USB LAN

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I have here a very interesting, very useful and very practical gadget, its a Local Area Network (LAN) device which can be plugged to your Universal Serial Bus (USB) in short its a USB LAN.


This is very usuful for those who have damaged LAN cards or to those who use old computers that needs a bit of upgrade or parts replacements, and its best for those who are not really that knowledgeable when it comes to computer devices plus its cheap, around 250 to 300 bucks or 5 to 6 US dollars.


What you get when you buy one basically are these two items, the USB LAN itself and the CD which contains the driver for the device.



I used an old Compaq Presario which is kinda ancient in the laptop world but the device still works fine. I used it because the laptop doesnt have a LAN card good thing it has a single USB port, i can use a USB hub later, but for now its nice to know that I can connect through the USB LAN. By the way my old laptop doesnt have wifi, and why didnt I just buy a USB wifi device, well even though I have a wifi router its still better to use wired connection, specially for my old laptop.



Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

One of the biggest movies this year Harry Potter and the half blood prince is the sixth movie from the Harry Potter movie franchise based from book of the same title. The movie continues the struggle of Harry against his enemies in the world of magic. I dont really want to tell much about the story as I have not yet made any synopsis of any Harry Potter Movie in my blogs, so I would suggest you read the book or watch the movie since it has an excellent story.

As you would expect from any movie adaptation, there are missing chapters and edited story lines, but I must say the producers of the movie did a good job in keeping things in-line with the book so to speak. Even if there were missing chapters you would not feel as if your having a hard time understanding the story that much, you might feel you don't need to read the actual book (but I suggest you do...). The characters were also great, maybe because they are more mature and more at ease with their characters (they are doing the movie franchise for the sixth time...), seeing them grow is fascinating indeed, from the first movie till this one.

Effects, cinematography and all the stuff that makes the movie is really superbly done, they maintained that quality that was seen on the previous movies. There weren't really that much action as it told in the book but i would have loved the movie even more if more chapters were included the movie. Its like you can watch it for the movie and not just because of the book, it was a balanced film as far as action, story and effects were concerned, in all it was a great movie and my opinion one of the best among the Harry Potter Franchise.

The Notebook Movie Quotes

Friday, July 17, 2009

"The Notebook" a 2004 love story movie about an old couple where the man tells his wife about their story but the wife does not remember anything not even him. The man who never lost hope continues to read their story until one night his wife finally remembers and died sleeping together. I love this movie which I watched together with my girlfriend, despite the condition of his wife, the man persisted on staying with her, I rarely like love stories but this is one of a few films that I liked, maybe because the story was told in a different way or how the story tells how an ideal couple would be in a somewhat realistic society. Here are some of the quotes that I liked:

Noah: I am no one special. Just a common man with common thoughts. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived. I've loved another with all my heart and soul and for me that has always been enough.

Allie: most of the time I have all these thoughts bouncing around in my head, but with a brush in my hand, the world just gets kinda quiet.

Noah: Well thanks doc, but you know what they say, science goes only so far and then comes God.

Anne: 'Cause I might know you a little better than you think. And I don't want you waking up one morning thinking if you'd known everything you might have done something different.

Allie's mother: Sometimes when I'm in the area, I just stop here and I watch him, trying to picture how different my life might have been.

Line from a letter of Noah to Allie: The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that's what you've given me. That's what I'd hoped to give you forever.

How to install NVIDIA graphics driver to Ubuntu 8.10

Thursday, July 16, 2009

After thinking of a way to maximize my U-Box i noticed that Ubunutu 8.10 seem to have a bug on NVIDIA graphics driver, whenever I try to install the driver via hardware drivers. Eventually I managed to install the my graphics driver here is what I did:

  1. Enter the NVIDIA website, www.nvidia.com, go to download drivers and select Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris Drivers under other downloads and support.
  2. Download the driver that suites your harware in my case i used Latest Legacy GPU version (173.14.xx series).
  3. download the driver NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.20.pkg1.run
  4. Press ctrl + alt + f1
  5. supply the username and password if asked.
  6. enter sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop this will stop your x-server in preparation to install the driver
  7. enter sudo sh /path of your package/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.20.pkg1.run
  8. enter sudo reboot
  9. enjoy your ubuntu 8.10!

Nokia 5800 XpresMusic Phone

Sunday, July 12, 2009

The Nokia 5800 XpresMusic Phone dubbed by some as the "iphone killer" is Nokia's almost all touch screen smart phone. Released on the first quarter of 2009, the phone boast both a hand full of features and some shortcommings. A High-end Phone for an above mid-end price is something that would surely entice any gadget lover.

Here is what you get from the box aside from the phone, the stylus, battery and memory isnt in the picture but it is included in the box. I liked the fact that the Nokia gave a lot of stuff included in the box, considering its price, which is not but nor was it that expensive for this type of phone.

You can see at left side are two slots one is for hot swapping of memory cards ( the phone includes an 8GB memory card, very nice....) and the other is for the SIM card, although unlike the memory card you can only insert it in this fashion if you want to pull it out, you need to remove the battery. The slot of the SIM card slot in my opinion isnt really necessary, why put it in that fashion if you cant use it that way? This is also the location of the speakers which is the best (quality wise) I have heard so far, its also pretty loud and despite its loudness sounds played are still clear.

Here is a view on top, almost all external connection are made here, which include, 35mm audio jack, charger slot, USB slot and power switch. I findit convinient that all these connections are placed here,it just made the phone look neat even you connect the USB cable and power jack in. Nokia also made good adding the 35mm Jack since it allows users to use their standard headset. You cant however, charge via USB, dunno why they didnt inlcude that feature, it would have been great to have that included.


The right side of the phone has the volume control, keypad lock and the camera button, these buttons are conviniently placed for easy access.

The back is where you find your 3.15 Mega Pixel Camera (why didnt Nokia used a 5MP camera?..) also you'll find your stylus which is again placed nicely.


The phone uses symbia S60 Operating System and runs beautifully except for a few instances of lags and slow responses, its very much acceptable. The phone works like any phone the only difference is that its obviously a touch screen device. Nokia also gave its users options on entering text either qwerty or alphanumeric and even a hand writing feature. It also has Wifi and bluetooth so you stay connected if there is an available network. The device also has an accelerometer which allows the screen to change based on how you hold the phone, this can breed softwares that can be very entertaining, Nokia made a sample of this with their racing game, where you need to steer the phone to steer the car, neat! GPS is also included and with its ultra wide screen, im sure you wont loose your way.

I liked the phone, it has a stirdy well developed design combined with Nokia's Symbian Operating System. I think Nokia could have made it better though, but I guess in order to compete with the market they just cut short a few of the features that they could have put in.



Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Thursday, July 2, 2009


Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the sequel to the first movie released in 2007. Just by watching the trailer you would know that this was a movie to watch in the silver screen. It tells about the story when the decepticons return to Earth first to revive Megatron leader of the decepticons and to fulfill the revenge of the Fallen. The fallen is said to be one of the oldest transformers who visited Earth, alongside with other Primes with the goal to harvest the Sun. The Fallen made a Sun Harvester despite the disagreement of other primes since they saw early humans living in Earth. The other primes stopped the Fallen by hidding the Matrix of Leadership the key to the Sun Harvester.

Present day, Sam found a shard of the all spark and receives some of its energy and knowledge. Hunted by the decepticons he is evtually helped by his autobot buddy bumble bee and his girl friend Mikaela, Optimus Prime also came to the rescue but was killed in the process by Megatron. After learning of the meaning of the symbols Sam has seen since he found the shard he goes to Egypt and after a heavy strugle revives Optimus Prime kills the Fallen and Megatron retreats.

The movie is one of the best I have seen and really keeps you on your seat, effects were spectacullar and they introduced new transformers into the movie from the original Cartoon. There are several inconsistencies with the movie but I really didn't watch the movie and expect things to be "that" realistic, as long as I am entertained and kept me in my seat then its a good movie for me. Words cant describe what they have done with the movie, it was money well spent.

 
 
 
 
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