It's national upgrade you ram day today!  Okay it isn't, but it's a good time to think about it.

If you are like me and like using Vista, you know that 1gb of memory just isn't going to cut it.  I had been running my new Vaio FZ290 with 1gb of ram and whenever I had more than one program running like Firefox and Zune at the same time, i definitely had performance issues.  Even when I opened my pictures or videos folder I would have to wait for the thumbnails to load up.

So I began searching for the best option for notebook ram, in this case i wanted at least 2gb 667mhz.  I looked at some big box stores and prices for 2gb started around $200.  it seemed a little high so I tried Comp USA even though they were going out of business.  Again i found prices around $200 with no return policies.  Then I remembered Newegg.com.  Newegg is basically a site where you can get computer parts and software on the cheap-the very cheap.  Apparently it's the place to go if you want to build your own PC or are looking for a good PC pre-built. 

It took me no more than five minutes to find not only 2gb but 4gb of ram-Kingston 667mhz-for under $100.  I placed the order and added Fed-Ex one day air delivery and in a few day, because of the weekend, I installed my ram and fired up the laptop.

I could immediately noticed a performance difference.  I could now have Firefox open, run Zune software, and edit pictures with no slowdown what so ever.  I even noticed a performance increase in Half Life 2 and Call of Duty 4.  Both games ran noticeably smoother on the same settings I had before when I ran the games using just 1gb.

The only caveat to installing 4gb of ram to a PC running Vista 32bit is that your system will only recognize 3gb.  I'm not sure exactly why and after researching for reasons on different tech sites I've come to the conclusion that i still don't know exactly why.  But as long as it helps make my laptop better, I'm all for it.

So if you do decide to upgrade your PC's ram or any other part I encourage you to search around.  Don't necessarily settle for the convenience of picking up parts at your local big box store.  Check online parts retailers and wait out the few days it takes to ship things.  It could be worth it in the long run, and it'll save you a few bucks.

One of the best things that could have come out of CES besides the 150" plasma are a set of headphones from a company called SkullCandy.  But these aren't your ordinary headphones.  Unlike Bose or Shure, these headphones don't need a separate player.  The only thing you'll need is music on any SD card.  Hit the link for the full story from Gizmodo.

Let the gadget drooling begin.  Yes it's that time of the year, already, to ooh and ah over tech most of us will either never see or afford.  I kid, of course. 

CES, for those of you who don't know, stands for Consumer Electronics Show but ironically is not open to the public-just press.  However going to this event at this day in age with the amount of blogs such as Engadget, and Cnet reporting virtually live by posting pics and stats to their web sites of the latest technology from new plasma TVs to hi-tech gaming has come to be pointless. 

CES kicked off Sunday with several companies giving their keynote addresses but none most important than the Microsoft's keynote given by Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.  This one was particularly special because it was his last.  I got the chance to watch the live broadcast on Microsoft.com and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It started off with Bill Gates saying a few words about being at CES then rolled into a star studded video montage and short skits highlighting what Bill Gates might do in his spare time.  The funniest part was when Bill was calling up Bono from U2 wanting to be in the band and Bono replies "For f*cks sake we don't have room in the band." 

It will be interesting to see what the rest of the week has to hold for CES.  I'm sure we'll see plenty of new TV tech and the next fastest PC but so far I've yet to be wowed.  Here's to a good week of tech news.

Happy New Year.  I hope everyone had a Rockin' New Year.  Mine involved many hours of family Rock Band and out of those hours emerged the great band The Colwyn Experience.  Band members consist of my father on lead, mother on bass, and myself on drums/vocals if I'm brave.  One thing I'm extremely proud of is the fact that my parents, who haven't played that many video games, have now been playing songs on the Hard difficulty.  I was simply amazed to see my mother get consistent 90% on the Warm-Up songs and my father score in the 80%-90% range playing some of the toughest button combinations I've seen.

Now that 2008 is finally here (t feels like it took a year to get here), look for a few changes for nc454 Land.  One change being more posts about news, and maybe a few reviews.  Also be on the look out for a PC gaming bit totally depending on how well my new notebook handles games.  I sure hope the Nvidia 8400m GT lives up to my expectations.  And with CES coming next week, I'msure there will be plenty to talk about.