Empowering – An Amazing View of Technology

We live in a world where technology has become more powerful each and every day. There has never been a day where technology has not grown to another standard, improved in power and performance, and changed for the better. Yes, technology can both a blessing and a curse, an asset and a hindrance, a good and a bad. But what’s great about technology is that it keeps us moving forward. It has shown us our temporary limitations and it has brought us to greater heights. It has created a new world — a revolutionized world and society. Technology is great!

Over the weekend, the Super Bowl 48 was held in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey where two of the top NFL teams battle it out for the Lombardi Trophy (although it wasn’t much of a battle if you ask me). The Super Bowl is not just known for its epic football game and halftime performances (Bruno Mars and the Hot Chili Peppers were awesome compared to Beyonce from last year), it is also a great place to place ads. Big companies pay millions of dollars just to get a thirty second commercial spot during the Super Bowl.

Microsoft had this heartwarming commercial. It truly highlights the amazing things that technology has done for us. The title is fitting; it’s called “Empowering.”

Quite powerful right?

Microsoft, you’ve won our hearts!

Now, please fix Windows 8.

Keep Chewing!

Apple Refunds $33 Million!

Apple’s been in a tight situation lately. Just three days ago, it has been reported that Apple will be refunding $33 million worth of applications from the iTunes store because they were bought by children. Many customers have complained about unknown purchases from the iTunes store. This initiated Apple to refund the large amount of money. Also, the case is with the FTC, so the legal side to this is exceptional.

It’s true that as technology grows, so do we. This is solid evidence. Children are getting “smarter and smarter” while the parents are clueless to what is actually happening. It’s a scary fact that a 10 year old kid can get through payment options and buy applications (it’s not difficult, but seriously). We need to buckle down on the kids when it comes to electronic devices. It’s good for them to learn and adapt to the technology, but of course with that, discipline must come also.

Also, Apple lauched an store in Beijing, China and only had about a dozen customers show up. Could this be a sign of Apple’s downfall? It could be, but maybe it was just a bad start for Apple. Considering their expensive prices on smartphones that lack so many things, it can only be considered results — or facts.

They’re also planning to expand their market to India. India, being a third-world country, don’t care for expensive, “luxury” phones like the iPhone, so Apple plans to drop the prices on certain devices. India is mostly known to have third party electronics because of the price. For Apple to try and attack India on the market front? I don’t think they’ll win, or achieve anything for that matter.

Honestly, I don’t even know why Apple is still trying so hard. I mean, they know they’re going to die. It’s just the matter of when.

Keep Chewing!

 

LINKS:

• Apple to refund $32.5M in FTC case about kids buying apps
• A muted start for Apple’s latest foray into China

Free Rice!

I dedicate this Chewy to the Philippines. May you, my motherland, be able to rise from the rubble. To my fellow Filipinos: we’ve been pushed down before and we’ve fallen countless times, but the beautiful thing about us Filipinos is that we were able to rise again. We are stronger than ever because of this. My family continues to pray for you, my beloved countrymen and countrywomen. And we’ll never stop praying until the day you get back up.

The Philippines was hit by a treacherous storm last week and I’ve been trying to find ways to give back and help to my country. One website that I’ve been on is FreeRice.com, a website that donates ten grains of rice for each answer that you got right. It may seem a little but it adds up.

It also teaches you vocabulary. Yeah.

Here’s the website: FreeRice.com

Please visit the website, because they’re specifically donating rice to the victims of the Typhoon Haiyan.

Keep Chewing and Keep Praying!

Basketball and Intel

Last week, the National Basketball Association started a new season. I believe this season is game changing – all because of technology.

The NBA partnered with Intel to create and install motion tracking technology in stadiums. This allows statistic lovers (like myself) to follow the core statistics that my favourite players have. These stats may include heat maps, total distance ran and

Here’s the full article:

New Motion-Tracking Tech Allows NBA Fans to See Players Like Never Before

I love this idea because it brings two of my loves: basketball and computers. Let’s watch basketball in awe.

Keep Chewing!

My Precious Partition

Over the weekend, I initiated myself to lengthen the life of our old PC Andrea.

She’s on her fifth year as a computer and even with Windows 7 Ultimate installed and everything, it’s still slow. I know that the hardware is the reason for this, but I have to make sure that my parents and younger brother would still be able to use it. I need to squeeze the life out of it and get maximum use from it. Hopefully they’ll be able to get a new one next year.

All I know is that the hard drive is nearing its end, the video card might be broken (outdated to say the least) and the processor is about to give.

I decided to install a Linux distribution, only hoping that might increase the life of the computer itself.

I created a LiveUSB of Ubuntu and began installation. There it was, the partition interface. I mean, I’ve seen it before. The only scary part about it is that if I make one mistake – no matter how small – I could kill the partition.

Alas, fate is cruel. The partitioning system crashed. I restarted the computer. I entered Windows 7 and only saw one partition. Panicking, I started to look for ways to get it back.

Then I found EaseUS Partition Manager, which also comes with a partition recovery tool. I used it to recover files that were in that partition that I knew was important like pictures and converted home videos.

The recovery tool worked with a little help from Black Beard. I got my stuff back!

In short, the lesson here is: always back up your files. Don’t be an idiot like me.

Right now, after that whole event, I just think that reinstalling Windows 7 might do the trick. Probably after that, I’ll install a distribution of Linux, but that’s another story. Besides, I don’t want it to go back to its prime, because I know that will never happen. All I want is for it to just last long enough until my family gets something new.

Keep Chewing!

Tips on PC Speed

We’ve all been there. The computer is not running at its maximum performance, your data entries and other documents are always crashing. It’s tough when you’re in that situation.

Universally Known as the USB

The Universal Serial Bus is one of the most well known and most universal device in the computing world. Almost all of our gadgets have some kind of a USB built in, whether it be the charger we have on our smartphones or our own portable flash drive.

The development of the USB started in the early 90s when the USB 1.0 was released. There were two types, the low speed (1.5 Mbps) or the high speed (12 Mbps). Respectively, these were powerful speeds at the time but were not enough. So, the collective group of computing powerhouses that were developing this next generation standard – IBM, DEC, Microsoft, Intel, NEC and Nortel – went back to work to finish the USB 1.1 Full Speed. The only difference this version had was support and compatibility. Microsoft was very friendly with the current technology and continued to work with it.

By the end of 2001, a group called USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) released the USB 2.0 which is 40x faster than the previous version, the USB 1.1 Full Speed (12 Mbps -> 480 Mbps). It was originally named as the High Speed USB but later was renamed to Hi-Speed USB. The Mini-A and Mini-B connectors are introduced and expanded the abilities of the USB. Many features were created to truly improve the use of the USB such as On-The-Go USB and our useful Battery Charging Spec. which lets your device to be charged into a power plug. Cellphone companies took advantage of this because with such a smal form factor, it definitely helped them decrease the size of their phones (and for some reason, phones are just getting bigger nowadays).  From then on, the USB just took over. Eventually, the USB will become so universal (my last joke, I promise) that the CDs that we have will be obsolete. Imagine buying a video game that’s on a USB! USB 2.0 is still used today in almost 10 billion products and that doesn’t count a billion of smartphones and USB flash drives that almost everyone owns.

Now, the USB 3.0 has entered the game. At approximately 5 Gbps, this is at its finest! One noticeable difference between the USB 2.0 and 3.0 is the port colour. It is blue, which differentiates your USB version (go ahead, take a look at your USB drives). It began on September 2007 when Intel, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, NXP, Texas Instruments and Semiconductors started working on the next-gen USB. By November 2008, they released the 1.0 version. By then, the USB-IF took care of the other business. In 2012, processor companies (Intel and AMD) fully integrated their support for the SuperSpeed USB. Right now, the USB-IF is planning to finish the job by increasing its power to 10 Gbps! 

The USB is universally known. It will surely continue to improve from its older versions. All we need to do now is wait for it.

Keep Chewing!

The Personal Computer

The personal computer is one of the greatest, most prominent advancements in human history. Great inventions such as the car, airplanes and cup holders are no match to your everyday PC. Almost everyone in the entire North American grid owns a computing device, whether it be a home computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet – the list goes on. It is also the fastest growing technology. Almost everyday, there is something new for the PC. It could be hardware or software – most of which help enhance the use of the PC.

One question that has never been considered answered is why is it a Personal Computer called a Personal Computer?

Personally speaking (pun intended), I think it is because of how we use it. Almost everything we do is on a computer. We talk to people using the video chatting application called Skype, which continues to grow as a service for people who would like to communicate with friends and family all over the world. Social networking has exploded, with the popular use of Facebook and Twitter. Writing became easy to share with the blogging sites like Blogger, WordPress and Weebly. Video sharing has also popularized with YouTube and the new website called Vine. The Internet truly became a community and a hub for people all over the world.

The computer is personal because of our daily needs. Because of the PC and its strengths (back then), we are able to create documents for work (Word), presentations to show off ideas (PowerPoint), spreadsheets to keep important data, numbers and information (Excel) and publish flyers or brochures to further increase sales for your small business (Publisher).

Everyone seems to love video editing. Photo editing too! I’m sure you know someone who would love to make some funny videos, action scenes, edited CGI or animations as a hobby. Or even someone who wants to touch up pictures for a certain online dating site. For video, Windows usually comes with their infamous Windows Movie Maker, which allows PC users to edit videos. The only problem with this was its limitations. It was only a drag and drop program with minimum options for editing. For someone to professionally edit videos, they have to purchase software or find freeware/open source software that can handle all the rendering, file management and high quality videos. Photo editing was a big deal for Microsoft. Instead, Adobe took the stage and created Adobe Photoshop. It is widely used for editing photos. Animations also became popular in the Internet. Blender usually takes the cake for animations. It’s a great freeware!

Music has always played an important role in human history. It defined eras and even created its own history. In the computer, users can create, listen and play music without hassle. It allowed many hidden musicians (excluding Justin Bieber) to shine. With music tools and applications, making and recording music is as easy as pressing a button, literally!

The gaming industry has recently exploded. The gaming community is ten times stronger than ever! PC gamers are proud. They either take pride of their prized possession – their own, personally built PC, or are happy to play some League of Legends with some actual players! No, seriously, the gamer can be a console gamer or a PC gamer. I’d say, in my opinion (although I am a console guy), PC gamers are cooler. Tons of games are free to play, there is more hardware power on a PC right now compared to the upcoming next gen consoles and the PC gaming community is growing in numbers! The PC is truly the core of gaming.

And then, there was development. The computing world would not consistently progress without programmers, software developers and code writers. These are the wizards of the world. They are the ones who should be considered the rock stars of this generation. Without them, the computer would be a throwaway. It is those who know how to write C++, C, C#, Java, JavaScript, HTML, etc that revolutionized our daily lives. As an aspiring programmer (game developer and future CEO of Blizzard or Google), I believe that credit should be given where it is due.

Now, it seems that we still have not answered the question correctly, why is it a Personal Computer called a Personal Computer?

The answer is: it is because we make it personal.

Follow @DR34DNOUGHT!

Keep Chewing!

This Made My Day!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. It was an awesome May the Fourth and Cinco de Mayo weekend. Take hold! I call it Pardon the Pun (PTP). I found inspiration reading puns online when I was bored.

Here you go:

Why did the programmer quit his job?

Because he didn’t get arrays!

Joke pun = new Joke (system.pun);

Keep Chewing!