My trip to Johor

Last Monday my family and I went to Johor to visit my grandmother and all uncles relatives in conjunction of Chinese New Year. Everything was fine that day until an incident happend. That day, we rode in our 6 years old Proton Wira to Salang, Johor where my grandma lives. We started our journey at about 9 a.m and reach there by 1 p.m. I had a chit chat there with all the relatives until 4 p.m I followed my unt and cousins back to Melaka. On our way back we stop at a temple for a pray. Then we continue our journey back to Melaka. My family took off at 6 p.m and took the high way while my unt, cousins and I took the old road. When we reach Tangkak(Melaka), I had receive a call from my mother saying that the car had broke down at Tangkak toll (what a coincidence) and being tow to the nearest repair shop. My unt who was driving the car made a U turn to go to the repair shop.


When we reach to the repair shop, we saw the whole engine was on the floor in pieces. My unt and the mechanic had a quarrel over the engine because she thought it was a scamp. The mechanic gave alot of excuses on why he took the engine off the car. The mechanic also said that the car will only be fixed on monday. Knowing that nothing more that could be done, my family, cousins and my unt decided to go back to Melaka. My unt had called her rich friend to fetch my family back to Melaka. 30 minutes after the call my unt's friend came with a Merc S class and fecthed my family back to Melaka.

My Family went back to karak, Pahang but I stayed at Melaka. Since my father will take the car on Monday I will be joining him back to Karak.

Chinese New Year off

I will be off for a while to celebrate Chinese New Year.

New forum

Hi everyone out there check this out Gadgetprob has just got its forum page. Click at the link below to chat in our forum.

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Blindness(from what I read)

Blind is the disability to see lights, colors, and objects. Blindness can be catogorised into congenital and post-congenital. In the case of congenital blindness, only small number of infants patient can be cured through operation. Adult congenital patient cannot be cured totally through cornia transfer. It is because they have not seen colors since birth and have problems in intrepting visual. Most of them gone blind again after operation. They can see visual through their eyes but they cannot interpret the visual that they receive thus ignored it. They return to the old method by the sense of touch. While the post-congenital blindness can be cured through cornea transfer and has no problem seeing things.


Now post-congenital patients will probably need no cornea transfer as a scientific breakthough has been made. It is the bionic eyes which comprises of a digital camera, computer, and cables/wires. The digital camera works by receiving visual and convert the visual into electrical signals. The signals are then sent to a computer which will then turn the electrical signals into electrical impulses by simulating the impulses from an eye. The electrical impulses are then transfered through cables into the brain. Success experiment shown that patient were able to see images through the digital camera but the resolution was poor and it was in black and white. Improvements will be made onto the model to provide a better resolution and probably color vision.
Another variant has also being introduced. It is from a team of researcher from the California's Standford Unvertsity United State America. The different is it does not require cables/wires to be installed to the brain. It uses chip and photodiod which are implated into the eye. The processed data will be transfered to the chip via infra-red which will then activates the photodiod to create impulses to the brain.

In the future I hope that there will be bionic eyes which is good enough to replace human eyes.

Source from
wikipedia and estidot.

Photo from
igargoyle.com/archives/BionicEye.html

MP3 player

When buying a MP3 player the most important thing to look is the memory. For music lovers of there who want to buy a MP3 player they must first count how many songs that they will download into their MP3 player. By doing the estimation we are going to know the approximate memory space that we need. If you are planning to put mp3 around 200-300 the least memory space is 512MB . Let say that you do not know how much you will put in it, the best memory space for a MP3 player is 2GB and above. Some brands have a hard disk in it rather than a flash memory. MP3 player using hard disk memory offers larger space around 20GB which is vast. You can have the whole jukebox inside the MP3 player. Hard disk MP3 players oftenly cost more than a flash memory MP3 players but it allows you to download high quality music which will take alot of space if you are using a flash memory MP3 player. Due to its large memory space, some brands offer video and photo support which allow you to play video and photo on the player itself. Example of brands that use hard disk are Apple ipod, Creative Zen, and Iriver.

Secondly, if you want to save money I will suggest you buy MP3 with expandable memory via SD/MMC or other cards. Expandable memory allows you to change card to expand the memory of the MP3 player just like changing a CD from a CD player. The highest memory space of card in the market currently is 4GB which is around 900 MP3. The advantage of the expandable memory is that you can take the card out and put it on another devices. While the flash memory MP3 players has no removable memory which you need to decide how much music do you want in your player. You will always need to buy the highest memory for a flash memory MP3 player.

Buy MP3 and MP4 Players at Factory Prices from China at DHgate

Like choosing a digital camera size does matter. The size is preferably small and compact which allows you to put in your pocket. Flash memory MP3 players comes in small size but the hard disk memory MP3 player is slightly larger. Improvement often being made to reduce the size if not thinner. Talking about the weight of the MP3 player, it is mostly depends on where do you want to put. If you want to put it in your pocket it is advised to choose a lighter weighted MP3 player. But if you want to put it in the bag then weight does not matter.

For better music quality it is recommend that you find a MP3 player which has equalizer feature. Equalizer allows you to control the bass and treble of the music so that you can get the best effect. Most MP3 player has a preset equalizer which you can choose only the theme but not the individual frequency. On the other hand the type and the perfomance of the headphone should be concerned. Some headphones come with voice cancelling feature which automatically create a silent surrounding so that noise will not defect the quality of music that you listen. There are also airtight headphones which is tightly placed in your ears. This kind of headphones produces better bass and treble with less noises.

The type of battery the MP3 player uses also important. Most players uses AAA battery which is easier to find. But you need a rechargeable battery to save cost. The best option is to use in-built rechargeable battery. Most hard disk players have in-built battery.

CD players which supports MP3 is not recommended because the performance of MP3 will be affected. Shocks will make MP3 jerky. Although CD player produces better sound quality but you need an anti-shock for it.

Finally you need to ensure the format of music that your MP3 player supports. Some MP3 players cannot play copyright protected MP3. So makes sure you do some research on that .Now there is a type of player called the MP4 player which allows you to download music video as well as MP3 files. If you want to buy one of those make sure that it is the best one that you could find. These player often have problem with the format of music video.

(photos are sample only)

Creative Prodikeys PC-MIDI

Can you imagine how you can work and play at the same time? Creative Prodikeys PC-MIDI keyboard is your choice. The Creative Prodikeys PC-MIDI is a keyboard that has music keys on it just like those you found on a piano or organ. It is a multimedia keyboard that allows you to have a full control of media and system applications. The Singapore based company has introduce this range of keyboard to compete with other major players such as Apple, Microsoft,and Logitech.

The keyboard works just like any other keyboard just that it has several added features. Besides the standard QWERTY keyboard and the F-keys there are multimedia buttons. The multimedia buttons are the music button, communication buttons such as internet browser, email, and instant messenger which also work as the sustain/octave shift when you are using the music keys, organizer which include calculator, address book, and calender, My Favourite buttons which you can access documents, photos, and folder easily, the system buttons which allow you to lock your computer or put your computer on stand-by, and lastly there are media playback buttons which allow you to control your media player. All these multimedia buttons is arrange with a small distant apart so that you can seperate the different function. A volume control wheel is also included on the keyboard. It is place beside the QWERTY keyboard. Will all the multimedia buttons and wheel you will never have to touch the mouse again to control your media player. The QWERTY keyboard is sleek and silent even a fast typist finds it hard to get sound out from it. But there may have some defect due to its manufacture period which you find some keys are a little bit sticky. The dept of the keys when pressed is quite shallow that you can miss some keys or spoil it when you pressed it hard.

The music keys is place under the QWERTY keyboard. You can play the music keys using the software provided such as Creative FunMix, EasyNotes and MiniKeyboard. The FunMix allows you to play various kind of sound effect and music and you can also record the Mix that you played. While the EasyNotes allows you to learn music by using midi files. The pre-installed midi files allow you to learn to play simple musics and if you want something more you can use your own or downloaded midi files to learn how to play. But not all your midi files or downloaded midi can be used using this software. The EasyNotes does not allow you to play two tracks at the same times. So if you have a midi which have several tracks you have to choose one of it to learn ( I will suggest that you use the melody track to learn) or you can learn all of the tracks and combine it using you mind. But you need time to do that if you do not know music notes at all. The MiniKeyboard software allows you to use the music key like a mini keyboard which you can play music just like playing the piano and you can record your own music. There are many instruments to choose from from piano to gunshot. The music keys somehow is not as sensitive as it seems because you will miss one or two keys when playing music fast. You need to press harder to get the tone. When you are not using the music keys, there is a cover for the music keys which works as the palm rest for your keyboard.

This keyboard is compatible to most of the software available such as Overture. You are able to use other software to record the music you played. But there are some softwares which is not compatible or are not working well with this keyboard. They appear to be lag and the key only appear a few second after you play it. So it will effect the quality and performance of your music. This keyboard is recommended to use Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi for the best result. Bundle with this keyboard is the software CD and the snap-on color faceplate which you can change your self to change the mood of the keyboard. The provided faceplate are in grey and pink. Since the installation of driver of this keyboard in Window Xp will encounter some problems, the Window Xp installation manual is also included depending on the manufacturer.

This keyboard is suitable for those who use cellphone that supports midi. It allows you to play and save music so that you can send it to your phone as a ringtone.

(photos are sample only)

Limewire,Bearflix, and Morpheus files sharing softwares

Downloading files from the internet could not be any faster by using Peer-to-peer based files sharing softwares. Limewire, bear flix, Morpheus and Winmx are examples of P2P files sharing softwares. P2P is basically enable users to download files from more than one source. It makes downloading files, musics, videos, and photos incredibly fast. Compared to single sourse download it takes as fast as 3 minutes to complete a 3MB download depends on the speed of the connection. Currently Limewire is the most popular download software according to www.download.com and followed by Bearflix and Morpheus. The three of them run on Gnutella network.

Limewire has the most users among the three which makes search result better and more accurate. It is simple to use as the layout is simple. All buttons are easy to reach and understand. It also supports torrent which users will use it to download torrent files. When you are searching for files through Limewire the search result will be display in a list which the file contains the most sources will be rank first in the list. By downloading the files with the most sources the speed of download will be increased. The reason is the rate of data transfer has increased which you download several parts from different sources. Some music, video and photo download need license before you can download it. Most of the music can be download without license enquiry.

Bearflix is suitable for video download. Like Limewire its template is also simple but with different design. Searching video files is easy and they are arrange in rank just like Limewire. You can leave it runs at the background and it will complete the download for you each time you connect to the net. License enquiry is weak and content filter is easily by-passed.

Morpheus on the other hand has a more sophisticated design and the layout is a little bit complicated (you might get lost !!!). Downloading videos and musics is fast but the problem with the Morpheus is the strict license enquiry which you cannot download any video or music that you like without license. Even home made videos or sound are hard to be downloaded. But if you are downloading a zip files the Morpheus is the best.

(Logos are sample only)

What to look when buying digital camera

If you are thinking of abandon old school film camera and want to find a digital camera or your present digital camera is not doing its best. Here are some simple tips for beginners.

The first thing is of course the pixels. Pixels are the number of dots of colours on your photo, the higher it is the higher the resolution. Most of the digital camera this day has pixels in term of mega or one million. If you have use one digital camera before I am sure you have heard someone asking how much is your camera pixels. If you are those who is just want to take a normal photo without enlarging it 2 megapixels and higher is good. If you want to enlarge the photo in the size of A4 you have to buy a digital camera with at least 3 megapixels. If you want a bigger size of photo you have to buy digital camera with at least 5 megapixels. Sometimes you seen a word call interpolation. It written 3 megapixels and 6 megapixels by interpolation. Interpolation is a method of increasing the number of pixel artificially. The quality is not best but enough for you to get a good photo. That technology are one of those used in CSI as seen in the movie. Interpolation has its limit so it depends on how the developers improve it. Different companies have different technology and you have to be an expert to know which one works the best but for most of us we just have to listen to what it claims.

Secondly, is the optical zoom of the digital camera. Most basic digital cameras have no optical zoom but they have a digital zoom. The difference between an optical zoom and digital zoom is the resolution or the quality. Optical zoom does not enlarge the photo but it makes lights from distant object to be concentrated or absorbing more light from the object. This makes the object can be seen in detail. Digital camera enlarge the photo and it seems like it was zoomed but it is not. The object you zoom with digital zoom can be seen large but not as detailed. Typical optical zoom for a digital camera is 3x while digital zoom is 2x and 4x when playback. For beginner optical zoom of 3x is good but if you want to do more then you may consider optical zoom of 8x and higher. No matter how high the digital zoom is, it cannot be compared to optical zoom.

Next is the type of battery that the digital camera uses. The most popular battery used in camera is AA type battery. But for heavy use of digital camera you need to use alkaline batteries. Some digital cameras would not work using carbon-zinc battery or the normal battery that you bought for $1 or RM1-4 such as Everyready Heavy Duty. The most popular brand of alkaline disposable battery are the Energizer and Duracell. If you want to use rechargeable battery, the build in lithium-ion battery is a popular choice or you can use rechargeable AA alkaline battery NiMH/NiCd but I will encourage the use of NiMH because it provides higher mAh. mAh of 1800 is the least and you will need higher mAh to provide longer use of digital camera.

The features of the digital camera are also important. The most crucial feature is the night scene mode. You will need that when shooting photo in dark places. Besides if the digital camera has manual shutter, exposure and aperture option I will encourage you to buy that camera as well. Manual shutter, exposure and aperture replace the roles of all the feature such as sports, slow and night scene. Learn how to use the manual shutter, exposure and aperture enable you to take brilliant photo. Build in flash are also important but you cannot determine how flash would work in different condition. Choose digital camera which has an optional external flash socket on it if you can. If you can't it is ok.

The types of memory storage is quite important. The most convenient type of memory storage is the sd or mmc cards. But sometimes different companies uses different type of memory storage for example most of Canon's digital camera uses CF card. There are companies which uses its own memory storage such as Sony's digital camera which uses memory stick. The memory size of the card must at least 256mb or common use and at least 1gb for heavy use.

Design and size are also important when choosing a digital camera. If you want a digital camera which can be fitted in your pocket you have to choose a compact digital camera. If you do not mind about the bulky lens and size of the camera you can choose the SLR type of digital camera. SLR has no movable part as in the compact digital camera which has a movable lens. The easies way to choose whether a design is good or not is to hold it your self if you are comfortable holding it then the design is ok if you feel heavy and tired while holding the camera then it does not suit you.

Other special features are not important as it depends on each individual needs. For example Nikon's digital cameras come with a wifi connection which is benificial for website or administration relating personels. Feature such as remote controlled shutter is good for night shooting.

Accessories is an option external tools. The most important accessory is the tripod. Tripod is used when you want to shoot night scene, panorama, scenery, and self timer. Secondly, straps and bags are also important because you don't want to loose or drop you camera.

Rechargeable battery

There are many brands and types of rechargeable battery in the market. It is an option for those who want to save their cash on something else rather than buying batteries which last for only a few couple of hours. One of the most common rechargeable battery types is the NiCd rechargeable battery. It is a good choice for general purposes such as the tv remote control and the battery for clocks. If you want to use rechargeable batteries on a camera the NiMH and the Li-ion rechargeable battery is an option. NiCd, NiMH and the Li-ion are all alkaline rechargeable battery which provide higher mAH at lower e.m.f/voltage.

No matter what brand that you buy the most important thing to observe on the battery is its mAH. The higher it is the longer it will last until you recharge it again. As I mention in the earlier post the most suitable mAH of battery used in cameras or any other high energy consumption device must at least has a mAH of 1800 and higher. NiMH and Li-ion rechargeable batteries are the common ones used in digital cameras. NiMH and NiCd oftenly built as rechargeable AAs while the Li-ion is built as a built-in rechargeable battery.

The brands of rechargeable battery that I will recommend are GP, Energizer, Sony and Panasonic. The built in battery is not really built-in but it is custom made so that only the device will use that battery. Built-in battery often costly so make sure that you don't spoil it.

(photo is sample only)

Web camera

Web camera or pc camera are one of the most popular gadget used in telecomunication or surveillance. Most of the instant messenger this day has the webcam feature which allows you to start a teleconferencing. There are many webcam manufacturers in the martket. So what can we do to choose the right webcam?

Depending on the type of webcam you buy the quality of the captured video and photo differs. Most of the webcam in the market has a video capture resolution up to 640x480 pixels which is adequate for teleconferencing. Webcam usually uses a VGA CMOS sensor. Some manufactures use high quality VGA sensor which provides clearer, brighter and more vivid video or photo. There are some webcam which is able to capture still photo of resolution up to 6 megapixels by or without interpolation. If you want a webcam which able to record smooth and fast video the minimum frames per second of the webcam must at least 30fps. For typical use 15fps is good for teleconferencing while the 30fps is the best but it depend very much on your internet connection speed. If your internet connection is slow you must set the frames per second to the minimum. The frames per second mean how many frames of photo is captured in a second to form a video. The higher the frames per second the faster and smoother the video. The typical format of video used in webcam is avi which is uncompressed type of video format. Some webcam uses mpeg4 format which makes video recording on webcam has a smaller size and higher quality. While photo capture uses jpeg or bmp format. Webcam works pretty similar to digital camera which you can set the quality of video, the sensitivity, the brightness, and so on.

The extra features offered in some webcam are light, microphone, and auto-swing. Lights is not necessary but if the light condition in the room is too dim you might consider to have a webcam with l.e.d light. Webcam with in-built microphone is a good choice as you do not need external microphone which you need to clip it on your ears or place your mouse to the microphone to talk. The auto-swing feature is for those who uses webcam as a surveillance camera at house or office. It is ideal for watching kids and culprits.

Recommended brands

1. Creative

2. Logitech

3. Microsoft

4. Apple

(photo are samples only)

Referer program

Affiliates is one of the ways of earning money by showing advertisements on your website or blog. But there are another kind of program which allow you earn money through referer. Referer is basically sending a link to your friends or someone else to visit sites . Instead of showing ads to the public they use people like you to promote their site. Every people you refer will be recorded in your account. The more people you refer the more money that you will get.

Agloco is an example of referer company. It provides view bar just like tools bar on your browser but the different is the Agloco view bar contain advertisement. So each time your the users that you refer sign up, download the view bar or click on the advertisement on the view bar you will earn you revenue. Companies advertise on Agloco have to pay Agloco for certain amount of money and some of it will be given to you as a commission.

Agloco is one of the website I found when surfing the net. Other referer are google, yahoo, forex-affiliates and so on.

Motorola SLVR L7

Looks alot similar to L6 the motorola SLVR L7 offers more features and entertaining apeal. The new features added in include brigther screen, better speaker, expandable memory and contol buttons for camera. It is slightly thicker compared to L6 with the volume of 59cc and the weight of 96. Not a big change to be seen clearly. Some of the feature from the L6 can still be seen in the L7 especially the design. Eventhough it is made a little bit thicker than L6 but there are no major make-over just a few buttons that was added on the side of the phone. This phone is available in three color which is black, silver, and pink. Special editions of this phone are offered in some country which come in different colors such as the Malaysian Celcom has offered special editions Motorola SLVR L7 in red. This phone uses TFT screen with 256K colors making photo and video viewing clearer and more fun. TFT LCD screen is widely used in digital camera display, so when this phone uses that type of screen it shows that it is made for photo and video shooting. Compared to the L6 which uses 65K colors CSTN LCD screen, this phone has almost 4 times more colors which produce vivid graphic.

If you like to listen to mp3 through the loud speaker, this phone is a suitable choice for you as it has a clear and loud speaker. When listen to mp3 the bass and treble can be listened clearly without the hissing noise. Look at the size of the speaker it is slightly thinner than most cellphones' speaker. There is a minor improvement from L6.

The major improvement is in its expandable memory. Compared to the L6 it has a slot for transflash/micro-SD card up to 1gb. The expandable memory allows you to store more songs, photos, and videos. Transflash is common among the motorola's cellphones but the problem with this type of card is that it is not as common as SD/mmc which you can buy anywhere. The transflash is convertible to SD. This type of card cost more than typical SD card it is about two times more expensive.

The buttons is similar to those found in L6. All the buttons are easily pressed but the toggle buttons are rather a little bit tricky as you can accidently pressed the centre button. And the toggle buttons are a little bit too small for people with big fat fingers or thumb. New buttons are added on the side of the phone which give you more control of the volume and camera. Taking photo is easier with those button where you can zoom and press the shutter without having to stretch your finger to press the centre button.

Transfering data in the L7 is through mini USB or direct transfer to the mini SD card. You can use those to transfer songs,photos, and videos from or to the computers.

(photo is sample only)

Motorola L6

It is the Motorola ultra slim cellphone the Motorola L6 features new funtions and applications. People says good thing often comes in a small package and it is!!! Its slim and sleek apeal suit modern lifestyle where people often looking for something small, convenient and stylish. Although the original features and the appearance have not change much but what makes this phone different from its predescessors is that it has an improved cstn screen and an improved loud speaker. The improved cstn screen allow a bright and beautiful 65k display best for viewing photos and videos.

Talking about its sound quality, there are nothing to say about sound quality through earphone but there are plenty to talk about its loud speaker. This phone comes with a built-in loud speaker at the bottom of the back of the phone. Eventhough it is single but it plays songs loud and clear unlike its predescessors which you often get unwanted noise. With this speaker you still get the effects you want, you still able to listen to its bass and treble clearly. Since it is slim, you do not consume much energy while playing song through the speaker. It supports both polyphonic and mp3 ringtones.

This cellphone also has a Integrated Digital VGA Camera with 4 x Digital Zoom and light, not great but ok. Nothing special about its camera except that it allows you to capture movie at a speed of 7 frames per second and 15 frames per second on playback. It supports H.263, MPEG4, 3GPP movie formats. Movies, screensaver and photos can be downloaded from the computer or via GPRS or Bluetooth. On the other hand, its display is made of scratch-proof glass. Many of us having hard time searching the right cover for the cellphone we bought to protect it from scratches.

The new feature on this phone is the Screen 3 application which deliver news, weather and more when the phone is not in use. Secondly, it is the improve messaging which you can personalise your message with characters and pictures. Thirdly, the added Bluetooth connection makes transfering datas and medias easier. Connection can be made via USB or Bluetooth. It has internal memory space of 10mb. It is a tri-band cellphone. Other features are the preloaded games, movies and photos.

The appearance of this cellphone is sleek and slim. It is smooth and the buttons is not raised like those found in Rarz. Each buttons are easily pressed without having missed one. The screen is bright and clear making videos and photos viewing easy. The standard themes of the phone have not change much and it gets a little bit boring especially when you bought a motorola's once before.

Short facts

1. It weights 91g.

2. It has a volume of 56cc.

3. The dimensions of the phone are 133x49x10.9mm.

4. 65k cstn screen.

5. Wap 2.0.

6. J2ME- MIDP 2.0.

7. Other accesories are the bluetooth earphone and car kit.

(photo are sample only)

Shortstuffs

1. The most expensive car ever sold worth $5.5 million the Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake.

2. Tesla Roadster reaches 60mph in 4 seconds.

3. Tesla Roadster weigth 2500 pounds.

4. Tesla Roadster is a heavily modified Lotus elise.

5. Tesla Roadster reach a top speed of 150mph.

6. Tesla Roadster needs 3.5hrs to fully recharged.

7. Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster LP640 reach 60mph in 3 seconds.

8. Proton Waja/Impian is the first Malaysian designed car.

9. Lotus is owned by Proton.

10. Infra-red light of remote controller is perceptible on digital computer.

11. California state in US may be the first state to band the use of incandescent light bulb.

12. The + sign on a capacitor is the health indicator.

13. The fuel tank of an acrobatic plane has a U shaped tube.

Blog for cash

Blog is a kind of hobby but it also can be your source of income. Like what I am doing right now, blogging is one of the ways to spend your useless time writting craps!!! and post your favourite article or even your diary. If you have a blog and you have tons of visitor or tons of things to write you can consider to register blog service provider such as payperpost.com and blogger.com. Both of these websites allow you to earn while you are blogging. While payperpost.com pays you for what you wrote for them, the blogger.com in collaboration with google adsense allow you to post advertisement on your blog and you earn money from the revenue you get from the advertisement.

Blogit.com works the same as payperpost.com too but you need to pay for its registration fees. If you are really serious about earning money through blogging, there are some advice. First is to keep your post updated. That will keep visitors keep coming to read your post rather than update it once a month. Secondly, try to post short and easy post if you are really out of ideas. That is the least you can do to keep your post update. Thirdly, includes some images on your post so it would be interesting and attractive. Visitors actualy stop longer on blog which has images on it. If a blog service provider allow you to alter your html code, remember try not insert pop up. Pop up will distract your visitors and repel them away.

I highly recommend blog using blogspot as it allows you to use its tool to insert various kind of affiliates program.

The future of automotive

Like what we had in mind the future that we are waiting for is expected to be fanciful where we no longer see traffic congestion on the road, cars are flying everywhere pedestrians just teleport accross the road. But the reality is we are not going to see that in the next ten years to come as the technology is not highly developed yet.

There are some companies which develop vehicles for amphibian use such as Flying Car and Watercar. Yes, it is a breakthrough. No, we are not going to see many of those on the road yet. Lack of funds is one of the reasons companies fail to commercialize those vehicles. Secondly, owner actualy needs to obtain both air and driving license before they get their hand on the steering wheel.

Improvement in automotive can be seen in the creation of electric and hybrid cars. Cars still runs on wheels and it is going to take a while for cars to switch to different kind of propulsion technology. There are many suggestions of propulsion technology and one of it is the magnetic levitation where car just hover on the magnetic bed like those used on Maglev train. But it needs alot of R&D to build one that is able to move freely and R&D on high temperature superconductor.

In ten years time we expect z-e vehicle to populate 40% of road vehicle.

(Photo courtesy Moller International)

Choosing a laptop computer

Choosing a laptop is rather a boring task. You have to choose, compare, and try it yourself before you pay for it. I am not a proffesional critic but I have heard from my friend and did some research from the web on how should we choose a laptop computer. Laptop computer has less removable parts which means there are less hardwares for you to remove and upgrade it. So it is crucial for you to choose the right laptop computer at the very beginning of purchasing.

Since there are less removable or upgradable parts that's mean you have to make a right decision before buyin them. So what are the important aspect in choosing a laptop? The first thing to notice is its processor. Processor of a laptop computer is upgradable but you need to choose the right speed for your use. If you are planning to use the laptop computer for office work purposes you will need a processor around 1.6 ghz and above for better performance. If you are a gamer you will need a processor around 2.0 ghz and above.

Secondly and the most important is the random access memory(ram). A ram determines how fast is your computer when loading a program. Like choosing the processor for your laptop computer you need to decide what will the laptop computer be used for. If you are planning for office work 512 mb of ram is adequate. If you are a gamer you will need a ram of 1 gb and above. With higher ram your application will load faster and less jerky.

A laptop computer comes with a standard graphic chip if no request is asked which is design for common use including office work and surfing the net purposes. If you are a gamer you need to choose a graphic accelerator chip with the ram of at least 64 mb. But a higher graphic accelarator chip means it dissipate alot of heat. You will need a laptop cooler for this. Graphic chip is not usually upgradable so you need to choose the right one when purchasing a laptop computer.

The common hard disk size for a laptop is usually 40 gb but you need to upgrade it if you are planning to use it heavily. Deviding hard disk into partitions is encouraged but make sure that you have enough disk space to do that. It will actualy increase the overall performance of your laptop computer. It will also increase the efficiency of the system. What is more important is that you are able to make a backup disk in case of system break down. When choosing the rom, you can choose the type of rom that you use oftenly. But the best choice of all is that you use a DVD writer rom. It allows you to read almost all disk except floppy disk. It is best for office use and also entertainment use.

The screen size, however is not so important because it depends on each individual needs. My advise is that you choose the typical screen size 1024x768. If you want the computer to be more compact you need to choose a wide screen Laptop which give you a smaller witdth.

Since laptop computer is far more complicated than desktop computer, you need to take a good care of your laptop computer.

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Electric car & Hybrids

For years our mission is to produce zero-emission (z-e) vehicle. World's engineers and scientist are working to produce a low consumption electric car which means an electric car that perform excellent but uses less energy. Basically an electric car uses electricity either from a battery or from a solar panel. Although car uses solar panel is known as solar car but it is still an electric car since it uses electricity.



The recent launched electric sport car Tesla Roadster is a good example of advancement in electric car technology. According to Tesla the car uses battery to run the car and high speed electric motor to move it. But how a small battery is able to run the high speed electric motor? The method is simple, the car uses a technology to convert direct current into alternating current (IGBTs) which will then connected to a transformer. By using this method the voltage can be easily increased up to 200kW which is enough to light up 2000 bulbs.

Companies such as Toyota and Honda are competing to produce better electric car. But on their effort to produce a z-e car they have introduced car called the hybrid. Toyota Prius and Harrier are the best example of hybrid cars. The concept is to reduce the use of fossil fuel by using bi-engine, fuel and electric. When you accelerate or brake the motor will work as the generator to recharge the battery. When you are cruising in a street the fuel engine stop and the electric motor works to move the car. By using that method you will be able to reduce fuel consumption.

Things are moving fast so as the technology. In the coming years we are expected to see several almost perfect electric car model in the market.

(image is taken from Image © 2006 Tesla Motors, Inc. All rights reserved. and Toyota)

Join affiliate programs

There are many ways of earning income online legally. Joining affiliates programs is one of them. Affiliates is some sort of advertising programs that allow you to earn income by just promoting their product, advertisement or service on your website. How do they work?

There are a few ways they perform affiliates. First they run advertising program on their website where user use their website to promote their service. Then the advertisements they get from users will be use as affiliates for their affiliates members. Affiliates members will post their advertisement on their website and every time a visitor click on the advertisement, they will get their revenue. Revenue can be calculate using click-per-through method where the number of clicks determine the revenue one could get and not the number of advertisements shown on their website. But there are some companies out there which provide affiliate programs by showing illegal advertisement on their website such as porn sites or sites selling restricted drugs and so on.

Secondly, affiliates members can post the products from a company and each time a visitor buy a product from the company the affiliates members will get their commision. The amount of commision they get is determined on how much or how expensive the product is. The products can be anything likes digital camera, books, and so on. To be safe when promoting their product you have to make a research on their company to avoid scam.

Popular affiliate programs provider are Google and Forex-affiliates. Before you join these kinds of affiliate programs please make sure that you have read through the terms and conditions. Do not cheat on your affiliate programs or else you will be suspended and the revenue will be forfeited.

Apple iPod 80gb

Just imagine that you can stuff 1000 pieces of CD in a small packet and able to listen to musics wherever you are. Talking about mp3 player the first thing came in mind is the popular Apple iPod mp3 player which offers plenty of space for you to store tons of musics in it. The new Apple iPod 80gb comes with a 2.5 inch of color lcd display and it weight about 156 grams. Compare to its predescessor it has a brigther color display and is able to store more music as well as photo and video files. No drastic improvement actualy.

The Apple iPod 80gb is able to play song for 20hrs when fully charged, photo-6hrs, and video 6.5hrs. It uses build-in rechargeable lithium ion battery. User can choose to charge via USB or Firewire or using a power adapter.Compare to any mp3 player in the market this mp3 is more durable. It can withstand a temp ranging from -20 to 40 degrees celcius, humidity between 5%-95% noncondensing and a maximum operating altitude of 3000m.The Apple iPod 80gb comes with standard accesories which are the earphones, dock adapter, case and USB cable. It supports various types of video and music formats which makes it a handy gadget to use.

It has a brighter screen (320x240) which the contrast can be manualy adjusted. Enchancements are seen in its firmware such as gapless playback, new search feature and better support for games. It still has its click wheel which is convenient for user to search the musics they want to play. Scrolling a long list is made easy when letters appear on the screen representing the initial alphabet of name of the song. The playlisting option allow you to create multiple playlist but you cannot modify the existing playlist.

The frequency response and the sound quality are good with minor distortion. The bass region is clear rather than damp. As you increase the volume progress bar a little harmonic distortion can be notice. Third party accesories were also sold which some of it enable you to use your iPod in your car.

It is sold at a price of around $350 or RM 1249 at Malaysia.

(reference and picture taken from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2019349,00.asp, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2016662,00.asp, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2016660,00.asp, http://list.lelong.com.my/Auc/List/List.asp?DA=A&TheKeyword=new+ipo+80gb&CategoryID=&MyAuctionType=1, http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html,http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=apple+ipod+80gb&rs=0&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fp_ip=MY&fr=yfp-t-501&vf=)