Archive for February, 2008
This Hippo Won’t Swim
We’ve all seen the commercials going on and on about “state of the art” computers for a “low” weekly fee. In reality, the Blue Hippo scheme is one big scam that rivals that of Nigerian check fraud.
After initially signing up with Blue Hippo, you will soon realize that you won’t actually get your new computer until after your sixth payment has been made. What they don’t tell you is that it takes up to 8 weeks to get the computer in the mail. So 2-3 months later, you will have your computer.
The real scam here is the cost. Let’s take a quick look at one of the laptops that they offer. These are the specs for the Lenovo Thinkpad R52, which they offer for a slim and trim affordable $47.99 a week:
- 1.86GHz Intel Pentium M Processor 750 w/Centrino Mobile Technology
- 512MB RAM
- 60GB Hard Drive
- CD-RW/DVD
- 10/100/1000 Ethernet
- WiFi 802.11a/b/g
- 56Kbps/V.90
Doesn’t look very impressive now, does it? Well, not even close to mildly impressive, especially when you figure out the numbers. Not taking into account the down payment, you are looking at $47.99 each and every week. Soon enough, you’re looking at a commitment worth 52 weeks. The total amount paid for this “state of the art” computer is: $2495.48! After you pick your jaw from the floor, it gets worse because, you see, you could get this laptop for less:
- Intel® Core 2 Duo mobile T5450 (1.66GHz) processor
- 2GB installed memory
- 160GB Hard drive
- 8x Super Multi DVD+/_]R/RW with Double Layer Support
- 17″ WXGA Acer CrystalBrite TFT LCD display
- 5-in-1 card reader Weight 7.41lbs
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
- 1 year warranty
Much better, considering the hard drive is nearly 3 times the size of the previous laptop from Blue Hippo, and the memory is 3 times the size. In addition, the processor is a dual core, which means it runs cooler and more efficient. So twice the stuff means twice the cash, right? Nope. In fact the price tag on this is $750.00 – nearly 1/3rd the cost. You can get a laptop similar to Blue Hippo’s for about $400-$500.
Blue Hippo preys on people with bad credit with their disguised cheap plans. Use your common sense and do the math. If you can afford nearly $50 a week for a hunk of cheques, bank that cash and buy yourself a decent system WITH a warranty. Don’t be fooled and taken in by these shysters. Beyond the usual day-to-day price gouging, Blue Hippo also has a track record of losing your personal data and not reporting it to the proper agencies that handle possible identity theft. They also make it a practice to sell your contact information to any telemarketing firm that pays for it.
AVI is far better than MP4. Video content in AVI boasts better quality. This can be proven by viewing AVI files using most digital video players.
Unlike MP4, AVI isn’t readily supported by DVD players. Nevertheless, video content in MP4 is grainy at larger viewing resolutions, again making AVI a better choice.
MP4 format is Apple’s version of video encoding. This has only existed in the media world since 2000/2001, and it is included free with many systems. HD TV has used MP4 to broadcast its signals in order to make the transmissions easier and relatively inexpensive.
AVI, like MP4, is what you would call a “container” format. The nickname applies quite well to AVI because within this particular file format, you can encode both audio and video streams. These include other video stream formats such as MPEG4, MPEG version 2, and DIVX.
MP3s and audio MP4 work the same way by compressing large chunks of video into a smaller or more portable file. This makes the file much easier to work with. These files are compressed into smaller ones without loss of quality. The MP4 players that are used to view the MP4 format are fairly simple. The file is viewed in DVD quality. This also allows the fast and seamless streaming of video possible.
AVI doesn’t specify how it should be encoded. With this, you can encode the video streams of varying formats to AVI in order to be viewed across a wide array of players. Common formats nestled inside the AVI container include ASF, M-JPEG, and DivX. However, AVI files need the proper codec in order to be viewed.
You can also encode AVI files with user-defined passwords. This makes the format ideal for those who sell private content. However, the biggest annoyance of the AVI format is the fact that codecs are required to play the content. This means you have to download something else in order to view such AVI files unless you already have the appropriate codecs installed.
I’m a game junkie and I love SIM games. There is a sense of power you get from controlling the fate of virtual people because it’s typically frowned upon to do it with real people. There is a measure of fun involved in playing god. There isn’t much in the game world that deals with construction. Sure – we have SimCity, but how realistic is that? We also have ThrillVille where we get to build roller coasters and amusement parks. Then again, it’s not all that realistic.
BridgeBuilder Game bridges the gap (forgive the pun) between the real and unreal by offering many levels of play where you have to build a bridge - under budget AND safe for travel. It looks simple, but since it’s incorporated with scientific principles, it makes it pretty difficult to pull off a build that won’t kill unwitting people.
The game doesn’t offer much by way of advanced graphics or heavy metal soundtracks. It offers a real approach to the very real science of building bridges. The graphics are gray with a lot of white segmenting lines. The bridge construction uses these same white lines. Once you are finished with your bridge, you click on “TEST”. The result would be your bridge rendered in 3D. It’s now time to see if your grand design holds up under the weight of a moving train. If it doesn’t, the train crashes thru your bridge.
However, the playability of the BridgeBuilder Game is quite complex and oddly fun. It can even teach you a thing or two about physics.
The game allows you to pretty much do anything you want. You can build economical bridges or expensive ones that look really cool and plausible. You can also build out-of-this-world bridges.
Your creativity is never stunted with this game. You can save your bridges and post them to the designers’ website in order to show off your work.
I don’t have too many complaints about the game as not all games are about sound and graphics but playability. Still, my biggest complaint is the background. It’s boring and gray. It could have been rendered with scenery to make the scenario look cooler. The other issue I have is there is no scrolling save for the mouse toward the screen edges so if you lose point it will take you time to get centered again.
Level 1 is easy enough (or so it seems). If it is your first time playing, then the layout can be a bit confusing. When I first began to fiddle around with it, I was building away from myself – this proved to be poor thinking on my part as you have to build across.
After the first try, I thought Level 1 would be easy – it wasn’t. Several tries later: SUCCESS! I’m looking forward to the more difficult levels.
If you like games that basically make your PC explode with its power, then this game may not be for you. But if you like problem and puzzle solving, then I highly recommend BridgeBuilder Game – it’s TETRIS with bridges.
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While it still could be unbelievable for some, lately there has been an unusual demand for new machines running pre-installed Linux operating systems. So unusual that Wal-Mart couldn’t fulfill its orders for Everex’s $199 PC.
Until the last few months, buying a PC that was running Linux was a bit hard. Today, Linux is a wealthy and powerful alternative to pre-installed Microsoft’s operating systems. However, one cannot restrain from wondering what’s behind this growing interest towards open source, and I have no valid answer for you yet.
Drawing a line, last year, only 39% of new computers went on sale with Windows Vista pre-installed, compared to 67% for Windows XP in 2002 (a first year of full availability).
It’s not just consumers that are seeking alternatives to Windows. Last week, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency advised schools in the United Kingdom not to upgrade their PCs to Vista, suggesting they instead eye lower-cost Linux systems the next time they need new computers.
With a host of new Linux PCs hitting the market this year, U.K. schools — and other buyers seeking computing alternatives — will have more options than ever should they decide to steer away from Microsoft.
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Software | No Comments »
2008 just started strong with probably one of the most important acquisitions of the year, taking us all by surprise. According to Swedish media, the acquisition fee was $800 million in cash and $200 million in options.
Considering that MySQL powers some of the largest sites, this might be a nice strategic move to get a foot into the RDBMS game and wag it back to the likes of Oracle and M$. However, I hope they keep it alive and healthy for the open source community. For I cannot imagine LAMP without the strong “M” in it.
Who is Sun Microsystems?
- Founded 1982 by Andreas von Bechtolsheim, Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy and Scott McNealy
- 34.200 employees worldwide, 13.9 billion dollars (9.4 billion euros) in revenues FY 2007, market cap (total value of all Sun shares) about the same as yearly revenues
- Grew astronomically with the Web, suffered from the Web bubble, now profitable over the last four quarters
- Lead by Scott McNealy until 2006, now by Jonathan Schwartz (a prolific blogger)
- The world’s biggest contributor to Open Source: Open Office, Java (now under GPL), GlassFish, NetBeans — and soon MySQL
- Environmentally friendly; large numbers of distributed employees working at least partially from home
- Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, just south of Cupertino (MySQL’s North American headquarters)
- Counts some of the worlds most brilliant innovators amongst its current and past employees
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
There was a lot of fuss around the new MacBook presented at the recent Apple keynote, but I’m still considering the pros and cons. Sure it’s slim ( 0.76-inch at its thickest ) and it has a nice 13.3-inch, widescreen display. But it’s not dubbed “air” for nothing. The new MacBook relies heavily on its 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connections. Not only it doesn’t have an UTP network port but it also lacks an optical unit ( to solve this Apple found a way to use another computer’s optical drive via wireless connection ).
For the $1,799 you pay for the base model you’ll get a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo chip, 2 GB of RAM and a 80 GB HDD. On the other hand the high-end version has a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo and instead of the classic hard drive it has a 64GB SSD, but those small upgrades come for an amazing $3,098.
And yes the battery lasts five hours but you can’t just change it with a full one when it gets discharged. So the new MacBook is extremely slim and good looking, but it does have its drawbacks. You can buy one if you want to look good and be trendy, but I’d still look for another option for my work laptop.
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Apple | No Comments »
Have you ever asked yourself how did Apple (formerly Apple Inc.) chose its name? It was all decided on the 1st of March, 1976. Since Steve Wozniak and Steve Job needed a name for their company, the brilliant idea came up as they were driving along Highway 85.
Steve was still half involved with a group of friends who ran the commune-type All-One Farm in Oregon. And he would go up and work there for a few months before returning to the Bay Area. He had just come back from one of his trips and we were driving along and he said ‘I’ve got a great name: Apple Computer.’ Maybe he worked in apple trees. I didn’t even ask. Maybe it had some other meaning to him. Maybe the idea just occurred based upon Apple Records. He had been a musical person, like many technical people are. It might have sounded good partly because of that connotation. I thought instantly, ‘We’re going to have a lot of copyright problems.’ But we didn’t. Both of us tried to think of technical-sounding mixtures of words, like Executek and Matrix Electronics, but after 10 minutes of trying, we both realized we weren’t going to beat Apple Computer.
– Steve Wozniak
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Software | No Comments »
Wordpress is one of the top free blogging platforms out there. And as of recent the guys at WP decided to surprise their users even more and throw in a surprising 3GB of storage. Compared to the former 50MB this is lavish in deed. Not only that, but compared with other free online blogging platforms, Wordpress does pretty good. For example Google only gives you 1GB of storage space.
And if you need more than 3GB you can also upgrade to 5GB ($20), 15GB ($50), or 25GB ($90) per year. This is pretty good compared to the $300/year TypePad users have to pay to get 3GB of extra space.
In the end Wordpress is one of the best free blogging platforms out there, and it seems they try hard to keep it that way.
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
For a moment there HD DVD seemed to be the future Now, many people are not so sure anymore. But big manufacturers such as Microsoft already produced hardware based on the hi-def standard and have to face the consequences. As a result the external USB 2.0 HD DVD player add-on for Xbox360 suffered a $50 downgrade from $179.99 to $129.99. It’s a bit cheaper now and it also works with a PC.
The price-cut and the 5 free HD DVDs offer say now’s the time if you always wanted to upgrade your Xbox.
