4th & U Apartments is a nice to place to live. Unlike most places in Berkeley, the apartments are actually spacious and actually comes with a dish washer, washer, and dryer. It has nice amenities such as a recreational room which is a really nice loft and a gym that has Wi-Fi. There’s free on street and off street parking so you aren’t obligated to paying for those ridiculous double decker parking systems. The leasing department is actually helpful and will fix your problems by the next day. The rent isn’t too bad, but we also only put down $400 for the security deposit and got 1.5 months rent free.

But the main issue is the location. Regardless of whether you’re a student or not, the location of these apartments is just horrible. First of all, there’s only one bus stop that goes down University Avenue, making it a hassle to go anywhere else if you don’t have a car. Even if you did have a car, parking is not fun anywhere interesting. Being public transportation, you get the oddest people riding the bus with you. Half the time I have to cover my nose with my hands or shirt because I’m sitting next to someone who reeks, and the other half of the time the bus is slow or late because the driver has to accommodate handicapped people, which I don’t mind, but handicapped because you’re overweight!? That is just unacceptable.

The second is the train. It’s 4am while I’m writing this on a Friday night and this is the second time I’ve heard a train pass by while writing this post. Trains passing by isn’t that bad, but there’s a railroad crossing right in the corner of the apartment complex where I live, and because of this, the train honks every time it passes to notify anyone who may be on the tracks. These honks are VERY LOUD, even when I close all my windows. Here’s a picture of the train passing by at 4am.

The sound proofing inside the building is perfect; I’ve never heard a squeak from any of my neighbors. But the sound isolation is just ridiculous. I can hear the train with all my windows closed. I don’t understand how the architects did not consider outside noises before building this complex. Every window should be sound proofed, or this brown wall you see in the picture above should changed into an effective sound barrier.

How much does this noise affect the tenets? I’m fortunately a deep sleeper and have trouble waking up, so the train actually helps me get to class. But for most people, this is a nuisance. My roommates are still having trouble sleeping two months into living here. Apparently the leasing office didn’t tell them about the train noise when they moved in. The train noise is apparent EVERYWHERE, no matter where you are in the complex. Of course I have it the worst, but other people still have it.

This noise is very loud. If I blast my music, the train noise still overcomes it, and I have a Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 system which is actually quite loud. If I am watching a TV show or movie, even on my headphones, I have to pause it because I can’t hear anything. My roommates both sleep with earplugs in otherwise they’ll be awakened by the noise.

Do I recommend living here? Not if you are sensitive to noise and require sleep. Apparently all the two bedroom apartments here are taken, but I’m pretty sure this complex will have a low retention rate unless they begin sound proofing all their apartments. If I lived here for more than 6 months, I would actually read Berkeley’s city code to see if this apartment violates any of these codes and try to sue them because this noise is unbearable.

Simple answer: NO. There are advantages and disadvantages to overclocking, but keep in mind that processors are meant to run in their default configuration. Overclocking is not the recommended state. Unless you have spare cash and just want to test the limits of your computer, overclocking is not recommended.

Limited Warranty – CPU’s generally have about 3 years of warranty. However, if you toast your CPU from overclocking, there’s no way you’ll have it replaced unless you somehow convince them that it wasn’t due to overclocking. GPU’s on the other hand many times have lifetime warranties, and NVIDIA’s GPU’s are meant to run at high temperatures. Thus, you can usually overclock a GPU and get away with it for a lifetime.

Power Consumption – Power consumption increases rapidly as you overclock. Take a look at this graph from Anandtech’s review on Intel’s i5 655k. Notice that after 4GHz there’s a large spike in power consumption, but before that it’s actually more power efficient to overclock. This however only takes into account the power consumption of the CPU. In fact, power consumption is one of the most expensive parts of having a fast computer. For every 100W of power you use an hour, expect an increase of $130 in your annual electricity bill in California.

Increased Temperatures – Not only will the CPU run hotter, but so will everything inside the case. You’re going to need more fans, which costs more power. Your ambient air temperature will also increase, making your room or house even hotter. This will drive up costs in air conditioning if you need it.

Noise – Due to the increased amounts of fan, your computer will become quite noisy. You would probably want water cooling or low noise fans to mitigate this effect.

Limited Benefit – For the most part, you can’t tell if there’s a 10% increase in speed. This is especially true if you don’t use your computer for anything computationally demanding. You may want to overclock for say Folding@home, but what’s the point? You don’t derive any benefit for folding, and folding right now is a waste of time.

Thus, the small benefits of overclocking are greatly outweighed by the large cost of overclocking. I overclocked my CPU, but only by about 10%, and I no longer run folding@home all day, so it runs cool. Casual overclocking like this is the most anyone should do.

What I don’t like about static resumes is that some employers don’t care for some of your information. For me, I simply have too much I want to write on my resume, so I end up cutting out a lot of information that could have been useful. Thus, I decided to create an interactive resume as a webpage using javascript and CSS. This is a simple break down of how I made my resume assuming you know HTML. Let me know if you want more details on something specific. I recommend reading w3school‘s guide on CSS if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Divisions

Put your whole resume in a single division and center it using margin-left: auto and the same with margin-right. For my webpage, the left side stays the same while the right side scrolls. This is done by creating two divisions inside the main division: menu and main. Just set position: fixed for the menu. I also set each set of text in its own division. For example, I made a division for Work Experience, a division for each job listing such as Student Trainee (Mathematics), and division for its description. This is necessary for hiding and unhiding portions of the resume.

Hiding and Unhiding Text

First, you need to put each set of text you want to hide and unhide in divisions. Then add two CSS classes: .hidden { display: none; } and .unhidden { display: block; }. Then add three javascript functions. The first switches toggles the text from hide to unhide or vice versa:

function toggle_visibility(divID) {
var item = document.getElementById(divID);
if (item) {
item.className=(item.className==’hidden’)?’unhidden’:'hidden’;
}
}

The next shows the text regardless of whether its already showing or not:

function show(divID) {
var item = document.getElementById(divID);
item.className=’unhidden’;
}

The last one does the same except for hiding:

function hide(divID) {

var item = document.getElementById(divID);

item.className=’hidden’;

}

<a href=”javascript:hide(‘resexp’);hide(‘workexp’);hide(‘career’);hide(‘edu’);hide(‘skills’);hide(‘pubs’);show(‘etc’);”>Et Cetera</a>

Google Chart Tools / Image Charts (aka Chart API)

Google’s lesser known contributions to society are their API’s. This API allows you type a link to Google that spits out a graph of your choosing. This is one of the graphs in my resume:

<img src=”http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chxl=0:|MATLAB+|Maple+|R+|C+|FORTRAN+&chxp=0,90,70,50,30,10&chxt=y&chbh=a& chs=600×100&cht=bhs&chco=4D89F9&chd=s:96xPJ&chma=0,5&chtt=Relative+Programming+Expertise” width=”600″ height=”100″ alt=”Relative Programming Expertise” /><br>

There are many guides to building your own HTPC such as Factory8‘s, but these tend to be weak computers that can only view files. I am however interested in other features in an HTPC, mainly server characteristics. It would be nice to have an always-on computer dedicated to your media needs which is also capable of doing other things if needed.

Goals:

• 1080p and good sound quality
• Cost effective including power consumption
• Large storage capabilities
• Enough computational power for encoding
• Flexibility in viewing your media files
• Low noise

Hardware

Chassis: ARK 4U-500-CA Black 4U Rackmount Case 3 External 5.25″ Drive Bays $80

My current HTPC uses a Silverstone GD05B case primarily for the aesthetics. I’m picky with my furniture and anything I have in my house, so I had to get a sleek case. However, this may not be very effective for your purposes since it only has space for two (or one) 3.5″ hard drives and one (or two) 2.5″ hard drive.

Thus, before this HTPC, when I didn’t care about aesthetics as much, I thought outside the box and used a rackmount server chassis, this ARK case. The main benefit is that I’m able to hold more than 7 3.5″ hard drives, making the amount of potential storage very large. Granted most motherboards come with at most 8 SATA ports, this just enough slots.

CPU: Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield 2.93GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor BX80605I7870 $230

I would most certainly recommend an Intel CPU over an AMD CPU especially when you can find really good deals on them such as from Micro Center. Otherwise, I would go the AMD route. $230 for a brand new Intel i7 870 is a very good deal considering the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz costs $200, $190 at best, and has a TDP of 125W compared to Intel i7 870′s 95W. Consult Anandtech’s CPU Benchmarks for information on other possible CPUs you may want.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $120

There are only two motherboard brands I trust: Gigabyte and Asus, but lately I’ve been leaning towards Gigabyte for primarily subjective reasons. I’ve just had very good experiences with them. I would suggest you use the P55 chipset over the H55 since the latter is made primarily made for the integrated graphics Intel CPUs. Also keep in mind the size of the motherboard. You might want a smaller motherboard just because you won’t need those extra expansion slots and it’ll save room and clutter in your HTPC.

Memory: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C8 $95

The problem with memory is that regardless of what speeds and latencies you look for, they’re all relatively the same price give or take $20. I personally would spend an extra $20 and buy better RAM since better RAM probably has better reliability. Just keep in mind that up to 1600MHz, speed is more important, then latency. I wouldn’t suggest buying RAM over 1600MHz unless you plan to overclock, which I don’t suggest. Keep in mind that most RAM manufacturers provide lifetime warranty.

Power Supply Unit: Antec EarthWatts Green EA-430D Green 430W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $65

Since you’re probably going to be leaving your computer on 24/7, you want a very good power supply. A good power supply will reduce your power consumption some what, have a less chance of dying on you, and a less chance of ruining your components. You can also keep your power supply for a very long time, so I would suggest a good one. You won’t need anything over 400 watts, so choose accordingly.

Power supplies are ranked by their 80 Plus certification. Gold is the best and also the most expensive. It it worth the extra cost? Probably not. I would just stick to 80 Plus Bronze.

Just a note, check that the power supply comes with a power cord. Two Antec’s my friends recently bought didn’t come with any. Quite annoying since they didn’t know and then had to drive to Radio Shack to buy a new one.

SSD: OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G 2.5″ 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $131

There are many options for an SSD, but I recommend that you get one as your primary hard drive. The brands I would recommend are OCZ, Corsair, Crucial, and Intel. It will make everything run faster and you’ll experience much less lag. If you need more space for your primary drive, by all means do so, but for an HTPC you probably won’t need more than 30GBs.

For a good comparison of today’s SSD, read Anandtech’s Benchmarks.

Hard Drive: HITACHI Deskstar H3IK20003272SP (0S02861) 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive $120

Regardless of what brand of hard drive you buy, make sure it has 7200 RPM. Anything lower than that will slow down your computer regardless of whether it’s your primary drive or not. Remember to RAID 5 all your storage hard drives.

Video Card: XFX HD-545X-ZNF2 Radeon HD 5450 1GB 64-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card $50

Today, AMD has better video cards. You don’t need much power for an HTPC, but you want a low power video card since it will be on 24/7. I would also always go with the latest generation, but you don’t necessarily have to. Also, be sure to buy a video card with lifetime warranty. My favorite brands are XFX and eVGA.

Remote Control: Rosewill WMC Remote control/Rcvr RRC-127 for Win 7 $25

There are a lot of different types of remote controls, but honestly they’re all the same. Don’t spend over $50 on one since this $25 does everything you would ever need and more. I suggest using a wireless mouse and keyboard for when your remote doesn’t work since it would be much more flexible.

Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader SATA Model iHOS104-06 – OEM $50

You don’t even need one. This Blu-ray player doesn’t come with software so you will have to get your own. I honestly don’t recommend one because I download all my movies, but if you do get one, get the cheapest one and do not get a Blu-ray burner because you will never need one.

CPU Fan: Scythe SCSK-1100 100mm Shuriken Rev. B 3 Heat Pipes CPU Cooler $35

Depending on how your system works out, you may want a new CPU heatsink and fan. From my experience the stock fan doesn’t work well with high loads in these rackmount style cases. However, you probably won’t need one if you’re not utilizing your CPU. Make sure you get one with a low noise rating and the fan pointing the CPU otherwise it won’t fit.

Chassis Fans: Scythe SY1225SL12L 120mm “Slipstream” Case Fan $9 or Scythe S-FLEX SFF80B 80mm Case Fan $13

Pay attention to noise level as you probably don’t want anything over 15 dBA. By all means, do not buy any SilenX fans as they have a very bad reputation.

Sound Card: HT | OMEGA CLARO Plus+ 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card $175

You probably don’t need one, but if you wanted an actual sound card with higher sound fidelity and options, I recommend these sound cards. I have one from them and it actually makes a difference.

Software

Operating System: Windows 7

I recommend Windows 7 because thanks to the large user base, a lot of software is made for it. For me, the driving factor is iTunes. If I had a Linux setup, I wouldn’t be able to listen to music on all the networked computers. This of course assumes that you can get it for free because there’s no way I’m paying for Windows.

Media Player: VLC, Windows Media Center, and Hulu

Windows Media Center is actually pretty good, especially compared to Mac’s Front Row. There’s a Netflix plug-in, but unfortunately no Hulu plug-in. You can use VLC to play everything since Windows Media Player doesn’t have all the right codecs. I recommend downloading VLC and Hulu through Ninite.

Codecs: CoreCodec CoreAVC, Combined Community Codec Pack, Media Player Codec Pack

CoreAVC is the best codec for viewing your H.264 files if you’re on an NVIDIA GPU, otherwise it doesn’t really matter. These two codec packs will make sure you’ll be able to view all the files you want on Windows Media Player and Center, though I still have some trouble with it. Always use VLC as back up.

Encoding: Handbrake

Simply the easiest and quite robust method of encoding your DVDs or Blu-Rays. Keep in mind that encoding is a long process. Expect to spend at least twice the length of the movie on the encoding process. Download Handbrake through Ninite and read my encoding guide for details.

DVD Ripping: DVD Decrypter

Simply the simplest and free way of ripping a DVD onto your hard drive. I recommend doing this before encoding with Handbrake.

Alternatives

Apple Mac Mini $690 – If you’re lazy, don’t care for storage or CPU power, and want something beautiful, by all means get a Mac Mini. My favorite aspect of buying a Mac is the retail value. In 3  years you’ll still be able to sell your Mac Mini for at least half the price.

Other sockets (LGA 775, AM3) – You can save some money by changing the sockets, but you’ll still be paying at least $50 for a motherboard and $100 for a decent CPU. I recommend an AM3 socket since the LGA1156 socket is going to be replaced soon.

Dual Core’s – If you don’t play on encoding, consider getting these dual core i5′s and i3′s. You can even try using the integrating GPU’s for displaying your media, but you might experience moments of lag. You’ll save at most $100 moving to dual cores, especially when you’re buying a quad-core for only $200.

Ebates

Make sure you sign up for Ebates so that you can get 2% of all your purchases from Newegg. It’s not much, but every penny counts! And just for signing up you’ll get $10 if you purchase using Ebates within 30 days. You have no risk!

Bank of America is the largest bank holding company in the U.S. with the largest percentage of people using them for their personal banking. The greatest perk of being a Bank of America customer is the convenience of having at least one bank or ATM in every city, even internationally, but this benefit is marginalized by the increasing trends towards mobile and electronic banking. Being part of the biggest bank has its downsides: since Bank of America has basically saturated their potential market share, they are now more interested in earning higher profits than gaining new customers. Here is my personal bias against Bank of America.

What does this mean? This means that instead of trying to gain new or keep existing customers, they are more or less trying to increase profits through various fees or by reducing customer service. On the other hands, we have smaller or newer banks, such as Chase in California, who are trying to build a customer base through exceptional customer service.

Most banks except for Bank of America and Wells Fargo have incentives for new customers. A lot California residents have been getting cash bonuses for signing up for new Chase checking and savings accounts. Bank of the West is currently offering free iPod Touch’s to new checking customers. Bank of the America on the other hand never has any incentives. Neither does Wells Fargo, but that’s because they’re actually a good bank; they weren’t very affected by the recession until they took over Wachovia.

Another way Chase entices customers is through their mobile services. Have you used Bank of America’s iPhone or BlackBerry applications? They both suck. The iPhone version lags so much and the BlackBerry version is just a web browser inside an application. You would think that the biggest bank in the U.S. could spend a little more money developing a decent application. Chase on the other hand has a superb iPhone application. You can easily transfer money to friends from your phone, and my favorite is the ability to deposit up to $1000 from your phone just by taking pictures of checks. In fact, half the time I try to log onto bankofamerica.com, either I get some error which makes it impossible for me to log in, or I can’t access the website at all.

Bank of America doesn’t even cooperate well with other companies on their platform. Have you tried using your Bank of America on Mint? It always says something along the lines, “There are known issues with Bank of America”, which means Bank of America isn’t cooperating with them. Bank of America won’t even cooperate with Chase; I tried to add my Bank of America account as an external account on my Chase account to transfer money, but it got rejected.

Another plus I had with Chase that I didn’t have with Bank of America is pre-approved credit cards. One day when I went to the bank to change some details about my account, the lady said, “Oh, you’re pre-approved for a Chase Freedom Visa Signature credit card. Would you like it?” Pre-approved cards are awesome since it doesn’t affect your credit score since you don’t apply for them, and in fact increase your credit score because you have a lower debt to available credit ratio. I was never offered a credit card from Bank of America, and Chase has one of the best rewards for Visa credit cards.

Perhaps the tipping point which made me close my Bank of America account was when I overdrafted my checking account. I accidentally paid for my credit card twice because I was confused with when my automatic payments would begin. The best part was that I overdrafted by less than $50, yet they charged me $35 for the overdraft fee, and I had over $1,000 in my connected savings account. Why don’t they just transfer money from my savings account to my checking account? Apparently I have to sign up for overdraft protection which my Chase account already had. Why don’t they just make it default?! On the other hand, I withdrew from the wrong Chase account and my checking account went to -$1,200, but instead of charging me anything, Chase sent me a text saying something along the lines of, “Reply with A if you’d like to transfer $1,200 from your savings to your checking.” With a simple text reply, my checking account was no longer in the negative and there were no fees involved. This is just another example of Bank of America finding small ways to get money from their customers.

And I knew that a lot of people were moving away from Bank of America when I went to a branch to close my account and the employee lacked any sort of customer retention. When I said, “I’d like to close my account”, the employee replied with a simple, “Okay”. You would expect at least a futile “Oh no! Please don’t!” or a simply “Why?”, but no, the employee simply went through the process and closed my account in a minute. I’m guessing these employees are used to customers closing their accounts and gave up asking why. It’s funny how the best customer service I’ve experienced at Bank of America was when I closed my account.