Mac OSX Leopard on my PC !!!

I am passionate about computers and always liked to try out different things in it, especially trying out various OSes. I have worked with many OSes, right from Win 95 to Vista and also with Ubuntu and Sun Solaris. But, i have never got a chance to work with Mac OS X and i fell in love with that OS after watching the Leopard guided tour from Apple. But, buying a Mac is out of my reach and so i wanted to try the Mac OS X Leopard on my PC. The only way i could do, is by the OSX86 project. I have downloaded almost every version of the OSX dvd and finally found Leo4All working fine for my configuration. After many failures and lot of formatting of my hard drive, i finally succeeded in dual booting Mac OS X with the same old Windows XP. Dual booting dint work for me with Vista. Once i logged in, i must say that I was like new born baby unknowing of what to do. Everything was different in Mac OS X and i couldn't even figure out the keys like option key, command key with the windows keyboard etc. The toughest of all was installing the sound driver and i installed the driver finally too. Now, i can hear to songs on iTunes. :) After many attempts i was able to connect to the internet. I can learn to use this great OS from the internet. Am yet to learn a lot of things about this Mac and am hoping that i learn quick so that i can make the Leopard, my default OS.

AMD's Revenge

For nearly two years, the only GPUs I recommended were made by Nvidia. After the AMD-led acquisition, ATI was simply no longer competitive in the graphics business. The ATI that obliterated Nvidia with its Radeon 9700 was long forgotten, and Nvidia had been doing so well that we didn’t even really notice. Nvidia’s product releases were good enough that we didn’t even pick up on the fact that we were suffering because of a lack of competition (more on that in a bit).
The first sign of competition from ATI came with the RV670, the basis for the Radeon HD 3850 and 3870. Nvidia preempted the RV670’s launch by releasing one of the best values in PC graphics I’ve ever seen: the GeForce 8800 GT. Nvidia rained on ATI’s parade, and although the RV670 was competitive, it merely got an honorable mention as it was good but not great. Our review on Anand Tech of the 8800 GT was aptly titled, “The Only Card That Matters.” ATI really hated that.
During Nvidia’s launch of its successor to the G80 (the GPU that was the basis for the GeForce 8800 GTX), we began to get the feeling that something may be wrong. While Nvidia’s GT200 is a tremendously impressive GPU, it is simply priced too high. The GeForce GTX 280 carries a $650 price tag and is generally outperformed by Nvidia’s own $500 GeForce 9800 GX2. The GT200 is also a strictly high-end GPU, leaving the 8800 GT and the new 9800 GTX to occupy the $200 and $300 price points, respectively.
Then came AMD’s revenge.
The RV770 is a much larger, faster, and improved version of the RV670. But speed alone doesn’t tell the whole story here; the RV770 launched as the Radeon HD 4850 and 4870, priced at $199 and $299, respectively. The main differences between the two are clock speeds and memory bandwidth, but at these prices AMD as completely reset performance expectations—even more than Nvidia did with the 8800 GT last year.
The $199 Radeon HD 4850 is generally faster than Nvidia’s GeForce 9800 GTX. It is so fast, in fact, that Nvidia had to drop the price of its 9800 GTX from $299 down to $199 to remain competitive. But even with the 9800 GTX’s lower price, the Radeon HD 4850 is still the better overall buy.
The Radeon HD 4870, at $299, now finds itself without a competitor from Nvidia. It is clearly faster than the 9800 GTX and in many cases out performs the GTX 260, priced at $399.
Herein lies the benefit of competition that we were missing with AMD/ATI not putting much pressure on Nvidia for the past couple years. While Nvidia continued to advance technology, the only reason the GeForce 9800 GTX moved to $199 when it did was pressure from RV770. And I suspect that the GeForce GTX 260 is going to have to move down to $299 very quickly.
At the end of last year, AMD saw a hole in Nvidia’s product line and went after it with the Radeon HD 3850 and 3870. Fortunately for Nvidia, it had a flexible enough chip at the time that it could scale, target, and respond to the AMD threat with the GeForce 8800 GT. This time around, Nvidia is caught in the middle of a couple transitions: First, GT200 just started shipping and it will be a while before it can be cost-reduced, and second, Nvidia just began shipping 55nm GPUs. While it’s completely within Nvidia’s ability to respond to the threat posed by RV770, AMD’s timing has ensured that any response will be after the Radeon HD 4800 series has had a chance to do well in the market.
If you need a new graphics card and plan on spending either $199 or $299, the Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 are the best you can get.

Source : Computer Power User

Intel's Bioelectronic chip for Chemical Detection

Imagine if you could get a lab test in the doctor’s office and see the results before you left. The Intel Bioelectronic chip might one day make that possible. The chip was an experimental project that the world’s biggest chip maker showed off at its annual Research@Intel day. The chip resembles diagnostic chips that companies such as Affymetrix already make. But the chip doesn’t use optical technology to sort through various chemicals it comes into contact with. Rather, it uses silicon electrical sensors with something called a field effect device to detect DNA or other chemical traits more easily. Udi Virobnik, the Intel researcher behind it, said that such chips could be used as universal diagnostic machines, detecting a wide range of health risks, rather than just a single-test diagnosis, as is the case with chips already in use.

Top 5 computer problems

If you have a PC, then you have most likely suffered from computer problems. Most people have accepted that there PC will eventually crash due to a virus or some massive error. However this is a myth. Your PC is built to last more than a decade. However you must keep well tuned for it to make its third birthday. Nevertheless, most people would rather buy a shiny new PC rather than spend an hour trying to fix computer problems on there 2 year lap top or desktop. After another two year after their purchase lack of maintenance will cause their new PC to lose its performance speed. Whats next you guess, $3000 Windows Vista Ready PC. This is known as the consumer vicious cycle.

Why have does your computer have problems?

Well, the biggest problem that your computer has is its owner. More than 80% of computer problems stem from neglecting to perform simple maintenance task such as cleaning your registry, emptying your cache files and updating software regularly. If these task a perform diligently. You would be reading this article from a five year old machine running on Windows 98 operating system. So, lets take a look at the top five computer problems and how to avoid them.

1. Computer's performance has slowed.

This is the number one complaint from most users. There are several reason why this has occurred. However, most can attributed to lack of maintenance. Fragmented data, corrupted registry, spyware, and load of unnecessary programs and services running can all eat away at your PC speed and performance. Manage your programs and cleaning your registry would easily award you a 30% gain in performance speed. Check out The 4 ways to speed up my computer 

2. Lockup, freezes, and blue screens of death.

This is a another common computer problem. However, this particular issue is a bit more serious; therefore, it needs a few diagnostic steps. In most cases this problems are caused by spyware. To avoid this problem update your anti-spyware program daily. Having the most up to date signatures will help you avoid having a serious spyware problem. However, if you have concluded that your PC is spyware free. You should update your hardware drivers. The computer cannot communicate with various hardware components without an up to date driver. When it cannot find a driver, the CPU locks up. Also, increasing your virtual memory can also help to avoid freezes. Virtual Memory will allow to you get more use out your computer's RAM. Check the resource box for more info on the subject.

3. The computer spontaneously reboots or turn itself off.

This computer problem can be usually attributed to a hardware issue. Usually its the power supply is dying or in most cases a dirty or defective cooling fan. The computer trying to cool itself by automatically switching off. So, if you feel a bit of extra heat coming out the computer. Clean the fan and make sure it running properly. If your fan is functional, check your power supply. Also, you will be surprised how many people fail to make sure the cables are attached tightly. This be the cause of this particular computer problem

4. Strange noises and vibrations.

This is almost totally a hardware issue. You computer is made up of thousands of parts. Its not unheard of that one of them can become unhinged. Overheating can cause expansion of wires and melt some sensitive. High pitch noises such as squealing or whining sounds can be cause electronic components. Whatever the reason, you conduct a small investigation. Remove the case and run the computer to discover the origin of the computer problem. If its not a simple matter such as a loose wire or fan issue, it may be time to call a computer tech.

5. Your home page, default search engine, or web browser has changed itself.

This is also known as "high-jacking". Spyware has been installed on your computer via social networking or from email link. This action has allowed spyware to install a java script into your web browser. The spyware then sends a message to your browser to change your user settings. For example change your home page to another web page.

As you have discovered from reading the article, the most common computer problems can be handle quite easily by simple maintenance of your PC. Next time you are suffering from computer problems, take a few minutes to run some diagnostic test before rushing out to computer technical center claiming your PC is broken. What all you need to do was just make sure it was plugged in. 

Fix Apple Boot Camp's Heating problem!!

hey guys for those of you who haven’t got a hand on boot camp, here is a brief explanation of the problem

The problem

When you install windows onto your apple system, the boot camp devs have somehow managed to 'forget' that there requires some interface with windows to the firmware so the cooling fans can be controlled. This leads to a state where after an hour or so especially of gameplay or cpu/gpu/hdd intensive operations the heat inside builds up to around 90 C this is when the firmware realizes that its hardware is going to DIE, the self defense mechanism kicks in and the fans turn to 'leaf-blower' mode. From the entire web searching and tinkering i did i came across a blog, that stated how to deal with this problem as it is a big issue!!

this is quite easily noted in mac books and pros!

The fix

There appears to be a bug in a program developed for OsX - the prg is smsFanControl (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049). The bug is that if u change the settings for the fan in OSX and reboot (not shut down or anything else) the settings remain when u reboot into windows XP.

The program lets u set the min fan revs for each of the cooling fans, it has a default setting and a high-rpm mode (min 4000 rpm). So when you are going to windows for some hardware intensive programs change this setting!!!

And yea there is this other program i came across, but didnt give it a go till now!

Its called Input Re-mapper (http://www.olofsson.info/)

hope dis is useful!!

The future RAM

HP RESEARCHERS have developed a working unit of a once-theoretical memory circuit called a memristor, which may someday re place RAM and make PCs smarter. Memristor technology could enable PCs to make decisions by understanding patterns of collected data, much as ahuman brain collects and understands data on a series of events.For example, a memristor could adjust a microwave’s heating time for a potato based on whether the oven overcooked a potato the last time, says HP senior fellow Stanley Williams. Memristors could reach the commercial semiconductor market in five years, he says.A memristor circuit uses lower voltage and turns on faster than memory types such as DRAM and flash. Denser cells allow memristor circuits to store more data than flash memory, too. The memristor is the fourth basic circuitry element, joining three, the resistor, the capacitor, and the inductor. That science has known about for 150 years,Williams says.

Instinct - will it compete with Apple's iPhone??

So, with nearly a year after the launch of Apple's iPhone, Samsung and Sprint have decided to deliver a competition, the Instinct. The Instinct is bigger in size when compared with iPhone both in height and thickness and uses a resistive display ( iPhone uses capacitive display ). The Instinct provides much more options than iPhone such as mobile broadband, GPS, support for third party applications such as java etc. These may sound interesting but we can only judge how far the Instinct outwits the iPhone only after its launch. So, lets wait for the Instinct.

Upgrading your computer

Everyone of us might have undergone the feeling that after few months of buying a new computer, we would feel unsatisfied with its performance and so wanna upgrade in a short time after buying a new computer. And the scenario gets more worse if you like to switch to Vista from XP. With Microsoft announcing that it would stop providing support for XP in few months, every PC user is forced to use Vista. But buying a new Vista compatible CPU is too costly and the better option is to upgrade your old PC. So, here are the things you should do for upgrading.

Back up your data : First of all, if you plan for an upgrade back up all your important data onto an DVD or external harddisk.

Choose your hardware : Then, choose your hardware for your requirements such as a tv tuner card if you wish to watch tv in your computer etc. You aren't going to buy things for your computer frequently, so do thorough analysis of your requirements and select the suitable hardware

DVD Drive : If you are upgrading to vista, you need an DVD drive for sure because vista comes in dvd only. So get a good dvd drive for your system. Upto my knowledge, the better dvd writers are liteon, sony and asus.

RAM : Vista needs a mininum of 1GB RAM to perform to a satisfactory level. So a RAM of 1GB or more is required for Vista.

Drivers : When you buy any hardware, do check whether the drivers for the same are available for vista. If you donot have driver for the hardware, the chances of your hardware not working are high.

New BIOS : If you are planning to upgrade your Motherboard, then check out for the Motherboard with latest bios. A crash free bios would be good.

Graphics Card : Are you mad about gaming? Then you really need a good graphics card for the latest games to be played. Choose a latest graphic card with a suitable memory and according to your budget. The power requirements for your graphic card also should be met. So, choose a graphic card that suits your motherboard and power supply. And do go for a graphic card that supports DirectX 10.

IDE to SATA : If you are going to upgrade your harddisk, optical drive etc, then go for SATA drives because they are much faster than IDE.

Software Compatability : Be sure that you have your softwares updated or upgraded to make them work in your new environment. If you donot find any upgrades for your softwares, then run the software in compatibility mode.

USB Upgrade : If you have been using USB 1.1 in your old system, upgrade them to USB 2 as they provide a much more faster data transfer.

Above all, if you plan to run vista in your system, then run the vista upgrade advisor to get a rough idea about the hardware requirements for your PC.

Five Hottest Cellphones

I got a chance to find an article on the five hottest cellphones and thought of sharing it on my blog. so, here is the list of the hottest cellphones. The details about the phones are from my web search and i am not responsible if any of the feature is false or outdated. Jus wanna share my knowledge with others.

MUSIC PORTER X

The MUSIC PORTER X from Mitsubishi for NTT DoCoMo FOMA features a 1GB in-built memory that allows up to 700 tunes to be stored on the phone. This is the 28th Symbian OS-based mobile phone shipped in Japan.

The music experienced is enhanced by the addition of an FM radio as well the Mobile Broad Casting Service (MobaHO!) which is the satellite digital multimedia broadcasting service for personal and mobile device use. This service allows users to listen to the latest music in Japan and other countries. Users can also adjust the treble settings of the music and can identify their favourites for easy play.

The MUSIC PORTER X supports a wide variety of music formats such as MP3, AAC, ATRAC 3 and ATRAC 3plus and software is bundled to help users load their existing music collection onto their phones.

A visual display allows users to view and manage their music as they are playing it.

The phone also offers a camera and access to the i-channel services.

VECTROTEL X8

If your one of those conspiracy theories nuts who believe that the government is listening and recording to your conversation (no matter how mundane the stuff is) then you will love the Vectrotel X8, a GSM cell phone which has been manufactured by a Swiss company called Vectrotel. This phone is able to encrypt your conversations thanks to an unbreakable cypher.

Its not as simple as it sounds. For starters you require two cell phones and for placing a secure call the company performs a 1024-bit Diffie-Hellman shared secret exchange to produce a 128-bit key which only the two phones know and share. According to the company this key cannot be deciphered and you would require 1019 years to decrypt the message when there are 1000 computers at work. For enhanced security the company displays a calculated HASH checksum too.

The X8 in spite of its ultra cool features looks just like an regular mobile phone and includes a 1.3 megapixel camera. It also has features like a high-resolution display, connectivity options like IR, Bluetooth and USB , 5 hours of regular talk time and 4 hours of encrypted talk time.

SAMSUNG P900

Samsung P900 is a feature packed hanset that comes with 2 megapixel camera, 2.2″ 240×320 262K Color display, video recording and messaging capabilities and Mp3 player.

However the most exciting feature of this mobile phone is a built in Digital Media Broadcast receiver that lets you watch live TV programs. 2.2″ QVGA screen is able to display pictures at 30 frames per second making TV images clear and flicker-free. The screen also rotates to horizontal position for more optimal viewing.

Samsung P900 comes with Electronic Program Guide for easy

navigation through different TV channels. With 128MB of internal memory and optional microSD memory card you can record favorite shows for later viewing, transforming this cellphone into mini DVR in your pocket.

NEC N908

NEC have announced the NEC N908, a new mobile that's the same size as a credit card. Not the same width, mind - at 12.8mm thick, it's nearly twice the width of Samsung's record-breaking super-thin phone th Samsung X828. But as you can see from the pics, the N908 has the same length and height as a credit card - it'll just look a bit odd in your wallet!

Well, despite being tiny, NEC have managed to squeeze in the gubbins necessary to drive a touchscreen, letting you access all the phone's features without having to add ot the phone's tiny size. And, being a mobile phone, they've also squeezed in an MP3 player, 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and USB connection as well.

NEC N902IS

What sets the N902iS apart from other camera phones is its integrated search engine feature, users can take pictures and have them automatically uploaded to a Japanese search engine called "Evolution Robotics", for sharing or later retrieval. This handset includes an external 4.0-megapixel camera, internal 0.3-megapixel camera, 2.5-inch QVGA+ display, and a miniSD card slot. It measures 104 x 51 x 23mm and weighs approx. 114g.

Apple Macbook Air

" THE WORLD'S THINNEST LAPTOP". The Macbook Air comes out with this title. But how does this mac prerform? is it worth for the money? Here is a sneak peak on to the Macbook Air.
First thing, you notice in the Macbook Air, is its sleek design having a tapering design at the base. No wonder it is the ultimate thinnest lappy. It is light weight weighing around 3 pounds. The full size keyboard with backlight make is easier to work with even in the dark. The touch pad is also quite large and apple has integrated the iphone's gesture based commands to the Air. The processor found in the mac book air is Intel dual core 1.6Ghz processor with 2Gigs of RAM.

But looking at the hype created for Air, the output was a bit disappointing. The Air has got its own limitations such as only one USB port, no card reader, no embedded optical drive, no upgradable RAM etc. And also the battery standby time of the Air is around 3 hours and like the iphone it is also not user serviceable.

Although the mac book air has certain shortcomings, it is certainly the cutest lappy found today. Hope Apple compensates the shortcomings and release a better model in the years to come.