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Before making purchases of computer hardware, it is my habit to pay HardwareZone.com a visit. First, to seek some advice on the forums as to whether my purchase is good value for money and if it is appropriate for the intended use. Second, to make use of the comprehensive price guides available for Singapore. HardwareZone is an invaluable source of information and is a much-needed helping hand for the hardware-illiterate like myself.

HardwareZone is essentially a global online community that discusses anything that has to do with, as the name suggests, hardware. This is not limited only to the realms of computers, but also to gaming consoles like Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo GameCube. There is actually also a lot of useful information on software, especially for Operating Systems. HardwareZone is further split into regional ‘portals’, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Australia. Each of these portals have their own separate site and separate forums in their respectively native languages.

As mentioned earlier, price guides are one of the most useful tools available on this website. There are price guides for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines and these are available for download, if you register as a member of the forum. This registration is free and open to all. The price guides are extensive, to say the very least, covering a myriad of products from cameras to graphics processing units. The guide is divided into categories of the IT products and further divided by brands and models. For example, for graphics cards, it first lists down the different types (PCI-E or AGP) of graphics cards, as well as the brand (NVIDIA GeForce or AMD ATI Radeon), followed by the model series. Then it is further split into Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) like Asus, Gigabyte and MSI.

Another supremely helpful feature is the HWZ forums. You can basically learn anything and everything fundamental about hardware from these forum discussions. From assembly of ‘rigs’ (the common term for computers) to choosing power supply to overclocking rig performance, the innumerable discussion threads will be a blessing to those less learned in this field of expertise. Most forumers are friendly and extremely helpful, responding to queries and requests from me promptly and patiently.

The ‘marketplace’ on HardwareZone is a place for users to advertise their wares - usually personal items that people want to sell. This is the place for users with a budget to find functional hardware, but at prices lower than retail.

In my opinion, the forums are a big plus point on this website due the mammoth amount of information available, as well as the presence of experts to provide advice on hardware selections. However, what irked me was that the HWZ forums are frequently offline, meaning that I get many ‘database error’ messages when trying to access the forums. This was a persistent problem and it was really annoying. Beware, also, not all forumers have good intentions on the marketplace, and many have been blacklisted for dishonest trades. There is still the iTrader rating points to help a user gauge the integrity of a seller, and hopefully that would be sufficient. Technical flaws aside, HardwareZone.com is indeed a haven for hardware ‘noobs’ all over the world.

The website can be accessed here
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“Ah crap, I’m stuck at this part of the game again. Where should I proceed from here?” Ever encountered such a scenario before? The saviour’s here. GameFaqs.com provides game guides, FAQs and all the other random game information that one needs for the game. It is a comprehensive site which has almost every game’s information on the block. It serves games from all consoles, from the Xbox to Sony’s Playstation. It is, the information counter for all you gamers out there.

Gamefaqs works on the basis of peer-to-peer sharing of information. Players who have passed that part of the game post ways to solve that problem. With the interactive commenting ability, players could post question and comments similar to that of a forum. It also has links to the best deals, ratings from reputable gaming sites and to the official game site by the developers.

Players could also assist others by writing out guides and walkthroughs for all the other players who got stuck in some part of the game. Being part of GameSpot, GameFaqs get regular updates on the games, such includes game demos, official patches and demo videos for the masses to view and try out the game before actually purchasing them.

How about those other sites which provide cheat codes? Some of them may not be reliable and give misleading information which can cause players to screw up their games badly. GameFaqs provides many guides typed out by different players. This allows players to cross-check the information given by different players to ensure their reliability. Codes provided are also constantly checked and if negative feedbacks are received about the codes, they would be double-checked by the moderators and if found to be incorrect, they would be deleted. This ensures that the cheats provided will be as reliable as possible.

However, some games may not be in GameFaqs’ database. These games are mostly those that are not in English and hence, will not likely be very popular since the majority of gamers are used to seeing games in English. Nevertheless, even if the original copy is in other languages, as long as there is an English version, the game would still be featured on the website. Some games, although not in English, could still be found on GameFaqs because of its popularity and through popular demand, GameFaqs would still have them on their website.

For those who are not able to understand the English version, some games also had players posting guides of different languages to accommodate those who are not English-speaking. The availability of such foreign language guides makes GameFaqs a popular website even amongst those who do not understand English.

All in all, GameFaqs can only be successful through the constant support given to it by its members who frequently update the website with the relevant information and only through the users’ comment that GameFaqs will continue to improve.

GameFaqs can be accessed through: www.gamefaqs.com

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My personal avatar

The internet has certainly made it a lot easier for individuals to interact with people all over the world, through things such as instant messaging, VOIP, forums, etc. It allows people to better understand the world around them and also make new friends online when they discover like-minded individuals. For people looking for a great way to meet new friends online, GaiaOnline.com is definitely a site worth checking out.

For those who still don’t know what it is, Gaia Online is a forum-based website where everyone’s avatars are anime-styled characters which are able to don different pieces of clothing and accessories which can be purchased either using virtual gold or paying for it with real cash. The reason why it’s called a “forum-based” site is because back in 2003, when the site was first opened to the public under the name Go-Gaia, it was initially just made up of a forum and an avatar customization feature. However, since then, Go-Gaia has evolved into Gaia Online and added a ton of new features. So many in fact that I wouldn’t even know where to start.

When I personally joined the site in 2004, they had lesser features than they do now. Back then, the only game which you could play was Fishing, which got boring quickly. Which is why most people still mainly stuck to the forums and marketplace where you could sell or buy items to customize your avatar with. However, they’ve added games like slots, blackjack, jigsaw and a few others to entertain users.

It doesn’t stop there, they’ve also added things such as the Gaia Towns feature which basically brings your avatar into a Flash application and you can then move around and talk to people in real time, kind of like in Habbo Hotel for those who know that site. It’s really great to be able to see your avatars come to life and actually move about instead of having them merely standing beside your messages in forum posts. They’ve also recently added a virtual theater where you can actually watch movies with other users in a virtual cinema. Of course, they don’t have any of the latest Hollywood blockbusters, but they do have great movies like Space Jam and even The Matrix.

However, despite the radical changes that have been implemented, Gaia Online still holds true to its original goal: to allow people meet and interact with one another in a virtual environment. That’s why even with the addition of Gaia Towns, there are still a ton of people in the forums since it’s basically what Gaia Online first started off with and what everyone has grown accustomed to. The great thing about Gaia Online is also the way in which you earn gold. That’s done by doing simple things, such as exploring the site by clicking around, posting in the forums or even polling in any poll. It’s that simple, and with that gold you can buy items to outfit your avatar with. While this sounds extremely shallow, it can get extremely addictive. The problem is that Gaia Online keeps on adding new items all the time and by now it’s really impossible to keep track of how many items they’ve added to the site. So much so that www.tektek.org has been set up to aid users with Gaia Online. There are so many items that no two avatars will ever look the same because there are an infinite number of possible combinations of items. That’s also another great thing about Gaia Online, you are able to have a unique avatar which can truly represent yourself in a virtual world.

Gaia Online is obviously a great place to meet like-minded individuals, especially by joining Guilds. Users are able to set up Guilds based on a specific topic so that all users are able to congregate in that specific forum to discuss about that particular topic. For example there are quite a few Star Wars Guilds out there and even Guilds based on Final Fantasy where users even role play characters in forums. It really becomes a very immersive experience after awhile since there are definitely a ton of people with whom you can role play with. Also, you can rest assured that no matter what topic you’re interested in there’ll be a guild set up for it. Of course, even if there isn’t one, you could easily start one yourself. The great thing about having these guilds is that you are able to hang out with people who have similar interests to your own.

Gaia Online is a really great site, though some might be turned off by the anime theme. However, there are tons of features that will keep users coming back for more. For example they’re planning on introducing a whole MMORPG game to Gaia Online so that users can play using their very own avatars. Still, it’s not like there aren’t already enough features to keep you occupied. With forums, games, movies and a great community, there’s no reason for me to not give this site the best 5/5 rating.

P.S: If you’re thinking about signing up, I suggest you do so soon. Gaia Online is giving away a unique special item everyday from the 12th to 24th of December as a Christmas special. These special items can really increase in value over time. Also, when you’re signing up, please include “spvn” as the referrer.

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Shopping is considered to be a very popular past time among many people, yet it is not as easy as simply purchasing items over the counter. For example, there are quite a few things to consider when shopping at larger shops such as Walmart, which is one of the world’s largest corporations and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. However, it doesn’t simply sell groceries, but practically everything else, from toys to computers as well. It has swept across America, expanding to becoming a ubiquitous sight in the country, till the point where there are now Wal-Mart stores in other countries like China. Such a huge corporation is obviously anything but simple, thus there are several sites out there that provide information about this huge corporation. One such site would be Shop Promotions (http://shoppromotions.us).

Despite the fact that the name of the site has practically nothing at all to do with Walmart, practically the entire site is about it. On the front page, the history of Walmart is detailed since it was founded in the 1940s. It includes a huge number of pages that all provide interesting and yet useful information about Walmart, for example Walmart Credit Card, Walmart Employees and even Walmart on the Stock Exchange. For shoppers, the site also provides advice for shopping at Walmart as well.

The information it provides are all extremely detailed, for example the site lists every single detail about the Walmart Discover Card such as the special privileges that it entitles the holder to. Also, it even provides information about all the different forms of payment available at Walmart, making it a lot easier for shoppers to purchase their items.

Even though Walmart is already a very big corporation, it doesn’t seem like it has stopped growing yet. Over the years it has surpassed other cooperations (such as becoming the biggest toy retailer in the late 1990s after surpassing Toys R Us) and it doesn’t seem to be ready to stop yet. We might even see Walmart stores in other Asian countries in the near future since they’re already practically everywhere in the US. Therefore, such a site will definitely come in useful for many people since a large portion of the American population shops at Walmart at one time or another.

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In my opinion, Craigs list is probably one of the largest and yet unknown sites out there on the Internet. Despite the fact that its roots date back to around 1994 when Craigslist Newmark (a software engineer) first got the idea for such a website. Soon, Craigslist.org slowly grew to become a huge database of information. Now, it even includes information about 450 cities worldwide and also lists of articles on all sorts of topics like Google or even romance. Obviously, it’s a really useful and informative site, yet the problem is that tons of people still have no idea how to fully make use of such a powerful website.

Hence, there are sites out there like Craigslist Overview (http://craigslistt.us) that will guide anyone along as to how to make use of Craigs list. In fact, such sites are not uncommon nowadays since so many people are unsure of how to use Craigslist. It offers all sorts of information about Craiglist, for example it details the history of Craiglist on the front page and goes more in depth in the other pages by teaching you how to effectively make use of Craigslist and even goes so far as to offer tips about how to advertise on Craigslist.

There are many interesting bits of information about Craigslist on the site as well, such as its development over the years as well as any controversies that it has gotten itself into. It also has several side categories such as Craig list jobs and Crag list Housing which offers more specific information about such topics. Of course, being such a huge site there will definitely be scams and frauds related to it, and Craigslist Overview also has tips on how one should stay away from such scams involved, which will definitely prove highly informative and useful for anyone planning to make use of the site.

Despite already winning multiple awards and growing to become such a huge site, Craigslist has not reached its saturation point in my opinion. There’s still space for it to grow since there’s just so much information for it to document and store. Thus, one really needs to learn how to use the site as it will undoubtedly benefit you in one way or another, and Craigslist Overview is probably one of the best places to start learning more about this site.

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