NVIDIA 196.75 drivers can kill your graphics card!

Seems that the latest NVidia display drivers 196.75 have some issues, mostly relating to the control of the on board cooling fan. Its effects could cause the fan to malfunction or even stop. If this is true, it could really cause some real damage to your NVidia display cards.

If you're using this version of the drivers, please downgrade to the previous working drivers (196.21) immediately. Below is a quote from the NVidia official site.

196.75 Alert!

We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers do not download this driver. Instead, please stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our website and we also are asking our partners and others to remove temporarily this 196.75 WHQL driver as well.

Pass this on.

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26th October 2009, My Birthday, and also the End of the First Web Host I Used

Yeap, today is my birthday. While it marks 25 years of my existence in this world, it also marks the demise of one of the first few web host ever to grace the Internet, Geocities.

I started using Geocities to host my personal website during my secondary school days about 11 years ago. At that time, web was still pretty much primitive with most connections are as fast as 48.8 kbps. Never could we have imagined the possibility of web applications, online games or even Facebook. After 11 years, things have really changed.

That’s when Web 2.0 emerged. Social networking sites appeared like mushrooms growing in a rainy day. Every online citizen started blogs be it a personal one, sharing or even some sharing jokes. Streaming sites such as Youtube enabled us to share and show our personal talent to the world, without going through agents and companies. Suddenly everything seemed possible, everything seemed exciting. However Geocities did not move on.

Geocities was then acquired by Yahoo! in 1999. This move proved to be very unpopular as users started to quit using the service. It was then Yahoo started introducing Yahoo! Web Hosting to persuade current Geocities users to upgrade their accounts. However, Yahoo! Web Hosting is a paid service, whereas Geocities is free.

Geocities had so much potential with its neighborhood and homestead concepts. It could have easily been a geographical version of Dacebook if it was managed properly. Yet, whatever that’s done is done and vice-versa, on this very day, would be the day that Geocities is put to rest.

RIP Geocities (1994-2009)

p/s: This is a tribute to Geocities "who" served millions of users throughout the past decade.

Recycle your Handphone & Get Cash?

Remember seeing those plastic boxes at shopping complex where you can put your gadgets and batteries for recycling purposes? In the near future, we might be able to get some cash by just recycling our old gadgets like what we do with unused papers.

ecoATM or Automated Recycling Stations was recently launched to promote gadget or metal recycling to consumers. Li-Ion batteries in particular, commonly found in modern gadgets and handphones, cannot be discarded the same as normal rubbish. Batteries should always be recycled because they are harmful to the environment if discarded incorrectly.

So, what does this new ATM machine do? Once you dump in your item into its slot, it will examine the item and tells you how much your item is worth. Should you accept it, you'll get the cash. If the item is of no value at all, a "free item' will be issued and a tree will planted by your name. Sounds good?

Currently not available in Malaysia yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Hope the government will bring this fella in soon.

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Snow Leopard? Update your flash player now!

According to the blog on Adobe, it seems that the installation of Snow Leopard will downgrade your Flash Player to an old version which has some bugs and vulnerabilities. It is recommended that all users to upgrade to the latest version of Flash Player (10.0.32.18) for security purposes. You can download the flash player from http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

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Telling Your Oven to Start Cooking, With Your Mobile Phone!

Recently, there was a news report about an oven being turned on, and started cooking at the highest setting on its own. Its trigger? Its none other than your mobile phone. All you need to do is to leave your mobile phone near the oven, and dial it.

Recall that you leave your phone too near a computer speaker, there is this “bee-boo-bee-boo” sound emitting from the speakers, or your monitor screen gets distorted when a call comes in. This is caused by “electromagnetic Interference (or EMI to Electronic Engineers). This is also the reason why you should NOT place your mobile phone near your chest if you are using a pacemaker. This is the probably why how the mobile phone could turn on the circuitry is the oven, and then trigger it to cook without any human intervention.

On the bright side, you can now leave your turkey in the oven and place a mobile phone beside it before you go to work on Thanksgiving Day. After you have lunch, all you need to do is to dial to your mobile phone!

You can read the news article on the link here. Most ovens are safe from this though, I assume.