While some people are waking up to presents underneath the Christmas tree, my family spends Christmas Day a little differently. Although celebrating Christmas has transcended the original pagan or Christian traditions and now people who are ordinarily unaffiliated with either set of beliefs celebrate the day, today is almost like any other day in my household.
Note that I had said almost any other day.
Christmas Day is the day my family washes the couch set and every square inch (or meter for you metric system folks out there) of carpet in the house. This is my first year home for the holidays, which should make the holiday season even more special, but this annual arduous task, along with other errands and tasks, is starting to make me think otherwise.
But hey, the holiday season is supposedly about being together with family, right?
...Right?
Merry Christmas to you, Reader and see you in the next decade.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Hello (Again) World!
I have converted to Wordpress! A friend of mine suggested that I check out Wordpress because it is intended to long form posts, which is exactly the kind that I have found myself to be making and Wordpress offers a few features that I like, so I will be using this from now on.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Taiwan Pride is Castrating Me
As a rare person of Taiwanese descent but raised in America, I have the expectation from my parents and family to marry a Taiwanese girl. But I have told them time and time again that it is a nearly IMPOSSIBLE dream. Why?
Let me break this down for you, Taiwanese style:
According to Google, Taiwan has a population of close to 23 million people and let's give an overestimate of 1 million Taiwanese people overseas.
Of 24 million Taiwanese, presumably half are female.
Of 12 million Taiwanese females, let's again give a ballpark, yet overly generous estimate that 25% of them are in the same age group as I am. Hey, I'm willing to marry someone somewhat younger or older than me, so 12.5% in either direction is pretty good.
That leaves 3 million Taiwanese females within the desired age group. Of the 6.6 billion people in the world, my potential parentally approved pool of wife is 0.09% of the world population.
But that's just the parental expectation. I want to be looking for love too, so what are the chances that in that group of 3 million Taiwanese females that they are not already married when I meet them, have common interests as I have, have the same cultural background as I have, that this girl has an interest in me, and by a huge leap of faith that I have an interest in her? Keep in mind that I have not even brought up the issue of looks - after all, beggers can't be choosers, am I right? (Although 0.09% is a far cry from begger status.) My already infinitesimally small chances of finding the perfect wife has gotten much dimmer than it was before...
...And don't even get me started about actually finding the one for me. Taiwanese people are scattered over the globe.
I mentioned that I would like my wife to have the same cultural background. Although it may seem redundant to say so if my parents want me to marry a Taiwanese girl, I mean to say that she was raised in the same background. See, I am what I consider to be "white-washed": so brainwashed by the American culture that I identify myself closer to the American culture than to the Taiwanese culture. Sure I speak the Mandarin language and have a better understanding of Taiwanese and Chinese culture than foreigners, but I definitely do not pass off in any way as a true Taiwanese. Therefore, the most culturally compatible type of people for me is Taiwanese-American.
If I were to obey my parents' wishes, I have told them already not to expect grandchildren. So much for continuing the family name. My odds of being struck by lightning or winning the lottery are better than those of finding a pre-approved wife.
Maybe I should just mail order.
For the full story and others like it, check out my blog: http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/
Let me break this down for you, Taiwanese style:
According to Google, Taiwan has a population of close to 23 million people and let's give an overestimate of 1 million Taiwanese people overseas.
Of 24 million Taiwanese, presumably half are female.
Of 12 million Taiwanese females, let's again give a ballpark, yet overly generous estimate that 25% of them are in the same age group as I am. Hey, I'm willing to marry someone somewhat younger or older than me, so 12.5% in either direction is pretty good.
That leaves 3 million Taiwanese females within the desired age group. Of the 6.6 billion people in the world, my potential parentally approved pool of wife is 0.09% of the world population.
But that's just the parental expectation. I want to be looking for love too, so what are the chances that in that group of 3 million Taiwanese females that they are not already married when I meet them, have common interests as I have, have the same cultural background as I have, that this girl has an interest in me, and by a huge leap of faith that I have an interest in her? Keep in mind that I have not even brought up the issue of looks - after all, beggers can't be choosers, am I right? (Although 0.09% is a far cry from begger status.) My already infinitesimally small chances of finding the perfect wife has gotten much dimmer than it was before...
...And don't even get me started about actually finding the one for me. Taiwanese people are scattered over the globe.
I mentioned that I would like my wife to have the same cultural background. Although it may seem redundant to say so if my parents want me to marry a Taiwanese girl, I mean to say that she was raised in the same background. See, I am what I consider to be "white-washed": so brainwashed by the American culture that I identify myself closer to the American culture than to the Taiwanese culture. Sure I speak the Mandarin language and have a better understanding of Taiwanese and Chinese culture than foreigners, but I definitely do not pass off in any way as a true Taiwanese. Therefore, the most culturally compatible type of people for me is Taiwanese-American.
If I were to obey my parents' wishes, I have told them already not to expect grandchildren. So much for continuing the family name. My odds of being struck by lightning or winning the lottery are better than those of finding a pre-approved wife.
Maybe I should just mail order.
For the full story and others like it, check out my blog: http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Utilize Gmail's Search Feature
I have an irrational fear of unread emails. Anytime I get the chance to check my email, whether if it's on my laptop or when I'm on the go and happen to steal some poor soul's unsecured Internet and can connect my iPod Touch to their wifi network, I ALWAYS try to make sure I have no unread emails left over. But I have automated emails sent to me, such as Facebook or Google Voice text messages, my top two most received emails. However, there is not a single trace of emails from either of those two addresses in my inbox right now. How do I do it? No, I don't click on the little checkbox next to each email after I read it - try deleting 20 emails on a busy afternoon. I use Gmail's search bar.
I will gush about Gmail and its awesomeness in a later blog entry, but I have four accounts tied to my Gmail account: my primary Gmail address that has my full name in the address, my business/Internet affairs Gmail address, my old Hotmail account, my university email account, and my old Yahoo email account. Any and all emails that get sent to any of those email addresses will end up in my primary Gmail account, which I can check easily on my laptop, on my iPod Touch, and on virtually any device with an Internet connection. One username and password allows me to see emails from 5 email accounts. That must require one heck of a organization system.
On top of using Gmail's labeling and filtering system, which will also go into my Gmail promotion topic, the search bar is indispensable. To apply the search bar to delete the aforementioned bulk of emails I receive on an hourly basis, I simply type into Gmail's search bar "label:facebook OR label:texting". Since I told Gmail to tag all incoming email from Facebook with the label "facebook" and the same for Google Voice texts, the search parameter I usually look up will find all emails matching those criteria and allow me to simply select all the automated emails and delete them in three clicks rather than having to hunt through my inbox, tick off each email individually, and delete them.
The use of Gmail's search bar is endless. Here is a full list of search parameters one can use to find exactly what they want in his or her inbox. With well over 7 gigabytes of storage space for emails, Gmail users will naturally accumulate hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands of emails. Keep in mind that you can combine search parameters. In my example, the "OR" operator tells Gmail to look for emails that either have the 'facebook' label or the 'texting' label. If I did not include that operator, Gmail will only look for emails have both labels, which is not what I want.
Bottom line:
For the full story and others like it, check out my blog: http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/
I will gush about Gmail and its awesomeness in a later blog entry, but I have four accounts tied to my Gmail account: my primary Gmail address that has my full name in the address, my business/Internet affairs Gmail address, my old Hotmail account, my university email account, and my old Yahoo email account. Any and all emails that get sent to any of those email addresses will end up in my primary Gmail account, which I can check easily on my laptop, on my iPod Touch, and on virtually any device with an Internet connection. One username and password allows me to see emails from 5 email accounts. That must require one heck of a organization system.
On top of using Gmail's labeling and filtering system, which will also go into my Gmail promotion topic, the search bar is indispensable. To apply the search bar to delete the aforementioned bulk of emails I receive on an hourly basis, I simply type into Gmail's search bar "label:facebook OR label:texting". Since I told Gmail to tag all incoming email from Facebook with the label "facebook" and the same for Google Voice texts, the search parameter I usually look up will find all emails matching those criteria and allow me to simply select all the automated emails and delete them in three clicks rather than having to hunt through my inbox, tick off each email individually, and delete them.
The use of Gmail's search bar is endless. Here is a full list of search parameters one can use to find exactly what they want in his or her inbox. With well over 7 gigabytes of storage space for emails, Gmail users will naturally accumulate hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands of emails. Keep in mind that you can combine search parameters. In my example, the "OR" operator tells Gmail to look for emails that either have the 'facebook' label or the 'texting' label. If I did not include that operator, Gmail will only look for emails have both labels, which is not what I want.
Bottom line:
- Use Gmail's search feature to easily find the exact emails you're looking for
- Experts have yet to name a fear for unread emails, so I cannot officially declare that I have a problem ^__^
For the full story and others like it, check out my blog: http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/
Monday, December 14, 2009
iTunes Song And Playlist Management
I recently reformatted my computer and had to back up then later restore my music library. I have had many experiences doing this process, but somehow I still forgot to save my playlist this time around. Therefore, I found my entire music library but have no playlists.
For those unfamiliar with iTunes, there are traditional sense of playlists that one can drag and drop desired songs into the playlist and those songs will be found in those playlists. However, Apple included 'smart playlists', a programmable set of criteria that will search your library and pull songs that follow the rules you had set up. For example, one of the preset smart playlist is one of recently added songs. The smart playlist will check all songs for their date added and play any song that was added in the past two weeks.
As I was lamenting over the loss of my old playlists, I thought of an ingenious idea. Seeing how my playlists reflect the song's general mood and the comment field of the song is encoded into the file and will be preserved when the file is moved, I figured I could modify the comments field for the songs, use the smart playlists to generate my playlists, and not have to worry about saving my playlists.
Essentially, I am tagging my songs with keywords that I can generate custom smart playlists around. For example, I edited the comment field for Journey's 1983 love ballad "Faithfully" with the word "romantic". If I tell a smart playlist to play only songs with the word "romantic" in the comment field, "Faithfully" be show up there.
Bottom line:
For those unfamiliar with iTunes, there are traditional sense of playlists that one can drag and drop desired songs into the playlist and those songs will be found in those playlists. However, Apple included 'smart playlists', a programmable set of criteria that will search your library and pull songs that follow the rules you had set up. For example, one of the preset smart playlist is one of recently added songs. The smart playlist will check all songs for their date added and play any song that was added in the past two weeks.
As I was lamenting over the loss of my old playlists, I thought of an ingenious idea. Seeing how my playlists reflect the song's general mood and the comment field of the song is encoded into the file and will be preserved when the file is moved, I figured I could modify the comments field for the songs, use the smart playlists to generate my playlists, and not have to worry about saving my playlists.
Essentially, I am tagging my songs with keywords that I can generate custom smart playlists around. For example, I edited the comment field for Journey's 1983 love ballad "Faithfully" with the word "romantic". If I tell a smart playlist to play only songs with the word "romantic" in the comment field, "Faithfully" be show up there.
Bottom line:
- iTunes's smart playlist is a very useful feature, accessible through File -> New Smart Playlist
- Each song's comment field encoded into the file, so it will stay with the file wherever it goes
- Combination of the smart playlist and comment features allow for powerful playlist manipulation
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Synchronize and Back Up Your Data!
If you are a college student, you need to read at least the bold points.
Just a decade ago, prices for hard drives were still being analyzed at megabytes per dollar. Now the same figures used for those comparisons can be made for gigabytes on the dollar. There is simply too much disk capacity these days for the personal files typical computer users will ever need. Yet when their hard drive fails, they are in a state of despair. They need to recover their files or forever lose them.
So Why Do I Need To Back Up My Data?
Well, why not? Other than the cost of a new data storage (which really isn't an excuse with free cloud computing storage), there really is nothing to lose and the security of your files' preservation to gain. Whether its computer hard drive failure, file corruption, natural disaster, the computer gods seeking retribution, backing up your hard drive just makes sense.
Call me crazy, but I maintain files across three external hard drives (1.5TB, 500GB, and 160GB), one internal hard drive in an enclosure (40GB), and one internal hard drive (500GB). This gives me a grand total of 2700 gigabytes of storage. Although I do have some vaguely obtained files from the Internet that take up quite a bit of disk space, my files only occupy a very small fraction of all the storage space I have. Therefore, I keep anywhere between two to four copies of the same files across the various hard drives I have at my disposal.
Again, call me crazy and now you can call me paranoid, but I'm very fearful of losing my files. It has happened to me before on multiple occasions. Sometimes a hard drive will become corrupt without prior notice. Sometimes an external hard drive will stop responding to the computer it's connected to. Whatever the reason, your data can be accessible one day and good as gone the next.
With external hard drive prices steadily decreasing and cloud computing's popularity increasing, there really is no excuse to synchronize and back up one's data. Especially during the holiday season, alternative hard drives can be bought for fairly inexpensive prices. Here are some backing up and synchronizing solutions.
Hardware: External Hard Drives
These handy devices are like the hard drives in your computer, except you can easily unplug it from one computer and hook it up to another, instantly being able to access your files on the hard drive. Even in the age of the Internet, these devices serve as indispensable life savers and handy file transporters for files greater than a few megabytes.
One of the technology blogs I keep up with, Gizmodo, lists daily deals on technological gadgets, including external hard drives. This is the link to their dealzmodo page: http://gizmodo.com/tag/dealzmodo/
Hardware: Internal Hard Drives with Enclosure
This is for the amateur tech enthusiasts and above. A more inexpensive method of having an external hard drive is to essentially assemble one yourself. After all, those pre-built external hard drives are really nothing but an internal hard drive with a pretty case over it. You can go out and buy an internal hard drive, an enclosure, and assemble the entire thing to mimic an external hard drive to save yourself some money.
Software: File Sychornization
Sure you can just drag and drop your files from your computer's hard drive to your external hard drive, but that certainly won't impress the ladies. What you need is a software that automatically does that for you and can do it periodically and follows all the rules you tell it to.
I personally use Syncback, which I find to be far too superfluous for the average user but has been good to me nonetheless. I have the program synchronize my files across my various external hard drives and even my cloud computing storage at different intervals of time, so I never have to worry about remembering to synchronize my files because it's done for me.
If you prefer to use other programs, check out Lifehacker's top 5 recommendations here: http://lifehacker.com/398696/five-best-file-syncing-tools
Software: Cloud Computing
You've probably heard the term "cloud computing" before, but you may not know what it means. Essentially, it is doing computer tasks where most of the work is done on some other computer that's connected to the one you're using over the Internet. In this case, we'll be looking at FREE cloud computing disk storage.
I have been faithfully using and recommending others to use Dropbox for a long time. The service will give you 2 gigabytes of FREE cloud computing storage and makes it extremely easy to access, manage, and even share those files. As long as you have a device that has Internet, you can access your Dropbox files. PCs, Macs, and even mobile devices will all be able to download and read the files you've uploaded to Dropbox.
Using the term 'upload' does not even accurately describe Dropbox's most novel feature. Once you install the Dropbox program on your computer, it puts a folder in your computer's "My Documents". Anything you put in this folder is locally cached on your computer and will be instantly synchronized to your Dropbox account. Within mere moments, you will be able to access the same files you've just put in Dropbox on your computer with ANY device with Internet. This makes it easy for college students and anybody always on the go to synchronize their files and print files from various computers without worry.
Even in my first term of college, I found Dropbox to be immensely helpful. I always save my files for class in Dropbox and I have had to access those files during class on my iPod Touch on multiple occasions. When I need to print something while I am on campus without my laptop, I can be assured that I can easily print my files because they are all in my Dropbox account, which I can easily access through their website. I just log into any computer, log into Dropbox, download my file, and print. No need to remind myself to dump my files onto a flash drive, carry the flash drive with me, find the USB port on the computer, and so forth.
Just to reiterate in order get the point across, Dropbox offers 2 gigabytes of free storage to anybody who signs up, and even more space if you refer people. For every person you refer, you get 250 megabytes of additional free storage for both you and the person you invited. So in return for reading this article, I ask you to help me (and yourself) get more FREE storage space by signing up for Dropbox with my referral link:
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTQ1NTU5NDk
And don't think Dropbox can only be used to back up and synchronize your files. Lifehacker has a guide on many other uses for Dropbox, from secure password management, portable applications, and remotely controlling your computer: http://lifehacker.com/5358983/use-dropbox-for-more-than-just-file-syncing
Bottom Line:
So this holiday season, do yourself a favor and go get a nice, inexpensive external hard drive and set up a back up routine. You and your hair that won't be pulled out will thank me later.
I merely touched upon the basics of file redundancy and synchronization, if any tech enthusiasts would like to chime in, go ahead and do so in the comments. For the full story and others like it, check out my blog:http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/
Just a decade ago, prices for hard drives were still being analyzed at megabytes per dollar. Now the same figures used for those comparisons can be made for gigabytes on the dollar. There is simply too much disk capacity these days for the personal files typical computer users will ever need. Yet when their hard drive fails, they are in a state of despair. They need to recover their files or forever lose them.
So Why Do I Need To Back Up My Data?
Well, why not? Other than the cost of a new data storage (which really isn't an excuse with free cloud computing storage), there really is nothing to lose and the security of your files' preservation to gain. Whether its computer hard drive failure, file corruption, natural disaster, the computer gods seeking retribution, backing up your hard drive just makes sense.
Call me crazy, but I maintain files across three external hard drives (1.5TB, 500GB, and 160GB), one internal hard drive in an enclosure (40GB), and one internal hard drive (500GB). This gives me a grand total of 2700 gigabytes of storage. Although I do have some vaguely obtained files from the Internet that take up quite a bit of disk space, my files only occupy a very small fraction of all the storage space I have. Therefore, I keep anywhere between two to four copies of the same files across the various hard drives I have at my disposal.
Again, call me crazy and now you can call me paranoid, but I'm very fearful of losing my files. It has happened to me before on multiple occasions. Sometimes a hard drive will become corrupt without prior notice. Sometimes an external hard drive will stop responding to the computer it's connected to. Whatever the reason, your data can be accessible one day and good as gone the next.
With external hard drive prices steadily decreasing and cloud computing's popularity increasing, there really is no excuse to synchronize and back up one's data. Especially during the holiday season, alternative hard drives can be bought for fairly inexpensive prices. Here are some backing up and synchronizing solutions.
Hardware: External Hard Drives
These handy devices are like the hard drives in your computer, except you can easily unplug it from one computer and hook it up to another, instantly being able to access your files on the hard drive. Even in the age of the Internet, these devices serve as indispensable life savers and handy file transporters for files greater than a few megabytes.
One of the technology blogs I keep up with, Gizmodo, lists daily deals on technological gadgets, including external hard drives. This is the link to their dealzmodo page: http://gizmodo.com/tag/dealzmodo/
Hardware: Internal Hard Drives with Enclosure
This is for the amateur tech enthusiasts and above. A more inexpensive method of having an external hard drive is to essentially assemble one yourself. After all, those pre-built external hard drives are really nothing but an internal hard drive with a pretty case over it. You can go out and buy an internal hard drive, an enclosure, and assemble the entire thing to mimic an external hard drive to save yourself some money.
Software: File Sychornization
Sure you can just drag and drop your files from your computer's hard drive to your external hard drive, but that certainly won't impress the ladies. What you need is a software that automatically does that for you and can do it periodically and follows all the rules you tell it to.
I personally use Syncback, which I find to be far too superfluous for the average user but has been good to me nonetheless. I have the program synchronize my files across my various external hard drives and even my cloud computing storage at different intervals of time, so I never have to worry about remembering to synchronize my files because it's done for me.
If you prefer to use other programs, check out Lifehacker's top 5 recommendations here: http://lifehacker.com/398696/five-best-file-syncing-tools
Software: Cloud Computing
You've probably heard the term "cloud computing" before, but you may not know what it means. Essentially, it is doing computer tasks where most of the work is done on some other computer that's connected to the one you're using over the Internet. In this case, we'll be looking at FREE cloud computing disk storage.
I have been faithfully using and recommending others to use Dropbox for a long time. The service will give you 2 gigabytes of FREE cloud computing storage and makes it extremely easy to access, manage, and even share those files. As long as you have a device that has Internet, you can access your Dropbox files. PCs, Macs, and even mobile devices will all be able to download and read the files you've uploaded to Dropbox.
Using the term 'upload' does not even accurately describe Dropbox's most novel feature. Once you install the Dropbox program on your computer, it puts a folder in your computer's "My Documents". Anything you put in this folder is locally cached on your computer and will be instantly synchronized to your Dropbox account. Within mere moments, you will be able to access the same files you've just put in Dropbox on your computer with ANY device with Internet. This makes it easy for college students and anybody always on the go to synchronize their files and print files from various computers without worry.
Even in my first term of college, I found Dropbox to be immensely helpful. I always save my files for class in Dropbox and I have had to access those files during class on my iPod Touch on multiple occasions. When I need to print something while I am on campus without my laptop, I can be assured that I can easily print my files because they are all in my Dropbox account, which I can easily access through their website. I just log into any computer, log into Dropbox, download my file, and print. No need to remind myself to dump my files onto a flash drive, carry the flash drive with me, find the USB port on the computer, and so forth.
Just to reiterate in order get the point across, Dropbox offers 2 gigabytes of free storage to anybody who signs up, and even more space if you refer people. For every person you refer, you get 250 megabytes of additional free storage for both you and the person you invited. So in return for reading this article, I ask you to help me (and yourself) get more FREE storage space by signing up for Dropbox with my referral link:
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTQ1NTU5NDk
And don't think Dropbox can only be used to back up and synchronize your files. Lifehacker has a guide on many other uses for Dropbox, from secure password management, portable applications, and remotely controlling your computer: http://lifehacker.com/5358983/use-dropbox-for-more-than-just-file-syncing
Bottom Line:
- Back your files up to save yourself the hassle and worry of missing or corrupt files
- Synchronize your files across various hard drives with free and easy to use programs
- Use free cloud computing storage to readily access your files from anywhere
So this holiday season, do yourself a favor and go get a nice, inexpensive external hard drive and set up a back up routine. You and your hair that won't be pulled out will thank me later.
I merely touched upon the basics of file redundancy and synchronization, if any tech enthusiasts would like to chime in, go ahead and do so in the comments. For the full story and others like it, check out my blog:http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Taking Care of Your Batteries
Most batteries found in today's gadgets will be based on the lithium-ion technology. This is the standard chemistry found in current generation technology because of its advantages over nickel-cadmium and other types of batteries. However, most people are still unaware of how to maintain their batteries to prolong their lives.
To check if your battery is indeed lithium ion, closely examine the battery itself. It should state somewhere that it is lithium or lithium ion. Some manufacturers may choose to abbreviate it and simply call it "Li," the chemical symbol for lithium.
Once you ascertain that the battery in question is indeed lithium-ion based, these are a few things you should keep in mind to extend its storage capacity in the long term:
My Cell Phone Died! Quick, Where's The Charger?
Most lithium ion batteries have a fail safe mechanism that shuts off the device and conserves what little power the battery has once it reaches critically low power levels. However, if one were to neglect the battery and allow it to stay depleted, it will use up its reserves and be unable to hold a charge anymore. But don't overreact - it's okay to let your device drain the battery, but find a way to charge it ASAP!
Don't Be A Fool, Keep It Cool!
Lithium ion batteries are really sensitive to heat. Make sure that your battery stays cool: heat can slowly destroy the battery's ability to hold a charge. If a lithium ion battery is exposed to higher temperatures over a long period of time, it will lose its ability to hold an effective charge.
Some experts suggest people to get belt clip and attach their cell phones to it instead of leaving them in their pockets because the body heat can adversely damage the battery in the long run. Since that might look extremely dorky and the actual difference of doing so cannot be measured for all lithium ion batteries, it is up to you to decide if you want to do that
For laptops, consider getting a cooling pad and/or using compressed air to blow dust to promote better ventilation. Cooling pads are simply fans that blow additional air into your laptop to promote air circulation to drive out heat. If dust accumulates in your laptop, it will hinder the air's ability to drive the heat out. Go to your local electronics store and buy cans of compressed air to blow into the laptop to get the dust out.
It's Okay To Charge Regularly!
There is a myth out there that you should wait until your battery is completely depleted before recharging or else its ability to carry a full charge will diminish. This is a carryover from older battery technologies, such as the nickel-cadmium battery. Lithium-ion batteries do not suffer from this memory effect problem as much as nickel-cadmium does and it is okay to charge your device even if it is only partially depleted. However, devices must be able to accurately gauge the battery's power level and if one were to consistently recharge when the battery is not depleted, the software will become confused and often report inaccurate power levels. Sometimes it will tell you that the battery is low when the device can run fine for a few more hours. Therefore, you should always try to recharge once you deplete the battery, but it's not the end of the world if you don't.
Bottom Line:
And in the end, all batteries will lose their charge. You should be lucky if you can still get a good amount of battery life out of the same lithium-ion battery 2, 3, or even 4 years down the line.
For the full story and others like it, check out my blog: http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/
To check if your battery is indeed lithium ion, closely examine the battery itself. It should state somewhere that it is lithium or lithium ion. Some manufacturers may choose to abbreviate it and simply call it "Li," the chemical symbol for lithium.
Once you ascertain that the battery in question is indeed lithium-ion based, these are a few things you should keep in mind to extend its storage capacity in the long term:
My Cell Phone Died! Quick, Where's The Charger?
Most lithium ion batteries have a fail safe mechanism that shuts off the device and conserves what little power the battery has once it reaches critically low power levels. However, if one were to neglect the battery and allow it to stay depleted, it will use up its reserves and be unable to hold a charge anymore. But don't overreact - it's okay to let your device drain the battery, but find a way to charge it ASAP!
Don't Be A Fool, Keep It Cool!
Lithium ion batteries are really sensitive to heat. Make sure that your battery stays cool: heat can slowly destroy the battery's ability to hold a charge. If a lithium ion battery is exposed to higher temperatures over a long period of time, it will lose its ability to hold an effective charge.
Some experts suggest people to get belt clip and attach their cell phones to it instead of leaving them in their pockets because the body heat can adversely damage the battery in the long run. Since that might look extremely dorky and the actual difference of doing so cannot be measured for all lithium ion batteries, it is up to you to decide if you want to do that
For laptops, consider getting a cooling pad and/or using compressed air to blow dust to promote better ventilation. Cooling pads are simply fans that blow additional air into your laptop to promote air circulation to drive out heat. If dust accumulates in your laptop, it will hinder the air's ability to drive the heat out. Go to your local electronics store and buy cans of compressed air to blow into the laptop to get the dust out.
It's Okay To Charge Regularly!
There is a myth out there that you should wait until your battery is completely depleted before recharging or else its ability to carry a full charge will diminish. This is a carryover from older battery technologies, such as the nickel-cadmium battery. Lithium-ion batteries do not suffer from this memory effect problem as much as nickel-cadmium does and it is okay to charge your device even if it is only partially depleted. However, devices must be able to accurately gauge the battery's power level and if one were to consistently recharge when the battery is not depleted, the software will become confused and often report inaccurate power levels. Sometimes it will tell you that the battery is low when the device can run fine for a few more hours. Therefore, you should always try to recharge once you deplete the battery, but it's not the end of the world if you don't.
Bottom Line:
- Don't let your batteries be out of power for too long, find a charger before it dies.
- Keep your lithium-ion batteries cool at all times, heat is their biggest enemy.
- It's okay to recharge lithium-ion batteries even when they're not depleted, but do so when possible.
And in the end, all batteries will lose their charge. You should be lucky if you can still get a good amount of battery life out of the same lithium-ion battery 2, 3, or even 4 years down the line.
For the full story and others like it, check out my blog: http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Launchy - The Awesome Keystroke Launcher
Launchy, the keystroke launcher. It cannot even be simply described as an application keystroke launcher because of its limitless possibilities. I have been using this program for a long time now and I can say that it has boosted my productivity.
What is it?
Essentially, Launchy stays hidden in the background of your computer most of the time. When you need to call upon it, use your designated shortcut (I use shift + esc) and type in the command you want to run. Once you make sure it understands your command, press enter and it will run the command. For example, if I wanted to start Firefox, I hold shift + esc, type "fire" and press enter. Because I have launched Firefox so many times, Launchy recognizes that I want to start Firefox when I start typing its name.
Why use it?
Most people have a desktop full of icons in order to launch their favorite programs. But they have to dig through menus and folders to access the other files they want. With Launchy, you simply tell it to catalog your folders and it will match the file you're looking for with the command you type in. Say I store a file under my personal folder that Lauchy has cataloged and it is titled "spreadsheet1". If I call up Launchy and start typing spreadsheet1, it will know that I am calling upon that specific file and open it immediately. It saves me time from having to go through my folders and find the file.
Also, a real example from my own practices, I told Launchy that I want to start Facebook when I type "fb". So now, regardless or not Firefox is open, I just press shift + esc, type "fb", and press enter. If Firefox is not open, it will open Firefox and open a tab with Facebook loaded. If Firefox is already open, it will open a new tab and load Facebook. I do this with many of my websites that I access on an hourly basis.
Lauchy runs in the background? But won't that take up my precious computer resources?
Launchy has a low memory footprint and does not require much CPU process to use. If you tell it to manually catalog your files, you should never experience a slowdown with your computing experience. Right now, Launchy is using a mere 5 megabytes of RAM, which is 0.5% of 1 gigabytes, the standard for netbooks these days.
One last thing:
With Windows 7 and its native ability to change wallpapers, I don't have to show my desktop icons because I can start my applications with Launchy. Therefore, I get to admire my amazing set of wallpapers, such as the one below.
Bonus points for the Tech savvy:
There is actually a way to tweet with Launchy. Let me know if you're interested.
What is it?
Essentially, Launchy stays hidden in the background of your computer most of the time. When you need to call upon it, use your designated shortcut (I use shift + esc) and type in the command you want to run. Once you make sure it understands your command, press enter and it will run the command. For example, if I wanted to start Firefox, I hold shift + esc, type "fire" and press enter. Because I have launched Firefox so many times, Launchy recognizes that I want to start Firefox when I start typing its name.
Why use it?
Most people have a desktop full of icons in order to launch their favorite programs. But they have to dig through menus and folders to access the other files they want. With Launchy, you simply tell it to catalog your folders and it will match the file you're looking for with the command you type in. Say I store a file under my personal folder that Lauchy has cataloged and it is titled "spreadsheet1". If I call up Launchy and start typing spreadsheet1, it will know that I am calling upon that specific file and open it immediately. It saves me time from having to go through my folders and find the file.
Also, a real example from my own practices, I told Launchy that I want to start Facebook when I type "fb". So now, regardless or not Firefox is open, I just press shift + esc, type "fb", and press enter. If Firefox is not open, it will open Firefox and open a tab with Facebook loaded. If Firefox is already open, it will open a new tab and load Facebook. I do this with many of my websites that I access on an hourly basis.
Lauchy runs in the background? But won't that take up my precious computer resources?
Launchy has a low memory footprint and does not require much CPU process to use. If you tell it to manually catalog your files, you should never experience a slowdown with your computing experience. Right now, Launchy is using a mere 5 megabytes of RAM, which is 0.5% of 1 gigabytes, the standard for netbooks these days.
One last thing:
With Windows 7 and its native ability to change wallpapers, I don't have to show my desktop icons because I can start my applications with Launchy. Therefore, I get to admire my amazing set of wallpapers, such as the one below.
Bonus points for the Tech savvy:
There is actually a way to tweet with Launchy. Let me know if you're interested.
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