to 'Remove All'
* Click Next until it starts, and finishes

2. When it was done, I rebooted my computer for good measure

3. I found the 'Alienware Command Center 2.7.25.0" (.exe) file that I downloaded from the Dell's website, and double clicked it to run it (where ever you saved it)
* follow the prompts, and click next until it starts installation
* at the end, it will reboot your computer

4. When Windows is finished rebooting the 'Door Controller..." Error will come up again.
* at this point, I thought "OMG", but then I tried to "Repair" the installation
* go into Control Panel > Programs and Features > Alienware Command Center, click to select it from the list
* Click Uninstall button (above), but this time, Select the option to repair/reinstall the program
* Click Next until it starts, and finishes

5. When it's done repairing, it will reboot the computer

6. For me, when it came back into Windows, everything was working again!
* No stupid "Door Controller..." error, and my lights worked again, and all the other monitoring systems in the 'Alienware Command Center' worked again.

Time Wasted
It took me 1.5 hours, but I tried the repair option with my first install without uninstalling it fully, and in that instance, it didn't work.  The problem only went away after a full uninstall, and reinstall, followed by the repair.  Weird if you ask me.  They really should fix their installer!!

Okay, hope this helps those of you out there that have encountered this problem!

Have a good day!


Dieu

Looking for a taskbar for Multiple Monitors?

Story
This ones going to be short, as I just want to share my findings.  This short posting is about the 3 Multiple Monitor taskbar programs I've tried.

Short Reviews

Multi-Monitor (Free Version)

* they have a free version, and it use to look good back when the main windows task bar wasn't translucent, but now, it looks dull, old and boring
* this is the first program I used which a fellow colleague at work referred me to way back when.  It was free at the time.  I think they didn't have the paid version yet.
* If you like dull and boring, this ones for you

Here's the link to their website:
* http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

To Download
Click the download tab, scroll down a bit, and choose which version you want.  I'm not into paying for things, and so I tried only the free version

Actual Multiple Monitors
* this one has only a trial version for 30 days or so, and by the halfway point a dialog will open up each time windows boots up, and ask you to buy, enter your code, or continue.  I found this most annoying!
* this is one of the best task bars I've tried.  It has the nice windows 7 look and feel, and it also has the Windows Start button on it, so if you want to get at the Start Menu, you don't have to move your mouse back to the main monitor to get at it
* big downside is that there is no free version
* by day 22, I uninstalled it and looked for a free version

Here's the link in case your are interested, and possibly interested in buying it:
http://www.actualtools.com/multiplemonitors/download/

To Download
1. Scroll down the the 'Current Version' table, and click the link under file name to start downloading

Dual Monitor (Open Source) - *** RECOMMENDED!!
* I found this free Windows taskbar today that I never knew was freely available, so I got excited, and wanted to share it, hence this posting. 
* what this program does is extend your current task bar onto other monitors that you have extended your desktop to. It doesn't have the 'Windows Start Button', but it does have the nice Windows 7 look and feel which is important to me
* most importantly, it's FREE!

If you are interested in getting a taskbar that works, looks good, and your don't have to pay for, here's the link:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dualmonitortb/

It says they've tested it with: Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.  I currently have it installed on my machine which runs Windows 7.  If you don't have either one of these, then try it at your own risk.

To Download
Click the big green download button

Conclusion / Recommendations
I guess now-a-days, with the internet, and Open-Source, everyone should really look long and hard for free Open-Source tools, testing them out to see if they suite your needs, before paying a cent for Software. 

I recommend you trying out the "Dual Monitor" open source product.  It might just be what you've been looking for and need.

Though, maybe if you have so many monitors that moving your mouse back to the main one to get at the start button, and you don't have a Windows key on your keyboard, it may be worth your time to check out the "Actual Multiple Monitor" software product.

Hope this posting was helpful! :0)

Shopping for a Streaming Media Box Player

(I meant to post this earlier on this year, when I did the research, but never got around to it.  I still feel that what I found, and would buy to still be the same, so I decided to finish the posting, and post it)
 
Here's my Story
Last year 2012, during boxing day shopping I helped my older sister pick out a new Media Box with very limited knowledge of them, and their capabilities. I had read only a bit on the Roku XS, XD version, and I know my brother-in-law a different device that plays files only.  Other than that, I didn't know very much about them.  I ended up telling my sister that she should buy the 'Roku XS', and if that doesn't work, she can return it to get the 'Boxee'.

We tried out the 'Roku' after she purchased it, and it worked to play the media files that she bought the device to play.  I decided at that time that it probably wasn't worth looking any further into it, to see what other media files it can play.  Boy! was that a mistake!  I found out later that it only plays 2 formats, or something like that.  It's great at streaming as a lot of articles I read say, but it isn't so good at playing files or different formats.

Leading to Conclusion
After looking and comparing Roku, Sony, WD Media Player, and some other media devices, I can't remember the names of the others, but there were a lot I looked at, I think the 'Boxee' has the best mix of apps, media streaming, and file compatibility, and price.  Though it's actually one of the more expensive ones.  At the time I compared, Sony was the only one selling for more.  Still $200 CA isn't bad I don't think for the functionality and features that you get with the device.

Conclusion/Recommendations
Well, if I were to buy a media device, I would go out and buy the Boxee, the version that plays nearly all the media type files.  I think they have a new one coming out at some point that may not be able to play as many media file types, so I wouldn't get that one, and I read that you may have to pay monthly for some sort of service.  I'm not a fan of paying monthly for anything, we all have enough expenses as is.

So, for me, Boxee wins, it's my choice for media players, and the one I would buy if I wanted to own one.

Research Results for Helping my Friend Find a Good Laptop around $530 CA in London, Ontario, Canada

I'm posting my email that I composed to my friend where I did some research to compare laptop offerings from the 3 major stores in London. I'm posting it just in case anyone else is looking for a laptop similar in criteria to what my friend was looking for.  I did some comparisons between the 3 major stores in London, Ontario, and the following are my findings.

Criteria First

* Around $530.97

* 14" if possible, 15" otherwise

* Processor around 2.7 GHz (2 core)

* 4 GB RAM, or more

* 500 GB HD, or more

* Video Card, doesn't matter, mostly word processing

* Sound Card, doesn't matter

* other inputs/outputs, doesn't matter

Hey Friend,

I was looking at some laptops in your price range for you, and I'd recommend these

But first, you said price-wise, you want to spend only $600 (includes taxes, and enviro fee)

$600 / 1.13 (taxes) = $530.97

* [I'm not going to subtract Enviro fee, because I don't know how much it would be for a laptop]

Also Note that they do charge a premium for 14" laptops because they are smaller, and more convenient.  It might also have something to do with smaller electronics in it, that cause the price to be higher, which is why going with the mainstream size of 15" is better.  Battery life on 15.4" seems to all be averaging 4.5-5 hours.

Futureshop Offerings

1. Toshiba Satallite 17.3" Laptop $529.99 - Refurbished

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/toshiba-toshiba-satellite-17-3-laptop-silver-intel-core-i3-2328m-640gb-hdd-6gb-ram-windows-8-refurb-pskflc-00n007/10248744.aspx?path=c6f7e23b8134201cfee8c09f056a7b4cen02&SearchPageIndex=1

Notes

* I know this one has a big screen which you may not want

* battery only lasts up to 4 hours

* refurbished, but honestly, I would buy refurbished.  My ipod is refurbished, and it works fine

* everything else checks out

2. Lenovo IdeaPad 15.6" Laptop $529.99 - Refurbished

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/lenovo-lenovo-ideapad-z580-15-6-laptop-grey-intel-core-i3-2370m-750gb-hdd-4gb-ram-english-refurb-z580/10234982.aspx?path=1871a020c8b16bdfbdce6aeb36aed446en02&SearchPageIndex=1

Notes

* Up to 5 hours on battery

* everything else checks out

3. Lenovo Ideapad 15.6" Laptop 2.5 GHz 750GB HD 6GB Ram $549.99 - Refurbished

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/lenovo-lenovo-ideapad-15-6-laptop-grey-intel-core-i5-3210m-750gb-hdd-6gb-ram-english-refurbished-p580/10232141.aspx?path=e195f6284d3c9cc9fcb8cf7426966349en02&SearchPageIndex=1

3. HP Pavilion 15.6" Laptop 2.4 GHz $549.99  

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-pavilion-15-6-laptop-silver-intel-core-i3-3110m-750gb-hdd-8gb-ram-windows-8-g6-2235ca/10242259.aspx?path=d0a59630434d160aeabfcddcf4f73017en02&SearchPageIndex=1

* If you don't want Refurbished this would be the best choice from Futureshop

3. Asus 15.6" Laptop 2.4 GHz $549 - Web Only

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/asus-asus-15-6-laptop-black-intel-core-i3-3110m-500gb-hdd-6gb-ram-windows-8-english-k55a-dh31-ca/10235667.aspx?path=9d696d6171076d73f7753e5e087bc187en02&SearchPageIndex=1

Notes

* Up to 5 hours on battery

* everything else checks out

14" Laptop

4. Toshiba 14" Laptop 2.4 GHz $649.99

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/toshiba-toshiba-satellite-pro-14-laptop-black-intel-core-i3-3120m-4gb-ram-320gb-hdd-windows-8-english-c840-003/10241759.aspx?path=32da5017722d3aac1b28473b2109fda9en02&SearchPageIndex=1

Notes

* has the 14" screen you want

* Up to 4 hours on battery

* over budget

* everything else checks out

Staples Offerings

I just looked at Staples, and found 2 good contenders.  The speed of the processors isn't as fast as I specified (2.7 GHz), but for you, maybe it could be fast enough since you don't need too much speed.  Staples has some good refurbished ones too, but I'm not going to write them up, because I don't think you want refurbished. See below:

*1. Acer Aspire 15.6" Laptop 2.5 GHz Intel Core i3-3120M, 4GB Ram, 500 GB HDD, $399.93 - OUT OF STOCK
* on sale until 7/23/2013 - that price is discounted $100
http://www.staples.ca/en/Acer-Aspire-156-Laptop-25GHz-Intel-Core-i3-3120M-4GB-RAM-500GB/product_169408_2-CA_1_20001

Notes
* Bad thing is it is out of stock
* but if you don't need the laptop right away, and if they give out rain checks, I'd buy this one.  It's way below your budget, and it looks like it would be a pretty good laptop!
* good bang for your buck!

*2. Toshiba 15.6" Laptop, 2.2GHz 2nd Generation Intel Core i3-2328M, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD $449.98 (on sale $50 off until 7/23/2013)
http://www.staples.ca/en/Toshiba-156-Laptop-22GHz-2nd-Generation-Intel-Core-i3-2328M-8GB-RAM/product_100171_2-CA_1_20001

Notes
* This one's in stock according to the website (as of 7/19/2013 @ 8:33 pm est)
* everything else checks out
* and it's under your budget

3. Toshiba 15.6" Laptop, 2.40GHz Intel Core i3-3110M, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD $549
http://www.staples.ca/en/Toshiba-156-Laptop-240GHz-Intel-Core-i3-3110M-8GB-RAM-500GB-HDD/product_75524_2-CA_1_20001
* this one's comparable to the ones at the same price at futureshop, except this one has 8 GB RAM (more), but less Hard Drive space 500 HDD

TigerDirect Offerings

**!BEST Match!**
1. Acer TravelMate TMP243-M-6456 Notebook PC - 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3210M 2.5GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, 14 in. Display, Windows 8 64-bit $549 - $20 coupon XND95647 (7/21/2013) = $529.99
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7980799&CatId=4935
* best match for my friend
* small at 14"
* fast 2.5 GHz, 2 core
* enough ram
* 500 GB HDD - 7200 rpm - faster than the usual

!Fastest Processor of the Bunch of 15"!
2. Lenovo IdeaPad Z500 Notebook PC - 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3230M 2.6GHz, 6GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, 15.6" Display, Windows 8 (59361311) $549
* fastest processor of the bunch!!
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7787088&CatId=4935
* fastest processor in all the 15" laptops I looked at

3. Acer TravelMate TMP453-M-6863 Notebook PC - 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3210M 2.5GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, 15.6 in. Display, Windows 8 $549
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7980800&CatId=4935
* comparable to the other 15" laptops at the other stores

Summary

From TigerDirect

Limited time offer!! only until 7/21/2013

* 1. Acer TravelMate TMP243-M-6456 Notebook PC - 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3210M 2.5GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, 14 in. Display, Windows 8 64-bit $529.99 [$20 coupon XND95647 (7/21/2013)]
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7980799&CatId=4935

* I think this one meets what you were looking for, small laptop 14", good processor, fast HDD, enough memory!

!Fastest Processor of the Bunch!
2. Lenovo IdeaPad Z500 Notebook PC - 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3230M 2.6GHz, 6GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, 15.6" Display, Windows 8 (59361311) $549 (fastest processor of the bunch)
 http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7787088&CatId=4935

OR

From Staples
* If you want to stay on budget, and can wait for stock, I'd recommend buying from Staples if they offer a rain check

*1. Acer Aspire 15.6" Laptop 2.5 GHz Intel Core i3-3120M, 4GB Ram, 500 GB HDD, $399.93 (on sale until 7/23/2013 - that price is discounted $100) - Out of stock
http://www.staples.ca/en/Acer-Aspire-156-Laptop-25GHz-Intel-Core-i3-3120M-4GB-RAM-500GB/product_169408_2-CA_1_20001

Or if you want to get one under budget, and don't mind it being slightly slower:
*2. Toshiba 15.6" Laptop, 2.2GHz 2nd Generation Intel Core i3-2328M, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD $449.98 (on sale $50 off until 7/23/2013)http://www.staples.ca/en/Toshiba-156-Laptop-22GHz-2nd-Generation-Intel-Core-i3-2328M-8GB-RAM/product_100171_2-CA_1_20001


From Futureshop

* 3. HP Pavilion 15.6" Laptop 2.4 GHz $549.99 (If you prefer not to buy refurbished)

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-pavilion-15-6-laptop-silver-intel-core-i3-3110m-750gb-hdd-8gb-ram-windows-8-g6-2235ca

If Refurbished is okay, any of the 15.4" or the 17.3" above would be good choices listed above.

If you want the smaller laptop 14", the one I mentioned above would be a great choice from TigerDirect, the one from staples is more expensive.  Many of the others that are 14" have really slow processors in them, which is why their costs is lower, and why they last longer on battery.  If you have patience for a slower machine, then consider it, but I honestly think it would be a waste of money. 

* I recommend getting the one from TigerDirect for 14" before the deal ends on Sunday (only 2 days from now - today being 7/19/2013)
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7980799&CatId=4935

I hope this helps!  Those are the 3 major competitor stores.  If you are willing to buy online, DELL usually has good deals, and they sometimes have more bang for your buck.