When Video Gaming Starts Getting Serious

The quest for fun is one of the greatest motivating factors that lead to addiction. So with the prevalence of video games and computer games that can freely be accessed on the Internet, the trend of addiction has experienced a major change. In the past, we see these forms of games as often educational and harmless while it appeals to the imagination of the human mind to be played, making it a great ways of passing time. These games even provide individuals with the perfect opportunity to escape from the stresses of life, being drawn in magical and virtually created world. However, the rising number of cases of video game addiction and computer game addiction made virtual games a major concern as it has changed the trend and appearance of addiction in modern societies.

Video and computer games managed to become a common feature of our daily lives, being a major source of fun and entertainment for children and adults. However, when a mere form of relaxation becomes out of control and starts displacing work or schoolwork, friends and family, it must be a point of concern. Extended hours of playing virtual games is a clear indication of compulsive gaming disorder. When not immediately treated, it might progress into video game addiction or computer game addiction.

The easily attained reward-system of video and computer games makes them even much harder to resist. Also, the incorporation of the latest computer technology in virtual game design makes these games even more appealing and engaging to players. Since playing these games bring out a feeling of satisfaction out of the thrill, fun and excitement that the game brings, these good feelings are often abused.

The definite grounds of diagnosing computer game addiction or video game addiction is yet under scrutiny and debate. However, the following signs are clear indications of compulsive gaming disorder, which leads to addiction when not immediately treated. Tolerating long hours of playing is a sign of addiction. A display of uncontrolled irritation and moodiness when prevented from doing the activity is another sign of addiction. But the more serious symptom characterizing this condition is persistent playing despite being aware of the adverse consequences of the act.

While compulsive gaming disorder and video and computer game addiction has already affected a large portion of the world's population, many countries have taken the pro-active position in responding to the issues. China and Korea is initiating a strict implementation of rules and guidelines in the design of new virtual games that of diminishing the extent of reward-system when a player has reached a maximum of 3-hour gaming mark. Many European and American countries have devised a combination of psychopharmacology and psychotherapy treatments to help gaming addicts to heal and cope with the uncontrollable urge to play. Treatment centers have been put up, similar to those for substance abuse facilities, aiming to control the progress of video game addiction and computer game addiction as early as to their preliminary stage.

Facebook vs Friendster

Saya mengenal Friendster sejak September 200. Dari 4 tahun itu, saya sudah memiliki lebih dari 1000 teman. Sementara saya mengenal Facebook baru beberapa hari, dan saya mulai memiliki beberapa teman. Saya mulai familiar dengan Facebook, jadi ga ada salahnya kalau saya coba bandingkan Facebook dengan Friendster.

Catatan perbandingan, menurut saya:

• Tujuan
• Tampilan
• Isi
• Fleksibilitas
• Kemudahan dipelajari

Tujuan

Keduanya merupakan situs networking.

Tapi sayangnya untuk Friendster, kita kurang bisa mencari teman-teman yang (pernah atau sedang) berhubungan dengan kita. Kesulitan akan terjadi kalau kita tidak tahu atau tidak ingat nama ataupun alamat email teman yang akan kita add. Kenal sih iya, tapi jadi teman di Friendster belum tentu.

Kalau Facebook, kita bisa mencari teman-teman melalui jaring pertemanan dari orang yang sudah menjadi teman kita. Nah, enaknya di situ. Jadi, ga perlu cari-cari nama atau email account teman yang mau kita add, tapi cukup cari lewat jaring pertemanannya. Cuma, memang kalau ada teman yang kita benar-benar ga tahu, berarti kita mesti kenalan dulu, donk. Tak kenal maka .. kenalan!

Tampilan

Untuk tema tampilan Friendster memiliki beberapa pilihan dan bahkan kita bisa memakai tema tampilan buatan kita sendiri. Tapi, tampilannya statik. Sementara Facebook tidak bisa diganti-ganti. Tampilannya lebih mirip blog (bahkan papan iklan) ketimbang detil identitas kita.

Keduanya menggunakan tampilan frame dan kolom. No problem buat saya, selama tampilannya clean, it’s OK. Saya lebih suka liat tampilan profil Friendster saya, lebih clean. Makanya, profil Facebook saya ga mau ditambah macam-macam biar ga pusing liatnya.

Isi

Isi dari profil Friendster dan Facebook sebenarnya sama saja. Keduanya akan menampilkan data pribadi kita, siapa teman kita, dan apa yang ingin kita beritakan ke dunia lewat internet. Tapi, saya lebih suka Facebook. Kenapa? Karena Facebook menawarkan tampilan data pribadi yang lebih detil dari Friendster. Jadi, bisa tahu tuh, teman jaman dulu (hehe, ada gitu teman jadul?) sekarang tinggal di mana, kerja di mana, kuliah apa, sudah married apa belum, dll. Seru, deh.

Fleksibilitas

Untuk urusan fleksibilitas saya belum ngulik-ngulik banget. Tapi, kalau di Facebook, kita bisa lebih bebas berkreasi. Ya, pokoknya lebih dinamis ketimbang Friendster.

Kemudahan dipelajari

Friendster jelas mudah dipelajari. Kita ga perlu habiskan waktu lama untuk memakai fitur standar yang disediakan Friendster. Tapi, kalau untukFacebook, mungkin perlu tambahan waktu. Facebook itu kalau tidak kita kelola dengan baik pastinya jadi papan iklan yang kepenuhan dengan iklan atau aplikasi yang ga jelas. Sementara kalau Friendster, mau diapapun juga ya gitu-gitu aja. Hehe.

Sekali lagi, ini perbandingan menurut saya pribadi. Jangan jadikan ini sebagai acuan untuk anda membuat keputusan atau penilaian kalau salah satu lebih jelek. Toh, barangkali saya lebih condong ke satu hal karena juga belum begitu kenal atau kena euforia barang baru. Hehe.

Jadi, mau pakai Friendster, Facebook, atau keduanya? Terserah anda.

The Difference Between Mastercard And Visa

For starters Visa and Mastercard don’t actually issue cards themselves. They operate the computer systems that process transactions on their network by people buying products/service or withdrawing money from ATM’s. Both make money by charging fees to banks that issue Mastercard/Visa branded cards.

All the actual features of the credit/debit card (interest rates, reward programs, interest free days etc) are set by the bank, credit union or building society that issued your card.

Both kinds of cards are widely accepted worldwide in retail outlets and cash machines. However in certain areas acceptance levels may vary.

My experience is that sometimes when travelling ATM’s won’t let you use your Mastercard/Visa card so it’s always handy to have another card from the other network which you can use instead. Specifically this happened to me a few times in Western Europe and also in Asia.

Also keep enough cash to pay for at one or two days expenses in case none of your cards work.

Reports from elsewhere on the net suggest that card acceptance is much more likely to be a problem in “non-Western” places like: Asia, Africa and South America eg: The Cuban banking system which does not recognise any financial instrument issued by a US bank.

Choosing credit card for your necessity

Everyday everyone almost makes transaction using cash, whether they buy for their daily necessity or they pay their bills. If you bring cash in large number, you must feel uncomfortable; there are many risks to take. To make financial transaction easier to do for your own safety, it is better for you to use credit cards. Nowadays there are a lot of companies offering credit card service facilities. You probably get confused in choosing which is the most profitable for your necessity.

If you get confused to choose service which you would like to choose, probably it is better to visit comparecards.com to assist you. This site will give information for you in choosing you would like to use. And then you compare its service one and another and you fill its registration application via online safely. If you rarely make transaction and pay the bills using credit card, then the best choice is using low interest credit card.

However if you use credit card for your business activities, then the best choice is using business credit cards. Because you will gain many benefit if you choose this type, like get free travel, cash back, savings on business-related items and more.

Another choice which you can pick is pre-paid debit cards. You can choose this type when you ever get annoying experience like a bad credit history. With this type, you are fixing and rebuilding bad credit. If you often get difficulties in controlling your expense, then using pre-paid type will be very helpful for you to limit your exceed expense.

AMD Phenom, ready to fight Intel

Rupanya tingkah laku Intel yang terus membombardir pasar processor dengan produk dual core mereka kini mendapat tanggapan serius dari AMD. Tahun lalu AMD memang melaju lebih dulu dengan AMD X2 mereka untuk mulai berjalan di pasar dual core. Tetapi setelah Intel keluar dengan varian dual core berseri Core 2 Duo, pasar processor langsung jatuh ke tangan Intel.

AMD siap untuk menelurkan varian prosesor baru yang akan mengganti seri Athlon milik mereka. Memang sudah hampir pasti bahwa seri Athlon mereka akan segerea diganti dengan processor-processor baru bernama Phenom. Produk-produk baru ini rencananya akan dipasarkan mulai pertengahan tahun ini.

AMD Phenom akan memiliki sederetan processor yang memiliki kode nama Agena, Agena FX, dan Kuma. Seri kode Agena dan Agena FX akan memiliki processor berinti empat, alias quad core. Sedangkan untuk seri kode Kuma akan memiliki processor berinti dua, atau dual core.

Semua processor baru ini akan bekerja di kisaran 2.2 hingga 2.8 GHz dan memiliki kecepatan bus mencapai 4.2GHz. Processor-processor baru ini akan kompatibel dengan slot AM2 yang kini sudah marak beredar di pasaran. Dan tentunya nanti akan diharapkan untuk menjadi lawan yang seimbang bagi Intel Core 2 Duo maupun Intel Core 2 Quad. AMD Phenom juga memiliki versi ekstrem yang disebut Phenom FX.

Sekarang kita tunggu saja keluarnya processor-processor baru AMD ini dan menyimak baik-baik perang klasik antara dua kubu penghasil processor ini. Saya pribadi lebih menjagokan AMD.

Wii modchips

Wii modchip is released, check out the list of the modchip and small information about them.

List of mod chips

Chiip
An open source modchip created by Cadex. It was the first free modchip to be released. The latest firmware, v1.0 beta 7 supports features such as original game playback (Wii and GameCube), backups from the same region (Wii and GameCube), Gamecube homebrew, DVR+R / DVD-R / DVD+RW ability, DMS / D2A / D2B chipset ability and it works with both ATmega8L-8 and ATmega8-16 on 3.3V supply.

CycloWiz
The 2nd modchip to be released. This chip is able to play not only backups of its own region, but it also partially supports playback of backups from a different region (PAL discs on an NTSC Wii). The CycloWiz's firmware can be updated via DVD, so more options will become available in the future. However, early versions of the Cyclowiz supported a DVD read speed of only 2x, instead of the normal 6x, causing playback issues including choppy videos and rarely disc read errors during cut-scenes or loading screens. This read speed problem was corrected in later revisions and updates.


OpenWii
The first GPL-licensed (as of 2.01) open source modchip. Written in C. Source released before binaries.


WiiFree
Another Open source modchip for PIC 12F629, 12F675, 12F683, 16F628, and 16F628A chips. It is written in JalV2 and the source code is always released with the binary. It has all the functions of a regular commercial modchips but it's free. WiiFree is regularly updated and the latest version is 2.45. To update WiiFree the chip needs to be reprogramed with a Pic Programmer.


WiiD
The Wii Drive Modchip or simply WiiD shares many similarities with the commercial modchips that preceded it. The WiiD like its competitors can also have its internal firmware updated via DVD. The upgrade process is rather primitive where the only indication of a complete firmware flash is a disc read error (DRE) screen. The WiiD supports all Wii and GC backups of the same region of the console and as of firmware v02 has become region free with most titles.


WiiKey
The WiiKey has the same features as the CycloWiz, except the WiiKey is a lot smaller. The Wiikey can also be updated with a DVD. Setup Disk version 1.2 enables playing certain roms (such as SNES) and homebrew however this is achieved using the game cube compatibility mode, as well as backing up GC and Wii games onto an SD card using a Gecko adapter. WiiKey is working on close to full support for playback of backups of different regions with a few exceptions (namely, Naruto Shippūden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX - JAP will only work on NTSC-J Japanese Wii consoles)

Note that Wiikey can't play GameCube games with audio-Streaming (like Naruto GNT 1-4, Ikaruga, Eternal Darkness, Wave Race, and some others).

Wiinja
The first announced Modchip for the Wii. Supports playback of backup discs but only in the format of its own region. The Wiinja Deluxe, released on February 26, can upgrade and play imports.


WiiXT
Promises to be the ultimate Wii Modchip, which would even enable Wii homebrew, the ability to boot any virtual console game, DVD movie playback, and 100% support for playback of other region backups. Currently, there is widespread speculation that the chip is, a fake.

It has been reported that the original site for WiiXT has confirmed it being a fake.

Wi-ic

The Wi-ic is capable of Wii and Gamecube backup play, supports multi-disc games, Gamecube import play with swapping, Gamecube homebrew play. Wii import and homebrew play is unconfirmed.

It has 5 wires that can be installed with a quick solder or gold-plated solder pads. Contains a failsafe update mechanism allowing it to recover from a failed update using the Disc Channel or Photo Channel which requires an extra wire to be soldered. An extra wire on the chip allows for a disabling of the chip to be used

The best Wii Modchip for now is Wiinja, CycloWiz, and Wiikey. The price for the modchip in our country, Indonesia, is Rp 750.000,- but the price of Nintendo Wii is still high, it’s around Rp 4.000.000,-.

Graphic Processing Unit

Talking about multimedia is talking about Personal Computer. Talking about graphic in Personal Computer means talking about Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). Without GPU in PC, it will be no image there. So what is GPU? GPU is dedicated graphics rendering device for personal computer, workstation, or game console. A GPU can sit on top of a video card, but is integrated directly into the mainboard in more than 90% of desktop and notebook computers. Most of us call it mainboard GPU. It means the chipset is integrated into the mainboard.

Nowadays, The most powerful class of GPUs typically interface with the motherboard by means of an expansion slot such as PCI Express (PCIE) or Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) and can usually be replaced or upgraded with relative ease, assuming the motherboard is capable of supporting the upgrade.So, if you wanna get more powerfull GPU, you can upgrade it when you want it. Its different with mainboard GPU, because mainboard GPU is can't change without change the mainboard.

Modern GPUs use most of their transistors to do calculations related to 3D computer graphics. They were initially used to accelerate the memory-intensive work of texture mapping and rendering polygons, later adding units to accelerate geometric calculations such as translating vertices into different coordinate systems. Recent developments in GPUs include support for programmable shaders which can manipulate vertices and textures with many of the same operations supported by CPUs, oversampling and interpolation techniques to reduce aliasing, and very high-precision color spaces.

Untill now, there is two active producers for PC's GPU. Nvidia and ATI. Their competition to produce the best GPU is never end, or not end yet.

Power Color ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 256MB

PowerColor is the one company which will be release ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT. PowerColor provided us with its Radeon HD 2400 XT 256MB. Since these low-end cards usually do not require a large PCB, these low profile cards can fit into smaller chassis or casings.


The 65nm RV610 core is clocked at 700MHz, connected to this is 256MB of DDR3 memory, all of which are rated at 1.4ns and running at a decent 1400MHz DDR. This graphic card will also conscript system memory by default, doubling its total frame buffer to 512MB through HyperMemory technology. However, the local memory bandwidth is restricted by its 64-bit bus.

The Radeon HD 2400 XT has the full complement, from a programmable hardware tessellation unit to the Avivo HD suite of technologies. With the Radeon HD 2400 XT possessing ATI's new Universal Video Decoder (UVD) and Advanced Video Processor (AVP) are both onboard to handle HD video playback tasks instead of the CPU.

There is also a HD audio controller for ATI's version of an all-protected content path for hassle free HDMI support. You'll need a DVI-to-HDMI converter to your HDMI device. However, PowerColor's retail offering should include an edition with this dongle included. Nevertheless, HDCP compliance is a given, since that goes along with the HDMI support and ATI has stated that this will be true for all Radeon HD series card currently. Together with the DVI output, there is a standard analog output and the mini-DIN output. A rather common configuration of connectors for such a low-end card. CrossFire, though not the most important requisite for a low-end card, is also handled internally via software and no interconnecting bridges are required.

[Software Review] Opera Mini 4 beta

Opera has upgraded their browser. Not a PC browser, but a mobile phone browser. This is Opera Mini 4, Although it still in beta version, but it has some new fitures which make your browsing experiences become more interesting.

Now, browsing with mobile phone is very interesting and fun because Opera Mini 4 beta
gives some upgrades and makes us use this browser easily. This is some new abilities of this browser.

Now you can load and see the web site with its original styles and layouts. You can see the style the same as when you load those page with your PC browser. Don't worry when you see a small text in the web page, you can zoom at the point you want to view. Now Opera Mini 4 beta gives a pointer in their browser. So you can move this pointer the same as when you use a mouse in your PC.

Opera Mini 4 beta also delivers the page you want quickly. They increase this browser's loading time, and the cheaper bill for your phone. I haven't checked how much i should pay per kilobyte when i use this browser. But i'm sure, it is cheaper than when you use Opera Mini 3.1.

However, it is still in beta version. Sometimes you will find that it fail to load some pages. But i am sure when the full version is released, it will be more powerfull.

[SOFTWARE REVIEW] Opera mini 3.1

I am sure, all of the internet users know Opera Browser. This browser has an intermediate ability. It's between Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. It's better than Internet Explorer, but it isn't as good as Mozilla Firefox.

But if you use this aplication for your Mobile Phone, it will be so powerfull. This browser can show you a complete web pages, and it also make your internet costs cheaper. I use an Indonesian Operator, IM3 by Indosat. I try to do some blogwalking when i review this software. I open a web page with total bandwith 176KB. And i lost Rp 223 for browse. So it is only Rp 1.2 per kilobyte.

One thing that i don't understand is when i open my own blog, i can't see my shoutbox. But, when i open my friend's blog, i see his shoutbox. We use the same shoutbox from shoutmix. But i don't really care about it, because my blog has a comment column there.

Now, with this software, you can browse over the web anywhere, anytime. Of course, your phone should support JAVA. I tes it with Sony Ericsson W550 and Sony Ericsson W300i.

Information
Name : Opera Mini
Size : 330KB
Version : 3.1
Vendor : Opera
Extention : Java



Para pengguna internet pasti pernah mengenal Opera Browser. Browser yang memiliki lambang huruf "O" berwarna merah ini adalah browser yang memiliki kemampuan di tengah-tengah. Opera lebih bagus dari Internet Explorer namun belum bisa mengalahkan Mozilla Firefox.

Tetapi dalam penggunannya di Mobile Phone, browser ini sangat powerfull. Selain mampu menampilkan halaman situs dengan lengkap, browser ini juga menekan biaya browsing. Saya menggunakan operator Indonesia, IM3 dari Indosat. Saya tidak tahu persis berapa tarif yang dikenakan Indosat per kilobyte-nya untuk browsing. Untuk mengetes biaya ini saya sengaja blogwalking sambil mereview. Total saya membuka halaman blog sejumlah 176KB, dan saya kehilangan pulsa sebanyak Rp 223. Jadi apabila dihitung maka tarif per kilobytenya Rp 1,2.

Yang saya bingung adalah, pada saat membuka blog milik saya, shoutbox milik saya tidak bisa ditampilkan. Tetapi pada saat membuka blog milik teman, shoutboxnya bisa ditampilkan. Padahal sama-sama menggunakan shoutmix. Tapi itu tidak penting, masih ada kolom comment di blog saya.

Jadi kini teman-teman bisa browsing di mana saja dengan menggunakan software ini dan tentunya handphone yang mendukung teknologi JAVA. Saya melakukan tes dengan Sony Ericsson W550 dan Sony Ericsson W300i.

Gears Of Wars 3 on PS3 ?

Analyst heavyweight Michael Patcher as at his crystal ball again, this time dishing out the controversial prediction that Epic's Gears of War series will come to PlayStation 3... eventually.

Speaking to Game Trailers, Patcher pointed out that Epic is no stranger when it comes to the PlayStation 3 hardware, "we pretty much know that Gears of War 3 is probably gonna' come out on PS3."

The reasoning behind Mr. P's prediction is that Microsoft probably has a two game deal to keep the first inevitable Gears of War sequel Xbox 360 exclusive, but after that Epic's free to put it on whichever console it likes.

It'd be a big stir up if Gears 2 ended up on PS3, but will anyone really care by the time the third one comes out?

Just like GTA and Resident Evil before, we reckon Gears would've spent most of its worth by the time it goes multiplatform.

GTA 4 on pc this October?

French site Jeuxpo reports that Grand Theft Auto IV will bereleased on PC in Europe this October. Though they do not offer any specific sources, they do cite retail plans. Neither Rockstar, nor Take Two has confirmed this to be true, but as one can expect, the PC version should be out within six to eight months of the game’s console release.

GTA 4 will set stores on fire on April 29 for PS3 and Xbox 360. This time around, the game is based on a rip off version of New York City, dubbed Liberty City, and is set in the present time. Besides the obvious crime-based missions in the game, players will have the option to make friends and maintain relationships with people in the game for added benefits.

Notebook or Laptop?

The word of "Notebook" is familiar for us. I am sure, all people know this word. And i am sure if all of you also know the word of "laptop". And, whats the difference between them? The answer is nothing. There is no different between them. Notebook and laptop is the same thing.

Now i will not talk about the technical specification about this device. I just wanna write about laptop and notebook words. Yes, about those two words, neither the meaning nor the technical specification. Notebook and laptop have the same meaning, that's a PC with smaller size, more practical, and you can bring it anywhere.

In the Computer World, we know three kinds of computer, desktop, laptop, and palmtop. Desktop is a computer that is placed in a "desk", laptop is a computer that is placed in a "lap", and palmtop is a computer that is placed in a "palm". Nowadays, people do not always use laptop in their "lap". Maybe they wanna place it in desk, bed, chair, or somewhere else. That is why, the word of "laptop" is not relevant anymore. Then, the word "notebook" replace it, because this device's form and function are similar to notebook.

And what my purpose to write this article? Actually i don't have any purpose. But, we know now why there are some people say laptop, and some people say notebook. Now, when you are in arguing with your friend about this silly world, you know the history. Thanks

Useless...But Cool

Optimus Maximus, that’s the name of this keyboard. It’s look like the other keyboards. But, in fact, it is extremely expensive. What is special with this keyboard?

The thing that make this keyboard different and expensive is its technology, the OLED button inside. What does it mean? It means that if we don’t turn our computer on, there will be no letters on the buttons of the keyboard. It will be just like the blank keyboard without any letters or symbols. The new letters or symbols will appear if we turn on our PC. How can it happen? Actually, there is a small LCD OLED in every button of the keyboard which can make the letters or symbols appear. Moreover, the unique thing owned by this keyboard is the letters will appear depend on what we want and how we arrange it. For example, if we choose Arial font, the letters will appear in Arial font on its buttons. It also happens for the other fonts.

I saw this keyboard in Ebay site. Its price is 1564 USD or about 15 million Rupiah. Its price will be higher and higher since this keyboard is produced only in 200 units in the world. Don’t you want to have it?


INDONESIAN LANGUAGE

Optimus Maximus, begitulah nama keyboard ini. Sebuah keyboard yang kelihatannya sama seperti keyboard-keyboard yang lain. Tetapi ternyata berharga sangat mahal. Apakah keistimewaan keyboard ini?

Yang membuatnya mahal pertama adalah karena teknologi OLED button yang terbenam di dalamnya. Apa maksudnya? Jadi pada setiap tombol di keyboard ini apabila tidak dinyalakan maka tidak ada huruf yang terpampang di tombolnya. Huruf-huruf baru muncul saat kita menyalakan PC kita dengan keyboard ini. Bagaimana bisa begitu? Karena ternyata di setiap tombol keyboard ini terdapat sebuah LCD OLED kecil yang berfungsi menampilkan huruf-huruf tersebut. Yang unik adalah, huruf yang muncul, sesuai dengan yang kita atur. Apabila kita memeilih font Arial, maka huruf pada keyboard berbentuk arial, dan juga yang lainnya.

Saya melihat keyboard ini di situs ebay dijual dengan harga 1564USD atau sekitar 15juta rupiah. Dan harga ini akan semakin naik karena keyboard ini hanya diproduksi sebanyak 200 unit di seluruh dunia. Apakah ada yang berminat memilikinya?

Notebook, plus and minus

Almost all people are dreaming to have a notebook. Although PC portable is available at this time, notebook becomes a portable version of PC desktop. . Long time ago, we should do our work at home or office, now we can do our job everywhere. Why? Because there is a notebook which can be brought everywhere we go. Now let us see an advantages and disadvantages when you use a notebook.

As i said before, with notebook we can do something everywhere and everytime we want. It possible because notebook is portable, small, efficient and you can bring it everywhere. When you should do some outdoor work with computer, you can bring notebook. Because it is small and easy to bring.

Nowadays, notebook's technology is increasing day by day, so that you can do other things, beside writing with your notebook. You can browse over the internet with your notebook because can find a hot spot in some public place, you have a built in WiFi adapter, and you have a built in modem in your notebook, so you can browse over the web with your notebook. Your data searching job will be easier.

One thing make notebook more interesting is, with a smaller device, you can get the same ability as a PC desktop. You have a DVD Rom, card reader, USB port, and some features which is the same with your PC desktop.

Now lets talk about the notebook's minus points. The first point is we should pay it more expensive for notebook although it has the same specifications with a PC desktop. Thats because their technology are different. Notebook need a portable and smaller hardwares, thats make the price is high when we compare it with PC desktop.

The second disadvantages is, you can't upgrade your notebook. When you buy a notebook, choose the best and the suitable one for you, because when you find a new technology for notebook and you want to have it, you should buy another notebook. Notebook is not upgradable.

The last problem is overheat. Because of its smaller size, there is not enough room for the battery to get fresh air. Then the circulation inside the notebook is not good enough. When the temperature is too hot, it will be bothering the other hardwares. If you aren't carefull, it will be burn.

Thats some advantages and disadvantages when you buy a notebook. But, when you want a notebook, the one thing that you should pay attention is, take care of your notebook carefully.

ROBOTIC CELL PHONE





I was surprised when i found this picture. I think this picture was taken from movie, game, or something like that, but this cellphone is real. Although you can't find it in entire world, because this cellphone is still in concept. I am not sure who create this phone, or who have the idea to create this phone. But, the creator is already offer this concept phone to some phone publisher, will one of them buy this concept and release it? Who knows. But it will be really cool when this phone will really come to the market.

Best Notebooks For Students and Why


....................................


Students want a laptop or notebook that's lightweight, yet sturdy
enough to take a good pounding! They need a notebook that's comfortable
enough to lug from class to class - so weight and size is an issue.

It has to be small enough to fit comfortable in a backpack or in your
arms. Yet, the student notebook or laptop must have great battery
life and performance. Depending on your budget, student laptops also
have to be inexpensive.

In other words, the ideal student notebook must have great portability,
performance and battery life, yet be lightweight and relatively inexpensive.

The class of notebooks best suited to meet all those demands falls
in the 'thin and light' and the 'ultraportable' categories of laptops
or notebooks.

Some of the best students notebooks are:

HP Pavilion tx1000z series
(click for details)

HP Quality, ultraportable, lightweight (just 3.95 lb.) and powerful. Plus this HP
notebook has a versatile, convertible display - can be used as a slate, ideal for
notetaking, comes with stylus (which stows on the notebook).

IBM ThinkPad X40
(click for details)

Great student notebook with superior keyboard, sleek style and IBM quality,
light and ultra-portable. At 3.2 pounds and very professional this Lenovo/IBM
notebook should be on every student's list.


Apple MacBooks are very popular with students. Sleek design and good performance with
up to 4GB of memory and plenty of storage. Use the special link below to get the MacBook
any student would love to have:

Save up to $250 on MacBook with SUPERDRIVE Closeout models starting at $1094 + FREE Parallels 3.0, Printer and Shipping after rebate(s)




Panasonic ToughBook Y2
(click for details)

May be on the expensive size for some students, but the Panasonic
ToughBook Y2 is a fully packed notebook with solid performance and great
battery life at 5 hours and is really light at 3.3 pounds. Should be considered.


Toshiba - Portégé M200
(click for details)

Those students looking for a Tablet PC for convenient Note Taking should
look at the Toshiba Portégé M200. It runs quiet and cool, and is a
versatile tablet/laptop combination with an excellent keyboard design.


IBM ThinkPad T42
(click for details)

Great 'thin and light' notebook, again with the IBM quality that also
makes it a perfect choice for the busy college student. Lightweight and
portable, in a 5 pound package.


Other Notebook Reviews

Top Rated Tablet PC's ViewSonic - V1100 Acer - TravelMate C300 Toshiba - Portégé M200 HP/Compaq - Tablet PC TC 1100 Top Rated Ultraportables IBM ThinkPad X40 Fujitsu LifeBook P7010D Sony VAIO PCG-TR3A HP Compaq NC4010 Panasonic ToughBook Y2 Dell Latitude X300 Top Rated 'Thin and Light' IBM ThinkPad T43 Acer Ferrari 3400LMi HP Compaq Business nc6000 Dell Inspiron 700m Toshiba Satellite M35-S349 IBM ThinkPad T42 Top Rated Desktop Replacements HP Pavilion zd8060us Rock Quaddra Ti 3.4 Dell Inspiron 9200 Toshiba Qosmio F15 Sony VAIO VGN-A190 Fujitsu LifeBook N6010 Apple 17-inch PowerBook G4 Top Rated 'Gaming' notebooks Alienware Aurora m7700 Alienware Area-51m 7700 Rock Xtreme Ti Dell Inspiron XPS Extreme HP Pavilion zd8000 Dell Inspiron 9200 ABS Mayhem Top Rated 'Business' notebooks IBM ThinkPad X40 HP Compaq Business nc6000 Fujitsu LifeBook P7010D IBM ThinkPad T42 Top Rated 'Budget' notebooks HP Compaq Presario 2210us Averatec AV3250H1 Dell Inspiron 1000 Cheap Laptops 'Notebook Specialists' Acer Notebooks Averatec Notebooks Apple Notebooks Dell Notebooks Fujitsu Notebooks HP Compaq Notebooks IBM Notebooks Panasonic Notebooks Toshiba Notebooks ViewSonic Notebooks Rockdirect Notebooks Alienware Notebooks Amazon Kindle

Dell Inspiron 700m
(click for details)

Dell may be the best choice for a student looking for a relatively
cheap notebook computer or laptop. Good performance at a reasonable
price. Weight at 4.2 pounds.

Sometimes Small is Better!

Reasons all students should have a laptop or notebook computer

Laptops are convenient and useful for note taking, writing compositions,
and gathering knowledge and data from the Internet. To remain competitive
in a very competitive world - students who have a laptop or notebook
computer is at a greater advantage than those without one.

Many parents and students spend 10's of thousands on a good education but
fail to invest in a relatively inexpensive piece of equipment that may greatly
influence the outcome of that high priced education. So give some serious
thought to buying a student notebook or laptop.

A laptop or notebook computer will greatly increase any student's performance
level. So choose wisely!

NOTEBOOK GAMING

Alienware Aurora
Dell XPS M170




Rock Xtreme CTX PRO




Alienware vs Rockdirect vs Dell : Finding the Best Gaming Laptop-Part 1.

So you want to buy a gaming laptop.

But not just any old gaming laptop, you want to buy the best
gaming machine on the planet, the best gaming machine money can
buy - the fastest, the most powerful, the ultimate kick-ass,
take no prisoners, meanest motherboard of all gaming laptops.

Well, there's some good news for you, things have really changed
in the laptop world. No doubt you are probably aware there have been
some major developments in laptop construction and technology
in the last year or so. Technology that puts the gaming laptop
on par or near par with its main rival - the desktop PC.

Recent changes in technology have really brought gaming laptops
into the spotlight with a whole list of new Technologies:
PCI  Express, Sonoma Chipset, SLI, Hyper-Threading, DDR3 SDRAM,
Dual Graphics, and now Dual Core gaming laptops. Gaming notebooks are
just now entering the specs and performance arena which was exclusively
reserved for the bulky yet much more powerful desktop PC.


Just in case you have had your head buried in term papers and study
sheets lately - hey, it happens! Here's a brief rundown of these
new technologies that will give you the fastest gaming laptop:

Graphics Cards: these are the real heart of any gaming machine. They
are getting faster and more powerful. We also see the use of dual
graphics cards and better transmission of data with new pipelines
and buses.

PCI Express: is a new standard for expansion cards that comes in
different versions. Presently, we have the x16 and x1 lanes, they
offer increased bandwidth. For example, x1 lane offers 500MB/sec
instead of just 133MB/sec for PCI.

NVIDIA SLI: SLI stands for Scalable Link Interface, technology
that lets you use a couple of GeForce 6800 graphics cards together
with PCI Express X16. Basically, SLI will speed up graphics on a single
monitor by deploying two graphics cards. It also lets you combine
4 GPUs in one system for the fastest graphics yet.

An alternative system would be ATI's CrossFire which
is a SLI-like configuration using 'Master' and 'Slave'
cards to combine two Radeon GPUs for improved and faster
graphics.

Hyper-Threading: Gives processors better performance
especially when combined with dual-core processors,
capable of handling four software threads which will put
a smile on any gamer's face.

Better RAM: DDR3 SDRAM (Double Data Rate Three Synchronous
Dynamic Random Access Memory) this new DDR memory standard
will use 40% less power and run at speeds up to 800 MHz.
Don't confuse this with GDDR3 (in Graphics Cards) which is
a totally different technology.

Dual Core: just as the name says, you put two CPUs into
a laptop for more power and faster computing. Rockdirect's
Xtreme 64 was one of the world's first dual core notebooks to
hit the market.

Also be on the lookout for Intel's Dual-Core Notebook
Chip dubbed Yonah, it will be somewhat different in that
this notebook chip will not only have two cores but these
cores will share a 2MB cache which will greatly boost performance.


In most cases, keeping ahead of all these developments and
improvements can be a pleasurable chore for most gamers but
it can sure eat into your gaming time. And as the notebook
technology evolves, the gaming laptop will get even more smaller
and more powerful, offering a real alternative to the gaming
desktop PC even for the most die-hard Power Junkies.


Not to get too cynical, but sometimes it's the laptop with
the better paint job or the better advertising that will
win your purchasing dollar. Not that savvy gamers are easily
fooled, perish the thought, but packaging may rule
the day - performance may be the same or negligible in gaming
machines with basically all the same components and specs.

Regardless of this sober reality, gamers are still left with the
choice of which gaming manufacturer has tweaked these components
into the best gaming laptop on the market. There are numerous gaming
specialists that make high quality machines well worth your
consideration but because of limited space here we will only examine
three major gaming manufacturers, sometimes for entirely different reasons.





These three are Alienware, Rockdirect and Dell. All produce serious
contenders for the ultimate gaming laptop. Here's a brief rundown on
all three makers and their gaming laptops which may be of some help
to anyone looking to purchase a high-end gaming monster.

Alienware Notebooks

First, we will start with the most distinctive looking gaming
laptops on the market. Those coming from Alienware, a company
founded by two avid gamers, Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila, in
1996. It has become one of the leading producers of revolutionary
gaming PCs and Notebooks. It has also won raves and rewards from such
top industry publications as CNET, PC Gamer, Computer Games and
many more.

Their flagship model is the Area-51m 7700 . This scary monster
can be outfitted with an Intel Pentium 4 Processor with
Hyper-Threading Technology - (2.8GHz - 3.8GHz, 800MHz FSB,
1MB Cache, Socket 775) Intel 915P + ICH6 chipset with NVIDIA
GeForce GO 6800 ULTRA with 256MB DDR3. It has a 17 inch WideUXGA
1920x1200 LCD Display and 4 dedicated SO-DIMM slots for
Dual-Channel DDR2 Memory. Warranties can be purchased for up
to 4 years.

The Alienware Area-51m 7700's base price starts at around
$2000 but if you want to max out this system, be prepared
to double that amount. High price for high performance.
Runs quiet and cool. This one is dressed to kill.

Rockdirect Notebooks

Next, we go across the pond, for a company that produces some
high priced yet powerful gaming machines. Rockdirect gaming notebooks
are another group of machines that many gamers should consider.
Rockdirect, formerly known as Rock, is a British company that's
on the cutting edge of notebook technology. They have had a long
history of making high quality laptops for business and gaming.
Rockdirect laptops are expensive, there's no way to get around
that fact.

Rockdirect's Xtreme 64 is one of the world's first dual core
notebooks using AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processors and twin
100GB 7,200RPM hard drives. With NVIDIAGeForce Go 7800 GTX
graphics and a 17 inch WSXGA+ (1680x1050) display with X-Glass
for better viewing. Around 2,300 pounds or $4,000 USD.
Three Year Collect and Return Warranty.

Dell Notebooks

Hey dude, this can't be a DEll?

Dell with the introduction of its XPS second generation gaming
laptops has to be considered by the serious gamer. Don't laugh!
With the introduction of the XPS Gen2 laptops, Dell entered the
gaming market for real. A lot of people stood up and took notice.

Even more people stood up when Dell introduced the XPS Renegade 600
desktop gaming system with 4 NVIDIA 7800GTX GPUs at the
CES this year. Now that's putting SLI to some good use!

Dell's top Notebook Model is the XPS M170 powered by
Intel Pentium M Processor 780 (2.26 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
and 2GB1 Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm Memory on
a 100GB 7200rpm Hard Drive. It uses 256MB NVIDIA GeForce
Go 7800 GTX and has a 17 inch UltraSharp Wide Screen UXGA
Display. Priced at around $3,896 with a two year warranty
and longer warranties may be purchased.


Show me the Facts!

Anyone can pick a top gaming notebook and say its the fastest
in the world. However, you have to prove it or back it up.
That's where benchmark testing enters the picture, these are
standard tests that rate the performance level of your
gaming laptop. Hey, tests are good for something!

One good site that has performed a whole slue of tests on
the gaming laptops mentioned above is www.hexus.net
- You can see the different Benchmark tests here:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4188


Testing for memory bandwidth and latency, picfast,
cryptography, raytracing, realistic render, encoding and
so on. The dual core Rock XTreme 64 showed impressive
numbers, even beating out an Athlon 4000+ Desktop in
many areas.



WildCard Entry: M-TECH!

There's another laptop maker many novice gamers don't consider
when buying their ultimate gaming machine. It may not be as
well known as the ones above but the real wildcard entry is
M-TECH. This is basically the American equivalent of Rockdirect,
although the companies are in no way connected. They just have a
similar philosophy of working with and using cutting-edge technology
and firms to produce some superior gaming machines.

M-TECH, a Michigan company, started in 1995 and has close
strategic partnerships with Tech firms in Silicon Valley. It
is favorably reviewed by many industry magazines such as
Laptops, Mobile Computing, CNET, PC TODAY and others.

M-TECH produces some powerful low priced (relatively speaking)
gaming laptops such as the D900K and the D900T:

You can configure your D900T with two 100GB (7200RPM) SATA HDD
Hard Drives  with  Pentium 4 3.8GHz 2MB L2Cache with a RAID setup.
With Nvidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX w/256MB DDR3 and a 17" TFT WSXGA+
Glassview LCD display for around $3500 USD. One year warranty,
longer warranties may be purchased.


When buying your laptop, keep in mind, just because a gaming
laptop has a lot of style doesn't mean it has sacrificed performance.
It is not a matter of style over substance - it just means
you have to pay highly for all that style/advertising/packaging.
If you can afford it, go for a higher priced gaming laptop.
People buy Ferraries don't they? There's no accounting for how
people spend their money - if you want one of these dual core
laptops from Rockdirect and you can take a little bit of heat
and noise with your games - go for a Rockdirect Xtreme 64 or
the older Rock Xtreme Ti.

If you want a dressed to kill Alienware laptop - go for the
Alienware Area-51m 7700. If you're on a budget, look closely at the Dell
XPS M170 or the other XPS systems and watch for special Dell
coupons and discounts. Dell is known for giving some great
discounts so keep your eyes peeled. And if you really want to
go against the mainstream, why not check out M-TECH. Especially
the M-TECH D900K or the D900T, ultimate performance at a good price.

No matter which gaming system you go with, try to pick one
that has a fully upgradeable open architecture structure so
you can easily upgrade when the time comes. Keep in mind,
laptop technology is changing so fast by the time your
dream machine is configured, it is probably already out of date.
Sobering thought but more true than any of us would like to
believe.

Finding the fastest gaming laptop may be an on-going process
of outfitting your dream machine with the latest technologies
and hardware as they come on stream. Hey, nobody said life would
be simple.

Just wondering how can you fit Quad SLI with 4 GPUs
into a laptop. Hey, it can happen and probably will!

HP Pavilion dv4000

When we first reviewed the HP Pavilion dv1000 a couple months ago, it easily won Editors' Choice honors in our multimedia category. Its upgrade, the Pavilion dv4000, joins it at the top of the heap, with its own Editors' Choice title. It's got the same look and feel, plus a more impressive 15.4-inch widescreen, improving on the dv1000's 14.1-inch display. Performance also gets a boost, thanks to Intel's latest Centrino components. And like the previous version, you still get all the multimedia goodies at a great price ($1,429 direct).

The dv4000 is about a pound heavier because of its larger screen. The optional BrightView screen is included in the price, but if you don't care for the glare, then you can configure your unit with a matte display for about $25 less. You'll also notice that HP has adjusted the mouse buttons, which are now slightly elevated from the touchpad, yet still very responsive.

HP offers QuickPlay, a great feature that gives users instant access to DVDs and music without having to power up the system. Two multimedia keys located under the screen can launch QuickPlay (one for DVDs and one for audio CDs), and you can then navigate through your DVDs and audio CDs using the keyboard. You can also access your "My Music" folder in Microsoft Windows without having to boot into the operating system. (A remote control like the one that resides in the dv1000's PC Card slot is a $14 upgrade.)

Our system came configured with the latest-generation Intel Pentium M 750 processor (1.86 GHz) and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 GM (128MB). HP still isn't offering a discrete graphics solution for this series, but the new Centrino integrated graphics is a slight improvement. Just don't expect to run any 3D-intensive games on this machine. Even with the latest upgrades, the dv4000's SYSmark 2004 performance scores haven't improved much, nor has its BatteryMark 2004 score. The dv4000's battery life clocked in at 3 hours, 17 minutes—7 minutes more than the dv1000's. You can also get the 12-cell, extended battery for an extra 25 bucks.

The dv4000 adds several new features, including an ExpressCard 54/34 combo slot for WAN capabilities. It also integrates an additional USB port, for a total of four. A good set of speakers sits in the front panel—where it should be. And instead of the CD-RW combo drive found on the dv1000, the dv4000 includes a DVD±RW drive.

Though it's heavier than the earlier model, the dv4000 increases its value with added features like the 15.4-inch widescreen. If you're looking for a smart-looking, smart-acting multimedia system, you can't go wrong with this one.

Acer Ferrari 4000

Acer goes from the brilliant red design of the Acer Ferrari 3000 to a more conservative—but just as sleek—black checkered design. It retains some of the cool-looking red streaks along the side and front edge of the notebook, and yes, the yellow prancing horse emblem still graces the center of the notebook. The cover is made from carbon fiber, which is stronger and lighter than aluminum. (Acer uses it only in its Ferrari line.) The interior of the Ferrari 4000 has a rubberized coating, perhaps emulating the look of Formula One tires. The keyboard has an ergonomic smile contour to it, which is okay for typing but takes a few minutes to get used to. The only real design complaint we have is that the mouse buttons are a bit noisy when pressed.

Though not as eye-popping as many of today's specially treated screens, such as the Editors' Choice-winning HP Pavilion dv4000's ($1429) BrightView screen, the Ferrari's 15.4-inch LCD is vivid enough for movie watching, even with the matte finish, thanks to its high resolution (1,680-by-1,050).

The 6.6-pound Ferrari 4000 comes with a good feature set, including four USB ports, a FireWire port, and a 5-in-1 card reader (MMC, MS, MS Pro, SD, XD). Video connections include both VGA and DVI-D ports. Built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11g are included, as is a dual-layer DVD±RW drive. The Toshiba Qosmio F25 ($1, 999) has a greater range of AV ports, including a TV tuner. The Ferrari 4000 also comes with an impressively large and fast 100GB hard drive (5,400 rpm). Many of today's notebook hard drives, like the 80GB drive (4,200 rpm) found in the HP dv4000, are smaller and slower.

With hardware like the 1.8-GHz Turion 64 ML-34 processor, double the memory (1GB DDR RAM), and a faster hard drive, the Ferrari 4000 edged out the HP dv4000 on our SYSmark 2004 tests. The Ferrari 4000's terrific graphics chipset trounced the dv4000's integrated Intel chipset and helped the system achieve impressive gaming results. Battery life reached 3 hours 43 minutes, thanks mostly to the 71-Wh battery.

The Acer Ferrari 4000 has a great new look, and new hardware under the hood makes it purr. It's only a matter of time before Jeff Gordon and Danica Patrick get their hands on one.