Posted by Sander in Music, Technology | 0 Comments

Cool new acoustic synth

Now this is something to look forward to, I hope that the technology allows for non-intrusive attachment into acoustics.

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Posted by Sander in Featured Posts, Hobbies, Technology | 0 Comments

How To Dual Boot Windows 8 Pro and Windows 7

Introduction
I am fond of fidgeting with computers and I’ve messed around with all the computers that I owned including the very first one which had Windows 95 on it. Upgrading to the latest Windows operating system is too much of a tease for someone like me. So now, after a lot of research, reading, trial and error, and patience – my laptop (HP Pavillion G4 1009tx with additional RAM) is finally set up for dual booting, I can choose between my licensed Windows 8 Pro and the original Windows 7 OS that came with my laptop. I’m writing this article to help myself remember how to quickly set up my computer and to help other early adopters. I hope that this will give you an idea on how to successfully update your laptop and set it up for dual booting.

Why Upgrade?
The new Windows 8 user interface is fresh, slick, pleasing to the eye, and more importantly everything just runs faster. I was really impressed with the intuitive interface of my Nokia Lumia 800, so I was looking forward to upgrading my OS to this new interface. Also note that Windows 7 can probably do most of what Windows 8 can, but it will not give you access to the new Windows 8 Metro Apps. Another reason why I upgraded was the promotional offers – priced at $39.99 and can even go as low as $15.

When to Upgrade
Before upgrading, it is imperative that you check if your laptop has specific Windows 8 drivers available. In my case, HP has not released Windows 8 drivers, but I assumed that my Windows 7 drivers would work flawlessly specially since my laptop is only a year old. Although most of them did work, important drivers for my video and sound did not. I had to do a lot of searching and reading before I found the driver that is compatible. I also recommend that you check if your favorite and most used programs are available or compatible with Windows 8. In my case I had problems installing the HP Coolsense software, which is a critical heat/performance/fan control software for HP laptops. AFter trying the new versions of the software I was able to make it work only after downloading the older version of the software that was running on my Windows 7.

Why DualBoot?
Dual booting lets you keep your original operating system in case you need to revert, or get important files – specially useful when setting up windows 8. For early adopters like me, I found that keeping my original operating system intact was a good decision because it helped me find the right drivers and system software for my Windows 8 Pro. Note that after learning the essentials of Windows 8 and installing a customizable start menu, I am now rarely logging into the old OS and am considering uninstalling it altogether if needed in the future.

Check Compatibility:
First you need to check your hardware and software compatibility using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. You just download and run this program and it will check to see if your computer and your installed software are compatible. Note that this software is not reliable in telling if your hardware has the right driver available for Windows 8, I learned this lesson the hard way! So it is imperative to check if your laptop or the devices connected to your laptop have Windows 8 drivers available.  If it does not have drivers, you can search online to see how other users were able to install Window 8 on a laptop with the same model or at least the same product series as yours.  If you see others successfully installing the new OS, then chances are with a bit of technical know how, you can do it as well. Aside from checking compatibility, the upgrade assistant will also be the one to assist you in paying for the upgrade and in downloading and installing Windows 8 Pro. As a word of caution, you should only proceed after preparing your hard drive partition and drivers.

Download the right drivers:
A wise thing to do before upgrading is to gather all information about Windows 8 drivers for your particular computer and ofcourse download them. The most critical of these would be the video and audio drivers as well as the drivers for your accessories. Case in point, I only found out about driver issues after installing Windows 8 Pro, thankfully other HP owners have found some work around while waiting for official drivers. For those that have the same laptop series as I have (HP Pavillion), of if like me you have a “Switchable Graphics” driver, the information I found at eightforums was extremely helpful in getting my switchable graphics card working properly. After trying out some of the driver options on the site, I found that the custom made catalyst driver from leshcatlabs is the one that is compatible with my system.

Creating a Partition:
Before installing Windows 8 Pro for use with dual booting, you have to prepare a separate partition on which to install the new OS into. Caution: Whenever you modify a partition within your harddrive, there is a chance for it to crash and lose data, so it is very important to back up your files before dealing with partitions. The easiest and safest way to create a partition is to use a separate drive, but if you don’t have one, you can create a separate partition on your current hard drive with a bit of care and patience. I found the basic instructions on how to setup dualbooting here so at first I thought partitioning my hard drive was simple, that is until I encountered a problem. I found out that Windows 8 Pro only installs on partitions that are “Basic” while most drives with Windows 7 are “dynamic”. Thankfully, I was able to find useful information from Sevenforums on how to convert my dynamic drive into a basic drive without losing data. In my case, I used option 1 which is a software called Partition Wizard 4.2 Free. After converting my partition to basic, I was then able to create a new partition that Windows 8 Pro can install into.

Downloading Windows 8 Pro:
After getting all the preparations done, it is finally time to complete the payment and download Windows 8 Pro using the Upgrade Assistant software.  When prompted, you should pick the option to get Windows 8 as an “ISO’, this allows you to copy and burn the operating system into a DVD as your back up.  After the download finished, I used a software called Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool to get the Windows 8 ISO installer into a blank DVD.  Once it is successfully burned, you are now ready to finally install Windows 8 Pro into the separate partition that you created.  Note that you have to save the product key provided during the download process as you will use that when you start installing.

Installing Windows 8 Pro:
Once you have the Windows 8 installer on either a DVD or a separate hard drive, you can now start installing the software. Just restart your laptop and allow your laptop to boot using the created Windows 8 DVD or USB installer. In some cases, you will have to get into the BIOS setting to adjust the boot sequence priority of your computer. You will then have to choose custom install when prompted, this will let you pick the partition on which you will install Windows 8. The installation took me less than 30 minutes.

Installing Windows 8 Drivers:
Once you get into the new Windows 8 Metro interface, don’t get too excited yet because you have to install important drivers like your audio and video card drivers which hopefully you have saved somewhere that you can find. So simply browse to find the driver exe file and run it. That’s it, you are now on Windows 8!

New Interface
If you have not tried a Windows Phone yet, you will find that the new metro interface of Windows 8 is a bit confusing, but with a little patience and reading around I am sure you will get the hang of how it works. Basically, Windows 8 has two functions – the modern interface and the desktop interface which is much like Windows 7. And if you are missing the old start menu from Windows 7, don’t fret because you can get it back through a nifty third party app called Classic Shell. You can get it from http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ and installation is very easy.

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Posted by Sander in Technology | 0 Comments

How to Take Care of Your iPad

iPads have become more and more popular since they first generation were released. Nowadays this great electronic is owned by lots of people. However, not everyone knows how to care of them. Here are tips on how to take care of your iPad.
Leather casing helps to protect the gadget when it falls. You should buy for your iPad a good leather casing. There are great casings online.
Keep the iPad away from reach of young kids. Kids cannot understand the value of an iPad and will hence play with them and even drop them. Keeping it away from kids will make it last longer.
Turn the gadget off when you are not using it or listen to music from in on your code red headsets. This will help avoid overusing of the processor and also over using the battery. Turning off the device also help you save battery in case you are in a place that you do not have any charging means.

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Posted by Sander in Technology | 0 Comments

PrecisionElectric.com Review

Precision Electric Company is one of the leaders in business that deals with electric motors. They repair, service and sell electric motors. The company has been in existence since 1946 and till today, it is a business that is still run by the founding family. Great quality of service and dependability is what this company has been known for. This has not changed in all the years that they have been in the business.

Precisionelectric.com is the website of the company and it has all the information you would need to find out more about the company. The types of services and products that the company provides are mentioned here and everything is laid out in a simple manner so everything is clear. Many times, we find it difficult to find the exact information that we are looking for when we enter a site but in this particular site, you can be sure that you will not have a hard time finding anything you need.

The website allows you to find branches of the Precision Electric Company. There are a number of locations where you can find the company. Contact information and addresses are also given on the website itself, so it makes things very convenient for you. You can find out more about the products that you are interested in as each product on the website carries a brief description to make things easier for you. The website is designed in such a way that everything is made easy for consumers as well as visitors.

Precisionelectric.com is the site to go to if you are in need of electric motors or need to have one repaired or serviced. You need not look anywhere else as all your queries will be answered and your needs taken care of. The company is well-known and is experienced in the business.

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Posted by Sander in Hobbies, Technology, Zachary | 0 Comments

Photo Effects

I’m having fun applying various photo effects to the pictures that we take. The iPad has some amazing photo apps, and surprisingly, even our humble Nokia Lumia 800 has amazing photo effects applications. Here is one I used on a picture of bunso as he plays the guitar using advanced tapping techniques.

Technology has really gone so far, and the following months will be exciting with With the coming of Surface, a new version of kindle and ofcourse the anticipated iPhone5 and mini-iPad.

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Posted by Sander in Technology, Work | 0 Comments

Tech head

After almost a year of working at home, I was called upon to check on the computer at church. When I got to it, I thought that there was no hope and that it needs a hard drive eraser. You will have to wait around 5 to 10 minutes for it to boot up and once it does everything you run works so slow, including internet browsing.

And so I set out to fix the computer, what I did was to create an admin account and work from there. I first took out all the browser plug-ins and all the unnecessary programs that they have installed and then worked in safe mode to install an antivirus. I let it do a pre-boot cleanup and after a whole day of doing so, the computer is finally back to working order.

It looks like I’m still very much a tech head even though it’s been a while since I last used it.

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Posted by Sander in Family Moments, Mom J, Technology | 1 Comment

Hunt for a new phone

When the kids were content and happy, we quickly moved into the Cyberzone area of MOA to scourge the shops for my wife’s next phone.  Since the current iPhone is just a smaller version of the iPad2 that can make calls, we opted to try our luck with other brands. I’ve been hearing about how fragile the iPhone 4s is and the corresponding horror stories that come with it, so instead of getting one and wrapping it in adamantium metal, I’d rather have a sturdy phone that will work without the need for ridiculous rubber edge sealsprotection.

 

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Posted by Sander in Technology | 1 Comment

Nokia Lumia – Hammer Time

Here is a cool torture test video for the Nokia Lumia 900.  Lumia 800 also features the same sturdy gorilla glass.  Nice to know that our phone can substitute for a hammer during emergencies…

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