I had promised myself that I will close November with an article on.. Tiny laptops. [Read more…]
The Amazing MagSafe Power Adapter
There is one more reason why I love my MacBook, even if its 512MB RAM gives me a headache at times: the MagSafe Power Adapter kicks “hopelessly ordinary” laptop adapter butt!
Mac users are aware that the beauty of the MagSafe Power Adapter lies in its ability to seamlessly come off one’s MacBook with a quiet click, saving the Mac user a few months of heartache had his or her MacBook come crashing to the ground and, though highly unlikely, rendered beyond repair.
And yet I only realized how truly amazing the MagSafe adapter was when one time I awoke to my floor becoming an indoor mini-pool after an hour of rain, which fell upon my world when I was deep in REM. [Read more…]
From Dream to Vision to Reality: The OLPC Project
You would know an Apple Fangurl when she you see a girl watching this video and she cringes, and covers her eyes (but with matching peek-a-boo fingers) every time she sees the iPhone being dropped to the carpet, kitchen floor, and even the pavement.
That aside, we now go on to the scheduled programming.
The buzz today on the tech “airwaves” is the OLPC project. The OLPC project has got to be the most ambitious humanitarian/tech effort on the planet in recent times. And yet, it’s really coming to fruition. The OLPC has come a long way: from the first concrete steps of laying down the design and vision at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland made in January 2005 by Nicholas Negroponte, down to the t-minus for November 12, 2007, when the OLPC will be officially released to the world. [Read more…]
Being the ‘IT Guy’
Unfortunately, for a while now, I’ve been the ‘IT Guy’. By that I mean I have had an interest in computers for a long time. It began way back when I was just about eight years old I think – when I owned my first computer, the Spectrum 128k. Here in England it was never as popular with as the C64 but it had some great games for it. That’s what drew me in. That and seeing the results of a flashing screen after copying a full page of code from a magazine!
This techno-lust continued in the form of a GameBoy, a SNES and finally my first proper PC – a 486. I loved my 486, not least because I grew to understand DOS, but I also had my first play on DOOM. Magnificent stuff. From here I got Internet access and finally a new PC. Broadband soon followed as well as HTML, digital cameras, modding and hardware experimentation.
This brings me to modern day. I’m on to my second laptop, third printer and I have a few IT qualifications. I also run a couple of websites and contribute to others. All in all, I’d say I’m pretty tech savvy. This has resulted in my reputation. The eponymous ‘IT Guy’.
The fact is this has meant I get bothered with all manner of queries, questions and sometimes faced with bizarre assumptions. Some obvious questions are ‘can you fix my computer?‘ – the answer sometimes being yes, sometimes being no, but when someone can’t even tell you exactly what is wrong – ‘the screen isn’t working’ this can be difficult. People tend to think that you’re somehow hardwired to understand the machine intimately just because you can connect a printer to a computer.
Other queries I’ve had can be more complicated. These include the eponymous ‘which Internet Service Provider should I use?’ – this being a big issue in the UK at the moment with all manner of offerings, some expensive, some free, some even throwing in a free laptop. I’m actually going through the process of assisting my folks choose which ISP to contract with.
I’ve also worked in an IT support role that has provided some challenges, some difficult moments but also some interesting posers of the following:
1) What is the Internet?
2) When I click, some words come up (they were right clicking)?
3) Now that I have my website, where is it?
4) How do I get the disc into the hard drive?
5) My computer has gone off. What can I do about it?
As you can see, some of the questions are a little ‘out there’. I didn’t mind too much, just because not everyone has had the chances to get used to technology as I have. On the other hand, sometimes people make strange leaps of logic. The idea that I know about everything of everything with IT is pretty strange itself.
Being interested in technology has brought some fantastic benefits to my life. I have my websites, the pleasure of writing for Gadzooki and being able to do many things for myself that I otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to do. I enjoy helping people, but I sometimes think that they would be better off helping themselves as they could learn more. However, if you’re fearful of breaking your computer it’s probably better that you leave it to the experts!
Insomniac Laptops
What’s the longest time that you’ve left your laptop on – no full Shutdowns (or even Restarts and Hibernates), just Standbys/Sleeps, and if you’re the iron man type, none of the previous?
My top figure: 2 months. Normally, I would fully shut down my laptop every week, but there was a brutal stretch when I had no recourse but to always put the laptop to sleep (in computer terms, not figuratively!).
The longest time I’ve heard of comes from this NotebookReview.com thread: “the mid January till exams in late May”. Wow. That’s four and a half months for you. How about your beloved laptop?
People unaccustomed to putting their laptops through long bouts of ‘incomplete rest’ might want to ask, does this have any adverse effect on computer, hardware-wise?
From my experience, none – my year-old laptop is still in tip-top shape, the battery life doesn’t seem to have suffered, the graphics card remains a thoroughbred workhorse, and the fan is A-OK. (I hope I’m not jinxing my laptop with these words!)
AlexF from the earlier forum thread has this to say, though:
[Keeping] a laptop on for such extended periods isn’t exactly a good thing:
– Component wear is accelerated by heat.
– Most laptops don’t have very good heat dissipation.
– It is highly doubtful that the tiny little fans on most laptop CPUs are designed for 100% duty cycle over the span of a month.
– Systems with a discrete GPU are even more susceptible to heat damage since you have another heat source in the chassis.
Good points. However, from what I know, the standby/sleep mode produces only minimal (if not negligible) heat. My laptop’s fans are powered down when in standby mode. Also, my laptop doesn’t feel warm after leaving it in standby for eight hours – of course, my room/home office’s airconditioner helps. (It had once frozen my laptop’s keyboard!)
Still, I’m not a laptop expert (my year-old lappy is just my first one), so maybe those with more experience can share their thoughts on this.
And lastly, which is better – sleep/standby or hibernate? The first time I used hibernate, it screwed up all the work that was supposed to have been stored by Windows XP. Since then, sleep/standby has done the trick for me.
I prefer standby over hibernate, as getting out of standby mode only takes a few seconds, compared to the minute or so with hibernate. Of course, the latter actually shuts down your laptop, but saves the system state on your hard disk. This means the hibernate mode should be a tad healthier for your computer when compared to standby.
Here’s a quick comparison of the three options, written by ChrisBrownie:
Shut Down:
Close all running programs and end the session.
Doesn’t draw any power.
Safe to transport.Hibernate:
Take a dump of the RAM and put it in a .sys file in C:
Doesn’t draw any power.
Safe to transport.StandBy:
Keep data in RAM. Shut down all possible hardware, including monitors, NICs, VGA etc. Also assuming you use S3 mode, rather than S1, your CPU and fans turn off as well.
Draws power to keep data in RAM
If it’s a laptop? Safe to move. If it’s a desktop? You do the math.
Having written this article, I think I’m off to get some sleep – and my laptop, too.
Windows Home Server: networked computing comes to the home
While not exactly kept under the tightest of wraps as WinFS was until it was unveiled, to everyone’s surprise, on a previous Microsoft PDC (only to be axed from Windows Vista later on), the project known under the name “
So what is Windows Home Server, and is there really a need for a “server” for the home? Now that digital media has reached ubiquitous levels, and storage – be it in the form of expansion cards that come with almost every consumer device there is (cameras, digital audio players, even cell phones – who would’ve thought three years ago?), front-end solutions (Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 equipped with hard disk storage that slideshow photos and play video DVDs), we how have more-than-ever loaded operating systems that arguably pushed the digitization of the media we’ve previously enjoyed in other ways (Premium versions of Windows with Media Center functionality and Apple’s FrontRow front-end to iTunes, iPhoto and the rest). (I have not verified whether Windows Home Server actually supports operating systems other than Windows, but that’s just ludicrous.)
Windows Home Server is built on the same core as Windows Server 2003. Think of it as taking out unnecessary functionality and all other entry points into the operating system (no fancy Windows Media Player, or the outdated Address Book, heck, even Internet Explorer is nowhere to be found!). ALL, except one – a “website” (it’s really just running off the box where it is installed) that is accessed from one of the other computers in the network the Home Server appliance attaches to – where all activity central to maintaining available storage is performed.
Windows Home Server is meant to take as much storage as you can give it – RAID up all the hard drives you have from your retired home computers, plug in the external hard drive you forgot about since you got the laptop with a terabyte hard drive, and don’t forget the cheapo, standalone NAS box (network-attached storage) you bought and realized did not come with automation software – Windows Home Server pools it all: no drive letters to be concerned about, it’s all one huge container.
As a bonus, it is also from here you can monitor whether the rest of the computers in the network have the latest Windows updates, antivirus and malware signatures, disk fragmentation and file backup status; and automating the across-the-board updating process. Microsoft will also provide a means for the users to have access to their storage pool from across the globe via an interface in the WWW.
At this point I may be making it sound all too nice – and I can most definitely say it is. Once the idea is implemented effectively, and if the Home Server product works as you’d expect it to (read: without the security holes brought about by deep-level Internet Explorer integration). The idea of pooled storage alone even without the “control room” technology that’s only been seen in corporate setups until now is very enticing. If Windows Vista is any indication that Microsoft has had its act together, we’ll be in the lookout to get our hands wet on a final shipping product and give it a long, good review. Do watch out for a full run-down soon. #
Microsoft Surface: Cafe/Bar/Resto Computing of the Future?
While everyone was still reeling from the iPhone’s release, Microsoft had unveiled a project that is up to, or above Steve Jobs’ caliber in terms of innovativeness. Announcing, Microsoft Surface.
What [that darned phone] tells about the next iPod
(My apologies for the title; I did not want to upset anybody with yet another iPhone article, or so some might think if I used the iPhone word)
Now that the immaculate phone of multiple facets is finally out the door, we can finally start looking into the next generation of iPods, like any true Apple fanboy. Apple is a company with the most extreme of marketing strategies and generally play its cards close to the chest. And while they never had a history of making product announcements until they are made available on that same day, last Friday’s events will certainly go down as the release date for another product that’s been pre-announced (oh, how times have changed) – and for a stealthily-slipped note about “OS X based iPods currently in development”.
Never been an iPod like this
Why exactly would you need a full-blown OS on an iPod, when it’s already come under 5 non-OS X based reiterations, each one having contributed to the mega success that the iPod now is? Why did the iPhone forego the long-hailed touch-wheel experience in favor of coverflow and ticking, the new paradigm for the iPhone’s iPod application?
I think we’re about to see a complete about-face from the wheel paradigm of 2001, when the first iPod was released. Facts point to the likelihood of an iPhone without the phone:
A full-screen experience. Actually, I’d be surprised if it didn’t come in full-screen, multi-touch goodness. The iPhone demonstrates the maturity of touch technology, and that Apple can implement it the right way. My mobile phone has it, my laptop has it; when you’ve had a taste of touch control, you’ll never go back. Throw in the nifty orientation sensor as well and you’ve got yourself a winner.
No click wheels. Or touch wheels. Just pure cover flow and flicking bliss. Contrary to the most popular renditions with virtual click wheels, the iPhone’s iPod’s new way to navigate through your library shows very well how a wheel is not the most efficient way, a flawed one even, to implement and take advantage of a fully touch-sensitive screen. (well who said it’ll be full-screen and with multi-touch anyway? if it ain’t, I’ll be dead)No, it can’t be this retarded
Wi-fi, a la Zune. Then again, maybe not like the Zune’s paltry excuse for Wi-fi “features”. If it’s got OS X and can run Safari and iTunes iPod in there, then I see no reason why the iTunes Store would be a far cry. So keep that iPhone wi-fi module in there, Apple. Please? Thank you.
Anything else I may have overlooked? Hit me up with a comment or two below, or here.
My Gripes on My Macbook.
I’ve been rabidly anti-Windows lately, and with reason. But this time, I will gripe on my Macbook, Sayuri. I had gotten her from my aunt just this March. Its price on Apple was at $1099. Its specs are: 60GB hard drive, 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, and 512MB RAM, combo drive. Today, Apple’s $1099 has an 80GB hard drive, 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, and still a combo drive. Whoa, look at the difference.
[Read more…]
Getting the Steampunk Look
We’ve all seen and heard about modding the look of computer peripherals and other present-day machines to fit a person’s personality or simply to follow certain whims (read: too much time on one’s hands).
An interesting, shall we say, genre modders like to do is that of Steampunk. It’s a look based on the type of sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction literary genre, Steampunk, where steam is used to power high-tech inventions set in the Victorian era.