geekyHacks

well there's always gonna be people telling you how you can overclock your computer and getting it to perform better than what it's rated on the box. and they'd be right you know. most PC components today are made to much tighter specifications in terms of performance, with sufficient (and significant) margins for even better performance if you'd just know how to unlock it. that said, overclocking is not for everyone, and in most cases it would void your warranty. also, there's a fair bit of elbow grease involved, as well as a certain level of competence and comfort required to go about tweaking the BIOS. well, that's for those who want to push their machines to the limit. but what if you're a middle of the road kind of guy - just want the computer to perform to specs, and maybe get a little more useful life out of the components? there's something for you too! and its known as under-volting .

so i was about to go through the computer based training package from boeing on my computer at home, when i came across an error asking me to locate the files on my computer. a simple "replace.." command editing the lessons.lst file via notepad made light work of that. basically, all that needed to be done was to change the lessons.lst file so that the CBT program knows which directory the files are stored. once fired up, i realised that the fonts look crappy as a geocities website. i figured it's gotta be a font problem since, you know.. crappy fonts right? so i muck around the directory and voila ! a folder called "fonts". i did the silly thing first - copying the entire "fonts" directory from my windows\fonts folder into my CBT folder, and when that didn't work, i figured the next best thing to do was to copy the contents of the "fonts" directory from CBT into the windows one. brilliant. my CBT now looks pretty as a pancake. with...

so i was tinkering around with my iPad as usual, and i figured there must be a better way to browse reddit [reddit.com] other than using Safari, which tends to reload previous pages if the system's measly 256mb of RAM runs out and the virtual memory hack [blogspot.com] isn't implemented. i know that the iPhone version of Alien Blue [alienblue.org] worked brilliantly as a reddit browser, so i figured i'll just use it, and up its resolution on my iPad using FullForce.

i've noticed that the use of virtual memory on the iPad is a rather controversial topic on several online forums. in this article, i shall talk about what it's all about, and how it affects system performance. suffice to say, this technique currently only works on jailbroken iPads - however, i'm rather certain the same underlying technique will be used by apple when iOS4 is released sometime in november. until confirmation though, we can only hang tight. to appreciate the import of virtual memory on modern systems thus, it is crucial to have at least a basic understanding of how a computer works beneath and behind the smoke and mirrors. a short history lesson therefore... a feature of the modern computer that is not widely known outside of the tech community is how the computer handles 'multitasking'. computers, well, when it all began anyway, started with only a processor core and memory chips that run in a synchronized fashion. that, incidentally, is how you...

/* for the sake of simplicity, iPod touch, iPhone and the iPad shall be known as iDevices */ according to the US Copyright Office on 26 july 2010 [cnet.com], jailbreaking your iDevice does not contravene federal copyright law anymore. in practice, it basically states in legalese that it is now okay for American iDevice users to break out of apple's walled garden model of apps from the appstore only. suffice to say, people in the rest of the world don't have to deal with all these.. do note, however, that this still doesn't absolve the user from apple's software licence agreement - apple will void your warranty if you jailbreak your iDevice. but well.. at least it's not a statutory crime to do whatever you want with what you bought anymore. it is also important to note that should you require warranty service, the process of restoring your iDevice to factory settings is easy as pie...

i've just gotten myself an iPad 32GB WiFi a month back, and i must say it's been a great study aid so far! i'd definitely recommend this device as a textbook replacement for college; or reading journals/magazines in the form of PDFs. as you can probably tell by now, the iPad's killer feature for me has to be it's capabilities as an e-reader. that said, we all know that the iPad is so much more than that. it's also a fantastic gaming machine, for example. consuming other forms of media just feels right with it too.

hi everyone! i've decided to make this blog to keep track of the little geeky hacks and tricks that i come across. i thought it'll be nice to share them online, since sharing is caring! ;) do leave comments and enjoy being part of the geeky community, cheers!