Prince Of Gold > 2005 > June

So much events happened the past few days including a drama-mamak insident. Next fews days i will be busy too while waiting if that stupid indian did a police report.

The next few days i will be going to buy bus tickets at JB, 1G mp3 player (non-harddisk one) for my holiday, a 1.5V agp graphic card for my PC and maybe a lightweight laptop.

I got this tips of buying laptop at www.cnet.com

1: Form factor
Notebooks are broken down into four categories by weight, with some overlap: ultraportables (less than 2kg), thin-and-lights (2 to 4kg), mainstream models (3 to 5kg), and desktop replacements (more than 5kg).

Ultraportables excel for frequent fliers who need just the essentials while on the road. Their batteries also need to be small and often yield as little as 2 hours of juice. New processor technologies, however, can extend battery life to beyond 4 hours. Finally, tiny tech comes at a higher cost compared with larger laptops.

A balance between size, battery life, and power, thin-and-light laptops are a perfect fit for both students and business users.

Mainstream laptops are like budget desktops: They're good for general tasks but won't win any contests for their performance or features.

If you want desktop power, you need a desktop replacement. With screen sizes of 15 to 17 inches, travel weights as heavy as six kilos, and average battery life of less than three hours, these behemoths are not for people on the go.

2: The CPU
When it comes to processors, go with the fastest you can afford, regardless of the notebook's form factor.

Intel's Pentium M CPU line offers speed while enabling great battery life. The biggest downside is price — Pentium Ms are still costly.

AMD's mobile processors are more affordable than Intel's, but they generally lag behind Intel's on our MobileMark tests.

3: Wide-screens

Wide-screen notebooks, which have an aspect ratio of 16:9, offer larger, sharper, and all-around better images than their 4:3 standard-screen cousins. They're great for watching DVDs, of course, but they also allow you to have two documents or Web pages open side-by-side

4: Outdoors

If you want to work outdoors, you have options, but most consumer models have what are known as transmissive screens. These screens are lit from behind, and despite what you've seen in the commercials, they're virtually invisible on a bright, sunny day. Reflective LCDs, which light the screen's pixels from the front and reflect polarised light from the environment, are much better for outdoor work, but their screens look dim indoors.

5. Memory

Having enough memory is vital to system performance, and lots of RAM lets you run more applications simultaneously. Sufficient RAM is also necessary for graphics work, image editing, and video editing, and crucial for 3D gaming. This is especially true in notebooks, because notebook graphics processors frequently have little or no memory of their own and share the main system RAM.

6. Keyboard

As notebooks shrink in size, so do their keyboards. If possible, try some simple typing exercises before you buy.

7. Mouse

Computing today relies a lot on mousing. With a notebook, all you get is a touch pad or pointing stick.

8: Video RAM

If you're not planning on doing much graphics work or playing 3D games, shared memory should be fine. But if you have a choice, aim for a graphics chipset that shares at least 64MB of system memory. If gaming or intensive graphics work is on the agenda, look for 128MB or 256MB of dedicated memory.

9. Slot

Like a PCI slot in a desktop, a PC Card (or PCMCIA) slot in a notebook provides expansion opportunities.

10: USB/Firewire

Ports, especially USB and FireWire, are necessities, but on notebooks they're usually in short supply. At a minimum, look for two USB ports, and if you have any legacy devices, such as parallel printers, look for those ports, too.

11. Wireless

Integrated wireless networking (Wi-Fi) has become an indispensable feature. Most notebooks ship with a choice of 802.11b or 802.11b/g. Capable of data throughput of 11Mbps, 802.11b is fine for ordinary use. Public hotspots typically use 802.11b or 802.11g.

12. Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries have all but replaced nickel-cadmiums because they're lighter, have a higher energy density, and don't suffer from recharge-inhibiting memory effect.

Two more specs to look for in laptop batteries are capacity (measured in milliamp hours, or mAh), and the number of cells. Typical batteries have a mAh rating between 2,000mAh and 6,000mAh; higher is better. Cells are the actual compartments where power is produced and can range from four to 12; the more the better.

13. Centrino

In the mobile arena, the company's Centrino mobile technology tops the list. The Centrino platform, which arrived in early 2003, combines Intel's Pentium M CPU, 855 chipset, and Pro/Wireless (802.11b/g) Wi-Fi circuitry. A notebook must have all three parts to be a Centrino notebook.

A newer version of Centrino, Sonoma, arrived this year. It features Intel's 915 chipset (code-named Alviso) and adds support for PCI Express (PCIe, for short) and 533MHz dual-channel DDR2 memory to laptops. What does all this mean? Faster graphics and multitasking, plus increased battery life over older models.

14. Sound

Notebooks are notorious for having terrible speakers. Our recommendation: Get a good set of headphones, or a stereo or three-piece speaker set.

Laptops generally lack the sound-processing abilities to use surround-sound speakers, but you can add it. Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook slides into a PC Card slot, providing support for up to eight-channel surround sound.

15. Harddisk

Notebook hard drives start at 30GB. Form factor may restrict your options, but if possible, go for at least 60GB or 80GB if you'll be storing lots of image or music files. Capacity isn't the only issue. If you have a choice, select a drive with a rotational speed of at least 5,400rpm. The faster it spins, the faster you'll get your files.

16. Quick-launch keys

Some common desktop features have made their way into notebooks. You can program these buttons to launch your favourite apps, turn on your wireless radio, or switch to a power-saving mode. A few of our other favourite luxuries are built-in TV tuners, and, for photo junkies, multiformat memory-card readers.

17. Boot Up DVD

Want to listen to music or watch a DVD without having to wait for your notebook to power up? An instant-on feature lets you do just that, so you can get right down to, um, business, without the boot time.

18. Dock

A docking station quickly turns your notebook into a desktop. You connect your peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse, and serial devices) to the dock, which stays at your desk. Simply attach the notebook to the dock, and you instantly get the conveniences of a desktop without having to unplug everything when it's time to go.

19. Warranty

Every notebook is susceptible to accidents and system failures. We recommend paying for a good three-year warranty with express service.

20: Essential accessories

When pricing a notebook, set aside cash for important extras. These include a laptop bag, an extra battery, a mouse and keyboard, and software for office work, Internet security, and system maintenance. You may even want to consider an external hard drive for backup.

21. Cases

Most laptop cases are still made from molded plastic, but you can find some encased in metal, which dissipates heat better.

22. Fixed or Swappable Drive

Less-expensive notebooks have fixed drives, meaning the optical and hard drives can't be removed. Some, though, have a swappable-drive bay, letting you change out an optical drive for a hard drive or extra battery — or just a spacer module so you can shed some travel weight.

23. Tablet

Comparable in size and weight to ultraportable notebooks, tablet PCs occupy a different niche.

24. CD/DVD Drive

If you want to splurge, a DVD recorder is handy for backing up as much as 8.5GB of important files at a time.

25. Apples

It's no secret Apple makes some phenomenal notebooks. If you're considering one, make sure all the specialty software apps you need to run are available for the Mac platform.

Just a road drama-mamak story i had this morning…

As usual i was riding my bike at the PIE towards Toa Payoh… I was at the middle lane and i saw a black car was behind me. So i changed to the right lane. And this fucking driver was still behind me, at the right lane.

There was a car infront of me, so i just keep a distant from the front car. I noticed that the black car behind me was tail-gating me. So i played with my foot brake, furthermore, it raining so i just dry up and test that my brake is working fine. Then this fucking indian guy horned me. So i played with my front brake too. I raised my hand with some fingers upwards (noted i say some fingers).

He still tail-gating me when i raised my hand. So i keep on playing with my brakes to indicate to him not to follow me. This fucking idiot just one of the road bullies that think the fucking PIE are for cars only, me the motorbiker should just drive on the left or middle lanes. By tail-gating me, he think i will fuck off to the side and let him tail-gating the front car. My bike can go up to 130km/hr, so i had the right to use it.

Then i ride in between cars to avoid him. After a while he was out of sight. When i filtered to Toa Payoh near the Police Academy, the black car was at the road divider between towards Thomson and Toa Payoh. He raised his hand out of the car (not sure he showed his middle finger at me). I horned at him.

I know he will follow me all the way. So i just headed to my working place. I thought the security guard will stop the fucking indian, but he just went in without stopping.

At first i was thinking of going to the underground carpark, but i sensed it was not a good place as i don't know how many people was in the car. So i just ride to the back allley of the carpark. Unlucky, the company had already widen up the road, so the fucking driver had the chance to keep on following me.

My bike skiddded when i took a sudden right turn. Lucky i managed to prevent it from falling. The chasing continues until i saw my collegue and a few guys having their smoking break.

I stopped near them and told them what had happened. Then the fucking indian stopped beside me and told me that he saw me showing my middle finger at him. I told him, i didn't.

I told him, that he was tail gating me but he said that i was riding slowly at 70km/hr. This stupid fucker was an idiot. It was drizling and the road is wet, so the driving speed should be lowered. I told him that there was a car infront of me, but he try to change the topic telling me he captured me showing my middle finger on his camera phone and told me whether i want him to report it the police.

He said he was in a hurry and was using the right lane to overtake. What the hell he want to overtake when there was a car infront of me! If there was no car infront, i surely give way to him. Such a stupid idiot. In a hurry, still have time to chase me???

From the way he speak, he was just wasting my time and i just let him finish his talking and fucked off as we just keep our mouth shut.

By the way, are we not allowed to use the phone while driving? He want to report, go ahead, by the way, i never do a middle fingered to any drivers, i normally raised my hand with 3 fingers upward, just to confuse them.

Furthermore i'm not pointing at him in the first place as i was infront of him. I'm not stupid to show my only middle finger to someone. It is permissible to use the middle finger to point to something (in my case if i want to use my middle finger, the sky).

I can report him to the police for speeding, tail-gating, using hp while driving, acusing me of showing my middle finger, entering a company compound without permission and chasing me dangerously.

I don't think he took my picture with my fingers up. He just want to scared me. He got no strong evident to show the police. Actually he was the one who was scared because i got some friends with me. He did'nt even dare to come out of his car.

Anyway, i think this fucking indian (2351) got nothing to do, just follow me all the way to my working place and just voiced out his anger. Maybe he also got so much patrol to waste, i think he went to buy the 26% discount the oil company give that day. hahaha..

What the motif of this fucking indian? I think he intend to beat me up, but can't do it when he saw some guys were with me. So he just blew out his anger. And one more thing, he has a lot of chances of stopping me as i was not in the mood of speeding that day because i was more concern of my safety while riding on a wet road. He could overtake me and block me, but why was he just following me??

That Indian Guy Must Be Crazy!