Things To Do... When You Have Nothing To Do

2006-03-13T23:53:00.000+08:00

8. Try To Earn Some Money

Entrepreneurship (Distributorship) Earn P50,000 with only P7,000 in Capital

WE invite YOU to attend a FREE no-obligation Business Orientation that can help
YOU earn P50,000.

YES, YOU CAN EARN P50,000, and this is not the limit.
YES, IT'S FREE. YOU only need to worry about getting to the orientation
venue.
YES, IT'S NO-OBLIGATION. We'll not compel you to join the business. It'll be
YOUR decision to make and not ours.
YES, YOU CAN BE A DISTRIBUTOR of named brand products that range from food to
shoes and apparel, to health and beauty, to daily consumables, and much more
from those manufactured by San Miguel, Coca-Cola, PureFoods, Monterey, Kobe,
Giordano, and Bossini to name a few.
Becoming a DISTRIBUTOR is EASY. YOU'll only need to three (3) things: P7,000
for the business package, YOUR time, and OUR GROUP effort.
The Business
Orientation will be held at JC Spicecorp, Inc. Ground Floor, Octagon Bldg., San
Miguel Ave., Ortigas on Sunday, March 19, 2006 at 2:00PM. Seats are limited
(first come first serve basis). So, please come early.

ADDED BONUS:
FIRST FIVE (5) PERSONS who'll book a meeting with me for the Sunday Business
Orientation and attend, will receive free Linux CDs.

Please book now!
YOU can reach me at (0920)453-7866 and/or luckyyongao@gmail.com.

2005-12-07T22:39:00.000+08:00

7. Learn a new language

It's always a good idea to learn new things-why not a new language. There's this Pimsleur Language course which I found easy. It's an audio course so there's no need to read anything. I'm now studying Japanese and hope to finish the Basic Course by January. I have the complete lesson from 1 to 90 (basic, intermediate and advance).

A good friend recently gave me an Apacer Audio Steno AS820 MP3 Player with 1GB of memory. It can record FM broadcast, voice, and CD audio directly thru a line-in port. With 1GB of storage I was able to store all the 30 lessons on it.

The Pimsleur Japanese course I got was decoded in Ogg. The AS820 plays MP3 and WMA files. I used Cheetah Audio Converter to convert the Ogg files to MP3.

If you're interested here's the feature of the AS820:
" USB 2.0 Flash Drive
" MP3/WMA Player
" Voice and FM recording" Line-in recording (direct transfer of music/audio from CD or tape)

Thanks Rob for the MP3 player.

2005-12-07T15:46:00.000+08:00

6. Overclock your computer

If you are a guy like me who can’t afford to upgrade or an extreme gamer who wants to juice his computer to the max—overclocking is the answer. Overclocking is a process of running a computer (actually a microchip) beyond its rated speed. You can overclock an Intel Pentium Celeron 300MHz to 500MHz that’s a 167% speed increase. Some overclockers even achieve running their Intel Pentium III 733MHz to 1.0GHz.

Overclocking is not limited to Intel microprocessor. You can practically overclock (even underclock) any microchip manufactured and sold. A microchip’s rated speed is the best speed in which it will function efficiently with no problems. Two things result in overclocking: speed increase and temperature increase. High increase in temperature can result to functional instability and even physical damage. But if you have a good cooling system that keeps the temperature to a norm you won’t have a problem frying your microchip.

There are two things to consider in overclocking: front-side bus frequency (FSB) and clock multiplier. For example an Intel Pentium Celeron 300MHz microprocessor runs on a 66MHz FSB speed and clock multiplier of x4.5 (66MHz FSB x 4.5 multiplier = 297MHz ≈ 300MHz). If you can change the FSB speed to 100MHz you’ve achieve overclocking your computer to 400MHz. Change also the multiplier to x5 you achieve running the computer at 500MHz speed.

Check you motherboard’s manual if you can change the FSB and clock multiplier.

2005-12-05T15:37:00.000+08:00

5. Request for FREE items

“The best things in life are free.” Here are the things I got from the Internet for free:

Ubuntu 5.04 CDs
Ubuntu 5.10 CDs
Re-Open 911 DVD
AutoDesk ruler-calculator (I won this by visiting AutoDesk)
NOAA Ocean Explorer CDs
Microsoft Y2K Update CD
Microsoft Security Update CD
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD
What does the Scripture say? Bible CD

Now, I am waiting for the release of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3. Ubuntu provides updates every 6 months. Ubuntu will be a regular free item I expect to get.

2005-12-04T09:26:00.000+08:00

5. Improve your Windows XP performance

Here’s a list of things you can do to improve Windows XP performance:

Remove unnecessary files and programs
Amount of Random Access Memory (RAM) in your computer is never enough. Windows is a GUI operating system that consumes lots of memory. To keep from running out of memory Windows will use the hard drive as virtual memory. Virtual memory changes size depending on the load of the system. Diminishing hard drive space will limit a good virtual memory management and can slow down the system.

Free hard drive space by deleting old files you no longer need. But it’s a good idea to backup the data first. You can also free hard drive space by removing programs you really don’t use. For example, if you have Microsoft Office and had install with the default settings your system will have a word processor, a presentation program, a spreadsheet and a database program. If you only need Office for word processing you can remove the other application to free hard drive space. Open Add or Remove Programs from Control Panel. Add or Remove Programs list all the programs installed in your system with a use-status (rarely, occasional, etc.). You can try removing programs you rarely or occasionally use.

Defragment your hard drive
File fragmentation is a normal occurrence—you can not avoid it. A badly fragmented hard drive will definitely slow down your system. Windows has a file defragmenter program located in the System Tools. However, exit all running programs including background programs such as anti-virus before you start defragmenting. This will lessen the time of defragmentation which can take hours.

Relocate the Virtual Memory paging file
By default, Windows will place the VM paging file in the drive or partition where the system is located, usually drive C. This drive or partition will undoubtedly get fragmented. A VW on a fragmented drive or partition will work slowly. Relocate the VM paging file on a dedicated drive or partition for better performance. Use System Properties to change the location.

Disable unnecessary services
Services are programs that run at Windows startup. Some of these programs are necessary for proper Windows performance. But some are just add-ons waiting for you to use them. TechRepublic has a PDF download about these services.

Clean Windows system cache
The system cache helps Windows speed up file access by keeping usually or recently used files (temporary files) for quick access. Your browsed history including graphic images and cookies are in one type of system cache—the Temporary Internet Files. These temporary files can accumulate to hundreds of megabytes which can load in your system’s file access time. A little program I like for cleaning the cache is CCleaner.

Disable visual effects
Visual effects eat processor and memory loads. Disabling these effects can improve Windows responsiveness. Open System Properties from Control Panel. Go to Advance, Performance Settings, and Visual Effects. Select Adjust for best performance and apply the changes.

You can also remove your Desktop wallpaper. Your system redraws the screen every time you move an item on the Desktop. Constant redraws eats system resources. If you really like the wallpaper, you can reduce its size. A 640x480 size wallpaper will redraw faster than a 1024x780.

2005-12-03T05:47:00.000+08:00

4. Upgrade your PC

An upgrade does not mean to buy new parts. I upgrade my computer with used items. Used items are cheap. A simple computer upgrade could mean adding RAM, replacing the processor, or video card. You don’t need to upgrade the entire computer—not like I use to do it before.

Our first computer was an AT-286 compatible bought brand new for $278. I traded it in for an AT-386SX for about $100. It broke down and I purchased second hand parts for $37. I sold the computer for $278. Then I bought an Intel Celeron 300 computer for $630. It too broke down and I spent another $37 to fix it. But for $37 I now have an Intel Pentium II 400 computer. Recently I upgraded it to an AMD Duron 800 for $33.

Other second hand items I bought were a monitor, sound card, TV tuner, 3D graphics card, memory modules, speakers, fans, DVD-ROM drive, CD-ROM drive, and a gas-lift chair—all for about $100. I had purchased some of these items online from eBay.com.ph and TipidPC.com. But most I buy from HMR Philippines, Inc.—probably the largest seller of used items in the Philippines. HMR sometimes has promotions. One time I was able to get a free flatbed scanner from them for purchase a computer. Yes! Not only parts. I purchase computer packages from HMR.

2005-12-02T06:28:00.000+08:00

3. Create your own computer fan filter

Last October, I bought a computer case for $26 and it comes with a free keyboard. The computer case has an auxiliary fan on its side panel. It also has openings for two fans at the lower front panel and another opening at the upper back panel. It would be embarrassing not to install additional fans on these openings.

Installing two intakes fans at the lower front panel will pose a problem with dust entering. So I made a couple of fan filters to limit dust accumulating inside the computer case.

I made a fan filter pattern for an 80 mm fan using Corel DRAW. I printed it out, paste it on a board, and cut the board. Voila! A fan filter.

For further details I can email you the pattern and an e-Book I wrote about it and how to improve airflow inside the computer case.

2005-12-02T00:32:00.000+08:00

2. Bargain Hunting

I like to buy things that are cheap because I don’t have a lot of money. My usual bargain hunting routine involves visiting eBay.com.ph and TipidPC.com.

Here are some of the bargains I got from the two websites:

Forever-shake Flashlight $2
Portable counterfeit money detector and flashlight $1.85
Inno3D Tornado GeForce2 MX400 64MB video card $13
LeadTek WinFAST TV2000 XP Deluxe TV/FM tuner card $34
4KUS 16X5H DVD-ROM drive $12
AMD Duron 800 processor and MSI KT2 Combo motherboard $33

2005-12-01T18:50:00.000+08:00

1. Create a Blog

You don’t have to just read others blog—create your own. It’s easy and simple. You just need to have good content and update regularly.