H2O Member | Sun Sep 06, 2020 | 11:26 PM | Likes: 3 

Our Poor Bunny Passed Away

Categories: General | Pubby Cash Received:  0

So sad our "small bunny" just passed away today. She was the last bunny we have. We call her "small bunny" because she was the smaller one when we brought her home together with her sibling "big bunny" on December 11, 2018. At that time, she was around 3 months old, and her sibling "big bunny" was around 6 months old. I got them at $6 each from bidding at the farmers' market in Lancaster PA, saving these two littles from being sent to the slaughterhouse. We did a lot of restructuring of our basement to build them a nice home. Their potty training was effective after half a year, and the cleaning work was easy on bi-weekly basis. They are our most closest family members in the animal category in our home besides two aquatic turtles, two parakeets, and one hamster. They can respond to our simple directions such as "jump up" and "jump down" to and from our laps, and quickly greet us begging for food whenever we walk downstairs. Today when we walked downstairs cleaning the cage, the "small bunny" did not greet us, she hided herself in a weird spot - a gap between the cage and the wall with no exit and barely no movement room. I did not know how she got into there. I could tell she was quite sleepy, because her eyes were closed and she barely moved. After cleaning her cage, I held her belly with both hands and carefully took her out from that awkward hiding spot. To my surprise, her body temperature was quite high. I had a sense of her normal body temperature when I held her in the past, definitely was not as high as that. Obviously, she was sick, struggling against a fever. But what caused the fever? She lived indoors all the time, and was unlikely to touch undesirable transmissible bacteria and viruses. Food was the only cause as I could think of. She was given a large watermelon peel and several small tomatoes in addition to regular main food of timothy hays. Her body weight was quite okay, with no symptom of decreasing as her sibling - "big bunny" did, who passed away on January 30, 2020 at an age of approximately 20 months old with an obvious symptom of losing weight. And she was quite energetic, with the ability of jumping up easily, unlike her sibling who lost the ability of jumping several weeks before she died. My diagnosis of her death reason was the uterine cancer, which limited her peeing ability when given too many fruits. As I was holding her body after she died, I could feel her stomach was quite full, and there was liquid on the floor coming out from her mouth at the scene of her death. Our bunnies were not spayed, and the unspayed/unneutered rabbits in the wild can live 1-2 years, while spayed/neutered rabbits can have a life span of...  Read more

Andy Tang Administrator | Tue Aug 25, 2020 | 08:58 AM | Likes: 2 

Building a High Performance, Low Budget Gaming PC: 2 - Your Most Important Decision

Categories: Tech, YouTube | Pubby Cash Received:  0

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Andy Tang Administrator | Tue Jul 21, 2020 | 07:52 PM | Likes: 2 

So many MSI boards

Categories: Tech | Pubby Cash Received:  0

When buying a motherboard, it is important to choose the right brand and size that will suit your needs, as you may already know. MSI makes great, durable, and sleek boards. Upon searching popular motherboards on the web, three main types. Those are the MEG, MPG, and MAG. First, with the MEG models, the motherboards are designed mainly for enthusiasts, and you can remember that with the "E" meaning "excellent". These boards are top-notch and are MSI's flag-shipped products. Next, the MPG series is built for performance, with the "P" standing for "performance". These boards will have mainstream gaming features, along with aesthetic combined. Lastly, the MAG boards are their arsenal series. These focus on functionality so they are often cheaper. Now with all of the series clarified, it is obvious that the MEG is the way to go for serious people like me. Let's say you decide to buy the MEG Z490 modal, which is a good choice, but even that modal has smaller sub-modals. We'll compare the Godlike to the Unify. Both are MEG Z490 models, but their prices undergo a huge change (former being $750+ and latter being $270+). Why? There are many reasons. The Godlike features more high-speed ports (with two Thunderbolt 3 ports) while the Unify has none. Moreover, the Godlike has more memory support along with a speaker. Additional diagnostics include 2-Digit Debug LED, BIOS Selection, Clear CMOS, Power, Reset, ReTry, Safe Boot, and Slow Mode. I think the $750+ motherboard is overkill considering my usage. The Godlike is for extreme gamers or professional video editors. There is also a $400 modal which is also a MEG Z490 called the ACE. It boasts of 2.5G LAN and Gigabit LAN and has most of the Godlike's statistics. It lies in between the Unify and the Godlike. So which one is the best? It depends on your interests and budget. For me, I think the middle class would work for me. A $400 ACE should be capable of handling all of my processes and tasks....  Read more

H2O Member | Tue Jul 21, 2020 | 02:18 PM | Likes: 2 

Why PS/2 Port is still Included in Modern Motherboard?

Categories: Tech | Pubby Cash Received:  0

I've used PS/2 ports to connect the keyboard and mouse to a computer in the late 1990s. Thirty years have passed. Now I'm looking to buy a modern motherboard, but astonished to find that in the most advanced MSI MEG Z490 motherboard to accommodate the newly released the 10th generation Intel I9 processor, there is still a PS/2 port. At first thought, I would consider this to be outdated. After doing some homework learning the reasons behind it, I've changed my mind. Here are the special reasons why PS/2 is important for a top-notch computer: (1) Drivers. In contrast to USB ports, PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse will work with devices without having to download the latest drivers. Although all devices require drivers to work, there is a catch when it comes to USB keyboards and mouse. The USB port itself requires a driver. USB ports not functioning properly due to a driver issue may occur from time to time during a Windows Feature Update or a update provided by the OEM is nothing new. Sometimes the driver issue happens by itself. In addition, for systems where "optimized defaults" loads OS before USB keyboard is active, you must have a keyboard on PS/2 to operate the machine. Examples like a firmware/BIOS update or CMOS reset will render USB keyboard unusable to enter SETUP/BIOS or early boot menus (until a complete reboot), whereas the PS/2 will be very handy. Thus, the PS/2 port acts as a backup in this circumstances. (2) Limits on n-key rollover. The USB protocol limits the n-key rollover to a maximum of 6, meaning if you play a game that uses tons of buttons after 6 keys you start missing keys no matter how good your board is. PS/2 ports, on the other hand, allow full n-key rollover. (3) IT security. USB ports might be disabled to end users to avoid security risks (data theft, virus and malware injection etc) on business desktops and workstations in an IT corporate infrastructure. PS/2 ports are for keyboard and mouse only, and thus are considered secure for all non IT Admin users. (4) PS/2 connector gives slightly better keyboard performance than USB and is more reliable. You may throw a PS/2 keyboard to a dishwasher to clean and it is still going strong, while the modern mechanical USB keyboard stop working for 24 hours if a drop of water falls inside a key. These indeed surprised me after I learned PS/2 ports have so many advantages. Since there is only 1 PS/2 port on the top-notch MSI motherboard, I think I will let this most important port taken by a PS/2 keyboard. Actually, the PS/2 mouse can be very difficult to find these days, and I will just use a USB mouse. ...  Read more

Andy Tang Administrator | Tue Jul 14, 2020 | 10:06 AM | Likes: 2 

Building a Gaming PC

Categories: General, Tech, Gaming | Pubby Cash Received:  0

To buy or to build? That's a question many people ask when getting a new PC. Most people just go to retail stores like Best Buy to pick up their pre-built gaming desktop machine. Not me. These are the reasons why building a PC is superior to buying a pre-built one. 1. Building a PC can save you money It is. Buying just the parts and putting by yourself is far cheaper than having someone do it for you. Those savings could be used to buy better parts such as an additional gig or two for your graphics card. 2. It's really easy to upgrade your parts When you build your PC, you’ll know exactly where each part of your system goes and how it is installed. If you determine that it isn’t performing to your liking, or if you decide you want an upgrade, replacing parts is a simple process. 3. You choose your parts Don't you hate it when you see a gaming PC deal with the latest Intel i9 processor along with 64 Gigabytes of memory but has a crappy graphics card? That's exactly why you should build your PC. Since you get to choose your parts and assemble them yourself, you will have a better experience overall gaming knowing you have the best parts in your PC and not a crappy graphics card....  Read more

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