PC Memoirs

Have you already seen the movie Avatar? If not, I highly recommend it. You should see the 3D version – it costs slightly more, but believe me, it’s worth it! I saw it during the opening weekend and I plan to see it again in January. It already made over $160 mil in the US and over $400 mil worldwide.*

Some people criticise the film’s story but most of the critics and moviegoers agree that the visuals are stunning. If there is any criticism from my side, it’s that the story is similar to Dances with Wolves with Kevin Costner. I give the movie 4.5 stars out of 5 (or A-).

I am pretty sure that the movie will make close to 1 billion dollars worldwide, but it won’t reach the highest grossing movies in the US, Titanic and The Dark Knight.

If you liked the movie and you are into games, you should also check out Avatar The Game. Made by Ubisoft Montreal, it uses the same 3D technology as the movie (displayed in stereoscopic 3D) and it’s available for all major consoles such as Sony Playstation, X-Box and Nintendo Wii, even iPhone and of course, the PC. The PC version is highly praised by MTBS (Meant To Be Seen), because “PC stereoscopic 3D displays are more readily available” and it was given a score of 8.2 out of 10.**

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Here is another funny post, just in time for the Christmas holidays and end of the year. It is finally time for some rest, fun and games after a difficult year, a year full of serious things. This time I have to recommend to you a post with some funny cartoons. Remember those PC vs Mac commercials? Well, someone made an effort to find cartoons with this theme. Rahul from Cool Tips and Tricks found 30 of them! They are all pro-PC and not Mac-friendly, so don’t go there if you are a Mac-lover 🙂

I see it as ‘the revenge of the PC’! Here is an example:

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Today I have to show you something special. While visiting a fellow bloggers’ websites, I stumbled upon a funny post at Willem’s Internet Blog.

Willem wrote a nice check list which may help you decide if your computer needs an upgrade. It reads something like: “You know you have to update your PC when…” and my favorites are:

• your computer store can’t supply any more 5 1/4 inch floppy disks
• your 10 MB harddisk starts making rattling noises you never heard before
• when you try to install Windows 3.1 and it complains your system isn’t supported anymore
• your computer tells you that March 26 2009 isn’t a valid date
• the only organisation offering spare parts is the local computer museum

For more funny ‘checks’, please visit Willem’s Internet Blog. Enjoy!

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Any Video Converter Free Edition is a quick and easy tool for converting between various formats. It can clip segments and crop frame sizes to remove any unwanted area in the frame. Input formats include: avi, asf, mov, rm, rmvb, flv, mkv, mpg, 3gp, m4v, vob, YouTube videos and more. Output formats include: avi, mp4, wmv, swf, flv, mkv, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, mpg (PAL or NTSC), mp3, wma, ogg, aac, wave, m4a.

Any Video Converter Professional can convert video files from mpg, avi, divX, mpg, vob, wmv, 3gp, asf, mov, rmvb and more into mp4, avi, mpeg and wmv files. You can also download and convert YouTube videos and Google videos. If you have iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP, Apple TV, PS3, Archos, Walkman, Sandisk Sansa, iRiver PMP, Creative Zen, Wii or Xbox 360, you should download Any Video Converter!

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Few days ago I experienced my first Windows 7 problem. My dad’s Toshiba L300 laptop, which was upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7 recently, suddenly started showing the Blue Screen Of Death. It appeared randomly and all I could see before the laptop restarted was the PFN_LIST_CORRUPT message. The error code that followed was 0×0000004E.

I could see no reason for it, since the laptop was new, no new software or hardware was installed and the only change was the Windows system upgrade.

This error message means that the Page Frame Number is corrupt, and it usually has to do with bad memory or bad drivers. It comes up in Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7.

In my case the memory was brand new, but I still ran the Windows 7 memory diagnostic tool, just to be safe. To access this program, you’ll need the Windows 7 installation DVD. Boot from this DVD and follow the instructions on the screen to ‘Repair you computer’. At the next screen, you’ll see some new options on the menu, one of which is the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. For detailed instructions on how to get there, please go here.

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