General Articles

Three Reasons Why You Should Play Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption has been a huge success, and is another superb title from Rockstar Games (the creator of the Grand Theft Auto series). For those gamers who have not yet played the game, here are three quick reasons why you should, and you will see why you are missing out.

1. Open World Gameplay – Over the years, Rockstar Games has mastered the concept of the open world environment with video games. Not only does the game follow a main storyline, but the player can choose whether or not to do certain missions at their own discretion. In Red Dead Redemption, there are plenty of side missions and challenges to keep a player busy for hours without ever touching the main storyline. Of course, you must progress through the main story in order to unlock certain areas of the map and certain items, but if you feel like hunting, causing a ruckus, or just hopping on your horse and galloping off into the sunset, it is entirely up to you.

2. Immersive Environment – Red Dead Redemption is not only great fun, but it is also a beauty to look at. The art department deserves a great amount of credit in creating an environment that looks and feels genuine. Although the main locations for the game are in the Old West with sagebrush and cacti, there is something breathtaking about it all. There is also a seamless conversion from grassy plains in America to red rock formations in Mexico. No matter where you are on the map, it feels as if you are actually there.

3. Fantastic Storyline – The story of Red Dead Redemption is one of the best storylines I have ever experienced in a video game. It also has one of the most shocking and unanticipated climaxes that I have ever seen. It is a story that sucks you in, and you find yourself becoming emotional involved in the plight of the main character, John Marston. This makes the ending of the game all the more shocking. Even the side missions you find scattered around are entertaining in their own right (although not necessarily pertinent to the main story).

There are many other reasons to play Red Dead Redemption if you have not done so. It is a wonderful example of a top-notch video game, and hopefully there are or will be plans to release a sequel.…

PS3 Blinks Red – What to Do Next When Your Playstation 3 Starts Blinking Red Lights

Are you having issues where your PS3 blinks red? Don’t lose hope. There are thousands of PlayStation 3 owners around the world that are dealing with this annoying problem where the PlayStation stops playing games and DVDs and just blinks red lights.

I want to give you some advice on what to do when your PS3 blinks red lights.

Now you could instantly go out and call Sony and ship your PlayStation 3 back off to the manufacturer for repair. In fact, this is what most people would tell you to do. But, there are some drawbacks to this like waiting 6 or 7 weeks to get your console back. That’s a really long time to wait just to have the system looked at and repaired. All with a process that’s not that complicated.

Not only that, but you could end up paying a hefty $150 repair fee as well just to have Sony fix a very simple problem that you could fix yourself.

Wait, did I say that you could fix it yourself? I absolutely did! It’s entirely possible to easily fix the problem where your PS3 blinks red lights instead of playing games and DVD’s, just by taking the system apart and repairing the internal component that causes the problem.

Instead of waiting the 6 or 7 weeks like you would have to with Sony, fixing it yourself lets you decide how long it should take. And the coolest thing about doing it yourself is the repair should only take you about an hour to perform.…

How to Compare Desktop Vs Laptop Graphics Cards

It was a hectic few months on the mobile GPU front in the summer months of 2011. NVIDIA was quick to proclaim that they had the fastest laptop GPU on the market in the GeForce GTX 580M, which indeed they had, but not for long.

A few weeks later, AMD let loose a slightly faster Radeon HD 6990M, which at this writing is also less pricey than the GTX 580M–a major setback for NVIDIA and a major leap forward for AMD in other words, but this particular market changes fast and which company has the fastest GPU a year from now is anyone’s guess.

Something that rarely changes, however, and is seldom discussed in any detail is the GPU naming scheme that both of the two leading manufacturers are using. It would be perfectly understandable if a prospective gaming laptop buyer assumes that a GTX 580M is comparable to a desktop GTX 580, but this is far from the truth.

To find out why you only have to look at the specifications. A GTX 580 is equipped with 512 shaders (or CUDA cores as NVIDIA calls them), while the mobile GTX 580M has 384 shaders. The end result according to NVIDIA is a texture fill rate of 49.4 billion/sec for the desktop GPU and 39.7 billion/sec for the mobile GPU.

Now obviously the mobile version is still a very powerful card by any standard, but there’s still a significant difference between the desktop and laptop variants that buyers should be aware of: the actual specifications puts the mobile GTX 580 closer to a desktop GTX 560.

To be fair to NVIDIA, AMD does the same thing. The difference between the desktop HD 6990 versus the mobile HD 6990M is even larger, considering that the desktop card is a dual-GPU solution on one card. In the desktop version, a Radeon HD 6990 graphics card offers an incredible 5.4 TFLOPS of processing power, while its mobile counterpart (in name only) pushes 1.6 TFLOPS and has more in common with the desktop Radeon HD 6870.

There are of course explanations as to why high-end mobile GPUs don’t perform as well as high-end desktop GPUs, and they are quite obvious ones. A gaming desktop computer chassis leaves plenty of room for the power-intensive graphics card to breathe and it can supply hundreds of Watts of power via a large built-in power supply. None of these options are available within the confines of a laptop and it is actually an impressive engineering feat that they are able to perform as well as they do.

It is also somewhat understandable that the manufacturers want to name their most powerful mobile GPUs in a way that they are instantly recognized as their top models. AMD, NVIDIA as well as the gaming notebook manufacturers are also completely upfront with the specifications if you actually read them.

Nevertheless, a first-time gaming laptop buyer often (and understandably) goes by the name of …

Why Social Media Privacy Is Imperative for Children

A lot has been said for social media privacy for adults. However, the most important social media privacy that a person can get is the privacy they can get for their children. This is because children cannot defend themselves as well as a grown adult can in their use of social networking. Therefore, it should be the focus of the parent to keep their children as safe as possible when using the social networks because there are those people who want to prey on children and their innocence.

The systems that exist do not protect children well at all. This is because the systems are made to share as much information as possible until they are told not to share that information anymore. This goes for people, businesses, and children. Most social networking systems discourage children from using their platforms but they do not do a great job keeping them out of the systems.

The truth is that any child that wants to use these systems can easily circumvent the systems that the social networks have put in place to keep them out. It would be very labor intensive and problematic to find a way to discern who the real users of the system are and those who are children. Therefore, it does not make much sense for the networks to try and discern who is a child and who is not. It would cost too much for them to develop a system that could do this and it would require that the users themselves prove their age through an official identification card.

Not only would this be difficult for the social media systems. It would also be difficult for the users as well. The users are less likely to use the system if required to provide some documentation in order to use the system. The truth about humans is that every human is interested in taking the path to least resistance. This means that any obstruction in the way of getting to a goal will cause some people not to use the system at all. This would be a massive blow for the social media systems because they depend on these people and the information to generate revenue for the business. Any business that does not generate revenue does not stay open very long. Therefore, social media systems will not take changes to their systems unless they are forced to make those changes.

In conclusion, the most important social media privacy that a parent can provide is the social media privacy they can provide their children. There is no secret that the Internet is full of people who want to abuse the privacy rights of children and it is imperative that a parent make sure that their child social media activities are safe. The social media systems can be very useful for adults and children to keep in touch with family and friends. However, it is important to note that the …

Social Media Tips That Will Work For You, Part 1

Social media is one of the best ways to keep your business in a forward-moving position. There has been an increase in the social media platforms and it is still positioned as a growth sector.

The social network group of tools as a whole are a range of Web-based platforms, technologies and applications that facilitate people to socially interact with one another via the Internet. Some examples are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You use the sites to promote your own business by forming relationships with prospective and current customers. When anyone visits these sites you feel that they will also visit your site that is displayed there.

New media technologies work the same way as word-of-mouth advertising. The way that if your site is being used to show your brand and products to other people on the social network site. This is a fast way of spreading your word to everyone and in a short time you will realize that your brand has become familiar with everyone.

There are few features that are must for being successful in social networking:

Be Open, Honest, as well as social

Merge Social Media with Existing Advertising

Optimize Your Business for Social Marketing

To productively market social media space, you need to be honest and create such profiles that are open and will appeal to consumers. Do not act as if you are just another user on the site, but let them know that you represent a business against the policy of a single person who always tweets and links to one business

If you are out to attract prospective customers, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about social media.…

A Guide to Gaming PC Specs

PC gaming has been around for decades, but so has console gaming. Being a simpler platform, many players were drawn to consoles first and many even became veteran players without ever really considering PC gaming. Eventually though, some of the most competitive and hardcore gamers take a peek into the world of PC gaming because of all it has to offer. Some games are available for PC gamers that aren’t out for any console, and many never will be. The PC offers a much wider range of controls (with keyboard and mouse) and therefore lends itself to a deeper gameplay experience that consoles can’t replicate.

Another thing PC’s offer is a breakout from the multi-year console cycle. When a console system first comes out there is generally wide-ranging acclaim for the technological capabilities of the system, but two or three years into its life cycle the technology is noticeably dated and yet the next generation console is still years away from release. This leaves many hardcore console gamers sour on their system of choice, and looking to PC gaming for potential answers.

For the PC gaming novice a common question is, “What’s a good gaming PC spec?” Unlike consoles, PC’s come with an infinite variety of processor types, CPU speeds, different types and amounts of RAM, and a whole litany of graphics cards to choose from. There is no easy answer to this question, because any answer I give today will be wrong a month from now. Ultimately any new PC gamer needs to learn the lay of the land a bit before purchasing their first system. Surprisingly though, this is much easier than you might think.

Product reviews are your friend. They will both save you money and save you from making purchases that might have disappointed you. Try to check reviews on both tech websites as well as on stores. Surprisingly, price alone is not a good indicator of quality and even something with what seems to be perfect specs on paper may not live up to expectations if there are other issues with it. Ultimately the most important piece of any gaming PC is the video cards. The graphics are the most processor and memory intensive thing about gaming today, so even if you are purchasing a complete system it’s a good idea to make sure the graphics card included with the system can deliver solid performance for today’s games.

By combining a little bit of research into graphics cards, checking out the specs on a variety of systems offered as gaming PC’s, and looking at both professional and user reviews you will be able to make a very educated purchasing decision. A good gaming PC spec will change from month to month but the procedure for figuring out what the latest and greatest is and how to get the most for you money always remains the same.A�…

How to Choose Between a Laptop Or Desktop Computer

If you go back several years, when people still bought music on disks of some sort, the main computing option was a Desktop PC. Laptop computers were for people who needed to take their computing out of the home or office.

These days, with Laptops being extremely affordable, more and more people are reclaiming their desk space by investing in Laptop computers and ditching the Desktop versions. From a purely design point of view, this has quite good aesthetic results in many a home. Your computer can now be practically invisible in the home.

With home networking becoming more popular, even printers can be accessed wirelessly, meaning no clumsy wires and no need for anything to be on show for accessibility. This new neater existence for our computing equipment is a reflection of the manufacturers being able to cram some quite remarkable technology into smaller and smaller spaces.

As with anything which gives us benefits, there’s also pitfalls which the salesman selling you a shiny new Laptop or Notebook will avoid mentioning.

Firstly, and probably most importantly (to most of us) Laptops are generally a lot more fragile than their Desktop counterparts. One of the considerations when buying a Laptop is the way it will be used. If you buy a Laptop which you’ll travel with, it pays to buy one which has good shock resistance and is made to be travelled with. This can add a lot to the overall cost but save money in costly repairs and data retrieval.

There’s also the level of performance. Laptops tend to be less powerful for the price and are not really great if gaming is your main motivation. That’s not to say that there aren’t some great gaming and productivity Laptops out there, but with the changing demands of software, a good gaming Laptop today could be tomorrow’s word processor.

The lack of flexibility where upgrades are concerned is another reason Laptops can be a less than ideal option. Upgrades to graphics cards aren’t possible in many Laptops as most are integrated into the motherboard. Also, hard disk space can only be increased internally by replacing the existing disk. Screen size is fixed and the keyboards are integral. Some of these things can be addressed with add-on components but this adds to the fragility and the outward bulk and awkwardness of the computer. Desktops offer a much more natural upgrade path and can be tailored to suit requirements of the individual.

For most households, a Laptop is fine for doing the day-to-day computer chores such as surfing the net, writing letters and doing homework. If you’re using a computer for more intensive work which doesn’t need the portability, a Desktop PC is the best bet.…

Social Media Table Manners

I was at Starbucks today. For the past several months to a year I have been patronizing Starbucks and it seems to be the social network marketing place for business and friends. People are doing business over the Internet at these coffee houses. I meet friends and interact with people over the Internet at Starbucks.

I have never been harassed and people seem to respect others and keep a good social atmosphere. As in any social situation there should be “table manners”. People should respect one another.

Think of social media like walking into someone’s house. You must abide by their rules. Every house has rules. In our house you take your shoes off, no smoking, and no use of profanity. If you enter a church building, you follow the church rules. Entering a secure government building you may have to go through a security check and be restricted on what you can carry in.

Here are some social media table manners:

A� Join in the conversation – If you are entering a Facebook page for those interested in network marketing, keep your conversation about what others are interested in. Read the group information about the group. Remember, you don’t know anything about these people and they don’t know you. Take an interest in what they have to say. Listen, listen, and then listen. If you are interested in Christianity, chat about the things of God. You like marketing, talk about marketing. Keep to the subject.

A� Be a good listener and ask questions – Take an interest in the other person. Ask them about their interests. If they want to talk about their business, then let them talk. Ask them questions about their company. How long have you been doing the business? How long has the company been in business? Remember, unless you use video and audio, they cannot see or hear you.

A� Don’t make a sales pitch when you initially meet someone – Don’t say, “Hi, I am Eldon and I am a network marketer. Do you want to sign up under me?” People will flee from you like the plague. You are there to build a relationship with people. I am a member of our local chamber and I have to build relationships first.

A� Give some helpful information – People want helpful information. Some of my friends text me health information. I like that type of information. If you are a network marketer, give some success tips. Social media is a long-term relationship. It takes take time, patience, and work. It is a give and take relationship.

A� Don’t send out a lot of junk tweets a day – I had this one person send me a dozen or more tweets a day. It was annoying.

A� Use clean language – No profanity or nudity.

A� Be who you are – Be yourself. If you are branding yourself, use your picture rather than an avatar. I am more likely to continue …

Everyone now knows their actions have an effect on the environment, and while it may seem overwhelming or impossible to make a positive difference, there are small changes you can make in your everyday life to do your part. Excessive waste and consumption are practically expected in today’s society, but you can shrink your environmental footprint by trying out these tips.

Reuse and Recycle

One simple change you can make to reduce your waste is to use reusable items that replace plastics you would typically throw away, such as water bottles, grocery and sandwich bags and tableware. Many single-use items can be replaced or just aren’t necessary to purchase. Additionally, before you throw anything away, think about refurbishing or recycling it. For example, a broken television could be sent in for television refurbishing Dover DE to get more use out of it, and glass jars could be repurposed as storage containers or decorative items.

Shop Wisely

Much of everyone’s waste consists of paper and plastic packaging, and there are ways to cut down on this as well. When shopping for groceries, try to buy whole, uncut fruits and vegetables instead of precut produce in plastic containers. Moreover, buying your food in bulk or buying from a farmer’s market involves less use of packaging as well. When shopping for clothes, décor, furniture, and many other items, buying secondhand is another great way to reuse and reduce waste.

Take a Minimalistic Approach

Reducing your consumption and waste means that you need to think more minimally about your wants and needs and perhaps change your attitude and lifestyle. For example, processed junk food comes with a lot of packaging compared to healthier alternatives. Another example concerns fast fashion and continuously buying new clothes to keep up with trends. Many people simply buy a lot of things they don’t need, and the eventual resulting waste can have a compounded effect on the environment.

Overconsumption and excessive waste have unfortunately become the norm, but you can learn to adjust your habits. Even small changes add up to a large influence.…

ITX Gaming PC – Don’t Let The Size Fool You

They say big things come in small packages. So get ready for some big things from an ITX gaming PC. So much power packed into a tiny box it will blow you away. These boxes are sometimes referred to as Mini-ITX PCs as well but they are usually one in the same. The ITX PC will give you amazing performance at your next LAN party, all from a small footprint. Let them laugh when they see it but when you start playing and blowing them away they will start whining and crying.

These little rigs are all about 4 inches wide by 10 inches tall by 12 inches deep. When they are properly designed with the right pieces and parts, they will easily outperform other LAN rigs. But caution is needed to make sure you buy it from a very good supplier. It is very easy to botch the design and end up with an ITX rig that will cook you dinner. These rigs are tight inside and need a good engineer to design and build them. No room for error in these boxes. Leave it to a professional.

But can these ITX PCs play the more complex games? Can they run the more intense graphic cards? Oh yea, you can bet on it! But again caution. Like I said above, these things are tight, they produce a lot of heat and you just can’t throw just any desktop part in them. Do something wrong to hinder air flow and watch it melt. Stick to a supplier who knows what they are doing. But for the size of these little rigs they will run any software a desktop can. The ITX can utilize the latest processors also. The pricing is usually very competitive depending what options you go with. Most ITX models allow for some very cool custom graphics on the outside of the box. But this will vary with the supplier. In terms of cool graphics on any PC, if the sides are metal versus plastic, you will be able to get much cooler, high def graphics on metal than plastic, just a word to the wise.

Mini-ITXs or ITX gaming PCs are starting to pop in the gaming PC market. The power and pricing is very enticing to the mid to high end gamer, so much power in such a small mobile box. Put it under your arm and bring it to your next LAN party and let the envy begin. People will snicker at first but when they see these babies blowing away their super cool, super deluxe brand X out of the water, they will need a life jacket. Throw them one if you want but not necessary. Check out these ITX rigs from a good supplier, you will be surprised.…