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Saturday, October 17, 2009

Cool Blog - Student's perspective.

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Check out my new self-hosted blog with Wordpress here.
http://blog.uc4international.com

This blog is going to integrate all past posts I have here and my other blogs on the internet.
Thank You, and please pay a visit there so I can visit you back, I rarely go on this blog anymore.

Andrew.C.Lam
TECH Finder Administrator - Author









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Sunday, August 30, 2009

Digg. Is Apple the Enemy of the TV?

Music’s long struggle with the web has been well documented. As consumers shifted from CDs to digital media, music labels, artists, and the RIAA have struggled with how to cope. While some have decided to sue consumers for $22,500 per song, others have found ways to embrace the web.
Now Microsoft’s Director of Consumer and Online in the UK predicts that the same turmoil is going to hit the television industry in the next few years. And unless the TV business “aggressively move its content online” and builds “a critical mass of content that the traditional buyers of airtime will understand and buy into,” they will face an “iTunes moment” where their online business becomes dependent on Apple.

According to The Guardian, Microsoft’s Ashley Highfield believes that TV execs have just two or three years to adapt or be thrown into chaos the music industry is currently experiencing:
“So realistically I think the industry has about two to three years to adapt or face its iTunes moment. And it will take at least that long for media brands to build credible, truly digital brands. But, importantly, I do believe TV does have a small two to three year window in which to respond.”
More than anything, Mr. Highfield believes that TV needs to find ways to generate significant revenue from online video and to make it easy for advertisers to buy ads in bulk for online TV. He also strongly suggested that the TV industry aggressively move its content online, on its own terms.
It’s interesting that it is a Microsoft exec making these suggestions and mentioning Apple as the online enemy of the TV industry. We can see his logic though: you don’t want one company to dominate online sales like Apple does with music in the iTunes store. The music industry’s been between a rock and a hard place for a long time now.
However, we think there are a lot of flaws to Highfield’s logic. TV doesn’t make its revenues based on sales, as the music industry does, but by advertising – something that is both effective and measurable on the web. We’ve also seen TV more readily embrace the web successfully, most notably with HULU.
So yes, TV needs to embrace the online world or suffer losing control over its content distribution. However, the television industry is already light years ahead of the recording industry in that regard.


Well I think this is a realistic fact.~>Hulu is such a great service..that No one really need TIVO as much as they think they are..for now.

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UC4international - Great Site for international students who wants to come to UC

Check this blog out, it has everything an international student need to know about the prestigious University of California, Berkeley, Los Angeles and other of its campuses. Comprehensive steps you can take and prepare for in the upcoming winter quater. If you an international student who wants to study at University of California and you are Chinese, you wouldn't want to miss the information on this blog.

Check the blog out at UC4International here
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Saturday, August 29, 2009

[Tech News] Preliminary Review on Mac's new OS - Snow Leopard





 Core Innovation? Well that's debated rather...... softly?



Ever since this year's WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) to pre-order on Amazon and till the actual release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard I have been following reactions across the net about Macintosh's new operating system - Snow Leopard. To be honest with you there are some mixed reviews. Does it really deserve the spot of OS 10.6, or is it more like an update, or service pack like Windows? On Technorati I came across this blog by....I don't know the author's name but check out his/her post on gregplantsada.Is-A-Geek.com, the author thinks its not much improvement from OS Leopard and like rest of the reactions/reviews I cam across, they all love Mac OS X Leopard and still recommends the upgrade of $29 (If you are qualified). The difference is how much, super jazzed or just whatever...

Well I personally liked it very much because I am Chinese and I AM Super jazzed of its new trackpad/writingpad compatibility on my Macbook Pro, and its 64bit really brought out some raw power with my 6GB ram. (Finally I opened that  memory packaging...)

I am still playing through my new install and try out features that I don't know how to use....

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I found this fascinating quote today:

Here’s another bright idea for a gadget that allows you to carry around your most precious files in a fun and handy manner – a USB flash drive that looks like a light bulb.GeekAlerts, Light Bulb USB Flash Drive, Aug 2009

You should read the whole article.


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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

[PC Computer Errors] Bluescreen of Death, what do I do??

PC Computers are prone to errors because it has to "be" compatible with virtually everything. And sometimes thing do go wrong after a new hardware installation, driver installation, program installation or even an windows update. While most bluescreens (of death) are caused by out-of-system-memory, some are unique and can take a lot of time to fix. Below are the steps you should follow of first "Knowing the Enemy"

Well first do your computer restart immediately after the bluescreen? if so, When it restarts you should press F4 and chose "disable automatic restart upon system failure" or something of that sort, so you will have time to read the messages...

When the bluescreen of death shows up again, copy down the error code (number/letters following the "STOP" row, it should be 0x000000....). There should also be a brief summary of the cause of the bluescreen.

So as I stated chances are the bluescreen of death is caused by memory such as out of memory or error in reading/writing in memory blocks. But if that's not the case you should post your error code up here and I'll see if I can help you. Or visit http://support.microsoft.com/ and type in your error code on the search bar to see if there are any specific solution to your problem.

*Common Solution to Out-of-Memory.
This can happen when the program is using too much memory at one time and exceeds the system's memory & page files size (Or Page Files could not be accessed fast enough). Let say a program's minimal requirement is 1024MB of memory but you only have 512MB, chances are you will get a bluescreen in the middle of using the program of it fails to start in the first place. To address this problem is either you should look for other similar program that ultilizes less system resources or it is time to upgrade your system memory (See My "How can I upgrade my memory" Post for details)

Another reason of Out-of-Memory might be the program is actually malfunctioning or a virus/trojan is buffer-overflowing your system. Although most Anti-Virus Programs offer Buffer-Overflowing protection against such viruses, an nasty viral infection on your PC can write numerous unidentified scripts to actually overflow and crash your Anti-Virus Programs along with your PC, if that ever happens and you have followed all the diagnostic steps above, consult a GeekSquad in your local BestBuy store...(lol...though sale, but really you should see a professional in fixing your PC)

[Computer Networking] What is the difference between a Router & a Adapter?

In Computer Networking, Router have the function of an Adapter, but a Router perform more duties than an Adapter.

Adapter enable a computer to "Adapt" to the current network setting set by the "Router", Router also adapts the network settings set by the modem or sometime by the computer.

Yet there is a crucial difference between an Adapter & Router. I can demonstrate the simple difference of adapters & routers in wireless networks. Most Laptops have Wireless Network Adapter, not routers, because it can only connect to one network point (A Wireless Network Router or another computer). But routers can connect to multiple computers or act as a network point for multiple devices, so the almost all the Internet-Sharing "box-thingie" we have in home is named Wireless Network "Router", not adapter.

Monday, July 27, 2009

[System Memory] What is the difference between DDR2 memory and DDR3 memory?

The current industry standard is DDR2 memory running at from 667MHz to 800MHz. But there are upper class laptops such as the Apple's Macbook Pro series that utilizes a DDR3 class memory which currently clocks/runs at 1066MHz. A DDR3 memory generally runs faster than DDR2 memory and can achieve a wider bandwidth (Think of a wider freeway with a higher speed limit).

Expanding on this topic: Is DDR3 class memory really better than DDR2 class memory?
Comparing a 800MHz with the 1066MHz memory, as an End-user you might not notice the 266MHz increase in computing speed. In fact there is not much gain in performance (up to 3% gain) comparing the 800MHz memory with 1066MHz memory of the same size.

The 3% performance increase definitely varies by usage, most day-to-day stuff that you might do (such as Hulu or browsing your photo libary) will only takes advantage of the memory size other than the memory speed. And I can't think of one that only takes advantage of the memory speed.

Applications that are intensive on size: Streaming videos online or burning a DVD
Applications that are intensive on speed & size: High-End gaming that requires fast graphic rendering, research and 3D-Modeling.

Conclusion:
If you like gaming, it is obviously that a faster clocked and a larger memory can improve your computing performance. But comparing DDR2 class memory with DDR3 class memory of the same size there is a very little advantage and is probably not worth the marginal cost (If the sales told you "DDR3 class memory has a big advantage over DDR2 class memory") I recommend to look for a computer with a larger sized memory other than a faster clocked memory because in general DDR3 memory cost more than DDR2 memory.

[Laptop Reviews] My Take on Dell Studio XPS 1340 Laptop

Sorry for the inconvience. My review has been moved to my Wordpress blog. please refer to here
http://blog.uc4international.com/archives/260



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