OK Computer

Many things crosses my mind whenever i'm too bored of studying.. I keep thinking of what i wanna do next year as an intern in my one last year in India. I wanna buy this buy that, take plenty of leaves and travel around India as much as possible, or even go to South Africa for World Cup..
Recently, i bought a 22" LCD monitor, Dell SP2208WFP. It's the monitor i've been eying for the past one year, and so far i'd not found any new monitor model better than that.. This model is way too good in terms of performance, features and value till it's being discontinued, and luckily i found a second hand one on eBay India. The monitor is 6 months old, hardly been used, and still look brand new without any problem. Actually i bought the same monitor in July when i was back in Msia, it's still unopened in my home and i'm supposed to bring it over next year, but then i decided against it and wanna get one more over here.. The reasons I wanna have a monitor are so that my desk will be cleaner and have more space for books,; i can watch my HD movies more comfortably; have a better desktop experience in my daily windows applications; and also due to peer pressure cause many of my friends in the hostel already have one.. The monitor cost me Rs9000 (RM650), and i'm really happy with its performance.


Recently, Liew's laptop died and while he was going to buy a Dell desktop, i advised him to buy all the parts separately and custom build one, which he did. His new PC cost around Rs80000 (which is almost the same price as the Dell desktop he's gonna buy here but more than doubled its performance). His PC is extremely powerful (with Intel Core i5 CPU, ATI Radeon 5850 GPU), and is undoubtedly the strongest in our whole hostel right now.
Now, my heart is pumping to build one for myself too. I'm really pissed with my 2 year-old Dell XPS 1530 laptop cause it can no longer support any of my games in native 1680x1050 monitor resolution smoothly, even watching HD movies lag sometimes.. All these while i was planning to buy a Alienware m15x next year, but when i think about the price of it (RM6500) and how well can it support new games in full details, i decided against it.. If i build a desktop myself, it'll only cost me less than RM4000, and i can assure it will support all future games in full details in the next 3 years and will not die on me for at least 5 years. It's totally a bargain compare to a laptop, considering laptop's life span of 3 years.. Average laptops has a 30% of total failure rate after 3 years, and also each manufacturer has different failure rate. Check this out:


My plan now is to sell my laptop in eBay India for around Rs30k, scrap my budget for a PS3 and its games which is another Rs30k, and use the money to build a Small Form Factor PC gaming machine. I want a really small and cool looking PC case cause i'm bored of those tower casing and it's more challenging and fun building a SFF PC. Also, i can easily bring it back to Malaysia when i leave this place. I'd already made a list of all the components that i'll be getting when i go back Malaysia, and i'm really looking forward to it. Below is Thermaltake Lanbox Lite and Lian-li PC-V351 small form factor casing which i'd been eying:


specs i have decided on:

CPU: Intel Core i5
RAM: G Skill 2000Mhz 4GB DDR3 Dual-Channel
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Maximus III Gene
PSU: Corsair HX620W
HDD: Western Digital 2TB Cavier Black
GPU: nVidia GTX 275
HSF: Noctua NH-U9B

So right now, my sole aim is to study well, do well for my exam and pass all subjects in one go, reward myself with a new PC, and then fully enjoy my last year in India as an intern.. May God bless me..

The Name of The Game

Last night we had a small gaming session in Wilson's room.. He just only bought a PS3, and had instantly bought some latest games.. Warrie also brought his Street Fighter IV and FIFA 09 for us to play.. I was able to witness new games like Batman: Arkham Assylum, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Kill Zone 2, which are all awesome; Later at night, we all played FIFA 09 and SF4.. The whole night experience is just unforgettable, and made me feel sick of playing PES 2009 and my 'slow' Street Fighter IV i have installed in my laptop..

Now, i'm feeling something is missing in my life. I am missing FIFA 09, and looking forward to FIFA 10 (the first time in my life i rate FIFA higher than PES), and finally, i made up my mind to get a PS3 Slim, sooner or later.

After some long thinking, thorough research plus a bit of peer pressure, i'd concluded that PS3 console is a much better choice for gaming instead of a gaming PC. With PS3, one can do almost everything in terms of entertainment. You can play all the latest high end games without any lag, play online with friends, earn trophies, watch BluRay movies, use it as a media center to view photos and play music on HDTV, browse the internet etc etc.. Even solely for BluRay player purpose, PS3 is already super worthy compared to other expensive BluRay players on the market. The only short coming is that i have to buy original games for PS3, which cost around Rs 2-3k each..
However for PC, i have to upgrade my PC at least every 2 years to keep up with the latest games, and each upgrade will cost around Rs 20-30k (which is like the price of 10 PS3 games already), while a PS3 console only cost Rs 15k and it last for many many years.. For PC, even though i can get all pirated games free from torrent, but i will loss the privilege of trophies and online gaming.. That why, i myself do buy 'original' PC games as collections (cz ori games in India is dirt cheap). Besides, there are so many games that i can't play till today on my laptop, like GTA IV and Crysis, when other ppl with PS3 already finished those games long time back. In addition, PS3 has a lot of exclusive games, and also games which plays much better than the PC version.. Like the FIFA 09 and GTA IV, PS3 version beats PC version hands down..


The newly released PS3 Slim is 30% smaller, 30% lighter, less power consumption, offer 120GB hard disk, comes with DTS-HD MA and TrueHD technology for BluRay, at a much cheaper price ($299). What a steal!!!

If it wasn't because i'm now in my vital final year, i would have definitely bought one right now. But back to reality, study is still more important, and i just have to wait till next year internship to get it.. I think i will chuck my plan of changing my 2-year-old Dell XPS 1530 laptop, and get a PS3 instead, which offer so much more in gaming purpose and is also so so much cheaper than a buying a new high end laptop.

Be super patience Chee Chung, study hard, pass your final year and reward yourself with a PS3 next year..

Just Push Play

Preview
Music is my life. Without music, my life would be empty. To me, 'Music' is the next big thing that sustain me besides 'Love' and 'Food'. Music brings me ideas, relaxation, joy, excitement, love, faith, stories, jokes, sorrow. Music is too divine to be defined. Life would be a mistake without music.

Music I like:
Hard Rock, Blues Rock, Rock & Roll, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, R&B/Soul, Jazz, Country, Pop, Love Songs, Classical...
Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Elvis Presley, ABBA, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Beethoven, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Bon Jovi, Queen, Air Supply...

Turn on my iTunes, flip through the nice Album Covers, click on one of the many 320 kbps songs, adjust the Creative Xmod external sound card, blast on the Altec Lansing 5021 speakers, and boom!, my ears are on heaven again..

E for Ears
I had problems with my ears last week. While i was talking on phone, the wax suddenly obstruct my external meatus, making all the voices in the air sounds super dull, and my own voice sound super deep and loud. I tried to use the cotton swab to clear it, but in vain. So, i flipped through my ENT text book and also checked on internet- "How to Remove Ear Wax". I guess many of you people are having a super hard wax inside you ear unknowingly. If you have those symptoms, you're one of the suspect.
Symptoms:
1. Water will be logged inside the ear often during bath, which will be gone by itself after few minutes.
2. You are not hearing the sound of a turning fan clearly, or the loud echo of water splashing in the toilet.

The most commonly practiced home remedy is this:
1. Drop a few drops of ear-drop or baby oil using something like an eye-dropper into the ear, your ear will instantly feel obstructed as the wax is swollen now.
2. Lie down for 20 mins with the ear facing upwards. After a few hours, the ears sound will clear by itself.
3. Repeat the procedure 3 times a day for 2-3 days, this will soften the wax and make it easily removable.
4. Use a bulb syringe/ normal syringe, fill in warm water, and spray into the ear through the ear canal.
5. The impacted ear wax should come out with the water.
6. If symptoms persist, consult the ENT doctor for suction, which is the most effective way.

For me, i tried hard to use the syringing way but still can't make my ears clear, so i went to Attavat hospital and got suction from Dr. MCH. It was fast and simple and effective. So now, my ears are prepared for another baby that i bought.

The new gadget
Yesterday, the Creative X-Fi Xmod USB External Sound Card has arrived by parcel. The price ain't cheap at all, cost my bloody Rs 4600. I'd researched and reviewed extensively for the past 3 months on this product and other USB sound cards, and i'm super convinced with this one. It claims to:
"Restore the details and vibrant that your music lost during mp3 compression."
"Enjoy all your music and movies in surround sound on any stereo speakers or headphones."
"Start using in an instant, truly plug-n-play, no installation needed. It works for PC and Mac and any external music devices eg iPod."
I do not chose other USB sound card because they take up plenty of hard disk space during installation, and they suck up CPU while working, and there's many drivers problems and lagging in sounds.
Besides, i never go for a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound card because i'm only using a 2.1, and i don't think i'll ever use a 5.1 in the future.
In addition, i do not chose those with EAX gaming support ones because they'll cost at least twice the price, plus those with true external hardware acceleration ones only works for desktop PCs, the laptop ones are just host-based acceleration, which means it uses ur PC's RAM and CPU to produce the EAX sounds effects.


Why?
Why do i need a sound card since i already has a high-end speakers? Let me give you a simple illustration:
Imagine the mp3 files in your computer is the raw ingredients. The better the raw materials, the better the food. So, the higher bit rate the mp3 file is, the better its quality. I never compromise on the famously widespread but poor 128 kbps songs. My songs are usually 320 kbps, which means one song will cost me more than 10 MB instead of the normal 4 MB of the 128kbps. The lowest bit rate i can tolerate is 192, and to me there're only very little difference between 192 and 320. As an audiophile wannabe, still i can't differentiate between 320 kbps and lossless FLAC or WAV format, plus my iPod does not support the lossless formats, so, i guess i'll stick with every mp3 above 192 kbps.

Now, take speakers as the chef, the one who produce the food. A skilled chef will keep every details and originality of the food that he prepares, the same applies to speakers. A good speaker will produce no noise when turned on, no distortion of bass, gives you a clear treble and crisp highs.

But even if the ingredients and chefs are top class, there's still a missing link - the process of the food. Be it cleaning, scaling, cutting, marinating, mixing, processing of food is as important, so does a sound card. Nowadays, every laptop and desktop come with a integrated sound card, which main job is to - produce sound. Almost everyone will be satisfied as long as there's sound coming from their laptop, no matter it's good or bad. But to someone like me who take music seriously and pamper my ears a lot, i will not settle for anything less than "excellent". Even with high bit rate mp3 files and high end speakers, i still find the musics a bit dull and flat and lack immersion and width.

So, i opt for this product from Creative and the results is Wow!! The 24-bit Crystalizer really does make a difference to my ears. It restores all the details that before this i'd mostly unheard of. It makes the bass deeper and more powerful, the cymbals more crispy and clear, and the wailing guitar solos more intriguing. The music just sounded much more livelier,and have more energy, wihtout it, everything sounds so flat and detailess. I dunno whether it sounds as good as studio quality, but it has definitely improved the way my ear conceive the sound, and to me they sound better than CD quality. All my songs DO sound better. Listening to music now become more pleasure and enjoyable. When listening to live performance and classicals, i turn on the X-Fi CMSS3D, and instantly, i feel like i'm in the concert hall, Mozart playing right in front of me. While watching movies, every gun shots and explosions sounds much more real-life and heart thumping. Gaming sounds more 3D as well, and i can better identify the directions the enemies are coming from. Besides, being a completely stand-alone device, i can also play my iPod through the sound card to the speakers without opening my laptop, which is really convenient.


In a nutshell
I really love the sound produced by my laptop now. The ingredients, the processing of food, and the production of food are all taken care well. I'm still in the process of rebuilding my whole music library, learning bout classic artists and songs, at the same time re-download the songs in high quality forms. It takes months to slowly rebuild my treasure, but at the same time my knowledge on music grows, as well as my perception of sounds. Rock On!!

Good Vibration

 

i bought a new 2.1 speaker. I'd always wanted one really good one, and i'd targeted Logitech Z-4 which cost around RM350. However in India, it's sold for Rs 6000+ and hard to find. Then one day as i was shopping around, i saw a Altec Lansing MX5012. It is the highest line of Altec Lansing speaker product, with THX certification. The boss is very nice n he sell me for only Rs6600, where the ori price is Rs9000. So, after considering for 15 mins, i decided to buy it. So then, now i have one of the best speaker in the world. Altec Lansing MX5021 It is the highest line 2:1 speakers by Altec Lansing. Even though it's the older model, and there's a newer and more expensive FX6021, people says the older version is better than the new one. "Old is gold". Specs:

• Components: 2 satellites, 1 sub
• Satellites: 20 watts each
• Subwoofer: 50 watts
• Output level: 103dB
• Frequency: 30-22000hz

With total of 90 watts, and a output of 103db, the volume is much higher than any speakers. Besides, it is THX certified, which means, it can produce the highest highest quality sound comparable to theatre. Sound quality The first thing i do after bringing this new sound pet into my room is start wiring and set it up on my table. I do not remove my Creative M2500 as i wanna make a side to side comparison with my new AL MX5021. I already have a list of high dynamic songs to test different aspect of the speakers such as the high freq saxaphone or cymbals, the mid range guitar solo and the low freq bass and drums. The results was spectacular. My new speakers just sound so much more better than the old one. The MX5021 sounds much clearer, the high range sounds are so much louder and crisp and you can easily differentiate whether the cymbals are from the left or the flute are from right side. The bass is very solid and even at high volume, there's no distortion at all. The bass can really make ur whole room shattle at high volume, with the songs still sounds nice and clear. Besides, the bass never cover up the mid range sounds at high level, plus every instruments are very clear through the songs and never overlap each other. On the other hand on my old Creative M2500, the sounds of each instruments are overlapping, some instruments loud some soft, and they sound muddy and sloppy compared to the clarity of AL MX5021. The bass is also very easily distorted, and basses very frequantly overwhelm the other sounds. The high freq sounds also easily gets buzzing on some songs. Sound of Music Even though i'm not an audiophile, i can still know what is a "good sound" .I'm still constantly learning and training my ears to be more sensitive to sounds. I can now easily differentiate a good sounding speakers and a cheap one; and find out the difference between a high bit MP3 file and a low bit one. I always keep my favourite songs to 320kbps, which means 1 song of mine is around 10MB. The lowest bit rate acceptable to my ear is 192kbps, and 128kbps sounds too muddy to me, except from those simple Pop songs. Nowadays in a digital world dominated by iPod and MP3s, CDs are already hardly surviving, but mind you they're still sound the best. However, CDs are just too big to be kept, so it's better to rip them into mp3 or AAC files in high bit. I listen to all kinds of music, mostly classic Rock, Rock and Roll, Alternative, Jazz, Blues, R&B, and some Chirstians, Classical and Pop. I let my iTunes play most the time in a day, so i'm constantly exposed to music, so it is necessary my ears are fed with good sounds. I hate all modern musics, especially hip-hop or rap or those meant-to-please-everyone alternatives. I'm still living in a 60s, 70s and 80s era, as these are the Golden Years of music industries. Hardly anything today sound as good as the old days. Appearance The subwoofer is super super tall and heavy, as big as a normal desktop CPU, swt. Even the size of the 2 satellites speakers are beyond what i expected. They're just HUGE. There's a seperate controller for u to put on the desk, with control of Power on/off, Volume, Bass & Treble, plus a auxillary input for iPod or any CD players and a output jack for earphones. It's easy to control the volume anytime and anyhow u like. Another thing i like is there's a wireess remote control, so u can control from ur bed or far away while watching movies. The color of everything is black, with silver color cones and blue LEDs on the controller. The color totally complemet my laptop and all my gadgets. In a Nutshell The size is thrice than that of my old speaker, the price is thrice more, the specs is thrice more, but the sound quality of Altec Lansing MX5021? It's so much better. Nowadays, the best available 2:1 speakers in the market of the world are Logitech Z-2300, JBL Harman Cardon Soundstick II, Klipsch Promedia 2.1, and Altec Lansing MX5021/Fx6021. All of them cost more than RM600 (and i think i'd got a great deal with mine), and they can support any sounds of music, movies, and games at any volume. A good 2:1 is often the choice for everyone than buying a surround 5:1 because most 5:1 do not use drivers as good as 2:1, and 5:1 just cramp up ur room with all the extra wires and speakers. A great speaker can last people forever, and i'm going to use this for my whole life hopefully, if i can find a good way to bring back Malaysia cz it's too huge. I'm really really glad with this new speakers, my ears feel so much soothing and happy now. I wont get headache out of rock songs after long time exposure anymore. I love my Altec Lansing MX5021, it's a perfect companion for my daily needs as it provides pleasant sounds at low volume and cinematic sound at high volume. I would recomend this speaker to anyone if he/she is serious about sounds.

Let It Rock (ver 2.0)

iPod Classic 80GB: Rs 11500

Belkin iPod Brushed Metal - Clear Acrylic Casing: Rs 900

Medical Textbooks: Rs 3000

Music experience while studying in library: PRICELESS!

I bought a black 80GB iPod Classic last week from eBay India. I bought it much cheaper than the market price (Rs. 13400). I had been dreaming for an iPod for almost half a year, but i was very unimpressed by the previous 5.5 generation one (too low battery life, less space, finger prints), so i waited and waited and waited till Steve Job announced the latest models of iPod in the beginning of Spetember. At first, I was really impressed by iPod Touch - a touch screen ipod with 3.5 inch display plus Wifi and Safari internet browser, it is basically an iPhone without the calling functions. It was so so cool cz it is exactly what i was waiting for for the past 6 months, but in the end, after much consideration, i think the iPod Touch carries too little space (16GB can't even fit my 17GB big music collection, not to say movies and photos), and it attracts finger prints like hell, which is one of the most troublesome issue u can get with such a nice and cool gadget. I opted for iPod Classic instead, which had improved quite much from its predecessor. It now has 2 times longer battery life, thinner, scratch prove front body, and all new interface. Decisions? What decisions? It is absolutely a no-brainer for me to get the iPod Classic. People might ask me why not get an iPod nano which had improved so so much with video function? My answer is very simple: "iPod nano is for women; iPod Classic is for men - a true classic never gets outdated"


Why would i want an iPod? First and the most important of all, my music collection! I am very very particular on my music collections, i don't simply add whatever music i stumbled upon or whatever so called good and popular musics or chart toppers. My music collection is 5 years old already, and through these years it went through many improvements, additions, deletions, fine tuning, tagging etc, till today's 17GB of mostly rock, christians, oldies, plus some pop, jazz, country and instrumental. Every single of my songs are tagged properly with correct song names, artists, album name, album art, and lyrics. If one fine day, my laptop broke down and all my music and pictures are irretrievable, i can really die. But with an iPod which acts as a backup of my iTunes library, i'll have no worry. Besides, since i'm now going to library almost everyday, this iPod simply become a very good companion. Whenever you're alone on a long trip, music and entertainment is always there.


That's what most people do with their iPod - listening to music. But using iPod to listen to music actually is only using 50% of the functions of iPod, never mind most of the people don't organize their music properly with album art and lyrics. I personally put my pictures, music videos, tv shows, movies, podcast, audiobook, notes and games into my iPod, to make sure my iPod is serving me to the most, value for every single paisa i pay for it. I have an iTunes account (thanx to CK), and with it i can watch Podcast for free, get nice album art, buy extra games for my iPod and download one free song every week. Without an iTunes account, your iTunes is like without a limb.

Enough for internal functions, how about externally? iPod is still very fragile, though now with a scratch prove front body, but the back shinning mirror side still get scratched super easily, as well as the 2.5" screen. To counter this, i bought a high quality transparent protector for it, both at the back and the screen, plus a Belkin super cool looking and durable casing. In addition, i also bought a Apple iPod Power Adapter from eBay as well so i can charge it any where i go, in case a computer is not available. All these accessories are not cheap at all, but my principle always tells me to get one of the best item around with the cheapest price possible. So i still saved quite a lot in the end.

Taking a super cool and slim gadget in my pocket; listening to music every where i go; watch Grey's Anatomy when i'm too free; view some Podcast of Happy Tree Friends for a disgusted laugh; listening to bible Audiobook while reading my bible, watch some nice short films by Pixar; flip through those captured memories on the photos; play some games when i feel bored; view memo or to-do-list as useful reminder; backup my important files when i need to reformat my laptop.... "An iPod in hand keep the boredom away"


Earphone
My Apple iPod Earphone juz spoil 4 days back.. I was like, what the hell, i just bought the ipod for like 2 weeks n the earphone that came with the box spoil n i dun even remember anything i did, maybe it had a slight drop, or maybe it can't sustain my volume etc.. Whatever it is, i went back home to check online and found 8 out of 10 pppl complaint bout the Apple earphone.. Many ppl might think the white earphone look damn cool n it is a real gem.. Tell u what, the truth is, the earphone they provided is something like a RM5 earphone u get in pasar malam, bad sound, spoil super easily n expensive.. Your iPod can produce much much better sound than what is emitted from the Apple earphone.. So my solution is- hunt a new earphone.. After i researched online for some time, n got to understand all the technical terms.. I found out of all the high-class earphones like Sennheiser, Shure, Etymotic, Bose, V-Moda, Logitech, Creative etc, n was shocked to see that a real good one cost RM4000, a normal good one with high performance cost RM400, n those RM 100 one can basically throw away after few months.. Swt. So i went to eBay India again and checked the most expensive earphone available there, and i am stuck with only one choice: Creatve EP-630. It cost me Rs. 820 (RM 70):It's an in-ear ear bud, noise isolating, high frequency range, nice bass sound, gold-plated jack, and ergonomic design.. I checked the review for the earphone and it has high rating, good feedback, it's the second best Creative earphone and with cheap price.. So i bought it without thinking twice and it juz arrived today.. The earphone fit right into my ear canal n it's like blasting the music straight into my brain, produce clear sound with nice bass, n i cant hear the noisy Indian traffic with the earphone on, good!! I was happy with the performance and it definitely sounds better and louder than the stupid Apple iPod earphone.. Besides, it is black in color, which suites my black iPod really well..
I just personally tested the difference between my new Creative EP-630 n Apple earphone, it was like, what the heck, the Apple's quality is not even 50% of the Creative's- so much softer, can't hear the base, n can't hear the words properly, very blur.. Then i tested another in-ear earphone that came with my Sony Ericsson W810i, the bass is loud, but the treble is soft, n the words are blur.. So, if you're really serious bout music, throw away the Apple's n get a new good earphone. And in addition, make sure ur mp3 files are at least 192bps, better to be 320 kbps, chuck the lowsy 128kbps ones, cz they really make a difference to the quality of sound..

What i use:

• iTunes 7.5 (to me it is the best program for arranging my music library, WMP sux)
• iTunes Online Store Australia (For free songs, album art and podcast, buy games)
• iTunes Companion Yahoo widget (for free album art, lyrics, album name, track listing)
• SoThink iPod Video Converter (very fast and good quality, can convert any file types to mpeg4)
  
• mininova (for searching illegal illegal musics, movies, tv shows, audiobook, music videos :P)
• uTorrent (for downloading illegal musics, movies, tv shows, audiobook, music videos)
• Airtel internet connection 512 kbps (for fast download speed)
• http://www.ilounge.com (For in depth tutorial and just anything you need to know on iPod)
• http://www.apple.com (I'm a big big fan of Apple products)

p/s: for people in Malaysia, 1 ringgit = 12 rupee, so u juz divide the prices by 12, n judge the cost youself.

Shh..i'm the pirate for Sothink Ipod Video Converter
username: SeVeN / FFF
key: 000017-AKY297-AGEQWM-TEAVBF-4AGHQA-N050Z7-ZBNP4Z-BFGFQ5-K158P5-N99QB1

For opening a free iTunes account:
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/20/45826-how-get-us-itunes-account-free.html