Have you heard about the new broadband speed test?
Check your connection and how it compares with what your ISP promises.

FCC Consumer Broadband Test.

Just for the record, my results:

Download Speed 19647 kbps
Upload Speed 4522 kbps
Latency 46 ms
Jitter 51 ms

Heavy Rain, a newer release for the PS3, has been widely speculated upon for a long time up until its recent release. Now that the game is out, you may find yourself asking what the fuss is about. Well, you will be pleasantly surprised. This game is definitely a change of pace as it is unlike anything else out on the market.

Heavy Rain is not your typical game. This game is about a story and watching it unravel. It isn’t about leveling up or recruiting teammates. It is a psychological thriller revolving around a hunt for a criminal called the Origami Killer. The mystery of the game unravels as you follow the story of 4 characters whose paths intertwine. Each of these people has their own story and path to follow as they each try to find clues leading to the Origami Killer. They all have their own perspectives, actions, and decisions that affect the path of the game.

The first character is Ethan, a troubled father whose son has gone missing and will soon be the next victim of the Origami Killer. Ethan must go through a series of trials the Origami Killer has left for him in order to get clues as to his son’s location. The other three characters that you will play are an investigative journalist, a private investigator, and an FBI profiler.

As you go through the game, you’ll switch between the 4 characters as you look for clues and try to track down the criminal. As you play, on screen prompts will appear letting you choose one decision or another. Some of these decisions seem simple enough, like whether or not to let your son win at a game. Other decisions will leave you biting your nails while trying to decide what is best, like deciding whether or not to fire your gun. These decisions in fact will dramatically impact the game in some situations. How they will impact the game depends on all of the other decisions you made previously. The possibilities seem almost endless.

It is possible for your characters to die in the game. If a character dies, due to some decision you made, you will just move on to the other characters. However, you won’t see the entire story, you won’t be able to get all of the clues, and you will only see the remaining character’s perspectives. It is actually possible for all of the characters to die! In this case… you probably will get a bad ending to the game. Speaking of endings, this game has multitudes of them. The ending you see will be decided on what decisions you made and what paths you chose.

Heavy Rain goes through chapters. Although it is possible to replay chapters to see different outcomes, I would suggest just playing all of the way through. The game can be beaten in about eight or nine hours. If you want to see another ending, play through it again and make different decisions! The replay value is high as there are so many paths to take and outcomes to see!

This game is slow to get going, but once it starts you won’t want to put the controller down. The story is intense and emotional. You literally watch as your decisions shape the story around you. The onscreen prompts sound as if they may be annoying, but they actually flow with the story seamlessly. You really will feel like you are right there in the story!

The soundtrack has a tempo that fits the mood of the game superbly. The voice acting is good, but the dialog itself is excellent and well written. As for the graphics, well let’s just say you can tell what the characters are thinking based on their facial expressions! In fact, the visuals are quite impressive and well ahead of its time.

If you want to play a game unlike any other, then this is the game for you. Never has there been a game so captivating and enthralling as Heavy Rain. Nor has there been a game that has looked this good in a while!

Heavy Rain is available for the Playstation 3. It has an ESRB rating of M for mature. This is because the game features intense violence, blood, strong language, sexual content, nudity, and use of drugs.

HeavyRain is available at Newegg.com for $56.99 with free shipping.

With the rise of the technological age, laptops have become as commonplace as the home computer once was. In some instances, the laptop has replaced the desktop entirely. One of the primary reasons for the laptop’s popularity is its mobility. This mobility, however, can lead to increased wear and tear, and unexpected damage.

Because laptops are designed to be mobile, they are more prone to being damaged. Aside from the typical wear and tear resulting from the laptop’s mobility, the laptop is at greater risk of damage from an accident. There are many common ways to damage a laptop: accidentally pouring coffee on it, dropping it, running it over, or even sitting on it. Laptops can be rendered unbootable by physical damage to the case.

Mostly, laptops are used as secondary computers, or are wired to office networks; this allows data on laptops to be backed up in other locations. In the case of data loss, the important data from the laptop is stored in a different location. Backup utilities use this connectivity to schedule the automatic backup of files to a desktop computer, or a file server.

In most cases, laptop purchases include a recovery disk CD. The recovery CD contains the version of the hard disk that exists before the laptop is ever used. If the user’s hard disk fails, or the user wants to re-write or re-install the laptop, a full reinstall is performed by booting up the laptop from a recovery CD. In the case of data recovery, after the system has been re-installed, a full restore can be performed from an existing backup.

It is important to note that the laptop recovery CD is not the same as the Windows recovery disk. The data recovery disks are different from data recovery programs. When the computer fails to boot then we use the Windows recovery disk. It is used in both desktop and laptops. It restores the system files in Windows to their original versions. Users can boot up the disk and recover data by using recovery disks to restore hard disk data; such disks are available at backup and recovery software vendors.

Some laptops come with intelligent hard disks, which help to prevent loss of data. The Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology – or SMART technology – informs the computer’s user of the likelihood of hard disk failure. A user with a laptop containing SMART disks would be informed if a hard disk crash were inevitable. This affords the user enough time to back up important data from his or her hard disk. Additionally, it gives the user the luxury of having the service center diagnose the computer before the hard disk fails.

Laptop recovery services are available to owners in case of accidental damage. These are full service repair bureaus, in that they check not just the hard disk, but all of the computer’s parts. The laptop’s owner sends it out to the service center for a checkup, a diagnostics test, data recovery, or some other kind of repair. In the case of laptop data recovery, the hard disk is isolated, and a copy of it saved prior to the start of repairs.

Laptop data recovery process is longer than desktop data recovery. There are also several additional causes of laptop damage and hard disk failure. There are, however, different laptop recovery solutions available depending on the scenario, whether it be hard disk failure, boot up failure, or data loss.

In the case that you have lost really significant data on your PC, you’re going to have to think about looking for a data recovery business near you. The accidentally erased data can be recovered by recovery service providers. Good services offered by different data recovery service providers will help you get back lost emails, photos and important documents.

There are two types of data recovery service providers: one is a data recovery software service and the other is a hard drive repair service. Generally data recovery services chage more money and they take much longer time to recover data. When considering using a data recovery service, consider if the value of the data is worth the time and amount of money you will have to pay.

Obviously, the majority of data recovery businesses each work at a differing pace. The retrieval of your lost information can be accelerated if you are willing to pay more money. The data recovery service provider will review the time required before their service starts. If you want a faster appraisal, you might have to pay an extra fee, but it will decrease the cash that you spend in the end.

Generally, two kinds of data recovery services exist: full-service data recovery businesses and independent experts. Independent professionals can be more affordable than the big data recovery businesses when you figure in the turnaround time. Once data is recovered, there are a number of security issues in the material that should be immediately addressed no matter what type of service is used. Who would you trust to repair your damaged hardware?

The bottom line is, when considering data recovery services, one needs to think about the amount of time that it would take, the entire price tag and the significance of the lost information. A lot of individuals would say that the relief of retrieving their lost information cancels out any possible danger. When considering employing a data recovery company, consider the amount of time and the price to replace all of the data that was lost. A professional data recovery service may be needed to recover some lost data such as photos and emails that you might never see again without their help.

If you can’t recover your lost information on your own, it might be a good idea to look into employing a business which specializes in data recovery services in order to get your data back in one piece.

    There is nothing worse than a computer that takes a long time to load up. When you first got the computer, the boot up was a smooth process. It would load a minimum amount of programs and seemed to be under 30 seconds. After awhile, the boot up would get longer and longer, until now it takes up to 3 to 4 minutes for it to be ready. You may start to wonder what has happened since then, but it is not a big mystery. There are certain changes that you have made to the computer that has caused the boot up to slow down to this extreme. We will go over this later in the article. Things that you might have done to slow down the boot up process of your computer are numerous but most involve the same basic actions. Once we have identified what you might have done, we will then walk with you and tell you how you can reverse this problem. 

    The first thing that a lot of people will say when they notice that the boot up is slower, is that they didn’t do anything so why is this happening? They haven’t changed anything that might have caused it, so it shouldn’t be slowing down like this. But the reality is, they are part of the problem. It may be unwittingly on their part but it is still the case that they had something to do with it, at least in 90% of the cases. Whenever you install a program and you do not check to see what permissions that is asking you for, you are part of the problem. The main reason that a computer starts to slow down over time, is that the person installs more and more programs to the computer. A lot of these programs ask for permission to run at the start up time. Of course, when you give enough programs this type of permission, they will start to slow down the computer when it is trying to boot up.

If you want to solve this problem, make sure that you only give a few select programs the permission to start when the computer boots up. To eliminate some of the programs that are starting on boot up, type in msconfig in your search bar when you hit the start button. It will open up a program that has for you several tabbed options. Click on the startup tab and make a choice on what programs you want running as soon as the computer boots up. This will help you alleviate 90% of your problem. 

    Also there are times when there might be a problem of the computer becoming infected with an unknown virus or Trojan. If your computers boot up time is slow and you can not see the program listed in the task manager, then there is a good chance that your computer might infected. Run an anti virus over your entire computer. This will help get whatever is in there, out of your system.
 
    So to make sure that your computer has a healthy boot up time, keep the amount of programs that run on start up, low. Also make sure that there are no viruses or other malware in the system. One last tip is to defrag your hard drive on a regular basis. This will help your computer find separated files easier. That will also improve the start up time. 

Data recovery refers to the recovery of information that is lost because of physical injuries such as damaged disks and tapes or an impaired system. There is lots of free software for data recovery that anybody can download and use.

There are a variety of ways to lose files and data: when formatting, while installing a new operating system, when deleting by mistake and virus corruption. In all computers these problems can occur at any time.

You can best guard against data loss by pro-actively managing your system. You should always have a back-up system for your critical data. When the unthinkable does occur, having the backup will surely simplify the situation.

There are several ways of recovering lost and damaged files. If the lost information is a really urgent matter, the best thing to do is bring your issue directly to the data recovery businesses that possesses the professionals to get the job done.

However, if you believe you are smart enough to know what to do and you have technical computer and storage device knowledge, then you have two choices: buy the data recovery software package or go online and download a free data recovery program.

Some data recovery programs are free to use, while others can be costly. Software packages may cost a lot however they can actually have many advantages (such as support) for the user. People might ask for donations for downloading free recovery software.

What should you do if you accidently format your drive without the data saved in backup?

The service providers for data recovery will provide the data recovery service for their client only. Disk-swap activities should be avoided in order to prevent further data damage.

It is recommended to not download the install recovery software on the same computer. You’ll need to move to a different PC, download the file to a flash drive and, then, run it straight from there.

It is also suggested that you avoid sharing recovered files on the same hard drive.

There are many online programs that offer free data recovery. Should any issues occur while downloading or installing the program, press the cancel or stop button. This is a possible indication of a malfunction in your hardware.

Be sure to do a little research before you think of downloading free recovery software to deal with the information that was lost. Always keep caution in the forefront of your mind when dealing with freeware, to avoid any more issues.

Don’t be taken in by sites that offer free data recovery programs; they are often malware. In other cases they may claim the program doesn’t cost anything however you will soon learn that these are only demo versions and eventually you must buy the actual program to have the advantages or extra features. There are lots of free downloadable software for data recovery

    Sometimes people confuse computers with other types of electronic devices. For most devices, you will only need to learn to take the dust off of them every now and then and they will work for a long time. With those types of devices, they are built to be a closed system. They were never meant to be configured by anyone besides the company that shipped the product to the store in the first place. A computer is not like that. With a computer, the system is made to be configurable so that you can do whatever you like to it. You can install whatever software that you want and you can put in whatever hardware that you want also. With a system being able to change so much, you are going to need to do some maintenance to make sure that it always runs smooth. Part of this maintenance is to make sure that your Windows 7 registry is cleaned up on a regular basis. 

    The Registry has been a part of Windows for a long time. Originally to set the configuration information for you computer, people would use .ini files and other hacks. This worked at the time but as programs got larger and more of them starting to show up, problems began to emerge. You would have naming conflicts and other sorts of problem with this type of system. So later on, Microsoft decided to make a database system that would store all of the information that the computer needed to set up. This system was called the Windows Registry. Surprisingly, with so many complaints about it, it is still in use today.

    Now whenever you install or uninstall a program on the computer, this affects the registry. The same thing goes for hardware as well. So you must make sure that the registry stays up to date with all of these changes. There are plenty of third party software developers that will help you with this. There are many different types, so you will have to choose which one is best for you. Even though there are some free ones that are good, most of the quality products, tend to be pay applications. Test them out for yourself and see how you like them. Make sure that you pay attention to the reviews that the application receives. If there are too many negative reviews, do not trust the software on your computer. 

    You also want to make sure that you back up your registry before you run one of these software programs. If the software turns out to be made incorrectly, then you can really mess up the settings on your computer. It is real easy to back up your registry. First you go to start, type in regedit, hit file on the box that pops up, and then hit export. Now you have a copy of your registry on your computer just in case anything goes wrong. 

    Cleaning up your registry can work wonders when you are trying to get your computer to run at top speed. All you have to do is to make a backup and you should be good to go. 

    There is nothing like having a new computer boot up for the first time and everything just works. The boot up time is fast and the programs that load up when the computer start, are up and running quickly. For the next couple of months, you will get that same sense of awe and wonder every time you start up the machine, but then things start to change. All of the sudden the boot up time is taking longer than it originally did. Now the programs that started when you first booted the computer seem to have company. A couple of programs that you do not remember giving permission to, boot up at start time. Also it seems as if your hard drive is starting to get full and there are pop ups on the computer no matter what site you go to. These are all signs that there is going to be some maintenance needed on the computer. There are a couple of tools that will help solve this problem. 

    The first thing that you need to do, is make sure that you use the tools that Windows 7 gives you to help clean up the computer. After that, you can start to use the third party software tools that are available. So let’s start with a disk cleanup. When you install and use certain programs they leave digital residue all over your computer. The digital residue consist of temporary files and cookies that are left all over the place. So you can use the disk clean up tool to get rid of these things. It will also allow you to reclaim some of your hard drive space at the same time. Once you run the disk clean up tool, then you should run the disk defragmenter tool. It will put together files that have been broken into pieces. This will also give you more hard drive space while at the same time help your computer run faster. 

    Now after you perform these two jobs, you can start to use some third party software to help Windows 7 run better. The first thing that you will want to do, is grab a Windows Registry cleaner. This will clean up the registry that is in the computer. A registry stores all of the software and hardware configurations in the computer. Running a tool like this will make sure that all of that is in top shape. After the registry cleaner, you will want to run some type of adware remover. This is the cause of your pop ups and running this type of software will help you get rid of them. Also it will help you get rid of tracking cookies that different web sites might place on your computer. 

    Last but not least, you’ll want to pick an anti virus to use on your computer. There are many choices that are out there, so it is up to you to decide which one that you want to put on your computer. Once you put it on your computer, you must make sure that you update it all the time. If you do not, then you will have a harder time trying to stop all of the viruses which are new. 
    
    These are a couple of steps to help you ensure that your Windows 7 runs better. If you follow this advice, you can help your system to always stay in top shape.   

So we’ve seen the old year out and are busy welcoming the new year in; it’s time to take stock, to draw up the lists of who topped what charts for last year. If you are a fan of Nintendo Wii games, here’s a chart you might appreciate. Wii Play is a blockbuster by any standard, having sold in excess of two million pieces this year. It couldn’t be as great as it was the previous year, which was about 50% northward of that figure, but it still is showing remarkably lasting appeal. Its popularity is helped along some would say, probably by the free inclusion of an extra Wii controller. The Wii Sports Resort title , like the first Wii Sports, does best with tightly-packed tiny games; with the Motion Plus peripheral attachments, of course, the game had to sell in excess of 2 million.

The Wii Fit is a reason why parents around the world make an exception for this game console, over others like the PS3. The Wii Fit has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide in the two years it has been around. The concept is pretty impressive in its ability to get people actually exercising. How much fun it is to exercise in front of your screen, and watch the character within do exactly as you do, and often instruct you on the your technique? This certainly is one of the best concepts of all Nintendo Wii games around; for an idea that was widely ridiculed when it first came out, they certainly are doing well.

The old Nintendo mainstay, Mario Brothers has made it over to the Wii too, of course – this time, with multi-player functionality. There are more than one million copies sold of this avatar of Mario; it surpassed all other Wii games to become the best-seller among all other Nintendo Wii games within two weeks of its release. For a game character that is 24 years old, this is quite impressive. The Mario Kart title on the Wii hasn’t let the Mario franchise down. It’s actually sold more than 2 million copies, and it sells for just as much today in retail as it did when it was first released nearly 2 years ago. Now that is saying something.

The Rock Band series for the Wii hits just the right note for the holidays. It has different genres for different tastes; the Lego Rock Band title is for little children, with visuals inspired by the building block classic, the Beatles Rock Band title is for admirers of the Fab four, and focuses exclusively on their hits, and the standard Rock Band 2 is for all headbanging enthusiasts. There is so much that can be done with a game console that allows for natural movement. The Wii is now the top-selling console in the world, ahead of the Xbox or the PS 3, and certainly is Nintendo’s best-selling idea. The versatility of the console and the wide variety of people it appeals to has to be one of the main reasons for it’s success. And these Nintendo Wii games have carried the torch for the motion sensing console so far; next year can only be better.

When the DS Lite first made its debut in the U.S., the only available color was the generic Polar White. This had some gamers grumbling, seeing as when the DS Lite was released into the market in Japan it came in the additional options of Ice Blue and Enamel Navy. Since then, the color scheme has been expanded and customers are able to choose models that better suit them.

One of the new colors is Coral Pink. A Coral Pink DS Lite is really just a pink DS Lite rather than coral colored. It’s never been said outright, but it’s pretty obvious that the purpose of the pink DS Lite is to attract female gamers. When you see the DS Lite on TV, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll see commercials with guys crowded around a pink DS Lite and having a blast. It’s more likely to be girls playing games like Nintendogs and Cooking Mama.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a pink DS Lite—definitely there are girls and yes, some guys that it will appeal to and it’s just a matter of preference. However, it’s kind of eye-rolling when companies insinuate that all girls will gravitate to “girly” colors and games. Some girls will play Nintendogs on a pink DS Lite, and other girls might play The Legend of Zelda on a black one. Or some girls might play The Legend of Zelda on a pink DS Lite and vice versa. And some guys might play Nintendogs on a black DS Lite, and…you get the idea. The point is that gaming, like many other things in life, isn’t a dichotomy and again like many other things in life, it gets dichotomized.

It’s not that Nintendo should stop marketing the pink DS Lite to girls—it’s that they should market it to everyone. Because as things are now, God forbid you should see a guy going near anything pink. Granted, such stigma has considerably decreased in recent times but it’s still there. A guy being able to wear a pink shirt might pass as metrosexual manliness but it wouldn’t fly as well if he was surrounded by pink and sparkles and domestic activities. In fact, a guy wearing a pink shirt possibly enforces gender dichotomy even more as if to say, a guy is and should be so masculine that even when he wears a pink shirt he maintains that masculinity.

Overanalyzing a piece of machinery? Maybe, but you can’t deny that media is pervasive and its influence goes undetected. In the meantime, the pink DS Lite is available at a store near you or online for discreet purchase.