PCIe and AGP

There are many graphic cards in the market that offer brilliant rendering for games and other designing softwares. But what to choose and what is the best for you need. There are two kind of graphic card one is the AGP then there is PCIe. AGP graphic card is the standard and the most common kind of graphic card. It can be found in different packages and brands. AGP runs on a single slot on a motherboard where you install it on a slot call the AGP slot. PCIe similar with AGP but it runs on PCIe slot

The AGP provides ram for graphic rendering. Depending on the size of the ram on the card the quality of the graphic differs. The bigger the size the finest the quality. And there is a clock which determine how fast your graphic card can work. Ranging from 4X - 16X the graphic card response differently at different speed. The higher the speed and the ram the finest the rendering. Game such as Need for Speed: Most Wanted is best played using graphic card.

If you are a proffesional gamer you might consider using PCIe graphic card. First it provide larger ram and higher speed. Secondly it allow you to use two graphic card in parallel which mean you will have to install two graphic card and link it. It will provide higher ram and higher speed, It renders realistic surrounding and provide smooth running game.

There are many companies in the market which manufacture both of these cards such as nvidia, msi, ati radeon, and so on.

Night scene

Shooting night scene without using flash is not a difficult task to do but you need to know how. Many of us use flash when taking still photo but that will cause discolouration of the natural colour being too bright. But if we don't use flash the object appear too dark. Here are some easy tips for film camera and digital camera.

(picture taken using 0"6s shutter speed without flash)

(photo taken with flash at shutter speed 1/100s)

1. If your camera (film or digital) is very basic which means you can't choose the shutter speed, exposure, and aperture what you need to do is to avoid bright background. This is very important because bright background will actualy make your subject appear darker on your photo.(almost all digital camera can set exposure and iso sensitivity setting. If so set to higher exposure and higher sensitivity.)

2. Try to make use of surrounding light. But that does not mean you have to move the light and what you do is to change your position where the light is facing your subject. In other word the best thing to do is to stand infront of the light source but do not obstruct the light. Squat if you are obstructing the light.

3. Keep your hand and subject still. Shaky hand often result in blurry image. Use tripod if your hand is shaky or find a place to put your camera on it. If you can find a rock with a flat surface that is good enough but if you can find a table or chair it is even better.

4. For digital camera, if your camera is able to choose night scene mode than set it to night scene mode.

5. If you can choose custom shutter speed of your camera (film or digital) then first thing to do is to set to manual shutter or the mode which you are able to set the shutter speed. Then choose the shutter speed ranging from 1/2-1/20 for dim condition. 1/2 very dim - 1/20 lightly dim. If the condition is very dark you must choose an even lower shutter speed 8" or lower.

6. In addition, the exposure setting must be set higher if the condition is too dark. Aperture setting which is the choke that control the amount of light reaching the film or sensor can be set bigger for dark setting.

7. If you have a digital camera, you can practice using the this tips over and over again until you master it.

8. When choosing the film for camera you must choose film with higher iso sensitivity.

Dimage Z20

Released in 2005 Konica Minolta Dimage Z20 is the ultimate choice for beginner who want to buy digital camera. It has a maximum resolution of 5 megapixels makes it a digital camera which promises the best quality of photo. It has optical zoom of 8X and digital zoom of 4X which give you a total of 32X zooming capability suitable for bird sighting and sports event. Unlike other conventional digital camera in the market which has a slow startup this device claimed it has a fast startup which is important especially when it comes to emergency situation and you don't have to wait for the stand by. It uses 4 AA bateries but with a low consumption of energy which means you are able to use it for about two days without turning off the camera. Thanks to its rapid autofocus you won't need to wait long for the focus box to turn red before you took a photo.

Have you been in a situation where something moving so fast that when you take its photo with your compact digital camera it become blurry. Now the Dimage has a solution for that problem. By switching the mode to sport mode you are able to take a still photo without any blurr effect. Or if you are an advance user you can simply switch to M or S which will enable you to select the proper shutter speed. Now you are able to take a still picture where you can see the object that you took clearly. If you have one of this camera, here is a simple experiment for you. First you switch to S mode then select shutter speed at about 1/600 (use flash if the background is dim). Then you take a picture of your fan, you will be able to see each blade clearly. This won't let you down on your son's school sports day. This camera has the shutter speed range from 4s to 1/2000s. Use a low shutter speed to take photo in dark while use a higher shutter speed in bright condition or when you want to take a photo of fast moving object.

For people like me who is not a proffesional photographer is able to tell the different between this camera and conventional compact digital camera. This camera has a super macro mode which able to take photo as near as 1cm. Eventhough not many of us use such mode while taking photo but this feature allow us to take brilliant photo of close up flowers, insect, and so on. Apart from that its user friendly features will allow you to take stunning photos. Every button and every feature are easily accessible all that is just by the mean of a touch. Although it does not has anti-shake feature like other camera in the market but that is easily solve when you know how to use its shutter speed, exposure and aperture. Once you master the three of it, hardly any condition will be a problem to you. What i notice when I bought this camera is that it has a lower maximum iso sensitivity than the previous camera. Then I realise that it is probably reduced to reduce noise in the photo. Higher iso sensitivity will enable you to take photo in darker condition but the problem is it will cause noises in the photo that you took.

It has a sleek design though bulky. Its viewfinder is actualy the lcd screen which flips back to give the activate the viewfinder. It is made from plastic casing which makes it extremely light of its kind. This camera comes with a bag and standard accesories.

Lets talk about its disadvantages. First thing is its size, it is too big for most of us and cannot be kept in the pocket unlike compact digital camera. This is because it is a slr camera which stand for single lens refracting camera. Compact digital camera uses multiple lens which can be adjust to produce zooming. Secondly it has now anti-shake but as I mentioned early it can be solved. Thirdly, you cannot record movie with sound. For that reason most of people do not choose the camera. What a waste!!! Then the lens cap is not tighten to the camera and easily lost.

Although it is not the latest and the most advanced camera in the market but this camera is the best in terms of user frienly, quality, and feature. It is the platform for user who wish to become a proffesional photographer. It allow user to learn and expose user to the use of slr type camera.

Note: Konica Minolta has ceased its camera business on March 31,2006. Sony corp will provide customers service for Konica Minolta customer.

Google Adword and Yahoo search listing

Google adword is one of the easiest and useful tools for ones to advertise their product or website. There are two option that you can choose from. One is the starter version where everything is made simple for you to use. Then there is a standard version where more features and tools are provided. First thing that you need to do is to sign up Google Adword. Then you need to provide your information, the currency you will use, the payment method and the budget you have. Usually Google will recommend you to use $60 as the budget for you advertisement but you can simply reduce or increase it. Upon completion you will redirect to a wizard page where you can add you advertisement.

If you choose post-pay method your transaction is almost immediate but if you choose prepay you will need to pay in advance so that you do not exceed the expire date. The post-pay method is made through credit card where charges will be made automatically. While the prepay method, you will receive a bill containing the amount that you need to oay for that month. The budget you set is the amount of money you want to spend for advertisement in one day or month.

Yahoo search listing works the same way too but feature may differ from Google OF COURSE !!!. It also based on cpc and cpm where you need to set your budget and they will calculate automatically for the best result.

(picutures shown are samples only)

DVD and Blue ray disc

DVD is gaining reputation this day and is expected to take over CD as the main secondary drive role in a few years time. DvD is capable of storing about 4.7-17 gigabytes of data compare to CD which only about 700-800mb of data. It is about 4-7 times bigger. CD and DVD like old classic black disk store data in a tracks which is inperceptible to our eyes. So that it is why we must keep the surface of DVD and CD clean and smooth without any scratches and dusts. Scratches will cause DVD and CD cannot be read while dust will cause the laser to malfunction.

DVD provides better quality and larger storage than a CD eventhough both of them are made with almost the same materials. The space is so vast that it can store a full length of high quality movie with several soundtracks in a single DVD. The different is the compression technique used in both DVD and CD where DVD compression technique is more complex and precise. There are three types of DVD single, double layer, and double sided double layer. The laser used in DVD is also infra-red laser but with shorter wavelength and of different kind of lens than those of CD.


Blue ray disc uses different technology. Instead of using infra-red laser it uses blue ray laser to store data. Blue ray laser has a shorter wavelength thus making it far more narrow than an infra-red laser. This narrow ray is vital especially when there is a need to save as much space as possible making Blue ray disc a better storage disk than DVD. Due to its short wavelenth and special lens the distant between tracks can be largely reduced.

(picutures shown are samples only)

Digital camera(old article)

Things are moving fast this day, so as the camera. Decades ago we use film camera and now we use digital camera. So what is the different and what so special about the so call digital camera? Digital camera basically does not use film to take a photo. It uses sensors which convert light to electrical signals which then convert again to produce photo in the form of digital storage. Secondly, you can preview the photo you took infinite times and you can delete the photo just by the mean of a click of a button. Unlike film camera you cannot delete or preview the photo you took.

When buying a digital camera you will notice the word "pixel" or "megapixel". That is the resolution for the digital camera or the numbers of tiny light sensitive sensors in the digital camera. The higher the mp the higher the better the quality of the photo you take. But it is also the main disadvantage of digital camera because it will never outdo a film camera in term of resolution. A film contain trillion of light sensitive molecues which then turn colour to form picture. That is why some photographer still prefer film camera. As time goes by, companies are keeping on develope higher resolution and more compact digital camera.

The greatest advantage of digital camera is when it comes to movies production. During those day without digital technology they use tons of film just to complete one movie because there are a lot of "NG" and cuts. But now they can simply trim the scene that are not perfect or NG.

Ten years ago when digital camera is not as popular as it is now we use film to take photos. We usually buy two or three roll of films during vacation. A standard film contain 36 shots and we bought three. It will cost us about $7 !!! just to buy that three roll of film. If we went for vacation more than 30 times that will mean that we spent about $210 for film. Now since digital camera is digital it uses memory card or stick which can be used indefinite times over and over again. Some photographer use digital camera because of this reason.

(picutures shown are samples only)

Sell your products

There are many websites in the net today that offer paid and free service for you to advertise your products. Take ebay for example, it provides minimum subcription fees for worldwide selling and free service for selling within region. All you need to do is to get your product ready and once you receive an order or winning bids, you will receive an email where the necessary information on who and how you can contact with your buyer and how selling will be made or arranged.

Website like www.lelong.com.my offers free posting but you will need to pay for the photos you upload on their server. They offers paid advertisement services, products selling services, and service which can help you to open your own EStore yourself. It is based on auction method just like ebay where users bid on your products.

If you are planning to open an estore yourself, you can do so by using paypal. It is an easy tool to use and it offers many comprehensive feature for you to start an estore.