If you don’t have enough money to actually travel to the moon, why don’t you send your names over there? Your names will be collected and placed onboard the LRO spacecraft for its historic mission bringing NASA back to the moon. You will receive a certificate showcasing your support of the mission. Here is mine.

About the Mission

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is the first mission in NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration, a plan to return to the moon and then to travel to Mars and beyond. LRO will launch no earlier than November 24, 2008 with the objectives to finding safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology. More>>

Hurry up! The deadline for name submission is June 27, 2008. Send your name to the Moon Here>>

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BIOS Setup:

You can easily find some info of the computers at the boot up by pressing F2/Del button (depends on what kind of BIOS). Some BIOSs give detail info, some are limited. You cannot get a full detail of your computers by using BIOS control panel anyways.

Using OS’s properties/preferences:

All operation systems have their own ways to display system information. If you are using Windows, right click on My Computer –> Properties. If you are using MAC, click on System Preferences.

However, using OS’s tools sometimes make you confused because there are so much unorganized, irrelevant and duplicated information. So this method is only for getting the general view if your computers. To get a full detail report, most of professional techs use the third approach.

Using third-party applications (for Windows only)

There are 3 common software that computer techs use to get a full view of computer systems: CPU-Z, Sandra, and SIW.

CPU-Z:

A great tool to gather your system information based on 4 main devices: CPU, motherboard, memory, and system (Windows and DirectX). It’s FREE and NO-INSTALLATION required! You can download CPU-Z HERE.

Sandra

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software. You can download and try Sandra Lite (free version) here.

SIW

SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensible manner. SIW can create a report file (CSV, HTML, TXT or XML), and is able to run in batch mode. Download SIW HERE.

Hope you like this post.

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We all know that the computers always carry junk files when we have them work for us. That will reduce the performance of our computers. Therefore we need to throw all those junk files away regularly to make sure our systems run at their maximum speeds.

Cleaning computer junk files is not as simply as pressing delete button on keyboard or right-click-n-delete job. There are files that we can see and can delete manually, but there are still tons of junk files that we cannot recognize or don’t have enough time to find-n-delete. Why don’t we get a tool doing that for us? One of my recommended clean-up tools is CCleaner. And guess what, it’s FREE!

No matter what we do with our computers, what programs (applications) we run. A few clicks with CCleaner will help our computers get rid of those junk files. You can try CCleaner by downloading at their website http://www.ccleaner.com or HERE.

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Motherboards and CPUs are the most important parts of the computer. They are like the ribs and the brains of human beings. That’s why we should select them carefully at the beginning. The rest of parts will be chosen accordingly. When you choose motherboard and CPU, make sure that they are compatible with each other, and make sure that there are 2 or more slots for RAM. The most important thing is that motherboard and CPU models should not be older than 2 years. Otherwise, we will have trouble with hardware upgrade later on.

My recommendation: if your computer is for basic work (surfing web, checking email, doing office applications) choose motherboard with built-in video and sound card.

Choosing memory (RAM) and storage devices

These 2 parts are really important for your computer to run.

Memory helps your system run faster. The more memories you have, the faster your PC runs. There are several popular types of memory that you should consider: DDR (old, slow and expensive), DDR2 (most popular, fast, cheaper) and DDR3 (new, fastest, and most expensive). It really depends on your motherboard to choose your suitable types of RAM.

My recommendation: 1GB DDR2 RAM.

Storage devices (hard drives) are for you to save your files. They also help you improve the performance of your system if you choose correctly. Here are some tips for you to get a good hard drive:

• Interface: IDE/ATA /SATA (slow/normal/fast) depends on your motherboard
• Round per Minute (RPM): 7200
• Capacity: the more, the better

My recommendation: 160GB SATA 7200 RPM hard drives

Choosing computer cases

We already have enough basic computer parts to get the PC run, but they are still apart. We need to get a case to hold those parts together. There are several types of cases: ATX (most popular), BTX, Desktop, MicroATX, Rackmount, and Server Tower. Again, it depends on your motherboard and your needs to select the right case type for the computers. My own tips for you when selecting computer cases:

• Case should comes with a Power Supply 400W and up
• Light: if you choose the heavy case, it is really not easy for you to carry your computer when you put all the parts together.
• Make sure that the case is not too small inside because it’s hard for you to install motherboard and parts later on
• Select a case that has many USB ports (front and sides)
• Don’t choose the case that is too tight because it make the computer hotter when it works.

My recommendation: Antec Sonata III 500 (Piano Black) for ATX motherboard

Choosing other devices:

• Optical Drives (DVD/CD): pick combo DVD-RW with LightScribe Technology is the best choice.
• Card Reader Panel (in front) is highly recommended
• Floppy-drive is an optional devices
• Sound card and video card if you need more sound and visual effects.

The computer hardware are getting really cheap nowadays because of the growth of technologies. Ask yourselves that what your systems are used for. If they are for basic web surfing, email checking, or office drafting, you don’t need to have “heavy-duty” computers. However, for servers and gaming system, make sure that you pick components that have enough power to serve your needs.

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Development

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free (free as in “free speech”, but also as in “free beer”) source code editor and Notepad replacement, which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment. This is a very powerful tool for developers to debug their code. More about Notepad++…

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Graphic

GIMP

A powerful photo/image editor like Abode Photoshop, but it’s FREE. You should have it with you to enhance your just-been-taken pictures from your camera. More about GIMP…

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Internet

FileZilla

FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client with lots of handy features. It supports resume on both downloads and uploads, timeout detection, firewall support, SOCKS4/5 and HTTP1.1 support, SSL, SFTP and more, all with an intuitive drag and drop interface. More about FileZilla…

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Miranda

No Yahoo Messenger? No MSN? No IRC? No AIM? No ICQ? No problem! With Miranda inside your USB drives/sticks, you can still login to those Instant Messaging Services at the same time. More about Miranda…

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Firefox

The most popular Web Browser on the Internet. Try portable Firefox if you cannot open IE at your workplace

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Thunderbird

Thunderbird comes along with Firefox as an email client like Microsoft Outlook.

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Internet Download Manager (IDM)

A software that supports downloading from the Internet that I have mention on my How To Download Movie From The Internet Part 2 post. If your network is slow with normal download from IE or Firefox, use this software and you will see the difference clearly.

Music & Video

Audacity

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

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WinAmp 5.5 Pro

A powerful music player and organizer. Getting bored with your Window Media Player? Want a new taste? Try WinAmp 5.5 Pro and you will love it for sure. More about WinAmp…

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VLC Media Player

If we have WinAmp for playing and organizing music, we cannot miss VLC Media Player for playing movie. VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. More about VLC Media Player…

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InfraRecorder

Need to burn a CD/DVD quickly? InfraRecorder is all you need. More about InfraRecorder…

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#1 DVD Ripper 7.1

#1 DVD Ripper provides you a fast and easy way to back up your favorite DVD movies and not worry your children might be scratching the copies during day-to-day use. You can easily convert DVD to AVI with latest DivX codec , MP4/H264, MPEG, WMV, MP3 and other formats. You can take your DVD’s on the plane, train or automobile, watch them on your computer, laptop, iPod, iPhone, PSP or pocket pc on vacation, at work or at school, no matter where you are, no need to take DVD Disc.

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Office

OpenOffice

An office suite — including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database — that can be replace by Microsoft Office.

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Microsoft Office 2007

Portable Microsoft Office that I’ve collected from Updatesofts forum. It doesn’t have full features like the original version. Use it as your own risk

http://rapidshare.com/files/81115278/…Enterprise_English.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/81115244/…Enterprise_English.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/81115211/…Enterprise_English.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/81115177/…Enterprise_English.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/81115152/…Enterprise_English.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/81115018/…Enterprise_English.part6.rar
Password: www.freshwap.net

OR

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F3UNVFFZ
Password: www.dl4all.com
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PDFTK Builder

If you need to split, collate, watermark and password protect your PDF documents, try PDFTK Builder. More about PDFTK Builder…

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Sumatra PDF

PDF Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader. More about Sumatra PDF…

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Task Coach

Task Coach is a simple open source todo manager to manage personal tasks and todo lists. More about Task Coach…

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System

Driver Genius

Driver Genius Professional is a professional driver management tool features both driver management and hardware diagnostics. Driver Genius provides such practical functions as driver backup, restoration, update and removal for computer users. If you lost all your driver disks, don’t worry! Driver Genuis will get all necessary drivers back for your computers. Just simply run the program, update and download driver. More about Driver Genius…

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PC Security Tweak 7.6

PC Security Tweaker is a security tweaking utility you can use to tweak Windows-based computers. It is compatible with all Windows versions and lets you control which users are allowed to access your PC and the level of access each user may have. You can choose to tweak access to lots of Control Panel applet functions, including Display, Network, Passwords, Printers, System, Add/Remove Programs, etc. More about PC Security Tweak…

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Partition Manager 8.0

Partition Manager is the best tool available today! It provides flawless partitioning operations of all kind: resize, merge, split partitions and redistribute free space, initiate new hard drive, convert to different file systems and much more. More about Paragon Partition Manager…

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TuneUp 2008

Improve your system’s performance, thoroughly clean up your hard drives, solve your PC problems with a few clicks, and customize windows to your personal requirements. All in one program, simple and intuitive - TuneUp Utilities 2008. More about TuneUp…

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Ultilities

7-Zip

7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio like WinZip or WinRar. More about 7-Zip…

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ClamWin Antivirus

Your on-the-go antivirus software in emergency. This software provides the update function, so you don’t have to worry if the virus definition is out-of-date. More about ClamWin Antivirus…

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Eraser

Eraser Portable is a secure file-deletion and data wiping utility. With support for multiple wipes, pattern writing and more, it can be used to securely delete any sensitive data. More about Eraser…

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KeePass Password

KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. More about KeePass Password…

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Notice: The software with red titles are not fully license, so some features of them are missing. This might cause the programs frozen or damaged while using. Please buy full versions of those software at vendor’s websites or use them at your own risks.

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