My new Custom build PC.

Got all the components from Saudi Arabia - Khobar. Did the build my self.

Outperforming Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Nehalem (Basic) which is Selling for SAR 10,500 at the local dealer in Saudi Arabia.

Mac Pro GeekBench Result: 9033
Mac Pro Geekbench result on GeekBench website

My Build GeekBench Result: 9246
Screenshot of the Geekbench result

Belive it or not, this monster is capable of converting a divx movie(1h 30m) to iPhone friendly format(MP4) in 8 minutes. This is using CPU stock speed 2.66 which can be easily overclocked to 4.0 GHz using a third party heatsink. And the CUDA feature of the graphics card was not used as well. Which is supposed to provide a performance boost in video encoding reaching 5x.

Components used:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P
- Grapics card: nVidia 9800 GTX+ (Superclocked Edition)
- CPU : i7 920 2.66 Ghz
- Ram: 6GB 1333 MHz DDR3
- Power Supply unit: Thermaltake 700w
- Hard drive : WD Green 1 TB (Data), WD Blue 160GB (Mac OSX 10.6), WD Blue 160GB (Windows 7 64Bit + Ubuntu Linux 64Bit)
- Samsung DVD-RW Drive
- Case: Thermaltake Matrix

Note.
- The result showing in the video is lower because of running the QuickTime screen recording at the same time.
- The CPU is running at stock speed 2.66 GHz.
- My build has a better Graphics card nVidia 9800 GTX+ (Super clocked) compared to MacPro’s GT120 which is a rebranded GeForce 9500
- 6GB DDR3 compared to 3 GB in Mac Pro
- My custom build has 3 Hard Drives (160GB Snow Leopard, 160GB Windows 7 64Bit + Ubuntu 64 Bit, 1TB for Data+Media) compared to Mac Pro single 640GB drive.
- Cost of build is away cheaper.

YouTube Video:

A quick glance at the website of the Apple authorized distributor in Saudi Arabia “Arab Computers” will definitely shock you. Unfortunately all of the website content is in Arabic.

Buying Apple products through the designated distributor will cost you up to 68% more when compared to the US pricing.
I have come up with the following table and chart to illustrate the difference in pricing between Saudi Arabia and US.

Check out the pricing comparison chart:



Also a table with detailed pricing is available:

Pls note that the prices were quoted on Nov 9th from the following sources:

- Apple United States Store
- Apple authorized Saudi Arabia distributor website

After using the Apple TV for one month, here is my list of advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

1. Nice UI.
   
2. Has WiFi
   
3. Got Youtube which is an endless awesome experience. Provided that you have a good broadband.
   
4. Has optical output.
   
5. Has HDMI as well as component video output.
   
6. Extremely easy to use and configure.
   
7. Very cool screensaver effect.
   

Disadvantages:

1. No out of the box support for Divx/Xvid
   
2. iTunes doesn’t sync any format which is not supported. It syncs only h.264 and MOV.
   
   

   Read more »

After installing ATVFiles and Perian so you can play Divx, Xvid and subtitles. Look at this webpage for a howto.

You should be getting small font subtitles on the TV.

Screenshot: Subtitles text size before the fix

Refer to this perian support ticket and the comments for the solution.

Screenshot: Perian subtitles after the fix

Note. If the arabic subtitles doesn't display normally (something like this screenshot), refer to my earlier post: Apple TV & Arabic Text.

Apple TV is a nice product however the arabic fonts are not supported out of the box.

As usual, Apple is paying no attention what so ever for the Arabic language. Who can believe that the ...

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Perian is a Quicktime component for Mac. It's a nice component as it add the support for alot of the video formats which are not ...

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With the current rise in the phishing websites targeted towards the online banking users both internationally and locally,

It's important that you guard your self against such scenarios.

28571 Total Phishing Reports received on August 2006.

I got an e-mail yesterday containing

Read more »

Reason is...

You might get caught on Tape.

Don't miss the following story:

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2220

The Mac Application that helps you to achieve that is the Automator.

Don’t miss this companion.

Don't miss a single goal. Scores, videos, fans.



Follow the following 4 steps:
1. Download and Install Mozilla Firefox from http://www.getfirefox.com
2. Launch Firefox.
3. Visit the following website: http://www.mozilla.com/add-ons/jogacompanion/ and click on Free download link.
4. Wait until it gets installed, close and open the Mozila Firefox browser.
Enjoy…..

(Edit) You can change the theme to your favorite team from a country flag shown on the top right corner.

A new phenomena is making its debut in the movie industry; the world’s first Open Movie has been released on the Internet.



Not only would the movie be made using Open Source software, but the contents themselves were to be Open as well: all of the digital assets and production files are released under a Creative Commons license, allowing everyone to see how the movie was made, make changes to it and create a new, derived movie.

Movie name: Elephants Dream.
Open Source software used: Blender is the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for all major operating systems under the GNU Public License.

No comments.

Check it out.

Learn linux via those arabic videos.

Click here

Click here

A Historical moment in the IT industry.

Apple introduced a software called Boot Camp. That allows users to configure/install and run Windows XP and Mac OS X side by side. Multi booting.

Only God know what are the ultimate outcomes....

But i know for sure that a lot of people will start getting Macs now.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Hay Linux users, you may end up spending 2-3 years in jail.

Read this story.

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=review-winxp