By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

DEALING with computer problems, viruses included, could turn out to be a nightmare that would haunt you day and night.

Instead of spending more time with my kids during one weekend, I was literally stuck in front of my computer figuring out what to do.

OK, let me brief you about what happened last weekend (sounds like the movie, eh?) My PC has turned into a zombie. It was so slow that I can literally eat dinner and still have time to lounge around and have dessert before it finally finishes loading Windows XP.

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By Agence France-Presse

SYDNEY, Australia–Footage apparently showing the man tipped to become Australia’s next prime minister eating his own ear wax has proved a hit on Internet video sharing website YouTube.

The clip of opposition Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has been posted three times on the YouTube website and attracted more than 200,000 web browsers.

While Rudd enjoys a massive opinion poll lead heading into the November 24 election, the news website news.com.au suggested the footage “could do more damage to [his] election chances than any policy blitz.”

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

UPDATE: Editor’s note: Corrected price figures for the Core 2 Quad Q6600 and Core 2 Quad Q6700. The Q6600 was originally released in January at $851 and the price was reduced to $530 in April and $266 on July 22, the same day the new Q6700 was launched at a price of $530. We regret the mix-up in price figures and thank the readers who pointed out the discrepancy.

IT’S among the fastest processors yet and one of the most expensive. The Intel Core 2 Quad is the latest incarnation of the Core series of processors from Intel, which boasts of having the fastest multi-core processors in the market.

Intel Philippines recently introduced to the media the Intel Core 2 Quad processor, which, as the name implies, has four cores, each running like a separate processor. It is created using a 65 nanometer, dual-die manufacturing process.

It was launched in January and the new Core 2 Quad Q6700 was unleashed in July.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

PREVIOUSLY, we reviewed the Acer 5920G. Now we play around with another Taiwanese contender and the latest iteration of their gaming laptop, the Asus G1S and among the Taiwan-made notebooks, this one truly is a heavyweight.

It seems to be a trend among notebook makers now to push the bar further in introducing models that cater to the more demanding market of hardcore gamers, not to mention putting price tags that are still within the P100, 000 price range. While putting up a gaming rig is half as expensive as getting a notebook with the same specifications, having a souped-up computer that can be lugged around during frag fests can be a treat. Besides, notebooks that have been dressed up with stickers look way more cool than even modified PCs.

Anyway, the Asus G1S is an upgrade to Asus’ original gaming notebook, the G1. The G1S has new features commonly found in most gaming desktops: It uses the Intel core 2 Duo T7500 2.2 Gigahertz processor, 2 Gb memory (upgradeable to 4Gb), NVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB video card, 160Gb SATA hard disk and an 8-speed DVD super multi-drive with Lightscribe and 15.4” LCD panel.

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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

HERE’S one of those someone-must-have-thought-about-it bright ideas: a browser-based video chat service.

As described in this NYT story, TokBox has some good vibes about it: the people behind YouTube (including the unheralded “third” founder Jawed Karim) are also funding it.

It reminds me of Meebo — no need to install YM, MSN or Skype (a blessing for users whose office networks are firewall-protected and thus, IM-proof). Just log on and chat away; both you and your friend should have a webcam, of course.

I’ve yet to try it myself to see how it compares with either YM or Skype (and see whether it runs properly on “broadband” in this country). But while reading about it, the first thing I thought about was how something like this makes it easier to teach Internet calls to the uninitiated. All you need is a good enough Internet connection and a few clicks should put you on VoIP mode.