French Toast

French Toast is originated from many places or countries with different kinds of variations in the cooking ways. However, in North America it is a very common breakfast among the citizens. The name of French Toast was known as German Toast and the name is modified to pain perdu that brings the meaning of (bread which is lost in egg). As it is stated earlier, different countries or races have different ingredients and this is how the variations are invented. The differences lie in terms of bread surface, cooking method, topping and also the way it is prepared.


In western countries they prefer dipping their “real” French bread into egg and cook by adding sugar, herbs and syrups. In Asian countries such as Hong Kong, the bread can be a normal Sandwich Bread that is usually topped with peanut butter and so on. Furthermore, French Toast is prepared in Portugal, Spain, France and so many other places and this is why the variations kept on adding and new recipes are invented to continue the legacy of this popular dish since 1918. At Sunshine Café, French Toast is prepared in a more Asian manner as the bread will be cooked thoroughly with beaten eggs and the toppings that are used to apply on the bread will be juicy together with aromatic taste. By the time the bread is chewed, the juiciness of the peanut butter, butter and many other toppings will give a magnificent savoury taste. The price of each set of French Toast will be set at RM 3.50.

Signature Items

Traditional Fried Noodles and Mee Hoon

Yoohoo! To Fried Noodles as I am a great fan of Fried Noodles since I was a kid and I usually had a meal of noodles almost 3 or 4 days a week (lol). Without any doubt, I am noodle lover and I am still the one who enjoys this superb dish very much. However, the Traditional Fried Noodles which is served at Sunshine Café won’t be as dark or as spicy as those ones out there. The amount of salt will be slightly reduced due to various reasons. The first reason is that it will not only be eaten just like that as it will be accompanied with the Signature Item Curry Chicken so that it will be the best blend for the enhancement of the fried noodles. With the hot curry sauce that is immersed to the fried noodles, the aromatic taste will arise as the texture begin to turned to more salivating flavours and the taste started to grow more and more scrumptious. The second reason the amount of salt is reduced is to promote a healthy eating habit to everyone in the eating hall.


The fried noodles is prepared with a few types of sauce which is mixed together to form a main sauce so that the taste of the fried noodles will be equalized and spread evenly. The bonus here is that the fried noodles can also be eaten with the side order or the value order of a chicken or fish chop so that you guys may enjoy the greatness of chicken chop with fried noodles combo (there will also be an extra egg to add value to it). Needless to say that we, as Malaysians do like fried and grilled food very much as the taste will be more pleasing to have so many ingredients to be cooked to the extreme degree (which is very “geng”).
This is why many will find out that majority of eateries will serve fried and grilled dishes as the demand is very high among us. Haha, let us “wok” the talk together by keeping this culture as popular as always. The Traditional Fried Noodles can also be served with many other sub orders such as fried Wan Ton, Sausages, Fish or Chicken Balls as well. The noodles are priced at RM 2.50 for small and RM 3.00 for large and side orders can be ordered differently to add different combination values to the dish as you picked.

Signature Items

Signature Item Crispy Chicken Chop

Traveling around the country in the aim to seek a better western food which doesn’t only exhibits splendor taste but also sounds reasonable in terms on monetary value might be a tedious work. As for the chicken chop dish, it can be found in most of the western restaurants with decorative such as cabbages, sliced tomatoes, cucumber are put to enhance the attractiveness and there will be presence of French fries to complete the perfect dish. Many people from all walks of life love eating chicken chop regardless various cooking techniques like Oriental, Maryland and so on.


At Sunshine Café, the chicken chop will be fried till it is golden crispy on the texture of the coating. This coating must be done by carefully chosen ingredients to ensure that it will never be too hard when it is exposed to air and not to be too soft as it will be lack of crisp and crunchy feel. Thus a good mixture of different types of flour in the correct proportion will be the ideal choice to prepare a delicious chicken chop. Breadcrumbs is another good alternative which can increase the crispiness level of the chicken coating but it will be troublesome sometimes as it is easily fried to charred if the portion of breadcrumbs and temperature level is not carefully determined. The greatness of a piece of chicken chop lies beneath the marinating method used (we are dealing with herbs and spices here ^.^)

An overcooked chicken chop will never output a perfect chicken chop as the meat inside will be over-fried, leaving it rough and loss of tenderness. That is why many people who cooked at home will never get the best result out of it as the kitchen equipment is put into test. Using a non-stick frying pan will consume a great deal of time and many people would have chosen this to fry chicken and fishes as it provides a non-stick surface underneath it so that the meat won’t stick and making it charred. Some people may use stainless steel to fry it and some may have hard time figuring how to resolve the matter by having thoughts such as “ is it good to put more oil to prevent the chop from sticking to the pan ?”. This is even worse and try to imagine actually you swallow that great amount of oil portion and try to consider how “healthy” it is. Thus, the chicken chop will be best done using deep-fryers as it doesn’t only prevent pan sticking problem but also makes sure that the temperature control will be maintained very high and stable so that the chicken or fish will be equally cooked in all directions, preventing charred results that might be hazardous to our health.

Moreover, the sauce for every bite of the chicken chop will be extremely essential so that every chunk of chicken will be savoured with sauce. There will be options of Black Pepper, Thai, Herbal, Mushroom and also the Tomato sauce which will be served with the order of the customer. This gives a golden opportunity for the people who liked to eat chicken chop in their own ways instead of eating only with the original tomato sauce. Moreover, the chicken chop will be served together with Nasi Lemak, Traditional Fried Noodles, or French Fries pricing reasonably well at RM 8.50.

System Resources and Speed Optimization

System Resource is one of the most common issues which happen among the computers from all ages, regardless of Pentium I or Pentium C2D. This is because resources are eventually having nothing to do with processor speed. The processor speed is the ability to run certain programs which are usually graphic drawing, multimedia production and of course, the 3D games. When we are talking about System Resources, we are dealing with RAM (Random Access Memory) which is the memory chipsets that are installed on the PC motherboard.

In years ago when I was using my old PC, it has a 128 MB ram only and the OS ran is Windows 98 SE. I remembered the obstructive moments when I open many programs at once and keep them running on the desktop. The applications include ICQ, mIRC, Winamp, Internet Explorer, and update the anti-virus definition at the same time. At first, they performing fairly slow but are still productive. As time went by, more resources are consumed by the PC and the message “The computer system is running out of memory” popped up and demanding me to close more applications so that the PC will be performing as normal. To my dismay, I had attempted closing almost application but I can still feel the PC lagging as I could hardly point my mouse to explore around the desktop. Sometimes, I might even observe some trails of the mouse pointer while I didn’t turn the trails effect on. This is called memory leak. The fix this problem, we need to get to the matter of roots which is the memory leak. To solve it, it is recommended for us to shut down the PC and let it reboot so that it can regain the memory resources which almost depleted due to the heavy duty applications running just now. From this point, I had learnt that each application is programmed and they need memory resources in order to carry out their activities. As a result, in order for the PC to run on many applications at the same time, they are quite a few methods of doing so without hurting the PC or the user (lagging system will be frustrating).

One of the methods is to turn off the auto-startup functions of each application which is working on the taskbar (near the time). Normally, we can notice that there are Anti-Virus, Volume, Winamp Agent, QuickTime, JAVA, Download Manager or when worse got worst the Auto-Login ICQ or other messaging software. So, disabling the auto-startup will definitely improve the system to achieve an optimal performance because each application or even a small piece of icon needs memory for their existence. The procedure is as easy as ABC, right-click each icon and go to the settings/preferences/configuration (terms which are usually used might vary according to each software or application). Then find the dialog box of “Auto-login/startup” to disable it permanently. Normally, the saved changes will only take effect once the system is rebooted. Frantically, some of the applications are too stubborn to be disabled so this requires some tricks from the power user to lock them from appearing again. Move your mouse pointer and click on the Start button, click Run and type “msconfig” and approach for the OK button. A new window will pop up indicating the Startup applications on Microsoft Windows, from there align the mouse pointer and drag the name tab of the particular application to get a better view of the overall name before making any mistakes in canceling their operations.

The main quest of this operation is to turn off or uncheck the boxes of the apps which are not so “useful” for the permission of working on the desktop. Please be cautious that denying some of the apps will leave your PC no better performance but serious shortcomings. This happens when some of the important apps like system settings, anti-virus agents, and certain files are required for the Windows to operate properly. So, we need to do it wisely so that the result obtained will absolutely enhance the productivity of Windows and other applications running as well.

Disk Defragmenter is another integrated application for cleaning and managing the “blocks” of each files and folders of the entire HDD (Hard Disk Drive). Normally, we can find Disk Defragmenter on Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and the Disk Defragmenter. The term of “defragment” is the process of placing and organizing the files on the storage device by putting them back on the contiguous area available. This heavy process usually takes a lot of time and the time might vary according to the size of the HDD. This is why some of the people articulated that splitting the HDD into two or more drives will divide the HDD space into a few fragments to ease the user to defragment when it is necessary and thus making the job less weary. Defragmenting will aid in the PC performance as when the files and folders (inclusive of sub-folders) are arranged in a tidy manner, searching the files or locating the application executable files will take less time (approx 3 or 4 secs) and this will help make the PC less draggy and hence the PC performance will be raised. I would recommend using the Diskeeper software for the best defragmenting results as this software also came together with a clean up schedule for the user to set the time for the PC to start defragment automatically or the actual date to prompt the user to clean up the fragmented files.

Another way of speeding up the PC to reserve more RAM for higher productivity is to balance between the performance and appearance on Windows XP. This step can be executed by sequels of Start, Control Panel, System, Advanced and Performance Options. With the new window, the user is allowed to select which is necessary in the performance and appearance settings. Unchecking the boxes which are associated with the image quality/ 3D effects of the desktop cosmetic values will give you more RAM and your performance on other jobs will be boosted to a higher degree.

The last resort is to invest some money on the PC which is to spend some cash to get better and more RAM bars to increase the overall RAM so that with the abundant quantity of memory available, more heavy-duty tasks can be performed at high efficiency. Nevertheless, to insert more RAMs onto a piece of motherboard will lead the user to study more about the capabilities of the motherboard beforehand. This is because, RAMs are classified into many types which are the DDR, DDR2 and DDR3. Each type of RAM has its own fixture for each slot available on the motherboard. Therefore, I would say that the differences between the RAMs are actually related to the FSB (Front Side Bus) of the functionality of the RAM. Thank you. (-.-)

SE K800i CyberShot

I bought the SE K800i (K series) in November 2006 and it was the first time I was using an SE cell phone. Before this I had tried laying my hands on Nokia, Samsung and Motorola and this is my first encounter with SE. Is it good or is it awful? Well, eventually I got attracted with the inner beauty of the phone as the outer appearance seemed to be too bulky and heavy to the modern people, especially girls – who prefer setting their eyes on the hand phones which are slim and sleek enough. As for me, I am not saying that I go against the cute hand phones, but I just couldn’t press on the shiny tiny keypads which are so close apart and yet the dimension of each key is so mini which led me to pressing four keys simultaneously when I was trying to press one (maybe my thumb is too fat and I just don’t wanna admit it, aiks…). So, SE K800i is renowned for its capabilities of shooting a 3.2 Megapixel picture and it promises a crystal clear picture and it offers high detail with crisp effect images (according to the cyber reviews). The copyrighted CyberShot^TM is already carved on the front surface of K800 which speaks everything for itself – it is indeed a camera phone. The distinctive camera function is packed with a Xenon Flash technology which generates high power flash beam when capturing pictures in dark and shadowy areas. However, to me capturing using the flash beam all the times will cause the phone to run out of battery in short as the phone draws more power to deliver such a bright wavelength. Furthermore, I am also keen to knowing that the camera is bundled with an auto-focus function which helped the user to capture fine and non-shaky objects by calibrating the focal point so that he can obtain the picture in the best conditions. Pressing the camera shutter button on the right spine will hold the picture for secs and once the system is ready, red light will be blinking to indicate that the picture is ready to be taken. To complete the whole package, functions such as Macro ( the ability to capture something which is very near to the lens without smudgy effects), Image Stabilizer, Red-Eye reduction are implemented in the photo-imaging toolset.

However, the negative drawback of this phone is that the sound quality is fairly poor. The generated sound is quite clear but lacks of bass. There is a function of Stereo Widening in the Music Player settings but triggering it hardly made any changes. I had tried to improve the bass value by calibrating in the equalizer window by pulling the bass value as high as possible. As a result, the sound is almost the same, high treble low bass. I guess this is because this phone is placed in the list of K series, and not W series. In the W series (Walkman phone) such as W800 and W810i, it came with a bass enhancement feature and again, W810i is built as a music jukebox where W is the copyrighted Walkmanphone products for range of SE phones.

Below is my picture taken using my friend's Samsung SGH-U600 (10.9mm thickness) and edited using ACDsee 8.0 :-

I don’t really like the memory storage as it is too small to hold abundant of MP3, MP4, Themes, Games, Java apps and Images. 64 MB is just enough to store 10 full 192kbps MP3 files (size might vary according to the length of the track). As normal, the higher the bit rate level of the MP3 file, the greater space is consumed to keep them in the phone. By that time I realized it, I went to Low Yatt Plaza to get to know the price for SE Memory Card M2 and it didn’t surprise me as the price can get me another ordinary MP3 player (No brand) which costs around RM 130 for just 256 MB capacity if I wasn’t mistaken. There is no one to blame as the phone was still new and the M2 memory card isn’t high in demand as the Pro Duo’s popularity overwhelmed other memory cards.

Below is my picture taken using K800i and edited using ACDsee 8.0 :-

However, the display of 256k TFT colour screen did impress me and the SE themes are very attractive and lively as there is animated wallpaper in the provided original themes. Each theme came with different interactivity inclusive of the buttons, selected icon effects, menu and even the SMS text screen. These themes are available for download for free at selected websites. However, the “why pay more” is quite a contradictory name because the themes which are purchased online using credit cards usually arrived in a form that won’t disappoint the K800i user. This is because; the free ones are generally created by anonymous people who held the interest of designing their own themes. Nevertheless, some themes are quite special though.

The A2DP function of K800i comes into handy when user wished to connect the phone using Bluetooth wireless technology to be paired with Bluetooth headphones or other products with the same Bluetooth profile. Secondly, this is very useful when the user is driving while he received urgent calls. So, using a Bluetooth headset is also another key advantage for the Bluetooth connectivity.

The PlayNow^TM allows the user to surf the net without using a web browser to subscribe and download the latest MP3 songs available in the market in just 3 clicks. User is allowed to try the sample song titles before decided to pay for it. The price tag is clearly stated on screen and if the user planned of buying it, a “Yes” button will do the rest and the amount of charges will be directed to the mobile phone bill.

Most significantly, 3G connectivity is available in K800i and this phone constructed with an integrated secondary camera which allows video conferencing too. With the connection speed of 384 kbps, web browsing, photo blogging, MP3 downloading and video calling will perform better than ever.

Apple iPod Touch

After all the glorious years of producing MP3 players around the corner, Apple came up with the brilliant black machine (as black as the latest Creative Zen). Introducing the new Ipod Touch (I will refer it as Touch) gives the MP3/4 fans a the biggest joy and anticipation with the new Wi-Fi and Safari internet browser. If these two do not make a big hit in your shopping list, experience the real indulgence of the 3.5” inch Multi-Touch screen with resolution up to 480 x 326 pixels. After all this while many MP4 players are launched with the screen size that never go beyond 1 or 2” would never cater the needs of the music fans that prefer watching their favourite video clips whenever they go traveling in bus, trains, walk or even in their sleep. Touch is something new in the sense of the capacity, which offers 8 GB and 16 GB respectively. It is very normal for HDD-based portable players, but we are talking about flash-based now and this is an eye-opener for every one of us. The wireless technology is according to 802.11 b/g wireless connection and thus allowing the music files to be downloaded or transferred from another portable mp4 player in short time. This MP4 player is the next big thing as not only the screen size is big but the screen is also capable of producing high-detailed and crisp picture quality compared to the other MP4 players. Furthermore, viewing the entire photo album using Touch will seriously help to reduce the feelings of loneliness for the family member who went overseas to further their studies or expand their business.

In the release of its first batch, minor negative critics are directed towards Touch as there are some bugs that affect the system when the user is using the Safari browser while listening to music files. Plus, Touch is not quite “friendly” with the attachment of many in-ear headphones. However, these are the minor defects that will never stop the crazy fans from grabbing Touch in the nearest Apple store. Future fixes are foreseeable and firmware might be released to cope with the bugs.

I never see Touch in person but I would be very pleased to have the chance of listening to the sound quality of it when it is paired up together with a noise-canceling headphone. Noise-canceling headphones had started to draw the crowd around the corner as most of the students or working people are turned back when they planned of listening music on their MP3 players in a bus, LRT, airplane or even an evening walk. This is because even though the previous headphones are built solid and improved in ambient noise from the surroundings, the distortion or noise are still lingering in the ears of the music fans. So, noise-canceling headphones are invented and there is a chipset implemented inside the headphone and powered using li-thium batteries that can withstand long hours.

Each time before we try to get something for us or for our loved ones, we will usually seek the best warranty and service for that particular product. So, iTunes is here and be at their best service for the users to subscribe the latest mp3 and download it around the clock. This means, the iTunes is operating 24 hours in 365 days. This is absolutely convenient for the people who are working late shifts to be able to get their hands-on the latest songs and be the first one to rate it!

iPod Touch is also very user-friendly and offers more interactivity compared to the 1^st and 2^nd generation of the Ipod Nano. Browsing the music, video and photo album is learnable at your fingertips. As usual, the Touch came together with the software and standard earphones I guess but it is recommended that getting the best earphone/headphone to be paired with the jukebox will give you the promising quality that u will never expect. Oops! Did I miss out something? Yeah, just want to say that Touch can play 22 hours of audio and 5 hours of video.

Speaking of the artistic design, full black and with the dimension of 0.3” thickness, many of us will never expect the storage capacity can go 8 and even 16 GB. It is totally amazing and with the built-in Wi-Fi support, everyone can get the latest mp3 songs wirelessly when it comes to music. I wish I can have one of these glorious portable audio players. Thank you. (0.0)

Bluetooth vs Wi-Fi

Bluetooth is a short range wireless technology for connecting different devices or matching up among the electronic products with Bluetooth connection. Bluetooth is generated using the radio frequency and the connection is unlicensed. In other words, setting up a password for protection is unnecessary in most of the Bluetooth-ready devices as the high level security is not needed. However, to gain access into other people’s cellphone usually will request the user to key in the specified password to set up the OBEX transfer files. Once the user keyed in the password correctly, he will be entitled to view the data shown in the other person’s hand-phone. To transfer the files, both of the users must come to an agreement by win-win situation.

Bluetooth is different than Wi-Fi although some people might say that their operations are based on the same radio frequency. Yes, this statement is very concise, but the characteristic among themselves are different from each other although the functionality is very similar. As for Bluetooth, the furthest reception for connectivity is usually much shorter than Wi-Fi which is in the range of 1-10 metres and the maximum range is 100m. Unlike Bluetooth, Wi-Fi connection can go beyond 100 metres using 802.11 G/N connectivity. For instance, a Wi-Fi consumer can use his laptop in the dining hall to view the wireless networks available around the house while the router is placed in the study room on the second floor. In other words, the range of the Wi-Fi connectivity can be very far from the source (router/modem) and the position can be a few blocks away (a few walls will never come between the connectivity).

Secondly, setting up a Bluetooth connection is very simple compared to the Wi-Fi connection as the user needs to purchase a router like LinkSys, NetGear and D-Link with built-in modem (advisable) and learnt the methods of configuring the router in the OS. Normally, the connection procedures are already bundled together with the modem during the purchase. If they are not inclusive in the box set, have no fear as maybe the installation manual is already saved as a PDF format in the CD given in the box. I am not quite sure why, but maybe the manufacturer attempted to cut down the cost on the product by not printing them in booklets or guides. With the newly bought router, the user is expected to plug-in the router into the network port of the PC and install the drivers on the CD. Later, entering 192.168.1.1 (for D-Link) and 192.168.0.1 (for NetGear) in the search bar of the following web browser (regardless of Mozilla FireFox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari and so on). Consequently, configuring the router via the web page is done step-by-step dependent on the local network settings. Username and Password are the key items in the content materials. DSP and the IP (IP address is one of the Internet protocol for identifying a particular PC or domain name on Internet) addresses are also compulsory for setting up a LAN/WAN.

Furthermore, the security level for Wi-Fi connection must be taken heavily as most of the laptop users have a lot of important information related to business or law content stored in their notebooks. So in order to lock the information before getting hacked by other computer freaks, setting up a password database will be a very wise idea. Moreover, the protection is also recommended to disallow other people around the area to log into the internet using the user’s account. Unlike Wi-Fi, Bluetooth speed is not fast enough if the user wish to transfer bulky data from one PC to another PC via Bluetooth connectivity.

However, when short range connectivity is demanded, Bluetooth is more than enough. This fact can be proven as with the new released of the latest video game consoles with Bluetooth controllers. These controllers are operated using the Bluetooth reception which is located in console transmitter.

Bluetooth adapter or USB dongle is quite expensive in the early release of the Bluetooth support on the cell-phones a few years ago. People prefer transferring the files via Bluetooth compared to the traditional IrDA which needs two devices with Infra Red dongle. So, the IrDA’s connectivity is not only pricey but also not convenient as the Infra signal will be interrupted if the dongle is displaced or moved carelessly by the user. Furthermore, the data transfer speed will put a headache to the user if the user is transferring MP3 files and the connection broke up in the midst of the uploading process.

Finally, I would say that there are pros and cons in every aspect of connectivity as stated above but the tech is improving into more and more advance stage when WiMax and WiMedia are in high demand.

Epson CX5500 (AIO)

I recently bought the Epson CX 5500 which costs around RM260 at the PC Fair. The main point of attraction to me is the capabilities of printing 5760 x 1440 dpi (the resolution for printing which means dots per inch) and the black shiny surface (full black finish is my favourite colour). Furthermore, what else can we expect from RM260 to get an AIO (all-in-one) which comes together with a printing,scanning and a copying device all under one machine. Before setting my eyes on this model, I had already made a survey on Canon, Lexmark, HP and Samsung.

I had already kicked Lexmark AIO series out of my list as the design is too dull and I was quite suspicious about the AIO price tag as it seemed to be too low and it even came with a fax function. Moreover, the price for the ink cartridge is quite heavy to me compared to the Epson’s INKdividual technology which places the price for each ink cartridge sold separately which only costs around RM22. If the user knows the way to get cheaper prices at retail shop, he might even got it for RM19 or RM20. The INKdividual also topped the reasons in my shopping list as it is a budget-savvy material to me. I can change the ink cartridge separately which means I only replace the one that needs to be replenished while leaving the others to dry out first. This method not only saves big bucks in my pocket but also maintain the durability of the ink. Sometimes, ink might get dried up or unable to perform as usual as the user didn’t print for months. So, replacing the ink individually will maintain the “freshness” of the ink and also more economical.

With the DURAbrite technology unleashed, printing gets better and better and the printouts on papers will make it water-resistant. It was displayed where the printout was dipped into the water bottle and the ink is still fresh and vibrant. The DURAbrite afford to make the printout last for years to come.

To me, the printing speed is relatively slow compared to normal 1-in-1 printers. I am not quite sure why is this happening but you can write me a comment to guide me on this. Hehe…. As for the scanning quality, it is a 600 x 1200 dpi and the copier button ease all the pain as there is no need to turn on the pc and connect the printer via USB cable for copying colour sheets as it is too tedious sometimes.

The paper feed method isn’t my cup of tea as it generates fairly high noise during the paper feed time. Maybe it is due to the friction force and the printing noise level is about 47dB which is quite high when someone does the printing job in the middle of the night. The Canon AIO Pixma MP160 price is competitive to Epson CX5500 and the only thing that drew me away from it is the silver finish which I am actually quite bored of that colour for years already. I am not quite sure about the printing quality that the Canon Pixma MP160 can give but I guess it is a quite powerful machine as I am also using Canon Pixma ip1000 at home.

Overall, I would say that the Epson CX5500 is sometimes quite frustrating when it comes to the printing speed and the noise level created. However, with the price of RM260, I found out that it is quite OK (laughing foolishly…..).

Mozilla FireFox 2.0

Mozilla Firefox has been a popular web browser in the new era today. It only takes FF (FireFox) for a while to stand as the No.1 web browser in CNET Editor’s Review. With the new release of Mozilla FireFox 2.0, the internet junkies had gain a peace of mind as the internet browser is more secured than ever before. Plus, more add-ons and extensions are created from the people around the world to enhance not only the interactivity of the freeware but also the functionality and the practicality of the entire program.

I started to use FireFox since long time ago when I found out that it is less vulnerable to malware or viruses. Furthermore, the loading time for the software is slightly faster compared to the Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0. I recalled the problematic times when I used to surf the net using IE. Once in the blue moon a message will pop-up in front of your pc indicating that one of the IE script is crashed and requested me to decide either clicking the Send Report or Don’t Send. I got irritated when all my tabs and important website addresses went missing when I tried using the IE after the incident. I had to spend some time to recollect my mindset in order to acquire what I had lost from the previous searches. As for the FF2, this is no longer trouble as the FF2 now consists of a function which is similar to System Restore Point in some of the highly-rated anti-spyware applications nowadays. In the brand new Restore Session in FF2, it will be able to track and restore the latest tabs which the user was placing before leading to the browser crashing process. So, this is actually so convenient as the user will never get more frustrated as to force himself to break his own brain by recalling those websites he was surfing.

The spell checking system is upgraded and better than ever. With the usage of this feature, the user will never waste another minute by preparing a big encyclopedia beside the laptop while handling some bombastic words on the internet or hesitate to type in the words in their blogs when they had thoughts and the anticipated feelings that the word is a misspelled word. With the aid of this new feature, blogging and searching will never put the user down.

The friendliness of FF2 is also incomparable when various OS users are worried that the utilization of other operating systems such as Mac and Linux will obstruct them from laying their hands on this fine internet browser. Yes, absolutely no obstacle, FF2 is supported on these entire operating systems well.

Before the launch of FF2, I was basically using the previous version which of 1.5. That time I decided not to make further upgrades as I am not quite sure whether the process of uninstalling and upgrading will be done without any heavy effort. However, when I tried to try on the add-ons and extensions for the FireFox, some of the add-ons require the latest Mozilla FireFox version which is the 2.0 onwards. So, it left me no choice but to brave myself to click the FireFox2 setup icon. I found out that it wasn’t as bad as I thought and the process ran well without any circumstances. It automatically helped to wash out the old version and kept the users’ bookmarks and important info alone in the folder.

I began to like this masterpiece as it also assisted me in transforming all the Chinese characters in to English by installing the “translator” plug-in. It came into handy when I heard that Maxthon is another web browser which performed quite well when it comes to language support and translation. With the new plug-in that works jointly with FF2, I never encounter anymore problem when searching the websites that are encrypted in Chinese or many other foreign languages as the new plug-in will also work by putting up another tab for the translation. So, any changes that are unsaved on the web page before the translation will be reserved as the previous tab.

Themes also put a facelift to the FF2 web browser. Many themes are released for free downloads and there are a lot more to come from categories of OS, Miscellaneous, Compact, Modern and many more. These themes come in screenshots and previews so that the users are allowed to steal a few glances of the brand new look before downloading them to their flavour. There is also one theme called Vista-aero which transform your web browser interface into the IE7 which is quite alike.

Another famous add-on is the Forecastfox which already speaks for itself. This add-on will generate another status bar below and will display a few icons indicating the current weather, temperature, and also for the following days. These measurements are taken from the Accuweather. Configuration of this add-on is as easy as ABC, just type in the area code or you can even search in the list to specify your area and let it do the rest for you.

Firebug is also notable which opens a programming console indicating the HTML and CSS codes for the current page. This gives the user more knowledge when dealing with web page materials.

All these add-ons can be found at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ and they are free for download. Thank you (^.^)

BluRay and HD-DVD

The name of tremendous BluRay disc was derived from the using of the Blue Violet laser wavelength technology in producing the BluRay. In our traditional ( I dun really like using this term) CDs and DVDs, they are all created using the red laser technology and they differ not only in terms of the colour but as well as the value of the wavelength. The BR (short form for BluRay) is designed and engineered using 405nm wavelength ( nano means x10^-9) whereas the CDs and DVDs are manufactured using the 780 and 650nm respectively. The hypothesis is proven to sound true as the shorter the wavelength the more digital information can be stored in a disc. I am not quite sure whether this applies to every one of us, but my opinion is the storage capacity doesn’t matter. The main concern is the functionality of BR to store and the ability to playback high-definition video and audio clips. There is already a controversial battle between the BR and the HD-DVD format in our world today, and my own opinion is storage will never become the factor of victory between them. Ok, lets start the engine! As everybody knows the limitation size of the DVD5 (Single-layered) ceased at 4.7 GB while the DVD9 (Double-layere) stops at 8.5 GB. Speaking of the storage capacity of thr 4.7 GB DVDR, the majority of the DVD-Rs do not really allow the user to burn data which exceeds 4.45 GB and above. The answer is inevitable, but it is definitely true according to my friend who is an pc expert. Using the Nero Burner 7.0 Ultra Edition allows you to over-burn the data on the particular CD once the system configurations are tuned up accordingly. But over-burning is not advisable as it will hurt your important files on the CD. If the case worsened, every info on the CD will be crashed and damaged.

Type of media storage	Single-layered	Double-layered
BluRay	25 GB	50 GB
DVD	4.7 GB	8.5 GB
CD	655 MB - above	Unknown

The BR can store up to 9 hours ( 540 minutes) of HD media storage on a single-layered version (25 GB). As for the 50GB version, approximately 23 hours of data can be saved in the digital disc. Can you ever imagine that you are actually watching a movie of 50 GB! You must be wondering about this question “Do I really get what I really want since that I had already bought a BluRay player with RM4999?” Actually, no deceit, you can really experience the home theatre quality in terms of both picture and sound quality as the picture generated can go up to 1080p (1920 x 1280 Progressive). I really hate to say this…. But you are entitled to watch Casino Royale BluRay title with FULL HD!

Normally in the movie making procedure using BR formats, the director will usually compile the entire movie in a BR 50GB and with the left-out space he will insert the bonus features comprising commentary stuffs, HD trailers, sound clips, featured wallpapers, behind-the-scene action events, and so on using the SD quality. This is to ensure that the viewers will be able to get the best image and sound quality through out the amazing action-packed BR titles. But don’t feel bad if you are really a serious viewer who takes the bonus features seriously especially on those the-making-of(s) as they are all implemented in the SD format. The good news is, although they are all saved as SD formats in order to save more space for the movie, the source is still HD. Yes, this is the part where most of the consumers turned their back away from the HDMI DVD players giving the excuses that they do not own a proper HD-ready TV. In reality, although you will never view it in HD quality but your HDMI DVD player will upconvert the image and sound quality to a near 480p format and the output doesn’t really matter as the source is the key point here. Let me put it in another way of explanation, even if you bought a FULL-HD LCD TV and positioned it in front of you, it is pointless if you are watching the ancient VCR video tapes and direct the source into the HD output. Yes, you might as well get improvement, but think twice, does it really fulfill your enthusiastic dreams of watching cinema-like movies? So, the source always come first and the output second.

Below is the picture of LG Super Blu Player which is able to play BluRay and HD-DVD using one ultimate machine.

Normal CDs and DVDs are exposed and vulnerable to scratches and abrasions caused when the user misplaced them everywhere when they finished watching movies or listening to music. So, the new BR is released with the scratch-protective layer coating which helped to reduce scratches and physical damage to it as in the hope to protect the consumers’ property. TDK has already came up with the BD-RE with the popular surface coating technology (DURABIS) which aid in preventing serious scratches and contaminants that will be the harmful agents of the consumers’ data. Please visit www.tdk.com for more information on DURABIS.

The on-going development is foreseeable and there is no doubt that the BR disc can achieve greater future. Up until now the scientists and engineers had invented a BR with Quad-layered, Six-layered, and even 10-layered feature. In mathematics, multiplying 10 layers of data storage with 25 GB per layer will give you 250 GB! Are you serious? A 250 GB of BR is already on par with a Hard Disk Drive with 250 GB and compare the size for the both of them…… scary…

BluRay disc players can playback MPEG2, H.264 and VC1. Mpeg4 didn’t get involved in the list as Microsoft had already copyrighted the format for their own usage. I would end this article by saying that BluRay is such a magnificent media storage and I will sometimes test myself, how good if I can foresee the future that what comes after BluRay goes……