1. Knows what you want — Microsoft has an interactive guide to take you through a quick laptop crash course and recommend a set of PC based on your needs.
2. Test it! — Visit local retailer to see and try the laptop. Don’t be afraid to ask the salesperson. Get an expert friend for advices.
3. See a similar laptop — put similar laptop side by side, you may find that one is clearly superior or better fit for you.
4. Don’t panic about price differences — two laptops can look identical but differ greatly in performance. Check the specifications of two laptops that look the same but vary wildly in price. If the specs match, you might be onto a good deal.
5. Check out the Windows 7 edition — Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate? Compare them here.
6. Ask about the cost of upgrade — for a little extra, you can boost your laptop performance. Usually, it is cheaper to upgrade extra when you buy the laptop. You also might do a little research to make sure you are getting a good deal on the extras.
7. Know what accessories are included — Be sure to ask what’s included, and make sure that everything is in the box. If you need a keyboard, mouse, or cable, you’ll want to get them at the store before you get home and unpack your new laptop.
8. Know your warranty options — Get extended warranty if you think your computer may experience some extra wear and tear.
9. Ask about the return policy — Many stores offer a 14- to 30-day grace period during which you can return a product for a full refund, no questions asked. Some stores will charge a restocking fee, however, so make sure you ask about that too.
10. Switch over from your old computer to your new laptop — you can transfer your data to new computer using Windows Easy Transfer. Are your software compatible with Windows 7? Check at Windows Compatibility Center.

Check out the Best Selling Laptop on Amazon.com.

My two cents

Whenever my friend seek my advice in buying a computer, I will ask them to list out the “must have” and “good to have” features, and their budget. Then, filter laptop models based on the list and budget.

Personally, I don’t care much about the laptop brand and will install more RAM whenever possible.

Over to You

What’s your laptop buying guide? What’s the first thing you will upgrade in a laptop?

How to get free Google Wave invite?

I do not need you to do anything in return for a Google Wave invite. Simply drop me an email to request for Google Wave invite. No more Google Wave invite.

That’s it!

Of course, I would really appreciate if you follow me (@liewcf) on Twitter and/or ReTweet (RT) any articles you like on this blog.

Google Wave invite left: 0

Note: Google Wave invite delivery could be delayed for weeks. Please wait for some time to receive yours.

Edward wrote an email to thank me because an article “Journey to become Pro-Blogger” I published in 2005 has inspired him to become a full-time blogger.

Following my advice to start with part-time blogging, Edward has become a successful blogger after 2 years of hard work.

He is now contributing weekly guest articles for Sin Chew Jit Poh (Malaysia’s most popular Chinese newspaper) on “make money with blogging” column.

Edward also bought himself an Apple Macbook Pro laptop.

My two cents

First of all, I feel glad that an article of mine could inspired a reader and changed his life. It is priceless!

However, I don’t think it is a good idea to quit studies and turn into full-time blogging. You could miss many things which are only available in college: knowledge, fun, friends, life, etc.

As an uncle, I often miss the times when I was in the college. That’s a great memory in your life.

Since Edward has decided to become a full-time blogger, I would suggest him to do part-time studies and get a related certificate (web development).

Yes, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both quit their college studies and still become successful. But we are not living in their time.

Here is my another advice: “Always has a backup plan.”

Over to You

Should one quit studies for full-time blogging? Is MONEY more important than STUDIES? What are your opinions?

The fastest: Jaguar Cray XT5 supercomputer

Do you know that the World’s Top 1 supercomputer in 2004 “only” has a performance of 35.86 teraflops? Jaguar is 50 times faster!

The Jaguar supercomputer has 37,367 six-core AMD Opteron 2.6 GHz processos (not Intel), 300 terabyte of RAM, 10 petabyte of disc space. It runs on custom version of SUSE Linux.

The whole supercomputer setup takes up 409 m&sup2, which is larger than an NBA basketball court!

The computing power of the Jaguar is used by scientists to run simulations of climate changes and effects, supernovas, and a number of other compute-intensive applications.

[via Pingdom]

IF you have access to the world’s fastest supercomputer, what kind of task would you assign to it?

Some of the Amazon.com Black Friday gadget deals: Garmin nuvi 260W GPS navigator only $119.00; Fujufilm FinePix J28 10MP digital camera only $79.99; Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket video camera only $149.99; Samsung SPF-87H 8-inch digital photo frame only $74.99; Canon PIXMA MP490 all-in-one printer only $49.00 and more.

Tip: Know what deals are coming using Black Friday Deals Week calendar.

What will you buy at this year-end holiday? QUN6XU9WTRRQ

This is a guest post by Dwarka Rao from Review Unit, a blog where you can find Reviews and News about Gadgets, Software, Hardware and Web Apps. Please have a look at PC’s PLACE, which. is a blog with amazing tech related stuff, freebies and web apps.

Ensuring the security levels of your computer is the most basic and fundamental task for any computer user. There is an old saying in the Medical Fraternity that “Prevention is better than Cure.” The same applies while you are putting your efforts to protect your computer from malicious attacks. So keeping your computer shielded with a robust antivirus program is the very much necessary.

It has been few days but Windows 7 has already created a great buzz. People are very much in love with this brand new operating system from Microsoft because of its amazingly innovative features. Since Windows 7 is the newest operating system of the current date, users are skeptical about the antivirus programs which can be used to protect their computers powered by Windows 7.

Hackers release numerous viruses, Trojans, rootkits and other malicious program every year. It is nothing less than any unending process. So, computer security experts have already warned people about number of malicious programs which are designed to hamper the performance Windows 7.

I would like to list out the top 5 antivirus programs to protect your machines powered by Windows 7:

1. Kaspersky Antivirus

   
   Are there any users who have not heard about the brand KASPERSKY? I would be surprised and shocked if I find any. Being a huge fan of Kaspersky, I cannot stop myself boasting this incredible computer security company. Many of you would agree to the fact that Kaspersky Antivirus programs are some of the best and robust security programs you have ever come across.

   And the brands launched its new antivirus program compatible on Windows 7 on the very day, when Windows 7 was officially launched. They wanted to ensure that their product is the first one to be opted by the users of this brand new operating system.

   Below are some of the many wondrous features offered by Kaspersky:

   • It provides real time scanning of files, web pages and e-mails.
   • It is attuned to shield Windows 7
   • Protects your Windows 7 powered computer from all kind of dangerous viruses, spyware, phishing attacks and malicious products.
   • Amazing design and look with user friendly graphical user interface.
   • The brand new Kaspersky Toolbar for Internet browsers warns you about infected websites even before visiting them.

   Buy Kaspersky Antivirus now and get discount

2. AVG Antivirus for Windows 7

   AVG is the one of such antivirus programs which is popular among the newbies and advanced users. And the brand new antivirus program designed by AVG is completely compatible on Windows 7. And if you are an avid AVG fan, this is surely a reason to smile, Below are its features:

   • Integration of features like Link Scanner, Web Shield, and AVG Toolbar ensures your system’s protection.
   • The Link Checker feature is an innovative option offered to users which warn the Internet users to stay away from harmful web sites.
   • Does not hamper the computer’s performance while it is functioning in the background.
   • Intuitive graphical user interface, which makes AVG a complete treat.

   Buy AVG antivirus now and get discount

3. AVIRA Antivirus Software

   Like its logo (protective umbrella), the latest version of Avira antivirus program is very much competent to protect your computer running on Windows 7 operating system. It will surely impress you with its user interface, which brings all the options just a click away. Following are the amazing features offered by Avira:

   • It works on a completely updated virus database.
   • Automatically blocks you to visit the infected websites.
   • It offers its FREE version too. Can you ask for something better?
   • Hassle free operation and keeps your computer’s performance while it is operating in the background.

   Download Avira free antivirus

4. AVAST! Windows 7 Anti Virus

   Avast is not an unknown brand in the market of antivirus programs. With the release of Windows 7, Avast has also launched its brand new computer security package compatible for the computers run on Windows 7 operating system. Below are some of its features:

   • Robust protection against all the latest viruses, spywares, Trojans and other malicious programs.
   • Does not consume much of your computer’s resources.
   • User friendly graphical interface and is very easy to use.
   • You can tweak its display settings (for example, changing skins) to complement the ultimate visual effects of Windows 7.

   Buy Avast! antivirus now and get discount

5. Trend Micro Antivirus for Windows 7

   Trend Micro Antivirus is a Japanese computer security firm. And with in no time, they have managed to capture respectable market share in its genre. This inspired Trend Micro to launch their new antivirus program to protect Windows 7 operating systems. Below are its features:

   • A complete security against compute infections like worms, Trojans, viruses and other malicious programs
   • Blocks the infected emails to be viewed on the computer.
   • Its smooth operation allows you to work fluently while it is being operated in the background.

   Buy Trend Micro antivirus now and get discount

This is a guest post. If you would like to contribute too, please contact us.

Panda Cloud Antivirus

Panda Cloud Antivirus is the first FREE cloud-based antivirus. It connects in real-time to PandaLab’s online database for protection against virus and malware.

Therefore, Panda Cloud Antivirus could detect the latest virus faster than the traditional signature-based antivirus.

And, it does NOT need to download updates, because the virus signature database is online!

Installation

Panda Cloud Antivirus is a lightweight antivirus. The download size is only 21.9MB. The installation is very simple, all you need to do is click on the big “ACCEPT and INSTALL” button and you are done.

Install Panda Cloud Antivirus

To launch Panda Cloud Antivirus, you need to sign in your Panda Cloud Antivirus account. You can create your free account here.

Simple user interface

The main window of Panda Cloud Antivirus is very simple. By default, it shows current security status. Beside the Status button, there are only 3 other buttons on the window: Settings, Scan, and Report.

For “Settings”, you can set enable/disable automatic management of possible viruses and send anonymous information to Panda.

Under “Scan”, there is only a big “Quick scan” button to do full system scan, and another smaller button to scan selected folders/files.

Panda Cloud Antivirus – Report

The “Report” shows all the detected threats in the last month, last week, last day, or all.

A small blue color “Recycle Bin” icon is at the bottom right for you to recover a false positive.

Virus scan performance

Panda Cloud Antivirus uses only less than 500KB memory when idle in background. When scanning, it only uses around 8MB of RAM and almost no CPU resource! Very impressive!

Panda Cloud Antivirus – Quick Scan

The first full system Quick Scan took around 23 mins to scan 18,424 files (10GB).

According to PC Mag review, Panda Cloud Antivirus is “extremely effective at keeping malware out of a clean system” but “failed to remove huge amounts of malware traces from threats it detected” (but still better than other free antivirus software).

My two cents

If you do not want to pay for an antivirus software, Panda Cloud Antivirus is the simple, lightweight, effective free antivirus for you.

Recommended by LiewCF!

(Just make sure you install Panda Cloud Antivirus on a clean system, then you would be well protected from most of the future threats.)

Download Panda Cloud Antivirus now

Also, check out Best Selling Anti-Virus Softwares on Amazon.com for great discount prices.

Samsung Star 3G S5603

Specs highlights

Samsung Star 3G is very light and thin. It weights only 96 gram and 12.9mm thick. The 2.8 inch touchscreen has a resolution of 240×320. You see less screen details if compared with other higher-end mobile phones.

Samsung Star 3G screen with widgets

Samsung 3G Star has a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash. Supports bluetooth, FM radio, but no WiFi. Connects to your computer using USB 2.0.

Internal memory has 80MB and support external memory card up to 16GB. The 1000 mAh battery allows up to 3 hours talk time and 300 hours standby time.

Review Samsung Star 3G S5603

Samsung Star 3G is thin, light and the curved design makes it very comfortable to be held in your hand. The phone’s speaker is quite loud but the sound quality is just so-so.

One of the highlighted features of Samsung Star 3G is its touchscreen and widgets. You can a column of widgets at the left hand side of the screen. You can drag a widget and drop it to anywhere you like on the screen.

Samsung Star 3G widgets and multiple screens (3 small square boxes on the bottom of screen)

Like Apple iPhone, Samsung Star 3G has multiple screens. You can have different widgets on each screen. You “swipe” to switch in between the screens.

Sounds cool, right? But it is not the real case.

The touchscreen of Samsung 3G Star is not sensitive. It is slow and lag. It keeps on launching widgets when I only want to switch screen or move a widget..

Click, move, or swipe, you need to do it slowly on Samsung Star 3G.

On the plus side, Samsung Star 3G has a 3.2 megapixel camera with rich camera controls. Many scene modes are available, as well as custom adjustments. Very much like a touchscreen digital camera!

Samsung Star 3G camera scene modes

The overall user interface design of Samsung Star 3G is colorful and cute. Youngsters would probably love it, but not for an uncle like me.

More photos of Samsung Star 3G

Here are more photos of the Samsung Star 3G. Click on each thumbnails to get full size image.

My two cents

Samsung Star 3G is a light, thin, fun, budget touchscreen mobile phone. If you have limited budget but want to have a touchscreen phone, consider this.

Else, I would recommend you to skip this and get a higher-end smartphone.

Pro:
- ligh & thin
- low cost touchscreen mobile phone
- powerful phone camera

Con:
- less sensitive touchscreen
- no wifi

Retail price: MYR$999 (~USD$294)

The Chrome OS image (300MB compressed / 700MB uncompressed) is compiled from the Chromium OS source code (developer preview 0.4.22.8) by Jon Ursenbach (gdgt.com engineer). You can use it in VMware, VirtualBox, and on a USB drive.

Please note that the Chrome OS is still in its VERY early development. It could be very buggy and very limited functionality.

Download it at your own risk! (although it can’t do much harm by running in virtual machine)

For geeks who installed Chrome OS, How is it? What do you like/dislike about Chrome OS? How’s the performance? Super-FAST?

Google Chromium OS (Chrome OS) login screen

Update: I downloaded the Google Chrome OS VMWare image and load it on VMware Fusion (Mac). But I can’t log into the OS because it cannot detect the network connection. A Google Account (Gmail) and Internet connection are required in order to login Google Chrome OS.

Made in Vietnam with 100% virgin pulp, the Google toilet paper is “very long, soft, and smooth” (text on the package). Hey, they even trademarked the word “Google”!

Hmm… I wonder what’s the feeling to have Google on my butt?! Anyone can get it from Vietnam for me?

[style14 via Gizmodo]

The following video tells you “What is Google Chrome OS?” in plain english.

What do you need to know about Google Chrome OS

The Google Chrome OS IS the web browser. It has super fast start-up speed. All applications are web applications, no installation.

The OS has high security to prevent malware and virus. If anything goes wrong, it will reboot and fix itself.

Chrome OS only works with solid-state hard drives and meant for netbooks. It will not install on your notebook.

Update: Now you can download Google Chrome OS for free!

Google Chrome OS screenshots

To satisfy your curiosity, here are some screenshots of Google Chrome OS (by Engadget)

Google Chrome OS application menu

Google Chrome OS file browser

Google Chrome OS app preview like Windows 7

My two cents

Based on the current available information, a netbook with Google Chrome OS is an Internet tablet with fast start-up time and high security.

It is ideal for you who need fast access to Internet or those switch on computer mainly for online activities.

Quote from a YouTube video comment by xDubaRx:

“Its an OS exclusive for Internet addicted people. It will work really great for that kind of people. Useless for developers, designers and/or gamers.”

Over to You

What do you think about the Google Chrome OS? Will you install it? Will you buy a netbook with Chrome OS pre-installed? What features you wish to have in the OS?

Update: Now you can download Google Chrome OS for free!

How Pingtest works?

According to Pingtest.net, the quality of your connection is determined by 3 factors:

1. Packet loss: the success rate of data packets to reach its destination from its source. The less loss the better.
2. Ping: the travel time of a data packet between source and destination. The faster the better.
3. Jitter: the variance in measuring successive ping tests. The less the better.

Pingtest rank the your broadband test result with A to F, where A is the best quality broadband.

Benefit of quality broadband

The better broadband quality, the better performance when you are accessing online stream data such as online video, online music, online gaming.

Pingtest result of my broadband

My broadband connection (TMnet Streamyx) got a Grade C. The Ping time is 92ms, Jitter is 48ms, with no packet loss.

How is your broadband quality? Let’s compare!

It is a beta version, therefore software bugs are expected.

The free Office 2010 download is available now here. Registration is required to get the Office 2010 product key and the downloads.

image: Office 2010 serial key

The free Office 2010 beta included: Word, Powerpoint, Outlook, Excel, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace, and Communicator.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office 2010 are available for downloads. The Office 2010 (English version) download size is 685MB (32-bit) and 750MB (64-bit) respectively.

Office 2010 supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, and Windows 7.

Before you install Office 2010, make sure you have BACKUP your data and UNINSTALL previous version of Microsoft Office before installing Office 2010. To install Office 2010, you need to have at least 3GB of free disk space.

Download free Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

The other two finalists MODx and SilverStripe tied for the first runner up position. (Sorry, first time I heard of them!)

In addition, WordPress also won 2nd place of the Best Open Source PHP CMS Category in 2009 Open Source CMS Award, ahead of Joomla! (3rd place). Drupal won in this category.

Matt, WordPress Co-Founder, wrote about the news, too.

WordPress as CMS?

Personally, I still treat WordPress as a blogging platform and not a CMS. Yes, you can use it as a CMS but it is not a out-of-box CMS script.

What do you think? Do you use WordPress for your CMS site?

Some CMS books for you: Beginning Drupal 7, Joomla! 1.5: A User’s Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website (2nd Edition)
, WordPress: Visual QuickStart Guide

What’s new about Mcfee Antivirus Plus 2010?

• Active Protection — Say good bye to slow dat downloads. New threats will be analyzed and blocked in milliseconds, so you don’t have to wait for regular updates to arrive.
• Quickscan — checks for threats in the areas of your computer that are most often attacked.
• Faster performance — faster startup, shutdown, and scan times. Run silently in the background without slowing down your PC.
• Power optimization — deferring scheduled scans until your notebook is plugged in. Can also be set up to shut down your PC automatically after running antivirus scan to help save energy.

Buy Now! McAfee Antivirus Plus 2010 (3 users) at USD$18.99

But I don’t feel excited at all, even though that I have 2x 24-inch monitors (see my review of Dell 2407WFP 24-inch widescreen UltraShart LCD monitor), which fully support 1080p HD video’s resolution (1920×1080 pixels). Why?

My slow-broadband connection is way too slow to watch online video at HD quality. I even need to wait for buffering when watching YouTube videos at normal quality.

Watching 1080p HD video online is a dream for me now. It took me about 5 minutes to load the 44 seconds YouTube 1080p HD video demo at below:

What’s the big deal about YouTube 1080p HD video?

In short, you enjoy better full-screen high quality of YouTube video.

You could connect your HD LCD TV to your computer and enjoy watching YouTube HD videos on your sofa.

However, before you can enjoy that, you need to have a fast broadband and a monitor/tv that support HD video.

Also, you can upload HD videos taken with your HD camcorder. Currently, YouTube accepts video quality up to 720p.

Can your monitor support 1080p HD video?

If your monitor/TV supports resolution of 1920×1080 pixels then it supports HD video, such as 24″ inch or bigger computer monitors.

If you do not have a monitor/TV that supports HD video, the YouTube 1080p video makes no difference to you (except longer buffer time).

Over to You

Do you feel excited about the news? Do you have the broadband and monitor to support YouTube 1080p HD videos? Do you record video in HD quality?

Check out the great offers of HD 1080p Camcorders on Amazon.com.

[WordPress] 2.8.6 fixes two security problems that can be exploited by registered, logged in users who have posting privileges.

If you blog has untrusted authors, then upgrading to 2.8.6 (download) is recommended.

My blog has only me and my proofreader. I skipped this update. How about you?

I was surprised that some famous anti-virus programs are not in the list, such as: Norton, Mcfee, Trend Micro, F-Secure, and Kaspersky.

Personally, I am on Mac and I don’t need any antivirus app but I installed VirusBarrier for Mac to scan files for virus, so that I don’t spread viruses to my PC friends.

If any PC friend asks me, I would recommend AVG Free Antivirus.

For my younger brother, after testing several antivirus programs, he recommends Kaspersky Anti-virus. “It is a very powerful antivirus program, but sometimes too powerful..”, he comments.

Check out Best Selling Anti-Virus Softwares on Amazon.com and their discount prices.

Over to You

What’s your choice of anti-virus software (both free & paid), and Why?

[image credit: paris_b's twitpic]

Someone spotted this car with the car number plate “WTF1″. Yes, W-T-F. But in this case, it is not the acronym of “What The F*ck?”.

WTF is the prefix 3 letters of current car registration number in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At the time I am writing, the latest car registration number is “WTF2178″.

Meaning, there are now 2,178 WTFs on the road in Malaysia now.

Few years ago, Malaysia’s neighbor, encounter similar car number plate “problem” when S-E-X will be the prefix for their vehicle registration numbers. Then, Singapore banned vowels in the middle of number plates to prevent SEX on Singapore’s road.

If you could get a “fancy” car number plate, what would it be?

In 2006, some paid links market websites like Text Link Ads (TLA) started to grow. Many webmasters/bloggers received easy money by selling paid links on their blog. Me too.

Then, Google started penalizing those websites which buy/sell paid links. I quit selling paid links that time.

However, there are still many websites are buying/selling paid links. Reason because, for advertisers, it is a fast way to improve search engine rank for their selected keywords. For publishers, it is a easy money that does not require you to do anything but only putting a few links on your website.

People ask Google again and again whether the paid link consider as SPAM or not. Google has reconfirmed by replying using their Google Webmaster Twitter account that they are considering links via sites like Text-Link-Ads as SPAM.

“Since we hear this question again and again: Yes we de consider buying links via http://tinyurl.com/39epw3 and similar services as spam.”

The tinyurl URL links to Text Link Ads homepage.

[via Thats SEO]

My two cents

Regardless of you are advertiser or publisher, if you are still with Text Link Ads or similar services, you should quit it now. I believe Google will keep on working an algorithm to detect all the paid links.

Don’t let paid links buriyyour website in search engine results.

Instead of paid links, now you should work on the social media marketing. The social media is the Internet now.

Learn Facebook marketing from the book “Facebook Era” available at Amazon.com.

Over to You

Have you bought/sold paid links before? What do you think of paid links? Should search engines ban it? Do you think Google can detect all the paid links?