I have had more time to work on excel 2013 since I installed it months ago, one feature I love is the autofill has predictive capabilities eg if you have a data table for expenses and you code the expenses for a few items, just double click and it will autofill the rest, then you just have to check it instead of having to manually code each item. ps I am now teaching myself macro and vba for excel via the online tutorials as well as financial modelling.
Update 11062013
DFX audio enhancer is great for audio playback. I used it ages ago but then couldnt figure out how to use core...now there are instructions. Tested fully working on windows 8 :)
http://www.rlslog.net/dfx-v11-110-incl-keymaker-p2p/
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Update 26052013
Space sniffer is still my preferred large file identifier tool (freeware portable)
http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/download.html
I also use Treesizepro (on windows 8) a lot (theres a free tree size version)
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Not really related to windows 8 but it works on windows 8... If you have relatives or friends who use ppstream and hog all your bandwidth watching foreign movies, this is a lovely free bandwidth limiter which works on all windows os including win 8 :)
Not only that, but it tells you what files are accessing the internet too
SeriousBit NetBalancer
NetBalancer is an internet traffic control and monitoring tool designed for Microsoft Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8 with native x64 support.
With NetBalancer you can:
* Set for any process a download and/or upload network priority or limit
* Manage priorities and limits for each network adapter separately
* Define detailed network traffic rules
* Group local network computers and balance their traffic synchronised
* Set global traffic limits
* Show network traffic in system tray
Supported OS:
Microsoft Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8 with native x64 support.
Homepage: http://seriousbit.com/
nice version at tpb :)
Update 09052013
Wassup, I still use my Sony RX 100 much more than EOS 5d III. The main reason is portability. I can carry a baby in my left hand and pull out the rx100 out of my pocket, turn it on and change modes etc and take photos all with the other one right hand. The picture quality is much better than the best phone on a camera so I usually have my rx100 in a pouch on my belt when I know I will be out and about and may need to take photos. (Wallet in left pocket and mobile in right pocket so dont want to scratch the rx100 lol)
Ok it is now middle of 2013 and the best antivirus for windows 8 is BitDefender AntiVirus Plus 2013 Build 16.18.0.1407 Final (x86x64) as it uses minimal resources and all the reviews say it is the best.
http://local-download.blogspot.hk/2012/10/bitdefender-antivirus-plus-2013-with.html
The instructions to make it last forever requires you boot to safe mode after installing
http://softwaresharer.blogspot.hk/2013/03/bitdefender-antivirus-plus-2013-build.html
Now the hard part was actually getting out of safe mode in windows 8 as my acer v3 771 boots too fast and if you google pressing F8, it does not work to change boot modes (either holding or tapping like crazy). To do so, just press the windows key then type msconfig.exe
then enter
and then just choose normal boot. This will get you in and out of safe mode in windows 8 from once you have logged on in windows 8.
I used LBA_2.0 BETA5.
The difference between this plus version and the free version is a lot. You cannot do sh1t with the free version which is cloud based eg you cannot choose any options to restore quarantined files... So make sure you get the full version!
Update 26/12/2012
The Sony RX 100 lets you take pictures when simultaneously recording video (less than 50p) but the video will record the clicks when you take the pictures. very annoying indeed so I guess you either dont take pictures or sacrifice for this little annoyance.
Update 08/12/2012
Apparently you cannot have dual monitor and touchscreen on one with the non touchscreen monitor having full window gaming... see video for more details
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp6HZ_3gNqs
Update 01/12/2012
along come the video based tutorials for windows 8 lol
http://www.rlslog.net/vtc-com-microsoft-windows-8-introduction-dvd-inkiso/
windows 8 for gamers
http://www.rlslog.net/pc-gamer-usa-january-2013-p2p/
Update 15/11/12
This might be useful to some
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7259308/The_Complete_Guide_to_Windows_8
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/11/google-nexus-4-sells-out-in-less-than-an-hour/
I still want one lol
Update 14/11/2012
Google is being a pain in the but so the rlslog links you just click "advanced" and proceed at your own risk, anyway
I have been amusing myself with Angry Birds Starwars because bad piggies is getting too tough for me :)
for windows
http://www.rlslog.net/angry-birds-star-wars-ali213/
or for your tablet/mobile
http://www.rlslog.net/angry-birds-star-wars-hd-v1-0-0-full-android-p2p/
if you liked angry birds, this one is heaps cuter and just as fun :) The birds have got extra special powers that are really fun to use.
I still watch Southpark a lot and this season there was an episode about those 4 wheel motorised bike things for handicaps. Well guess what, I was walking along George Street near the Apple store when one nearly ran me over as I turned around the corner. They should be banned from the footpath and drive on the roads lol.
UFC.On.Fuel.TV.Franklin.vs.Le.HDTV.x264 has an interesting result. Worth watching for the Cung Le fight as well as Korean Zombie
If you like foreign films, This is chinese number 1 according to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_films_of_2012
Painted.Skin.II.The.Resurrection.2012.BluRay.1080p.DTS.AC3.x264-CHD [PublicHD] is a very nice love story. and need to watch in full HD to appreciate the scenery, special effects and audio. In Mandarin with Chinese subtitles. If u need English sub
http://en.podnapisi.net/en/ppodnapisi/search?sK=painted+skin+resurrection
The original is also quite good (but nothing like the sequel) with quite a few of the same main characters and features Donnie Yen
Painted.Skin.2008.Directors.Cut.Edition.DVDRip.XviD-CoWRY
I really like the theme song, really beautiful vocals by Jane Zhang. I liked the song so much I went and collected her whole discography from my favorite russian site. Here is a facebook video with quality audio for the painted skin themesong:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=203749942971619
If you want another great Chinese movie, Sacrifice.2010.DVDRip.XviD-FRAGMENT
is about a doctor who sacrifices his family to raise the last of a clan (from a baby) to seek revenge on the other clan's elder. Get English subs from above site. It will keep you interested right to the end to find out what happens :)
I am still having my eye on ASUS Padfone 2
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/439675/asus_padfone_2_won_t_get_aussie_release_until_2013/
because for the price of the Nokia Lumia 920, I get both tablet and smartphone.
http://www.myshopping.com.au/PR--421541_Asus_Padfone_Mobile_Phone
the reviews on the old padfone (released a few months ago in 2012) are all great
http://www.mobicity.com.au/asus-padfone-phone-tablet.html
One thing is for sure, I am getting a sony RX 100 after my exams :)
http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2012/07/26/the-sony-rx100-digital-camera-review/
http://www.thephoblographer.com/2012/09/26/review-sony-rx100/
http://techland.time.com/2012/11/01/best-inventions-of-the-year-2012/slide/all/
http://www.shopbot.com.au/pp-sony-cyber-shot-dsc-rx100-price-379546.html
I normally wait for prices to fall but since everyone says it is the best, I have to have the best ha ha
Most of the shops selling online to Australia source from Hong Kong, inclusive of insurance shipping etc
you can save around AUD $200 by buying from them eg cameraparadise
http://cameraparadise.com/Sony-Cyber-shot-DSC-RX100-Digital-Camera-1293.html AUD 526+ shipping etc = about 600
compared to buying from official sites like this one:
http://www.sony.com.au/product/dsc-rx100 ($rrp 799 but free shipping)
If you want a user manual for the Sony RX100, my favorite photography site has one
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/42125936
if you are in a hurry, download all the pdf versions as some of their forum posts has conventional pdf as well as live link versions
If you want to know more about the sensor
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/cmos_01.html
video performance
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/sony-rx100/sony-rx100VIDEO.HTM
the beauty of it is you can capture photos while you are recording video
Rx100 Comparison with the Nokia 808 (which I have mentioned elsewhere in my blog - its the best mobile phone camera ever made). Its a chinese review so use google chrome browser and let it translate. English is then understandable lol If the lumia 920 had the camera of the nokia 808, I would have got the phone instead but unfortunately it does, so I went down the path of a RX100
http://www.dcfever.com/phones/readreview.php?id=6931
rx100 vs nikon 1 v1/j1
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3249696
Accessories for RX100
So with the saved dinero, I tried to look for a case for the rx100,
as usual, start with local website to see price
http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod9204.htm $94 too expensive
here is a review of the official one, funny how the guy keeps talking soft and supple i didnt like it turning into half case and the tripod thing as I would never carry my tripod with me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI9dXOkVa4I
I sure as hell will not get this one, the comments are quiet funny
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/07/30/Gariz-leather-half-case-for-Sony-RX100
I think ill just get a cheap $10 one from ebay (made in China) that looks identical to the official one. Its just missing the Sony logo so no point pay 80 bucks extra for 4 letters. thats like 20 bucks per letter which my 2 yo son can write on the case :)
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=case+for+rx100+sony&_sacat=0&_from=R40
For memory card, apparently you can take advantage of the most expensive sd cards 90mb/s+
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/sony-rx100/sony-rx100A6.HTM
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3219791
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/42161643
This gives me a reason now to buy a new SD card :) obviously only stupid people would use Sony's memory cards as they are overpriced pieces of crap.
In Australia, shoppingsquare.com has the cheapest sdcards and they are almost in multiples
eg Sandisk extreme pro UHS 16gb/32gb/64gb are in multiples of price per gb 64gb is 178 AUD inclusive of shipping
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/product.php?id=400707
which sources from their HK distribution If you want their local distribution (faster shipping by a few weeks) use this link (price is about 10 bucks more inclusive of shipping, which only takes a few days)
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_398791_SanDisk_Extreme_Pro_64GB_SDXC_UHS1_Card_Class_10_95MBs_Speed
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/c_32_2_0_d_Flash_Memory
So I think getting 2 32gb ones is better than one 64gb one since the price is roughly the same, but that is personal preference. My logic is that the wear and tear on 2 is less than just using one so 2 last longer than 1 so if something happens to one you still have half of the value you paid. Also, i doubt I will ever be at one location shooting 64gb in one go without stopping :p
This shop sells about the same price but has faster delivery
http://www.memorycity.com.au/secure-digital-sdxc/24-sandisk-extreme-pro-sd-sdhc-class-10-uhs-i-64gb-memory-card-.html
Then there are the ebay shops... who can I trust as I have had bad experience buying 64gb USB when it was released a few years back...
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=SanDisk+Extreme+Pro+64GB+SDXC+UHS&_sacat=0&_from=R40
The thing is ebay is no longer cheap as paypal has heaps of fees and they screw you over with exchange rate conversions. So overall, it is cheaper to buy from shoppingsquare if you include shipping. Plus it is crazy to charge 33 bucks for shipping and pay all those fees when you can just put the sdcard in a normal enveloppe and buy some stamps for a few dollars at most. I suspect these companies screw us over with shipping by having lower marked prices and recovering via shipping costs.
Now I need to find a spare battery....NP-BX1
I find you get decent batteries in asia so off we go to ebay singapore
http://www.ebay.com.sg/sch/i.html?_nkw=NP-BX1+&_sacat=0&_odkw=SanDisk+Extreme+Pro+64GB+SDXC+UHS&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
you can get 2 batteries for a few SGD and as AUD is stronger than all Asian currencies, its cheap as dirt.
but the paypal f#$kers charge more than the battery in fees...
the rx100 charges apparently from your notebook computer when connected via the usb so if you buy overseas, that makes me feel better that I dont need to have to carry around a wall socket or travel adaptor to charge the battery
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3273826
and http://www.bhphotovideo.com/indepth/photography/hands-reviews/hands-review-sony-cyber-shot-dsc-rx100
has some comments about charging battery
with a picture of what the real battery looks like (i am sure the el cheapo ebay ones are all fakes made in china so it is worthwhile checking it out)
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/869819-REG/Sony_NP_BX1_NP_BX1_Rechargeable_Lithium_Ion_Battery.html
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Since I am talking about camera's it is great to see camera companies like polaroid entering the smart phone arena (without the phone component ha ha). I thought polaroid was dead but this emag says otherwise :) Also, the features in upcoming compacts are nicely improved so by the time I buy another little camera, it will be so much better that what I have now. When I finish my MBA next year, I am going to focus on photography and travel to see the world before I die hee hee
http://www.rlslog.net/digital-photography-enthusiast-magazine-issue-17-p2p/#comments
if you like to improve your skills as a man at home, this black and decker series is a great way to learn some tricks
http://www.rlslog.net/the-complete-guide-to-a-clutter-free-home-organized-storage-solutions-projects-p2p
http://www.rlslog.net/complete-guide-to-outdoor-carpentry-p2p
http://www.rlslog.net/the-complete-photo-guide-to-home-repair-p2p/
http://www.rlslog.net/black-decker-the-complete-guide-to-wiring-5th-edition-p2p
http://www.rlslog.net/black-decker-the-complete-guide-to-bathrooms-third-edition-p2p
http://www.rlslog.net/black-decker-the-complete-photo-guide-to-home-improvement-more-than-200-value-adding-remodeling-projects-p2p/
http://www.rlslog.net/black-decker-the-complete-photo-guide-homeowner-basics-100-essential-projects-every-homeowner-needs-to-know-p2p/
there are some other ones like complete guide to plumbing floating around on the net.
You never know when you might need these skills so read and educate yourself :) That's what tablets are for ha ha
ps I had a look at Call.of.Duty.Black.Ops.II-SKIDROW and it is amazing (and 14gb ha ha). get yourself a copy and Call of Duty Black Ops II Crackfix Repack-SKIDROW :) I will do a little review later
i turned everything up and tried on my alienware notebook (nividia graphics card GTX 680) only got a few fps, then turned off FXAA and Antialiasing and switched a couple of the options to medium, then it was very fun :) You need to be fast because the bullets fly from all over lol so I sacrifice a bit of graphics to maximise the fun. Obviously, being like a crazy rambo doesnt help in such games.
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AI Roboform Enterprise v7.8.4.5-TE
is my favorite password remembering tool as I can never remember all the passwords I have to remember in my life for work and personal, especially these days they need special characters and force you to change it every couple of weeks.
http://www.roboform.com/ says it supports a lot of browsers and platforms, I have not tried on windows 8 yet but I am sure it will work.
However, these days, I find I tend use excel more to remember. And the excel file I put a password on it. If you forget the password on excel sheet, there is a script you can find via google that you can run in the background to unprotect the sheet in 5 seconds (refer to my older posts for it)
If you are like me and dying to get the Lumia 920, the only place in Australia that you can buy Nokia Lumia 920 from a reputable retailer would be Kogan for AUD 739 with free shipping, but they are based in Vic and I am in NSW. I really need to touchy feely it first before buying online... fking telstra, when will they have display model for me to do so!
http://www.mobicity.com.au/nokia-lumia-920.html
http://www.shopbot.com.au/pp-nokia-lumia-920-price-393123.html
I am thinking for $739, I am not going to get as much happy feeling as I did when I bought my panasonic DMC - GF3 micro four thirds camera a couple of years back (and it is still one of the best value for money ones ha ha):
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57360565-1/best-mirrorless-cameras-for-less-than-$1000/
I should not reward Nokia for the lousy marketing either so I vote with my feet :)
The DMC GF3 (latest model is GF5) camera still fits in the pocket with the pancake lens on and is super fast focusing so worth every cent. I was watching America's next top model and I shared the photographer's frustration when the model doesnt pose well because I needed to take a picture of my baby against the wall for passport sized photo and you can imagine what that was like with an impatient baby ha ha
anyway if you need to make a passport photo online for free, www.epassportphoto.com
choose no thanks if you do not want to pay, click the tiny "skip" link and then you can download the photosheet with 4 color photos (I assume your camera takes color photos) then print at your work's color printer if you need to print it out :) however, I use their service a bit so the couple of dollars is really worth it because you can choose your photos and keep trying till you get perfection, remember the old days when you sat in a booth and you only had that one shot at it and if you blinked you waste all your dinero? The site makes it really easy and because they let you keep trying and trying ie provide value-added, I recommend you pay (at least once in a while) lol
So for me speed is everything. I doubt the nokia lumia 920 will make me happy and I already have a lot of cameras, so as that is the Lumia 920's main selling point apart from windows 8 mobile, I do not think it will do it for me. It has been one of my life long dreams to find time to learn adobe photoshop and be a professoinal photographer. One of the girls who I worked with quit her job and became one, but then again she was a tree-hugging mac enthusiast and I cannot stand apple.
If you think like me and agree that for $1000 for some crap like the iphone 5, budget is better spent getting something more worth the price you pay, there are many places to get good deals on DSLR cameras. As I am not qualified to do a camera review, from what I have read, if you want to buy a Canon, you would probably go for one that has a DIGIC 5 Digital Image Processor.
"DIGIC 5+ ultra fast digital image processor which is about 17 times faster than DIGIC 4 with enhanced algorithm, sharp and clear images can be captured with impressive noise control. DIGIC 5+ supports 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion processing to retain fine image details and ensure better tonal gradation for smoother and natural colors."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIGIC
and this one is selling for AUD 804 and if you buy it when shoppingsquare have their $1 shipping days, then its a bargain ha ha
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_401317_Canon_EOS_650D_Kit_1855mm_IS__55250mm_IS_II_Digital_SLR_CameraDS
But the 650 isnt really my cup of tea
http://www.cnet.com.au/canon-eos-650d-339339045.htm
and if Nikon is your thing AUD 675 gets you this so you still have change to buy the 16gb Google nexus 4 smartphone ie by splitting your $1000 budget, you can get more value as you get better technology overall per dollar.
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_402339_Nikon_Digital_SLR_Camera_D5100_kit_1855mm__70300mm_
ps If you take a different 2nd lens, it costs AUD 600 so there is something for all budgets ha ha
55-200mm VR
,http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/product.php?id=400810&n=2262
and the advanced consumer D7000 costs AUD 1000
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_401022_Nikon_Digital_SLR_Camera_D7000_kit_1855mm_VR__55300mm_ED_VR_
The d7000 (which uses expeed 2 engine) costs about the same as the d3200 but d3200 uses the expeed 3 engine so you need to do some research before buying to see what features you will actually use... I would personally go for d7000 http://www.cnet.com.au/nikon-d7000-339306027.htm
Nikon uses Expeed engine and because it can be confusing as Nikon's model numbers jump up and down so there is a timeline table at the bottom of this link, indicating which models are for professional and which are for consumers, advanced and mid range etc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expeed
IMO if you are a beginner, no point spending over $1000 on a DSLR unless you have cash to burn, in which case you can spend over $5000 on the best quality equipment, lens, flash, dual sd card camera etc and you should go to your local camera shop to test out the cameras (just as I wanted to touchy feely the nokia lumia 920)
My favorite camera review site is http://www.dpreview.com/reviews
and you can see the Nokia 808 cameraphone getting a gold reward there ha ha
If camera size is a concern, this site has comparisons on most models out there
http://camerasize.com/compare/#7,315
Obviously, photography is not for everyone, I do it because it helps me relax and look at things differently. Admittedly, I have better things to put in my backpack than a DSLR which is why I have the DMC GF3 :) I also hate carrying a camera bag along with a backpack.
The other point is the smartphones depreciate in value almost as fast as a car, since technology is constantly improving whereas a DSLR camera would maintain value better :) Indeed, most of my male friends only need a phone that can take and make calls and they don't think much of the touchscreen features of a phone and for those of us who go fishing we just need a budget phone as smartphones are not waterproof :0
Anyay, I am now going to ditch the smartphone idea, defer any purchase decisions and focus on "budget" windows 8 notebooks such as the ones in the anandtech link I have posted below. At least for that budget, I know I am going to get a device I will be happy with and use (and my kids can use it too).
Hopefully, the day will come when we can have a windows 8 tablet cum notebook that takes a simcard so I can use that to connect to the internet via prepaid mobilephone plan and make skype calls rather than have to pay separately for prepaid internet.
While Android tablets are ok for amusement for kids and doing your grocery shopping and just typing text, I found that when editing drafts in gmail with my Transformer prime (based on Android), it lost all the formatting (which was days of work) eg bulletpoints. This is because the mobile version of Gmail is only avilable on android as opposed to the full browser version. The reason I use gmail to summarise my notes for my MBA course is because of the convenience and not requiring me to carry around a USB and having to worry saving all the time (you can type pages and pages in a single gmail email in case you have not noticed) and just save it as a draft. Gmail autosaves all the time and I backup to a word document when I get home. So imo 10 inch or less tablets are only good apart from the above if it has a simcard slot so you can use it as a phone.
And the 10" screen really is too small apart from just typing text to do anything else So Windows 8 tablet cum notebooks of the 13 inch or more variety are definitely my recommendation (hence this post about windows 8). Now I have determined that I want to get a budget windows 8 notebook cum tablet, I can focus on researching that, and this latest ebook (funny how it is November and they date it 2013) has budget windows 8 notebooks. There is a really kewl 23inch Dell Windows 8 screen in the review. However, I would not rush to buy it as there is a lot happening in the windows 8 space over the upcoming months and I still prefer mouse and keyboard to gestures for my daily work. Eg if you need to select alternate files to move to your backup using fingers is really clumsy as you might put it into the wrong folder
http://www.rlslog.net/pc-pro-january-2013-p2p/
There is an article there about Google Docs which in summary, states that you should not solely rely on google docs as they can change any format or any (backwards) compatibility whenever they like and you lose your data. Which is why I personally would stick to using google docs/drive as a sharing/backup instead of your main source of updating data.
It goes without saying you should backup data always and often, and if USB is unreliable so if you use USB, back up the USB to another USB eg a larger desktop USB drive or SDcard etc
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Update 04/11/12
Windows 8 start button :) "You cannot find the start menu of Windows 8? No wonder, as Microsoft did not adopt the start button, which was traditionally placed at an exposed position on the task bar, for Windows 8; instead, they now rely completely on the new Metro start screen. Official explanation: hardly any users use the start button and the start menu.
We think: Start button and start menu belong to Windows 8!
You agree? Then get back your much-loved habits and attach a bit of Windows 7 nostalgia to your brand-new Windows 8. With our “Win8Starter” software you use start button and start menu as desired: directly on the task bar of the new Windows and always quickly available.from http://www.win8starter.com/index-en.html for more details
ftp://87.106.164.250/win8starter.exe
Update 25/10/12 ASUS windows 8
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6404/asus-windows-8-and-rt-products-revealed
While I do not think much of ASUS gaming notebooks anymore, I still love my transformer prime (android) so i might get an ASUS windows 8 transformer book if my son keeps taking my transformer prime lol
Described now as a detachable notebook, the ASUS Transformer Book is marketed as the thinnest and most powerful Core i7-based Windows 8 tablet available. There’s a compelling story to be told in figuring out what is the best combination of power and portability. With the 13” Transformer Book, ASUS is pegging power, at the expense of portability, and the results are intoxicating. The dual-core Core i7 processor flies, seemingly unhindered by thermal or energy limitations. In the tablet itself is a 128GB SSD, with an additional 500GB mechanical drive in the dock. The 1080p 13" display looks great, though the 16:9 form factor gives it an elongated appareance. Connectivity on the tablet itself is limited, but the dock features USB 3.0 and ethernet. Holding a device with that much power in your hand, quickly flying through web pages and photos, it’s the closest I’ve come to being wowed by a tablet in a long time. Its size isn’t going to do it any favors as a mobile device, but I don’t think that’s the point. This isn’t a no compromises tablet, this is a no compromises detachable notebook.
ps I am still playing the free angry birds android game called bad piggies when i cannot sleep at night, still cannot get 3 stars on some levels...
pps I recently installed the full Nero.Platinum.12.0.02000.Retail.with.Content.Pack-NoGrp to see what was so great about Nero burning rom 12 today, i remember when I was a little boy during windows xp times it was like 20mb, now it is a whopping 1gb+ , if you include the content pack. It supports windows 8
If you dont want to waste so much space, just get this one instead as it is less than 100mb (remember never to click update):
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7700179/Nero_Burning_ROM_12_Multilanguage_PortableAppZ_[ChingLiu]
I like the portable because it doesnt overtake all your original windows settings such as using ultraiso to mount iso files. Full installing makes you need to reinstall ultraiso and waste time. Just found out when i was trying to install Medal_of_Honor_Warfighter-FLT (which is one of the best fps games I have played all year! if you like this sort of game, go get yourself a copy, its heaps better than max payne 3)
Update 12/10/12: lots of windows 8 ebooks-
http://www.rlslog.net/pc-advisor-december-2012-p2p/
http://www.rlslog.net/pc-world-usa-november-2012-p2p/
Update: 23/9/2012: I now installed office 2013 preview onto windows 8 to see what it looks like, which I found here
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7582207/Microsoft_Office_2013_Professional_Plus_x32_x64_bobiras2009
the and managed to activate it. If keys expire, go to uninstall programs but dont uninstall it, right click and click change and the last option lets you change the activation key. It integrates very well with windows 8 and looks almost the same as office 2010. I will wait for some reviews to see if there were any additional features that are useful. Most likely than not it is the same crap. IMO office 2007 is the way to go ha ha
Since I am talking office, I had to do a group presentation and we tried to use google docs instead of excel, however, we encountered too many difficulties during collaboration, so excel is still the way to go :)
For other things, I actually quite like google docs. eg for stock portfolio monitoring some nerds have done amazing spreadsheets that we can all use that I could not find in excel format eg this one
http://www.oldschoolvalue.com/blog/investment-tools/the-best-free-stock-portfolio-tracking-spreadsheet/
You just need to login to your gmail account and access google docs then you can save a copy to your google drive and play around with it. Its simply amazing. Note if you save the file as excel, you lose a bit of the formulae so you need to go reprogram the spreadsheet.
I am no nerd, so my portfolio tracking spreadsheets I created are nothing as good as theirs so I now use a variation of theirs (as theirs is US based while I am in Australia) and I mainly invest in bonds :0 Australian bonds are the best performing in the world and given we are not going to lower interest rates any more you can easily get an annual return between 8 to 11.25% on AQNHA, CWNHA and HLNG (these are the ASX listed bond ASX codes) just by holding the bond.
Their interest rates and ex distribution dates:
CWNHA and AQNHA
http://www.asx.com.au/asx/markets/interestRateSecurityPrices.do?type=FLOATING_RATE_NOTE
HLNG
http://www.asx.com.au/asx/markets/interestRateSecurityPrices.do?type=CONVERTIBLE_NOTE
Of course I trade between them as the timing of their coupons are due in different months which means I can get a better return when I factor in capital gains, than simply buying and holding for coupon income. So my strategy will beat most fund managers in the Superfund industry ha ha ie I outperform the benchmark without even trying and the risk on these bonds is probably equivalent to anything else you can find on the stockmarket.
The CWNHA is Crown Casino and as my old finance lecturer states, the house always wins ha ha and also the shareholders will not get paid dividends if they do not pay their bondholders ie me my coupon income first :p They only issued the bonds in Sept and those who jumped on would have made a nice profit since it has gone up from 99 to 104 as of Nov 12 :) The BBSW is not supposed to fall as RBA is not in the mood to lower interest rates any more
It pays to know how to read financial statements to help assess the riskiness of the proposition.
http://www.crownlimited.com/Assets/Files/09.26%20-%20Annual%20Report%20-%20FINAL%20-%2019%20September%202012.pdf
HLNG on the other hand, is a healthcare provider that has a fixed 11.25% coupon. ie local interest rates do not affect its coupon rate and it is quite liquid (nothing worse than buying some other bonds such as Heritage bank, that offer 10% only to find you cannot sell the volumes you want on a thinly traded market)
AQNHA is just good old AMP which is the most liquid out of the bunch.
There are many strategies. To illustrate a simple one, if you have capital losses from prior trading eg from your days as a CFD trader ha ha, then you obviously prefer capital gains to distributions since you get taxed on the distributiones whereas capital gains you can offset those prior capital losses (ie you do not get further taxed) so for example, AQNHA is currently trading with a $2 per quarter distribution (8% return) so if you trade for capital gains, as long as you get a capital gain over $2 per quarter, then you would sell before the ex dividend date and realise the capital gain.
http://shareholdercentre.amp.com.au/phoenix.zhtml?c=142072&p=irol-ampnotes
I am almost finished with my MBA with a major in Finance and I can conclude that my risk appetite for stock market is very weak as the volatility is so great that you can lose money over 10 years and all the fund managers definition of long term means that their fund may not even last as long as their definition, so I prefer investing in bonds and strong cashflow investments such as EPX (Ethane Pipeline Trust)
Most income funds share the strategy that I follow so it shows that anyone can become a fund manager without having a CFA qualification and beat the market muahahaha
Diversification is also overrated under Finance Theory, however you should diversify if you do not know what you are doing. Investing in the market index via EFT or CFD is also not my thing because I prefer to use my skill and judgement. Also, with corporate bonds, their price follows a predictable pattern and you get the face value at maturity so if you do the maths if you buy in at $106 per bond , the most you can lose is $6 per bond. If the (HLNG) bond pays 11.25%, and the price falls to $98 you still make a positive return in the first year.
I have a trading portfolio and an income portfolio with obviously more capital in the trading portfolio. For Bonds in trading, without pricing the bond, you can just dump the share price data and analyse the ex distribution date (earlier than the distribution payment date) from ASX and see what the bond price did around the time, eg AQNHA went ex dist October and it went up to 107 (abeit only a small parcel) and fell to 104 after the ex dist date, and quickly recovered to 106 within 2 weeks, so you have a small window of opportunity to buy cheap and get the capital gain of $2 per bond which covers the next distribution and then get out and do something better with your cash if you have other opportunities. Of course, you could hold on but then you need to pay attention to interest rate announcements and other crap (I have a full time job) which may not always be possible.
The income portfolio on the other hand, is accumulating high cashflow bonds and investments (EPX is a stapled security) at nice prices. As mentioned above re HLNG, if you are after income, 11.25% is not something you can find everywhere so sometimes you just have to get in and take the capital loss later or sell before the bond matures before the final coupon when price is still high.
Another strategy for income portfolio is to shove all the investments into an account under your wife's name to minimise taxes, assuming she is a stay at home housewife and get her to authorise you to trade on her behalf as the tax savings can be substantial on larger amounts and therefore you have better cashflows which in turn means you can buy at higher prices to get the same after tax return. Who says tax is not a consideration? Only idiots. Obviously, you need to trust your wife ha ha
Local Australian bank stocks used to be thought of as safe investments but their shareprice can also get hammered as seen during the GFC.
http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20121114/pdf/42b64z1bsmrsyj.pdf
Obviously, you gotta have $$$ to make $$$ so consider freeing up your super into a SMSF. If you look at the median return for the "industry super funds" I have bet most of them ha ha The only consideration is the accounting, audit and tax fees you need to pay your accountant. but that should be less than $2k per year.
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While I am talking Australian, it is a shame that the rlsgroup cannot do quicken Australian version. So after trying all the old version of stuff like M$ Money and American versions, I gave up and just used the ANZ online money manager to track my personal expenses. It can import data from all the main Australian Bank accounts (I don't use ANZ for banking) and give you pretty graphs. Its easy to allocate your expenses between categories.
http://www.anz.com/ANZ-moneymanager/default.asp
Acemoney is the only alternative I could find to quicken that did an ok job but its graphs are terrible they have a free version and full version. Free can handle 2 bank accounts if I recall correctly
If you are in fact American, u r f#cking lucky. So many choices and I would recommmend quicken 2013 deluxe over all the other alternatives...here is the m$ money freeware
Money Plus Sunset Deluxe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20738before you jump from the old version to this one, this one is for personal use and not for business. The other old one you can find in torrents is the home and business version, but lets face it, I doubt you need a business version to reconcile you home accounts. If all you need to do is reconcile your accounts, then this US version can do it for Australian users since it can take the Australian date format.
Quicken is really bad because if you try importing any of the formats it is supposed to support, it will import using US dates and force you to change your computer system display to US display. So there you go, For Australian users, either online ANZ, or the m$ money. If you dont like ANZ or have privacy concerns as "data mining" is what every company is doing or needs to do, M$ money has some pretty kewl features like budgeting and has lots of useful reports and its only a 30mb download and it imports Australian bank exported files perfectly. To be honest, excel is the best choice since you can do whatever you like whereever you like and learning new formulae is fun ha ha
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I love my Alienware notebook! It actually tells me whether my SD card is SDXC or SDHC. Looking at the different SD cards I have
a 64gb SDXC 1 class 6 Sandisk Ultra I got a transfer rate of 29 to 33mb/s copying large files from the card to my Alienware 2nd HDD (5400rpm) which compares quite well with the 30mb/s listed on the face of the card.
I then decided to see what the 16gb class 10 SDHC Joyflash card would do. Got around 19mb/s this shows that Joyflash cards are in fact inferior to Sandisk.
Photodex Proshow Producer v5.0.3280 FiNaL
is a nice software I highly recommend because if you are like me and love taking photos or videos, it can give you a lovely slide show with all the transitional effects you can think of (by default there are lots, but you can download style packs which expands the choices available) Its really fun and easy to use without any training needed, but if you need a user guide, here is one:
http://rapidgator.net/file/38447117/progudid.rar.html
I have been so sick this week. So while I have my runny nose and half close eyelids and massive headache, I decided to see what Windows 8 was all about and downloaded a x64 trial version from my favorite site and got pretty good speed between 300kb/s to 800kb/s
MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.8.PROFESSIONAL.RTM.X64.ENGLISH.DVD-WZT
Then I installed VMware Workstation 9.0.0 Build 812388 trial version, which you can get from here:
http://wantivirus7.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/vmware-workstation-804-build-744019-f.html
put in a sn to make it full and then started the installation process.
first googled to see how much space was required (surely not the 60gb which vmware recommends)
x64 (on the DVD 3,6 GB, after installation on the hard disk 12GB +)
So I gave it 25gb so I can install some crap after installing os, chose 2 cores x4 =8
In terms of ram etc there are tonnes of tutorials eg this one
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2241-virtualbox-install-windows-8-a.html
Initially, I made the stupid mistake of mounting the iso using ultraiso, and it would not install, so I went and chose the 2nd option in vmware to install directly from the iso image and it worked (after using the win 8 pro retail sn)
started installing 10.43pm
finished installing 10.59pm
Install time is ok I guess but using windows 8 is another story, boot time is slow
There was a brief slideshow on how to use the new interface but it didnt really go into detail. If you get the mouse to the top of the scrreen you can drag the screen to predefined placeholders. With VMware needed to maximise the screen to fully use the windows 8 OS, I mapped some folders as I had trouble mapping usb in vmware.
Then tested Windows.8.Activator.For.Build.9200.Sep.2012.rar 51.3mb (KJ pirate activator, probably made by a Korean guy as it has Korean language button at the top) and it has permanently activated win8 pro for me. Very easy to use: 1. RUN AS ADMIN
2. CLICK ON INSTALL/UNINSTALL WINDOWS 8
When command Prompt open and Asked to PRESS Y/N JUST PRESS Y AND THAT'S
ALL IT WILL ACTIVATE IT BY ITSELF( IT SHOULD SAY ACTIVATION SUCCESSFUL PRESS OK AND OK AGAIN, AND THEN ON COMMAND PROMPt IT WILL SAY THAT IT WILL RESTART LET IT RESTART BY ITSELF
3. IT WILL THEN RESTART AND Voila ACTIVATED.
There was no need to call m$ or do screw around with command prompts, servers or typing fancy programming stuff, just one click and that was it!
Personally, I think windows 7 is still the way to go as windows 8 is for touchscreen and using the mouse to get anywhere takes forever (a few seconds) eg the top right sidebar does not always come out as you have to be very precise with your mouse movement, (if you are using vmware, it helps to make win 8 run fullscreen) and it apparently forces you to use all M$ email, bing search, skydrive etc, but then again I blocked it from internet. I will unblock it later to see if I can use chrome for browser and gmail for email. I remember there were lawsuits about this crap years ago where m$ lost. Hopefully I can figure out how to use chrome and this will be my next bit of experimenting! Clicking on the tiles makes the os pause for a few seconds when it thinks which is annoying. In relation to the lawsuit, with win 8 you can install other browsers, the only problem is they open up on your desktop as opposed to internet explorer which opens up directly from the tile on the start page... I guess this is an integration issue which hopefully google or firefox's mozilla will fix. ie the tiles for chrome and firefox appear on the start page but the integration is just not there which is a major pain in the butt because i prefer using google chrome since it saves my settings to my google account eg I installed adblock in chrome on my old notebook and when I login, it will install adblock to every other computer I use that I login to chrome
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57508968-93/microsoft-to-comply-with-eu-in-browser-choice-antitrust-probe/
If I am making win 8 sound bad, it really is not as bad as I am making it sound. You need to play around with it for at least half an hour before you get the hang of it without using touchscreen. It is pretty fun learning how to use it too :) After your half an hour, you will find that there are significant "flow" improvements so that you will be more efficient. The Start page is also great because you can see straight away if you have new email or news, local weather by hour etc all on one page and you have the option to going to the conventional desktop, if you desire. I really enjoyed looking at the Travel tile, so many places I want to go to lol. So to put it in once sentence, Windows 8 is really great, much better than Windows 7, once you get around the fact that you dont have a touchscreen monitor and there is a win 8 start page before you can get to your traditional desktop. The win8 start page is useful & fun, and I am sure you will get used to it. When Hardware becomes widely available, I can see it easily superseding windows 7. However, I won't be dual booting to windows 8 anytime soon (i.e. I will keep it in vmware) until I upgrade my hardware in a year or so.
The other positives I could find in my 5 minutes of using it, was that the good old shortcut key Alt+ tab still works in win 8, so if you find yourself stuck on a screen and you want to get to desktop, this is the way to go. The alternative is to drag your mouse cursor to bottom left of screen and get to the start menu which is the first page with all the tiles or if you left click the top left of the screen you can do the same function as alt+tab to cycle through all the open tiles, if you are fast, when the top left area shows up there are edges of other open tabs below so if you pass the mouse cursor over those edges, the left side shows all the open tiles in a column with the start page at the bottom and you can then click on any to go where you want. To close any tile/tab, just right click on the tile that shows up on the left column.
I want to test an antivirus for windows 8. Still doing research. I have grown up using mcafee for decades at home and work so I will start with it....
http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/data-sheets/ds-whats-new-virusscan-enterprise.pdf
Looking at the forums the widely available version ie
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.8 + antispyware with patch 2 FINAL
Ok just tested it, 8.8 would not even install and after my googling, http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/en-US/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Type=Software&Name=McAfee%20VirusScan%20Enterprise&Version=8&Vendor=McAfee&Locale=en
shows it is in fact incompatible.
The irony is that the search link immediately above shows norton antivirus 2005 is actually compatible, how is that even possible. Maybe the users were screwing with the results.
Anyway, some say windows defender is in fact an antivirus in windows 8... it is basically the old m$ security essentials + windows defender in one. To access it, right click on start screen in win 8, choose all apps and it is in the right most column. Click it once will show an interface above your win 8 desktop that looks identical to mSessentials. I was told if you install a 3rd party antivirus, windows defender (win 8 version) will get disabled.
here are some useful links in my research
http://www.eightforums.com/system-security/
then I decided to try another long running favorite, Kaspersky_Antivirus___Internet_Security_2013_Final_bobiras2009
because it was one of the few antivirus that m$ website has got a green tick for win8 as compatible
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/en-US/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Type=Software&Name=Kaspersky%20Anti%20Virus%202013&Version=13&Vendor=Kaspersky%20Lab&Locale=en
So far got kis 2013 to work with win 8 199 days remaining. Updated no problemo. Note the instructions say you can have internet connected and use 2222 (they forgot a 2 in the instructions), but I chose to use the old 1111.....x method offline which worked for me.
After I did a windows update, I decided to try internet explorer 10 and in windows 8 the address bar shows up at the bottom of the screen. There is a difference running internet explorer from the touchscreen main tab and from the desktop...
Nvidia has already got whql windows 8 supported drivers which I will test later to see if i want to use windows 8 for gaming
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This section is very important if you use windows and have a lot of data, whether it be documents, photos etc,so read it carefully. Now we all know computer harddrives will fail on average every 3 years with notebook drives failing sooner (fail = stop working). Even though there is data recovery software out there, most of us would not know how to use them to get our files back.
That is why I buy a new notebook every 2 or 3 years since you can get one that you can do basic stuff for about 500bucks these days. To put things into perspective, I drove through a traffic light when it was orange, then some stupid cyclist who was in the middle of the intersection waiting to cross went before his light was green so I stopped in the intersection and then the red light camera busted me and I had to pay a massive fine of 400 bucks. I don't have the time to go to court and where am I gonna find fucking evidence of the cyclist existing...
Ok back to topic. Most of us do not realise that external harddrives used to back up data such as the Western Digital 1Tb 2'5" USB3 or the 3'5" in a box type versions also fail. When and whether it fails depends on if you are lucky or not. I am very unlucky.
I forgot to mention high capacity USB eg 32gb and 64gb, if you store too much crap on them and with long filepaths eg folders within folders, it will cause the drives to become unstable and fail. I have had lots of people around me saying the same thing. You are best saving your money as high capacity USB are expensive and just buying the smaller capacity when on special eg 2 16gb USB are much cheaper than 1 32gb USB.
However, as I have previously mentioned, you are better off buying sdcards as you can use them on more devices such as cameras and the price of sd cards are almost on par with usb.
Anyway, the purpose of this section is to say this portable software has saved my data numerous times
http://portableappz.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/super-flexible-file-synchronizer-572-en.html
(the link is at the top of the download page, once downloaded it will connect to the internet to download the program files, extract to a folder when done and you can use it. When installed it becomes version 6.05, newest version is called Syncovery or something, but the portable version is full version so you can buy it if you like it, I highly recommend it)
When your external usb hard drive is about to fail, sometimes you can see signs eg when plugged into your computer, it could disconnect itself and reconnect itself frequently, and when it is about to die, it will sporadically show a windows popup that asks you to format the drive (don't click format by mistake, that is what my mother did and she obviously lost all her data).
So once you see the signs your USB backup disk is about to die, create a folder on your harddrive (I prefer to buy a new usb or sd card) use super flexible file synchronizer (SFFS) to use "smart tracking" option to copy the entire contents of the data you need to backup. Obviously, you need to sit at your computer because if your drive keeps disconnecting & reconnecting, you need to continue the backing up as SFFS will give you 2 minutes to continue so you can click yes, but make sure you look before you click as sometimes the format drive windows popup shows up, so you click no for that one.
After you run it once, you need to run it again recursively to check that all the files have been copied over as the USB harddrive disconnections can cause files to be missed, I once had to run SFFS 5 times to get the job done.
You may be asking why not just use windows file manager, well windows wont tell you what has been copied and what has not been copied, it only checks that there is a file with the same file name and date but not check the extra details. SFFS will show you all the details you need before, during and after copying (theres a log). Obviously, once copied, you want to check your most important data to see if it copied correctly eg no data corruption in the excel file.
In short, if you do want a backup drive, buy the big chunky ones that has a real hard drive disk that spins inside, not flash memory as flash memory is very unreliable. The price for 2 64gb usb3 usb, you can buy a big a$$ clunky 3TB external USB harddrive and if you do the maths, you not only get more storage per dollar, but you get a more reliable storage medium. Yes, it might be large and clunky but you are not going to be using the data very often since it is a backup.
In terms of what I do to backup, I back up to a 32gb USB daily using SFFS (includes everything in "my documents" and files from work from my work usb) and weekly backup to a 64gb SD card and fortnightly backup to external "clunky USB harddrive all using SFFS. What you do is up to you and the frequency of you saving important files eg if you have photos you have spent hours over several days photoshopping on your hdd, you can still find the software useful as it can save multiple versions of the same file in the backup destination so you can go back to what you did the previous day if you stuff up :)
Once you try SFFS for backup automation, you will never turn back as you can do 2 way synchronisation and there are a lot of options such as renaming or tracking the destination folder files etc so you can just click a button and go or schedule it to sync at a certain time each day if you really wanted to, and save various profiles. This is especially important if you deal with a lot of financial data.
Obviously sometimes it could actually be your usb port or a particular computer that could be the issue,
eg the western digital USB3 1TB 2'5" external hdd I mentioned above only misbehaved on my alienware but not on my old notebook, even though all my other USB drives functioned perfectly on the Alienware on all USB ports. However, data backup is something you all should do regularly, not when your drive is about to die, as sometimes, it could be too late to be sorry!
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Back to installing appz for my 2yo's Samsung Galaxy tab 2 10.1 :) If you have any good baby game recommendations, drop me a note! I love the free tab tab 4 game from google play. I installed it when I could not sleep during the middle of last night and I started with a Katy Perry song, it sends balls rolling down along with the beat of the music and you have to touch each note just when it gets to the bottom of the screen to get points, if you get enough points you can download another song and continue on. It was so fun and exciting.
Due to lack of time these days, apart from the lunchtime run/ pullups + pushups 2 or 3x a week, I do a lot of training in my bedroom.
I am currently working on v-sits:
http://www.learnmoreparkour.com/e-mail-how-to-do-v-sit.htm
I will try their warmup routine when I feel better later this week:
During my sickness, I checked my old hotmail account and came across some classics film reviews. If you want some kewl action, this classic parkour (and sequel) might do it for you, these guys do stunts that make Jackie Chan stunts look meek in comparison. The first one is directed by Luc Besson...
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5842054/Yamakasi_2001_DVDRip_Xvid_fasamoo_LKRG
and the sequel is way better than the first, it is likened to Ong Bak meets Parkour as the guys go to Thailand for enlightenment and some learn to fight :)
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7345180/Yamakasi_2_(2004)_DVDR(xvid)_NL_Subs_DMT
Both films are in French and my French is not as it used to be so if you are like me and cannot be bothered to look for subtitles, just watch it for the action. The 2nd one does have a plot so you could download a subbed version or your own language versoin eg Spanish version. Here is the imdb for the 2nd one.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345235/
Since I had nothing better to watch, I decided to find all similar movies, this District B13 and sequel are apparently very good and is only 400mb has english subtitles and features Parkour great David Belle and is both are written by Luc Besson who wrote one of the greatest movies of all time - The assassin as well as a bunch of la femme nikkita and transporter movies as well as work on that artistic jet li movie - kiss of the dragon and a nice kidnapping movie called Taken. Worth seeing if you are like me and bedridden with nothing to do
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6920658/District_B13_aka_Banlieue_13_(2004)_720p_BRrip_sujaidr
and sequel which is of course better than the first.
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6921701/District_13_Ultimatum_(2009)_720p_BRrip_sujaidr
Another movie I watched worth mentioning was The.Millionaire.Tour.2012.HDRip.XviD-4PlayHD
about a kidnapping and keeps you interested enough till the end.
OMG, I was catching up with America's Next top Model and ep 2 was this 18yo girl who said she is never getting a bf ever and she is in love with her mom...
prometheus.2012.internal.dvdrip.x264-rawnitro only 400mb great movie
As I have mentioned, I am a die hard Nokia fan.... the new lumia 920 looks interesting
http://reviews.cnet.com/nokia-lumia-920/
"Nokia says its new, improved ClearBlack is good enough to read in the desert or on the beach." I think I might get one when it cums out in Australia as I deserve the best ha ha. The n95 has such a reflective screen. "The Lumia 920's 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, it claims, is the best on the market." Best on the market, I must go test it out when it is in the shops....
A lot of places like facebook have questions like favorite book, and I don't have one, I prefer magazines and my favorite place for magazines is rlslog.net
http://www.rlslog.net/runners-world-usa-october-2012-p2p/
is a great ebook with tips on running and eating for running, eg it has tips like having packets of salt so you ingest it when running to avoid cramping. That was like such a good tip I was wondering why I never thought of it myself. Over here in Australia, it is now Spring and today it was like soooo hot when I was exercising at lunchtime, when Summer cums, you can be sure I will have a packet of salt in my pocket ha ha
When I grow up, I wanna be just like Hannibal for King
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=1Lh63gdRFSs
I just noticed Eastbay has nike free in all black (so you can freerun to work in a suit ha ha)
Nike Free Trainer 7.0 - Men's $99.99
http://www.eastbay.com/product/model:179177/sku:52431100?green=16210576364
and
Nike Free Trainer 5.0 TB - Men's $89.99
http://www.eastbay.com/product/model:176068/sku:11018003?SID=7158
Hopefully by the next time I need work shoes, there will be even more choices :)
Nice spy movie with Sigourney Weaver (the alien lady) and Bruce Willis in The Cold Light Of Day DVDRip XviD-DoNE
Resident.Evil.Retribution.2012.TS.AC3.H264-CRYS very good quality and nice movie
Adopting.Terror.2012.DVDRiP.XViD-TASTE also kept me interested enough to watch from start to finish.
Imaginary Friend 2012 DVDRip Xvid AC3 Legend-Rg is a really kewl movie
The.Ultimate.Fighter.Aus.vs.UK.Smashes.S01E01.19th.Sept.2012.HDTV ok, first fight a bit boring
Stolen 2012 DVDRip XviD AC3 - TODE is sensational, has Nicolas Cage in it great story and interesting plot, lots of action.
Fire with Fire 2012 BRRip x264 AAC-SSN pretty nice action movie with bruce willis
Total Recall 2012 DVDRip x264 AAC-UNiQUE Despite what ppl say, I actually quite enjoyed this, yes initially you would compare it with the original arnold S classic, and the main actor looks like an average joe compared to arnold, but after the first couple of minutes, you get into it and its actually pretty good. Jessica Biel is as pretty as always. Interesting how the robots in movies are always white eg Stormtroopers in star wars, those in irobot etc. The technology conepts in this movie are really good for a sci fi movie. eg for those of us who have good memories, there is a trilogy of movies called "cube" and the way the people were transported in this movie reminded me of that. another example of technology is the cars without wheels using magnetism. I guess this is similar to the new google phone charger nexus 4. Apparently, it uses magnets to convert electricity to magnetic pulse and then back to electricity to charge the phone. ok... Without spoiling it for you, it is one of the best movies I have seen this year.
Since this post is about windows 8, I am planning to buy the google nexus 4 phone (android) due to price but am still not 100% certain because the nokia lumia 920 phone (windows 8 mobile) has a better camera with dual led flash (although both are 8mp). Nexus 4 is selling in Australia via google website later in november ie this month and for only AUD $359 for 8gb, AUD 399 for 16gb, via the google website. Most smartphones cost over AUD 799 on release. I already have a spare point n shoot nikon camera in my backpack so I am thinking I don't need to pay a premium for the phone camera features in the lumia 920 and lumia is dual core vs Nexus 4's quad core. So paying 60% of the price of a lumia 920 (AUD 700) for Nexus 4 is the way to go for me as the technology per $ spent is much higher :) the 920 is also one of the heaviest smartphones. According to Googleplay website, Nexus 4 should be available on 13th November. I just cannot wait. I have never had a smartphone before ha ha. Pity it is not dual sim. These idiot phone makers should put surveys on their sites so they can put in the features people want most, is it that hard? If the shop had the lumia 920, I would go buy it straight away but unfortunately only sites like mobicity have it and i dont trust those sites :p for expensive things i prefer to go and touchy feely it before buying.
However, the Nexus 4's wireless charger is gonna cost extra and price is not available yet. I presume they will charge under AUD 100 for it, so for 16gb nexus 4, the cost can be up to $500.
Nokia also appears to make you pay extra based on the "whats in the box" for the 920
http://www.nokia.com/au-en/products/phone/lumia920/specifications/
Nexus 4 is supposed to have crap battery life due to its quad core processor vs dual core in 920
but then again, I read that the 920's camera sucks up a lot of battery life and cannot take a spare battery.
The Lumia 920 measures in at 130.3mm x 70.8mm x 10.7mm weighing 185 grams, which compares to the Nexus 4 that measures 133.9mm x 68.7 x 9.1mm weighing only 139 grams. And to give you some indication, the nokia n95 which I viewed as heavy, was only 128grams!
Ultimately, for me the decision seems to be about the battery life and camera. You can easily buy a small point and shoot nikon or canon camera that does a better job than the nokia 920 for the price differential between 16gb nexus 4 and the (32gb) lumia 920. If only the motorola razr hd maxx's battery capabilities were featured in the nokia 920, I would then have no hesitation since the reason why I carry a separate camera is due to my phone's battery life shortening when I go on daytrips or bushwalking when i just want to do some happysnaps but then need my phone when I get back to civilisation afterwards at night, but there is no time to charge the battery at any point in between.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/11/google-nexus-4-review-yes-you-want-this-phone/
What really pisses me off, is that these phone companies cannot do something simple like making dual sim available. I hate having to carry 2 phones around as I have a work phone and a personal one.
http://www.booksnreview.com/articles/1601/20121103/google-lg-nexus-4-smartphone-vs-nokia-lumia-920-release-date-features-specs-showdown.htm
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/09/nokia-lumia-920-the-great-windows-phone-hope/
and this article is interesting (which is why some point and shoot cameras have lower megapixel count, yet take better photos. The image sensor size is more important than megapixel count when it comes to megapixels greater than 8 when it comes to taking pretty pictures. These days i rarely have time to take pictures.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/02/reminder-megapixels-dont-matter/
but the 920 does not take such good photos vs peers in daylight
http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/02/nokia-lumia-920-review/
types of 920 chargers
http://www.nokia.com/au-en/products/wireless-charging/
and the lumia 920 takes the best photos vs iphone 5
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/09/26/low-light-shootout-iphone-5-vs-lumia-920-vs-nokia-808-pureview-vs-htc-one-x-vs-galaxy-s-iii/
there were mention of the nokia 808 (41mp camera on old symbian os) being the best mobile phone camera ever invented, so here is a shootout between it and the latest dslr
http://blog.gsmarena.com/nokia-808-pureview-vs-olympus-e-pl2-vs-canon-5d-mark-iii-vs-apple-iphone-4s-38mp-shootout/
Most of my friends told me samsung galaxy s3 is crap because the glass breaks and they all ended up buying iphone 5 instead. But Iphone 5 is like $800 AUD and I have an aversion to apple products since I have had a bad experience. My wife's iphone 3 was bought with a virgin mobile contract years ago, then I decided to stop using the virgin plan after the 2 year contract expired. It took me hours to get it unlocked from virgin starting from calling virgin to upgrading the itunes/iphone to doing restores and backups etc If I get the Nexus 4, I can sync all my contacts to my google account so i wont need to do time consuming backups (yes, I know you can do this with iphone but my wife does not have a gmail account which is why i was pissed off having to waste an entire saturday afternoon with her old iphone, I could have just went and got her a new phone instead lol) The nokia 920 is also supposed to be more sensitive to touchscreen touching than iphone 5. I personally never liked touchscreen in a tiny mobile as you can take forever to touch your way through the menus...
Anyway, technology is improving at a rapid rate, so I am not going to rush out to buy a new phone as there are so many options in the pipeline eg if a nexus 7 comes with a sim card slot, I might even consider that ha ha but if you want technology, as usual Australia is behind the times and doesnt get any of the good phones available overseas...
Droid RAZR Maxx HD is the smartphone with the longest battery life ever created but apparently does not work in Australia and its other features are shit. Its like maybe one day some company will be smart enough to get the best of the best and put it all into one phone. I am sure they can charge a higher price as the features will meet customer expectations :) It is splashproof as well as having kevlar (one of the hardest plastics)
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/09/17/motorola-droid-razr-maxx-hd-for-australia-hope-scrapped/
I might even consider the nokia 820 if it is cheap enough, because the following review says that 920 cannot use spare battery but 820 can, 820 also can have sd card so 8GB + 32gb = 40gb whereas 920 is stuck with the 32gb (and costs a heap more per gb than 820)
http://shootspeak.com/2012/09/07/nokia-lumia-920-vs-820-whats-different/
http://www.nokia.com/au-en/products/phone/lumia820/specifications/
Just to give you how important battery life is to me, for my nokia n95, I bought 3 spare batteries within a year and an extra charger to use at work.
Getting a phone with no phone network is useless so I was investigating the cheapest mobile plans in Australia to use with the google nexus 4, I like the woolworths.com.au mobile as well as TPG.com.au 's mobile plans. I prefer woolworths because it is prepaid, no contract and wont keep charging my credit card (some members of my family talk non-stop so my credit card bill is rather high on my home phone)
I got stuck on Max Payne 3, this walkthrough helped
http://www.gamefront.com/max-payne-3-walkthrough/15/
I love reading computer magazines
http://www.rlslog.net/pc-format-december-2012-p2p/ (mr Big is gud)
and saw this thing called trinity so I was thinking hmm something out of the matrix? so did a google
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5831/amd-trinity-review-a10-4600m-a-new-hope/6
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Ah they bring back my favorite childhood games for 2012 release but half the releases do not work on current hardware even if I try the compatability modes in win 7 x64... the next one is my only hope apart from a bunch of torrents. Have to get each one just to see lol
If you right click on the start screen you can remove tiles or show all apps (programs) to choose the tiles you want on your start screen (right click again and click all apps again to get back to start screen). On the right of the screen in the all appz view, you can see the command prompt and other windows accessories.
I want to test an antivirus for windows 8. Still doing research. I have grown up using mcafee for decades at home and work so I will start with it....
http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/data-sheets/ds-whats-new-virusscan-enterprise.pdf
Looking at the forums the widely available version ie
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.8 + antispyware with patch 2 FINAL
shows it is in fact incompatible.
The irony is that the search link immediately above shows norton antivirus 2005 is actually compatible, how is that even possible. Maybe the users were screwing with the results.
Anyway, some say windows defender is in fact an antivirus in windows 8... it is basically the old m$ security essentials + windows defender in one. To access it, right click on start screen in win 8, choose all apps and it is in the right most column. Click it once will show an interface above your win 8 desktop that looks identical to mSessentials. I was told if you install a 3rd party antivirus, windows defender (win 8 version) will get disabled.
here are some useful links in my research
http://www.eightforums.com/system-security/
then I decided to try another long running favorite, Kaspersky_Antivirus___Internet_Security_2013_Final_bobiras2009
because it was one of the few antivirus that m$ website has got a green tick for win8 as compatible
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/en-US/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Type=Software&Name=Kaspersky%20Anti%20Virus%202013&Version=13&Vendor=Kaspersky%20Lab&Locale=en
So far got kis 2013 to work with win 8 199 days remaining. Updated no problemo. Note the instructions say you can have internet connected and use 2222 (they forgot a 2 in the instructions), but I chose to use the old 1111.....x method offline which worked for me.
After I did a windows update, I decided to try internet explorer 10 and in windows 8 the address bar shows up at the bottom of the screen. There is a difference running internet explorer from the touchscreen main tab and from the desktop...
Nvidia has already got whql windows 8 supported drivers which I will test later to see if i want to use windows 8 for gaming
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This section is very important if you use windows and have a lot of data, whether it be documents, photos etc,so read it carefully. Now we all know computer harddrives will fail on average every 3 years with notebook drives failing sooner (fail = stop working). Even though there is data recovery software out there, most of us would not know how to use them to get our files back.
That is why I buy a new notebook every 2 or 3 years since you can get one that you can do basic stuff for about 500bucks these days. To put things into perspective, I drove through a traffic light when it was orange, then some stupid cyclist who was in the middle of the intersection waiting to cross went before his light was green so I stopped in the intersection and then the red light camera busted me and I had to pay a massive fine of 400 bucks. I don't have the time to go to court and where am I gonna find fucking evidence of the cyclist existing...
Ok back to topic. Most of us do not realise that external harddrives used to back up data such as the Western Digital 1Tb 2'5" USB3 or the 3'5" in a box type versions also fail. When and whether it fails depends on if you are lucky or not. I am very unlucky.
I forgot to mention high capacity USB eg 32gb and 64gb, if you store too much crap on them and with long filepaths eg folders within folders, it will cause the drives to become unstable and fail. I have had lots of people around me saying the same thing. You are best saving your money as high capacity USB are expensive and just buying the smaller capacity when on special eg 2 16gb USB are much cheaper than 1 32gb USB.
However, as I have previously mentioned, you are better off buying sdcards as you can use them on more devices such as cameras and the price of sd cards are almost on par with usb.
Anyway, the purpose of this section is to say this portable software has saved my data numerous times
http://portableappz.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/super-flexible-file-synchronizer-572-en.html
(the link is at the top of the download page, once downloaded it will connect to the internet to download the program files, extract to a folder when done and you can use it. When installed it becomes version 6.05, newest version is called Syncovery or something, but the portable version is full version so you can buy it if you like it, I highly recommend it)
When your external usb hard drive is about to fail, sometimes you can see signs eg when plugged into your computer, it could disconnect itself and reconnect itself frequently, and when it is about to die, it will sporadically show a windows popup that asks you to format the drive (don't click format by mistake, that is what my mother did and she obviously lost all her data).
So once you see the signs your USB backup disk is about to die, create a folder on your harddrive (I prefer to buy a new usb or sd card) use super flexible file synchronizer (SFFS) to use "smart tracking" option to copy the entire contents of the data you need to backup. Obviously, you need to sit at your computer because if your drive keeps disconnecting & reconnecting, you need to continue the backing up as SFFS will give you 2 minutes to continue so you can click yes, but make sure you look before you click as sometimes the format drive windows popup shows up, so you click no for that one.
After you run it once, you need to run it again recursively to check that all the files have been copied over as the USB harddrive disconnections can cause files to be missed, I once had to run SFFS 5 times to get the job done.
You may be asking why not just use windows file manager, well windows wont tell you what has been copied and what has not been copied, it only checks that there is a file with the same file name and date but not check the extra details. SFFS will show you all the details you need before, during and after copying (theres a log). Obviously, once copied, you want to check your most important data to see if it copied correctly eg no data corruption in the excel file.
In short, if you do want a backup drive, buy the big chunky ones that has a real hard drive disk that spins inside, not flash memory as flash memory is very unreliable. The price for 2 64gb usb3 usb, you can buy a big a$$ clunky 3TB external USB harddrive and if you do the maths, you not only get more storage per dollar, but you get a more reliable storage medium. Yes, it might be large and clunky but you are not going to be using the data very often since it is a backup.
In terms of what I do to backup, I back up to a 32gb USB daily using SFFS (includes everything in "my documents" and files from work from my work usb) and weekly backup to a 64gb SD card and fortnightly backup to external "clunky USB harddrive all using SFFS. What you do is up to you and the frequency of you saving important files eg if you have photos you have spent hours over several days photoshopping on your hdd, you can still find the software useful as it can save multiple versions of the same file in the backup destination so you can go back to what you did the previous day if you stuff up :)
Once you try SFFS for backup automation, you will never turn back as you can do 2 way synchronisation and there are a lot of options such as renaming or tracking the destination folder files etc so you can just click a button and go or schedule it to sync at a certain time each day if you really wanted to, and save various profiles. This is especially important if you deal with a lot of financial data.
Obviously sometimes it could actually be your usb port or a particular computer that could be the issue,
eg the western digital USB3 1TB 2'5" external hdd I mentioned above only misbehaved on my alienware but not on my old notebook, even though all my other USB drives functioned perfectly on the Alienware on all USB ports. However, data backup is something you all should do regularly, not when your drive is about to die, as sometimes, it could be too late to be sorry!
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Back to installing appz for my 2yo's Samsung Galaxy tab 2 10.1 :) If you have any good baby game recommendations, drop me a note! I love the free tab tab 4 game from google play. I installed it when I could not sleep during the middle of last night and I started with a Katy Perry song, it sends balls rolling down along with the beat of the music and you have to touch each note just when it gets to the bottom of the screen to get points, if you get enough points you can download another song and continue on. It was so fun and exciting.
Due to lack of time these days, apart from the lunchtime run/ pullups + pushups 2 or 3x a week, I do a lot of training in my bedroom.
I am currently working on v-sits:
http://www.learnmoreparkour.com/e-mail-how-to-do-v-sit.htm
I will try their warmup routine when I feel better later this week:
4MINUTES OF HELL - perform 8 exercises
consecutively for 30 seconds each. Totaling 4 minutes.
Here's a quick example:
Burpees - 30 seconds
Lunges- 30 seconds
QM - 30 seconds
Side Jumps- 30 seconds
Ab Crunches- 30 seconds
Mtn. Climbers- 30 seconds
Stair Jumps- 30 seconds
Push-ups- 30 seconds
During my sickness, I checked my old hotmail account and came across some classics film reviews. If you want some kewl action, this classic parkour (and sequel) might do it for you, these guys do stunts that make Jackie Chan stunts look meek in comparison. The first one is directed by Luc Besson...
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5842054/Yamakasi_2001_DVDRip_Xvid_fasamoo_LKRG
and the sequel is way better than the first, it is likened to Ong Bak meets Parkour as the guys go to Thailand for enlightenment and some learn to fight :)
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7345180/Yamakasi_2_(2004)_DVDR(xvid)_NL_Subs_DMT
Both films are in French and my French is not as it used to be so if you are like me and cannot be bothered to look for subtitles, just watch it for the action. The 2nd one does have a plot so you could download a subbed version or your own language versoin eg Spanish version. Here is the imdb for the 2nd one.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345235/
Since I had nothing better to watch, I decided to find all similar movies, this District B13 and sequel are apparently very good and is only 400mb has english subtitles and features Parkour great David Belle and is both are written by Luc Besson who wrote one of the greatest movies of all time - The assassin as well as a bunch of la femme nikkita and transporter movies as well as work on that artistic jet li movie - kiss of the dragon and a nice kidnapping movie called Taken. Worth seeing if you are like me and bedridden with nothing to do
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6920658/District_B13_aka_Banlieue_13_(2004)_720p_BRrip_sujaidr
and sequel which is of course better than the first.
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6921701/District_13_Ultimatum_(2009)_720p_BRrip_sujaidr
Another movie I watched worth mentioning was The.Millionaire.Tour.2012.HDRip.XviD-4PlayHD
about a kidnapping and keeps you interested enough till the end.
OMG, I was catching up with America's Next top Model and ep 2 was this 18yo girl who said she is never getting a bf ever and she is in love with her mom...
prometheus.2012.internal.dvdrip.x264-rawnitro only 400mb great movie
As I have mentioned, I am a die hard Nokia fan.... the new lumia 920 looks interesting
http://reviews.cnet.com/nokia-lumia-920/
"Nokia says its new, improved ClearBlack is good enough to read in the desert or on the beach." I think I might get one when it cums out in Australia as I deserve the best ha ha. The n95 has such a reflective screen. "The Lumia 920's 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, it claims, is the best on the market." Best on the market, I must go test it out when it is in the shops....
A lot of places like facebook have questions like favorite book, and I don't have one, I prefer magazines and my favorite place for magazines is rlslog.net
http://www.rlslog.net/runners-world-usa-october-2012-p2p/
is a great ebook with tips on running and eating for running, eg it has tips like having packets of salt so you ingest it when running to avoid cramping. That was like such a good tip I was wondering why I never thought of it myself. Over here in Australia, it is now Spring and today it was like soooo hot when I was exercising at lunchtime, when Summer cums, you can be sure I will have a packet of salt in my pocket ha ha
When I grow up, I wanna be just like Hannibal for King
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=1Lh63gdRFSs
I just noticed Eastbay has nike free in all black (so you can freerun to work in a suit ha ha)
Nike Free Trainer 7.0 - Men's $99.99
http://www.eastbay.com/product/model:179177/sku:52431100?green=16210576364
and
Nike Free Trainer 5.0 TB - Men's $89.99
http://www.eastbay.com/product/model:176068/sku:11018003?SID=7158
Hopefully by the next time I need work shoes, there will be even more choices :)
Nice spy movie with Sigourney Weaver (the alien lady) and Bruce Willis in The Cold Light Of Day DVDRip XviD-DoNE
Resident.Evil.Retribution.2012.TS.AC3.H264-CRYS very good quality and nice movie
Adopting.Terror.2012.DVDRiP.XViD-TASTE also kept me interested enough to watch from start to finish.
Imaginary Friend 2012 DVDRip Xvid AC3 Legend-Rg is a really kewl movie
The.Ultimate.Fighter.Aus.vs.UK.Smashes.S01E01.19th.Sept.2012.HDTV ok, first fight a bit boring
Stolen 2012 DVDRip XviD AC3 - TODE is sensational, has Nicolas Cage in it great story and interesting plot, lots of action.
Fire with Fire 2012 BRRip x264 AAC-SSN pretty nice action movie with bruce willis
Total Recall 2012 DVDRip x264 AAC-UNiQUE Despite what ppl say, I actually quite enjoyed this, yes initially you would compare it with the original arnold S classic, and the main actor looks like an average joe compared to arnold, but after the first couple of minutes, you get into it and its actually pretty good. Jessica Biel is as pretty as always. Interesting how the robots in movies are always white eg Stormtroopers in star wars, those in irobot etc. The technology conepts in this movie are really good for a sci fi movie. eg for those of us who have good memories, there is a trilogy of movies called "cube" and the way the people were transported in this movie reminded me of that. another example of technology is the cars without wheels using magnetism. I guess this is similar to the new google phone charger nexus 4. Apparently, it uses magnets to convert electricity to magnetic pulse and then back to electricity to charge the phone. ok... Without spoiling it for you, it is one of the best movies I have seen this year.
Since this post is about windows 8, I am planning to buy the google nexus 4 phone (android) due to price but am still not 100% certain because the nokia lumia 920 phone (windows 8 mobile) has a better camera with dual led flash (although both are 8mp). Nexus 4 is selling in Australia via google website later in november ie this month and for only AUD $359 for 8gb, AUD 399 for 16gb, via the google website. Most smartphones cost over AUD 799 on release. I already have a spare point n shoot nikon camera in my backpack so I am thinking I don't need to pay a premium for the phone camera features in the lumia 920 and lumia is dual core vs Nexus 4's quad core. So paying 60% of the price of a lumia 920 (AUD 700) for Nexus 4 is the way to go for me as the technology per $ spent is much higher :) the 920 is also one of the heaviest smartphones. According to Googleplay website, Nexus 4 should be available on 13th November. I just cannot wait. I have never had a smartphone before ha ha. Pity it is not dual sim. These idiot phone makers should put surveys on their sites so they can put in the features people want most, is it that hard? If the shop had the lumia 920, I would go buy it straight away but unfortunately only sites like mobicity have it and i dont trust those sites :p for expensive things i prefer to go and touchy feely it before buying.
However, the Nexus 4's wireless charger is gonna cost extra and price is not available yet. I presume they will charge under AUD 100 for it, so for 16gb nexus 4, the cost can be up to $500.
Nokia also appears to make you pay extra based on the "whats in the box" for the 920
http://www.nokia.com/au-en/products/phone/lumia920/specifications/
Nexus 4 is supposed to have crap battery life due to its quad core processor vs dual core in 920
but then again, I read that the 920's camera sucks up a lot of battery life and cannot take a spare battery.
The Lumia 920 measures in at 130.3mm x 70.8mm x 10.7mm weighing 185 grams, which compares to the Nexus 4 that measures 133.9mm x 68.7 x 9.1mm weighing only 139 grams. And to give you some indication, the nokia n95 which I viewed as heavy, was only 128grams!
Ultimately, for me the decision seems to be about the battery life and camera. You can easily buy a small point and shoot nikon or canon camera that does a better job than the nokia 920 for the price differential between 16gb nexus 4 and the (32gb) lumia 920. If only the motorola razr hd maxx's battery capabilities were featured in the nokia 920, I would then have no hesitation since the reason why I carry a separate camera is due to my phone's battery life shortening when I go on daytrips or bushwalking when i just want to do some happysnaps but then need my phone when I get back to civilisation afterwards at night, but there is no time to charge the battery at any point in between.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/11/google-nexus-4-review-yes-you-want-this-phone/
What really pisses me off, is that these phone companies cannot do something simple like making dual sim available. I hate having to carry 2 phones around as I have a work phone and a personal one.
http://www.booksnreview.com/articles/1601/20121103/google-lg-nexus-4-smartphone-vs-nokia-lumia-920-release-date-features-specs-showdown.htm
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/09/nokia-lumia-920-the-great-windows-phone-hope/
and this article is interesting (which is why some point and shoot cameras have lower megapixel count, yet take better photos. The image sensor size is more important than megapixel count when it comes to megapixels greater than 8 when it comes to taking pretty pictures. These days i rarely have time to take pictures.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/02/reminder-megapixels-dont-matter/
but the 920 does not take such good photos vs peers in daylight
http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/02/nokia-lumia-920-review/
types of 920 chargers
http://www.nokia.com/au-en/products/wireless-charging/
and the lumia 920 takes the best photos vs iphone 5
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/09/26/low-light-shootout-iphone-5-vs-lumia-920-vs-nokia-808-pureview-vs-htc-one-x-vs-galaxy-s-iii/
there were mention of the nokia 808 (41mp camera on old symbian os) being the best mobile phone camera ever invented, so here is a shootout between it and the latest dslr
http://blog.gsmarena.com/nokia-808-pureview-vs-olympus-e-pl2-vs-canon-5d-mark-iii-vs-apple-iphone-4s-38mp-shootout/
Most of my friends told me samsung galaxy s3 is crap because the glass breaks and they all ended up buying iphone 5 instead. But Iphone 5 is like $800 AUD and I have an aversion to apple products since I have had a bad experience. My wife's iphone 3 was bought with a virgin mobile contract years ago, then I decided to stop using the virgin plan after the 2 year contract expired. It took me hours to get it unlocked from virgin starting from calling virgin to upgrading the itunes/iphone to doing restores and backups etc If I get the Nexus 4, I can sync all my contacts to my google account so i wont need to do time consuming backups (yes, I know you can do this with iphone but my wife does not have a gmail account which is why i was pissed off having to waste an entire saturday afternoon with her old iphone, I could have just went and got her a new phone instead lol) The nokia 920 is also supposed to be more sensitive to touchscreen touching than iphone 5. I personally never liked touchscreen in a tiny mobile as you can take forever to touch your way through the menus...
Anyway, technology is improving at a rapid rate, so I am not going to rush out to buy a new phone as there are so many options in the pipeline eg if a nexus 7 comes with a sim card slot, I might even consider that ha ha but if you want technology, as usual Australia is behind the times and doesnt get any of the good phones available overseas...
Droid RAZR Maxx HD is the smartphone with the longest battery life ever created but apparently does not work in Australia and its other features are shit. Its like maybe one day some company will be smart enough to get the best of the best and put it all into one phone. I am sure they can charge a higher price as the features will meet customer expectations :) It is splashproof as well as having kevlar (one of the hardest plastics)
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/09/17/motorola-droid-razr-maxx-hd-for-australia-hope-scrapped/
I might even consider the nokia 820 if it is cheap enough, because the following review says that 920 cannot use spare battery but 820 can, 820 also can have sd card so 8GB + 32gb = 40gb whereas 920 is stuck with the 32gb (and costs a heap more per gb than 820)
http://shootspeak.com/2012/09/07/nokia-lumia-920-vs-820-whats-different/
http://www.nokia.com/au-en/products/phone/lumia820/specifications/
Just to give you how important battery life is to me, for my nokia n95, I bought 3 spare batteries within a year and an extra charger to use at work.
Getting a phone with no phone network is useless so I was investigating the cheapest mobile plans in Australia to use with the google nexus 4, I like the woolworths.com.au mobile as well as TPG.com.au 's mobile plans. I prefer woolworths because it is prepaid, no contract and wont keep charging my credit card (some members of my family talk non-stop so my credit card bill is rather high on my home phone)
I got stuck on Max Payne 3, this walkthrough helped
http://www.gamefront.com/max-payne-3-walkthrough/15/
I love reading computer magazines
http://www.rlslog.net/pc-format-december-2012-p2p/ (mr Big is gud)
and saw this thing called trinity so I was thinking hmm something out of the matrix? so did a google
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5831/amd-trinity-review-a10-4600m-a-new-hope/6
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Ah they bring back my favorite childhood games for 2012 release but half the releases do not work on current hardware even if I try the compatability modes in win 7 x64... the next one is my only hope apart from a bunch of torrents. Have to get each one just to see lol
http://www.rlslog.net/dungeons-and-dragons-anthology-the-master-collection-v1-0-retail-theta/
Its a massive download so I got it via a torrent
Also, I quite like the GOG versions in torrents because they all work on windows 7 x64 and include all expansion packs which you can find on tpb :) So far I have tried the Baldur's gate, Baldur's gate 2 and Planetscape Torment GOG versions. I will try the neverwinter nights diamond now and just get the old reloaded version of neverwinter nights 2.
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition
I got a 3TB 3'5" toshiba Canvio USB3 for $149 for backing up my massive files :)
Its like a brick but its a bargain considering I only got a WDD 2TB 2'5" for $186 and they both sit on my desk occupying the same surface space. Also, fuking dell still has not fixed the WDD USB 3 inermittant disconnectoin problem on alienware so fuk them I pay for 4 USB 3 ports and none work as advertised, we sufferers should all have a joint lawsuit and sue their misleading and deceptive a$$es off. I got toshiba instead since WDD USB3 don't work
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_402619_Toshiba_3TB_Canvio_35_USB30_Black_Color_HDD_HDWC130AK3J1
Its a massive download so I got it via a torrent
Also, I quite like the GOG versions in torrents because they all work on windows 7 x64 and include all expansion packs which you can find on tpb :) So far I have tried the Baldur's gate, Baldur's gate 2 and Planetscape Torment GOG versions. I will try the neverwinter nights diamond now and just get the old reloaded version of neverwinter nights 2.
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition
I got a 3TB 3'5" toshiba Canvio USB3 for $149 for backing up my massive files :)
Its like a brick but its a bargain considering I only got a WDD 2TB 2'5" for $186 and they both sit on my desk occupying the same surface space. Also, fuking dell still has not fixed the WDD USB 3 inermittant disconnectoin problem on alienware so fuk them I pay for 4 USB 3 ports and none work as advertised, we sufferers should all have a joint lawsuit and sue their misleading and deceptive a$$es off. I got toshiba instead since WDD USB3 don't work
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_402619_Toshiba_3TB_Canvio_35_USB30_Black_Color_HDD_HDWC130AK3J1
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