Archive for September, 2006
I’m sure it’s very common to lost track of our files or important documents in our PC. When that happens, we will be squishing our head trying to remember where we put it.
The easiest way to find it back is by doing a complete search. This probably will take a long time depending on your hard drive capacity and the number of files on your machine. For Windows users, the search can be done by pressing the Start at the bottom left of your screen and then select Search.
However, if you want to find your file fast, I mean really fast that take a couple of seconds, searching through the whole hard disk would not be a good way.
Luckily, Google has come out a new tool call Google Desktop Search. You can download it for free and install to your PC. After installing, it needs to index all your files and that might take a while. But it is a one time deal. After the indexing, you can search your desktop for files, web history and even your local emails quickly!
September 29th, 2006
Talking about pricey PC components, you might want to have a reliable source of price comparison.
One place to start is http://www.pricewatch.com/. It can be a very good guideline on the market pricing, highs and lows, of your interest components or gadgets.
September 28th, 2006
Yes, it is official! Intel will be shipping the quad-core processor in November.
Intel claimed that the new processor code named Core Extreme QX6700 will provide 70% performance improvement over the most current Core 2 Extreme CPU.
However, from my several last experiences, the initial prediction is always overrated. You have to take into consideration your other components such as hard disk, RAMs, motherboards, graphic card that will definitely affecting your machine speed. 70% here might be in a condition where other components do not introduce any bottleneck to the CPU. But initial benchmarks on the new CPU reveal a substantially higher performance than the dual Core 2 Extreme X6700, but with a power thirst. You can see the one of the benchmark result at Toms Hardware.
If you are looking forward to get one of this high end CPU, you might have to wait until Q1 next year for the quad-core mainstream under the “Core 2 Quad” brand. According to Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, the first quad-core processor is aimed especially for gamers and content creators. In other words, it will be very pricey 
September 28th, 2006
One useful software that comes with your Windows would be the notepad. The simplicity and light weight of notepad makes it easy to open and use when there is something to write.
However, the standard notepad has its limitations. Sometimes, we need to open multiple notepad at a time for comparison purposes. This is not possible with the standard notepad since it is a separated program.
Another limitation would be the capability of handling large text file. Try to open 20Mg text file and you will see your notepad got stuck.
If you want to find an alternative to notepad or text editor, there are a few “better” ones available on the web. A simple search on Google will give you several lists of software.
Currently I’m using EditPad Lite, a free version of EditPad Pro. It manages to solve the two problems I mentioned earlier. You may want to give it a try if you are looking for a notepad replacement.
But if you are an advance user, especially for programmers, you may want to try ConTEXT. This text editor has syntax highlighting for many programming language such as C/C++, Java, VB, Perl, Tcl/Tk, etc., and it is extensible through downloadable highlighters files. And guess what, it’s free. 
September 27th, 2006
Intel is proud of its Kentsfield quad core and refers to our technology article. But IDF is stuffed with news on the next-generation mobile platform, an 80-core project and high-efficiency power supplies.
Continue Reading September 27th, 2006
I still remember the old day where the connection speed is only 36Kb or 56Kb and downloading something off the internet can be a nightmare.
Even downloading 1 megabyte file can be agonizingly long, but it cannot defeat the frustration when seeing your download got broken halfway. You may end up kicking you PC if this to happen (and I did actually, several times, wont help your download though, just your toe become numb … 
).
Nowadays there are a lot of software dealing with this issue. Generally it is referred as download accelerator or download manager.
Some of example software are :
Net Transport
Internet Download Manager
Download Accelerator
GetRight
Free Download Manager (FDM)
Currently I’m using Net Transport and I’m happy with it. Previously it was a free software, but now you may test it for 90 days before buying it. However, FDM claims it is totally free software without ads and spyware (or else they have to rename it to PDM ), so you may give it a try.
They are other similar software not mentioned here, but basically good download management software should have:
(1) Simultaneous downloads on the same file (this is where the “speed up” comes from)
(2) Resume capability, this include broken downloads and pausing downloads.
(3) Authentication when your download needs usernames and passwords
(4) Have proxy connection capability (if your connect is behind a proxy)
September 26th, 2006
AMD has introduced low-voltage versions of several of its Athlon 64 models, promising decreased power consumption and heat output for smaller systems. We compare these to standard parts to put this power savings in perspective.
Continue Reading September 25th, 2006
I always got a lot from my friend, what is rar file and how to open it?A rar file is a compressed file similar to zip file. To open it or uncompressed it, we can use WinRAR.
This software is free to try and can be downloaded at http://www.rarlab.com/
The software is not limited to opening rar file only, it can open and create rar files and also including zip files. So you wont go wrong with this software.
If you wondering why people want to use rar instead of zip, it is because for the same file (especially text files) compression is much more efficient thus producing smaller compress files.
September 20th, 2006