REVIEW: Arctic Sound E352 Earphones

Chances are you have an iPod or an mp3 player, or listen to music on your notebook. At some point in time, you may have taken a look at a speaker, headphone or another device where you can listen to music. The mobile world, however, presents different choices -- headphones -- to couple with mobile audio players.

I was recently sent a set of earphones, specifically the high-end Arctic Sound E352. I am familiar with Arctic Cooling as a company that produces high quality cooling products but not audio products. As the brand name suggests -- Arctic Sound -- they are now into audio as well. I will test this in my Sony Walkman, Nokia N70 Music phone, iPod and Dell D630 notebook.

The product comes in a package that is clear and you can see the attractive wood-stained earphones. Whats the use of having nice attributes if you don't show it off, right?

Having inspected the aesthetics of the earphones, I was anxious to give it a spin.. I plugged it on the Sony Walkman, then the N70, the iPod and the notebook. The experience is quite undescribable, as you would almost forget that you are wearing earphones. The bass is deep and low. And the sound quality is very good. If you think it looks good, it sounds way better!

The 3.5mm jack is gold-plated and such attribute often translates to better quality. It also comes with a zipper lock case that has a spool-like foamy material to keep the earphones tangle-free.

Not only that, the set of earphones also comes with small, medium and large silicone caps designed to enrich the listening experience and block ambient noise. I tried talking to my wife while listening to the music and it made me wish I knew how to lip read. It is indeed very effective at blocking noise.

The earphones are also very comfortable to wear. It would have been better if it is water-resistant, for jogging and workouts, but I'm not sure about this yet. I could verify that with Arctic Cooling and let you know.

Overall, the remarkable listening experience with Arctic Sound E352 changed my perspective about earphones. With the E352 as the model, earphones can sound better and compete with headphones in producing quality audio.

For more information regarding the Arctic Sound E352, check out its product website. Thanks to Arctic Cooling for sending a product sample for review.

INFO: Mafia Wars -- Bangkok

Are you enjoying playing Mafia Wars? Chances are, we share the same compulsion to play. It probably is one of the many online games that people get hooked to nowadays.

As I am one of the many selected to participate, it is interesting to be playing the expansion to the game (sorry folks I already gave out the three extra passports I was given). There are a few sweet glitches already found and, suffice to say, the developers are quick to get them patched. And if you are wondering about the Bangkok release of Mafia Wars, here are a few information supplied by the developers.


Q: What does "beta" mean?
A: Mafia Wars: Bangkok is currently in a beta release. This means that we are releasing it to a limited number of players, and may make needed tuning changes as the beta progresses - this includes changes to item costs, job costs and payouts, and item drop rates. However, we will not reset or remove mastery progress, experience, or items earned during the beta after the beta period ends.


Q: How long will the beta last?
A: The beta will last as long as is necessary for us to be sure that we are releasing a solid, stable, and bug-free expansion to our players. Watch for further updates on this as the beta period progresses.


Q: Why did it cost me more energy to do a job in Bangkok than my friend who is lower level?
A: In our previous expansions, we have required that players be fairly experienced before they travel to the new locations. For this expansion, we want to provide challenging content to our veteran players, while still allowing lower level players to be able to experience the new content. To accomplish this, we've created a dynamic system similar to that used by our Featured Jobs. High level players will find that the jobs have energy costs and experience payouts appropriate to their level, and lower level players will see those same energy costs and experience payouts scaled down to allow them to complete the jobs as well.

Additionally, the scaling only affects players between levels 20 and 200; players above level 200 will all see the same energy costs for jobs, with the appropriate modifiers for their Top Mafia of course.


Q: What is this "diamond mastery" thing I've been hearing about?
A: We've added a 4th level of mastery to the jobs in Bangkok. This will provide additional challenges and rewards to players, including mastery items with the highest attack and defense ratings of any items we've released in Mafia Wars.


Q: What are factions?
A: Bangkok introduces a new faction system, featuring the big guns of Asian criminal enterprise - the Chinese Triads and the Japanese Yakuza. Each time you are presented with a choice to help one side or the other, you will improve your reputation with the faction you help. Take note, though - the opposing side will not be happy with your choice and your reputation with them will drop slightly as well. You will also be able to switch sides by completing jobs for the other faction and attacking members of your current faction.


Q: What is the faction store?
A: The faction store allows you to purchase additional items to improve your mafia's strength. Both the Yakuza and Triads have a variety of goods for sale, with the Yakuza focusing on offensive goods and the Triads offering an array of defensive items. However, the better the item, the better your reputation with the respective faction will need to be before you can purchase it. Each item will include information on what level of reputation you need to purchase it.


Q: Can I only buy faction items from the faction I have the highest reputation with?
A: You can purchase any item from each faction as long as you have the necessary reputation needed to unlock the item. If your reputation with a faction drops below the level required to purchase an item, you will lose the ability to purchase it until you raise your faction back up to the level required to unlock it again.


Q: Can I max out my reputation with both factions in Bangkok?
A: Yes, you will be able to reach the 'Allied' reputation level with both the Triads and Yakuza. During the beta phase, you may want to leave at least one choice point job unmastered in case you want to change factions. We plan to implement a better solution to switching factions after reaching Diamond mastery before the final release.


Q: When will faction fighting be available and how does it work?
A: While we are not planning on releasing the beta with faction fighting in place, we plan to have it ready for launch on, or soon after, the full release to all players. Basically, each player will have an icon that displays the faction they are currently aligned with (the faction they have the highest reputation with). Attacking players from the opposing faction on the Bangkok fight list will improve your standing with your own faction and decrease it slightly with theirs. If you decide you want to switch factions, you can attack members aligned with your current faction. For example, if you aligned yourself with the Yakuza, but decide you'd rather be friends with the Triads, you can attack other Yakuza players on the fightlist. This will lower your reputation with the Yakuza and raise it with the Triads.


Q: Where are my properties? What are these businesses?
A: Unlike New York, Bangkok does not have properties that continue to provide income every hour whether you play or not. Instead, you will purchase businesses which can be upgraded to improve the quality and quantity of goods produced every three hours, as well as space to store them until you come back to collect them. Owning and expanding your businesses is a great way to earn extra Baht in the new city. Additionally, some businesses in Bangkok will produce items you need for jobs, and others will generate boosts to help you in fights.


Q: Why can't I see all the jobs right away?
A: Each episode in Bangkok has a storyline associated with it, and the choices you make as you progress through the episode will affect which jobs you see. Completing an episode will unlock the next one, as well as allowing you to complete it on the next level of difficulty.


Q: I'm level 18; how do I travel to Bangkok?
A: In order to unlock access to Bangkok, you'll need 4 items - the Thai Note, Yakuza Sake, Triad Coin, and Passport. The Note, Sake, and Coin all drop from specific jobs in New York.


Q: How do I get the Passport?
During the initial beta period, we will be giving out passports to ten percent of our active players. Each player who is selected will receive 4 passports – 1 for themselves and 3 to give out to friends. As the beta progresses, we may introduce other ways to enter the beta. We will release additional details on this as they are finalized. After the game goes into final release, any player who has not yet received a passport can obtain one at that point.


Q: I’m already in the beta and got an extra passport from a friend. Can I give it to someone else?
A: Yes!

HOW-TO: Make Windows 7 Boot Faster

Do you feel that your Windows 7 machine boots faster? If that is so, we share the same sentiments. But since our computer system is newer and more robus, we feel that it is due to the upgrade(s) made. And in due time boot time will degrade due to several factors including hard drive fragmentation.

However, Windows 7 has built-in mechanisms and algorithms to make boot up faster -- by utilizing the available processors or cores. This is just one of the many ways to make Windows 7 boot faster. I'd say this is the easiest tweak to perform. Here's how..

Open the "Run.." diaglog window. Press [WIN] + [R] simultaneously. Doing so opens the "Run.." dialog window. Then type in "msconfig" (without quotes). You should see a similar window as below (see screenshot).

Go to the "Boot" tab and select "Windows 7.." as seen above. If you do not have a multi-boot system this is selected by default.

Click on "Advanced options..." and another window will open (see below). Tick the check box next to "Number of processors:" then select the number of processors (or cores) that your system has. In my case, I got a Q9550 so I selected 4 (for 4 cores). This part is easy as Windows automagically identifies the maximum number of processors your system has. Just select the maximum number from the drop down list.

Accept all changes.. Reboot if you wish so you can check the performance improvement.

HOW-TO: Install LLTD Protocol on Windows XP SP3

The reason I'm making this article is to make file sharing possible between Windows XP and Windows 7 computers. Although I'm not exactly sure if this was the reason behind the successful file sharing between computers, it probably contributed to the success.

Link Layer Topology Discovery (or LLTD) is not installed in Windows XP by default. It has to be installed to the target computer to enable the protocol. According to the microsoft website:

This package contains the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) responder. The network map on a computer running Windows Vista shows a graphical view of the computers and devices on your network and how they are connected by using the LLTD protocol. The LLTD responder must be installed on a computer running Windows XP before it can be detected and appear on the network map. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

However, KB922120 (LLTD) is intended for Service Pack 2 (SP2) and it will not install on a computer with Service Pack 3 (SP3) installed. This error will appear when trying to install KB922120 on a computer with SP3 update (see screenshot).

Not to worry, the LLTD protocol can still be installed. Download KB92210 (WindowsXP-KB922120-v5-x86-ENU.exe) from microsoft webpage, or search for lltd and you will easily find the resource where it can be obtained. Validation is required to acquire the file.

Extract the file to a directory of your liking. For this article, we will extract the file to a directory named D:\922120. To extract, open a command terminal and execute:

> WindowsXP-KB922120-v5-x86-ENU.exe -x

The files included in the KB922120 update will then be present in D:\922120. Now copy the following files to their respective target directories:

> rspndr.sys (D:\922120\SP2QFE) --> %WINDIR%\system32\drivers
> rspndr.exe (D:\922120\SP2QFE) --> %WINDIR%\system32
> rspndr.inf (D:\922120\SP2QFE\IP) --> %WINDIR%\inf

When the files have been copied, execute:

> rspndr.exe -i

You will be getting a terminal window similar to one below (see screenshot).

Link Layer Topology Discovery protocol should be enabled after this. If you check on of your network interfaces, the LLTD protocol should show up in its properties.

If you see a similar screenshot as above, LLTD is installed. There you go, installing LLTD on your Windows XP SP3 computer.

HOW-TO: Resolve Java Install Problem

For no apparent reason Java got corrupted in my machine. One can fully expect this as when Java updates itself, it leaves a significant amount of "junk" from the old version. It will still work.. But for some unknown and unexplainable reason, it doesn't work now. So the quest to put its services back begins..

I uninstalled the Java software from the "Add/Remove Programs" menu of the control panel and it was "uninstalled" as expected. So I downloaded the latest and greatest version off its website.. And, while trying to re-install it, I realized that was not the case -- Java was still installed (as seen on the screenshot below).

And while clicking "Yes", I got prompted with another error:

This action is only valid for products that are currently installed.

The second error made more sense as I had intentionally uninstalled the software. But why does the installer think that Java is still installed? It is due to a registry entry that got left over from the previous Java installation (which the uninstall did not get rid of).

As "Administrator" or a user that is a member of the "Administrators" group, open the registry editor and browse over to this key and delete it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment

or save the code below as a .reg file and merge to your registry..

;--- start of code ---
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment]
;--- end of code ---

Then try to re-install Java. It should now be able to install without hitch.

The uninstaller should have taken care of this simple problem. And for a widely used software like Java a simple matter like this should not add to your headaches.