H2O Member | Sat Jul 25, 2020 | 08:55 PM | Likes: 2 

Intel Products and Future

Categories: Tech | Pubby Cash Received:  0

Intel Corp's stock (INTC) logged one of its worst days in 20 years on Friday. A 16.24% decrease in the stock price appeared after the chip giant announced that its next generation of 7nm chips would be delayed by 6 months. In recent years, its competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc grows very fast and has a very good reputation of making high benchmarked but affordable chips for gaming computers. The AMD Ryzen chip series have more cores and threads to their Intel rivals at the same level, despite that some people believe the Intel chips still excel in the power per chip. As a 20-year Intel chip user, my preference is difficult to be changed. The top-notch chip technology is a highly advanced area and I don't believe other competitors can fully catch up with the chip giant in a short period of time. I tend to believe that despite of a lower benchmarked score, Intel chips are more stable and therefore more suitable for desktop applications. Many softwares are also designed and optimized based on the Intel chips. I had a failing experience of installing MATLAB onto a laptop with an AMD chip around 2009, because the AMD chip at that time was not compatible with MATLAB! Now 10 years have passed. Although the situation might have been changed, the habit stays and it won't be easy for people to change from their comfort zone to risk something uncertain. With that said, my next chip choice would still be Intel, just to be safe. Actually, the 10th generation Intel chips are selling very fast. Best Buy and Amazon are always out of stock on the I9 10900K, and the prices at other places are crazy-high. Those retailers just want to rip off some quick money. This market situation also proves that customers still like Intel and have confidence in Intel. I will keep refreshing this bestbuy page from time to time to sniper an I9-10900K. ...  Read more

H2O Member | Tue Jul 21, 2020 | 02:18 PM | Likes: 3 

Why PS/2 Port is still Included in Modern Motherboard?

Categories: Tech | Pubby Cash Received:  0

I've used PS/2 ports to connect the keyboard and mouse to a computer in the late 1990s. Thirty years have passed. Now I'm looking to buy a modern motherboard, but astonished to find that in the most advanced MSI MEG Z490 motherboard to accommodate the newly released the 10th generation Intel I9 processor, there is still a PS/2 port. At first thought, I would consider this to be outdated. After doing some homework learning the reasons behind it, I've changed my mind. Here are the special reasons why PS/2 is important for a top-notch computer: (1) Drivers. In contrast to USB ports, PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse will work with devices without having to download the latest drivers. Although all devices require drivers to work, there is a catch when it comes to USB keyboards and mouse. The USB port itself requires a driver. USB ports not functioning properly due to a driver issue may occur from time to time during a Windows Feature Update or a update provided by the OEM is nothing new. Sometimes the driver issue happens by itself. In addition, for systems where "optimized defaults" loads OS before USB keyboard is active, you must have a keyboard on PS/2 to operate the machine. Examples like a firmware/BIOS update or CMOS reset will render USB keyboard unusable to enter SETUP/BIOS or early boot menus (until a complete reboot), whereas the PS/2 will be very handy. Thus, the PS/2 port acts as a backup in this circumstances. (2) Limits on n-key rollover. The USB protocol limits the n-key rollover to a maximum of 6, meaning if you play a game that uses tons of buttons after 6 keys you start missing keys no matter how good your board is. PS/2 ports, on the other hand, allow full n-key rollover. (3) IT security. USB ports might be disabled to end users to avoid security risks (data theft, virus and malware injection etc) on business desktops and workstations in an IT corporate infrastructure. PS/2 ports are for keyboard and mouse only, and thus are considered secure for all non IT Admin users. (4) PS/2 connector gives slightly better keyboard performance than USB and is more reliable. You may throw a PS/2 keyboard to a dishwasher to clean and it is still going strong, while the modern mechanical USB keyboard stop working for 24 hours if a drop of water falls inside a key. These indeed surprised me after I learned PS/2 ports have so many advantages. Since there is only 1 PS/2 port on the top-notch MSI motherboard, I think I will let this most important port taken by a PS/2 keyboard. Actually, the PS/2 mouse can be very difficult to find these days, and I will just use a USB mouse. ...  Read more

H2O Member | Wed Jul 15, 2020 | 05:08 PM | Likes: 2 

Remote Learning or Face-to-Face Learning for Fall 2020?

Categories: Education | Pubby Cash Received:  0

As progressive phases of reopening are underway in many places, returning to school becomes imminent for faculty and students. I'm applauding for the decision that the Cumberland Valley School District (CVSD) offers a virtual academy option that allows caring parents not sending their kids back to school in the whole 2020-2021 school year or during a specific phase of the school year. Without knowing what is going to happen after winter, I signed up for the virtual academy only for the first phase for now. Depending on whether the vaccine for COVID-19 is ready at that time, the next phase of decision to continue virtual academy or not will be made. In contrast to the wise decision made by the CVSD, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) did not make favorable decisions in the views of most faculty, as the University insists on reopening with a so-called "hybrid" teaching mode with no opt-out option for faculty so that the health of faculty will be at risk. According to a survey to 3,178 faculty of the 14 universities in the State System, more than 60% are very concerned about contacting COVID-19 or potentially exposing their family to it. More than 90% believed students will not appropriately social distance in residence halls or in other social settings. More than 70% do not feel safe teaching or interacting with students face-to-face in the fall. And only 12.5% want to return to in-person teaching. Of course, my preference goes with the majority of people. If that decision does not change, I would be not returning home but staying in a rental apartment at IUP to self-quarantine for an entire semester!...  Read more

H2O Member | Fri Jul 10, 2020 | 09:04 PM | Likes: 3 

Zotero - A Reference Management Software to Recommend

Categories: Tech | Pubby Cash Received:  10

Endnote and Mendeley are the previous reference management softwares I have used in the past. It was until last month when Zotero was recommended to me. Now I have totally accepted this software. It is recommended to me because it is the only reference management software that supports direct citations when writing in Google Doc. However, its advantages are more than that. The aspects that intrigue me most also include: (1) Incorporated perfectly in Word 2007 on my local machines. The Zotero ribbon appears on the menu bar and is very easy to use. (2) Automatically grabs meta data of articles from web pages and even PDFs. Just need to install a Zotero connector in Google Chrome and right click any web page you would like to save to your reference library. (3) Automatically tries to download the pdf files. If an article is an open-access one, it will succeed. (4) Easy migrate to different computers. What you need to do is the copy the root folder named "Zotero" to the target computer and replace the older folder in the same location. (5) Easy sorting of references. My preferences are: sorting by date added, article publication timeline, first_author's last name, collections on different projects, and tags. It can also sort out duplicate items if that bothers you. (6) Multiple Libraries support. In each library, you can make different collections for different projects. The upper level hierarchy manages your references nicer and cleaner. Last but not least, Zotero is an open-source software. Advanced customization can be done if you know what you are doing. You can read their documentation and forum for more information. ...  Read more

H2O Member | Tue Jul 07, 2020 | 09:14 AM | Likes: 3 

An Online PDF Filling and Signing Tool - Smallpdf

Categories: Tech | Pubby Cash Received:  0

If you would like to edit a PDF file locally by a software installed on your machine, Acrobat is the common software to go. You can also use Photoshop to do advanced editing on PDF. Acrobat reader is free, but Acrobat and Photoshop are not and they are not cheap. If you don't care about your privacy regarding the PDF files you are trying to edit, you could use online PDF editing tools that are available almost everywhere. You need to upload the PDF file to the server and you interact with the server via the web GUI by filling blanks, drawing shapes, and signing names. The server will do the processing and provide you an edited version to download. This process does not rely on any client-end software and is easy to use. The only downside as I can see is the privacy. I cannot name one website that absolutely has no privacy issue, but Smallpdf is the online tool that I use occasionally for online PDF filling and signing. You could try them out on your non-sensitive PDF documents. ...  Read more

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