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!

Beautiful and Fast

As much as I despise the user interface of Windows 8, I can’t talk crap about its speed. It’s fast and I won’t be arguing with the fact.

A friend sent me a video which I found very interesting. I see it as “comedic genius” coming from Microsoft and I find it to be a very effective way of marketing the product.

Is it just me, or is the girl’s face and the way she looked at the camera kind of scary? It freaked me out for a bit…

Keep Chewing!

 

Five Gifts of Awesome

Having a hard time getting your special someone who is also a big computer lover/geek/gamer a present? Here are five things you can buy them as a gift (or gifts).

A New PC

Buying a PC will be difficult, therefore I do recommend the Speed Dating process for it. It’ll take some knowledge to buy the right PC, whether your family member needs a nice laptop for school or a desktop for more powerful processing. You also have to take into account if they play video games. Computer packages nowadays come with a keyboard and mouse, but maybe they’ll need different types of peripherals (i.e. gaming mouse, gaming keyboard). Figure them out so that you can figure out what they need for a new PC.

Hard Drive (Internal and/or External)

Storage is important! Hard drives nowadays are cheap and easy to buy. Your techie will surely love the gift because it’s thoughtful and it’s the thought that counts, right? Surely, they need the space, either for backup purposes or just for extra storage. You can never go wrong with hard drives. One terabyte of an internal or external hard drive would be great. They don’t cost much and most of them run on USB 3.0, which is the new USB standard for computers. This allows the hard drive to move around files at a rate of 10 Gbps! The price will depend on how much storage it can hold. Remember, one terabyte will not equal the exact capacity. Same thing for other storage capacities.

Headphones

Who doesn’t need headphones right? Music is such an important part of, well, anyone’s life. Whether they listen to their Rock ‘N’ Roll music from Kiss or listen to Classical music from Mozart. A pair of headphones is a great gift. Just make sure that whoever you’re giving it to, they don’t listen to Miley Cyrus.

Video Games!

The holiday season is the best time to stock up on summer games to play. You can buy brand new video games at an average price of $60. Also, consider buying them Steam gift cards if they play on the PC. That way, it won’t be much of a hassle for you and they’ll still love you for it. All you can hope for is that they won’t get addicted and just ignore you for the rest of the Christmas break.

New Gaming Console

This goes hand in hand with the PC, because most of the time, your techie friend likes to play on a PC. But, in the case that they don’t, Sony and Microsoft just recently launched their next-generation (or current-generation, considering they are already out) consoles. It’ll be tough to find one, considering most of them are sold out (except for the XBOX One).

Nintendo also announced nine (9) new console bundles for the holiday season. Prices are ranging from $99 – $299.99 (I’m only hoping that my parents get me the Nintendo 2DS Pokémon X/Y bundle).

It’ll be tough picking which one to get for whom, but hopefully this can help you this Christmas.

Keep Chewing!

My Relationship With Windows XP

I’ve only been a “computer guy” for a short time – maybe 4 or 5 years. The only time I looked at a computer more than twice was when I played video games on it. I’m a gamer before computer geek.

My computer story never started on something advanced like Windows Vista (pardon the joke). Instead, it started with Windows XP.

As a child, my parents bought a computer to help us in school (and to play video games). I can’t recall what the system was, but all I knew it was Windows XP. To me, it was beautiful. The blue taskbar with the green Start button. The green hills background known as Bliss graced my desktop. It didn’t change because I had no clue how to change it.

I was fond of the computer. I did not tweak it, play around with the settings or modified it for that matter. I just played video games and did my homework on it. That was it.

That’s where it all began. From an old computer to something ten times powerful like Hannah Patricia. I wouldn’t consider myself a “computer lover” back then, but I knew how to use a mouse. That counts, right?

In Tech class, I found this:

It reminded me a lot of my old setup. It was a PC, CRT monitor and a mechanical keyboard. All of them had the same colour! It was beautiful.

I wanted to write this because, for some who do not know, Microsoft will stop supporting XP and Office 2003 in 2014.

Lest We Forget Windows XP and Office 2003

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.

Games Worth Your While

The gaming world has definitely changed for the past decade. From Super Mario to Pokémon to Mortal Kombat, a lot has changed. I’ve been gaming for quite some time now, Pokémon RED being my first video game and a GameBoy being my first console. I love gaming and that will never change. Some may say that I’m addicted. What I tell them, in return, is: “The greatest things can only be truly enjoyed with moderation.”

Where Do Deleted Files Go?

I’ve always wondered this question. Where do our deleted files go. I know that it stays in our hard drive, but I did not know that it was still accessible.

You can learn a lot of things from watching a 10 minute video. Especially from VSAUCE. Take a look!

I’ve learned that for you to “delete” files, you have to overwrite them. This means that you have to write over the hard drive multiple times before it’s “deleted”

I enjoy their videos because they are educational, short and sweet, and definitely entertaining.

Keep Chewing!

 

Speed Dating a PC

This is the first post for the category “Tech Support.” It will feature any tech questions and support that will help the lost beginner.

The title may have thrown you off. This article is actually about choosing the right PC using the Speed Dating method. I used this method when I bought my laptop a year ago.

School is coming. Students are working hard to earn minimum wage. Some are saving up for University/College funds. Some are just saving up so they can get some pocket money. And then there’s you. As a teenager, you want to buy your own computer. Fact is, the computer that you already have was bought by someone else. That someone isn’t you. So, you plan to buy a PC.

After working hours and hours at that popular fast food restaurant, you finally saved up enough money to buy a PC. Now what?

Ask yourself the following questions in exact order.

1. Do I really need it? (If yes, continue)
2. What am I going to use it for? (Answers may vary)
3. Do I have the money for it? (If yes, continue)

Now that you have all the things needed – objective and cash – you may now begin to think about buying a computer!

Before you begin with the Speed Dating method, you WILL need the following:

• The money, of course…
• A little bit of PC knowledge
• Two to three hours of your day

The idea of this method is simple. Given the two to three hour time frame, you go to your nearest electronics retail store (ex. Best Buy or Future Shop etc), go to the computers section and “date” any computer that catches your eye. This is where PC knowledge comes in. Learn about its features, performance, hardware and software. Take a look at its processor, how much RAM it has (and can handle), what operating system (although most of the time it will be Windows 8, but if you get lucky, get Windows 7), and all of its specifications. List them down so that later, when looking at other PCs, you’ll be able to compare them against each other. Give yourself at least fifteen minutes per computer and switch to another one. By this rate, you’ll be able to look at eight computers in two hours. Use the last hour for figuring what you need to purchase like warranty, setup and other software. Then, use your money to buy it. Make sure you take into account all the taxes the government adds in when purchasing an electronic device.

It actually took me approximately one hour to figure out which laptop to buy. It was probably because I planned it before and did my research online. I just had to check it out myself in a demo at Best Buy to see if I liked it.

This is a great method to use when buying your first PC because not only do you gain a great PC, you also gain knowledge about the pros and cons of different types of computers.

Keep Chewing!

Building a PC

Consider the following:

You’re a computer lover. No, a computer enthusiast.

Tweaking your own PC is everything that you do. Coding is second nature to you. When your friends need tech help, they almost always go directly to you.

You’ve also taken Computer Engineering courses, only to learn multiple and helpful things. One of which would be learning about the internal parts of a tower PC. You’ve read about CPUs, GPUs, HDDs, SSDs and everything hardware. The BIOS menu is now your close friend. You know every piece and you also know how to use every tool in your dad’s toolbox. Now what?

Well, it comes down to one thing, and one thing only. Building your own PC.

Truth be told, I was planning on building a tower this year and write about the journey in this blog. But due to priorities being held against me (like paying my phone bill and saving up for University), I am monetarily unable to purchase parts. However, that does not stop me from learning and finding resources.

That’s where PC It Yourself (pronounced “Piece It Yourself”) comes in. I found this amazing site where beginners – like myself – can get some interactive help for building a PC from scratch.

PC It Yourself

As my plans for making Nixxy (my future PCs nickname) takes a step back, I’m sure there will be some beginners out there who will use this site wholeheartedly.

Keep Chewing!