In case you're interested to find out more about me, well ... this is the right place to be!

So, let's start with the beginning ...

I've been born a long, long time ago (~3x years ago that is) in a galaxy far, far away, in the city of TURDA, county of CLUJ, in TRANSYLVANIA, ROMANIA.

The first thing my parents said when I decided to show up in this world was: 'Oh, the Force is strong with this one!' If only they would had patented that line, before those "Star Wars" people had a chance to reinvent it, I would be filthy rich by now ... Oh well! ... I guess some people just have to work for living ...

Needless to say, like any responsable baby, I have carefully planned my arrival to make sure it falls under the astrological sign of Libra (or Tiger, should you prefer the Chinese calendar) ...

Education

(1998) First Class Hons BEng in Communication Engineering (Electronics) from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

(1999) First Class Hons MSc in Communication Engineering from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. My MSc dissertation was about "Turbo Coding", and this project was carried out at the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom. This was possible thanks to a studentship funded by the European Union's Socrates programme.

(2002) PhD degree from the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom. Now just in case you're wondering about the topic of my PhD thesis, here is the title: "Spread Spectrum-based Video Watermarking Algorithms for Copyright Protection" which by the way doesn't have anything to do with our precious bodily fluid (water that is).

(2005) Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE), from the University of Kent, United Kingdom.

Interests

Computers - I just love to fiddle around with computers (both hardware and software).

My recommendations:

    ✓  Intel Dual/Quad Core  processors, offer the best performance and good value for money.

    ✓ NVIDIA graphics, offering one of the best drivers around and great performance.

   ✗ I've promised myself that I'll never buy an ATI card again after having lots of troubles with their "drivers" and their so called "technical support".

    ✓ If you want to buy a good DVD Writer, then go for a NEC/Sony Optiarc AD-724xS/AD-726xS. They are amongst the cheapest and offer top writing quality and reliability. Besides, the unofficial firmware support for these drives is very good.

    ✓ If you're after a great BluRay Writer, then go for the Pioneer BDR-205 or BDR-206. The LG BH10LS3x writers are not a bad choice either and good value for money.

If you want to buy any opical drive, it is always a good idea to have a look at the www.myce.com (ex cdfreaks.com), http://www.cdrinfo.com and/or http://forum.rpc1.org forums for more information, plenty of reviews and real life user experiences.