Gaming Mania 01: Left4Dead 1 & 2

Letf4Dead was amongst the more interesting games recently released this past season. Most of its draw came from its 4 player cooperative game system...that and the kewl cinematic and sound effects.

The premise of the game is simple: the city is being overrun by zombies and only 4 survivors are left uninfected. You have to cooperate with each other to plow through literally hordes of a thousand zombies in order reach the final stage and be rescued. Cooperation is the key to this game as you just can't hope to survive against the undead horde by your lonesome. Moreover, playing cooperatively with 3 friends (either LAN or on line) made blowing up zombies that much more fun ;)

Hot on the heels of the success of the first game comes Left4dead2, which will be released later this year. Here's a sneak video preview:

Quick Fix 01: Windows error

SYMPTOM:

After logging in your Windows XP account, you get the following message:
"Windows cannot load the locally stored profile. Possible causes of this error include insufficient security rights or a corrupt local profile."
Eventhough you will be able to log-in, your changes in that account will not be saved.


CAUSE:

This problem may occur if the directory that is associated with the account has been deleted from the Documents and Settings folder.


SOLUTION:

1. Start the computer in SAFE MODE.
2. In the Control Panel, create a new user account.
3. Restart the computer.



for further instructions visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812339

The Netbook Wars

Before netbooks came into existence, portable pcs were categorized only into big clunky laptops and notebooks.

Asus practically created the netbook niche. I was one of the first amongst my peers to acquire an Asus EEE 701 -- the first that started the netbook craze. The Asus EEE 701 was small, portable and ultra cheap! Before this came out, ultra portable laptops cost 2 to 3x that of a normal notebooks. People at first didn't mind the dismal 7 inch screen, 4GB SSD HD, 900 mhz celeron, processor, linux OS, 512 RAM and the cramped keyboards. Everyone was amazed at the novelty of this ultra cheap device that you could tote around anywhere. It was the perfect gift, not only for tots, but also for adults. Stocks went flying off the shelves as everyone wanted a piece of this cheap ultraportable gadget.

Other manufacturers took notice and soon started producing their own line up with more beefed up specs. Amongst the notable early adapters are:

1.) HP 2133 -- great build quality and heart stopping good looks with its magnesium alloy chassis, but it made a fatal mistake when it chose to adopt the VIA processor instead of the Intel Atom.



2.)MSI which came out with the MSI Wind. It was one of the very first to feature a 10 inch screen, win xp OS, a wide usable keyboard bundled with a more powerful intel atom processor and higher capacity laptop SATA HDs.






3.) Acer came out with a slimmer and cheaper Acer Aspire One.



4.) Lenovo also joined in the fray and released the Lenovo S10s -- sleeker, and more expensive. I couldn't resist the metallik pink flavor (If you're viewing this page, you'd know my current obssession with pink) and happily ditched my Asus EEE for it.