Windows Vista Aero glass sucks up batteries juice

Posted by multippt

Aero Glass is touted as on of Windows Vista’s most wanted feature. Yet, there is a price to pay when you want this feature. It has been found that using Aero Glass on Windows Vista drains out the battery’s juice much more faster than compared to using Windows XP on the same notebook.

However, if Aero Glass is disabled on Windows Vista, the computer actually lasts longer compared to Windows XP using the same battery [unplugged to the mains].

Although Windows Vista has been touted as having better power management, having Aero Glass on doesn’t make this convincing. This probably lies within the defaults, and if the settings were tweaked, the power hog problem won’t become too much of an issue. Microsoft even encourages PC makers to tweak the power settings.

However, Windows Aero Glass doesn’t seem to put too much load on the computer, since even if Aero Glass was disabled, the computer still runs as fast as with Aero Glass active. Thus, the problem could be due to the inefficiency of power management when Windows Vista deals with Aero Glass.

This power hog issue was not something new. The problem was aready apparent during the Windows Vista betas, and while Windows Vista now performs much better compared to it’s historical betas, it still has a long way to go before it can be said as being “more power efficient than before”.

While PC makers would help create power-efficient hardware, Microsoft for it’s part, would release updates and tweaks to improve Windows Vista’s battery life and performances.

Patch Tuesday: Windows Vista 0-day exploit fixed

Posted by multippt

Looks like Windows Vista has a few loopholes of it’s own.

Some of these fixes involves Microsoft Agent, the successor to “Clippy” (the sometimes annoying paperclip), the Client/Server Run-time Subsystem, and some other vulnerabilities.

Microsoft has tagged the update as “important” (one level lower than “critical”).

Deadly Mac OSX update

Posted by multippt

If you happen to be the sort of person who goes all out at getting the latest stuff, you may wish to reconsider the Mac OSX. There were reports of user’s computers crashing after they have installed the latest version of the Mac OS [10.4.9].

The crash would render the user’s computer incapable of doing anything [even shutting down, so if you want to shut down the computer, you may want to pull it's plug]. This crash is known to be only fixable with a reinstall [remember to back-up your notebook!] of the OS.

The actualy cause of the crashing is still not comfirmed yet. Fortunately, this problem does not affect all users.

Via Mac Forums

Is your computer (Windows) Vista “premium” ready?

Posted by multippt

Yes you have heard of Windows Vista, the new generation of Windows that will make its debute next year, 2007. By then, I’m sure you have heard of numerous guides to preparing your computer for Windows Vista. Some of this guides show guidelines to enable your computer to be Windows Vista ready. Of these, some of them go a step further and prepare them to be Windows Vista “premium” ready. However, this guide you are reading is different from those guide. This guide will show you the minimum requirements for your computer to be Windows Vista “Premium” ready, and yes, this means your computer should be able to get those nice Aero glass effects if you follow this guideline.

Processor
Your processor needs to have a processor speed of at least 1.4 GHz (to be safe, though 1.0GHz is the minimum for Windows Vista “premium” ready computers), which is quite common in new computers. However, if your computer have a processor speed lesser than that, chances are, you would need to replace the processor with a more powerful one, or get a new computer.

RAM (Random Access Memory)
Large amounts of RAM is very useful for an operating system that will utilize the computer resources fully (in this case, Windows Vista). 1GB of RAM is recommended. Of course, the more the merrier. 1GB of RAM is quite common in computers available in the market at the moment. In case your computer do not have this amount of RAM in your computer, you can choose to upgrade the RAM (since RAM is the most easiest hardware component of the computer to upgrade compared to the rest).

Graphics
You need a relatively powerful graphics card (specially for Aero glass). A video card with 128MB of graphics memory should be quite adequate for those who have a resolution of 1920 by 1200 and lesser. Video cards such as ATI Radeon 5500 and above, NIVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 and above, and Intel GMA 950 and above should give the much needed memory. However, if your computer screen resolution is as much as 2560 by 1600 may need up to 512MB of video memory. Other than that, your graphics card needs to support DirectX 9.0 (or above, though DirectX 10.0 enabled graphics cards will be available by next year, 2007), video card 3D acceleration, WDDM support, and pixel shader 2.0.

Hard Drive
This shouldn’t be a problem if your computer has at least 15GB of free disk space (for installing Windows Vista). However, it is recommended that you have at least 40GB of total hard disk space.

DVD Drive
This is needed to install Windows Vista, since Windows Vista only ships on DVD.

Dell customer support losing quality?

Posted by multippt

Once upon a time (5 years ago), Dell was known for its relatively good customer support. The company’s name is often associated with high quality computers. Now… its a different story.

I guess you have probably known about the bad publicity Dell recently encountered, especially the part of exploding Dell laptops (now phased as “notebooks”), that sparked worldwide battery replacements? Well, here’s more bad news. It seems that Dell is losing their touch of quality on customer support.

Here’s one story (from software.dev):

The blogger’s coworker recently had problems with his Dell notebook and sent it for repairs. (Of course, notebooks tend to sustain more damage due to mobility compared to desktops.) After sending his notebook in for repairs and waiting it for several weeks, he wondered whether he would ever get his notebook back. The customer support kept telling him that there will be more information on his notebook available. One month have passed since sending in his notebook for repairs, and he wasn’t able to get any information on what is being done to his notebook. He finally got back his notebook, with it coming with a form describing what repairs were done:

“Dear customer, enclosed is your repaired Dell portable. The system was diagnosed and extensively tested by certified technicians to ensure the problem was corrected. We take pride in the quality of service provided and are confident the repair performed has fully restored your portable to working order. …”. Ironically, under comments, it said “Ship(ed) back unrepaired. Thanks!”.

Gee…, thats some customer service.

Now here’s my story:

My father was wishing for an upgrade on his computer, especially full wifi capabilty. Of course, there weren’t any Dell repair centres in Singapore, so Dell sent in repairmen straight to the homes of the consumer (very nice idea). During the first visit, the repairman did the “normal” procedures of installing the modem, upgrading the motherboard, etc. After that, he left. When my father came back from work, he realized that the modem was not installed properly (some driver problem). In addition he realized that the “little button” normally used to automatically put the computer to standby whe the lid is closed was  missing. Furious, he called up to Dell support and request that they fix the new problems. During the second visit (same repair personal), he plied out the covering over where the “little button” I’ve mentioned earlier was. He realized that the little button was jammed, and damaged whatever was beneath it. (Yes same repair person who “fixed” the computer and ended up making it worse.) He ordered a replacement for it (something he should have paid for it). Now back to the modem problem. The repairman was frantically looking for whatever might have gone wrong. He received the “no driver” problem on the modem (Something that I also received but fixed it on my own. Of course, my notebook came from Dell too. On a side note, the repairperson never listened to me, maybe because I’m a little too young to be teaching a “qualified” professional like him.) He looked as if he was puzzled (are repairmen supposed to do that?). 1 hour passed and he still couldn’t figure out the problem. He then requested a reinstall of the operating system. Now then, my father is extremely fed up with this repairman that he thought of requesting Michael Dell (of course, that is too extreme) to fix his notebook. Third visit *sign*, another repairperson came and managed to solve every single problem on my father’s notebook. The scenario lasted for 1.5 weeks, so my father is notebookless (except in office) for 1.5 weeks. And, the best part is… my father ended up paying the repairperson who nearly broke down his working notebook. My father have given up Dell entirely, and we are seeking notebooks and computers from other companies.

Nowadays, its just difficult to find a Dell notebook (maye due to low sales?) in Singapore, especially in Funan IT mall.

Part of this story from software.dev

Windows Vista activation cracked

Posted by multippt

Recently, several hackers have found alternative ways of activating the corporate version of Windows Vista. A file has been distributed online that contains a VMware machine (a virtual machine) which consist of a KMS (Key Management Service) server.

A KMS server is needed to activate copies of Windows Vista (for businesses) to allow the operating system to be used. The official KMS server is usually given to companies that have 25 or more computers running Windows Vista. The copy will need to be reactivated every 6 months in order to continue to use the system.

Of course, please do not use the circulated file to illegally activate a copy of Windows Vista.

Via Yahoo! news