Speccy – Freeware for Gathering System PC Information

Did you know that there is an easy way to figure out the specs on your PC without having to dig through the mess? Your life can be easier using freeware program Speccy. Basically what it does is that it indexes your system, and at a glance, it can tell you about the serial numbers of the devices in your computer, the speed of your CPU, the temperatures of the motherboard, GPU, and more!

For an example screenshot, see below for a simple snapshot of my current computer configuration:

To learn more about the program and to download it, go here.

Auto Shutdown Your PC Using Freeware App AMP WinOFF

Revisions:
9-7-10: Initial release.

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I love to save power on my PC. In fact, I am probably one of those green tech users that turn off the computer when they are not in use. Therefore, it is no surprise that when I have a computer idling, I feel it is being put to waste.

I have a great application that I use for almost a 4+ years now and that is AMP WinOFF. This is a great freeware utility that you can use to shut down your PC based on specific criterion.  For example, let’s say that I am encoding a movie.  When I encode a movie, I know it takes about 99 to 100% of my CPU usage.  The sad part is once the encode is done, my computer just sits there upon hours and hours until I come back and make use of it.

Windows 7 Logon screen boring?

Are you tired of the default Windows 7 Logon? Well I’m about to quickly show you how to change it like I did.

lets get stuck in:

1. Download the Windows 7 Logon Changer.

2. Extract and run the Win7LogonBackgroundChanger.exe file (or install it from the setup folder contained inside) .

3. Click on any of the available images in the preview bar at the top or click on Choose a folder to open and add images of your own to the preview bar to select from instead.

4. When you have selected the image you want click on the Apply this background button.

5. When it’s done, click on OK.

7. You’re log on screen is now changed. You can press Ctrl+Alt+Del to test it.

8. When done, close the Windows 7 Logon Background Changer program.

If you cannot read the text there is also options to make the text brighter or darker, a little bid of fiddling might be required to get the best results.

And there you go, I know this is a small post but a handy one at least.

Computer Memory – Is Usage An Issue?

In our current time, computers with 4 GB of ram and a 500 GB hard drive is nothing to be amazed at. It’s something we see in stores, catalogs, and television ads. Yet, when I traverse online blogs and forums, I find that people still debate over a major computer issue: memory usage. Many articles on Lifehacker feature desktop modifications using tools like Rainmeter, Samurize, docks, launchers, Emerge Desktop Shells, and other features. Other programs like anti-virus protection, firewalls, and basic plugins are on nearly everyone’s computer. So should you keep things clean and worry about memory usage?

When you boot up into Windows, a bunch of programs can start up right away. Every program that you install typically will have some start up feature. Maybe an updater or a tiny bootloading script which creates a process that takes up memory. All these processes eat up precious memory. Or is it precious? Let’s take a look.

With many new computers having 2 or more GB of ram, processes shouldn’t be too much of an issue for most users. If you are a relatively normal user, then you won’t have to worry too much about most programs killing your memory. You can easily do daily tasks and have a cursory programs running in the background as well as the important ones (firewall, anti-virus/spyware, etc.) After a point, however, it is best to keep the processes down to a minimum, to ensure that you are able to use your computer effectively. By that I mean, not having to wait a long time for a program to load up.

If you do more hardcore computer usage, such as video/image/sound edited, gaming, and other tasks that require more memory than basic tasks, it is vital to keep the computer as clean as possible RAM wise. Turning off all unnecessary start ups

On to the hard drive. This is one memory space you should NEVER worry about. With so many ways to back up and save your data, you should only get rid of files if they are useless or if you don’t have time to save them elsewhere. Invest in DVDs blanks, a burner, a flash drive (or multiple), and/or external hard drives. Save all those extra files elsewhere. If you can, put things like photos, movies, and media that you won’t use all the time on an external source. What I like to do is have a main partition on my computer’s hard drive that is not extremely large. I periodically clean out useless files, back up important data, and move other files to different storage spaces. The other partitions on the hard drive are used for this purpose. Versatile prefers to do this as well. Partitioning the drives also allows you to multi-boot with different operating systems.

So the final word: If you have a computer with less than 2 GB of ram, start worrying about keeping the computer clean so you can work fast and use it to the max. If you have 2+ GB of ram, you don’t have to worry much. You have the power to enjoy programs running in the background to enhance your experience. If you work with programs that need more memory, either keep clean, or turn off the unneeded programs to clear up that memory.

For tips on keeping your pc clean, get a hold of newsletter issue 1, search the blog, or email an author for more information.

Voltaire.

A Day Away From The World… of the Internet.

In spirit of Personal Experience Week, I decided to jump onto the bandwagon and write something about the world. Well, hopefully with a bit of focus.

These past few weeks, months even, have been hectic, for me, for Versatile, for life in general. I realized how attached I was to the computer. I literally needed it for everything, to relax, to work, to communicate with the rest of the world. I realized that the computer wasn’t really helping my life. So I did a little experiment of my own, to see what would happen if I tweaked my life a bit.

Popularity of Gaming

In our times, games are released onto the torrent tracks within days of official releases. Versatile1 and I thought about this and had a debate. What would happen to popular games in a few years? Will seeding die down to 1 or 2 hardcore people looking for a few ratio points? Or will it continue?

V1’s approach to the matter was: If you want it, get it a few months after torrential release. (WE DON’T ADVOCATE THIS, THIS IS PURELY HYPOTHETICAL). Of course, this is a bit silly, as torrents (which are viewed publicly) show that games from even 10 years ago are still “popular” as ever!

Thinking about this, it was logical to assume that seeding on games would die out sometime. But the real question was, when would this happen?

So we came up with a new theory. For console gaming, seeding dies out within years for most games, quicker for less popular games. But for pc gaming, only fad games and low popularity games lose seeds fast. No one wants to seed what won’t be downloaded. For popular games and hot games, seeds will be available for years to come.

Why is this? Is console game less popular than pc gaming? Personally, I don’t think so. The universality of the pc makes it able to compete with the game consoles.

Consoles, on one hand, are popular when they first come out. Lots of hype, ads, lines at stores. As time goes on, it is commonplace to have some sort of console because of the mob mentality, but the name of the console becomes just a name. The next gen consoles start to overshadow the old ones. Take a look at the Wii, Xbox 360, and the PS3.

While the next-gen consoles replace the older ones, game support for the older consoles disappears. Thus, seeds start to disappear and people move onto the new bandwagon. Add onto this the fact that so many console games come out and seeds die fast anyway, finding things for old consoles becomes hard.

Meanwhile, pc games are universally tied to an operating system. That means new games are linked to hardware which can easily be replaced at low costs. Many games work on multiple OSes as well. When a new console comes out, some games might not be compatible.

Thus why our theory seems to stand. What do you think?
Post your word!
Voltaire.

If You Own A Computer…

Then make sure to check that you update the anti-virus definition files.

Taken from Vapid2323 via Digg

Frets On Fire – The Free Guitar Hero

Frets on Fire

“Frets on Fire is a game of musical skill and fast fingers. The aim of the game is to play guitar with the keyboard as accurately as possible.” – Source

Frets on Fire is an amazing program that allows you to play a Guitar Hero like game on your computer without spending $80-100 on the guitar and game. This game is free and guess what! You can put ANY songs you want on it! I have found a good collection of songs you can download for it and the link is below. As for the game, a Free download can be found below as well.

FoF Download

A Good Collection of Songs to use with FoF

Enjoy rocking out on your keyboard!

~Musicmasteria

[Game Ending] Crysis

With the release of Crysis for PC only a few days old, we found the complete game ending for you to watch. Be warned! This is and will always be a spoiler!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Enjoy! (Take a break from reading)

[Game Preview!] Gears Of War (PC)

Yes, the GoW PC edition was supposedly released today, so we have a special preview for you:

As cracks come out, we might even have links for you!