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By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net TAIPEI, Taiwan- -It is extremely crowded everyday and smells of that distinctively strong Taipe i street food that is sold in some obscure corners but Guanghua in the heart of Taipei may perhaps be the best place for technology buffs and bibliophiles. Guanghua is just one of the many shopping areas strewn all over Taipei and it i s also the oldest, having been around for over 20 years. Guanghua is located in a stringy area of Taipei and is usually overcrowded due to the small streets t hat were just enough to fit two lanes of people. It has recently been "relocate d" with the demolition of the old Guanghua bridge last year and some of the sma ller shops were moved a few meters away from the old area. In fact, the city government plans to permanently move all of the shops to a ne w seven-story supermall nearby. The move was said to be necessary for better cr owd control and to attract more foreign tourists and buyers. Regardless of w hat happens to Guanghua, its appeal is its sidewalks that are also used to disp lay thousands of books and electronic parts. Even the pillars holding up some o f the older buildings are carved out to become display boxes. Most of the books are in Chinese but there are a few in English. The bookshops cater to mostly Chinese-speaking foreigners and according to one shopkeep their novellas are the most popular items. The other foreign books only comprise of about 10 percent of what they have but then these are also second-hand items re sold to them or exchanged for another title. On the other hand, Guanghua's most ubiquitous items are computer parts and they are among the cheapest. There are dozens of retail outlets selling nearly ever y computer brand imaginable, not to mention every single component that makes u p a computer. There are shelves upon shelves of the latest computer processors, motherboards, graphics cards, memory modules and computer casings. There are p arts being sold for DIY experts who regularly solder non-standard components in to electronic boards. And the prices are extremely low; a regular 1 gigabyte mem ory module that would normally cost P4,000 in Manila's famed electronics area o f Gilmore but in Guanghua, the same item would sell no more than P3,000. Comput er processors that cost P15,000 in Manila will be sold here at just a little ov er P10,000. In another section of Guanghua are the laptop resellers. Prices of these produc ts, depending on the brand and specifications, can be cheaper by as much as 20 percent. The prices here are so low that a computer builder can set up an entir e computer for less than P10,000. Top that with a widescreen LCD monitor that c an go for as low as P9,000. Other electronic gadgets such as cellular phones, digital cameras and MP3 playe rs (mostly Taiwanese-made) are also cheap. LCD TVs, even those that are in the 37" and up range, cost around P50,000, which is almost one-third cheaper than w hat can be bought in Manila. All of the big-name brands are available in Guangh ua. While it is difficult to communicate with the local resellers, just point to a product and they would type the price in their calculators. Sometimes, a few wi ll have some basic English proficiency but even they would rarely give discount s. Besides, asking for discounts may not be necessary since the prices here wou ld already save so much. (Editor's note: Check out Alex Villafania's Tales of th e Nomad blog entry for a look at some of Taiwan's tourist attractions.)

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net TAIPEI, Taiwan--The Computex 2007 IT trade show featured hundreds of PC periphe rals from nearly all of the major brands with blaring signs and hundreds of mar keting materials. However, in one corner of the sprawling event was a small gro up of tech geeks who were putting computer components into various levels of st ress tests. The group, calling itself XtremeSystems, is arguably the world's biggest and most well-known overcl ocking organization, recognized even by the component manufacturers themselves. For the novice PC builder, overclocking is the process of pushing a computer pa rt to run beyond its intended speed. This is usually done by tweaking through s oftware or changing the settings through the BIOS. While this enables a PC comp onent to run much faster, a wrong configuration would burn the component itself . Overclocking can then be likened to putting nitros in a car to make it go much faster, but at the cost of blowing up the engine. Headi ng the XtremeSystems group in Computex is Charles "Fugger" Wirth, one of the mo re prominent overclocking experts in the organization. He and a few of his coll eagues have set up two of the most extreme overclocked computers ever and in on e setup, he uses liquid nitrogen. That's a pic of Wirth. In an interview with Tech Addicts, Wirth said overclocking has been around as e arly as the days of the first computers. That is because research and developme nt divisions of the first computer companies would try and push their component s to run faster. In their setup in Computex, Wirth explained that they are using Intel Core 2 Qu ad processors with two gigabytes of the latest memory modules. One of the setup s uses a regular cooling system that can be bought from computer shops. The other, however, uses a nonstandard system composed of a tank of liquid nitrogen that cools the processor to negative 196 degrees Celsius. "We were able to push the processing speed of the Core 2 Quad from 2.3 Ghz to 4 .7 Ghz. The fastest we've recorded for this particular system was 4.9 Ghz," Wir th said. As crazy as it sounds, Wirth said overclocking is an activity done by almost al l computer developers. Because today's computer parts are highly configurable a nd are actually made of readily available components, do-it-yourself enthusiast s are given opportunities to speed up the processing power of these components. But even if it is nothing new, Wirth said electronics manufacturing firms do no t fully support overclocking and will not cover the insurance of any component that burns out. Incidentally, some manufacturers would put the word "overclocki ng" in their marketing kits implying that their products are good enough for th e most enthusiastic DIY fanatic. Ironically, many computer parts manufacturers rely on overclockers to test thei r machines prior to being sent out to the market. Manufacturers then get inform ation from these testers and make the necessary changes to the components. The bonus for this is that professional overclockers will get a chance to test out many new components even before they reach the market. "Some of us even become consultants to the manufacturers and we're among the fe w people who ever get into highly secure laboratories. I've personally been ins ide the secure R & D laboratories of component makers and I share informati on to them on how a PC should work from a user's point of view," Wirth said. He added that the goal is to encourage component manufacturers to develop their products to be compatible with the rest of the industry. "Overclockers may be geeks but they tell the industry what can be done." Wirth said the overclocking community is becoming stronger by the day. "There a re thousands of overclockers worldwide, some are occasional and others are prof essionals. In XtremeSystems, we have 53, 000 members and we're growing our memb ership by 100 per day," Wirth said. For the novice overclocker, Wirth said they have to be ready for the consequenc es. No overclocker has ever experienced a perfect record of good overclocking. In fact, overclocking can be very expensive as burnouts can happen quite often. "This is what we do and we spend on time and money to just make components run a little faster than normal. However, the rewards can be more than worth the ex pensive risks." (Editor's note: Check out Alex Villafania's Tales of th e Nomad blog entry for a look at some of Taiwan's tourist attractions.)

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net TAIPEI, Taiwan--Computex is also home to hundreds of new innovations churned ou t of the research and development division of many electronics firms. These inn ovations can either still be working prototypes, soon-to-be launched products, or already commercially available. These are just among the few that were found in Computext Taipei 2007. Multimedia player eye wear: If users are ever bored with using their handheld multimedia pla yers, perhaps they can try out multimedia eyewear. This product has two small L CD monitors as well as earphones. Video can be fed through a cable attached to a traditional multimedia player, such as the iPod Video. The main problem for t his is that it does not have any batteries and so has to be attached to an exte rnal power supply. Perhaps it would have rechargeable batteries before it is la unched in other Asian markets. iWalk: a headphone made by Taiwanese manufacturer Lobos that h as a small slot for the iPod nano. It has a small opening that allows the user to manipulate the player's click wheel. It has a stereo attachment for other mu ltimedia players. USB car music transmitter: No handheld MP3 player for your car ? Attach this device to your car's power plug in the dashboard, attach any USB flash drive with some MP3s, and play any songs on your carâs stereo. This simpl e device transmits radio signals to your car's audio system so you can play son gs. Portable DVD burner with card readers: Burning videos or photo s on DVDs can be a major pain for ordinary users who need to switch on a PC, se t the parameters for burning, and wait for the burning to finish. A company nam ed EZPnP developed a single device that can burn multimedia files on a DVD stra ight from various flash devices such as USB thumb drives, memory sticks, SD car ds, XD cards, and MMCs, among others. This way, the device can still be attache d to a PC and used just like any external DVD drive. Solar-powered bags: A backpack with a crystal s olar panel allows a person with several devices to charge them. The sensitive s olar panels are laminated in tempered glass to prevent damage and the devices c an be charged using a selection of attachments. While the bags do not look as g ood as the more expensive counterparts, it is still expensive at almost $300 fo r the most basic one. 3D monitors: Ever wonder how it feels to watch IMAX films at h ome? Better yet, want to make your movies and video games look like IMAX? PC pa rts manufacturers Zalman and Chimei both are developing new monitors that are a ble to split ordinary images into distinct colors. When a 3D glass is put on, t he images come together but the background remains flat, allowing the middle im age to "float" outside of the screen. These 3D monitors will be available in th e market sometime in the end of the year. Waterproof devices: Water is the worst enemy for any electroni c devices. Not anymore; I saw waterproof USB drives, water-resistant keyboards, and a monitor that doesn't get wet. A notebook computer and personal digital a ssistant were even sunk entirely in water but kept running. (Editor's note: Check out Alex Villafania's Tales of th e Nomad blog entry for a look at some of Taiwan's tourist attractions.)

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net TAIPEI, Taiwan--The Computex T rade Show is arguably the biggest technology trade show in Asia. For this year, the Taiwanese government made sure that the event will be as flashy as it coul d be not just to entice potential business partners, but also to capture the im agination of computer and electronics enthusiasts looking for the latest gadget s, some of which are not yet even available in the market. This year's Computex 2007, from June 4 to 8, is the biggest that Taiwan had to offer with 1,333 exhibitors and 2,926 booths sprawled in four huge halls surrou nding the world's tallest skyscraper, the 1,670.68-foot Taipei 101. Taiwan External Trade Development Council chairman Gary Tseng said they are exp ecting 30,000 buyers and would grow the trade show's revenues by at least two p ercent. High-tech opportunities The five-day exhibit started off with the exclusive opening day for business pa rtners from all over Asia and Europe and international press who have an unobst ructed tour of the entire event. However, the event is so big that a person tou ring just one of the halls will have to take four hours to see all of the booth s and the electronic gadgets in the place. Everyone can enjoy free wifi access and information booths are placed in strate gic areas for easy access to information about the event. These information boo ths are equipped with one computer and a location access point where a user can ask where they are and how to get to a specific booth. Indeed, the place is so big that it would be easy to get lost. Apart from the access point, visitors c an also grab a copy of a comprehensive information book that is as thick as a p aperback novel. If not, a big map also provided in the event for free would be good to get. The exhibitors are divided into original equipment manufacturers, original desi gn manufacturers, systems integrators, distribution firms and smaller electroni c service providers. In each of the buildings there are business pavilions wher e potential buyers and partners can discuss future opportunities. Gadgets galore Thousands of gadgets and devices are present during the event, coming from the most well-known brands to startup firms. Among the most prolific products to be seen during Computex 2007 are USB-related products such as USB-powered ambient lamps, USB hubs in the shape of vases or pen holders or USB electric fans, and even teddy bear alarm clocks attached to USB slots. There are also thousands of new designs for the ubiquitous flash drive. Most ar e smaller than the normal flash drives available commercially and a few are as small and as thin as five millimeter metal strips. Not surprisingly, the capaci ties of these flash drives are getting bigger every six months. While the most current size is at four gigabytes, there are new models that go as high as eigh t gigabytes. It would be no surprise when next year, there would be 16GB flash drives. There are also various types of multimedia players that are just as small as th e iPod nano and these can play music as well as videos, with capacities almost twice as that of Apple's own product. PC innovations Half of the products in the event are PC-based peripherals. Video cards have al so come a long way since the days of the AGP slot and the new PCI Express cards are starting to take center stage. With speeds and memory capacities five time s as that of the old AGP cards, the latest graphics processing units (GPUs), pa rticularly those from stiff rivals ATI and NVIDIA, also consume almost 100 watt s of power. Thus, there are new models of computer power supply units; the lowe st are usually 500 watts of power while the rest are over 1, 000 watts. Both AMD and Intel, the giants of the computer processing business, are also ne ck and neck in selling their products, particularly their new multicore process ors. Intel is the first to lay claim to the multicore domination with its newly launched Core 2 Quad processors. AMD has yet to launch its answer to Intel so while in Computex, the company rallied its major motherboard partners to introd uce several models that are ready to accommodate the AMD Barcelona quad core pr ocessor. Wireless homes Wireless communications also played a major role in Computex. There were produc ts that work both for PCs and notebooks but there were novel devices that appli ance manufacturers to attach wireless antennas to home electronic appliances, f rom refrigerators to television sets to the vacuum cleaner and the washing mach ines. These technologies are at hand to accommodate the widespread use of IPv6 (Internet Protocol version six), which can give trillions of devices an address to connect to the Internet. Computex will be open to the public from June 5 and some companies will have ac tivities where visitors can win various prizes. The event will also feature sem inars from technology experts open to the public as well as private partners wh o may want pursue their goals of joining as developers of new technologies or s imply to be awed as consumers. Here are some more photos: Microsoft's long line of manufacturing partners for its Windows Mobile operatin g system. Intel creates two walls of motherboards from various manufacturers, all of whom are adopting the Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad processor series. USB hubs are not unfashionable gray or black boxes anymore. Some have been inco rporated into table items such as lamps, pen holders and even an aquarium. A DIY computer geek's dream come true. Hall One of Computex Taipei 2007 with over 400 exhibitors in a single building. There were four buildings as well as special exhibits in the nearby Grand Hyat t Hotel right beside the world's tallest building, the Taipei 101. (Editor's note: Check out Alex Villafania's Tales of th e Nomad blog entry for a look at some of Taiwan's tourist attractions.)