Friday, September 10, 2010

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The Virus Conspiracy


Imagine a world that runs on Mac, which is supposedly virus free. How many people will lose their jobs? Companies such as Norton, McAfee, Avast, would have closed down. There will not be demands on their internet security services.

In this Informative Technology generation, virus and hackers are one of the most dreaded things to happen to you. A recent study by Norton reveals that 7 out of 10 internet users are victims of cyber crimes such as virus attacks and hackers.Often we calculate how much money is lost to protect ourselves against, and to recover from these cyber crimes. In a typical point of view, such money are considered “lost”.



Custom assembled PC or Ready-made PC?



Many people love to have the freedom to choose their own respective parts of the PC, so that they can perform up to their expectations.

But unless you have a whole load of cash to spend on your custom-made PC, I wouldn’t suggest you doing that.

Some people say that building a PC on your own with parts bought by yourself will be cheaper. Well, in most cases, it’s NOT true.



Pre - PC Show 2010

With PC show 2010 coming right up, many will be in a craze to buy new IT gadgets and PCs. Before jumping in to buy, there are some things which buyers should take note of.





Clean uninstallation and old junk files

I don’t want to use this program anymore! Let’s uninstall it! Done!

Really done?

Hell no! Even after we uninstall programs, many junk files are left behind by the program. How should we clear it?





Weekly maintenance on your PC

Your PC is a machine which winds up every week. You got to unwind the stress in it; else you can expect to see lags now and then. Many thought that a new PC is fast because it’s new.

It’s a myth. Yes. Your PC can run as good as a new one.






Basics : Knowing your PC parts

Lets start off with knowing the basics: hardwares of a computer.
A basic computer comes with various hardware parts which are often labelled as "specifications" or "specs" when you buy your new pc.

1. Motherboard
2. Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
3. Memory (RAM)
4. Graphic/Video Card
5. Sound Card
6. Processor
7. Input/Output (I/O)
8. Optical Disk Drive (DVD/Blu-ray/CD)
9. Virtual Display Unit (Monitor)

The Virus Conspiracy

Imagine a world that runs on Mac, which is supposedly virus free. How many people will lose their jobs? Companies such as Norton, McAfee, Avast, would have closed down. There will not be demands on their internet security services.


In this Informative Technology generation, virus and hackers are one of the most dreaded things to happen to you. A recent study by Norton reveals that 7 out of 10 internet users are victims of cyber crimes such as virus attacks and hackers.Often we calculate how much money is lost to protect ourselves against, and to recover from these cyber crimes. In a typical point of view, such money are considered “lost”.

From another point of view, these cyber crimes have generated millions and millions of dollars for these computer security companies. Remember the times when Norton was the only major player in the field of computer securities? There is a reason why more and more computer security companies are set up, with now different anti-virus programs out in the market.

Such OS companies have the financial strengths and the talent pool to deal with these flaws in the system, but do they want to solve these security issues? I do not know. But if they do, it would have placed many partner companies that deal with internet security into bankruptcy. So meanwhile, do not hope that we will be getting a perfect operating system anytime soon. Suck your thumb and protect yourself well from cyber crimes.



Like what you seen above, it is always better hackers and virus first, then PC securities. PC users loses money from cyber crimes and buying internet securities. Sad to say that, you lose in the end.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Custom assembled PC or Ready-made PC?




Many people love to have the freedom to choose their own respective parts of the PC, so that they can perform up to their expectations. But unless you have a whole load of cash to spend on your custom-made PC, I wouldn’t suggest you doing that.

Some people say that building a PC on your own with parts bought by yourself will be cheaper. Well, in most cases, it’s NOT true.

Let’s get started by telling you a fact that you probably already know:



Computer companies don’t produce all the parts of their PCs. Though they may manufacture some of their own parts, the fact is, the computer company is actually a giant assembly line. Computer companies assemble computer parts which are bought from other manufacturers.

We all know that when products are bought in bulk, it is going to be much cheaper than buying on its own. Computer companies like HP, Acer, Fujitsu, buy the parts in bulk of millions, so who’s going to get a better deal? You or them?


So after you know some facts as for why custom made PCs are more expensive, I shall go on to compare Custom PCs and Ready Made PCs.


1. Assembling a PC is easy. Choosing is the difficult part.

Assembling a PC is very much like a jigsaw puzzle in which you have to piece every single part together to the motherboard and casing. It is easy to learn and figure out. The difficult part is to find the right parts to fit in and be compatible with the motherboard.

A quick view into the complexity, a motherboard comes in a few types such as, ATX and MicroATX. Memory RAMs comes in DDR2/DDR3, with many different frequency and speed. Power supply comes in 2 types, ATX, ATX12V.
I can go on and on, but this gives you a rough idea of how choosing a right PC parts can be a headache for you.



2. Individual parts are expensive.

Getting the top-notch PC parts individually costs a bomb. A quick search on ebay will tell you how much a single processor of Intel i7 costs, from S$400 to S$1000, depending on the core type. A decent motherboard sets you back by about S$200+. So add a graphic card of S$200+, memory RAM of $150+, optical drive, etc. Do your math. Oh yea. Remember to add in the price for an OS, S$300+.
Some people may argue that they can get cheaper and older parts. So if you aren’t getting the top-notch parts, why build a PC which cannot perform even on the same level as those ready-made ones?


3. Software support

Ready-made PCs comes with original OS and other software supports. Spending on a ready-made PC includes the OS and manufacturer’s software supports. Other important factors are recovery options. Computer companies buy OS in bulk license which cost a tiny fraction of the amount we are paying outside.


4. Post-sales service

Ready-made PCs have a 1-stop service if anything goes wrong within the warranty period. Just go to the service center, done. All the PC parts have a combined warranty together, which saves you the need to remember all how many years of warranty each parts have.

As for custom PCs, post-sales service goes part by part. So when your PC runs into hardware problem, you got to figure out yourself which part had went wrong. Like I said above, each part have different warranty period.


From what you read above, you would have known where I stand with. Custom-made PCs allows u the freedom to choose and upgrade, but right now in the 21st century, there is a vast number of ready-made PCs out in the market. Search and find the PC that performs closest to your expectation. Then upgrade.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Pre - PC show 2010



With PC show 2010 coming right up, many will be in a craze to buy new IT gadgets and PCs. Before jumping in to buy, there are some things which buyers should take note of.


1. Check your depth

Check how deep your pockets can go.
Before buying anything, know your budget, and how tight you are controlling it. Do not overspend, yet sometimes it is worth it to spend a few more bucks on quality items.



2. Check what you lack

Always get items that you lack first. For example, if you are short of a printer, you should get a printer first instead of getting maybe an extra external hard drive.


3. What you are going to use it for

For example, if you plan to purchase a laptop or desktop, know what you are going to use it for. Internet surfing, web-designing, media editing, gaming? Know the purpose of the machine or gadget you are going to buy will influence the decision you make when purchasing the product.


4. Do your homework

Always read up on the brand’s reputation, product specifications, features, warranty period, etc. before hand. Ask your friends on their experience with their products and brands. Do not believe in advertisements.


5. Double check with various sellers

There is a saying in Chinese: 货比三家, which means that you must check out and compare with 3 sellers before buying. Compare the prices, features, specifications, freebies, etc. Do not toally believe in what the salesman says.



6. Clear all doubts before buying

Salesman has the responsibility to inform the seller the features of the product. You have the liberty and right to ask about the product. Clear all question marks in your head before forking out your cards or cash.


7. Say “thank you”, don’t forget the receipt

Maintain a friendly relationship with the salesman not only ensures you a pleasant buying experience, it also opens the way back to him if you have a question post-sales. Good service goes 2 way. As for the receipt, Proof-of-purchase Fullstop.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Clean uninstallation and old junk files

I don’t want to use this program anymore! Let’s uninstall it! Done!

Really done?

Hell no! Even after we uninstall programs, many junk files are left behind by the program. How should we clear it?

As we install and uninstall programs on our PC, windows stores settings and preference files, cache and other junk files in hidden folders of our Hard Drive. These files include old messenger files etc. Here’s how to clear them:

1. Firstly we need to be able to see the hidden folders and files.Open your “Computer”. Press “Alt” and click on “tools” > “Folder Options”
Under the “view” tab, find “Show hidden files and folders” check it and click ok.



2. Browse to C:\Users\XXX (Assuming that C:\ is your primary drive, and XXX is your account user)

3. You should be able to see a folder with a name of “AppData”. You can right click and click properties on your "AppData" folder to see how big is the whole folder. It gives you an idea of how much junk files are stored here. Now open the folder "AppData". You should see 3 folders, “Local”, “LocalLow” and “Roaming”.

4. A rule before proceeding. Before changing anything in the folder, be clear of what programs you have previously uninstalled, and DO NOT delete anything if you aren’t sure of what you are deleting. When you are done, do not empty your recycle bin as it provides a way to undo if you got anything wrong.

5. Now start off with the 1st folder “Local”. You should be able to see many folders such as “Microsoft”, “Temp”, etc. Find the folders which are named as the programs uninstalled by you previously and delete them.

6. Proceed to the next 2 folders. Repeat the previous step. You will realize that most of the junk files are stored in the folder “Roaming", and there are many deep folders which require you to search deep into them before finding the right files to delete.

7. After deleting the files, restart your PC. If your PC and programs runs as per normal, you are free to empty your recycle bin. You are done.

To hide your hidden folders again, repeat step 1, just check the “Hide hidden files and folders” option.

As each files and programs on every PC is different, choosing what to delete goes on a case-by-case basis. Some old PC might clear up to 5GB or even more space on your hard drive through this method.

A thorough uninstallation will include running a registry cleaner such as
Wise Registry Cleaner.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Weekly maintenance on your PC

Your PC is a machine which winds up every week. You got to unwind the stress in it; else you can expect to see lags now and then. Many thought that a new PC is fast because it’s new.

It’s a myth. Yes. Your PC can run as good as a new one.

Doubt it? Many people who reformatted their computers realised that their PC are back to the fast old times. This shows that it isn’t the hardware that slows down due to age, it’s the software.

I own a desktop with an age of 8 years old, and though there are various minor hardware problems along the way, I didn't change anything inside except adding an extra RAM. Making your PC last requires maintenance.

Aging hardware problems aside, your PC always ends up screwed due to the vast amount of rubbish files and poor maintenance. So this post is going to teach you the basics of PC maintenance.


1. Defragment

Fragmented: existing or functioning as though broken into separate parts; disorganized; disunified (Definition from dictionary.com)

When files are written into your hard disk drive, it is randomly written into any space in the drive. As your hard drive gets filled up, the bigger files could not be fully slotted into the space in between the different files segments. Your PC splits the big file up into small portions to fit into these spaces, hence files are fragmented.

Defragment rearranges the files in your drive to minimize the number of files split up, saving on the time required by your PC searching for these small parts.

On Win7 and Vista OS:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Defragmenter

Simply select your drive and click defragment. If your drive has lots of file and has not been defragmented for a long time, this process will take a few hours to complete.


2. Virus Scan

Basic. I don’t think I need to explain why we need to do virus scans. Run it weekly along with your defragmenter.


3. Disk Cleanup

Rubbish and useless files clog up your hard drive as time goes by, such files are often hidden deep in your system folders. You need to clean them up regularly to ensure that your hard drive remains tidy and clean of all these files.

Frankly speaking, the disk cleanup utility that windows provide is really bad, really sh*tty. You should download a program called CCleaner from: http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/?tag=mncol


This application is easy to run, just select analyse and click run.


4. Registry Cleanup

In the program CCleaner which I mentioned above, it comes with a decent registry cleaner. If you prefer a better registry cleaner, I would recommend Wise Registry Cleaner which can be downloaded from: http://download.cnet.com/Wise-Registry-Cleaner/3000-18512_4-10605508.html?tag=mncol

Install and run the application, just simply click “scan”. After the program has scanned through the registry, click on the “checks safe” then click “fix”. Done.



5. Startup Cleanup

Often we find that after we login to our PC, the PC will be very much irresponsive as it still has to load the anti-virus, windows live messenger, etc. all these programs that are scheduled to start when you logon always leave users slamming their keyboard. Here is the method to choose what programs to run at startup.

Win7 and Vista:

Start > type “msconfig”

Win XP:

Start > click "run" > type "msconfig.exe" and Enter

System configuration opens up and click on the startup tab. You will see a list of programs which are scheduled for startup. You can uncheck many of the programs which you don’t want to run at startup, such as windows live messenger or apple updater etc. When you are done, click ok and restart your computer. Your computer should be able to startup much faster now.

Basics : Knowing your PC parts


Lets start off with knowing the basics: hardwares of a computer.
A basic computer comes with various hardware parts which are often labelled as "specifications" or "specs" when you buy your new pc.

1. Motherboard
2. Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
3. Memory (RAM)4. Graphic/Video Card
5. Sound Card
6. Processor
7. Input/Output (I/O)
8. Optical Disk Drive (DVD/Blu-ray/CD)
9. Virtual Display Unit (Monitor)


These are the few basic hardware components of a PC that is required for it to work. With more and more people owning a computer, and better and faster computers appearing in the market, it is important to know exactly ,or if not roughly, how each part works. I will be explaining these in simple terms, so that most people who just started out will be able to understand.


1. Motherboard


Like most of the other electrical appliances such as TV, DVD players etc. Different parts of the computers are linked and made to work by this green board called motherboard. Putting it simply, a motherboard are equipped with many various slots for the other computer parts such as memory RAM to connect to it.




2. Hard Disk Drive (HDD)



Hard Drive is like your cabinet of document files in your office or home. All your data, documents music , etc are stored in it. You can check the size of the hard drive by going to Computer either on your desktop or start menu.

The size of a file are calculated by a unit called “bytes”. Often you see terms such as “kb”, “mb”, “gb”, “tb”, they all refer to “kilo-bytes”, “mega-bytes”, “giga-bytes”, “tera-bytes”.

In mathematical terms,
kilo: 10^3 (1000)
mega: 10^6 (1 000 000)giga: 10^9 (1 000 000 000)

It is kind of difficult to remember exactly how many zeros there are isn’t it? So to be able to remember them easily, just remember it as

1000 b (bytes) = 1kb
1000 kb = 1 mb
1000 mb = 1 gb
1000 gb = 1 tb

So when purchasing of choosing a new computer or hard drive, the easiest way is that the higher the number, the more things it will store. There are many other things to note such as data transfer rate, seek time etc. But these are off the basics, so I will explain next time.
On average, a word document file size is about
30 to 100 kb, a mp3 music file about 4mb, an avi. movie 600mb, HD mkv. movie about 4gb, games nowadays range from 2gb to 10gb. So when selecting your computer and hard drive, you must know the purpose of your computer, be it a gaming computer, a media computer, office computer, etc. All these factors should be considered.


3. Memory RAM


Memory is like a working table. Imagine a work desk with a cabinet at the side. This is how memory and hard drive works. When the user finds various files in the cabinet, he can place the files on his work desk, which allows him to access each and every one quickly and easily when he needs it again, without having to search through the large amount of data stored in the cabinet, saving large amount of time.The bigger the memory size, the bigger the work desk. This allows more application to run at the same time, allowing a computer to run much faster.



Memory RAMs are calculated in a similar way as Hard Disk Drive. Presently, computer memory RAMs are sold in forms of 256mb, 512mb, 1gb, 2gb, 4gb. Simply, it shows the size of the “work desk” each computer has. Since late 2008 and early 2009, a new generation of memory RAM, DDR3 is released. This generation of memory RAM provides 2 times the speed and consumes lower power as compared to DDR2.

On a personal view, the minimum memory RAM on Desktops that runs windows 7 is 1gb, and to make sure that u dun end up pulling your hairs out while waiting for your computer to respond, it is recommended that it should have 4gb of memory RAM.



Do note that 32-bit computers can only run up to 4gb of memory RAM, and 64-bit computers are recommended for computers with memory RAM of 4gb up to 8gb. For more information of 32-bit and 64-bit computers, do visit official Microsoft website:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/32-bit-and-64-bit-Windows-frequently-asked-questions



4. Graphic/Video Card



Graphic Card or Video Card is simple. Like what the name states, it is a component in a PC that generates images to your monitor or any other display. Nowadays, a desktop PC will have a Video Card capable of acceptable performance such as gaming and watching videos.

About 90% of the Video Card market is dominated by nVidia and ATI, with their line of GeForce and Radeon cards respectively. A video card has many components in it, such as 3D graphic rendering. Putting it into basic, a video card of a desktop should have VRAM of 512mb. As for notebooks, older notebooks use intel graphic chipset, which is an integrated graphics, and is low-performance. Such graphic processors are incapable of high graphic demands such as gaming.



A PC video output to a monitor comes in many different ports, such as S-Video, DVI, VGA, HDMI, Composite Video. Of all these components, VGA is the most common port used, and S-Video port is slowly stepping into history. With HDTVs more and more common now, most of the HDTVs are equipped with VGA ports, allowing a PC or laptop to be connected. If your PC could not be connected due to the difference in the port, fret not; there are always port adapters available in the pc store near you.




5. Sound Card

Like Video/Graphic Card, a sound card is a component of a PC which is in charge of the input and output sound signals. Many motherboards do provide built-in audio jacks, but many desktop PCs have expansion sound cards to boost the performance of sound reproduction through PCs. One of the most popular sound card makers will be Creative Technology which is based in Singapore.


Unlike video/graphic cards, there are lesser people who actually go for top-notch audio reproduction; hence, sound card specifications are often neglected. Sound cards come with a range of ports or some people will call it audio jacks. Each audio jack are ringed with different colours such as pink, green, blue, black etc. most common jacks will be pink, green and blue, which is microphone, line in and line out/headphone.


6. Processors


Processor of a PC is like the brain of a person. It is a small chip that is embedded on the motherboard. It is also commonly known to people as the “Pentium/core”, as Intel company names its line of processors Intel Pentium, Intel Dual Core, Intel Quad Core, Intel i7, etc.

Processor speed or clock rate is calculated in hertz which is the same as frequency. Hertz is the primary measurement unit to determine the performance of a processor. On average, a processor in an average desktop PC is approximately 2.4 GHz, with some as high as 3.8 GHz.


Like many other components of a PC, as the number value goes higher, a better performance is expected. But contrary to what most people believe, processor speed differences between a 3.0GHz processor and 2.6GHz processor of the same series will not really be felt by a regular user. Hence when selecting a processor, the generation or the series will be more important, as for the clock rate, a decent rate of 2.4GHz and above will be good enough for most users.



TBC...