Not once, not twice, but three times. A series of Microsoft advertisements were released in the previous weeks advocating PC laptops over Apple’s Mac. The advertisements dubbed as "Laptop Hunters" showed people challenged to find laptops with budgets that range from 1000 to 1500 dollars.

The first ad featured a lady named Lauren who was looking for a laptop with speed, comfortable keyboard and 17-inch screen and she ended getting an HP Pavilion DV7-1245DX.

The second ad featured featured a young man named Giampaolo who wanted a laptop with portability, good battery life and power, and ended getting an HP HDX 16t.

The latest ad featured Lisa and her kid, Jackson, who were looking for a laptop with speed, a good hard drive and a good gaming computer. They ended up getting up buying a Sony Vaio FW.

The most striking feature of the advertisements is that Microsoft directly attacked Mac’s pricing on same computer specifications which is quite true and factual in the real world. But for me, I’m a PC because I can’t afford a Mac yet.  

CONFICKER MOBILIZES, DROPS PAYLOAD
Reported by Gerardo Velasco

Many of you have already heard about the Conficker worm, most of us thought it was really an April Fool’s joke after the time passed, but that joke is no joke at all. On April 8, 2009, the worm was updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers, stealing sensitive data using a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data off the infected computer, the worm as we know it, is running in full mode and is starting to make its damage on the internet and users computers.

Wait! But that’s not all, the worm also tries to connect to MySpace.com, MSN.com, eBay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com as a way to test that the computer has Internet connectivity, deletes all traces of itself in the host machine, and is set to shut down on May 3, according to the TrendLabs Malware Blog.

If you haven’t protected yourself, this is a must because now that the worm has dropped it payload, there’s no telling on what the worm will do next. Please remember that Conficker is a threat only if your computer does not have the latest security patches from Microsoft and an up-to-date antivirus program and your passwords in your network or your computer are weak.

AMD’S ATI RADEON HD 4890: WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL GPU
Reported by John Raul Joven II

On April 6, 2009, AMD launched its most high-end graphics card to date: the ATI Radeon HD 4890. According to AMD, the said graphics card boasts 1.36 TeraFlops of computing power making it the world’s most powerful graphics processor comprising of 956 million transistors on 55 nanometer of fabrication process.

AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 4890 fully supports DirectX 10.1 games and features 800 stream processors, a superb processing strength to handle the latest and most complex 3D games to date.

It is also equipped with the most advanced GDDR5 memory technology enabling superior performance and maximum memory bandwidth. Its enhanced anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering up to 24x deliver smooth and true-to-life graphics.

It also supports ATI CrossfireX technology, which lets you support up to four GPUs for extreme graphics performance. Radeon HD 4890 also supports Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD2) which releases stress from your CPU for other computing tasks and lets the graphics card do all graphics processing job.

Other features include:

• support for PCI Express 2
• Accelerated Video Transcoding
• full 1080p display resolution
• enhanced DVD upscaling
• Dynamic contrast
• HDMI
• dynamic power management
• energy efficiency

With all features mentioned, AMD’s Radeon HD 4890 yet proves to be the world’s most powerful GPU for desktop systems.

GEEK OF THE WEEK: CODY P. CHRISTIAN
Reported by Brad

Brad: Who is Cody P. Christian as a geek?
Cody P. Christian: I’m a software developer, a web developer and a media professional.

Brad: What is your best tool as a geek and an achievement as a geek so far?
Cody P. Christian: The tool that I use best or the tool that works for me best would be my Mac. I do use Mac, PCs, Unix/Linux servers. So, please don’t call me a Mac fan boy but I will say that I love my Macs. And I look at that particular subject because or rather, I look at that particular subject in a way of "I use what works for best for me" not because I’m following a trend.

Brad: Are you happy to be a geek and why?
Cody P. Christian: Yes, I really love being a geek. And, it’s something I really passion about technology. A true geek is someone who really loves technology and really who wants to know every little really detail of technology. So thanks for watching this great podcast and if you want to know more about me, please head over to codypchristian.net or if you would like to stalk me just head over to twitter.com/codypchristian. Take care.

LAST MINUTE HEADLINES
Reported by John Raul Joven II

TGDAILY.COM: Study shows Facebook use linked to lower grades for college students
A study from Ohio State University, based on a study of 219 students, suggests that the more you use Facebook, the less you study, and the worse your grades get.

PC WORLD: Twitter now worm-free
After the blue bird Twitter caught its first worm, the popular web service now declared clean and worm free.

COMPUTER WORLD: IT professionals still prefer XP over Windows 7
A survey revealed that 72% of more than 1,100 IT professionals still prefer Windows XP than the upcoming Windows 7.

PC WORLD: Rumors about Apple iPhone 3.0 and Netbook intensify
The Apple rumor mill is once again running overtime on the topic of netbooks and iPhone 3.0 specs. 

If you have comments, suggestions, or questions regarding this episode, you can email me at techconclave (at) gmail (dot) com. And also, you can now support Tech Conclave by going through our official website which is www.techconclave.com and clicking the support link in the main menu.

You can also check discounted products and services on our Promo page. So, don’t forget to check that out.

Visit my website at www.johnraul.com. It is powered by Top Hosting Center and Tech Conclave is powered by Host Color.

This is the episode 3 of Tech Conclave. Thank you for watching. Don’t forget to subscribe. And always remember, it’s good to be a geek.

No related posts.