The first video game console that I’ve ever played with was an Atari ST. I can still remember the petty fights with my younger brother due to game preferences. Then our parents bought us a Nintendo Family Computer. As expected, my brother was superior and I always end up as an underdog. So he often got to choose the kind of game. When the PlayStation 1 was released, our father brought home one, my brother hogged it all. I didn’t even get to hold the joystick once. At that time, I was into playing PC games such as The Sims and Caesar II.  The playstation 3 has been released and I don’t have a single idea what kind of games I could play with it. Nor am I interested. Is this a sign of aging? I hope not…

The phone that I got when I arrived here two years ago is already outdated. It is not even a 3G phone, not blue-tooth capable, and could support only up to 500MB mini SD card. It may have a 3.2 megapixels camera but with its memory capability, I can’t put in music, videos, and more photos! The contract for my previous phone is already over, I could now get a new model. After much deliberation, I decided to get an iPhone! Good thing Softbank had a promo so the monthly fee for the phone was cut to more than 50%. Now, I have my phone, photos, music in one gadget!

I have not tried out much of its features yet but when I came across this iPods buying guide, I learned that my phone is capable of more things than I am aware of. (I do think I sound like an old lady who is afraid to even touch a keyboard). I’m especially interested in the iPod Radio Remote. Listed in that page are shops where you could order this accessory from, making it much easier to compare prices. The iPod cases in this page are pretty cool, too!

It was around the year 1997 when my father (Papa) brought home our family’s first computer. It was just an Intel 486 and the hard disk was just about 2GB. Installing an application would take about 30 minutes! But I was more than happy at that time because Papa also brought home a printer and I got to print my favorite cartoon characters. Then it was replaced with a Pentium II, an AMD, and finally, a Pentium III, the one that they’re still using at home.

When I went home last May, I had to bring my precious laptop, Sachi (my laptop’s name) because I know that I would just be impatient with the speed of the computer at home.  I actually gave it a shot but it took forever to load just a single web page. Just like many people, I can’t get enough with my computer memory, its speed, etc. I wish for something faster for watching videos online, a larger hard disk capacity for downloads, a thinner and lighter laptop. Well, this rant could go on forever, Sachi is enough for now.

I took up Computer Engineering in college, so we had a few electronics and communication courses. Trying to make those circuits work was really fun but I hated calculating frequencies, resistances, capacities, etc. Why am I talking about this now? My cousin happened to ask me about Cat5e Keystone jack and I was clueless. Forgetting it because it had been years since my electronics courses is a lame excuse.

Cat 5 or “Cable and Telephone” is a type of cable often used for computer networks. Cat 5e is just an enhanced version of Cat 5. Keystone jack, on the other hand, is the female connector, and the matching male is referred to as the keystone plug. Still a bit confused? The photo on the right side shows a Cat 5e keystone jack. From there, I’m sure you can already figure out how does a keystone plug look like.