Barely a month after Apple releases its voice application, Siri, Google retaliated by pushing its own voice application to the public. The name of the application is simply called the “Google Voice Search”. The publicity comes through the form of a few videos of Australian Google researchers trying to explore the boundaries of Google Voice Search. The videos are done in a way that they demonstrate Google Voice Search’s ability to correctly identify words correctly after going through various mediums.

Of course, to display the adaptivity of the application, they have invited questions from Tourism Australia about the questions people would like to ask in the middle of the desert.

The second test was done as the first ever Google Voice Search in the Great Barrier Reef. That is done through a transducer, a device that receives digital signals (from the underwater microphone) and translates them into sound waves for the phone. I wonder what happened to the shark question.

As usual, they have invited a few other questions as well.

It is great to see that Google has stepped up its game in the voice application niche of the mobile business. However, I would like to point out that the videos only prove that the application manages to determine a broad range of different English pronunciations. It shows nothing about a user friendlier application like the Apple Siri does and does not convince me that the Google Voice Search works flawlessly in normal operating conditions (anywhere other than the desert or the ocean).

Also like the name suggests, Google Voice Search only takes you to Google search page. It is not intelligent enough to show you the answer you want based on your questions alone. Only certain questions such as weather or stock would appear without the need to press on the Google search page.

As of now, Apple is still ahead with its voice application in terms of user friendliness. To be able to answer your questions (taking into account of the previous questions you have asked), personalization and be able to throw out images when needed is indeed a great feat for a mobile application.

Perhaps Google saw more than that, perhaps Google saw the inability for Apple’s Siri to perform under conditions where sound waves are not perfect. As shown in many videos and especially demonstrated in this Simi parody.

Then again, Google was the one who announced their voice search application first on 14th June 2011. Apple felt a huge threat and decided to release a beta version of Siri and charging their customers for it. We will continue to observe and see what these giants have under their sleeves.

We are extremely excited about Blizzard’s BlizzCon 2011 held this weekend in Anaheim. There are a tonne of updates and shows but the main highlight of the conference was updates for World of Warcraft, Diablo III Black Soul Stone and Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm (HotS). In this article we will cover all the new unit releases in Heart of the Swarm and the new updates to some of the original units from Wings of Liberty.

First up, the new units in Heart of the Swarm; the main idea of the new units in HotS is to bring in more strategy and more options to the already dynamic game play of Starcraft II. To do that, Dustin Browder and David Kim has introduced two new units for Terran, three for Protoss and two new units for Zerg, and of course a lot more upgrades.

Terran

According to Blizzard, Terran used to have problems with Thors unable to deal with early Mutalisks on time and late game charge Zealots. With that in mind, they introduced:

• Hellion mech upgrade 
  This is basically a Hellion that transforms into a mechanical robot that has increased hit point and is used as a tank for your fragile army.  The reason for this upgrade was to negate the need to micro Hellions around to kill charge Zealots during late game and to give Terran army a proper tank that can soak up damage.
• Warhound
  A new mech unit that can be built faster than the Thor, moves faster and deals more AoE splash damage on air units, also used as an anti ground mech unit (7 range). Used to deal with Zerg Mutalisks and Protoss mechanical units. Not very effective vs light units.
• Shredder
  Terran radiation robot, a standalone unit that is used to kill opponent units, it has a safety feature that deactivates itself when an ally unit is close by. Blizzard wants to reduce the death ball play style of Terran, so they have introduced this unit as a harassment, containment and defensive purposes. Imagine a couple of these robots in your opponent’s mineral line. Note: damage of the Shredder does not overlap.
• Uber Thor (~Odin)
  The Terran uber unit, A-attack friendly and created to cater for players who loves the Mothership kind of units. Both Armory and Fusion Core is needed for this unit. Only can be built once, like the redundant Mothership.
• Ghost Cloak Cost
  Fixed energy cost for a fixed period of time.
• Reaper Health Regeneration
  Works outside of battle, I assume something like Protoss shield regeneration.
• Disabled Reaper special building attack
  With the new health regeneration, Blizzard has decided to remove the building attack on Reapers to balance the unit.
• Battlecruiser Redline Reachtor ability (Speed Boost)
  Basically allows Battlecruisers to move faster into or out from a battle.

Protoss

Protoss seems to be a good all-around race, however they still suffer from a few weaknesses such as the lack of harassing unit and a really good anti-air vs. mass Mutalisks during the late game. So in the Heart of the Swarm, they have introduced a few units to fix that.

• Tempest
  To replace the Carrier, Blizzard have introduced Tempest, Protoss’ new capital ship. It has MASSIVE air splash damage and a lightning ground attack.
• Replicant
  As the name suggest, this unit copies any of your opponent’s unit and does nothing else. It costs 200 mineral and 200 gas, the fun part is that it enables all the upgrade for the unit you copy. For eg. If you copy an infestor, you get burrow, Fungal Growth and Neural Parasite upgrade. I do not know how the professional players will use this unit, but it is a unit still under construction.
• Oracle
  A spell-caster harassment unit that can cast Phase Shift (a stronger version of Contaminate) to disables anti-air buildings, disables upgrade and disables technology provided by the building (Hydralisk becomes not available once the Hydralisk Den is Phase Shifted). The second skill is Entomb that is used to create a tomb around minerals and prevent workers from mining. Oracle’s Preordain skill enables Protoss to have vision on the opponent’s building and know what it is upgrading. Finally a scouting tool for Protoss.
  David Kim explains that all harassment units are circled around how fast they can kill workers in the mineral line, so the new Oracle will be worker friendly and can be used anytime in the game to gain an advantage.
• Nexus Arc Shield Ability
  Basically allows the Nexus to transform a building into something like a Photon Canon to defend from Terran drops. Building gains extra armour and deals damage to light units.
• Nexus Mass Recall Ability
  With the Mothership out of the picture, the Nexus now has the Recall ability.  I wonder if if they should implement the Blackhole ability somewhere.
• Mothership is removed

Zerg

For Zerg, its main problem was the lack of surround on enemy units and the lack of playing styles available.

• Ultralisk Burrow Charge ability
  This upgrade allows the Ultralisk to burrow underground and pops up under a death ball and start dealing damage. I have a feeling the cooldown will be like the Zealot Charge ability.
• Viper
  A new spell caster unit. Has detection, Blinding Cloud, Abduct and Ocular Parasite ability. The Blinding Cloud ability works like Dark Swarm in BroodWar, but a little different. Instead of reducing damage, it reduces the range of any ranged unit within the cloud to one. The Abduct ability allows the Viper to pull enemy units from a range and then your army can snipe it when it is out of position. Ocular Parasite gives the Viper a one time ability to detach its detector eyes and give it to any friendly and non-massive unit. Why it must be non-massive is totally out of of my understanding.
• Swarm Host
  Zerg’s slow artillery unit created to apply head on pressure like the Siege Tank. It does not attack while on the surface, but while burrowed Swarm Host spawns out melee units called Locusts and attacks to a set rally point.
• Baneling Burrow Movement
  An upgrade that allows Banelings to move underground like roaches. Upgrade requires a Hive.
• Hydralisk Speed Upgrade
  Basically a movement speed upgrade for Hydralisks. A much needed upgrade considering Hydras becomes a terrible unit when they move out of creep.
• Corruptor Siphon Ability
  Siphon is a new ability that replaces Corruption. It is an ability that allows Corruptors to attach itself to enemy building and deal damage to the building while siphoning resources from them.
• Overseer is removed

Also they have released many of the unit evolutions in campaign, especially the Swarmling and the Raptor. Unfortunately they will change the dynamics of multiplayer significantly so they are not added into the multiplayer.

Blizzard’s aim in the Heart of the Swarm is to allow the creation of more new strategies and different match ups for the Starcraft II players. Their biggest fear would be the Replicant unit in the Protoss arsenal, which could cause opponents to stop building a certain unit entirely so that it does not get copied by the Replicant. Also with the new Viper unit in the Zerg swarm as the only movable detector, it will be extremely tough to properly balance the unit. Also, the Shredder could be a very tough unit to deal with when it is used against a lesser player (wood league and below), however Blizzard might fix it by adding sounds or making the deploy time longer. The latter sounds like a better idea in my opinion.

As for whether major tournaments will port to the new Heart of the Swarm or stay with Wings of Liberty or not, it is totally up to the tournament organizer to decide if they want to stay with Wings of Liberty of switch to Heart of the Swarm.

All in all, the new Starcraft II expansion is far from balanced. The panel expects the game to be played enough so that positive feedback can be attained in order to adjusts every units accordingly. So expect major balance changes in the upcoming HotS patch.

After a long search for laptops and successfully completed my university, I have finally found our next candidate for disassembly. Today a friend has kindly contributed a laptop to the AhWee.com laptop disassembly guide. It is the Sony Vaio VGN-C25G (PCG-6R6P) one of the Vaio VGN-C series laptops.

This guide will explain detailed step by step sequence to dismantle a Sony Vaio VGN-C25G laptop.

Read me

AhWee.com is not by any means giving out professional advice. AhWee.com will be held no responsibility for any hardware and warranty faults.

If a warranty sticker that states “Warranty void if removed” is present. I highly discourage you to proceed further unless you are well aware of your warranty period.

Tools you need for dismantling and cleaning

1. Philips Screwdriver (I use a Pro’s Kit #0×75, blade size approximately 2.4 mm)
2. Flat Blade Screwdriver (Anything smaller than 2.5 mm)
3. Polyester brush (about 1/2″ wide would do)

 Before you start

There are a few things you will need to do before you start disassembling your Sony Vaio VGN-C25G.

1. Clear your table
   Ensure that you have plenty of space (1 meter square would be great) to put all the components so they won’t go missing or dropping off the table.
2. Remove the battery
   To remove the battery from your Sony Vaio VGN-C25G. Unlock the battery and slide the battery latch to the right, then slide it out.
   
3. Ground the motherboard
   When the battery is removed, simply ground the motherboard by pressing on the power button for a few seconds.
4. Ground your hands
   Ground your hands by wearing a wrist grounding strap or touching an unpainted metal surface from time to time.

And now you are set to dismantle your Sony Vaio VGN-C25G.

Step 1: Removing harddisk

Always remove your harddisk first if you are cleaning your laptop and put them in an anti static bag if possible.

1. Remove two screws (M2x7mm)
2. Carefully slide it out of the hub.

Step 2: Removing CPU fan

If you are not confident in laptop maintenance, I suggest Step 2 is the furthest you should go. Most dust collects near the fins of the heat sink and the CPU fan. This model (Sony Vaio VGN-C series) is designed with CPU fan cleaning in mind, thus the CPU fan is easily reachable.

1. Open the CPU cover by removing two screws (M2x7mm) and one captive screw shown below.
2. Lift the cover up.
   
3. When you see the fan, remove four screws (M2x4mm) and unplug the power cable.
   
4. Lift the fan out of its seating.

If you think there is a need to remove and clean the heat sink by itself, by all means, remove the four screws (M2x4mm) near the processor. Bear in mind to always use a thermal compound to replace the old one to maintain optimum heat transfer from the processor to the heat sink.

Step 3: Removing the memory modules

1. Remove the captive screw on the RAM covers.
2. Pull the pins sideways as shown in the picture below.
3. Carefully slide the RAM modules out of the connector.

Step 4: Remove the optical drive

1. Remove one screw (M2x7mm) pointed out in the picture below.
2. Slide the optical drive out of the bay.

Step 5: Remove the keyboard

1. Remove one screw (M2x15mm) located at the center.
   
2. First use a little flat bladed screwdriver to pry up one side of the dead securing pin located at the far right of the keyboard.
3. Then, using your nails, press in four remaining live securing pins and lift up the keyboard as you go. (!) Be careful when you lift the keyboard as there is a connector at the back of it.
   
4. Disconnect the connector at the back of the keyboard.

Step 6: Removing the palm rest

This is the trickiest part for most beginners and I highly suggest you not to rush this step. Take it slow and make sure all the screws are out before taking the palm rest apart.

1. Turn to the back of the laptop and remove ten (M2x7mm) screws and three (M2x3.5mm) screws located near the optical drive.
2. Turn the laptop upright and remove two (M2x7mm) screws and one (M2x15mm) screws.
3. Disconnect three cables (power, speaker and touchpad).
4. Carefully lift the palm rest from the base of the laptop from the back.

Step 6: Removing the PCMCIA module

Although step 6 and 7 might seems unnecessary, but some of the cables are overlapping each another. So I have took the time to disassemble them to show you how it really works.

1. Remove two screws (M2x2.5mm).
2. Disconnect the FPC (Flat Printed Circuit Cable) shown in the picture.
3. Lift the board up.

Step 7: Remove the communication board

Depending on how the laptop is initially setup, this step is done either before or after Step 8. If the display cable routes below this board, then you will have to do this step first. If it goes on top, then you can skip this step.

1. Remove two screws (M2x3mm) on the communication board.
2. Remove two screws (M2x3mm) on the RJ45 and RJ11 mount.
3. Disconnect two FPC cables.
4. Disconnect two WLAN cables.
5. Lift the communication board up.

Step 8: Remove the LCD screen

1. Disconnect the LCD connectors using the blue coloured pull tab.
2. Unscrew six hinge support screws (M3x3mm)
3. Carefully lift the LCD screen up and make sure to put it on a smooth surface.

That is it folks. The Sony Vaio VGN-C25G/PCG-6R6P disassembled.

More laptop disassembly guides at the Laptop Disassembly Archive.

As a university graduate myself, I always wonder why my tuition fee was so expensive. Especially when I studied overseas where every dollar I spent was equivalent to 3 dollars back in my home country. Also, there is this saying, “you use only about 5% of what you learn at university” which gets everyone with a right mind thinking, why attend university at all if you don’t apply the things you have learnt?

The mainstream media have got most of us into this fairytale story telling us that if we do not graduate with at least a degree, we do not get a job. Well, that is just one side of the story that appeals to only the employers, not the students.

Here are why our university and college education do not appeal to you students and is definitely not worth your parents’ hard earned money.

University Education is Nothing near Advanced Technologically

If you plan to take engineering and hope to get hands-on experience with high-end manufacturing machines. Think again, you might want to double your tuition fees to take up postgraduate studies instead.

If you plan to take commerce with the hope to graduate with all the skills needed to success in trading and investment, you will fail miserably because in university they teach you nothing about diversifying your portfolio. They teach you to diversify your portfolio in stocks, which makes you a loser every time the market crashes.

If you plan to take IT courses, prepare to meet lecturers who have no idea what they are teaching.

If you plan to take law and medicine, you graduate working your heads off with companies that pays you dirt.

Either way, by the time you graduate, all the things you have learnt is outdated and you will have to re-learn everything when you join a corporation.

It’s All About Business Mate

Very few universities actually promote real, practical, hands-on education. Education is now an industry, your vice-chancellors care not about your welfare as a student. Even if you’re excellent in your studies at postgraduate level, they hire you just to keep you as a tutor and pay you enough (you don’t want to be earning only enough your entire life) so that you can produce more papers to promote the university. Yay free advertisement.

Highest Inflation on Your Tuition Fees

Believe it or not, the inflation in the university and college education sector is one of the most inflated industries in the world. I did a search while I was surfing around the other day and found this.

I then checked this graph with the CPI index of Australia and learnt that the inflation in education even higher than the inflation in healthcare!  So I have come to a conclusion that this graph represents most of the universities and colleges around the world. So much for the importance of tertiary education.

Do you know that the money I spent studying in Australia can be used as a down payment for about 3 houses back in my hometown. Can I buy 3 houses in the next 4 years as a university graduate working for companies that pays me dirt? Very unlikely.

The Ever Growing World Wide Web

Every second, data as big as the Library of Congress is transmitted over the internet. You can imagine the whole library swooshing around the world in the network cable. Almost everything you need to know is available on the internet. In fact, most of the assignment given to you in university or college requires the use of the internet to complete them.

Why would you still need to pay a huge sum of money to the education institutes to tell you things that can be easily searched from the internet for free?

What Can We Do About This?

I guess we could form a union and go on a strike on hopes that the universities will reduce the tuition fees, which sounds extremely impractical and dangerous. On top of that, going on a strike is also something done by a person who has no control over anything; to simply put it, a university graduate who is being kicked around in the society.

So what are our options?

A few months ago, I met up with a friend called Fred at a cafe. Fred was complaining about his expensive tuition fees, he said that he should have taken his friend’s suggestion before he entered college.

His friend’s suggestion was this. Instead of paying a lump sum of your university savings to people who teaches you a lot of impractical crap, spend those money on your first few businesses and professional courses.

US’s average annual tuition fee is about 25,000 USD, a university course is usually 3 to 4 years depending on which degree you are taking. Fred’s friend suggested that you spend 20,000 USD on a new business and spend the rest attending courses that will enhance your professional skills.

Most of the time, your first business will fail. But keep in mind that you have 2 more years of savings to work on and usually you learn a tonne after your first business failure. Pool them together with the knowledge you gain from the professional courses you attend, I am sure your second and third (if not your fourth) business will be a success. That is when you will have control over your life.

Please bear in mind that I am not exactly advocating these kind of ideas. However, I believe it is something worth trying out if the universities and colleges keep on jacking up their education fees.

As a person who has searched your way to this article, I am pretty sure you are somebody who have either attended the Millionaire Mind Intensive (MMI) course or have agreed to join the 3 day exciting event created by T. Harv Eker. If you are the latter, prepare yourself for a treat from this article and from the course.

The Irrelevant Matters

Before I continue, let us talk a bit on the credibility of my information. Early this year, I attended the MMI seminar (and possibly have discovered enlightenment) myself and just a few weeks ago, I crewed for the MMI seminar in Australia. As a crew member I have talked to many participants and usually it goes like this the first day; they whine about the information to be “common sense” for most business practices. However, at the end of the third day, the majority of them find the seminar to be an eye opener and is worth the weekend.

To judge the seminar from a participant and a crew member’s perspective, I would say that it is a seminar to sell their products. But do not let this concern you at all, there are a few interesting activities that is definitely worth the 3 days of your weekend. So, I will leave it to you to judge whether the information provided in this article is credit enough or not. Right, so what are you expecting from the seminar?

To quickly go through the unimportant matters, it is a 3 days seminar, it starts early at 9 AM in the morning and ends at about 10 PM at might (yes, about 12 hours).

Day 1 of the seminar is pretty straightforward, Harv will talk about being mindful about your own money and how to keep part of what you earn to yourself. He will sell you products which do just that, they will definitely be sold out (trust me on that).

Day 2 of the seminar starts off to be extremely sleepy (you will know it when you get there). However, the night will be pretty interesting. Harv talks about ruling your money and not let your money rule you, there’s an activity that trains you to do just that.

Day 3 is the most interesting and will be the most important day of the seminar. Do not miss the third day no matter what. The theme on the third day is to believe in yourself, there is also an unbelievable activity to train you to do so. I will not disclose the activity but just pull yourself together to do it.

The Important Matters

As you can see, I am quickly going through the seminar schedules. This is because those are all the things you have to find out yourselves at the seminar. The important part of the seminar is T. Harv Eker’s marketing strategy, I repeat, T.Harv Eker’s marketing strategy.

Harv has polished his ability to successfully persuade the majority of his targeted customers to buy his products and courses. If he wants you to buy it, you will buy it if you have the credit. To simply illustrate his marketing strategy, he creates urgency upon his participants and have them buy their product because they do not want to be left out.

Throughout the MMI course, Harv sells 2 types of things, products and courses. In both the MMI seminar I went to, he sells the products first (which are limited) and they are usually sold out. Products are unimportant, the important ones are the courses such as Quantum Leap which costs about ten thousand AU dollars. Harv will make it sound like the courses will be limited in seats (which is partly true). However, don’t be fooled by that because the crews are told to sell as many courses as possible.

Sometimes Harv will give ridiculously low seminar prices that only valid for the first 25 applicants. But if you think about it, how would the sales person know which 25 applicants comes first? The system is not computerized, there will be at least 15 salesperson around the sales booths, there are more than a hundred application forms that writes the discounted price, there is no way the low seminar prices are only valid for 25 peoples.

To back on that statement, I have even asked the boss (I will not mention the name) to give me seminar prices after the seminar because I need some time to think about joining the Quantum Leap program. The boss agrees and gave me a number to contact if I have made up my mind.

Now the reason I am writing this article is to inform you that during the course of the seminar, you will be placed under Harv Eker’s superb marketing “spell”. So you have to take control of yourself before getting yourself into too much debt. Bear in mind that even after you finish all the courses in the Quantum Leap program, there is no guarantee that you will be a millionaire a few weeks after.

So, that is why I want you think twice before rushing yourself into a course.  I have not attended the Quantum Leap program yet, but I talked to the boss and the boss said that they will be selling more things (I have no idea what) as well in the courses you spent thousands to attend. I believe it is wise to at least have your money ready to pounce on the opportunities offered in those courses.

Nevertheless, do go to the seminar, get yourself equipped with more information and do what’s best for your future.

Oh, do you know that Harv gave out free MMI tickets every MMI seminar? If you have somebody who went and bought the book, get the free MMI ticket from them.

When I moved into my current house early this year, I noticed a huge oven (which is obviously better than the one I had back in my hometown). I had these thoughts of baking cookies myself over the summer and I started baking a month ago.

The cookies were surprisingly well made, they look and taste exactly like Cottage Cookies. The only thing wrong was that these are all a dream yet to come true.

I am a huge fan of chocolate chips cookies and I was surfing the internet for recipes until I found Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. Apparently they claim that Famous Amos grabbed that recipe straight off and start profiting from it. Since Famous Amos’ cookies were pretty good, I tried the recipe.

So far I have baked for a total of 3 times.

The first attempt of cookies came out compact and looked like butter cookies. Friends on facebook had a good laugh at them.

The second attempt failed miserably. I will explain on that earlier.

The third attempt was the best so far, with better texture and taste. But still, not quite the Cottage Cookies taste yet.

Blunders

Like I said earlier, baking is no engineering business. Even as an engineer (we’re supposed to know everything there is about units!) we have to relearn the whole new language of “Baking”.

1. Teaspoon, not tablespoon.

First rule of baking, know your sizes! When recipe says for teaspoon, it is the smaller spoon, not the one used you use for breakfast.

I actually did that on the second attempt for both the salt and baking soda. Cookies came out extremely salty and bubbly (lots of holes). I had to throw the rest of the batter away.

2. Sticks does not literally mean sticks.

As you can see from the Toll House recipe link above. It says “1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened”. As a non-baker, what would you do?

I can tell you what I did, I bought two sticks of 250 grams of butter and mix all of them according to the recipe from the link. Cookies in the oven did not retain its shape and came out flat and oily.

What happened there was that there was too much butter in the mix. 1 Cup (2 sticks) of butter actually means 227 grams of butter since a stick of butter is 113.4 grams. Not two sticks of 250 grams butter.

3. If you don’t have an insulated baking pan, SPAM baking sheets!

One thing I realized is that the more baking sheets I have placed on my lousy baking pan, the less cookies I burn. On my third attempt to bake, I actually had around 5 baking sheets stacked together so that the bottom of my cookies would not burn too quickly.

So you can easily guessed it, usually the first batch of cookies are the fried ones.

Also, how does the cookies manufacturers are able to retain the crispiness of their cookies for such a long time. The cookies I bake usually becomes less crispy on the second day, even when they are in an airtight container. If there are some experts out there reading this, would you please answer this question.

I wonder when I could bake the “perfect cookie” …

In a Nutshell

With my professional engineering analysis on this matter called “baking”, I can conclude that the units used in baking is not standard … or I should take up another Bachelors Degree on baking.

Yes, you guessed it. The award winning Sci-Fi movie The Matrix that depicts a real world ruled by artificial intelligence (robots); who placed human beings in a virtual world while using human’s body heat and electrical activity as a source of energy. The movie illustrates modern slavery in the world we live in … or is it so?

To spice up a serious topic such as this, let’s give a role that reflects a specific character or an object in the movie. From there, we will then name the relevance of each role.

Now we will jump straight into the first role …

Simulated Reality

Simulated reality is a world perceived to be “real” by human beings in the movie. The best role for this would be the mainstream media.

[Movie] The simulated reality is made to fool human brains into believing that they are enjoying life while the fact is that they are actually slaves powering the robots.

[Real Life] In real life however, the mainstream media is constantly feeding us with false information, instilling pictures into the minds of young children to be slaves as they grow up. Of course, this is not done in such a direct manner. What they tell you are something of these sort – “We offer you ZERO interest on the first 3 months of your credit card! Use them as you please, because we want you to be rich!” or “The economy is picking up as President Obama has prepared stimulus packages to boost the economy”.

Harvesters

Harvesters are the ones who maintain the power plant of humans batteries. The best role that portrays the harvesters are the “something” behind the throne, I will call them the “Ultra Rich”.

“There is something behind the throne greater than the King himself”

- Sir William Pitt, House of Lords 1770

[Movie] Harvesters’ job is to maintain and populate the fetus field while constantly growing the power plant for the survival of their own race.

[Real Life] The Ultra Rich’s job is to maintain us as slaves, have us work for them voluntarily (more like unknowingly) and strip us off our wealth. With business tools such as the Corporate Veil, it is still unknown as to who are actually pulling the strings behind the scenes. What is definite is that the government is not the ultra rich; they are the ones doing all the dirty work.

Source of Energy

The robots used human beings as source of energy in the movie. This is no different than the world we live in; the role to be played will be our “Hard Work”.

[Movie] When the robots in The Matrix are stripped away of their ability to use the solar energy, they turn humans into slaves as their main source of energy.

[Real Life] The Ultra Riches have been polishing their ability to enslave people since the dawn of age and are still perfecting it as we speak. With the use of debt, inflation and political overthrow, they can turn a country of free citizens into a country of hardworking slaves that will generate profit for their organization (Jamaican Water War).

War between Human and Robots

This is probably the only self explanatory thing here and is of course reflected by the unnecessary World Wars.

[Movie] In the movie, the conflict started when human discovered the first robot that killed his master. However, it is human as always, drew the first blood in both the war and Operation Dark Storm that is both self destructing in the end.

[Real Life] The World Wars however, was fuelled by nothing but greed to profit from the war. There is nothing more profitable to a Central Bank than country borrowing money from it to fund the war while repaying interest on top of the debt.

The Sentinels

The Sentinels are the machines that attack human whenever they are spotted. They represent most of us who are uninformed.

[Movie] These guys are the one’s programmed from birth to do all the destructions to the human society. They do not think for themselves. They only follow commands directed by their leader; that is to search and destroy human at all costs until they receive a command not to do so.

[Real Life] The ultra riches understood that human learn through education and observation. So they manipulated our Education System and the mainstream media; feeding us with irrelevant information perceived as important to survive in these harsh environments they planned for us. Overtime, these false information became a norm in our society; creating countless “Sentinels” around ourselves, telling us things they thought are facts. Thus the perfect “Simulated Reality” is actualized, brought forward by ourselves and playing into the hands of the Ultra Riches.

Get Informed!

This virtual world we created for ourselves was started by the Ultra Rich, through the use of education and the mass media. But eventually, it is us (and our close ones) who are actually doing all the damage by spreading information we thought are the truth.

You can start to get informed by being more sensitive to the information you receive and ask “why” questions. You will realize that most answer are the same, it’s either “that’s what we’re told to do” or “that’s how everybody does it”. If that’s the case, you know extremely well that you should take the information with a grain of salt.

The Ugly Truth

You will also learn that many people are not able to handle the ugly truth you told them, like Cypher in The Matrix. They are too engrossed to the entertainment and comfort offered by the virtual world that they find no reason to leave that comfort zone. There is really nothing you can do about these people, let them grow and soon they will realize the truth themselves.

Also, I am not saying that as a human being we should deprive ourselves from entertainment and comfort. In fact, I think we should enjoy whenever there’s an opportunity to do so; as long as doing so does not affect you in the long run (like using your credit card to travel around the world when you don’t even have a stable income).

In a Nutshell

This is a very long article and I do not want to have loose ends. I am sure some of you will be wondering if a world that is fair and square is even possible to achieve.

To answer that honestly, I have no idea. But here is what I think that will happen, answered by a role in The Matrix series.

Agent Smith

Agent Smith is the baddest ass in the movie that is always there to screw things up. The perfect role for this will be the Weapon of Destruction created by scientists.

[Movie] Agent Smith actually started out as a controlled AI program to keep The Matrix in order, until he was “freed” by Neo when Neo defeated him. He then starts to replicate himself like a computer virus until there was nothing left in The Matrix.

[Real Life] The Weapon of Destruction (Atomic Bomb, Nuclear Bomb) was also used to keep the world in order by ending conflicts such as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Warfare, however that is not what I believe to be now. When the time comes when all options used by the Ultra Rich has failed and most of us has come to realize the peoples who are actually screwing with our lives, we will face Armageddon.

I hope I am seriously wrong on this one.

To end this article, the movie did not illustrate real life modern slavery. Our modern slavery real life illustrated the movie.

Most of us perceive inflation in many different ways. Commerce graduates are taught in universities to look at the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to determine the inflation or deflation of price for average goods. Normal citizens like us would normally gauge inflation on a daily basis through buying daily needs. However, the plain simple truth is that all these methods are delusional, incorrect and biased.

I once got into a heated debate about inflation with a person who knows zero about inflation and was telling me this, “I got a better computer system with my $1000 today than two years ago, now that’s fighting inflation”. If this is how you interpret inflation, reading this article will definitely be a treat to you.

Paper Money

Let’s talk a bit on our paper money since it is important to get to know our little paper friends if we really want to understand inflation.

I believe that at least 60% of the world’s populations are still presently uninformed that the paper currency they are holding now is not real money. Our paper money (credit in electronic form) is a Legal Tender*, meaning they are only worth something as long as the government says so.

Also, as we all know, counterfeiting money is a crime and you go to jail for printing money. However, the process of creating more paper money is nothing but a legal counterfeiting of money. To illustrate on that, new paper money is printed by a printing machine and new credit are just numbers added into the computer. This can be done legally by a Central Bank, and most countries have a Central Bank.

Now do you realize how disastrous this would mean to you and me when somebody can print money out of thin air? To answer this question, let’s find out how new money gets their share of “value”. A metaphor for this would be the number of children in a family. If you are the only child in the family, I’m sure you receive all the attention and are “worth” more. However if you’re from an old school Asian family that has ten or more children, you receive less attention and is “worth” less.

I know, bad example, but as you can see, new money seeps value from our current money and debase all the currency as a whole. This results in wealth being transferred away from our savings and investments to the people receiving the newly printed money.

My Definition of Inflation

So my simple definition of inflation would be nothing but the expansion of monetary supply that causes the debasement of our money and thus reducing our overall purchasing power.

The reason I said that relying on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is delusional and incorrect is because the main problem is not the increased price of goods. The main problem is the increase in money supply without the increase in economy output. This causes inflation and companies have to jack up their prices to survive the inflation.

The mainstream media blames price inflation on greedy companies, which is untrue for most companies. The media is the perfect propaganda tool being used by the government to spread their “fairy tales” to vulnerable and uninformed people like us. I strongly suggest you to think twice before believing anything on the TV or radio.

Legal Tender – Something offered as a payment legalized by the government

It has been awhile since I actually disassembled a laptop or even written an article. Fortunately, when I was back in hometown for new year, my brother who trusted my ability to disassemble laptop had offered me the opportunity to clean his Dell Latitude E4300.

This guide will explain detailed step by step way on how to dismantle to clean a Dell Latitude E4300 notebook.

READ ME

Advices taken here are taken at your own risk. AhWee.com will be held no responsibility if your laptop malfunction or lose your warranty.

NOTE: Even though Dell said disassembling laptop yourself would lose your warranty, but I haven’t void anybody’s warranty in any possible way yet.

Tools You Need For Dismantling and Cleaning

1. Philips Screwdriver (Size #0 is great)
2. Flat Blade Screwdriver (usually a test pen)
3. A brush (about 1 inch or 2 cm wide would do it, not too big)

It pays to go to your nearest hardware store and get a well fit Phillips screwdriver because you don’t want to spoil the screws in your laptop.

Before You Start

Here are a few things you’ll need to do before you start to disassemble your Dell Latitude E4300.

1. Clear your Table
   Ensure that you have plenty of space (1 meter square would be great) to put all the components so they won’t go missing or falling off the table.
2. Prepare a Small Container for Screws
   Every single screws taken out from the laptop has their own job in keeping the computer intact. Don’t lose them.
3. Disconnect all the Cables & Components
   It’s wise to disconnect all usb cables, pendrives, power cords.
4. Put Some Cloth or Thin Sponge Under the Laptop
   To make sure that the rough table surface would not scratch your laptop.
5. Remove the Battery
   To remove the battery from your Dell Latitude E4300, unlock 2 of the latches and remove the battery out from the battery bay.
   
6. Ground the Motherboard
   When the battery is removed, simply ground the motherboard by pressing on the power button for a few seconds.
7. Ground your Hands
   Ground your hands by wearing a wrist grounding strap or touching an unpainted metal surface from time to time.

Getting excited? We’re good to go now.

Step 1 : Remove The Harddisk

Always (I mean like every freaking time), remove the harddisk first and store it inside an antistatic bag if possible.

1. Turn the laptop upside down. Note the harddisk is at the lower right hand corner.
2. Unscrew two M3x3 screws.
   
3. Slide the harddisk out from it’s compartment.

Step 2 : Remove The Hinge Cover

I like the hinge cover in E4300, very flexible (very easy to break too) and easy to remove.

1. Note the indentation at the right side of the hinge cover, that’s the place where you start.
2. Pry up the hinge cover using your test pen.
3. Slowly lift up the whole thing from right to left.
   

Step 3 : Remove The Keyboard

After you remove the hinge cover, you can see three screws that secures the keyboard.

1. Unscrew all the three M2x3 screws located at the top of the keyboard.
2. Lift the keyboard up from the top, then slide the keyboard out.
3. The connector is not a wire so it slides out together along with the keyboard.
   

Step 4 : Remove The LCD Screen

1. Turn your laptop upside down, remove two M2.5×4 screws securing the display assembly on the white support.
   
2. Remove two more M2.5×4 screws at the back of the laptop
   
3. Turn the laptop rightside up and open the screen as far as possible.
4. Remove the display cable with the blue tab.
5. Remove 3 (white, grey, black) antennas that is labelled “Display”.
   
6. Slowly lift the LCD screen out from its respective compartments.

Step 5 : Remove The Palm Rest

Note that this is the hardest part during a laptop disassembly. Be extra careful here to make sure every cable are dislodged and every screw is unscrewed before taking the palm rest apart.

1. Turn the laptop upside down and remove the two M2.5×8 from the bottom of the computer and two M2x3 screws from the harddisk’s compartment.
   
   Obviously, I forgot to remove the harddisk first, sorry.
2. Turn the laptop rightside up, remove the five M2.5×8 screws and five M2.5×5 screws from the palm rest. The sizes are labelled beside each screw.
   
3. Remove 6 cables that connects the palm rest to the motherboard.
4. Start from the back of the laptop, slowly disengage every hooks until you have the whole palm rest out.

NOTE: If you think something is not right with the palm rest (it is not coming out or something), chances is that there are still some screws or cable still connected. Trust your instincts.

Step 6 : Remove The Dirty Fan

After the palm rest have been removed, you can see the system fan clearly.

1. Disconnect the cable that connects the fan to the motherboard.
2. Remove one M2.5×5 screw.
   

Sponge of dust would usually clog the air vent. It is extremely normal actually.

There you go, Dell Latitude E4300 disassembled.

Please inform me if I missed any of the crucial steps, wrote wrong screw dimensions or even forgot to add the tools needed to complete this guide.

More laptop disassembly guides at the Laptop Disassembly Archive.

Please forward any questions or comments regarding Laptop Disassembly to the Forum at Real Time Gamer (RTG) website. RTG is a website we have long-term partnership with.

Apple introduced its newest tablet style product called the Apple iPad on 27th of January at San Francisco. I watched the Keynote; everybody was dead silent when Steve Jobs ran through all the features available on the iPad, unlike the cheers and applauses on the iPhone during its first debut.

When I looked through Facebook, tonnes of disappointed Apple fans updated their status with “iPad, a gigantic iPod Touch”. Myself on the other hand think the Apple iPad is “the future” if Apple would be bothered to revise it.

Apple has always focused on user interface to redesigned our lives. On the Apple iPhone, Apple redesigned the way we use mobile phones.  On the iPad however, Apple have done a superb job focusing on user interface, but has it redesigned our lives?
From the looks of our many Facebook colleagues, not quite.

If Apple thinks that enlarging the iPod Touch and introducing the iBookStore would mean anything near to “redesign lives”, Apple is dead wrong. It is simply not going to work. Look, the iPad will be mostly used in offices or at home. We have high speed laptops and desktops at these places, why should we the iPad instead?

Here are the questions.

1. Is the iPad better at web surfing?
   I doubt so, can it open 30 tabs to work with?
2. Is the iPad worth $499 to share & view pictures with?
   Highly doubt so.
3. Does the iPad score better at watching movies?
   Definitely a no if you’re a fan of big screens and an audio freak.
4. Is the iPad better at listening to music?
   I already have an iPod touch mate.
5. How about email (Apple hyped a lot at this)?
   I can definitely reply email faster with my workstation.
6. But how about reading books with your iPad?
   Sounds like a future to me.

I beg to differ what Steve Jobs has explained in the keynote. He said the iPad is far better at doing some important things than the iPhone and the Macbook. From the questions I have asked above, I’d say the iPad failed at doing everything. It is just another “Improved Netbook” that fails at everything.

So the only reason I think anybody would use to persuade themselves to get the iPad is the book reading feature. But does that justify the need to get another $499 gadget ($829 at its best spec)?

I personally think the iPad was mixed with the hype of iPhone thus blinded Apple’s development team from searching an identity (or a specialty) for its newest product.

The Apple iPhone has an identity, a revolutionized mobile phone. The Apple iPod also has an identity as well, iPod revolutionize your music. The iPad? Let’s just say as things stands now, the iPad has yet to have an identity of its own.

Apple iPad, Revolutionize Your Home

When I first saw the size of the iPad, what came to me was that this is something I would love to play with when I am taking a break away from my workstation (a laptop or a desktop). Ultimately a gadget perfect for a home, where I can do whatever I do in the living room all in that one piece of metal.

A Library at Home

Apple has done this and I would say this is the biggest step to the future. Many kids have always read story books under a shade which could cause eye problems later in life, same goes to reading books in the iPhone, I can barely see the texts. Reading books in a laptop or desktop however, does not give you the sense of satisfaction.

Therefore the new iBookStore for the iPad in my personal opinion is a huge step forward. Apple iPad has the size of an average book size and is perfect for reading, in any position.

Of course, Amazon’s Kindle has done it before Apple, but is it as user friendly as the iPad?

Built-in Home Telephone

Home phones has run its course in human life now, it is old technology and should be replaced. I irk every time the telephone rings (especially the old ring noise) and how unfitting it is to room spaces and usefulness.

Sometimes it is even more nerve breaking when you are to jot down notes through your phone. You just couldn’t find the pen and paper! While iPad does it all with just a flick of a finger.

Built-in TV

While revolutionizing a home, a built-in TV should not be missed in the iPad. Build the iPad in such a way that it becomes a second TV at home, wirelessly. This way, parents and children would not fight for the favourite TV channels and end up with cold faces at dining tables.

I believe with all these built into the Apple iPad, it will give Apple targeted customers a reason to replace household things (especially the telephone) with the iPad regardless of its price.

What’s the point of creating a product when any older product can easily outdo it? Create one that is made to substitute older products. That is what triggers human nature to change, in which we call revolution.