:: MIS Insights ::

In preparation for an upcoming computer upgrade, i’ve been doing some research on what’s the better CPU to pick up. As a Pareto fan, the new computer will be used 80% of the time for work and 20% of the time for games (where that 20% of the playtime will make the 80% of work worthwhile). Here’s what I’ve gotten so far:

Xeon or Core 2 Duo?

Xeon Server (traditional Intel server cpu)

• Stability - has undergone rigorous testing suited for 24/7 operations
• Lower price point - cheaper than high-end core 2 duo babies

Core 2 Duo (e8400. sweet spot for price-performance ratio… if you can find one)

• Great overclocking capability
• Higher clock-speed - this will own xeons in many games, anytime of the day

June 2008 or December 2008?

If i wait until december 2008 for the uber-rig, i’m looking at:

• Intel’s new socket (they’ll be upgrading lga775 ~ which isn’t a socket btw)
• Cheaper price for whatever i’m salivating for right now (My 35k right now will surely be down to 20k by december)
• Better gauge for upcoming games (Fallout 3 and Starcraft 2)

If i do wait until december, should i get a budget pc right now for 10k?

Should I upgrade or not? hahaha. this is a very nice problem

($40:PhP1)

I was fixing my pc yesterday and couldn’t reformat because my xp installer was being ejected every 30 seconds. Since 1) most of my files can be accessed through the network, 2) i can share my laptop’s optical drive through the network, 3) i can create and use cd images and 4) i have lots of hard drive space, i haven’t bothered replacing it.

Unfortunately, I needed a real and physical optical drive yesterday to reinstall xp on my desktop. If it weren’t for the hot weather, i would have went to gilmore and got me a new pc… i mean, optical drive.

So, i played around with a 1gb CF card and created a bootable XPSP2 CF installer. 1 morning musume concert watched from my laptop later, my desktop was reformatted and loaded with all my necessary work applications.

File backups aside, i don’t think i’ll be using an optical drive anytime soon. Now, eee and air’s lack of optical drive makes sense. Don’t you think?

This is the second time that ERD Commander 2005 has bailed me out. It’s a Windows XP recovery application that allows you to do lots of cool stuff! The application is stored in a CD which you use to boot up your system with. It will load its own files and drivers so you have less stuff to worry about.

1. Password Reset

Have you ever gotten into the Windows login page after boot up only to find yourself stumped because you forgot your password? Worry no more! ERDC has a nifty tool which allows you to change the passwords of Windows User Accounts.

Sure, there are other ways to crack reset an account’s password. You can go to the recovery console, overwrite this file with that. You can use another account to reset your password. You can use a password reset disk. You can bring it to a competent technician who will only tell you “Let’s Reformat the Computer” (Where you don’t actually reformat the computer ~ you reformat the hard drive).

However, this is the simplest non-destructive way that I’ve found - Using a third party tool.

2. System Restore Point

I installed a Windows automatic update a few days ago. It was only this morning that I had to reboot my computer (it hanged). During bootup, it stayed on the progress bar for 20 minutes! I checked out Safe Mode and found that it hanged after loading the MUP.SYS file. I tried recovery console and it hanged when performing chkdsk. After browsing around in the internet, I found a forum post speculating that this might be a SATA-drive related issue caused by a System Update. My computer hanged when I tried to access my SATA drive - my primary is an IDE drive and I have a SATA slave.

Lucky me, I didn’t turn off my System Restore points. My desktop is set up to create one every day. So, I used ERDC’s System Restore Functionality and went back in time for around 2 days. I restarted my computer and it worked!

There are a lot of other things that ERDC can do, but these two are my personal testimonials based from experiences on the product. Worth mentioning though is its ability to configure your desktop for internet via LAN (so you can read troubleshooting guides online) and drive mounting (access your other hard drives over the network to backup your files!).

GJ ERD Commander! Good Job!

Disclaimer: I am in no way employed, sponsored or affiliated with Winternals (ERD Commander Developer) or Microsoft (which bought Winternals July 2006).

In one of my earlier posts, I talked about the history of the Hard Drives that went through my life. Reading through the post made me realize that it’s been two years since I bought an internal hard drive [160gigs] and a year since I acquired an external hard drive [200gigs]. This year, I’d like to introduce a new member to my data storage family: A 320 Gigabyte Internal Seagate SATA hard drive

320 Gigabytes?! What the hell are you going to do with all that space?

• Pictures. I take around 4 gigabytes worth of pictures every month. You can double that amount once I do some post-processing.
• Anime. When you don’t have time to sit down in front of a television on a regular basis, downloading shows can be the next best thing to a Two-Piece Crispy Chicken Joy with Extra Rice during Saturday lunch time.
• Ego. I’m going to brag about it. My Hard Drive is bigger than yours.

Installation Notes for those who want to join in with the fun

• Cables - when you buy your hard drive, make sure you go home with a SATA HD power cable and a SATA data cable (sometimes, you have to buy this too ~ doesn’t make sense why it isn’t bundled right away)
• BIOS - make sure that your SATA is enabled in your BIOS settings. Otherwise, it won’t get detected.
• Windows Detection - if you can see your hard drive during startup but can’t see your hard drive in windows, check out Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management (Local) and make sure your drive is active, formatted and healthy.
• IDE - if you have to run your SATA HD alongside an IDE HD, experiment where your IDE HD is plugged in the IDE cable.

And yes. After just five days, it’s half-full already.

Got my L33TSig. It’s a little picture/banner that one can use to display information about their computer. People usually get it for their forum signatures. Here’s mine:

How to install and configure L33tSig (Windows):

1. Visit L33tSig’s website.
2. Register at their website so you can download the L33tSig application (or client). I recommend the executable installer.
3. After you’ve downloaded the client, install.
4. Run the L33TSig application. You will see three tabs / panels ~ User Preferences, Signature Preferences, Proxy Options. Get into each of them and configure to your needs.
   • User Preferences - fill in your username and password (the one you used to register at L33tSig’s website) and frequency of your signature updates. Previewing your sig text will only work once you’ve configured your Signature Preferences. (screenshot)
   • Signature Preferences - you will have seven lines of displayable information. Configure as you wish using the dropdowns on the left (screenshot). Don’t worry about the items on the right, they are filled up automatically once you’ve chosen from the drop down list. After configuring this page, you have to click on “OK” or “Apply” to save your settings. Otherwise, previews in the User Preferences won’t work.
   • Proxy Options - if you’ve got one, fill it in with the appropriate information. If you don’t know whether you have one or what your proxy information is, ask your System Administrator.
5. Go back to L33TSig’s website, log-in to your account, and look for the settings link on the left sidebar of the page.
6. In this page, you can change how your L33TSig’s background looks. Most importantly, at the bottom of the page, are your Bulletin Board and HTML codes that will display your signature.

And that’s it. Have Fun!

While we’re at it, here’s a shortlist of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) pros and cons, most of which are made against traditional monitors (CRTs - or Cathode Ray Tube):

PROS

• Less Eyestrain. Heard of monitor refresh rates? 60 hertz, 85 hertz, 100 hertz, etc? CRTs need to refresh (or illuminate) the screens much more often than LCDs. This frequent refreshing causes eye strain and fatigue.
• Radiation. LCDs don’t give out as much radiation as CRTs. Computer Radiation screen, anyone?
• Smaller Footprint LCDs take up less valuable space than CRTs. In high-cost areas like business districts or prime real estates, the space (and real estate cost) wasted by CRTs are more than what LCDs can cost. Most LCDs nowadays can even be mounted on walls.
• Power Consumption. LCDs consume around 1/3 to 1/2 less power than CRTs.
• Environment Friendly. LCDs don’t have dangerous chemicals like CRTs - which have mercury in them.
• Lifetime. LCDs have light bulbs to provide illumination. These light bulbs have a lifetime average of 50,000 hours. That’s a mere 12 hours of usage everyday for 11 years. Not bad considering that CRTs usually last me 4 years.

CONS

• Expensive. While LCDs have become more affordable in the past two years, it still costs a fortune.
• Pixels Die. Pixels in an LCD can die. When they do, 1) there’ll be a black and dead spot in your screen; 2) they’re the most irritating thing in the world and 3) there’s nothing you can do about it
• Fixed Resolution. LCDs have a fixed or native resolution. For instance, a 19″ LCD monitor that has a 1280×1024 native resolution will suck in displaying in other resolutions (i.e. 1024×768)
• Viewing Angle. LCDs have a smaller viewing angle than CRTs. You can look at CRTs from any angle with little color or quality loss. You can’t do that with an LCD. You need to be almost in front of it or within its viewing angle. Bad if you want to watch movies in your sofa/bed from a different elevation/angle.

My father brought home his desktop computer for my brother.

• Pentium 4 3Ghz [530J]
• 512MB PC3200 [400Mhz] DDR RAM
• 80GB hard drive
• ATI X300
• TV Tuner
• WI-FI card (yes, the Desktop has wireless ethernet)
• DVD burner with lightscribe capability

While it’s not top of the line anymore, I plan to upgrade it soon by swapping Trailblazer’s internal organs. Since I rarely play anymore (or I’m looking hard at a 7950…), I’ll be trading video cards (my 7600GT for his X300) and ram (my 1GB PC3200 for his 512MB PC3200).

I’m still studying though its motherboard layout. If I put in my 7600, it will be very cramped inside and the peripherals might not be able to handle the heat caused by the lack of air space. Currently, looking for some cooling and ventilation solution.

Nevertheless, it comes equipped with what my brother needs - nice audio and video output. It’s actually an HP Pavilion rig - the original box for my 19″ HP LCD monitor.

My father brought it home without an accompanying monitor. Translation = my brother didn’t have a monitor… or Pipboy will lose a desktop monitor very soon.

So, I went to PCX today and got an extra monitor for the household. It was a toss-coin between ViewSonic and AOC. Both of which were 19″ widescreen LCDs. I got AOC because it was cheaper (PhP 11,430 vs Php 13,730) and didn’t have integrated speakers (integrated speakers rule if you want to save on desktop space - but suck with their audio quality).

I didn’t know what my brother wanted, so I made him choose. HP (with a 4:3 aspect ratio) or AOC (16:9).

This blog was brought to you by AOC’s widescreen LCD monitor.

After 21 days without restarting Zoom (my laptop), I unwillingly had to restarted my laptop this morning.

A Software Update got past me while I was eating breakfast and when I got back, it was bugging me every few minutes to restart my computer for the changes to take effect.

So, there, much to my dismay, I had to restart.

I don’t like restarting or shutting down my laptop because:

• It takes longer to reboot than to come back from a state of hibernation (assuming I hibernated my laptop with a few light applications only). For a road warrior like me, every moment that my laptop spends on a still flat surface is limited and therefore, precious time.
• With the internet browsing, programming, presentations and documentation that I do for a living, my laptop still performs well without restarting in between uses.
• This longest non-reboot thing is an ongoing contest between my laptop and Roland’s iBook

In decreasing preference, I’d rather hibernate (laptop plays dead) than go to standby (laptop lies in wait, consuming battery power over time) than restart.

* The 21 days stated above is inclusive of the time I use my laptop and hibernation.

Philips is currently developing a Skype phone that will no longer require a personal computer.

This is a big step in addressing one of the biggest challenges of VoIP proliferation in the market. With the Philips VOIP841, all you need is a broadband connection via a router, and you’re set. The same goes for Netgear’s Skype Phone, which was introduced earlier this year.

Will this shift in the winds of technology help increase VoIP popularity in the Philippines? Will VoIP be the next big thing for our country’s ICT infrstructure? Only if VoIP service providers can address the current communications infrastructure of the Philippines.

• Analog Telephones. Our current telephone system works fine the way we need it. If VoIP service providers can target long distance callers, then they’ll have a chance of making it big with the families of 8 million OFWs abroad.
• SMS. Text Messaging has grown to be one of the most popular means of communication in the Philippines. Though intended for SHORT messaging, trust the FilipnoP0et2wrkArndSchPrblm. If VoIP could integrate SMSoIP, now we’re talking.
• Mobility. Mobile people would rather use cellular phones for portability and coverage. This is most useful when you have to move around a lot (ex. sales agent) or if you don’t really have your own office space (ex. laptop-powered workforce). The internet connection requirement currently limits the mobility of VoIP phones. If we could develop a Wireless Metropolitan Area Network…
• E-mail. E-mail is cheap, fast and dialogue is asynchronous. Hmm…
• Telco. With one big telco company running the show for both analog telephony and digital subscriber lines, DSL-dependent services that can eat through their telephony business profits are not really welcome in the ICT ecology.

However, as with most capitalist economies, if there is a need, there will be a supply. Is there a need for VoIP in the Philippines?

If there is, maybe not in the consumer market right now.

If there is none, maybe the government can help in improving the use of our current ICT infrastructure. We might be doing well against our Asian neighbors in terms of tech level, however the advanced technology is limited mainly to foreign companies and their offices here. For instance, Quezon City touts itself as the ICT capital of the Philippines. I don’t think having the most number of call centers in the country is an indicator of ICT-ness from a profitable business perspective. We have a 3-5 year telco advantage among other Asian countries. I hope we could develop programs that take advantage of the benefits of our ICT infrastructure.

//picture borrowed from flickr. thanks.

Can you spot the difference?

Trailblazer

ScoutMaster

My laboratory was a mess with all the tinkering that I had to do the past few days. As such, I spent the better half of the day dusting, recabling and configuring what not. After all the hard work though, I’m very pleased at how The Den looks now.