It happened to me once a long time ago, and my colleagues, and now my brother-in-law’s Microsoft Office Outlook also hang or having extremely slow startup. This is what happens when you don’t archive or backup your email correspondence and let your main outlook.pst file burgeon into one big fat file! (more…)

Recently I just got the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v and some of my friends asked how it was. I have been thinking about getting a netbook for awhile. Sure I got my laptop, the Dell Inspiron 1501 about 2-1/2 years ago. With its big 15.4″ screen it was quite a dead weight to carry around. Although I wanted portability, I also wanted a generous work space on the screen. And of course usually laptops that are bigger are generally cheaper despite the fact that LCD screen space is more. There was a time that bigger screen was more expensive; however in order to cramp more hardware component into smaller spaces meant that notebooks would be more expensive than laptops. (more…)

Windows 7 vs Vista, my evaluation so far

My Windows 7 evaluation so far, between Windows 7 vs Vista, well the interface looks a little sleeker. Changes were made of course to make the Windows 7 feels newer and different from Windows Vista. I’m still playing with it and trying to understand some of the differences. Basically you could start using Windows 7 straight away if you have been using Windows Vista. The file location is similar except that they now come with the library folder. That one is a little confusing because it will bunch several locations that is designated as same group. Eg folders that are for documents will be bunch into the library document folder. The library document folder should not be confused with the actual document folder. Same goes with the picture, download, music, videos folder and etc.

From what I understand, Windows 7 is supposed to be less processor intensive than Windows Vista. But I find my Dell Inspiron 1501 running a little slow. Especially dragging the windows about, I notice there was lagging which I didn’t experience when it was running with Vista. (more…)

Windows 7 is out in the market for some time now. And from what has been reviewed, it seems to be very popular and much more user friendly than Windows Vista. So without much ado, it was time for me to upgrade to Windows 7, well at least for my laptop and give it a quick spin.

I was not about to destroy my Windows Vista installed in my Gigabyte AMD desktop PC. It has way too much stuff. Since I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop which I have been using for the past 2-1/2 year (how time flies!). I used mainly for travel and don’t store my data inside at all. So this was a good candidate to try out for an upgrade to Windows 7. (more…)

“How can I convert a CD to an MP3 format?”

Actually it is a very easy process. There are many ways to convert audio CD into MP3 and there isn’t any shortage of free software to do it. If you plan to use your Windows Media Player that came with Microsoft, then just too bad because Microsoft emphasis is on their own proprietary WMA format which I find that not so many MP3 players support it. Microsoft Windows Media Player can play MP3 but their conversion from audio CDs into MP3 do not have so many options. They are geared more to WMA format also. So when it comes to conversion to a compact audio file, better stick to the MP3 format which has a pervasive following. (more…)

My dell computer laptop is about two years old already and I’m running a little short on storage space. I have been dual booting the dell computer laptop with Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista, however I didn’t think it out thoroughly on the partitioning and thus I have linux partition here and there in between Windows Vista partition. At that time, storage space wasn’t an issue and I could use it without any problem. However recently, I have installed more and more software and it was running out of space. I also noticed it was running slower with less space. Usually when there is less space there will be less page file for swapping out the main memory into the hard disk. (more…)

The Red Fox FT44 MP3 Wireless FM Modulator is the latest model on sale for playing MP3 or WMA music in your car using radio transmission to your car radio. My older FM modulator was getting cranky and with the new model with new features on sale, I decided to get a new MP3 wireless FM modulator.

The new upgraded version looks great. On the cover it says the Red Fox FT44 model is able to support up to 16GB USB drive and able to play over 1000++ songs. In addition, it can also play songs by folder selection. That sounds really great, because the current one that I have cannot switch songs by folder and the random jump button is very difficult to enable. However if using SD or MMC card, it can only support up to 2GB. I guess they still didn’t support SDHC cards. USB thumb drives are still cheaper than SD/MMC cards anyway so it is not such a big deal for not able to play from SDHC cards.

Red Fox FT44 MP3 Wireless FM Modulator

I’ve been mulling around for a portable hard drive, wondering which brand and model to use for my storage needs. Finally I decided to go for Transcend StoreJet 25F after briefly checking out the good points about each available models in the market. (more…)

Now that my Gigabyte motherboard CMOS/BIOS is half-dead and no longer functioning, I find it a tad irritating to have to update / adjust the Vista time in order for it to its automated functions like Windows update, Kapersky anti-virus update, and all the other essential automatic updates. Since they all rely on the system clock to determine when it should trigger itself to download the required software and data to run. So it is kind of troublesome to this everytime, not to mention it can’t reboot without resulting in black screen unless I shut off the main power to clear the CMOS. (more…)

It is very important to keep backup of files that you use regularly whether it is for work or personal files. You never know the files may get corrupted. Files in your PC are easier to backup while those in your web site of course it becomes more complicated. However many people do not seem to know how to use the build in function in Windows to make simple archival backup files. (more…)