Memory Almost Full

Today is Christmas Eve, and in the noon after lunch, a courier lorry came to my door and delivered me my Dell XPS 1530!! What a christmas present.. However, it wasn't really a Christmas present as i bought it myself.

"The story goes like this.... back in India... in my room...."

I was in front of my 2.5 years old Acer TravelMate WLMi 4102 with 512 MB RAM, 64MB ATI Radeon x700 display card, 60GB HD, and Intel Centrino 1.73Ghz. I was clicking very fast on my mouse to open many programs at one time, then the whole things got jammed up and all the MEMORY are FULLY used up. As a heavy user, I open many programs at one time like iTunes, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, Rainlendar, Yahoo widgets, Firefox with 10 tabs on, Windows Media Player, Sothink iPod converter etc. All these are essential programs for me to on almost all the time but the memory of my laptop just couldn't handle my needs, and mind you that i had not included any gaming needs yet. Then when i rest my palm on the keyboard, it was super HOT; plus when i turn off my A/C, the NOISE of the laptop can really flood the whole room. Besides, i have to constantly DELETE my files as 60GB means really nothing to me, and i find my D: is always full and C: is only few GB free. After bout 6 months having all these same frustrating experience everyday, many a times i was tempted to search for the best laptop on market through the net.

Then one day when i was surfing on Malaysia Dell website, i accidentally saw the promotion of the KL PC Fair being available on the web too. After i looked more closely, i just cant help but thank god and shout out joyfully--the promotion is just too too good and cheap. I can actually get the same laptop with RM800 cheaper! I quickly contacted my dad and begged him to lend me his credit card so that i can purchase it before the promotion ends (in 3 days time). Of course, as expected, he wouldn't allow and come out with all kind of reasonings and his business theories. But i persisted and explain to both my parents as well as i can, trying to persuade them that i will pay my dad back and sell off my old Acer. Finally, on the last day, my dad agreed and told me his credit card number. Thank you so much, dad!! So, i made the purchase last minute and mailed the company to send me the item to my house as fast as possible as i won't be in malaysia for too long.

Besides, before i came back Malaysia, i listed my Acer laptop on eBay India for 5 days to sell. At the end of the 5 days, the highest bid i got is Rs20700 (RM1700), and i had settled everything and courier it to the buyer before i leave Mangalore. It was really really good price for an old Acer laptop like mine. It is supposed to cost at most RM1000 only, hehe, i feel damn proud selling it at such high price to some Indian noob. :P

So today, after only 12 days (on 24th Dec), i received the item, which is considered super fast (the actual date was to be 4th of Jan). It was a big box containing Dell XPS 1530 specially configured by me to have the best specs i can get. The specs are as below:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz
• 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR3
• 200GB Hard disk (7200rpm)
• Slot-loading dual-layer DVD±RW drive
• 15.4-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) CCFL glossy screen
• Ethernet, 802.11a/g/n (Intel 4965), Bluetooth option
• Integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam
• HDMI, VGA, S-Video, Firewire/1394, three USB 2.0 ports, integrated media reader (MS, SD, xD), fingerprint reader
• Media Center remote located in ExpressCard slot
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Weight merely 2kg

I am really satisfied with the specs, and this specs can be considered as one of the best you can ever get on the laptop market today, even for the next 6 months. The box comes with many free gifts:

1. a nice black Dell laptop sleeve
2. 2 Creative in-ear earphone EP-630 (they accidentally gave me 2, woohoo, and the earphone is the same as the one i got for my iPod baby 2 months ago that cost me RM80)
3. 1 nice Dell polish cloth
4. all the system DVDs including Windows, 15month McAfee Anti Virus, Dell Media Direct, drivers (so that i wont have problem reformatting my laptop next time)
5. a nice Dell diary book pouch which can put CDs and pen and notebooks in it

It also came with one Belkin Messenger Laptop bag that i bought together with the laptop, which is super light and look very stylish.

The whole thing cost me RM4500, which is considered very cheap as the ori price is RM5300, plus if you choose a HP with same spec, it cost RM6000+, an Asus cost RM 7000, an Apple Mac Book Pro cost RM8000, and a Sony Vaio of same specs cost RM9000. Why pay more when you can get the same thing much cheaper?

The first thing i do with the new laptop is to experience the WOW of Vista, and try very hard to tweak it myself so that it runs as fast as it can, without leeching any extra resources. Then, i installed all the essential programs, and run them all at once. I am really pleased that everything runs super smooth and fast and i can multi-task without a single hesitation. The overall performance is much better than my precious laptop. I can now do other stuffs while scanning virus and burning DVD.

After that, i installed my newly bought original Half Life Orange Box (cost me only Rs 820/RM70 on eBay, damn cheap), and the game runs super smooth and the graphic is super sleek at highest configuration of everything. Then i installed Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 and set it to highest quality image, and it looks like crisp! I was so pleased with it's performance in gaming as well. These 2 games is enough to occupy my holiday.

The keyboard feel very durable and nice to type on. The temperature of the laptop is super low, i can't feel heat at all even though my palm is actually resting on the high-speed hard disk. There's not a single noise coming out from it. The touch sensitive buttons are really nice to press and the overall design is really good. It is fully black and silver, and the laptop is very thin and weight only 2kg, wow!! The remote control also works like magic, and now i can fulfill my dream of controlling everything on my bed.

I know many people hates Windows Vista, saying that it is slow and hard to use. But after tweaking it myself and using it for sometime, i think i'm getting more in love with it. The ease of using it is just superb. Everything looks easier to understand now! In addition, after one year of development by softwares and hardware manufacturers since it was launched, almost all major products are already fully compatible with Vista and the graphic performance is already at the same par with XP.

I got 2 christmas present this year. One is like this Dell XPS that i bought for myself, the other one is the lovely polo shirt that Caryn gave me. I really love this laptop, and hopefully it can serve me well without problem for at least the next 3 years.

Anyway, a Merry Christmas everyone!!

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

I went to Singapore for a 4 days 3 nights trip once i reached Malaysia. I reached my homeland on the 19th Dec, and on 20th itself i went to the Lion's den (Singa=Lion) with my parents, lil bro, grandpa n grandma and my small mischievous 9 year-old-cousin. We departed in the morning and reached Johor at 1pm. Then dad's friend came to bring us for lunch at one shopping complex. After that, we crossed the custom and entered Singapore.

The last time i came here was 5 years old, and i don't remember a thing of this small neighboring country of Malaysia . We went to find my father's sister, and i was shocked to see she's actually 20 years older than my dad, and they were born by different mother,zzz. All hail my grandfather :) My cousins are actually 20 years older than me, and i was being called "uncle 舅舅" by my cousins sons, swt.. Now my grandpa has altogether 3 wives, and now the Liu's descendants are distributed all over the world including India, England, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, wow..

We stayed at my aunt's house. Though i don't like that kind of typical flat's design and lifestyle of Singapore houses (as in lifts, no independent parking spaces, no private land for playing and trees) we were thankful that our my 姑姑 let us occupy the whole house to fit 7 of us and save the expensive hotel money. On that night, we went to see the beautiful Orchard Road full of super nice Christmas decorations and programs. The street was full of people and on both sides of the streets are all high class and big shopping complexes with their own unique decorations.. However, i cant do any shopping because everything need to x2.3 for any price tags i looked at plus i din bring any money back from India. The whole place is fully lit and it was really eye catching.

Then the next day we spent the whole day at Sentosa Island. We played many of the games ie Luge & Skyride, Cineblast and visited lots of attractions like Underwater World, Images of Singapore, Merlion etc. However, when we were watching our last program - Songs of The Sea, the rain started pouring and everyone ran for their life.

Then on the 3rd day, we went to China Town to meet up with my dad's second elder 'sister' of the same dad. We went around 牛车水 (China Town) to see the super typical chinese shops and chinese cultures. Then we went to Esplanade- the Singapore's theater on the bay. At night, my cousin sister's husband treated all of us to eat Penang buffet. All kinds of Penang food can be found there for you to eat all you can. We had some great time for fellowship and suddenly getting to know many "unknown relatives".

It was a tiring trip as we walked a lot and traveled by buses and MRT only, but it was nice to get to know those long lost relatives and refresh my Singapore experience again. Though i can't buy anything, it was still a very descent trip.