How to choose a laptop?

HOW TO CHOOSE A LAPTOP

This article is to help those to know what kind of notebook that they need/want or just to enforce what they have already decided.

These days with just RM3,000 for budget of a new laptop, you can get a decent mobility system for document editing, minor imaging, database reference, and definitely capable of watching VCD's and DVD's. And then for those with budget of RM5'000 could probably get a good (better than average) multimedia system, it probably appeals to gamers or those who need a performance to handle their graphics programs. But it is not just about the bargain & stuff, there are a lot of things you need to know about a laptop before you can truly be fully utilizing it.

To Give You An Idea of Mobility:
Mobility, a word that is growing & ever expanding on the horizon of the 21st century. It is without doubt that more & more people are switching from cumbersome desktop to PDA to notebook. This is especially true when more people are using notebooks as a desktop replacement.

Why Not Last Time?
Ages ago, notebooks are expensives and probably heavy and with performance that users would probably better just using it for business applications like documents editing & database referencing. There was no general WiFi or bluetooth available at that time.

Why Now?
With the advancement of technology, notebooks are equiped with better performance that allows user to do multitude of things without straining their 2.0kg +/- mobile unit. Another plus side is notebooks are getting cheaper due to competiition in the market and the plce of technology advancement. With the ever growing WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, and GPS, more people are opting for mobility as the advantages are mountainous. Data transfer are an ease, one touch gateway to the mega-information-highway, a mobile messaging & email center, video conferencing system, and as many people prefers: a multimedia station on the move. Multiumedia Station means music, games, videos at your fingertips wherever whenever you are. Even CEO's would enjoy games once in awhile.

Why Should You Choose A Laptop?
Should you choose a laptop or notebook as your next computer system to replace the non-mobile, and aging platform desktop? you should and here's why...

* with wireless connectivity poping up here and there, you can be connected at almost anywhere & anytime, stay connected with friends from anywhere.
* your personal mobile business center.
* your movable gaming rig.
* being mobile means you can transport your data / collection / media files / photos / to anywhere & can be viewed anytime at your convenience.
you don't have to suffer viewing any files or sites using a small and tiny screen.
the technology in laptop and notebook has almost catch up desktop PC, therefore it won't be lacking in performance in many aspect.
* it is cool to have a laptop, you are part of the future.
* basically, it is an "all-in-one" station. it is a mobile HDD, DVD player, speakers, webcam, and a LCD screen. Definitely won't trouble you with jungle of wires.

What Should Be Consider First?
Budget and Need, these should be yuour first concern & priority. As many in the world of IT, price usually reflects the performance of a notebook and compromization of your need as well. There are notebooks which range from RM2,500 to RM15,000.

Budget of:
RM2,500 to RM3,500 : low performance, good for & as a business tool.
RM3,500 to RM6,000 : probably can get you a decent medium class notebook that can utilize for business to entertainment to gaming without much compromise. Even good for those who are doing graphics or arts or imaging.
RM6,000 and Above : If it were based on cars, example would be like having a Mitsubishi Evo or Toyota Supra and eve more expensives ones like, Ferrari. Pretty High End, probably for someone who intended to have a desktop replacement notebook with the "OmpHH!".

Notebook are not as easy upgradable as a desktop unit so when you are choosing one, don't just choose/grade/based on your current need but as well as the need in the coming future. Surely you wanted to have a notebook that can last for your need at least 2 years or more (if you are a high performance user), right?

A medium to high performer would most probably to have specifications like below:
- Intel Core2 Duo 2.0Ghz , 667Mhz FSB , 4MB L2 Cache
- 1GB DDR2 Ram
- ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 , 256MB Ram
- 80GB SATA Hard Disk

Specifications of a Laptop:
01.0 - CPU (Central Processing Unit)
02.0 - GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)
03.0 - Screen Type
03.1 - Panel Type
03.2 - Color Depth
03.3
03.4
03.5
03.6
03.7
04.0 - Size & Weight
05.0 - RAM
06.0 - HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
07.0 - Optical Drive
08.0 - Battery & Charger
09.0 - Warranty & Service
10.0 - Misc
11.0 - Laptop Brands

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01.0 - CPU (Central Processing Unit)
This is the heart of the laptop. Currently at the time of writting, the best processor to choose from would be the new Intel Core2 Duo as it boast to have lower power consumption & better performance due to 64bit & a dual processor capability.

Intel motherboard usually comes in two type, the Intel 945GM & Intel 945PM. The 945GM is for laptop that uses integrated graphics while the 945PM uses dedicated graphics.

02.0 - GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)
Please visit this page for more details on GPU: click here

An important note, that is Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating systems draws heavily on the graphics subsystem in a computer. Without an adequate graphics card, you won't get the some of the fanciest new features of the interface. Your graphics card should have at least 128MB of dedicated memory - of course 256MB would be the best.

03.0 - Screen Type
The screen size usually comes in a few standard types such as 12", 14", 15", and 17" inches. The bigger is of course better but it also entails a heavy laptop & higher power consumption. But the difference is, consider that a person who used to a PC who have a 17" screen confortably at 1280 x 720 resolution & decided to get a 12" laptop because of weight & size. Now that person who enjoy a 1280x720 resolution have use the same resolution on a smaller screen unless he reduce the resolution which means lesser desktop space for open windows.

Sometimes, you see the laptop being offered with the LCD screen are like Dell Truelife, Acer GridVista, Toshiba TruBright, Compaq BrightView, Sony XBRITE or as most other laptop brands would offer but yet all same from one technology. These few technologies has one much praise with its high-gloss, sharp contrast finish. It is believe that once you have seen this technology with your own eyes, you will not believe the difference it makes. It is even more impressive for DVD and gaming uses.

These technology is recently introduced anti-reflective LCD screen technology (anti-reflective technology). It was initially introduced to the Japanese market in Fujitsu notebook computers in the beginning of 2003 and later brought to the mainstream via Sony’s marketing of its own XBRITE™ brand. This technology was an instant success because of its super crisp images and its vibrant colors. This new anti-reflective technology has sharper contrast (the difference between the deepest black and lightest white pixels), produces clearer and more colorful images, absorbs most external ambient light and has wider viewing angles than traditional notebook screens. All laptop screens have a polarizer which is a thin sheet of film laminated to the outside layer of glass of the laptop screen used to filter light waves produced by the LCD screen to create an image. The difference between a traditional notebook screen and an anti-reflective notebook screen is the type of polarizer film.

The polarizer of a traditional notebook screen has a rough matte finish. This rough matte finish is not visible to the naked eye. The matte finish causes outer ambient light to disperse or reflect off of the traditional polarizer at different angles which reduces the intensity of the glare reflected directly back to the observer’s eye. This ambient light reflection is reduced in intensity due to the diffusion of light, however, the drawback is the reflection shows up as a large hazy object which obstructs the images on the screen. Other side effects include distorted images, a lower contrast ratio, inferior viewing angles, less vibrant colors and eye fatigue.

The polarizer of an anti-reflective screen has a smooth high-gloss finish which has been chemically-treated. The chemically-treated finish of the polarizer reduces the reflection of external ambient light by absorbing much of the external light instead of dispersing it at different angles. Since the external light is mostly absorbed instead of being reflected at different angles, the polarizer does not need a rough matte finish and therefore a smooth finish can provide crisp, brilliant-colored images with the most direct internally derived light from the LCD.

In general, the observer sees light from two light sources: 1) light produced by the LCD itself and 2) external ambient light which is reflected off the surface of the LCD. The objective of an anti-reflective polarizer is to improve the image quality generated by the LCD while minimizing the reflection of external ambient light.

Benefits of such technology:
- Wider viewing angles
- Reduced eye fatigue
- Crisper images
- Sharp contrast
- Brilliant colors

03.1 - Panel Type
Without other than browsing and research on brands and OEM of the LCD panel, you won't know what type they are using to make the LCD panel. There are a few reknowned LCD panel maker, such as:
LP Display (formerly LG.Philips) famous for their S-IPS
AU Optronics (belongs to Acer)
Chimei Vision (CMV, mostly on low cost LCD Panel)
Samsung (Samsung also the OEM for Dell)

The best of all panel class would be for LP Display S-IPS (Super In Plane Switching) for wide viewing angle and 8-bit color depth. Samsung now do produce 8-bit panel as well but using different technology which is just as good as S-IPS.
The hierarchy goes lower with other brand like AU Optronics and so forth...

03.2 - Color Depth
There's something that most people never realized that despite that you can set your graphic card to reproduce 32-bit True Color, your LCD display might not be displaying the complete set of dynamic range. One of the main reason is the HARDWARE LIMITITION; the LCD panel weren't capable at doing that.

LP Display had produced panel with pixels producing 8-bit of color depth, for a long time. Samsung started to do that a few years back for their high-contrast series panel but uses 6-bit for other higher response rate and smaller panel size for budget range (cut edges). Perhaps you might not notice it when u are on ONE panel at a time, if u walk around IT center displaying a myriads of LCD panel that display one single image using monitor splitter would shows you the different in color depth; 8-bit panel looks much more realistic. But mine you, some crappy monitor spillter or loose cable connection leads to bad output on other LCD panel could be a reason why it looks crappy on an 8-bit panel as well...

03.3 - Response Rate, GtG and T,on-T,
'Ghosting' is the type of UNWANTED motion blur you won't want for your LCD during fast paced action gaming or movies. It's more obvious on a moving bright object over a dark background. You may even test it with your mouse cursor in wide over a desktop in pure black and all icons hidden. To counter this product, the LCD panel TFT (thin film transistor, or small switches) that switches the plane of the LCD pixel must perform a good job in switching fast enough (from ON to OFF or partially at an angle for different tone depth).

Basically, the faster it gets, the lesser ghosting will appear but beware, there are some new marketing ploy and standard to benchmark this. In fact, ghosting itself is more than just about switching time. For this, you really should drop by Tomshardware for an indepth review on LCD panel tech on what truly governs ghosting elimination on LCD panel. Say, if the response rate is 12ms, it means 8ms to turn ON, 4ms to turn OFF. Some provides 6ms/6ms ratio. Depends on which brand, panel and setup, it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. However, the best rule of thumb is to test it out at the shop running a battery test like DVD test, gaming test and dead-pixel test. Now there's something new in gauging this panel is Gray-to-Gray. Their notion is that most pixels on the screen will switches from Gray-to-Gray more often than from Pure White to Pure Black. This specification seems to makes their LCD spec looks more nicer, say like GtG at 2ms !!! Wow... that's quick, again, it's different than Black-to-White ways of gauging, but now they show both spec on the box to avoid or to FURTHER confuse customer.

03.4 - Contrast Ratio
This is the part where a nice display and bad display truly outshines. If you are a CRT user prior to this, you would realized that display on the CRT is much more realistic than LCD. This is partially due to the Contrast Ratio of the panel itself. You may percept Contrast Ratio as part of the color depth as well as how much Colors can your panel reproduce to provide equivalent tone of the Real World. At moment, the ACTUAL contrast ratio is governs by the panel bit-depth. but this can be further boosted with smart backlighting and software tweaking which can boost a panel contrast ratio all the way to 2000:1 (LP Display). Well, it definitely looks pleasing to our eyes but mine you, you can't tell the difference until u test it with some LCD calibrator which most of us won't do unless u are a digital photography manipulator where true to life color reproduction is a must. Some latest technology HDTV LCD TV comes with close to 10,000:1 contrast ratio for wide color gamut. A small contrast ratio display gives you flaky, water color-like image output, which will makes u want to change back to CRT.

03.5 - Native Resolution
Unlike CRT, each LCD got its native resolution, say like for an XGA Panel, it comes standard at 1024x768 resolution but this type of spec is too old to be available in the market this days except for 15" panel. If you like a more modern example, take a 15.4" WSXGA, it has a native resolution of 1680x1080. This can pose an issue/problem to buyers whose graphic card are onboard or low performance GPU where outputting 3D graphics at that resolution will gives serious lag and choppy output.

Then when you are thinking of scaling down to 800x600? the image will go small in the middle like a special edition collector stamps in the middle of an LCD screen. Stretching it to the screen size will also make the image becomes so blocky and pixellated. It is a lot worse that CRT. The best alternative is probably to get a decent screen size like 14" or 15" , not burdening your weight but not too small that you need to squint your eyes everytime.

03.6 - Output Ports: D-SUB (VGA), DVI (DVI-D, DVI-A, DVI-I) or HDMI
Now this part is the type of connectors u use to connect your LCD to your GPU. I believe most GPU comes with a DVI connection and a D-Sub output. But take note on the LCD monitor instead. Most comes standard with a D-Sub cable and a D-Sub port but those that comes with both D-Sub and DVI port might not comes with a DVI cable. The cable you might have to provide it yourself.

More so, with DVI cable, you have to option of tweaking the screen settings from the PC rather than pressing the small function button on the monitor panel UI. Also, some LCD though comes with DVI port, it might be a DVI-A (DVI Analog) port, which means it comes in DVI port format but it's still the same old Analog u get from D-Sub. And they don't give you a cable either. Some better brands or latest design now comes with a DVI-I port which is DVI Integrated where both the pins that responsible for Analog output and Digital output both available to the TMDS controller in the LCD panel. Some bigger and wider LCD panel comes with HDMI port that works with GPU with HDMI output to display HDCP content, say from a BluRay or HD-DVD titles. It's marketing gimmick anyway as there are some successful story of those who were able to playback HDCP content with just D-Sub and CRT.

03.7 - Screen Ratio: Widescreen 16:9/16:10 or Normal Aspect Ratio 4:3
This is a question of choice and tradeoffs. Some say Widescreen is SMALLER than NA ratio. That would depends on where you look and how you measure it. Assume that you are having both a 19" NA and 19"WXGA panel at hand. The WXGA at 16:9 or some 16:10 offers more viewable area than the NA counterpart while viewing 16:9 contents by more than 25% area. Turn it back to view NA content, you find that a WXGA panel is capable of displaying content in a PILLAR-BOXED mode where the content is less than NA panel where the area viewable reduced by more than 30%.

Of course, with a widescreen, you may display 2 A4 size document at the same time but at 19" WXGA, the letters might not be legible. If you are viewing a single page at the display width, you find that the number of lines viewable is a lot less and scrolling is more often though the size of the text increases. A normal CRT user will not get use to this scenario. But a widescreen movie experience would be far more enriching than on a 4:3 screen, because more movies comes in that format, no more letter-boxing. For a worthy widescreen upgrade, gets 22" inches and beyond. For comparison, a 22" WXGA panel HEIGHT (panel height) is same as the 19" NA panel HEIGHT. So there's no loss in the vertical plane but an increase in horizontal plane, good for VISTA with lots of Widgets and SideBar.

03.8 - Dead Pixel Policy
This is the part where you weight the laptop on the brand reputation and sales after service. Though most comes with a Zero Dead Pixel warranty, there are those who implement a minimum of 3 dead pixels (Dell, 5 dead pixels policy) to be accountable for a defect and qualifies for warranty exhange in a certain period of time. So you rate it among brands prior to purchase to have a clear understanding on how the policy works in case the LCD that you've tested finally shows it dead pixel later on.

Dead pixel are those pixel which are not able to reproduce color on the panel, which is a defect and makes your nice screen, well, defect. At least a 1 years minimum warranty period is needed for a reputable brand or more. But user feedback is important too. A 3-year warranted brand might not necessary means that they are more inferior to a 5-year warranted brand, the 5-year part might broke down/dead pixel earlier/more often than the 3-year counterpart.

04.0 - Size & Weight
This section is still under construction.

05.0 - RAM
This section is still under construction.

06.0 - HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
This section is still under construction.

07.0 - Optical Drive
Nowdays, most laptop comes with a COMBO drive standard which is a compliments as a CD burner, CD reader, as well as a DVD reader.

It depends on what you really wanted & how will you utilize your data. If you are those who download tons of stuff & fill up your HDD in a flash, then having a DVD Dual Layer Burner will definitely benefit you as you can store 4.5GB of data on a DVD-R that just cost you less than RM2 per DVD-R. It would also help those who use for business that they would like to store data of their daily or monthly sales.

Burning out your data into a DVD-R or CD-R could be said as much more permanent that storing in the HDD asit is known that the HDD has a limited lifespan.

08.0 - Battery & Charger
Laptop battery comes in two forms, the six-cell and nine-cell. The six-cell on normal usage mode can usually last a person 2-3 hours. Normal usage like wifi-on, listening to songs, chatting through the internet. While a nine-cell will probably give you 3-5 hours.

09.0 - Warranty & Service
Warranty is very important, it sort of gives your laptop an insurance cover just in case anything happens. Most brands offer their warranty 1-2 years but the best warranty available is from Dell with its "3 years complete cover" which covers all except fire, theft, loss, and lightning. It is important to read what the laptop brand warranty covers before you make a purchase so you know what it doesn't cover.

Source: MobilityX

How to Improve Your Finances

From Zen Habits by Leo

"Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." - Woody Allen
We had the Parent Hacks earlier this week, and I was thinking it would be fun to do the same with finances — ways to trick yourself, to get around obstacles, to boost your accounts, without it hurting.

Improving your finances improves your happiness, in general, so I thought it would be important to share stuff that's worked for me.

I'm in the best financial shape in my life, despite quitting my job and my wife recently quitting hers too. A lot of that is thanks to you guys, the readers, but it's also thanks to frugality, to eliminating debt, to saving as much as I can. To these hacks.

Here's what works for me — please avoid flaming me, as I'm not saying they'll work for everybody. Share your tips and tricks in the comments!

Use cash. Instead of charging things to credit cards or debit cards, use cash for non-bill spending such as eating out, gas, groceries. Spending cash makes the spending more real, and there's an added advantage of knowing when you're out of cash, instead of spending more than you
Small weekly savings transfers. I got this idea from my friend Trent at The Simple Dollar, who automatically deducts $20 a week from his check to savings. I decided that I could live with $40/week without really feeling it — it's a relatively small transfer that I barely notice, and I save about $2,000 a year on top of my larger bi-weekly savings transfers.

Stay home. Going out makes you more likely to spend unnecessarily. You eat at restaurants, go to the mall, stop at the gas station for snacks. It's hard to avoid spending when you're on the road. Instead, stay home, and find free entertainment. It's also a great way to bond with your family.

Don't get catalogs. Or emailed announcements from companies trying to sell you stuff. Their announcements of sales or cool new products make it very tempting to buy something you don't need. Instead, stop the catalogs and emails from ever getting to you in the first place, and you'll spend less.

Keep a 30-day list. If you have an impulse to buy something you don't absolutely need, put it on a 30-day list. You can't buy anything but necessities — everything else goes on the list, with the date that it's added to the list. When the 30 days are up, you can buy it — but most likely, the strong urge to buy it will be gone, and you can evaluate it more calmly.

Cook at home. I know, it seems more difficult than eating out. But it doesn't have to be hard. Throw together a quick stir-fry with frozen veggies and either boneless chicken or (my favorite) tofu with soy sauce or tamari. Make home-made pizza with a ready-made crust, some sauce, cheese and veggies. Put some spices on something and throw it in the oven while you cook some brown rice. Not only is this much cheaper than eating out, but it's healthier.

Exercise. Staying healthy is the best way to avoid costly medical bills later.
Use the envelope system. It's the same idea as using cash for spending, but in addition you use envelopes to split your spending cash into categories. My non-bills categories are groceries, gas and miscellaneous spending. Three envelopes, and when they're empty, I've spent my allotment.

Talk with your SO weekly. It's important that you and your significant other be on the same page. You should have the same financial goals, and from there you should agree on a general spending plan and a policy for impulse buying that won't have either of you wanting to choke the other. Make sure you both know what bills have been paid, what your balances are, etc. A weekly meeting of just 20 minutes accomplishes that. Communication is key.

The spreadsheet tracker hack. There are expensive programs like MS Money, Quicken, and the like that will do amazing things with your financial information. There are even free ones, on your desktop or online, that can do all kinds of things. Trouble is, I don't need all that. All I want is a way to track my money easily, with no other bells and whistles, and a way to access that online so that I can view it from anywhere. The best way I found to do that is through Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I created a simple spreadsheet to track my bank accounts, that does everything I used to do with MS Money. It has the date of each transaction, the title and amount, a little field for memos, and a running balance. What more do I need? Keep it simple. Update: View a sample I put online here.

Pay savings and debt first. When you sit down to pay your bills (I do them all online), make the first bills you pay be your savings transfer and your debt payments. If not, if you pay them last … you'll often end up shortchanging them. But if you pay them first, you'll make sure you still pay your rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries and gas … so you'll just cut back on other spending.

Exercise at home. Some of you will disagree with me on this, which is OK — everyone should do what works for them. But I've saved a lot of money that I used to spend on gyms by just running at the local track or on the roads in my neighborhood, and buying some simple weights and a chin-up bar. I do a lot of body-weight exercises (pushups, Hindu squats, lunges, pullups, dips, etc.) and I don't need a gym for those things.

Cut out cable TV. I'm not saying I don't watch TV — I watch DVDs, so that I'm sure that what I'm watching is something great, rather than the useless stuff you find on TV most of the time. And there's a lot of it online for free if you look. Not a huge savings, but it adds up.

Declutter. By getting rid of all the excess stuff in your home, you not only make your life much simpler and more peaceful, but you make it harder to buy stuff that will just clutter things up again. Once you've simplified your home, you won't want to go back.

Lend and borrow. Give books and clothes and toys you don't need anymore to your friends and family. If you need something, send out an email asking if anyone has it. Chances are, they'll give it to you for free if they don't use it anymore.
Barter. It's a lost art, but lots of people will take your services or goods instead of money, especially if you're friends or at least know each other. Get into the habit of offering to barter, and you'll find yourself saving a lot of money. My website design was done through the barter system, so I saved well over $1,000 there, for example.

Use online savings. I use Emigrant Direct, but IMG Online is also popular, as are a bunch of other online banks. Not only do you earn like twice the interest of a normal bank savings account, but if you don't get the ATM account it's not as easy to withdraw money … making it less likely that you'll get money out on an impulse. Read more at Get Rich Slowly.

Try frugal gift-giving. Giving people gifts is one of the most wonderful traditions, as it shows generosity and caring. Until it becomes commercialized. Then it's just really really expensive. Instead, try giving the gift of spending time with someone. Try giving them something you baked or made yourself. Try giving them services they'd appreciate. It doesn't have to cost a lot to be generous.

Teach your kids about advertising, saving, earning, and gift-giving. If you have kids, educating them about money will save you a lot of money in the long run. If they know about how advertising influences them in tricky ways, they'll be less likely to demand (OK, beg and plead for) the latest fad toys. If they know about saving and earning money, they'll respect the money that you earn, and that you are trying to save. If they know that gift-giving doesn't have to be about spending a lot of money (see above), they won't necessarily want expensive stuff.

Find happiness in life, not spending. Many times people buy stuff because they think (subconsciously perhaps) that it will bring them happiness. They just HAVE to have the latest gadget or shoes or cars. It's so fun! And yet, you buy that stuff, and you're only happy for a day or two at most. Then you just need to buy more. It's a never-ending cycle. Instead, learn to love life. Find joy in nature! In the people around you! In doing something you love! In exercise and meditation! There's so much in life to make us happy, there's no need to find it in spending.

"I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money." - Pablo Picasso

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