PS3 or XBOX 360

As many of us that are into gaming know, Sony's Playstation 3 is on its way and due to make its commercial debut sometime in 2006. From the previews they unveiled at E3 it looked absolutely beautiful. The new "Cell" processors that are being embedded into the system perform stunningly. These "cell" processors are unlike anything ever seen in any computer or video game consoul to date. It combines multiple CPU's and Graphics Processors ,(specifically the new NVIDIA Geforce Ultra GPU series) ( http://www.nvidia.com ). The power claimed to be put out by the new processor is at about ten times current processor speeds. One spec i founde claimed 25.6 gigabytes of memory bandwidth! That means that all the data that could ever be needed at once can easily be handled by the PS3. This could prove very interesting for game developers as they begin to play with the new technology that will be seen inside the PS3. The demos that Sony brought out to show some of the capabilities of the PS3 were unbelievable. All of which were claimed to have been rendered in real time. In many cases, it was hard to comprehend what was being seen because it was just that good.

The PS3 will definitely come feature packed. All the features havn't been finalized yet either. However, one thing that I do know is that the controllers will be wireless and work on Blutooth technology. For the PS3 you can have up to 7 wireless bluetooth controllers connected to the PS3. However, the network capabilities and hard-drive implimentation are still up in the air. Sony claims that making it with the network capabilites that it was supposed to have is too expensive to make with the PS3 at production. This means more money for something that should be standard on the next generation of video game consoles. Again, on the plus side, the PS3 will be able to support two, that's right two, HD monitors. This means you can be playing your game on one screen and be able to do a video conference with another player on the other screen simultaneously. Sony's PSP will also be able to fully communicate with the console using Bluetooth technology. Finally, Sony will be utilizing the new Blu-ray technology instead of DVDs. The Blu-ray technology can a hold around six times the amount of data and also supports HD content. Other features are yet to be finalized but we can only hope that Sony makes a good decision as to what they add with their new system. IGN has the specs on their website. ( http://ps3.ign.com/articles/614/614682p1.html )

The other major competitor in the next generation of video game consoles is Microsoft's XBOX 360. This is the evolution of its current XBOX which is by no means a pretty machine in its own right. Microsoft desigend the XBOX 360 with space in mind it seems. A nice sleek design that looks like it can fit in smaller spaces than it's bulky predecessor. The controller doesn't seem to have changed much, except they are also going with wireless controllers. The complete specs are available from the official XBOX website. ( http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/factsheet.htm )

In a way, it can be very comparable to the PS3, but according to the people in the video game industry, it will not be as powerful as the PS3. However the one thing that microsoft has going for it is that the XBOX 360 will hit the shelves this christmas! That means Micorsoft has a good head start on Sony. The XBOX 360 will indeed be a tough competitor. Some of its online features seem a little unnecessary like selling maps online to other users. Changeable front plates of the system is pretty lame as well. Microsoft is trying to make the XBOX 360 an internet machine. I think they need to focus on the content of their games rather than online features. The fact that you have to still pay for the XBOX Live service is a little annoying. SONY's online play has always been free and is nice as a result. However Microsoft is claiming that there will be a level of XBOX Live content that will be free, but how much is yet to be seen.

Over all it will be interesting to see how the next generation video game consoles turn out and what they will be able to do with it. The technology is brilliant, and as many of us have seen, they can only blow our minds more. If i had to make a choice right now, I'd have to still go with PS3. It may be pricier than the XBOX 360, but Playstation has never disappointed with the amount of games that are available. The quality of games has also been my seller for the PS2 over XBOX. I believe that the PS3 will have a slow start, but will end up dominating the market. I dare not really say it, but some circles say "XBOX 360 = Dreamcast 360". We can only wait in high anticipation and see.

GO LANCE GO!!!!

I know this has nothing to do with technology, but I just thought I would take the time and say:

Congratulations Lance Armstrong on your 7th and final Tour De France victory!

I sat there and watched the last stage sunday and couldn't help but wonder what was going on in his head for most of that. I also couldn't help but marvel at the feat that it was. But the truth was he was in high spirits. He drank champagne on the course with his teammates, and congratulations were coming all around. With a rain soaked road up until the last few laps of the cuircut through the Champs Elysse, Lance had the victory sealed because no one dare try to challange him out of pure respect. His story is definitely one of inspiration. Defeating cancer and then coming back to do the unthinkable feat of 7 straight tour wins is just astonishing. The athleticism, teamwork, skill, and pure determination set lance appart from the rest of the field. This year 18 out of 21 stages with the yellow jersey and winning by 4m 40s. That's absolutely amazing! So I say to Lance Armstrong once again, Congrats on your historic win and thank you for the memories. For a full recap visit OLN's website ( http://www.olntv.com )

The Age Old Battle

For many years I have had numerous amounts of discussions with friends and the like about which type of computer is better: Mac or PC. Each of those discussions wound up very similar. Those that had used Macs for a long period of time were loyal Mac users and defended the Mac to the bitter end. Those like me that had been using PCs forever (namely Windows based computers) will defend PCs to the bitter end stating that PCs are better. However I'm not writing this to try to settle any sort of dispute about which is better. But I will put my little spin on it.
In the very beginnings of the debates I've had, I totally hated Macintosh computers because of a number of things: 1) Its lack of software 2)Didn't have the cool hardware and upgradability that PCs had 3)I didn't like the user interface compared to Windows.
This bias continued for many years until I started realizing that Macs are great for Graphic Design and other high end graphical programs. Since my older brother began doing graphic design work, I started to gain much more respect for Mac, but still preferred Windows based PCs.
Soon however, Apple did something that really grasped my attention. They released OS X, a Unix based operating system that not only looks beautiful, but is feature rich, powerful, stable, and secure. This realization became a major turning point in my view of Macintosh computers. Microsoft was already deep into the world of Windows XP when OS X came out, and this is where a new battle begins. OS X is under constant development which is nice because it means less time before you get major updates and releases of the flagship operating system (Windows being Microsoft's flagship operating system and OS X now being Apple's). Since the release of OS X there have been 3 new releases: Panther, Jaguar, and the current Tiger. The most recent release, Tiger, is absolutely stunning. Since the release of Jaguar, there have been over 200 new features added to Tiger. Microsoft can't even begin to match that! Two that really stand out in my eyes are Expose and Dashboard. Expose is a really cool way to manage your open windows on your desktop. Instead of having a cluttered task bar, expose shrinks the other windows down so you can see each on and then allows you to bring whichever one you want into focus. Still confused? Check out ( http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/expose/ ) Dashboard is the other really cool feature I've seen. It's like having a really easy to use PDA right on your desktop. Now initially that doesn't sound really intriguing. The truth is that it is really useful. "Dashboard is home to widgets: mini-applications that let you perform common tasks and provide you with fast access to information. With a single click, Dashboard appears, complete with widgets that bring you a world of information — real-time weather, stock tickers, flight information and more — instantly. Dashboard disappears just as easily, so you can get back to what you were doing." ( http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/ ) Check the website for full details. These are just two of the many features that are available on OS X. Read about all of these features on apple's website ( Http://www.apple.com/macosx/ )
So at this point some of you might be wondering where I stand on Windows based PCs? The answer is quite simple. I still love my Windows PC and the fact that they are so customizable. However, Microsoft needs to do something better, they need to step it up a notch if they are going want to keep current Windows users using their product. I guess for us Windows users, it is going to be a game of waiting for the release of Microsoft's new flagship operating system, formerly titled "Long Horn", now called Windows Vista. The thing is, that if it is still riddled with the security exploits, holes, and bugs that it's predecessors have had I might just have to switch over to Apple's OS. This becomes even more tempting ever since Apple announced they are switching to Intel based platform for their computers. This means even more power, speed and performance from Apple. This could also spell potential trouble to Microsoft's hold on the computer market. What will happen next? I guess the only thing we can do is wait and see. We can only hope for a brighter looking future.

Peer to Peer Networks

Disclaimer: The following article is going to explain the use of Peer to Peer Networks. Under no circumstances do I condone the use of these networks for illegal purposes. Anyone who attempts to access illegal content does so at their own risk. Please use Peer to Peer Networks responsibly.

Peer to Peer (P2P) networks have become things of huge controversy. Mainly because people have used them to trade files for many years. The most talked about types of files are Movies and MP3s. As of late, the RIAA and MPAA have started cracking down on these peer to peer networks because of the illegal file sharing that was going on. At this point, some may be unaware as to what a Peer to Peer network is. Here is a brief breakdown.

P2P networks are a pretty cool invention. Initially it was networks like Kazaa, Napster, and Morpheus that worked like this: Person A has a file and he shares that with person 1, 2, and 3. Once person 1, 2, and 3 have the file they begin to share the file too. Now 4 people are sharing the file, and as a result the download of these file to subsequent users goes faster because there are more sources for the file. Initially this was a great network. Things were fairly fast and you could get most of anything you could want. But soon these networks became infested with viruses and different forms of spyware/adware and downloads also became excruciatingly slow. Soon a new type of P2P network came about known as Bit Torrent. This was a nice improvement on the already existing P2P structure. The main difference here is that you start by connecting to a specific tracker which is a file on the internet that points you to the actual file and seed. A seed is someone who has the whole file(s). Then you have what is called the leech. They are the people without the file that are just downloading the file. Unlike the older P2P networks, when using Bit Torrent everyone is sharing at the same time. Not only is the Seed sharing, whoever is downloading is also sharing while they are downloading. This results in much faster download speeds. However, soon the Bit Torrent network became clogged and in many cases pretty slow. You can sometimes find pretty good speeds, but there usually has to be quite a bit of seeds for this to work. Of course this really does vary for a few reasons. This will be explained in a second, but first there has to be one thing that has to be understood.

P2P networks are a great tool, especially the Bit Torrent side of things. But most people need to understand that there are much better and more legal uses for Bit Torrent. Bit Torrent is a great way to get out software/media out there to the masses at a much quicker rate. When you download from a fully legal torrent, your speeds tend to be much faster than those on the illegal side. That's why it is a great piece of technology. Large files can be sent at a fairly quick rate and not clog up company servers. My favorite use is to get music from bands that allow live taping at their shows (Phish, Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh and Friend's, String Cheese Incident and more). A great place for this is Etree's Bit Torrent website http://bt.etree.org. As a result, I'm never short of any good music and never have to worry about the RIAA coming after me. In some ways it's a great sigh of releif. Some software manufacturers have also realized the beauty of Bit Torrent and have had that as an option for distributing their programs once purchased. The Linux community has fully embraced the Bit Torrent concept and uses that widely to distribute the different builds of the operating system. For more info visit http://linuxiso.org. The point is that Bit Torrent has great legal uses and is a wonderful technology that more people are starting to embrace.

Of course, there are many people out there that use Bit Torrent for the questionable uses. And one thing that has to always be on their minds is "Who is watching me?". The truth is quite astounding and the Torrent network is being watched quite heavily. But there are ways to prevent them from looking at you. A simple program called Peer Guardian (Http://methlabs.org/projects) can protect you from the prying eyes of the RIAA and MPAA. It's mainly just a question of privacy. Though Peer Guardian may not be 100% effective, it's still a heavy barrier for them to get through and that's sufficient enough for now.

For more information on any of these things talked about in this article, please post any questions in the comments area. And for the Bit Torrent program my favorite, and probably the most popular client is Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net) Finding torrents is something I leave up to you the reader (at least those that deal with questionable).
The main caveats I will bring here is just be careful what you download. Always make sure that your Virus Scanning software is up to date and will scan the file as it is being downloaded. Also, unless you want to take the risk, stay away from the P2P networks especially those of Kazaa, Bear Share, Ares, Emile, etc... It's really not worth it. The technology should be used with caution and care. Other than that. Happy downloading!

The Must Have List

A lot of people think that when they get a computer, what they have on there is what they need. However, what they have on there can have a significant impact on the performance of the PC. We call this Bloatware. Think of it as having just finished a huge thanksgiving dinner and you're so full that moving would be one of the hardest things you can do. Bloatware on a new PC (Like Dell, Compaq, Gateway etc...) can potentially be quite a heavy burden on your PC's processing power and memory usage.
For example, my new PC laptop, a Dell Inspiron 6000, came preloaded with Norton Internet Security, Dell Support, QuickTime and a few other programs that boot up on startup. Norton Internet Security is a system hog. But it can be less of a system hog if you disable some of the features on there that are either A)Not really necessary unless you are ultra paranoid, or B) or just take up more system resources than its worth to have around. On my computer the following is disabled for Norton Internet Security:

1)Personal Firewall: I know, I know, firewalls are good. But Norton's became a pain in the butt after a while, constantly popping up with notifications. Most of the time it is for websites and things that I'm fully aware of what's there (On a side note, I've been known to travel into the depths of the internet that can sometimes be considered "questionable" but I understand the risks and how to protect myself, so I come out fairly squeaky clean).

2)Intrusion Detection: Another interesting choice I know. The truth is it's not really necessary. Again, I found it to be a pain in the butt. If you're doing casual net surfing, you're really not going to need it unless you're ultra paranoid and really want that extra protection.

3)Spyware and Adware: Okay, I know this one sounds really funny, but I personally don't like Norton's Spyware and Adware protection. I'll give another example later in the article.

Other than that, I left everything else on. This definitely cut down on CPU and Memory usage.
Next I opened up MSCONFIG (Done by going Start>Run and then typing msconfig in the box). In MSCONFIG I went under the startup tab and started unchecking some of the boxes in there that I knew weren't necessary to have at startup (again, to conserve CPU and Memory). An easy way to find out what is necessary and what isn't (Which can include detecting some viruses and adware) is to Google the process and I've found that most of them can be found and then determined to be Necessary or unnecessary. (Again, this can sometimes come down to personal preference, but things like the Installshield Updater, or SonicDigitalMedia are not necessary for startup)

But the main point of this article is to express what is necessary to have running on your machine for a more secure computer.
The Simple Tech News List of Must Haves:

1)Virus Protection: An absolute MUST for any computer. I personally prefer McAffee to Norton, but again that's personal preference. On my new computer, I got a free 15 month subscription to Norton so I figured might as well use it while I have it. It's not a bad program by any means, I just feel it is a bigger resource hog that McAffee. There are also a few free alternatives for antivirus software. One is Grisoft's AVG (http://www.grisoft.com/) and the other is Anti Virus Personal Edition (http://www.free-av.com). Both of which are good suitable and free alternatives to virus protection. However, they will definitely not be as good as the major competitors (i.e. Norton, McAfee, PC Cillin, etc...) Case and point, HAVE VIRUS PROTECTION!

2)Adware and Spyware Protection: Another extremely crucial MUST for any computer. Spyware and Adware are the most annoying invention to ever fill the internet. It's one of the number one trouble makers for PCs. There are definitely a number of programs out there that provide protection against Adware and Spyware, and some that claim to do that, but are spyware themselves (a scary ironic twist of things). But there are a few must haves in this section: 1) Hostsman which manages your Hosts file (See previous article titled "The Lonely and Powerful Hosts file"). 2)Microsoft Anti Spyware (Now I know some of you out there might laugh at the slight oxymoronic notion of Microsoft having an anti-spyware software, but bear with me.) Despite the fact that it is Microsoft's fault that all this Spyware and Adware has been able to find its way on to our PCs (many times unknowningly), the least that Microsoft could do was come out with some sort of program for it. Microsoft's current beta of the prorgram is definitely a step in the right direction. It also works pretty damn well. It works in places that sometimes Ad Aware (http://www.lavasoft.de) does not. (don't get me wrong, Ad Aware is still a great program but you got to have the Pro edition for r it to be really effective). Other Programs that fall into this category that are of note are: Ad Aware (See link above), and Spybot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html).

3)Firewall: Yes, this does sound like a contradiction to my previous statement of turning off Norton's firewall. But I did that for good reason. Here is where I would go either way. Firewalls are great at not letting unauthorized connections to your computer, or your computer accessing parts of the internet. However, they can also become a bit of a nuisance constantly popping up whenever you install a new program, or are using a new program. Gaming is one example that you don't notice until it' too late. They constantly pop up when gaming online and most of the time aren't noticed until you exit the game. They also can be a bit of a resource hog. One partial solution is the Hosts manager I talked about in my previous article. Nevertheless for the casual internet browser firewalls are great. The default one that shows up in WIN XP Service Pack 2 is handy, but requires a little configuring before it becomes adequate, I leave this function off. Then there are programs like ZoneAlarm Pro (http://www.zonelabs.com) which is a great solution to firewall programs. Like I said, I tend not to use any of the Firewall programs because I really don't find it necessary for myself. I do still keep myself protected with the other programs and I usually find that sufficient enough. Also, if you are behind a router, the router acts as a small firewall. Despite that. If you are still new to computing and/or don't want to take any risks, a firewall is also a MUST.

4)Mozilla Firefox: Still using Internet Explorer? If you answered yes to this question, STOP! Internet Explorer is garbage. Just because it's the default browser that comes with any computer makes many people initially to believe that it is the best way to go. However, what they don't realize is that Internet Explorer (IE) is full of more holes than your average slice of Swiss Cheese. Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org) is far superior. In fact, Microsoft had to copy some of Mozilla's implementations of pop-up blocking. Firefox also has something IE doesn't called Tabbed Browsing. Tabbed browsing allows for multiple web pages to be contained within the confines of one window. This makes things much less cluttered on your taskbar. Mozilla is also customizable with a number of different tools. These are called Extensions and there are many to chose from. What you install is up to you, but it's really easy to install. Firefox also supports RSS feeds. RSS feeds are a way to keep track of material on some websites. A very key thing about Firefox is that Firefox is Open Source. Meaning anybody can look at the source code and improve on it if they so chose to. Of course the hope is that people share their improvements with the development community. This open source nature allows for constant updates of the browser. This is something that you don't see happen with IE that often. In fact, many months may go by without a single update for IE. Plain and simple: Say yes to Firefox, and No to IE. As I like to say "Friends don't let friends use IE."

These few simple programs can provide a long time of safe browsing and internet use. Remember to always keep your programs updated for maximum protection. Remember, your PC might not ever be 100% secure. The proper protection can definitely help make that in the 90th percentile.

Any Questions? Please submit questions in Comments section along with Email and I will address them as soon as I can.

The Lonely and Powerful Hosts File

Today surfing the internet is a bit like walking blindfolded in a room filled with thumbtacks on the floor (OUCH). Yeah, it can be that bad. On the many computers I've helped fix I've noticed one thing in common. People are constantly getting bombarded with different pop-ups, adware, spyware etc... Despite their use of the programs available, some people seem to keep losing out somehow. (Programs you should have on your computer will be in a later article)
Little do most people know there exists a little file on your computer than can significantly help you block a lot of unwanted traffic. What is this file you ask? It's a hidden little file on your computer called the Hosts file. This file tells your computer what sites are okay to connect to and what sites are not. For example: ads.doubleclick.net is a site that i have seen my computer attempt to connect to many different times. This is a nasty little site that always pops up dumb advertisement windows when you least expect it. A properly configured Hosts file will block this traffic and not allow your computer to connect to it. The small downside is it might slow down the loading of some pages, but it is a small price to pay for not seeing the pop-up ad.
At this point you might be asking yourself, "How do i get a properly configured Hosts file?" The answer is simple there are really 2 ways to do this. For our purposes we will call them the easy way and the hard way. Now to get the hard way explained first.

Warning: The following procedure should be done by people who are fairly comfortable navigating around the Windows file system. Back your original hosts file before you attempt any of this...Just in case.

The Hard Way: The Hosts file is typically found in C:\(Windows Directory)\System32\drivers\etc. (Note: I forgot whether or not it is by default a hidden file, but if memory serves me correctly it isn't. But make sure that under the Windows Explorer (Found in Start>Programs>Accessories) folder options (Found under the tools menu) you have it set to show hidden files and folders) Once you locate the hosts file open it with a test viewer (either Notepad or Wordpad will suffice). The Hosts file will have some instructions on how to add different sites for you to block. You can then proceed to manually input as many sites as you know of to start blocking.

And Now:

The Easy Way: For those that just want a quick an easy solution, there is one out there. It's called Hostsman. A small little program that can keep your hosts file updated and filled with hundreds (if not over a thousand) different websites that are known to show different pop-ups, spread spyware/adware, etc... Hostsman can be found at http://hostsman.abelhadigital.com
It's a really simple program to use. Once you download it, install it and run it. Select the hosts pull down menu and select "Check for Updates". (Note: You must be connected to the internet for the next part of the process to work) The program will now download an updated version of the Hosts file. Once that's done go to the main Hostsman screen and for security purposes click the lock icon to lock your Hosts file. Locking your hosts file will prevent any sites/adware/spyware from altering your file and allowing it to be changed.

You are now protected from connecting to many different web sites. HOWEVER....
If you are using Hostsman you will eventually notice that some sites like music.aol.com, and other fairly common user websites, are on the Hosts list of restricted sites. But unless you are into using some of AOL's services, it's not really a necessary website to have your computer randomly connecting to. In the event that you are trying to connect to a website that is on the list and you know what is going to be found on the website, feel free to alter the Hosts file to suit your needs. Hostsman has a very easy way to edit the file so that you can allow your computer to connect to these sites. A little toying with the program you will find it. It's very easy.
Editing your hosts file isn't a sure-fire way to prevent from getting pop-ups, adware etc... So please do not use the hosts file as your primary defense. However, the hosts file does a pretty darn good job in blocking a lot of unwanted site connections. It's a little known file that can potentially be very powerful. Along with the right combination of software on your computer, you can have a web-friendly computer.

To Be Continued...

Wi-Fi Security

I just got myself a new laptop computer and decided to do a little research about wireless networks in San Jose. Before I left my friend's house I grabbed a free program called Netstumbler (http://www.netstumbler.com) that does what the name suggests; it searches for wireless networks in the area. As Netstumbler finds a network it logs it in a clear easy to understand list complete with SSID (Name of the router), Channel, and whether or not it is encrypted.
Within a quarter mile of my departure I immediately had stumbled across at least 25 different wireless networks. I continued from downtown San Jose towards my neck of the woods in Almaden driving on the free way and eventually wound up driving in my neighborhood doing the same thing. I was surprised that even while driving on the freeway a bunch of wireless networks kept popping up. I don't think I went 100 yds without something popping up. A few of the interesting SSIDs that I ran across were: Best Buy, Geek Squad (a division of Best Buy), and a very interesting one indeed Sj-Free-WiFi. Over all I found 233 wireless networks in a 9.6 mile drive (give or take a mile from me driving around my neighborhood).
The big question is, why is this important? Of those 233 networks I found, 89 of them were unencrypted. That means that pending the right distance, I could have logged into any one of these 89 Wireless Access Points (WAP) and used them for whatever reason (except for those set up by business that know what they are doing). I even went down the street from my house and logged into someone's network and turned on AIM just to do some sort of test. I even surfed the internet and was able to do a bandwidth test to see what kind of connection was being run.
Now, the truth is that seeing all those unencrypted wireless networks scared me a little bit. I realized that it's far to possible for someone to come in and do malicious things under your internet connection, and then they can potentially disappear and leave you to blame for illegal activity. I felt a little guilty for stealing someone's internet and logging on to AIM with it because it was just that easy to do.
The point is that people need to be aware of this. If you have a wireless router, make sure you add WEP encryption to your wireless router. Instructions on how to do this are readily available either in the instruction manual that came with the router, or can be easily found on the net. Set your WEP encryption to either 64 or 128 bit encryption. From there all you have to do is make sure that anyone using your router wirelessly has the WEP key on their computer so they can log into the router. A second and very important thing is to change the password of your router. By default many routers have passwords like: admin, and password set as the default password for the router. This can also be potentially dangerous. Anyone that is aware of these default passwords can have a lot of fun messing with your connections, and can temporarily shut you out of your internet access.
In short, secure yourself and your internet connection. War-driving (the act of driving in a car, and then hijacking someone's wireless internet connection to do illegal activity) is becoming more common today. My little escapade I did at 1am doesn't account for much, but someone with much more malicious intent can do far worse than log into AIM.

*EDIT* July 12th...
Looks like i'm on top of it. I just got my latest issue of Winxpnews (Http://www.winxpnews.com) and it looks like they decided to tackle the issue of wireless security as well. It really makes you realize that this indeed is quite the interesting problem.