Safehouse

Just this July 1, I've been greeted with a Trojan that unleashed a nasty virus pack. Which, cost me a hard disk drive. Now, I've lost my old system I have to reinstall everything starting from the OS and along with the applications I use (which is a lot). As for settings, no worries. I am always prepared for things like this. I've got all my important data and settings saved.

The reason I made this post so suddenly is to preserve an important information that may help me or someone else having the same problem. The problem is that when you have a Samsung 940BW monitor and an NVIDIA 7600 GS card that are connected via DVI. Windows XP apparently can't give you its native resolution of 1440x900@60Hz by default. You have to hack your way in by adding it manually through custom timings.

In my experience, the last NVIDIA Forceware driver that worked for this monitor and video card combination is Forceware 93.71. So here are the custom timings and settings to get your 1440x900 resolution (that looks great).

1. Set your flat panel scaling mode to: Display (None) -> Apply.

2. Set the following settings when adding a new custom timing...
Horizontal Desktop Lines: 1440
Vertical Desktop Lines: 900
GDI Refresh Rate: 60
Bits per pixel: 32
Interlaced: No
Timing Standard: CVT reduced blank
Front-porch: 48x3
Active Pixels: 1440x900
Total Pixels: 1600x926
Sync: 32x6
Polarity: - /
Scaling type: None
Active Pixels: 1440x900

... then click Test then Ok. It doesn't matter if you don't see any change on your screen during the test. What matters is that it passes and added to your resolution list.

3. Exit from NVIDIA Control Panel

4. Right-click desktop and choose Properties to open Display Properties

5. In Settings tab, choose your newly added 1440x900 resolution the click Apply then Ok. That should work your now!

If it doesn't try reviewing the sequence of the steps again. If it still doesn't work. You should do the trick where you plug in your Analog connector first, add the resolution and make it work first then switch back to DVI and add the resolution again as explained above.

I hope this helps anyone. If you have money, I'd advise to get the newer monitors and video cards so you won't ever have this problem again.

So some of you might already know the news of me getting an iPhone 3Gs. I can't blame you. You might already have caught my praises for it on my twitter, facebook, and from my mouth. I've officially acquired it last February 27, 2010 from my cousin who came back from Kuala Lumpur. (Greetz to my cuz Shella! Thank you very much!!!) I now have officially joined the bandwagon of fads and tech-glamor (Ye right...).

Now, it has been with me for a week, which means I already have something to say for my initial review of the Apple iPhone 3Gs 16GB Black. The shortest summary I can say about this is that its soooooooooooooo AWESOME! My lifestyle really integrated into the device as these are the numerous things I do with it:

• Text/call as usual
• I connect to the Internet either through WiFi or 3G
• Theter to be used as a modem
• Play music
• Surf the web excessively
• Schedule my tasks
• Note down all the things important
• Play games
• Read books comfortably
• Use it for many everyday tools like Flashlight, Calculator, Currency Converter, Dictionary, Encyclopedia, etc.

See all those things I do with it? It's not exaggeration! I really do all of them everyday. I never thought I would do so much with it. I thought I should have bought this device a long time ago and wouldn't even bother getting a netbook. Now, I spend less on my PC and save some electricity. As you might have noticed I'm Internet-dependent, which makes sense to imply that I'm WiFi-dependent on my iPhone use. It doesn't bother me as most places I go to do have free WiFi. The Appstore's free apps are a blessing and is an extension to the usefulness of the device.

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility -- and cost! For a week, I've seem to compile my small disappointments on the device but it didn't bother me that much yet.

• Safari has no Flash support
• Eats a lot of battery power for a single day

The power really is an issue to me. A power user like me will really consume a lot of the phone's battery power, since I have enabled WiFi, Push, the Screen most of the time. So everyday, my iPhone gets to sit on it's dock to charge. It would probably would last more than a day if you're just the text/call guy that doesn't look that much on the screen.

The iPhone is definitely a great device for our time. My disappointments with my old PDAs are answered by the iPhone. Now, it's near perfect! However, the iPhone is not for everyone. The price tag is definitely expensive for any normal consumer. I would only suggest this device if you're more than a text/call person like me.

You might be wondering why I got an iPhone given I had my issues with PDAs, and being only a slight text/call person? Well, I bought the iPhone for the purpose of potentially making money through developing and selling apps/games for the iPhone. So getting an iPhone is my first step. Now, my second step is to find a cheap and used Mac Mini or MacBook I can buy. If I had that, I would pay the developer license fee then I would start making apps right away. I wish I can as that also excites me.

I hope my input on the iPhone is useful to any of you wondering if it would be worth buying an iPhone or iTouch, or just sticking with what they have (nothing wrong with that one too).

Cheers!