The Tak Team Blog

Just a time ago it seemed like gaming notebooks were only being built by a handful of certain resellers and were built to spec, not produced in massive numbers. They were tiny volume sellers and giant turnover generating notebooks. Regardless of that everyone most likely wanted one. In my perspective they were the best laptops about. They would create loads of buzz but I do not think lots of buyers would go out and buy laptops at steep prices. Lately it looks likes larger companies are all getting into the market really rapidly and things are shifting.

These are unquestionably big margin notebooks for the big manufacturers and they are aware of that. It is a great chance for them to get back gross margins as the margins on normal notebooks are so tiny these days. Little companies not able compete with them in swaying potential purchasers to buy laptops. I reckon littler system builders are really disturbed regarding this. Now consumers will have much more options it makes it challenging for the small retailers. People just feel a lot more at ease making a major purchase from an established name. The notebooks are surprisingly very good as well. I still think that local system builders will obtain meaningful support from this. I reckon people that buy these kinds of notebooks prefer to be able to customize their system. Usually a lot of comparisons of the specs will be done and the techies can say what the superior notebook actually is. For consumers of this sort, how well it performs typically is of greater importance than how it looks.

Certainly from the purchasers position, its a good trend. The battle between the large brands should force prices down as they try to differentiate from each other. I’m not actually sure any of that would occur however. The best laptops are usually going to be pricey to be honest. I reckon we will have to see if this saturation makes any significant positives for the market.

I reckon this place (http://www.rizeon.com) are quite cheap for the specifications they are offering.

Its senseless that laptop computers are now becoming a common gadget, as if you should own one. Taiwan, which is the main manufacturing country of laptops is struggling with the demand at present. Its actually amazing that credit issues and all haven’t dented this demand for laptop computers either. The technology loops are so tiny too which makes it all the more harder.

One of the popular trends is gaming notebooks. These days you get a lot more for your money because the latest tech is always poised to be released. For those who desire portability, the performance notebooks offer in relation to playing games shouldn’t be frowned upon much longer as power is improved. With the newly discovered performance also came along more thinner casing. Still there is a vast gap between the power of notebooks and desktop pcs however desktops are more spacious to provide for special cooling and such things that all help. It will be intriguing to see what gaming notebooks come out in the future and how small they can manufacture them.

I feel demand for custom notebooks will always be about. The benefit with a handful of custom notebooks is that you get better after market components fitted in them. Certain market benefit because they only have buy what they require. The vast amount of laptop computers are made for the moderate consumer which means you may not find what you’re searching for. Custom built notebooks serve everyone despite their particular requirements. Just like preconfigured notebooks there are plenty of resellers offering custom notebooks all with a different benefit or improved customer sevice. To me this is a massive plus.

I can’t wait to see what laptop computers come out next. MiD’s seem to be a growing segment right now. Tons of similar devices have already been released at a rapid speed. I feel the market would prefer to see larger notebooks that weigh a lot less than the current units. If we overlook processing speed I’m sure we would see those versions of notebooks today. I’m guessing how long before we see gaming ultra mobiles. What will come next? Your guess is as good as mine.

For the price Rizeon are the best reseller to buy laptops from.

The Very Large Array in New Mexico, which debuted in the movie “Contact”, has been listening into space for many decades now. It is quite incredible and can pick up the most sensitive of sounds from the deep of space. If you ever get a chance to visit the VLA in NM on HWY 60 you will be amazed at the incredible abilities of the SETI Project and the many important discoveries the VLA has made using the radio telescopes.

http://www.carwashguys.com/tour_magdalena.shtml

As new technology advances the abilities of the VLA is not as impressive as it once was, but this engineering feat is proof positive of mankind’s resolve to press on. Today we are launching many spy satellites, some of these are micro satellites the size of beach balls and basket balls which can snoop and listen to Earth. If we put a VLA on the moon we could potentially listen to every world conversation here on Earth during the night. We would not need to take these huge telescopes to the Moon; we could use the newest micro-scale technologies thanks to innovators of our present period and the driving force and theories behind “Moore’s Law.”

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/Moores_Law.html

It will be easy to weed out certain sounds of machines, power plants, TVs, radios from that of conversations of the human voice. The human voice has a specific pattern to it unlike any other. The NSA has done incredible studies and has learned through trial and error the idiosyncrasies of human speech patterns. We can now listen to a cell phone conversation, take out background voice and determine through voice inflection the state of mind of the individual at the time and even who is talking based on algorithm searching of previously recorded discussions and patterns of the individual. For instance Osama Bin Laden on his portable satellite phone is easily distinguishable from any other.

A VLA-Very Large Array on the Moon pointed towards Earth could pick up all the world’s conversations. By placing these conversations in a massive database (100s of teraflops) and using random searching and algorithms in XML datasets and similar tactics presently under consideration from the DOD and being funded by In-Q-Tel in Silicon Valley we can have all the Intel we could ever need.

http://www.in-q-tel.com/news/attachments/A…on-04-29-04.ppt

This could also be done by an array of laser aligned satellites pointed down towards earth in Geo-Sync or low level satellites, however one has to worry about the wobble of the planet, solar flares and possible detection and attack in a Star Wars scenario from potential adversaries. The moon provides a very stable platform so stable in fact if you did not mind the one-second delay going each way you could put reflective mirrors on the moon and leave the equipment here on earth? We currently have technologies to do this, as well technologies to listen thru glass, rock, water and buildings.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

In 1950, a chiropractor from America named Bernard Jensen began teaching students about the necessity of using natural foods to detoxify the body. He developed a method by which the color of the iris was used to indicate the presence of different toxins. American iridology was born.

However, iridology, or the study of disease using the color of the iris and certain color and thickness of lines across the eyeball originated in Europe, when a physician from Hungary and a Swedish pastor both noticed iris markings in connection with disease.

The physician-Ignatz von Peczely accidentally injured an owl as a child, breaking its leg. While nursing the owl back to health, the young von Peczely noticed that the thick black mark that appeared in the owl’s eye after the injury began to lessen as the owl healed. He never forgot it, and as an adult practicing his profession, he recoded that patients with bone fractures experienced the same black mark across the iris.

The Swedish pastor-Nils Liljequist-was exposed to malaria as a young man and while recieveing the treatment of quinine and iodine noticed that his blue eyes began to grow darker as the drugs built up in his system. He grew up to study homeopathic medicine and recorded similar reactions in clients who came to him for detoxification purposes.

It has been said that the eyes are the mirror to the soul. The famous Greek physician Hippocrates believed that they were also the mirror to the body-specifically for the purpose of determining various ailments. He too recorded the presence of black marks across the iris of fractured bones in his patients, and a change in the color of the eye of patients coming down with diseases.

Unfortunately, iridology cannot be used to determine a specific disease.

Practitioners of iridology use it to help patients as a preventative measure understand basic health problems in order to refer them to specialists if needed. The belief is that if a disease is detected in the very early stages it can be prevented from spreading further. The colored part of the eye-the iris-is studied for these markings and color changes by isolating the iris and taking pictures of it with a very strong lens. The process takes about an hour and is painless. The photos are then blown up and gone over with a magnifying glass by the iridologist and used to determine and identify potential ailments.

Most of these ailments are believed to be hereditary, and the patients predisposition to toxicity and disease is determined not only by the photos but with an extensive interview of family medical history. This holistic concept is well accepted by other disciplines of alternative medicine, as it is a fact that all parts of the body are related, especially when used to warn the body of an impending degenerative disease.

Under this theory, the color changes in the eyes at the very onset of the degenerative disease are used by the body to indicate an upcoming health problem, and to warn the body to seek preventative measures. The concept is not far fetched at all-take the example of chiropractors using the process of correcting the spinal alignment to help internal organs. Even conventional physicians check the eyes for signs of sickness. (Blood vessel size is an indication of the level of cholesterol.)

There is, however, some criticism toward iridology as practitioners (especially in the United States) are often not fully or thoroughly trained, as the courses offered are usually no more than two to three days in length and are put on by marketing companies who offer “certification” as an iridologist to their distributors. The result is the potential for over diagnosis with the distributor pushing their products through their “specialist.”

This tendency toward American consumerism and over marketing has given iridology a black eye (no pun intended) as a reputable form of medicine.

When seeking an iridologist, find one who has been certified by the Institute for Applied Iridology or by the International Iridology Research Association in Solana Beach, CA.

Rene Graeber graduated from the University of Munic in Educational and Sports Science and from the Paracelsus School of Medicine in Hamburg from Naturopathic Medicine. If you’re looking for helpful information about alternative medicine visit his website at www.naturheilkunde-preetz.de

If I have one purpose in life, it is to enlighten those around me. All too often, if one has a social and political awareness, we are going to hear such statements as, “Science has proved this,” or “Science has proved that,” and it will be implied in a way that it is absolute. So often have I heard this statement, that I feel it is necessary to write upon it.

Science may best be defined as a method of investigation, as well as the results of that investigation. It allows scientists, or at least followers of this method, to conduct experiments and tests. Once the tests are concluded, other scientists may conduct the same experiment to receive identical or similar results. This is all simple, though, and certainly nothing new to anyone well versed in the philosophy of science.

Society can be defined as the attitudes held in the minds of those who are members of such a society. Reformers and revolutionaries alike are intrinsic in developing good societies, as they are the ones to form, mold, or alter the attitudes of others. In the end, though, of course, only the person can change themselves, in that they are open minded and willing to understand new things. Writers and artists can only help them in their journey to understanding. By creating awareness about certain social and economical issues, by strife that occurs between different classes, attitudes are molded and formed. For example, if writers and poets focus much of their art on an issue like police brutality, it may instill people with the attitude that police officers and representatives of the law have no authority to be cruel or malicious — some of the population may even fight back, defending themselves and their rights. In this way, one flick of the pen can incite a thousand protests. By molding the attitude of the public, reformers and revolutionaries take on a great responsibility. Yet it is here that we discover that the attitude of a society is what makes up its foundation. Sometimes, reformers and revolutionaries focus their energy solely on infusing the attitude into a populace that there is nothing wrong in considering new ideas, that it is no sin to rebuke ignorance of knowledge, to — in general — have an open mind on all matters. For example, if Germany’s population had a positive attitude about tolerance and acceptance, they would have never allowed Hitler’s policies to come into practice. In the United States, there was a strong anti-war attitude among citizens, and 1,500 protestors rioted in San Francisco at George Bush’s war.

Most importantly, for a society to flourish, in that it contributes to the development of philosophical, scientific, and literary thought — through writing books, conducting experiments, and creating inventions — for a society to prosper, it must have well-reasoned attitudes towards the confronting political, economical, and social issues. In our society, the belief that science is an absolute, single figurehead remains as a sign that our attitude towards science is rather weak. It is true, though, that not everyone will have such an attitude. The public, though, does have such an attitude. Science is not one set ideology. It is a mass of what often seems to be quarreling, bickering, almost beaurocratic-like scientists, arguing over the validity of experiments, tests, and criticizing almost every point. For what evidence you can get to support one theory, there will be five scientists supporting opposite theories. At least, with new theories attempting to explain new fields of understanding, this is the case. There is the case of what I will call orthodox science, on questions such as the movement of the planets in the solar system or the roundness of the Earth. When a person states that science has proved something, it is an empty, hollow statement. Science itself proves nothing, as it is a method, and the community that follows this method. If someone wants to offer evidence that something is true, then show the experiment or the data supporting it. “This person conducted this experiment on this date, and found these results,” — this statement, however, is specific. Unlike the vague “science proves it,” this statement can actually be criticized.

The importance of having this attitude towards science is great. What we know as truth, especially in the scientific community, is always changing and improving, with new experiments confirming our hypothesis and other ones disproving what we believed to be ancient wisdom for so long. It is impractical to rely on “science” as a single body of perfect knowledge, immune to learning and the passage of time. But it is more than just knowing that science is one body, but it is understanding it and having that attitude. It is very possible to simply know that science always changes, but it is entirely different thing to have the open mind that what scientists are predicting is fallible, that our understanding of atoms and electrons could be entirely false, that our knowledge on fusion and fission are actually upside down from the actual true understanding — and that, even in a thousand years, our knowledge in these areas will still be subject to new experiments and discoveries. The inaccurate view of science is that it is a single, immutable body of truth. The accurate view of science is that it is a method of investigation and the community that adheres to this method, as well as an ever-changing collection of theories and evidence to support these theories.

www.punkerslut.com

For Life,
Punkerslut

Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has been writing essays and poetry on social issues which have caught his attention for several years. His website http://www.punkerslut.com provides a complete list of all of these writings. His life experience includes homelessness, squating in New Orleans and LA, dropping out of high school, getting expelled from college for “subversive activities,” and a myriad of other revolutionary actions.

There are two types of expensive laptop. On one end you have the big, powerful gaming laptops and on the other you have the razor thin ultra portables which are insanely priced. Both come at price premiums. Gaming laptops seem to be more practical for everyday use if you’re replacing a desktop computer whilst the umpc’s are the best choice if you are syncing with your desktop at home. The market for ultrea portables is rather small and the most common laptop screen size is 15.4 inch. A new phenominen seems to be the budget umpc’s laptops that are 10 inch or smaller, underpowered and only suitable for a number of common applications. Where the choice comes to one the gaming laptop will always win as the majority of people who require mobility can still be portable with the average 15.4 inch size.

The power of the laptop depends on what goes inside of it. It’s normal for some brands to use cheap internal components to keep the price points low. In the long term this can effect the reliability of your laptop computer. Different components have various types, speeds and frequencies. The memory, hard drives, processors, video card, come in different varieties and its important you compare like for like. Another neglected spec is the screen resolution. Higher resolution lcd’s are more expensive because they give the end user more workspace when using the laptop.

The cpu, memory and graphics chip are things to pay attention to when you are buying gaming laptops. The cpu should be a dual core cpu like the intel core duo or amd turion x2 with a clock speed of over 2GHz as standard. 2GB is the min amount of memory need for gaming laptops. To play games you need to have a dedicated graphics card. 256MB is the standard dedicated graphics memory to look for. I think an Nvidia 8600M gpu should be good for playing all the new games well. For hardcore gamers get only the top of the range gpu’s.

With the future of notebooks looking exciting it seems we will only see more and more devices coming out over the next year which will come in all shapes and sizes. The gaming laptop market seems to be making good progress towards narrowing the performance differences making notebooks a good choice for power users whilst the value, umpc market is hotting up with a plethora of devices set to make their entrance into the market.

Wireless networks using 802.11 have made it simple to connect multiple devices to your home network.This can also make your data availiable anywhere, even outside your home.To set this up all you need is a broadband connection connected to a wireless router or a WAP Wireless Access Point. Your home computers should have wireless access cards installed or if your using a laptop a PCMCIA wireless card. Intel Centrino is great for wireless, I personally use it. I like the fact that I did not have to purchase additional hardware.

When you set up your wireless router or WAP your signal is broadcast. This broadcast usually goes further than your home or business. People like to drive around finding unsecured wireless access points. This is known as Wardriving, some hackers even mark spots on the sidewalk to let other hackers know your home or business is offering free Internet service, or worse yet access to your data.This is not to scare you but make you aware.

Diasble broadcasting so people cannot you your wireless network.

Your routers come with pre-configured system ID’s its called a SSID or Service Set Identifier, its very simple to locate this information on the Internet for default SSID’s I recommend changing this to something hard to guess.
Use alphanumeric’s to make it even harder to guess.

Use encryption to protect your network. WEP or Wireless Encryption Protocol is not secure, I have cracked my own network with a Linux machine running Kismet. WEP’s keylength is only 40 bits, once you collect enough data from packets its only a matter of time for a determined cracker.Instead use WPA which is WI-Fi protected access. This is more secure.

Configure your router to block incoming outgoing traffic you do not use. Consider blocking Port 23 Telnet and Even FTP.

Router manafacturers have default passwords which I find many home users do not change. CHANGE THEM!

Invest in a software firewall and keep your system up to date. In the month of October 2005 there have been several
security flaws listed by Microsoft. Keep Informed.

Benjamin Hargis CEO

Phuture Networks

Website http://www.phuturenetworks.com

Blog http://phuturegenius.blogspot.com

Stop Getting Lost

One of the greatest uses for a pocket pc is for gps navigation. Now all those people who continually get lost can find their way anywhere with the various types of gps navigation software available. No longer will they have the excuse of not wanting to ask for directions. The directions are easily accessible from their palm pilot.

The best pocket pc gps software has a gps receiver with it. This allows you to receive constant updates. Many of the best software products for your ipaq have some other great features, too. Some of these features include detailed maps for roads and streets in the U.S., Canada and Europe. These maps can be downloaded to and from your computer and often allow you to enter personalized information.

Other gps navigation software offers topographical maps, aviation maps and marine maps. For whatever kind of travel you do, there is a gps system for your pocket pc that will work splendidly. You no longer have to worry about being lost hiking in the mountains, flying a small personal aircraft or piloting your own boat.

The best gps software packages have extremely detailed voice guidance to keep your eyes on the road instead of on your pda. This safety feature should impress even the most careful driver.

Having gps navigation software on your pocket pc makes the world a much smaller, safer place to be and a heck of a lot easier to navigate. So, find the best pc pocket gps for you and never get lost again.

About the Author

Dan Ayala is webmaster and publisher of PDA-Review-Online.com, offering reviews on PDAs, Palm Pilots, Pocket PC’s, software and accessories. PDA Review Online provides free information and recommendations for your online resources that you can download anytime or anywhere.