What are the top web hosting companies out there? Well, head on over to www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com to find out. That’s right, top ten hosting. Each host are rated and ranked according to ease of use, reliability and uptime, technical support and more.  Users can rate and comment on a particular webhost. There is a comparison chart to help you choose the best host based on its features like how often data is backed up and PHP/MySQL support.

The site layout is clean, bright and easy to read. There is a page to show prices for UK or US. One thing is missing are the webhost that didn’t make top 10. I wish I could submit reviews for webhost not listed. My own webhost, Dot Easy, is not on the list. However the ones listed looks top notch and varied. This is after all is “The Top 10 Best Webhosting.” The number two ranked host you can read the iPage reviews. And for the current number one read up on Just Host.

One thing that may or may not be obvious is on top of the chart is a red text that read “updated: day month year.” Just to let you know how the current data is. It seems to be updated just about every day.

To the right of each host is a review link. Clicking on it takes to page that shows what others are saying about it. You can add your comments too. It’s interesting what others have to say. I usually read comments from users for most things when I am online shopping. The more stars they have the better.

The FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions looks wide-ranging and reads like a blog. There are answers beginners and experienced users alike. If you have more questions then you can use contact page.

Overall this is a nifty, well designed little site to help you choose the right web host.

I thought I the 95W version of 1055T 6 core Phenom was finally available in the US but it turns out to be a typo. It came up on the search for "HDT55TWFK6DGR" which linked me to TigerDirect.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6455299&sku=A79-1155

When I read the title and the description it doesn't match. I used the chat feature and asked which version it was and they responded that it was the 125W version. Hope to upgrade soon.

VLC 1.1.1 and Catalyst 10.7 have been out for a few days now. I've got it installed and trying it out. The biggest change is the use of graphics card to play videos which should offload the demand off the processor. I've tried it out and this is the result. I used Big Buck Bunny 1080p h264. They both run smooth with or without the acceleration but with acceleration the demand on the CPU is much less.

Without Acceleration CPU utilization starts out at 45% and goes between 15 to 25 at times jumping to 35% throughtout the movie.

With Acceleration the CPU utilization goes from 6% to 12% throughout the movie.

You can find BBB at http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ and VLC at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ and Catalyst at http://www.amd.com.

Recent upgrade is two pairs of 2 GB memory for 8 GB of DDR2 1066 mhz total memory from an old pair of Kingston 1 GB sticks for 2 GB total. The new memory is running at 800 mhz for now because of the limit of the memory controller on my Athlon 64 X2 5000+ AM2 to 800. My computer is running a lot smoother. Before this I thought the RAID setup was ineffective but now I can see that it is with shorter load times.

The next upgrade I'm planning on getting is the new Phenom II 1055T (HDT55TWFK6DGR, HDT55TWFGRBOX) 95W version. Motherboard is limited to 95W TDP processors. I also updated the BIOS so it should be ready to install. This will be great for when I am rendering my 3D videos on Blender. From what I read on the internet is has made available in Japan but not anywhere else.

Also sometime in the future maybe I'll get some new LCD monitors. Still using two 17" CRT monitor in a dual display mode. It's a hand me down monitor. I'll replace it when it breaks down.

Previous upgrade I did was RAID 0 to a pair of 500 GB Western Digital Black and RAID 1 to a pair of Western Digital Green. I put my system on RAID 0 and my data on RAID 1. It's not an SSD but runs pretty fast.

The Video Card is a Radeon HD 4650 which I won as part of AMD's 40th anniversary contest on YouTube. Would have been satisfied with the onboard graphics but free is free. Not a heavy gamer anyways.

This will be my entry to the new contest AMD is having(4). Hope I win.

What will I do with 48 cores? 48 cores will help out greatly on our first Pinoy open movie project. Pinoy Blender users around the world can participate in the development of this animated short. It is a story about Ferdinand Magellan’s landing on the Philippine Islands.

Before the day Magellan landed on the Philippine Islands, it was simply known as Maharlika. Each island was ruled by different tribes by leader known as datu. On Mactan Island, it is ruled by Lapu Lapu. There were some interisland conflicts which Lapu Lapu was able to overcome. When Magellan arrived on to neighboring island natives on those islands allowed themselves to be taken under Spain’s control and be Christianized in exchange they would conquer Mactan Island. Magellan set off to conquer Mactan Island and is killed by Lapu Lapu on Mactan shore. Magellan’s crew continued on to circumnavigate the world without Magellan.  Lapu Lapu became the first Filipino to resist the Spanish colonial influence.

The project is in its storybook phase. There are design concepts scattered about.  We got the script and a storybook is being drawn (2, 3). The people that contribute to this project do so on their free time and do not get paid. The group has been mentioned by Ton Roosendaal (1), the lead developer of Blender the open source media creation software. They themselves are busy with their own Durian project in Amsterdam and coding the new version Blender 2.50, that’s two point fifty, redesigned from scratch.
If we get this prize, there will be no more reason to procrastinate we got 48 cores to feed.

1. http://www.blendernation.com/interview-with-ton-roosendaal/   @10:50
2. http://www.pinoyblender.com/
3. http://buko.pinoyblender.org/
4. http://blogs.amd.com/work/2010/03/03/48-cores-contest/

This was my first time at CES. I felt very out of place amongs men in expensive suits. What am I? Just a little blogger. I proceeded to the place anyway. The place took up the Hilton, the Las Vegas Convention center where my High School graduation took place and the Venetian. I arrived early at 7:00 am at the Hilton expecting a large crowd. There hardly anyone in line. Then I preceded to follow the other guest to the opening keynote speakers.

Gary Shapiro drove into the stage in a FORD car. The main topic of his speech is the role of government and how laws can either hurt or help innovation. He was definately against the bailout. Bailed out companies would have to compete with other companies strugleling with the economy and bailed out companies would have an unfair advantage over those that didn't get bailed out.

One of the car company that had not accepted any bail out from the government is FORD. And they are the next presentor of this keynote. They are presenting connectivity of their cars while minimizing distraction for drivers. They will use in dash display, Voice command, and touch. In other words the GUI, VUI and TUI.

Moving on, the immediate booths outside the keynote room was the international booths. It had an area for different Asian country. One for Hong Kong, Taiwan. China. Nothing particularly interesting about it. The one that caught my attention are LED lights. Though CFL, Compact Flourecent bulb was just as low powered, LED don't contain mercury and also LED last much longer. Years longer.

Crossed the street to the Convention center. Passed by some booths for cars. Found a nice LCD panels to replace the wiplash head rest of your car.

There are some LCD displays in an aquarium under water showing its durability against water.

AMD ATI is showing their video card with Eyefinity. This treats the screen in multidisplay as one image.

On the nVIDIA booth they are showing Avatar game in 3D in 3 projector screens. You need glasses to see it. Though the 3D technology was available in the original GeForce card 10 years ago. This one is not out yet at least the 3 screen 3D ones.

I've had this NAS for awhile now. It was part of a contest. I was to copy this page and repost on my blog. You've seen it for awhile if you visit my blog. I was chosen an received mine. It needs two SATA laptop harddrives so I haven't been able to use it. Just would like to post it. Thanks.

I've submitted some new viruses to the these Antivirus Companies. I've submitted to Avast, AVG and TrendMicro. Only one replied in both cases. That's AVG. It's nice to know the status of your submition and know your submition matter. Though Avast never replied they have updates that finds these viruses. Avast is what I am using currently.

I was trying to fix a computer with viruses. It had Norton Internet Security 2006 installed. It found 515 viruses but couldn't delete them. The bad part it it would not allow me to manually delete either. I went to Norton's website to see if could find a way to delete them. I got to chat with an agent.  I told her the problem and said a professional can help me for $99. No thanks. I wouldn't pay that. I uninstalled Norton and installed AVG. It found and deleted these viruses. It didn't find as many though. I wonder why.

The same virus I wrote about came up on the screen on my own computer on IE. The difference is that the virus was caught by Avast before it could make changes to the system. It seems to have come up from some ads. The page changes to warns you that the site you are try to load is dangerous. The next step is important. Don't click anything on on the red page even the ignore. Just use your back button twice to go back to where you were surfing.

I was one of the 40 1st place winner on the wishing AMD a Happy 40th Anniversary contest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqG8vksgBms

Now my Aunt had a virus on her computer. It only affected Internet Explorer. It would mark certain or random website as dangerous and asking for you to install their antivirusto be safe. They installed and ran several antivirus on but nothing could find to stop it. I r olled back the system using system restore. It still did there. Since it only happens IE then it must be some custimization for IE. I searched for scripting and stuff nothing happened. Then I found Browser Helper Object that can be used to customize IE. I ran IE in safe mode and the virus didn't show up. I disabled one by one some browser helper object in tools, internet options, programs, manage add-on until the virus didn't show. I found it. It was Helper object with a filename msxmlm.dll in system32 directory. I zipped it up with password and sent it to three antivirus companies. They are virus@avg.com; virus_doctor@trendmicro.com; virus@avast.com. Hopefully it will be found on the next update and scan. It should find it in the recycle bin.

Also I just got home from vacation to Coronado Island near San Diego. I'll post pictures soon. And of course I've been back in the US formore than two months now.