Saturday, July 26, 2008

What a cool cabinet!

Does your computer cabinet gets too hot while running? Do your applications occasionally hang? Has your cabinet got a bit noisy over a period of time? If yes, then its time for some cleanup.

Open your cabinet by removing the left side cover. Before proceeding make sure that you are well grounded in order to prevent your computer from electrostatic discharge (ESD). ESD can occur when working in your computer and will cause components you touch to no longer work properly. The best way to prevent it is wear an antistatic wrist band which is easily available in the market.

Accumulation of dust over fans and other components hinders air flow in your cabinet, which ultimately causes it to heat up and reduce the efficiency of your machine. Use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of the dust. If you dont have one, you can also use an air-pump used for bicycles, to blow away the settled dust. Make sure the cords are not hanging unevenly, cluttering you cabinet all over. Tie them together with rubber bands and keep them as much away as possible from fans. This trick is extremely effective as the air coming inside the cabinet can be diverted out without any disruption.

Still not satisfied with the performance?
Consider adding additional fans in your cabinet. There are mainly two types of fans available. Ball bearing type and sleeve bearing type. A ball bearing type fan is a better choice as they are more effective and outperform the sleeve bearing type. Check for vacant space available at front or back side of your cabinet to install a fan. One of the most important point to keep in mind is to know the direction of air throw by the fan. If done correctly, you'll find yourself with an excellent air circulation mechanism. Usually, there are directional arrows marked on the fan blades to help you.

That's it, you are chilled!

Nikon coolpix P80



Nikon coolpix P80 is another camera from the Digital SLR cameras series from Nikon. Although the design is just like any average regular compact digital SLR, dont go for the looks as it actually packs a lot of power unseen from the surface. You can shoot pictures at 10.1 megapixels so that you can print your images in sizes as large as 20x30 inches. With an incredible 18x optical zoom capability you get really crisp and sharp photos.


If you want to capture videos and at high frame rates, like say during a footbal match, you can do so by shooting at 3 megapixels at an amazing rate of 13fps! You can also connect the camera to a TV output via data cable and record you favourite programmes and movies on the memory card. Nikon's In-Camera Red-Eye Fix™ technology fixes the red eye removal problem ,while face priority AF technology searches for multiple faces in a photo and automatically focuses on them giving superior results.

You can manually set the configurations for shutter priority, aperture priority and exposure modes. This gives you complete control and allows you to shoot pictures with full flexibility. Nikon coolpix P80 has been built to reduce the effect of vibration while taking pictures. It has an image stabilization feature to compensate the effects of vibration such as blurring of the photos.

Specifications:

• Effective Pixels : 10.1 million
• Top Continuous Shooting Speed at full resolution : 1.1 frames per second
• LCD Monitor Size : 2.7 in. diagonal
• Sensor Size : 1/2.33/
• LCD Monitor Resolution : 230,000 Dots
• Storage Media : SD, SDHC
• Movie Modes : Movie with sound, Time lapse movie
• Interface : Hi-speed USB
• Built-in Flash : Yes
• Video Output : NTSC, PAL
• Battery / Batteries : EN-EL5 Lithium-ion Battery, Nikon Rechargeable
• Battery Life (shots per charge) : CIPA 250 shots (CIPA)
• Approx. Dimensions : Height: 3.1 in. (79mm), Width: 4.3 in. (110mm), Depth: 3.1 in. (78mm)
• Approx. Weight : 12.9 oz. (365g)



Sample photos :




  

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Prince of Persia 2008 announced



Good news for all the Prince of Persia game enthusiasts (including me!). Ubisoft has finally made it official that it is working on another sequel of Prince of Persia series of games. The game is expected to hit the stores on 1 November 2008. The name of this installment is still unknown.

Surprisingly, the character of prince has once again been changed i.e. It is not the same prince whom we saw in The Two Thrones. Last time, the prince's character was changed after Prince of Persia : Sands of Time in Prince of Persia : Warrior Within. But no regrets, he still looks cool, tough and sturdy.

It is not yet clear as on which all platforms will the game be launched, I strongly feel that it won't be available on PS2 as most of the games these days are being built for the PS3. Who knows! All we can do is wait.

Meanwhile, check out the screenshots and wallpapers of the game:












Monday, July 21, 2008

Need for Speed Undercover coming!




Did you hear that?
Another NFS sequel is on its way. And this time it is called Need For Speed : Undercover.
Unlike previously, when almost every sequel took nearly 12 months to release, NFS Undercover will be given a 2 year development time. So, expect something worth waiting.

EA CEO John Riccitiello said "We were torturing a very talented group of people up in Vancouver, which makes it harder to be as innovative every year. So, I think we are going to get better from here," Riccitiello said. "Last summer we added head count and split the team in two, so now there are two teams on a 24 month cycle. And this is sort of their first 16 and-a-half month game...Because we didn't do it far enough ago to give us a full two year dev cycle."

Nokia 7210




I have a bad habit of searching resemblence in two of more cellphone designs. So, to me this one looks pretty much like Motorola L6 or L7. I wonder if anyone feels the same way too, or is it just me.

Coming on to the actual business, Nokia 7610 is a nice funky mid range phone with a good design. It has got GPRS and EDGE but no support for HSCD, 3G or WLAN. Featuring 30MB of internal memory, it has the option for expanding memory using microSD upto 2GB.

A 2MP camera to shoot pics with upto 1600x1200 resolution, Java MIDP 2.0 interface, Flickr upload support, Adobe Flash 3.0 support are some of its other features.

Specifications >>

  • Size Dimensions 106 x 45 x 10.6 mm
  • Weight 69.8 g
  • Display Type TFT, 256K colors
  • Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.0 inches
  • Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
  • Customization Download
  • Vibration Yes
  • Memory Phonebook 2000 entries , Photocall
  • Call records 20 dialed, 20 received, 20 missed calls
  • Card slot microSD (TransFlash), up to 2GB
  • - 30 MB internal memory
  • Data GPRS Class 32, 88 kbps
  • HSCSD No
  • EDGE Class 32, 296 kbits
  • 3G No
  • WLAN No
  • Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
  • Infrared port No
  • USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB
  • Features Messaging SMS, MMS
  • Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
  • Games Snake 3D, Bounce II, Sudoku, Sea Sweeper
  • Colors Bubble Gum Pink, Vivid Blue
  • Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video (QCIF@10fps)
  • - Java MIDP 2.0
  • - Stereo FM radio with RDS
  • - MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA player
  • - MPEG-4 player
  • - Built-in handsfree
  • - Voice command/dial/memo
  • - Macromedia Flash Lite 2.1
  • - Adobe Flash 3.0
  • - Flickr Upload
  • - Widsets
  • - T9
  • Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 860 mAh (BL-4CT)
  • Stand-by Up to 250 h
  • Talk time Up to 2 h