We were fortunate enough to be able to witness Sony’s VAIO line enter the country after years of gray market and overseas purchases. Sony held its four product-lines launching on September 12, 2007 at the Makati Shangri-La. The Sony VAIO TZ, UX, SZ and FZ lines were presented to the media, to a mixture of excitement that’s present at any new product launching, and a degree of familiarity that is a result of events on many different levels.

                                             Just how thin can you go?
 

Although it has been in use by many enthusiasts since its introduction in the late 90’s, I’ve always been leery of water cooling for any PC component. Water and electronics simply don’t mix, but a more immediate concern for me was the question of need versus want.

                                             A passable representation.
 

The PC modding scene has come and gone like tidewaters after the moon, leaving behind a hard-core enthusiast group that carries on with their modding and PC – embellishing long after most other people has stopped adding blinking lights to their rigs.

How much storage do you actually use on your system? Consequently, how much storage do you actually have? With the availability of all types of media at an all time high and the ability to access and record data from a variety of sources increasing everyday, the need for storage increases – but probably not for everyone.

How networked are you right now? I’m not asking regarding your internet connectivity at the moment, although the answer to that also comes into play later in this entry.

I have been in the IT industry, in one guise or another, for the better part of 7 years, and in the process I have encountered hundreds of instances where manufacturers try and fit a product to a type of customer. In the Philippines, that generally means cutting features, specifications and any extras a product may have so that it may be able to hit a certain price point reachable by the average consumer.

                                                    Less features = lower price
 

As well as being a hardware editor and lover of all things tech, I also read a lot of science fiction, mostly from the author Peter Hamilton (highly recommended). From this dual influence, I get a unique perspective for technology as I am holding it in the present and technology as it may look in the (not so near) future – depending on the sci-fi book that I’m reading at the moment.

                                             Science fiction at its best.

China is a country of big numbers: one of the biggest land-areas in the world, the largest population, one of the biggest economies, and a lot of people joke half-seriously – the biggest source of knock-offs in the world.

                                          A map of China. and there's Manila at the lower right.

Abit holds a special place in the minds of many hardware enthusiasts. Or perhaps another way to put it is that Abit is very conspicuous in the way it keeps popping in and out of the technology scene here in the Philippines. Even before the year 2000, with the “Y2K” mania going on in the background, Abit motherboards were already in the scene, even coming out with their own Y2K-ready boards for general consumption.

                                                The Abit logo as it appeared years ago
 

Being a geek is nothing to be ashamed of these days. In fact, it can be described as an “in” thing, with big names in Hollywood  hyping up characters playing as such and the general trend towards gadgetry and the people with the mojo to fully use them. Exploring in the direction of the geek’s rise to prominence, we discover many traits that are parallel or is a direct influence to a person being a geek. Primary among these “traits” in my opinion would be shyness.

It was a great day, made all the better with the anticipation I had for a particularly nifty piece of hardware waiting for me at the office. Specifically, this collection of circuits and transistors in a 740g rectangular brick is the Gigabyte U60 Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC for short).

                                                This is what they call a "broken keyboard". That's the official name, really.

An old PC is a poor, depressing piece of kit. It probably has been through many hours of mayhem with games, gone through deadlines with you, given you headaches with its idiosyncrasies and whatnot. Yet new life can be had with these old PC’s, if you can be creative with what you put it up for.

I’ve never paid much attention to the going-ons of the big telcos in our country, never noticed, for example, that astounding advances has already been made right under my nose while I was absorbed with computer hardware and consumer electronics.

                                              The old Globe Telecom logo

Going mainstream ain’t what it used to be. There were stark choices to be made back in the late 90’s regarding computer components and even whole computer systems. It was either you had the goods, or you had a poor alternative to “the goods”.

                                             An 8500GT. Looks mid-level doesn't it?

                                  A Classic.

There has been a stigma associated with build-in video on motherboards ever since the (in)famous “Tomato Board” – for those who still remember this particular monstrosity of a brand, don’t raise your hand – It tells everyone here how long we’ve been hardware fans.