Antiguan Government to offer Warez to the World

In a world of ridikulouse announcements, I came across the following article at a tech site. Essentially it states that due to failing Gambling economy in Antigua caused by the United States of America, the Antiguan government is looking to be reimbursed by offering copyright materials online - I'm assuming that this is similar to how warez sites operate.

This has all started when the multi-billion gambling industry was stopped by the United States of America, even after the WTO (World Trade Organisation) stated that the actions by the United States of America violated the free trade agreements.

This would mean that everyone that visits a warez site no longer need to look shady, after all it is being sponsored by a sovereign government. However, this may not be seen as piracy since WTO allowed Antigua to re-coupe $21Mil annually by suspending United State's copyright.


For more information on this, check out this link.

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Unlocked Phones with a Plan - A transparent business model

As you may already be aware, the 26th of January 2012 is the day that ends the "free carrier unlocks" in the USA. So from here on, you could serve time if you attempt to unlock your phone yourself. This marks the end of the 90 day period provided by the Library of Congress, who oversees matters related Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Personally, whenever I purchase a phone I ensure that the phone is unlocked from the carrier, and if it is locked to a carrier I request that for the phone to be unlocked. In my case, I generally purchase the phone and the plan separately.

Firstly, one of the main reasons for this is to ensure that I have the freedom of choosing my carrier when I want and not be tied down by contract. Its all too often you hear about the carriers being slow to re-act in some shape or form, or you find a carrier offering cheaper prices than your plan.

Secondly, having the ability to choose the carrier allows your phone to be used in other countries, without having to use roaming features. Everyone knows that the charges for roaming, calls and data, is daylight robbery. Every time I land in another country, where I plan to spend close to a week, the first thing I do is to get a local sim and notify a bunch of people of new number. When you get a local sim, the operator generally asks you if your phone is unlocked - if it is then you're out of luck and you will need to live with the roaming charges, buy a new phone, or stay off the grid for a while. Most people, first time tourists, do not know the difference between a locked phone and an unlocked phone they normally don't have a need to switch carriers and these are the same people who are disappointed once the realise the limitation in another country.

I personally don't get the point of a carrier locks, essentially it allows a carrier to restrict you to their network only while you are still under contract from them. Some carriers actually unlock your phone if you are on a certain plan (i.e they are able to profit off you), however, the plans which will prevent you from getting an authorised unlock are the ones where you are under the impression that you have a great deal however, there is a risk factor that the carriers are betting on - cheaper outlay price with the thought that you will spend it big with them. This essentially would mean that if they offer an unlock and you start to use another carrier (even if you are under contract) they end up of loosing due to the cheaper outlay price.

This almost feels as though it is shady business, and it may be depending on how you look at it. Although the carriers are not being upfront it really is the responsibility of the consumer to be aware of a deal too good to be true. Next time that you are purchasing a phone on via a plan, ask the sales person if after commencing the plan whether they will unlock the phone for free ? If they agree, you know that they have forecasted the amount of the plan are profiting purely on the monthly charges. If they dis-agree then they are most likely betting that you will consume a lot, and hence will profit from your consumption. You can work this to your advantage if you plan on consuming little, and stick to it.

Hope this helps.

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Keen to build my new computer

Now that I have my monitors sorted out, I'm really keen to get my new computer built. The last time I had upgraded my computer was in 2006, and I've pretty much used the same specs (apart from adding 16 gigs of additional ram and the usual harddrive upgrade), and the PSU upgrade.

However, it just shows that unless there's a dying need to a dual core CPU with adequate amount of ram can still hold it's own after 6 years. In the early 2000, computers were slow a day after you bought the latest one. There was fierce competition between AMD and Intel and in each release they would edge a little ahead from one another.

I think the specs that I have can still carry me through for a another couple of years. I haven't felt that the system is running slow - I even run Virtual Machines with Photoshop etc... and I still feel that this configuration can hold its own. But my dillema, like my previous posts is that I'm upgrading due to the need to build a HTPC.

I can quite easily build a HTPC by itself, but essentially my current computers specs would be quite nice for a HTPC. So, instead of purchasing similar components I thought why not upgrade my current computer and move the current components to the HTPC.

So, as I said above now that the monitors have been purchased I can start acquiring the parts for the computer.

Case
I'm thinking of keeping my current case, which is a thermaltake for the time being. Although it is a thermaltake case, it is one of the heaviest and the most annoying cases. The first annoying thing about the case is that it has a door to access the power button, optical drives etc... often when I need to either start the computer, reset the computer, to turn off the computer, or just to access the optical drives I need to first check if there is anything in front of the door and if there is I need to move it - I often have to move things out of the way.

The second thing that is very annoying with the case is that outside or front usb ports are on top of the case, smack bang in the middle. This essentially renders the case being used as a shelf.

The third annoying thing about the case is that where the front usb is, i.e at the top, also has a case. It was quite flimsy and had broken off the hinge within the first year. Essentially all the inputs pointing up have been slowly collecting dust.

But the case is large, it can accomodate any or most beastly motherboard component configuration. So for this reason, and because I don't really want to chuck out this case on the street reason I'm going to hold on to this case... for the time being.

Motherboard
I've searched long and hard for motherboards between AsRock, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI they all seem to be carrying similar specs to each other. Sometimes each one will bring out some proprietry software to control xyz component on their board - but I run linux and their bundled software is windows only.

So right now, with the thought that this computer is going to essentially carry me through for at least 6 years (considering the last one carried me for 6 years), I need to make sure that whatever motherboard that I choose contains the latest specs of everything - for example USB 3 is now out and over time USB 2 will become a legacy protocol. So over the next 6 years or so, it would be beneficial for me to have as many USB 3 ports as possible.

In the end, I chose the AsRock's Z77 - Extreme 9 for the Intel Chipset. The motherboard looks impressive with:

• 12 USB 3.0 ports (4 at the front, and 8 at the back)
• 6 SATA 3 ports
• Onboard WIFI 802.11 a/b/g/n 
• Onboard Blutooth v4.0
• WI-SB Box (it's essentially two usb front ports and a rack for the SSD, I've also heard that this is where the WIFI/blutooth antenna's are located)

CPU

I was looking to get something that might be a monster of a CPU like a 6 core or an 8 core CPU, but the problem that I ran into was that Intel had only 6 cores and it was trumping AMD with their 8 Cores. 

Regardless, the six core CPU from intel was quite pricey but the overall issue was that the number of motherboards that supported the CPU was very limited in their specs. So I thought I'd stick with an Intel i7 3770 3.4GHz. 

This is a real step up from my dual core, however, I don't think the additional cores will really give me that much advantage since my dual core still feels quite snappy. 

More to Come...

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LG IPS277L : Fantastic Display with limited Inclusions

I was recently working on a number of images and noticed that the color reproduction on my existing 21" Dell monitor, that was purchased over 6 years ago, had started to deteriorate.

After looking through a number of monitors I decided to go for a set of 27" monitors, to keep in line with my dual 21" monitor setup. From the wide array of the available monitors, the non-korean based monitors, I started paying a close attention to the LG IPS277L monitor. The LG IPS227L was on the cheaper side in comparison to some of the competitors - and the main reason apart from the panel looks as though its the better resolution. The LG IPS277L maxes out its resolution at 1920 x 1080.





One of the main things that attracted me to the display was the claim of the "almost" invisible bezel. This may seem like a trivial aspect when you're trying to decide on a monitor, but when you do dual monitor configuration that space in the middle will start to annoy you. On the left is a very attractive image on the LG's website showcasing what seems to be the LG IPS227L - as you can see the monitor is displayed with an extremely thin bezel. This is perfect for a dual monitor setup! But alas this is not the case, while the LG does sport a super thin bezel, there is still a small black strip from where the screen image ends and to the end. If you are thinking of purchasing this monitor, and the size of the edges or the bezel is important to you then you should still consider this mointor since this monitor has one of the smallest edges on the current market for the prize.

There are a couple of things that you should know before purchasing this monitor, and these were some of the complications that I went through.

• The monitor does not support DVI, if you have DVI you need either a DVI to D-SUB converter or a DVI to HDMI converter. LG does not provide these converters, I had decided to go with DVI to HDMI converter since my graphics card had only a DVI output. Plus, it doesn't make sense to go from digital to analog.  
• The monitor contains 2 HDMI (1 MHL) inputs, and also a D-SUB input. LG provides the cabling to connect the computer to the D-SUB port. LG does not provide the HDMI cabling, you will need to purchase this yourself. 
• The monitor supports Headphone output, but it requires sound to travel via the HDMI cabling. However, connecting the HDMI cabling using a converter renders this feature useless. 

After purchasing the additional components I had spent an additional $40 in order to get the monitor  to actually work. Although I do hate it when I purchase something and get bombarded by all sorts of connectors and cabling etc... in this case I was a little annoyed at having to make another trip to the store and purchase more hardware in order to get the monitor to work.

Beyond the technicalities, which you can find at any website - overall I'm extremely happy with the actual monitor. I hope you found this helpful.

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