I previously I was saying my room was all lit up with LEDs, but this keyboard looks amazing, and it has a detachable number keypad. And the color LEDs light up the whole buttons and they are programmable, I’m not sure of the price but expect something pricy because it has the sleek looks and features to justify it.

Link: Engadget

These are some pretty steep prices:

Vista Upgrade Version:

• Vista Home Basic $99.00
• Vista Business $199.00
• Vista Home Premium $159
• Vista Ultimate $259

Vista Full Version:

• Vista Home Basic $199.00
• Vista Business $299.00
• Vista Home Premium $239.00
• Vista Ultimate $399.00

Previously I was thinking it would be worth it to pay for Vista Ultimate, but I thought it would be $259, but at this amount its a different story. These are quite expensive, and I wonder how long it will take to drop.

So now Microsoft Vista is being released, lets see what happens over the next couple of weeks.

Upgrading to Vista:

One of the new quirks is that you must have the version of Windows XP or 2000 installed on your system to “Upgrade” to Vista, if you are going that route. So you can’t do a clean install like you previously could with XP Pro from Windows 98. You will need to have your original XP Pro or 2000 already on the machine to upgrade to Vista.

To do a clean install you have to buy the full version and not the upgrade version.

T-Mobile is provide three months worth of free Wifi service for those who are using Vista. So from the 30 Jan launch until April 30th, but as usual someone has found a work around for the verification process. So Apple went with Cingular and Microsoft went with TMobile now its getting interesting.

Thoughts on Vista:

Lets see how many Vistas they are going to sell and how its going to impact PCs and how fast people adapt. I want to get one on a test machine and see how it is and is happening with it. They had a huge launch for it, but like every new version of Windows it will need a lot of resources, when 2 GB of ram used to be for the gamers or media editors it is going to be standard on most machines to run Vista. I want to get hardware that was developed around Vista like Asus’s motherboards, so Im just going to wait a bit and see how things develop. They will be releasing a patch for the OS later in the year since I know they have been developing it for a little while now, at least they got a head start on that.

Link: Engadget (Vista Upgrades)
Link: Engadget (TMobile Free Wifi)
Link: Engadget (TMobile Free Wifi Work Around)

In my bedroom I always have something running 24/7 to do something. The thing is when I switch off my lights they do have the ability to light up the room when your guys get adjusted to the darkness.

The list of equipment that light up the room at night:

• PC Power Supply lighting up the back
• ISP DSL Modem
• Netgear Gigabit Wireless Router
• Buffalo AccessPoint
• D-Link Switch
• IOGear KVM Switch
• Maxtor Network Storage
• Maxtor External Storage
• Infrant Network Area Storage

With this much equipment I have some books covering some and some being covered by small manuals and trying to redirect the light. I thought that some people might be facing the same thing their rooms! My PC is what wakes me up because recently it has been hard to wake up so I do need a good amount of sound to get up and going! And so while my computer is on I make sure its doing something useful like uploading and downloading! So having all the necessary equipment on at all times gets your room lit up with all the LEDs.

LED lights by color:

• Green 50%
• Blue 40%
• Orange 10%

This is one hell of a cool looking PC! It has 3.5″ HDD, 2GB ram, DVI motherboard, lots of USB 2.0, and a hell of a lot other features. I really like the look of the machine but its only available in Japan! That is another thing the Japanese only have! They have the cool phones, great screens, and lots of electronics! I should probably pass by Japan sometime soon!

Link: Engadget

You can pretty much get a copy of any software you want in the market at this point. There are some pieces of software which I think are rediculously priced and some which I think should be bought original so that you recieve updates and support that you may need.

Rule of thumb in my opinion is that every coorporate establishment or business should be using all original software and I find it sad that there are a lot of companies that use copy versions of windows when they can easily afford purchasing original licenses. For some individuals they can justify buying a pirated versions of OS and I can understand that but for companies I find that to be an unacceptable practice.

And now there is going to be the release of Vista at the end of January with the different variations. I know there is going to be a pirated version out there asap and work arounds for the security, no matter how formmidable the security for a piece of software someone will always find a workaround or crack if they see a major benefit for them to do it or work on it.

There are few things I tend to get original since it is ciritical software for your system, and most other software is available for free:

• OS original (XP Pro)
• Anitvirus (NOD 32)
• Firewall (Zonealarm Pro)
• ConvertXtoDVD (for MKV files to DVD, to watch highquality 24)
• I get these software original for the support updates for them, except for ConvertXtoDVD since I got that for the need to burn an episode of 24 to DVD and it was urgent. I can’t do without my 24.

Ofcourse there are some pieces of software which I tend to rediculously priced so I get it through other means. I think the only major one for me is Adobe Photoshop because of how expensive it is.

Maxtor One Touch III 500GB
Price: 92 KD

Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo 1TB
Price: 195 KD

Professional Computer: 2611661

I have a computer right now which doesn’t have a hard drive or cpu but I have the ram, motherboard and case. I would add those at later point for the testing I want to do.

I wont lie Im really curious to try out Windows Vista, I want to see how it works, what are the steps to installing it, what are the new features, and a whole list of questions and thoughts.

The one issue Im really having is choosing which package to go with, I am for sure avoiding Vista Home because they probably rigged it so that you dont have all the options to make all the tweaks you want.

With XP you have Home or Pro, and you have a clear idea of what the capabilities of each are. I avoid using Home at all costs because I know its limitations. But the problems Im facing is that I dont know what are the lacking options of each Vista package even though Im really curious to try it. I like messing with the network settings, the resources, startup configuration, device management, and a few other random things but I dont know how they will restrict it in the other Vista packages.

This is one slick looking laptop, and it has a different type of technology for the screen. Its an OLED which stands for organic light-emitting diodes, and it doesnt need a bezel (frame) around it like an LCD, and consumes less electricity. Im just really happy that this tech is getting put into laptops since the screen technology hasn’t changed much in comparison to CPUs or Graphic Cards. I wish they had powerful laptops with this type of setup, and it would interesting to see how the battery life changes with this type of screen.

Link: Engadget

Out of my whole shipment that was on hold from amazon that is filled with DVDs and one Gigabit router, the only thing that did come out was the Gigabit router. Its driving me nuts but I really dont have any other choice. The customs thing aside, I was very happy to recieve this Gigabit router. I have had a D-Link 8-port Gigabit switch for a while now running on my Linksys router, but I know the routing itself is at 100MB/s even though the switch can go up to 1000MB/s. Now I have this new router with built-in wireless and Gigabit routing. I just installed it the night I recieved, but I will be doing thurough testing at a later point. I will be doing testing through streaming audio & video, while making data transfer.

I do have access points at this point, which Im trying to use to cover the whole house, and cover all deadspots. Im trying to make sure I have no problem with this router and none of the access points freeze. I will be updating the firmware only after Im done testing.