Alarm clocks are enjoying a surge in sales these days. Perhaps it’s due to the cool and wet weather that causes people to snuggle into their pillows instead of snapping awake at the sound of the alarm clock.

                                            A "Classic" alarm clock.
 

AMD may seemingly be out of circulation these days on the “big breakthroughs” and “chart-topping” side of the business, but it heartens loyalists to know that AMD is still working hard to find chinks in Intel’s new-found Core2 armor.

                                             AMD has fast HP regen and godly comeback powers.

I’ve encountered a number of products that has obvious pride in their craftsmanship. This pride is evident in many aspects of the product, but of course the very first thing for consumers to see is the packaging that it comes in. Only a company confident in their product will be able to splurge on prettying up the packaging to the point that it in itself becomes a work of art.

                                             A Rolex box pampers a Rolex watch.

I’ll admit that I have a mean streak when it comes to historically crappy products. I literally spent hours trying to look for something to complain about when I unboxed this standard 17” non-widescreen LCD.

                                              The company website uses a...classic XP wallpaper and a.....photoshopped lady as their welcome screen. Way to go.

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.