What’s the worst that can happen, the cap that was installed this year will fail? So what? The price is sure to go back up. I know its wrong but, I think BP is just one of those companies that are just “too big to fail”. Any money that they use to clean up will surely be used as tax write-offs.

All im saying is that if anyone is going to make money off of this oil spill, why not jump on the band wagon?

*Im not a financial expert so don’t listen to my advice, however, if you do, and you get rich, be sure to give me a kick back

Greatest Closer of All Time

When looking for a new phone some of the things I look at are screen size, screen resolution, CPU and RAM. While all of these things are very important to me, they are not what finally make me choose one phone over another. I find the Operating System to be the most important thing when choosing a new phone. As of right now, there are 5 major operating systems. The leading 3 when looking at eye candy until now have been the iPhone OS, Android, and webOS. In the background are Windows Mobile and Blackberry. While the later two are no slouches when it comes to market share, they are primarily considered to be business phones. They don’t have the eye candy and flare that the iPhone, Android or webOS possess. They just do what they do in a simple caveman style manner. No bells and whistles, just the tools to get things done. While they do those things very well, they do not appeal to the average consumer. The average Joe is looking for a phone that is shiny and pretty. This is why Windows Mobile has been loosing market share to other Operating Systems at a rapid pace. This is where Windows Mobile 7 comes into play.

Picture from the Microsoft Website

Windows Mobile 7 was finally introduces today. There were many speculations and mock up concept designs in the wild but none of it was confirmed. It was finally showcased today at Mobile World Congress. So far, from reading a few forums and news articles, the response towards it seems to be very positive. If you saw it for the first time today, you would never guess that it was made by Microsoft (That is unless you had played with a Zune HD before). The whole things is composed of big text, big pictures, and a lot of finger swiping. It is definitely based off of the Zune HD designs. I own a iPod Touch but I will admit that the Zune HD offers a better music experience, which is the reason that I am excited that WinPhone 7 implements the Zune HD music experience into it.

So, with this release, I think that Windows is back in the mobile OS game. It looks like it could replace someones iPhone or Android device without leaving them missing their old phone. One main thing I will be looking forward to seeing is how many apps there will be available for this new OS. As of right now, im guessing that whatever apps are on the Zune HD will be fully compatible with this new Microsoft OS but that is not much. Apps are what set the iPhone apart from all of the other operating systems. The Apple App Store has pretty much any app that you could ever want. The Android Marketplace is also growing very fast and has all of the main apps that you could want on the iPhone. The introduction of this new OS means that it wont be backwards compatible with the thousands of apps already available on the current WinMo system.

Anyway, im glad to see that there will be more options to choose from in the future of Phone OS’s. I was really planning on switching from WinMo to Android (HTC Suersonic looks AMAZING!) but the introduction of WinPhone 7 might make me wait and see how it all plays out.

Half a year since I updated this site. I changed the theme yesterday to this, I got bored of the other one. I made a few minor changes to this one. My goal is still to learn enough about web dev to make my own personal theme, not just modify other peoples themes. I guess this would be as good a time to start learning about that stuff than ever since im not working (Winter season+Bad Economy=No HVAC work) and im only taking 2 classes this Winter semester (Econ and Intro to Computers). I guess its time to start looking for tutorials. That’s the awesome things about the Internet though, there are so many different help sites to choose from.  So many resources.

I also want to post a Photoshop tutorial that one of my Ps teachers made for our class, its pretty good. It shows how to set up an ordinary car and make it look like a show car on display. Ill get to that in soon.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE

MoBo:  GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P

Video Card: EVGA GTS 250

RAM: G. Skill 4 GB DDR3 1600

I didn’t do too much research on the parts. Basically, I looked for the CPU, then the MoBo to fit the CPU, and the MoBo decided what kind of RAM I would get. The total for everything came out to be $370, $400 with Taxes.

After I had already chosen the AMD CPU, I found out that many people were having success unlocking the other 2 cores on it. AMD deactivated the cores because some of them were defective. For some reason, many people were getting fully functioning quad cores for the price of this dual core. It is also supposed to be a very good overclocker. Many people are getting 3.8+ on air.

What I got…

As soon as I finished installing all my new parts and windows, I went right into the BIOS to try and unlock the other 2 cores. I put in the settings, saved it, and restarted my computer….it wouldn’t turn on. I had to open up my case and clear the CMOS by removing the jumper. At that point I was very dissapointed. I know its not 100% that you will be able to unlock the other 2 cores but I was feeling very lucky. Unfortunatly no quad core for me, well, for now.

For me, the next best thing to having a quad core is a very high clocked dual core. At stock settings, the 550 BE runs at 3.1 GHz. I have mine running at 3.7 GHz on air right now. I dont want to go too crazy yet. All I did was increase the multiplier and raise the CPU voltage a tiny bit. So far, its running perfectly.

I read a few forums and found out that my hopes for a quad core might not be over. They said that with some tweaks in the BIOS, there is still a chance. Im not gonna try it right away but its nice to know that my dreams of quad core aren’t crushed, yet.

I haven’t had it running very long yet so I dont know what the performance differences are yet. I haven’t installed any games yet to test out the GTS 250 yet, im looking forward to that. One thing that I did plan from the beginning was to go with AM3. The reason is, since I wasn’t spending a whole lot of money right now, I wanted room to upgrade. AM3 supports DDR3 and future AM3 CPU’s. So far, im very pleased with the CPU. Im planning on getting an aftermarket CPU cooler so I can overclock some more. 4 GHz, here I come!

Math————————B

English———————B

CISN(networking)——–B

CNET(PC Hardware)—–A

Since all the classes were full on my registration date, im going to have to go to school this Monday to see if anyone dropped any of the classes that I wanted. I want to take English and Math but the teachers and students that I have talked to say it might be a bit hard. Who knows…maybe ill take them anyway (If I can find any open classes that is).

I ordered my new monitor (ASUS VH242H) on Tuesday and it arrived on Wednesday. Gotta love Newegg for their super fast shipping. Its funny becuase one day shipping was $40 and I got it free. Loving that. Anyway, I am upgrading from 19″ to 24″. I went to the store to see how big the 24′s were and they looked big but nothing like how it feels right now in front of my face on my desk. This thing is HUGE. I have so much more space which is very useful for Photoshop. I also like having windows side by side and not having to lose any of the information on the page. I haven’t seen how 1080p movies look on it yet but the monitor has a 16:9 aspect ratio so it should look awesome. Here is a picture of it:

I had never purchased an Asus monitor before but I am very plased with this one so far.

Here is a comparison of my old 19″ and my new 24″.

I’m going to have to go on the first day to my English/Math classes to see if there are any spots open since they were full when I tried to register for them. I really hope I can get those classes over with over the Summer semester since it is a short one. Only 6 weeks.

Zune HD

Yankees are rolling right through every team they are facing. As of today, they are leading the AL East by 1.5 games. Red Sox and the Blue Jays are tied right behind the Yankees. Everything is working for them. The pitching has been awesome so far. It seems as if we have a chance to win with every starter the Yankees throw out there. Hughes also pitched an awesome game at Texas against the Rangers. Hopefully he can keep it up, he has to skill to do so for sure. CC is a beast. He is dominating and going deep into games, which you expect your staff ace to do. The offense is scoring tons of runs. They are leading the league in HR’s right now. A-Rod and Tex are the best 3-4 hitting combo in the league right now. Things are looking up for the Yankees. I am sure they will make the playoffs this year. It just feels different. The team seems to have great chemistry. Im hoping for a Yankees v.s. Dodgers World Series this year. That would be great.