Imran Khan | Talented Web & PC Profesional

Core i3 Build – Raidmax Ninja Case

Imran — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:40:33 +0000

Ok, so this may not be the greatest case ever, but it was a cheap bargain which looked good. The case I’ve bought for the i3 build is a Raidmax Ninja. Snappy title if you ask me! It was a inexpensive model I found on eBay and the low price of £45 was too good to resist, so I bought it.

It has more than a passing resemblance to those famous Alienware cases. It gloss black and has enough room for an ATX motherboard. It has a nice windowed side panel with fan. It should hopefully be fine to house the low end components I’ll be putting into this machine. It looks reasonably spacious and it has some cable routing holes. Cable routing shouldn’t be that much of an issue as this system will only contain one hard drive and one optical drive.

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Reviews

Goodbye to Internet Explorer 6

Imran — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:26:11 +0000

I just came across a very interesting “comic” depicting the life and times of IE6 or better known as Internet Explorer version 6. Because of wide spread usage of Windows XP, IE6 is still unfortunately still one of the most used browsers.

This is despite much better browsers being available including Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. Not mentioning IE7 and IE8 from Microsoft as the minimum to get away from IE6. Anyway, this comic really does illustrate the history of IE6 to this day and I encourage you to have a look on the Smashing Magazine website.

I think it’s time to ditch IE6. If you have a website, I would recommend you serve a minimal content version of your site, and encourage people visiting your site using this ancient browser to upgrade. Perhaps you could have a ballot screen allowing people to select an upgraded browser (idea borrowed courtesy of Microsoft!…)

All of this comes of course with the recent story of Google China being hacked which prompted Google to stop people using IE6 from working with Google Documents and Spreadsheets. See the announcement.

Virgin Media 50 MB Cable Broadband

Imran — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:35:13 +0000

Just as the title says, I’ve had Virgin Media 50 Mb broadband installed, along with the TV and phone line as well. I signed up online going via Quidco (cashback site) for XXL Broadband, M+ TV and M phone.

The broadband is so fast that it really does put the fun back into web surfing. The speed does allow you a better experience in that you can surf, listen to music, watch videos, download files all at the same time without any noticeable slow down. The only minor negative downside is that when downloading files, you’ll only get the download as fast as the server on which it is being hosted can give it to you.

To test the speed, I downloaded a linux distribution:

File: Ubuntu 9.10 (32-bit)
Downloaded from: http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download
File Size: 689 MB
Download Speed: Between 3.5 MB and 4 MB
Time taken: <3 minutes

Here’s an image of it downloading in Internet Explorer

I then did a speed test using speedtest.net which came out with this:

The 50 MB broadband uses a special modem like the one in the image below. The modem is plugged in via Ethernet to a wireless n router.

If you can afford it and it is available in your area, then I recommend you sign up using the Virgin Media Website.

Building a triple set of Intel Core ix systems

Imran — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:10:34 +0000

I planned on building myself a new PC last year. Things never got round to the stage where I was actually buying components for various reasons like studying and welcoming my first child into the world (it was a baby girl by the way if you’re still following… ).

So, in 2010, I will be building a triple set of PC systems, all based around the Intel Core ix line. Two of these systems will be for other members of my family who need an upgrade. Seeing as I’ve got more time now (finished MSc, little girl is now 1 year old), I decided to build myself a new system as well.

I’m still planning (don’t laugh!) what components I will choose, but I’ve got three price points:

Core i3 System – maximum of £650
Core i5 System – maximum of £1,250
Core i7 System – maximum of £1,750

All three of the budgets don’t include a monitor, speakers or a keyboard and mouse. Existing peripherals will be used so as to allow the budget to be devoted to the components.

Naturally, the i7 system will be one I aim to build for myself, so it will contain quite a few high end parts.

I will post news about components bought, as well as photo galleries of the build process. The i3 system is due to be built first in the next few months.

Stay tuned for more news on my PC building activites in 2010. I will build these systems!

Happy New Year

Imran — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:57:37 +0000

I’d just like to take this opportunitiy to wish everyone a happy new year for 2010. Hope you all have a wonderful and prosperous new year in 2010. I’ll shortly be thinking of of things to do for this year having completed my studies (I was studying on a MSc course in Interactive Multimedia at the University of Westminster).

Hello everyone!

Imran — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:51:13 +0000

Hello there.

This is my first post for my new all in one site. This site will incorporate my blog, portfolio and other work in one site. I used to run a seperate site for my personal and work stuff, and a seperate one for my portfolio and yet another for my blog! Madness – I can tell you!

So, for 2010, I am conslidating my efforts into one site. This site will evolve as I upload work into my portfolio and blog about issues I find interesting (mostly technological things…).

Newsroom Template

Imran — Sun, 02 May 2004 07:24:52 +0000

As part of rebranding, a new template for Internal Communications was needed. The company rebranded from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young to Capgemini on 15 April 2004. This template is uesd by the Internal Communications team to send out messages to all employees at Capgemini, as well as to all the various offices. The colour scheme was taken from the new Capgemini logo, and the two predominent colours were used to create a fade effect in the banner.

The newsroom template retains the familiar features of a bar for “From:” and “To:”. A cyan bar was added below this to help highlight the title.

Here is the template in full:

Outsourcing Email Banners

Imran — Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:12:24 +0000

These show a set of banners which were designed for an internal Outsourcing project. Outsourcing is one of the main disciplines at Capgemini along with Consulting and Technology. The project wanted some fresh banners to use for emails. These were designed in Photoshop and given a glossy ‘glass’ effect. The grid based banners were designed as an alternative to the glass banners.

LBC Email Template

Imran — Fri, 12 Dec 2003 13:19:31 +0000

This was a template for use by the internal team at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. It was designed in response to a request for an email template that could be used for communicating information to the project team. It was a template for internal use.

Branding was a key feature of this template, with the logo for the client and CGE&Y featuring predominately. The colours for the background were taken from the LBC customer focus logo. The template has customisable text for indicating who the message is coming from and who it is going to (i.e. the audience).

Here is the email template:

Weekly Highlights Newsletter

Imran — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 21:26:06 +0000

Weekly Highlights was a newsletter I created for reporting sales wins, along with general business news. It was a simple design created with Adobe Photoshop and then put together with Notepad. The 7 Days symbolises the fact that only news from the last 7 days is reported, and hence it is upto date.

The newsletter was sent using Outlook to a specific distribution list. It was a successful transition from news that was sent in purely text form to a format that had a simple identity. The newsletter used a simple two tone colour scheme which was designed to be pleasing to the eye.

Screenshot of the newsletter: