Your computer may be suffering from this malaise without you being aware of it.

Recently I noticed that my computer has slowed down considerably. The problem was particularly acute when I was playing a certain Facebook Flash game in Google Chrome. Blaming the problem on an unoptimized Flash game running on Google Chrome, I did not bother fixing it until it got more severe. Okay – until a cute female friend asked for my help…. that’s when I decided that it’s really a problem worth looking into

The Cause

So I ran the game in Firefox and Internet Explorer and found out that the problem is not any fault of Google’s. Investigating further, I finally followed the trail to some sites where people congregated and compared notes on Adobe Flash 9 and 10, like this one here.

And I found out that there are so many tormented souls like me out there!

Others have noticed this sluggishness running Youtube videos. These people have 3 GHz cpus and 4 GB memory but they have the same problem. Youtube is known to work fine in mobile devices running Firefox in only 256MB of available memory space – try googling Nokia N900 – so it cannot be due to people’s computer being old and unable to deal with Adobe’s Flash requirements.

Many have speculated that Adobe Flash’s resource hogging is due to Adobe Flash being a poorly written program, with unoptimized code. Some even say that this is a new version of the Microsoft-Intel conspiracy theory where these giant corporations worked together, to get us to fork out more of our hard-earned money so that we have to buy more computers and help the IT industry prosper.

The Fix:

1. Uninstall Adobe Flash

Really important! You can skip step 2 but not this!

2. Get the beta version, Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta.

If you don’t want to run this beta version, then reinstall the current version at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/. Just remember NOT to get the free McAfee security app.

After the uninstalling and reinstalling, I find that my Facebook game is more responsive now – my friend says hers is playable now and my Facebook gaming life has improved – I get to spend as little time on it as possible

I won’t say that it’s 100% solved – I still notice that Adobe Flash leaks memory frequently in Firefox and Google Chrome. To resolve this, feel free to restart the slow responding browser or wait for my next article on how to identify and close the memory leak.

Hopefully, this short guide here can solve your problem. If not, then your problem may be a different one or is more severe than this and I can’t really help you but direct you to this article and see for yourself that you are not alone in this.

Happy gaming!

Well, beyond the obvious hard work, practice, and attention to detail to each and every one of his slides and keynotes, there are some recurring habits that Jobs uses to make his presentations that much more captivating.

Those who want to find out more about how this amazing man delivers his product presentations can check out his famous speech delivered to students at Stanford.

The way he presents is very simple, using minimum text, almost NO bullet points, minimal jargon (except where necessary, like the spec sheets) and powerful phrases like “the world’s thinnest laptop” when revealing the Macbook Air.

Here is some information on the methods and techniques that make Steve Job’s presentation so exciting and charming. He has even been described as being able to project a “Reality Distortion Field” during his keynotes, allowing people to get excited over things that, in retrospect, aren’t that interesting and can even be downright problematic, such as the absence of a CD-rom or USB port in the Macbook Air.

Steve Job’s make great use of numbers in his keynotes, as it is a simple and powerful way of conveying information to ordinary people. Although he seems to have lost a lot of weight due to a fight with cancer, it appears that if the recent iPad indicated anything, its that he will be around for a while longer to sell us more expensive money-sucking toys.

Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

First login to your CPanel webmail, (**Demonstration is based on CPanel 11, interface / features in older CPanel version may be variant.)

Click on Forwarding Options and you’ll be directed to the page below,

Click on Add Forwarder.

Then type in the email address that you wish to receive the emails and press Add Forwarder. When it’s successful, successful message will appear like this,

And you’re done!

Now, let’s test it!

Using any email client, I’ll send an email to kitkat@kongtechnology.com .

And both of my domain email and Gmail received the same email I sent.  :)

Send Mail As

If you wish to do more than receiving emails, you can also set your email client to send mail using the emails address you wished, by importing your email address into your Gmail account. (Demonstration is based on Gmail, procedure of other email clients may be variant.)

First login to your Gmail account,

Click on Settings and you’ll be directed to the settings page.

Click on Accounts and Import tab and press “Send mail from another address” to add the email address you desired.

Next, is to enter the name you wished to display when sending an email and the email address you wished to use. Press “next step” after you’re done entering.

Next, choose “Send through Gmail” for easier setup and head on to the next step.

Click on “Send Verification” and you’re almost there.

Once your email address is added, a confirmation email will be sent to your domain email. Sometimes, confirmation email might get a little slow. If you did not receive the confirmation email immediately, you might need to late about 15 minutes or up to an hour! Ouch!

Now, it’s time check your webmail inbox.

You can either click on the link above to confirm. If the link is broken, you might need to use the confirmation code for confirmation according to the steps provided by Gmail.

Now, you can forget about your lousy webmail and shift to Gmail permanently.  :)

Broadband FAQ

*kbps – Kilo bits per second. For example, 512kbps is equal to 512000 bits per second, where 1 bytes equals to 8 bits. 512000 bits per second is equal to 64000 bytes. And 64000 bytes is equal to 62.5 kilo bytes. Therefore, the maximum download speed of 512kbps is about 62.5kb per second.

*mbps – Mega bits per second. For example, 1.0mbps is equal to 1,000,000 bits per second, where 1 bytes equals to 8 bits. 1,000,000 bits per second is equal to 125000 bytes. And 64000 bytes is equal to 122 kilo bytes. Therefore, the maximum download speed of 1.0mbps is about 122kb per second.

p/s: 1kb (kilo bytes) is equal to 1024 bytes. However, most of the providers & storage device manufacturers treats 1kb as 1000 btyes. Therefore, you only get about 3.8GB of free space for a 4GB flash drive. (Also, kilo btyes are usually written in capital letter – KB where kb is usually refers to kilo bits. )

*Bandwidth limit – Data transfer limitation. For example, opening a webpage requires you to upload 10kb of data and download 100kb of data, a 5GB bandwidth limit allows you to load the webpage for approximately 45,454 times. (5GB is equals to 5,000,000kb divided by 110kb equals to 45,454.)

p/s: Bandwidth limit is determined because of the Fair Usage Policy practiced by most of the broadband providers. This is to make sure all users are having healthy internet connection.

*What will happen if I have used up all my bandwidth? – If you bandwidth is dried up, the provider will evaluate your browsing behavior.  If your internet usage is “unhealthy” (P2P, torrent and etc.), the provider has right to stop providing internet access until the next month (where bandwidth limit will be reseted). If your internet usage is “healthy”, provider might only throttle your connection speed to the speed of a turtle.

*I subscribed to a 2.4mbps broadband package, but my download speed is lower than my friend’s 1.2mbps connection. – As stated in providers’ terms & conditions, the speeds are based on best effort. Normally, you’ll never reach the maximum speed that providers offered. Maximum speed can be achieved only under perfect condition (especially for wireless broadband that are using EDGE, 3G, HSDPA and Wimax technology), provided the connection of the web server must be blazing fast too.

*What is a modem? – Modem is an electronic device that connects the computer to the internet.

*What is a router? – A router is an electronic device that connects two or more computer together. If a modem is integrated or connected to the router, it is able to share the internet connection to all computers that are connected to the router.

*What is an IP address and difference between dynamic IP address and fixed IP address? – IP address stands for Internet Protocol Address where it’s the address of your modem in the cloud (internet). Dynamic IP address allows us to have different IP address every time we connect to the internet where fixed IP address allows us to have a fixed IP address whenever we connect to the internet. For normal home user, most of the time we do not need a fixed IP address because it is much expensive or unless we’re hosting a server.

*What are the difference between Tm Net, Streamyx and Broadband? – They are entirely different. TM net is an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Streamyx is the broadband package brand offered by TM net. And Broadband is a general name for high speed internet connection. Some said any internet connection speed above 256kbps is considered as a broadband connection.

This concludes our series on Malaysian broadband service providers. We hope that you find it useful and bookmark us for future reference

Anyway with New Year going by, those who have done a reformat of their computer (and even those who haven’t) will benefit from these 3 points to keep your system stable.

1)Keep your Computer Updated

This is paramount. Frequently, Microsoft releases patches to help protect your computer against malicious content out there on the Internet. The more updated you are, the better you stand a chance against fighting off an unwanted piece of malware or virus from infecting your system and using up valuable system resources slowing down your computer. Windows makes this a simple and automated process with their Windows Update feature, but did you know that your programs should be kept updated as well?

My favourite software to automate this task is Update Notifier. It scans through my system building up a list of installed programs then checks the Internet to see if it’s the latest version. If not, it offers a simple way to get the latest version of the file to install. Developers are realizing that keeping their applications updated is a very important necessity in today’s computing environment and most browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and even Google Chrome makes the whole process invisible to the user. And rightly so because your browser is the single most popular entry point for malicious content.

2) Perform Regular System Maintenence

CCleaner is a wonderful tool to get rid of unnecessary files on your computer, while Tuneup Utilities handles the rest. The auto-optimize feature of Tuneup is especially useful and coupled with the scheduler ability, makes optimizing your system periodically a painless process. This will help keep your computer from being bogged down with too much files.

3) Install a proper antivirus and keep it updated!

This is a necessary step. Free antivirus solutions like Avira and Avast are pretty good, but research shows that Microsoft’s own Security Essentials, which is also free, does very well compared to commercial alternatives. If you have the cash, Kaspersky and ESET are pretty good choices, with ESET being better for the less technical users because its less ‘naggy’ and protects your system with minimum fuss. After getting the antivirus tool, make sure to keep it updated and scan through your system periodically to ensure it doesn’t turn into a virus nesting ground.

1. GPS

Pai Nian (Visiting friends and relatives house) for Ang Pao is the most important activity during Chinese New Year. Without Pai Nian, the whole CNY will not be meaningful because no Ang Pao = No CNY.

With the help of GPS and Satellite software like Garmin and Tom Tom Navigator, you’re able to locate your friends and relatives house without any hassle. Especially for friends and relatives who stay far away from the city or friends that you’ve lost contact for years, you can simply request for their GPS coordinates and your GPS device will guide your Ang Pao route.

2. Facebook

If you’re wondering what Facebook can do for you during Chinese New Year, here’s a suggestion…

First, wish all your friends happy CNY regardless of race and send them a virtual gift or ang pao. Second, create a RSVP event, gather all your friends to discuss and plan for group visit. An ang pao hunting event! Third, update your status. Tell others where you are and what are you doing so that your friends are able to join you. More people = more fun! Fourth, after visiting a friend’s house, don’t forget to upload the photos you’ve taken and don’t forget to tag them! Fifth, if you hate being visited by relatives and friends (or if you’re anti social) Facebook can help. Ignore them, turn on your PC and start Facebooking (play games). Start Facebooking only after you snatch your Ang Pao.

3. Twitter

Just like what you did in Facebook, you tweet your latest location and event with your iPhone. Let your followers contact you and join for Ang Pao hunting.

4. Digital Photo Frame

Visited by relatives and friends during CNY is pretty usual. Don’t just chit chat with small talk. Share your stories and impress them with your digital photos. A physical photo album is good but not as good as a digital photos frame that can store thousands of photos and stream photos from your computer through bluetooth or WIFI. Forget about your dusty photo album, Digital Photo Frame FTW!

5. Google Latitude

Google Latitude gives you the exact location of our friends and family. With Google Latitude, we able to locate and notify friends and relatives near our place so that we can pay them a visit or visit a place together.

6. Ipod / Mp3 player / Media Player

For those who’re going back to their home town for CNY, a long and boring journey is unavoidable. If you plan to relax or sleep for the whole journey, an MP3 player like iPod or iPod Touch is your best companion.

7. PSP / NDSL

If you plan to stay awake on the way back to your hometown, a portable gaming console is a must! For serious portable gaming, there’s not much choice out there. Try PSP (normally for guys) or a casual game oriented portable gaming console such as NDSL (normally for girls). If you’re bored with your PSP, you can always transform it to a portable media player. 4.3 inch screen for movie FTW!

8. Wii / PS3 / Xbox360

If you have kids visiting you, a gaming console is a must. Keep the kids and teenagers entertained. I’m not advocating violence but fighting games like Tekken and Street Fighter are always fun. Better live with the noise than the kids breaking all your other stuff.

9. PayPal for Angpau

If you can’t visit your kids or relatives during CNY, the least you can do is transfer some money to them. Besides Western Union and Maybank2u, PayPal is simple and fast, but note there is a 3-4% charge.

10. Skype / GTalk / MSN / Yahoo Messenger

Unable to visit your friends and relatives – Fret not! Audio and Video Conference with Skype, GTalk, MSN or Yahoo Messenger…  do an online virtual Pai Nian (visit) and renew your friendships

Here’s a preview of Ang Pao design:

To make your own DIY Ang Pao, download your Ang Pao packet design over here.

Instructions

1. Download Ang Pao Packet Design printable version here.
2. Buy 80 or 100gm of normal paper (not advisable to use thick paper as it is difficult for folding – you can also buy grain paper to achieve the grain effect if so desired.)
3. Open in Photoshop
4. Print in A4 size paper.
5. Cut out using pen knife
6. Fold according to the number sequence as given, then glue the highlighted part.

7. You will get your Ang Pow.

If you like, send Monkey Kong an Ang Pao with some money in it

1) The GPS Navigator! Forget about ever getting lost again! GPS-based navigators are the in-things of the moment, with plenty found either separately or incorporated with your GPS-receiving mobile phones. With the utilization of excellent navigation software such as Garmin to guide you along the paths, finding your way in a new city would be as easy as ABC! This eliminates the need for paper-maps, or you ever stopping at petrol kiosks or police stations any more, asking for directions. Find restaurants of your choice, shopping malls, or even hotels! Useful? You bet!

2) Sony’s evolutionary PSP! Handheld gaming consoles have come a long way since Nintendo’s legendary GameBoy and GameBoy Advance. Sony’s PSP is the craze of the moment, and you would not regret it one bit if you get your hands on one of these. Choose from a wide range of games such as NeedForSpeed Most Wanted, RPG selections such as Final Fantasy or for the football-crazy, FIFA 2010 is available on PSP as well! Never feel bored during short or long journey any more, simple turn your console on, and indulge in the gaming pleasure that it offers until you reach your destination! And with added-on-devices, your PSP could also function as a digital cam, GPS-navigator, media player, translator and even an internet browser! Now is that cool or what?

If PSP is too serious for you, Nintendo DSi might be your cup of tea. Nintendo DSi is the best interactive gaming console ever in human history (Aside from Nintendo Wii). Casual games like Cooking Mama, Mario Cart and Warioware will kill your boredom in no time! You can also browse the internet with Nintendo DS Opera browser just like what you do with a PSP.

3) A digital camera (better still if you have a DSLR). Travelling would always present you with opportunities of coming across beautiful sceneries as well as unforgettable moments and memories. My Nikon D3000 is a little beauty indeed. It’s a good compact DSLR that makes an amateur like me look good. But if it’s still too big, you might want to try the Panasonic Lumix FZ35.

At around RM1,599 it is slightly cheaper than the entry level DSLR yet gives you the versatility of a Leica 27mm lens with 18x Optical Zoom (equivalent to 486mm Telephoto). Power OIS Anti-shake protection means that you won’t have to worry too much about handshake even in telephoto range, while the HD video capability delivers an impressive 1280 x 720 pixel resolution.

Having a digital cam with you during these moments helps you capture and immortalize them, preserving them so that you can reflect and reminisce upon them in the future.

Ever wonder how you can take a photo of you and your girlfriend by yourself? Then check out the Samsung ST550 Dual LCD:

Now you never have to worry that there is no passer-by to help!

Ah the Digital Camera…. one of the best travel gadgets ever-created!

4) A portable storage device (options would include pendrives and external hard-disks). Although most devices such as digital cameras and mobile phones have internal memories that could go up to 8GB (some even more), but in the scenario of you losing your camera or phone, there goes all your memories too! Safe and secure, keep a portable storage device with you to backup all your important data, they also come in bigger sizes so you would never be short of space if ever you need more than what you have. A truly beneficial invention for the constant-mover!

To do instant backup to your portable storage device, a portable data transfer device just like the Sima Hitch USB Transfer Device Hub is available in the market and that allows you to backup your precious photos and videos anytime, anywhere.

5) Last but not least, having a sophisticated mobile phone would keep you entertained in more ways than one. The best smart-phones in the market today come with excellent digital cameras (forget needing a separate cam), an entertainment centre to play both audio and video files (forget MP3/ MP4 players), a gaming-console, built in GPS receiver, internet browsing capabilities, and several other useful functions. What more does one need during travels? Never forget the battery charger though, or you could end up having nothing at all within a day or two!

Forget i-Pods, get your hands on the above mentioned products, and remember NEVER to leave home without them!

But Bit Torrent will be undergoing a dramatic shift soon and here are some new technologies that users may find useful to learn up on.

As it is, Torrents still function by downloading a piece of ‘xxx.torrent’ file from popular file sharing websites such as Pirate Bay, Mininova, Eztv, and so on. With information contained within the files, the torrent client (uTorrent, Azureus, etc) then calculates a ‘torrent hash’ with a fingerprint of the files which is to be downloaded. The large files are often broken down into smaller chunks (a typical 30-minute series can have thousands of fragments), there are thousands of hashes to be calculated. After obtaining the hashes, the client then connects to ‘peers’ to start downloading the file fragments. After downloading, a hash is generated from the fragment and compared to the precomputed one earlier. If they are identical, it means the fragment is downloaded correctly with no errors. Sometimes, due to inefficiencies, the fragment may have an incorrect hash and is rejected. Companies can also poison a torrent swam by injecting false information but this tactic is negated with proper hash checking.

Anyway, it all comes down to this xxx.torrent file, which you have to get from ’somewhere’ and many authorities have started to crack down on popular sharing sites which host these files. The Pirate Bay is a famous example, having been forced out of Sweden (where their servers are located) due to pressure from copyright holders. With no access to torrent files, Bit Torrent is dead.

Thankfully, three new technologies have surfaced to aid and increase Bit Torrent and they are DHT, PEX and Magnet links. A fourth, so far only present in uTorrent, has also provides a new method to reduce traffic congestion caused by Bit Torrent activities.

Distributed Hash Table

DHT, also know as Distributed Hash Table, is simply another way to foster communication between peers and to discover new peers as they enter a swarm. When activated, your client will connect to a ‘bootstrap’ address such as router.utorrent.com and from there receive a list of peers also with DHT enabled. From there, your client builds up a list of peers and uses them to exchange information related to peers and to receive addresses of new peers when they join the DHT swarm. It is very similar to technologies used in Limewire and WinMX (old file sharing programs) that have a central node, except with DHT, there is no central node, just a swarm of interconnected peers.

Peer Exchange

PEX, or Peer Exchange, is another method of peer discovery whereby when you manage to connect to a peer, you can get a list of peers that person is connected to and repeat the process. It needs to kick start but once it gets going, it is very efficient at getting you new peers to connect to.

Magnet

Magnet is a new way of handling torrent files, also known as torrentless trackers. Instead of downloading a file and computing the hash, the website owner precomputes the hash for you and makes the information available in the Magnet link, which you click. When a torrent client detects the Magnet link, it will automatically launch and connect to peers immediately to download the first torrent file. It is worthy to note that torrent files are still important and hold a lot of necessary information needed to start the process of downloading. Therefore it is so far impossible to eliminate torrent files, but Magnet makes the process a lot more automated and is necessary as anti-P2P laws are moving towards the direction of banning torrent files from being hosted all together.

uTorrent

Fourth and last, uTorrent have built into their clients an automatic decongestion mechanism. When it senses that a network is becoming saturated with too much file sharing activity, it will scale back and allow more important duties such as website and video streaming to take precedence. This will be important as P2P activity start to saturate the connections of Internet service providers which use this as excuse to cut off connections of heavy users or invoke fair-use clauses. It will also improve your home network Internet surfing quality, especially when many people are doing P2P activities on the same network.

No doubt, the Bit Torrent community continue to evolve their methods to fight back against copyright holders. It is also important to note that with modern clients such as uTorrent, PEX and DHT comes automatically activated and you don’t need to do anything to enjoy its benefits. Magnet will be come more common and replace torrent files as time goes on, so no action is necessary on your part as well.

XP Mode is Windows 7’s new way of integrating a virtualization experience directly into the operating system. In the past, it was cumbersome to set up a virtual computer and required some special knowledge that most users are not bothered to learn. As a result, Vista which broke certain applications that only worked on XP earned the wrath of many a consumer. It might be a case of too little too late, but XP Mode for Win 7 attempts to make using virtual computers a seamless environment for legacy applications.

Virtualization Technology

One caveat to XP Mode is that your processor needs to support Virtualization Technology, and most AMD processors have this support enabled as a default so it will not be a problem for you. Unfortunately for Intel processors, only certain models have VT, and most of them are disabled by default in the computer BIOS. If you are running Intel, it is highly advised that you Google your processor’s compatibility with VT. Intel had a quirky way of working out which class of their processors support VT, and you may find it surprising that some of their high end quad core models DO NOT have VT.

Nevertheless, once you have enabled VT support from the BIOS, it is a simple matter of downloading and installing Virtual PC and XP Mode from this torrent.

The new XP mode supports the following features:

• USB device support
• Seamless application publishing and launching
• Support for multi-threads
• Clipboard sharing
• Printer redirection
• Smart card redirection
• Drive sharing
• Integration with Windows Explorer
• Known folder integration between host and guest
• Support for higher resolution
• Requires AMD-V or Intel-VT CPU features
• Integration with XP Mode

It’s definitely a virtual computer system done right, as the seamless integration means you won’t notice that the application is running within a virtual computer. It will just pop up and behave more or less exactly like it is running natively on your Windows 7.  However, note that XP Mode is only available for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.

Why XP Mode?

Why run XP Mode? Besides offering you a way to run applications that wouldn’t run using Windows 7 XP Compatibility Mode, you can also use this to run 32-bit versions of applications from a 64-bit computer. An example of this would be engineering software like CATIA, which refuses to run on a 64-bit system unless you purchase the proper version of it.

Happy downloading and good luck with Windows 7.