Tag: laptop

Nerdism induced Consumerism

Posted onAuthorTruXter1 Comment

Nerdism induced Consumerism.Consumerism induced Nerdism ?
Yet another reason why I am leaving the tech world. What I call “Nerdism Induced Consumerism”.
Why do we try and be more geeky or if anything show that we can appear geeky and that we can afford the latest trends.
Nerdy Trends? Why is geeky a trend? The more geeky people try and project themselves as, the more expensive the junk gets and well, less geeky. I want my operating system so complicated, you freaks can’t use it. I want my tech so techy, I am constantly learning more. Not complacent with bubbly puffy buttons that do everything, until the next puffier fluffy buttons version gets sold to me. Yet they still have not created a remote control locator that is built into the tv.. but sure enough they give you so few buttons on the tv, you have to have a remote.

Look how technical your tv has become. Most tvs these days run on Linux.. Is that not geeky? Question here is why in the heck is it so dang expensive now ? because it’s hot. Even though a tv these days does not seem half as durable as an old CRT. The image looks a ton better. But not that dang much.

To have a decent tv, you have to have a ton of gadgets. Blue-ray player , satellite or direct tv or cable that is broadcasting in High def. Roku box, Google Tv, Apple Tv. Along with your 27 inch wide screen monitor on your computer, Subscribed to netflix, hulu, and YouTube movies (isn’t that Google TV ????? WTF). Laptop that has a 17 inch monitor but thin as a blade with HD capability, along with your what ever PAD, and cell phone with a 5 inch or greater screen that plays in the latest highest resolution, of course subscribed to all of the same stuff your other gadgets are, and yes some subscriptions make you pay a little more for each device added. Then comes the XM and Hybrid Digital radio with mp3 player and mass storage device in your car, along with on star and GPS that you are subscribed to.

What does it all cost? and why do we pay for it? When did geeky become cool?

All of that stuff, all of the geeky stuff you are buying, the real geeks were building that for themselves. KnoppMyth boxes (DVR), cheap Mp3 players with 2 gig capacities connected to our car stereos by way of multi-disk player input connections. The fun was building that and making it work. Not just driving somewhere to have someone install it for you and then telling your friends that you are on top of tech. That’s not tech. That’s douchebagetry mixed with consumerism. It’s fine if you like things and want things, but to feed you guys, the industries are stealing our works, and making everything simple for the simple minded. Forcing us to become stale (bby way of not having anymore challenges). They are not evolving and trying to do the next major step to motivate more original thought. They are making fluffy buttons for the morons who have no sense of creativity and no understanding of anything great than push a button and say “look what I built”.. Example…. Look at Apple. Now look at the owner of Apple products. Now look back at Apple, Now look at the customers..Do you see it? Pastel 80’s Polo shirt, with white shorts  and white tennis shoes, hair spray and a scarf.

I’m done with all of that.

Give me a 70’s muscle car. Take my computer, take my phone, take my tv. I am done. It’s time to sit back and save money and not care who has what and how cool it is that they can draw this in Photoshop, or if they have a mac or windows machine, because I just don’t care. I never really did. I always wanted to do things as cheap as possible and show it’s as good as the most expensive. Took more skill and know how. but now one cares about skill. They just care how much you spent, and well, That’s pointless and not for me. This is a game I can’t play.

Maybe I will make Bonsai Trees or something.

Toshiba A75 S2112 Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Just received a laptop computer as payment for replacing a motherboard on another laptop. The laptop I received as payment is a Toshiba A75 S2112 Satellite.

Specs:

CPU Arch : 1 CPU – 1 Cores – 2 Threads
CPU PSN : Mobile Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.06GHz
CPU EXT : MMX, SSE (1, 2, 3)
CPUID : F.4.1 / Extended : F.4
CPU Cache : L1 : 12 / 16 KB – L2 : 1024 KB
Core : Prescott (90 nm) / Stepping : E0

Freq : 3066.8 MHz (133.34 * 23)
MB Brand : TOSHIBA
MB Model : EDW10
NB : ATI RS300/RS300M rev 02
SB : ATI SB200 rev 00
GPU Type : ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9000 IGP
DirectX Version : 9.0c

RAM : 448 MB
RAM Speed : Unknown (Unknown) @ N/A

Rundown

Goods

Very nice looking. Keys move fast. Screen is very shiny. Images look clear and crisp. The on board memory and yes I do mean “on board”, the memory is actually part of the motherboard. There is one slot for an upgrade stick. Hard drive is quite though you feel it spin up for sure. There are two fans under the motherboard and a large copper heat sink. Volume knob on the right side. A media button on the left (can assign it to any .exe). Two speakers in the front, they function well with no cracking noises. Latch lock works flawlessly. At times the computer is super fast. DVD burner. good solid housing. Battery works and charges up within just minutes. Built in WIFI is strong and has not failed once. 3 usb 2.0 ports 1 lan port and one modem connection. All lights function. Plenty of bundled software, came with Microsoft Office, tons of editing software like video and image (I’m still going to download and use GIMP it’s what I am used to)

Bads

When I got the laptop, the power button was inside the housing rattling around. Line going up the screen on the left. Some times the computer slows way down. Over heating despite the dual fan and large heatsink.If laptop is set on a table while running it will shut off in a blink in less than 20 minutes.  Battery about 4 hours as long as I keep airflow unobstructed. There are many old posts on this 5 year old computer talking about solder failure due to overheating.

Fixes

Got the power button to stay on by use of a Soldering iron and a pen cap.

Worked to repair the overheating issue cleaned fan and heatsink pulled out half a wig of hair, dust and funk. (fail) Still crashes when sitting on a table.

Screen having a line up the left if I push on the screen, sometimes the line goes away. Someone showed me how but i kind of didn’t start listening until I saw it work. So I have to go back and re-ask.  If I can get it to fix by Doing so, then I will locate the issue better and solve it.

For the work I did on the other computer and the fact this thing actually runs ( This post is being done on the Toshiba), is a great factor in this review. It’s like a free computer . I spent seven hours on that other computer. She spent $100 on this computer. Who got the better deal ?

Score

I give this laptop – notebook a

7/10

Android Tablet Rumors

Posted onAuthorTech News

It seems as if people want Android to compete with Apple Ipad Tablet. As if there is this big battle waiting to happen. The problem is, the Ipad is a useless accessory that serves no other purpose than to do and be what Apple wants. That is, for the future to be planned and predetermined. Google makes their hardware and software with rules and laws protecting them to say ” this is what we are selling, this is what you can do with it. It is a Horse bit and Blinders future if you let the product manufacturers tell you what is good, as apposed to produce what you request.
There is no use in that tablet, otherwise people would have bought the many Microsoft tablets through the years. It’s not a question of quality, it’s a question of convenience and capabilities. If it is an E-book reader with app abilities Neat, so is a $200 laptop. I mean if sun glare is not a problem to you, Otherwise a Kendal migt be the better, lighter and cheaper rout.

You must always have the option of a mouse and keyboard. You should not force people to have only one interface option.

My only hope is everyone who makes gadgets, just ignores the Ipad and moves on in computer and telephone direction. That would prevent us from being forced into a touch screen only type of interface. That junk would get old fast. I would hate to write to the Tech News site on a touch screen. After about an hour, my finger tips would get sore. Imagen if it was your job. I actually freak out when people touch my monitor. Imagen if all we had was touchscreen. I would be forced to sit in teh corner chewing on the collar of my shirt staring off into space mumbling “amonia glass cleaners and key action, We used to be able to do what was called ‘over clocking’ and we could tweak our machines and linux was a real, it’s not a myth, it’s not a myth”.
Hopefully we get an Android system that competes with the Ipad, but is nothing like the Ipad at all. That would be our best hope and safest bet.

Unacceptable Perv-ofile (School Staff)

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker

According to an article in boing boing a school District in  (PA) [Lower Merion School District] Handed out laptops to students. This school reportedly has been reprimanding students for their behavior while at home. One student was shown a picture taken of them while doing something the school objected to, from within the child’s bedroom.

The laptops the children received had cameras on them. Reportedly these camera were used to spy on the children while not at school.

Their is notice that they are worried about children being to informative while online talking with strangers and the wide open public.

Update: The school district admits that student laptops were shipped with software for covertly activating their webcams, but denies wrongdoing.

Any person caught doing such a thing should be more than just investigated, they should be put in public notice.

Do we not have laws that protect us from this? should anyone for any purpose be so above the law that they can get away with such an invasion of privacy?

The students all should be allowed to return the laptops they where given (or are renting or purchased), the school should refund all deposits, and every principal,teacher,executive involved should be fired and replaced and spend no less than 5 years in federal prison for invasion of privacy illegal monitoring and surveillance without proper license and prior permits.

If they let this go, what exactly is freedom for? what is the proof that we protect the rights we obey ?

Google Notebook yet?

Posted onAuthorTruXter

From what is being said at Computerworld.com (http://blogs.computerworld.com/google_ceo_hints_google_linux_netbooks_may_be_coming)

We see hints of it coming.

Again I think Google is funnier than apple about info leaks. Misguided leaks and disinformation.

I am counting on something portable, smaller than a notebook, bigger than a cellphone.

Like a psp or something, with an occasional advertisement here and there to cut the cost, then again, that is what we thought would happen with the”Gphone”. Remember when we called it that? We thought we would get spam from time to time, but the phone would be free and extremely useful, but actually if you upgrade to that phone before your contract is renewed, you are looking at +$300(usd). So what ever they are saying at computer world about special low $99 prices, are way far fetched. Might even get hyped in speculation then dropped later, just like they did with the G1. I mean really, it’s a 100% pure advertisement box, why the hell isn’t it cheaper ?????

Shopping Tip: PC Vs Laptop

Posted onAuthorTruXter2 Comments

If you are in the market for a new computer but are not sure if you should get a personal computer with a tower and a monitor, or a laptop, Hopefully this article will help you. I will try and weigh the differences for you.

For the first I will start with PC (personal computer).

Ups.

A personal computer can have high amounts of power in many of the parts, Like fresh up to date video card for the gamers or high quality video watchers, Or powerful processor(s) to do the tasks you need to get done, latest and greatest up to date memory and full capacity . Nice 25inch monitor and the keyboard and or mouse of your choice allowing you to make all use of the items as easy as you want. Well Like I have a trusty keyboard I bought from CompUSA at least four years ago that has tons of extra keys for items that I may need to open and run plus it’s own scroll wheel so I can skip ahead 5 lines at a time when I know I am on a huge page and need something from the bottom of the page, but do not feel like grabbing the mouse. That wheel also works in video games. My mouse is Memorex mouse with 5 buttons plus the wheel clicks for other uses, in most games the wheel clicks for an aimer and the side button are stand up and lay down. Both of those items where my own choice and my selection, as the case for my pc is my choice with ventilation So I can run the fans I feel I need to cool my computer the way I want and have it look the way I want. Everything can be modified and upgraded.

Downs.

Lots of wires everywhere. Huge tower that I keep bumping with my knee and I know someday I will bump it hard enough to scratch the hard drive . Can hardly ever move it or take it anywhere, like on vacation. No way of just putting it away and pulling back out when in need for usage without a frickin’ owner’s manual on how to rewire it back together. I never have been good at memory games. All of the add on parts are quite costly. When buying speakers you have to select some that will sound good, look good, and last and might be impressive, So you kinda have to learn all that or trust ol’ brad from the sales desk. Pretty loud, is most annoying when using as a media center.

For thsi next section I will cover the laptops:

Ups.

Portability, design, ease of use, small, convenient, hides away nice when a guest comes over with a toddler, Slides right under the seat in my car, Has a mouse and keyboard, monitor, and speakers built right in, you can add on third party if you want but do not have to ! Really makes great use of the Wi-Fi system you set your house up to, You can actually now sit on the couch in your skivvies and pizza stained t-shirt and let that computer desk chair collect dust. You can cook and check your email or MySpace message with your laptop resting safely on the counter while you fry your bologna.

Downs.

Once that keyboard is damages or worn out, It gets expensive, once that monitor breaks, well it’s really quite ruined and probably a better idea to buy a new one instead of replace it. If that toddler gets hold of the laptop, it’s screwed. The mouse built into laptops has always been something that just bothers me into utter stress, because they never seem to do what I want them to do without a few tries. Can get stolen easily. Will warp if left under the seat in my car on a hot day when I get stuck somewhere a little longer than I anticipated. I always have to remember to gather it up when I leave a location that I took the thing out of my car. Not very good for gaming or video compression, most parts are not upgradeable.

Okay, I just covered my likes and dislikes now I will do the run down of what is the better choice.

For those who are into high end monster power tasks, Go for the PC. For everyone else get the laptop, you will get ten times more out of the laptop than what you will get from the pc. Take that sucker to work with ya. Just when you are shopping , if they do not state the specifications of what is in the computer, chances are they are outdated.

GLHF

TruXter