alexadler blog

Gmail

Just received an email from the professor mentioning the introduction of Gmail of Google. Actually I was invited to Gamil by a friend back in Hong Kong during the summer. I think this is really a cool email, due to its 1GB size, you can virtually store all your incoming emails (including spam, though I know you guys don't want it anyway) without deleting anyone of them, and this is why you won't find a "Move to trash" or "delete" shortcut button. Another feature that impresses me the most is the search function. In the past when you are using other email clients, you would need to sort by name in order to find previous email by a particular person. With Gmail, you can easily find the email you want by simply using its Google search function and enter the email-sender's name or some of the words in the topic of the email. In my opinion, this added feature would certainly promote the Google business and its "search for RELEVANCE" idea. Moreover, It also grouped all emails regarding the same chatting topic together for users' easy reference.
Whenever you become a member, you would be able to invite other friends to join and test the system. As a result, I have already got two Gmail account for my storage of large files online. Who wants to get invited? I still have a few invitations sitting in my account and waiting to be sent out!

(p.s. Google can actually improve its capacity regarding the email size. Currently the limit is 10MB for each email and it sends in a very slow speed. Google can focus on these areas, if it's technically feasible, and make the Gmail more user-friendly)

Spyware

Recently my computer has been disturbed by something called spyware, which makes me really frustrated. Whenever I tried to open a new explorer, although I have already set the default first page to be blank, it keeps going to the a strange website, and a lot of popups will follows. Sometimes my computer just stops functioning and I should therefore restart the computer.
After doing some research, I found that spyware is some kind of virus programs which are ususlly hidden in emails, websites and incoming files. When you visit a website, those software would be installed secretly into your computer without any notification, just like unsolicited downloads. If the spyware is powerful enough, it will even monitor and extract your password and personal information. If you encounter the same problem in the future, please make sure to use some anti-spyware software such as spybot to search for and remove any potential spyware in your computer. It is also a good practice to regularly scan your computer for spyware to prevent the loss of important information.

Chip Competition

When talking about chipset in computers, we would all vote for Intel. However, what I have recently found in one of the articles in Business Week told me that the big picture is going to change: Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) is going to step in and influence the leading position of Intel. While Intel slashed its third quarter sales and profit margin and claiming that there is "lower than expected worldwide demand", AMD said they are seeing no indication of a broad slowdown.
In fact, it is the AMD low cost strategy which made them successful. Recently, Intel and AMD were concentrating on the 64-bit chip processor market. While Intel has made one that was incompatible with old corporation software, AMD was able to introduce one with better compatibility with lower price to the old corporation section, effectively gaining 7% low-end server market. As customers are becoming more and more price sensitive, concentrating on just high-tech by ignoring prices and customer needs simply would keep someone's leading market position for long. IF you have read my posting, please give a deep thought about this and consider serious when buying processors. Is the chip you are buying worth the money? Or are you just blindly looking for brandname?

Deals

For those of you who are computer freaks, if you want to buy the most technologically enhanced devices and electrical product, Techbargains is for you. It is actually a website which compares prices of all computer-related products in the U.S., and post it as a newsletter on the frontpage of the website; when you find a special deal somewhere in a local store, you can also post your findings onto that website and share the benefit with others. One thing that I discovered from these cheap deals in the U.S. is the rebate system. Let's say you are going to buy a $300 cell phone, after about 3 months you will receive a rebate check. This is quite a brilliant way to do business because companies can certainly make use of that 3 month period, get funding from all the buyers and invest it somewhere else to make a profit. As this is really a good way to earn money, why don't we set up our own business this way? Anyone has any ideas?

Internet Fraud

As the internet is becoming more and more popular, it has already been seen as a commodity of our society. It made all things become electronic and convenient, from information search to daily shopping, the internet can satisfy nearly all our needs. However, nowadays people tend to depend on the internet so much that the evil-doers would start to grab this opportunity and make money out of those technologically-adhered "blinds".
Recently I received an email from the citibank saying that, "because there are increasing number of people trying to get access to others' account through the use of fraudulent information, for security purposes, we would like you to enter your SSN.... so that we can verify your account information." Luckily I don't have a citibank account, or I would have been cheated by the message and submitted all my information. The reason why the message was so convincing to me is that they were actually using the template from the real citigroup website, and all the links appeared in that "first page" would direct you to the real citigroup website; in other words it was only the flawless first page which is artificial. And if you look careful, you can actually see that the URL of the first page is quite weird and different from the real one.
Therefore, next time when you encounter some emails asking for your account or personal information, please be alert and look for suspectible elements. The following is another place where you can check out to see the latest internet fraud and ways to avoid those cheatings.

Bittorrent vs Bitcomet

Just a few months ago, downloading from the web was the city's popular topic, and it brought about lawsuits for those who were frequently downloading songs; lots of P2P shareware and also illegal downloading site were brought down because of the infringemnet of copyrights. However, there are always new ideas generated. Recently, bittorrent and bitcomet have replaced P2P shareware as the new generation for download. Basically, everyone who is trying to download a file is called a seed, this
Bitorrent enables downloading and uploading the same file you want simultaneously, as more and more seeds join in to get access to the same file, the uploaded data would speed up the downloading rate for all seeds, therefore creating a mutually supportive downloading environment.
Bitcomet is just another Bittorrent program with more organised layout and functions, it is also designed for those who want to download 100MB+ files such as movies and TV shows. However, if you want to try that, make sure your computer has enough memory because it really has a high RAM requirement which will probably slows down your computer.
The above is some knowledge about the recent downloading trend, if you want to know more, please feel free to check out the links provided or email me.

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