.Lenovo Connections

“诞生”于奇想 – TPMonitor

by Cleo Lee

 

创意是每个人与生俱来的财富，但并不是每个人都会开窍，懂得去运用它。如果自己没有好好耕耘，磨出一把钥匙启动它，那难有什么大作为。

 

上几个星期在51nb 论坛里发现了一位仁兄。他的昵称是tracemouse。因想学习C#，于是突发奇想写了个程序以便运用在ThinkPad之上。非常欣赏这位仁兄的创意点子~虽然程序的用途只是作为显示笔记本里不同零件的温度与风扇旋转速度，但是对于一些用户来说，这是一个很不错的检查器。它让ThinkPad用户能更了解自己的ThinkPad的状况。助人助己，何乐而不为？

 

本人观察了一段日子，发现此程序已经大约有638次的点击下载记录！这个获得不少网友赞赏的程序，名为TPMonitor。目前为止只有Beta 3 版本，至于正式版何时推出则无限期待中。这个软件可以自由使用和分发，唯独不能去除作者版权信息。唯一遗憾的是，目前为止它只有中文简体字版，不谙中文的朋友们就无福消受了~

 

此软件的特点就是可以让用户知道笔记本里不同零件的温度，如CPU 、GPU、电池左右侧、北桥等。此外，它亦可以在不同机型里运行（除了600E,600X,770E,770X）。

Tracemouse 灵活使用户联网科技，充分利用了谷歌与MSDN来完成他的“大业”。根据作者描述，此软件是使用 WinIo.dll 来读取 ThinkPad 传感器(Sensor)中的数据，因此用户所看到的数据可说是正确无误。

 

作者对ThinkPad的爱戴，让笔者甚感欣喜。试问有多少人像他一样，会有如此激情呢？创意能造就人才，耕耘能创出大业。如果人类只是一味等待而没有付诸于实际表现，即使具有创意那又如何？在此，让我们一起来表扬一下tracemouse吧！

 

When creativity blooms - TPMonitor

We all have the potential for creativity inside us, and it is usually seen expressed through dance, music, voice, painting or sculpture, or through the written or spoken word.  Sometimes an individual’s passion for technology is an outlet for their creativity too.

I noticed this talented guy in 51nb forum a few weeks back, nicknamed “tracemouse”.  While learning the computer language C++, tracemouse has undertaken a project dedicated to the ThinkPad. Frankly, I am quite impressed with his determination and commitment to undergo this project with help from the forum members. Although the tool’s sole function is to display the temperature of different components in ThinkPad as well as the fan speed - RPM, it has sparked interest and curiosity for some ThinkPad users who want to understand their ThinkPad operating performance in more detail. Help others and himself, why not?

His software has been downloaded more than 638 times in the past 4 weeks.  This popular tool is named “TPMonitor” with its current version Beta 3 whereas the full release date is unknown yet. The tool can be re-distributed freely so long as the creator’s copyright information is preserved. Perhaps one limitation to the  broader adoption of the application is that it supports only Chinese Simplified language today.

The main function of the tool is to display temperatures for different kind of components such as CPU, GPU (Graphic card), left and right side of battery, etc. It could be applied in almost all ThinkPad machines except the old one, for instance, 600E, 600X, 770E, 770X, etc.

Due to the awareness of the benefit of internet, tracemouse fully utilized what have been offered for free in the internet for example the Google. Also, MSDN is one of the Gurus for this on-going tool, too. According to tracemouse, the application is in fact retrieving information stored in ThinkPad Sensor by using WinIo.dll. Hence, he believes the resulting data is accurate and credible.

I am so glad to see the passion of tracemouse for ThinkPad and his full dedication to this project. The creativity of talented people, when combined with determination and hard work produces some great results.  Perhaps no person will be judged as truly great unless he/she is doing something great. Well, let us give applause to tracemouse for his creativity, talent, and hard work.

Last weekend, the Lenovo forum  achieved another milestone - the twenty-thousandth customer joined our community.  

The fact that this milestone occurred during the weekend is entirely appropriate as the forum runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week as members participate from all over the globe.   I’m always amazed to see some of our top contributors online and answering questions for others, and I realize that it may be 3 am where they are. 

Each customer contributes his or her own unique voice to the mix, some join to share a concern, ask a question, or find some information for a particular situation, while others invest themselves for several hours a day, almost every day, sharing expertise and helping others.

My sincere thanks for all who are making this community a success!

I continue to be amazed by the diversity and talent of our customers, and their passion for our products.  Guest blogging today is Erik Hahr, a successful small graphic design business owner, semi-pro jet ski racer, ThinkPad enthusiast and customizer.  You can often find Erik lending a hand to other customers in the Lenovo and ThinkPad forums.

Take it away, Erik…

————————————————————————————-

Almost everything I’ve owned has been modified in some way shortly after purchase.  My car would shake at stoplights because of its high-lift cams.  My race-prepped stand-up Jet Ski would get 2 MPG during competition (if I were lucky) thanks to squeezing out over 150 horsepower from an 800cc engine.  And, most of my electronics saw the business end of a screwdriver within the first week purely out of a desire to see what made them tick—ThinkPads included.

A few of my ThinkPads over the years had crossed the modification line, yet always seemed to remain close to how they came from the factory.  This project took things far beyond that point.  This time I tossed all logic aside and crammed a 12.1″ SXGA+ tablet display panel inside an X61s notebook.

Earlier this year I purchased an X61 Tablet with an SXGA+ panel thinking it would fit my needs in an ultraportable.  Having used Wacom tablets for the last 16+ years, I thought the pen input of a Tablet PC would be right up my alley.  Sadly, I liked the display but rarely used it in tablet mode.  It was time to find an alternative—something small, something light, and something with a display worthy of design and photo use while mobile.  Problem was, no one made exactly what I wanted.

After some heavy research, I decided to attempt fitting an X61T display inside an X61s.  This seemed like the perfect combination of size and features.  I spent a few hours comparing the whitepapers of the tablet and notebook displays, checking physical dimensions, LVDS cable pin-outs, voltage requirements, and other details.  Logic said that it could work but a lot of time and risk would be involved.  Not only would I have to hack up the tablet display to fit but I’d also have to fabricate my own LVDS cable jumper harness since the signal pin orders were different on each panel.  The new LCD’s warranty would be shot and I could have fried my X61s if something wasn’t connected properly.  A grip of cash would have been thrown away if this project didn’t work.

Having finally decided to take the risk, I sourced out the necessary parts and placed a handful of orders for an X61s, SXGA+ display, LCD cable connectors, wire, tape, and a few extra parts for the X61s itself to make improvements while I was at it.  A modified BIOS was sent to me by a fellow forum member, leaving me only to fabricate a jumper harness to test everything out.  Countless hours of soldering and four harnesses later, I finally saw a clean, reliable signal on my display.  Everything was coming together.

The next hurdle was in actually putting everything together.  The tablet display needed both its digitizer and writing surface removed along with nine mounting tabs cut off of its stainless steel and plastic frame.  The magnesium LCD cover and wireless antennas on the ThinkPad had to be modified to provide proper clearance.  This left exactly enough room to assemble everything without any unnecessary pressure on the display.  I then had to tape the LCD directly to the hinges since threaded mounts were nonexistent on the modified panel.  The last step was to fit the inverter and Bluetooth module inside the cover before snapping the bezel in place.  Everything went together without any bulges, gaps, or other issues.  I’d almost go as far to say that it fit perfectly.

After assembling the rest of the system and giving it a two-hour break-in to confirm that everything worked and remained stable, I finished working on the rest of my improvements.  These included removing and blocking off the modem, modifying and installing TrackPoint buttons from my leftover X300 keyboard, and installing a “soft touch” palm rest from the Japanese-market-only 15th Anniversary ThinkPad X61s.  The last trick was in modifying the keyboard to accept the new striped TrackPoint mouse buttons from my spare X300 keyboard.  While I was at it, I installed 4GB of memory and a 64GB Samsung SSD from the X300/X301, then installed Windows Server 2008 Enterprise 64-bit to round everything out.

In the end I was left with a small, fast, and lightweight ultraportable with an amazing display panel - an overall combination that meets my unique requirements—minus the warranty, of course.

This one is slowly growing on me…

How does this compare to some of our other online video ads like sumo or troll?

ThinkPad is a venerable brand with deep community support roots dating back to it’s inception in the early ’90s, so it’s no surprise to see dedicated communities like Thinkpads.com that have been around for years, or new fan site arrivals like Thinkpadtoday.com .   I’m neither surprised that these communities exist outside Lenovo’s auspices, nor that they thrive based on the shared enthusiasm for the product design, technology, and camaraderie of membership.

I am surprised, and quite impressed with the unanticipated level of interest and uptake on the new IdeaPad S10 products.   Less than a handful had shipped, when a devoted fan built out his own discussion forum dedicated to the IdeaPad S10.   Now shipment volumes are ramping and reviews are starting to appear. Already, YouTube videos abound, and this one I found exemplary - a quick guide to some potential upgrades and user customization.  Others have already installed SSD media and shared their findings in the performance boost and extended battery life benefits.

This enthusiasm reminds me of my early days with personal computers - the days in grade school with students crowding around an Apple II system to write basic or logo programs or play “Oregon Trail”.  Later, it was a Commodore 64 hooked to my parent’s TV, typing in line after line of basic or ML code published in enthusiast magazines, and then saving them on Audio cassettes.

When I was fifteen or sixteen years old, the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST arrived on the scene - the first home computers to feature hi-resolution screens, 32 bit processors, and GUI interfaces for around $1200.  Computer enthusiasts would drive miles to a nearby city to join a user group and trade free software, and jabber on about what new computers were rumored to be on the horizon. Those who were fortunate enough to have the latest system were all to happy to pack it along to show off.   We would pass the time between meetings, posting and reading text messages on BBS systems via dial up modems.

That was the personal computer community experience circa the late 1980’s.   Fast forward 20 years, and the personal computer has grown exponentially in power, while imploding in size, cost, and weight.   The web, and social media have supplanted the old BBS systems, and geographically bounded user groups.

Share your enthusiasm and expertise in building the IdeaPad community … What’s your favorite site or source for IdeaPad S10 discussion ?

by David Churbuck, Vice President Web Marketing

As the ParaOlympic Games draw to a close in Beijing, I wanted to talk about the real action behind Lenovo’s sponsorship of the Olympics: the deployment of our technology behind the scenes, in the venues, and throughout the Olympic infrastructure. Since I used to write this sort of case study for a living at PC Week in the 1980s (we called them Focus On Technologies), I guess I’m as good as any guest blogger to talk about what Lenovo did in Beijing to power the world’s biggest idea, the Olympics.

Some sponsors get to be the official sugar water or fast food of the Games. Others get the sole credit card rights for people buying souvenirs. Lenovo? We literally powered the Games with our PCs, putting some 30,000 notebooks and desktops throughout the Olympic complex across seven cities and more than 300 medal events. The stakes were huge, the opportunities immense, and failure was never an option. Why did we do this? The message to the world is if we can do this; imagine what we can do for your company.

Here are the details on what we rolled out and maintained – without a single hiccup – through the months and days leading up to the Games.

• 24,000 desktop PCs: primarily M55e
• 10,000 17” TFT flat-panel displays
• 2,000 15” touch-screen displays
• 2,000 desktop printers: LJ7800Ns and LJ3500s
• 800 notebook computers; primarily T60s
• 700 servers: SureServe T350, R630, and R520s
• 5,000 showcase models across multiple athlete iLounges, hospitality centers, hotels, media centers ….

The deployment was a challenge simply because there is no legacy system to inherit, transport and build upon in the unique world of Olympic IT. The infrastructure for one Olympiad is not rolled up, stored in a closet, and redeployed two years later. It’s all dismantled and, in the case of the 2008 Summer Olympics, given to the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG) to dispose of as they see fit to charities and other causes. Given that reality – our engineers had to start from scratch, beginning in 2004, when they started planning not only for Beijing but for the Winter Games in Torino in 2006. As Leon Xie, the man tasked with the project, puts it, this was more than two years of work for two weeks of operations by 600 engineers and support staff. And there was no legacy system to build upon. Every Olympics see its IT infrastructure left behind.

The challenge was spread across seven even sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Hong Kong, and Qingdao in 32 venues and 17 data centers. To insure no glitches four levels of redundancy were built in by the engineering teams.

1. Technicians are staffed at every venue.
2. Periodic venue checks by senior engineers
3. Central 24/7 support at the Technology Operations Center
4. Pre-Games support from Lenovo R&D centers.

The question begged is what did these systems actually do? From accreditation desks when athletes checked into the Athlete Olympic Village and journalists into the media center to the results captured when Michael Phelps’ finger tips hit the Omega timing pad in the Water Cube and then were shared with those journalists with unwavering accuracy …. Lenovo systems processed, communicated, and shared the digital stream of these Olympics with 100% uptime and accuracy.

The big test came during the first set of rains in mid-August. Dozens of ThinkPads were soaked during the downpours; all came through beautifully thanks to their self-draining keyboards.

by Cleo Lee

It has been awhile since my last post, but today I wanted to share some good news from Lenovo Hong Kong.

An event called Lenovo Blogger Meet-up was held in the wonderland, Hong Kong, Friday, Aug 15th and the blogger attendance rate really amazed me. The turnout rate was 100%! The event was the first Lenovo event in the region organized specifically for bloggers. It is certainly a good start for Lenovo to engage the bloggers in sharing information and awareness of Lenovo.

The 20 plus bloggers were very excited to met each other in person in this first ever held Lenovo blogger meet-up. During the event some new Lenovo products were presented to the bloggers, for instance the IdeaPad S9 and S10. The audience considered themselves lucky to be given the opportunity to view and test the new products before they were available for public.

Models paraded the netbooks for everyone, each individual representing a unique identity to cater to contrasting styles and preferences.

As an appreciation of the bloggers who attended the event, a drawing was conducted and the gifts were unique and well received. There were Ideapad S9 and S10 notebooks and a USB Pendrive with Olympic Torch design given away to the lucky winners. The winners were very happy to walk away with the prizes and some were thrilled to own the new Lenovo netbook.

Throughout the event, demo machines were available for the audience to get a hands-on experience on the newly launched netbooks. The staff was overwhelmed by the response as the bloggers were so enthusiastic to try out the new IdeaPad.

We appreciate all the bloggers and were delighted to see they have blogged their own impressions of the event. See what Tinyau, Daisy, Sammy thought. We hope to hear from more from them, and other top bloggers in the Lenovo community.

The blogger community is important - their opinions of our products and their influence should not be ignored in this contemporary world. There is no national boundary for bloggers; their voice should be heard regardless where they are from; as Lenovo says, “New World. New Thinking.”

联想与博友的聚会

自上一次的文章，已经好久没动笔了。然而，今天为博友们带来了好消息！

上两周的星期五，八月十五日，香港联想举办了有史以来第一场与博友们会面的聚会。现场百分百出席率令人鼓舞，毕竟这是联想首次与博友近距离接触，意义非凡！这场活动，无疑是个好的开始。通过此次活动，我们更能有效地将联想新产品的讯息传达予博友。除了让在场的博友们参与发表意见，以从中了解他们对联想的期待之外，与此同时，我们亦希望能籍博友们的“神手”，与众网友分享联想的最新资讯和进展。

现场20多名博友在相互认识了“同行”后， 像是一见如故，交言甚欢。大会当晚，万众期待的一幕也隆重登场。联想首次介绍了即将面市的笔记本电脑Ideapad S9 与 S10，让博友们大饱眼福，惊叹不已。

除此之外，现场也有五位专业模特儿为新产品Ideapad走秀。各式装扮的模特儿手持不同色彩的Ideapad，巧妙地展现了Ideapad可用于各种场合的灵活性。

为了感谢博友们的热烈支持，香港联想增加了幸运抽奖环节。主办当局还准备了Ideapad S9 、 S10以及祥雲火炬USB优盘，大派丰富礼品，让现场观众大呼惊喜！尤其是获得Ideapad的幸运儿，非常雀跃，迫不及待地想亲身验试赠品。

当晚，大会也提供了一本Ideapad样品，让博友们“亲手”体验；现场的反应，可是无比热烈！这样的场合，当然少不了问答环节。出席者皆积极参与反馈，气氛很是不错。对于此次活动，多位博友给予了赞赏。尽管如此，有者亦表示联想在此类活动仍有进步的空间。

更令人惊喜的是活动结束以后，一群博友便第一时间上网，着手描写了有关此次活动。不仅述说当晚情景，有者还上载展示自己的收获品，速度快得让人赞佩。其中，极为热情的博友有天佑、Daisy和Sammy等人。

如今，在这科技极度发达的世界里，网络上的博客社区犹如产品同等重要；任何一方都不能漠视。博友是不分国界的，无论他/她身在何处，大家都来自“同一个世界”；即使语言不同，但亦不会因此而产生隔阂。我们重视博友们的声音, 因为这正是联想一直所秉承的“New World. New Thinking”.

The Olympic Games begin today and as I’m sure many of you know, Lenovo is a top sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Our Internet Lounges recently opened in the Athlete Villages and we’ve been testing our massive technology infrastructure setup in Beijing. You can even find the blogs of 100 athletes on our Voices of the Olympic Games website, where we’ve helped equip and support athletes in order to share their voices in the first Olympics where blogging is allowed during the competition time period. Of course, how can I forget our Olympic Podium where any and all Olympic info can be found and customized.Those watching the Olympics will also see a number of new, unique, and creative Lenovo TV commercials. Given we don’t run TV commercials often, I wanted to get the opinions of our community on here. I’ve embedded the videos below and put a poll below them. Please vote in the poll for your favorite commercial and share your thoughts in the comments!

Be sure to check out the bonus video just added (8/22) at the bottom.

Tim Supples

Edit: Got a special behind the scenes look on the set of the Sumo commercial for our loyal blog readers. Enjoy

Guest blogging today is andyP, who joins us from Germany, and can be found helping customers and meting out advice in multiple forums, including Lenovo’s, where he volunteers as a moderator. Today he’s sharing insights on running a business that grew up with the ThinkPad in an increasingly competitive world of PC sales and service, and his recipe’ for success - quality personal service.

---

It was in 1992 that my father gave me his old 386 PC which promptly got converted to a machine without a 5.25” floppy, but instead a Phillips 2x CD-RW (which cost me a week’s wages), a new motherboard, and a 200 MMX CPU (another week’s wages gone). I had some limited exposure to computers before, but this was the start of my hobby PC “expert” phase which with my sales and customer service experience gained over the years (in the motorcycle trade) landed me a job in a Notebook Studio in Düsseldorf towards the end of 2000. This is when I really learned about hobby PC “experts” and found out that I really knew not a lot. I was duly issued an IBM 600 as my work machine, truly introduced to the ThinkPad and, yes, I caught the “Bug”. At about this same time IBM had started a new concept: the ThinkPad Centre. A scheme which would enable business and private customers to seek out a more knowledgeable and informed partner to answer their questions regarding products and solutions, including the then evolving, to be named later, ThinkVantage Technologies.

And so the shop became a ThinkPad Centre. At this time the ability for customers to order direct from IBM online was also ended. It was increasingly noticeable that more and more people were turning to Notebooks instead of PCs; they were becoming a lot more affordable and so the market was opening up to more and more potential customers. A Notebook was no longer a luxury product; they were being sold in the home electrical stores, and not to mention the ever increasing number of Internet shops.

There was some uncertainty, amongst other things, about how the future looked when the IBM / Lenovo deal was first announced. The question arose as to whether or not they would be equally committed to their partners and products, as Lenovo was seen more as a consumer market orientated company than a business market. Hindsight, yes that perfect science, has shown these concerns were unfounded and I can honestly say that I don’t know on which day the deal actually happened; it seems to have gone unnoticed except for the name change on the letter head we were receiving, and the ThinkPad Centres eventually became Lenovo Stores.

Although the notebook market was rapidly growing, for the specialized shop without a web-front it was shrinking. Price was becoming the major factor, the electrical stores were competing with each other and of course all the web-shops were doing the same which pushed down profit margins. Everyday we were seeing the web-shops offering more and more of the same products at our cost price, obviously working on the high turnover minimum profit principle. What I call minimalistic labour unintensive selling; let the customer make his or her choice and carry the box to, or click on, the checkout. How many of these customers have over the years purchased an unsuitable product because they basically didn’t know what they were buying and the salesperson didn’t always know what they were selling? Added to this the Notebook manufacturers were competing with their own special offer programs such as those for students and educational institutions, thus almost completely denying that portion of the market to the specialists.

With hindsight (there it is again) our company didn’t take the correct fork in the road and 2 years ago closed. I decided to try and carry on the business alone with Lenovo allowing me to retain the Store status. My decision to do this was based on the fact that no matter where a system is purchased, there will always be a need for accessories and, more importantly, service and support outside the warranty. The customers who lay value on buying from a person who can advise and inform them will always be my mainstay. I have even learned to bite my tongue a bit now and then as the students and internet buyers call by and ask their questions or just want to look at what they plan to purchase elsewhere before taking the final decision, sometimes getting nervous when I start asking about making them an offer. Some more obviously have a copy of the web site offer printed out in their hand and ask your opinion about the offer.

I see this as an opportunity and a challenge; I can stress the advantages of having a person, whom the buyer has got to know and trust and who is in a position to draw on his knowledge to offer advice and assistance as the first contact should service or support be required, instead of the alternative unknown voice on the other end of the telephone. As Lenovo’s market share increases, its ThinkPad product range extends with the new SL-Series and it also enters the consumer market with the Idea product range (not yet launched in Germany), there will be an increasing demand for advice, assistance and support.

The consumer market they are destined for is a much faster-changing market than the ThinkPad business market. With product lifecycle being the main factor, consistency of product compatibility is important in the business market. It will be several months before a major component or feature change on ThinkPads takes place as a large portion of the market requires consistency, companies can roll out systems throughout the year without having to repeatedly update their corporate software images. This is also why it’s still possible to download ThinkPad drivers for Windows 2000. This consistency of hardware and image compatibility is not a factor in the consumer market, probably not achievable, it’s in fact entirely the opposite situation; the manufacturer who doesn’t have the latest CPU, GPU or gadget in their product is risking getting left behind and I don’t see that Lenovo, or any manufacturer come to that, can allow this to happen. Resources will be spent on hardware updates and getting it working on a specific platform rather than multiple platforms.

As long as people buy whatever product they need, the need for advice, assistance and support will be ever present and I plan to be there - who knows maybe even one day, Lenovo permitting, offering the complete package as a warranty service partner.

Our next featured customer guest blogger, Vijay Saradhi hails from India, is an active participant in the Lenovo forum community and moderates Lenovo discussions in the Orkut community. I found his perspective on open source and the use of computing devices which are not in the traditional desktop or notebook form factors interesting.   Not every technological culture follows the same developmental roadmap or approach…

---

I want to share my perspective on the radical shift in technology underway in my country and the way India has adapted in its development. There are many areas of computer science which are developing niche products in their own areas or domains, but two areas which hold my interest are the open source phenomenon and web based services. My never ending want to gain more knowledge as long as possible is due to the impetus called opensource.

All along these years I have been a bit of a layman about computers, a person who would use the usual software or tools without any choice. Why do I find opensource so amazing? My reason is that it provides a very good competition to large scale software companies because the rise of a formidable competitor in opensource will leave other companies with no choice but to provide better products. I have been using GNU/Linux for 6 years and it was this platform that presented various questions and queries. Remember Linux was not so user friendly once as it is today!

Due to my interest in computers and GNU/LINUX , I was inclined to try every single distro I could get my hands on, exploring the various characteristics of them though the web and social media. It is these kind of platforms which provide increased know-how to persons who are interested in these kind of areas. For example, Linux is being used as a tool for developing the rudimentary knowledge of computers for school children in the state of Kerala, which has India’s highest literacy rate. The state government chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be deployed not only in state run schools but also for its administrative purposes. In the IT policy of the federal government, the use of opensource software has provided many advantages such as the localization of important platforms like Mozilla Firefox and open office.org into our regional languages. I wonder whether that could have been possible, or as easily accomplished with proprietary software makers?

It is also Linux which powers India’s first locally made hand held computer called the “Simputer.”

Used under Creative Commons license (by-sa) from http://www.wizards-of-os.org/archiv/wos_3/presse/pressebilder.html

More on the simputer…

Innovative mechanisms like these and much more have given Indian people the power to utilize their synergies in a good manner. For a country such as India where any initiative in IT sector should be started in a big manner due to its huge population,(1.1 billion) a viable and economical solution is the adaption of opensource systems as a whole.

Vijay Saradhi