Old Blog Entries from Live Spaces – Part 1
Buying a New Laptop Computer
It is that time, and everytime I literraly confuse myself with options oftentimes veering away from my main purpose whilst being distracted by bells and whistles that I may or may not use. Yes, it’s time to get a new laptop computer. With the gamut of technical specification to keep track of, I have narrowed down my selection to general specification that consists of: a Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo, at least a T7400 (T7600 preffered) clocked at 2.0Ghz or up, with either a Nvidia go or ATI Radeon Xpress video card (256MB Dedicated memory), complete WiFI alphabet soup, 1GB of 1x 1GB RAM module (with a spare memory slot to double the memory capacity in preparation for a comfortable Vista experience), DVD DL R-RW drive (HD DVD would be a plus), s-video video out (DVI would be a plus). Other frills that would warrant a second look would be, built in multi-memory card reader, built-in webcam, and bluetooth. I’m still not sure if i’m gonna go ultra portable like my previous Fujitsu P5020 or go gargantuan like the 20″ Acer notebook I saw yesterday at Plug-ins (really massive). Primary function would be a desktop replacement for my productivity apps, since i keep on formatting my desktop PC’s, i need to park my data files where i do minial OS changes, a portable photo/video editing bay (for extended photo shoot sessions), a bit of RPG gaming (but not Oblivion types, i have the Xbox 360 for that) and finally network diagnostics, penetration testing, sniffing, and all that technical jazz. So far on the top of my list is a Dell XPS M1710 which i know would go way over my budget, then a Dell Inspirion 9400, a Toshiba Satellite P105-S921. Gitex is starting this afternoon and hope to go there tomorow probably see if i could get a good deal there. One thing that may also turn me off from buying would be the arabic keys and layout, a few notebooks sport the european english layout, I know it’s superficial but it may turn out to be a deal breaker in the end for me.
My Notebook usage through the ages:
1) Acer Travelmate (forgot which model) – (1995) A hand-me down from my boss, the whole technical team shares this notebook, but I get to bring it home.
2) Apple PowerBook 540c -(1996) My first company assigned notebook, really snazzy during its time and has served me well. Unfortunately a counterpart of mine from New Zealand broke it by letting it fall off a table.
3) Apple PowerBook 5300 (1997)- Replaced my old Powerbook 540c with this quircky and generally unreliable notebook. Have troubleshooted a lot of these in my workplace and everyday problems crop up from display connector issues to dislodged RAM. Really, a forgettable experience.
4) Apple PowerBook 1400cs – (1997) This is a general upgrade since, i hated the Powerbook 5300. More stable and less headaches in my case, at which point our company decided to switch to the world of Windows. Primarily used for desktop productivity.
5) Dell Lattitude CP - (1998) My first true workhorse, with the hard drive partitioned to run Windows 98 and Red Hat Linux. Mostly used as a diagnostic tool for determining network and cross-platform (Mac, PC and HP/UX) troubleshooting. Also served as my first portable VCD and MP3 player. The notebook leather bag which came with the unit weighs almost as much as the notebook so carrying it around was a real back-burner. At this point I stil preffered my desktop PC at home and oftentimes left the notebook at work.
6) Dell Lattitude CPiA (1999)- Moved to a new company and specifically asked for the a Dell unit, a revamp from my previous unit. For the first time, my home dekstop rig was surpassed in specifcation by a laptop, (of course i had the configuration maxed out). A great Windows 98 SE computer, however with the advent of early DIVX video encodes, I desperately needed an upgrade.
7) Asus L2B - (2002) A heavy but powerfull beast, decided to go for raw computing and video power. Lugged this unit around the Philippines and was resilient enough to withstand being hand carried and tucked in baggage. Immensly enjoyed the TV out function. My first multimedia and mobile gaming laptop (fondly remined of my Everquest days).
Asus M2N - (2004) – Implressed with the Asus L2B, replaced the unit with a sleeker and powerfull centrino based computer. Screen was a good 12.1″, and the performance was fair. But I had to give it up cause with all the travelling I do (almost every week: Pampanga, Cebu, Davao Iloilo, Zamboanga, Cagayan De Oro, Leyte – back and forth), i wanted a small but powerfull unit.
9) Fujitsu Lifebook P5020 - (2005) My small petite companion which I lug around even during meetings within the office becuase of it’s goood battery life and size. Doubled as a capable mulimedia replacement when i’m in the hotel (s-video out and audio stereo out), gaming was slightly dissapointing with few widescreen support. Great XP machine. Field tested over and over from manufacturing environments to photographic hiking expeditions, served as a primary PC during serious file copy operations (copying photos from the built in memory card slot at the same time from an attached USB device with a memory card reader while burning a CD-R disc). During a trip to Singapore where I attended Packetshaper training, I accidentaly spilled hot chocoloate on the keyboard while it was on (it was a serious spill), after cleaning up the keayboard, the P5020 marched on with no problem, the trackpad was kinda sticky though. Installed Windows XP SP2 and Fedora Core 5, with minimal success running OSx86. Also used an IBM Thinkpad R31, 40, and 50, not really my cup of tea but functional business notebooks.
- Arvie
Exploding Notebook Battery
Today’s Rant: Emeregence Day Minus 5, PS3’s and Fedora
Finally got my copy of Gears of War, the game is still scarce around the local scene and i think i got the last copy in the store for the week. The shop is selling 7 units of Playstation 3 Japan and during the time i bought GOW, two units were sold. Now, shocker of all shockers, unit price for the 20Gb is around DHS5,000+ (est Php 65,000.00) and DHS6,000 (est Php 78,000) for the 60GB model, almost three times over the suggested retail value. They were two PS3 games available, Tony Hawk Project 8 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, shipment for other titles should arrive by next week. Inquired about the Nintendo Wii, I was told that it should reach Dubai (unofficially) probably during GITEX (at DHS2,500 – est Php 32,500). Ah the price of being in the bleeding edge of technology.
On anther note, currently dabbling in Linux distros. Jumped from Fedora Core 6 to Ubuntu 6.06.1 to Suse 10.1 to Solaris 10 to Oracle Linux to LiveCD’s from Knoppix and Slax. Decided to stick with Fedora Core 6 and so far, my desktop setup requirements are satisfied minus a comprehensive image editing suite for my photography needs (Gimp kinda leaves me flat – passing out apologies to hardcore Gimp users). After all the updates, and the screen eye candy Compiz and Beryl (yum), running on an old Nvidia GeForce2 MX400 32MB, hardware swapping (video cards, NICs), tape drive certifying (using Amanda, took 4 hours… aughh on an old HP DAT8) and the destructive refresher course in HDD and partiton management in Linux, I am intrigued and inclined to make FC6 as one of my permanent alternate desktop (I have two currently, Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and Apple OS X 10.x on a PPC Mac Mini, also have Vista Beta running on another machine but that is another matter altogether). A few trade offs here and there, like using openoffice (which is an excellent choice for rudimentary productivity suite), still a few import problems with word and excel files, then again the latter was macro laden. Also playing around with VMWare Server 1.0 and MS Virtual PC 2007 beta (both of which are free to try and download from their respective sites), no verdict yet on my side as i have yet to test VMWare on my Linux Desktop. All in all it was a busy week and the reason why the update to the blog took a while.- Arvie
Today’s Rant: The Next-Gen Console Wars and a Rehearsal
The PS2 is dead, long live the PS3. That’s being premature, with the last generation console war clearly dominated by Sony’s Playstation 2 (with a very touching and apt Final Fantasy XII as it’s last greatest game – in my opinion-), the emergence (pun intended) of the Playstation 3 (11/11 in Japan, 11/17 in US) officially kicks off the fanboy wars. Let’s not forget the Wii, which launches in the US a few day after (11/19), at US$250, sounds like a no brainier compared to PS3’s US$599 pricetag. Expecting bloated prices here in Dubai and probably back home in the Philippines, which means that I will definitely be deferring any new console purchases till after stocks have stabilized and the initial salvo of the battle has been cleared. Too early to determine any clear winner in my book, with the Xbox 360 in front because of an early lead, ultimately, RPG games would definitely dictate my gaming platform preference.
We had some people over the house yesterday, Lorelie’s officemates from work where they rehearsed their number for a diversity thingie program. Haven’t seen the house filled with people and it was actually nice to have children running around the place. It’s early in the morning, and I am hungry. - Arvie
Today’s Rant: Gears of War region free, Skype 3.0 Beta
Lorelie is back from Qatar, Doha on a business trip. Passed on the X-men Trilogy DVD collection she saw in the airport duty free, should be readily available in Dubai. Rumors are popping up that Gears of War is region free, hopefully this would be futre trend of all “to be released” Xbox 360 games (Sony has the right idea with Playstation 3 games being region free), don’t mind region locking the movies but the games. It’s hard enough living in a PAL country with NTSC equipment. Just installed Skype 3.0 beta, still playing around with the update. GITEX is just around the corner and hopefully the Wii and the PS3 should make some appearances in the consumer show. Expecting traffic to be worse in the trade center area. - Arvie
Today’s Rant: HDD Crash and the wait for GOW
Had to replace my primary OS HDD, had random blue screens on my Windows Vista RC2 (Build 5744) installation. Initially, thought it was due to a recent utility or application install, but there were squeaking noises emanating from the computer indicating a HDD head crash. Oh well, replaced it with one of the old 200GB Seagate Barracudas and re-installed everything last night and just finally had most of my desktop restored. Fortunately no data loss since I have it stored on a separate drive. Only thing missing is my savegame to Sam and Max: Culture Shock Episode One (which is actually shaping up to be a good point and click adventure). Also waiting for the shipment arrivals for Xbox360 Gears of War in the local stores, usually they have a 2-5 day turnaround for US releases (well that is according to one guy we asked). Oh, and Contra was released in live marketplace, my wife finished the game on the NES, should be interesting to see 8-bit action in HD awesomeness. -Arvie
Home Entertainment Version 4.0
At any rate, the audio and display is controlled by the Yamaha YSP-1000 with a Logitech Harmony 360 serving as the primary remote. The wiring at the back is a complete nightmare, though the initial Also posted this item in pinoyxbox forums.
Off to Qatar
3D Gallery of Kent Osial
Caught in Desert Rhythm
My wife and I attended a concert called desert rhythm last October 26. The concert featured artists from around the globe, John Mayer, Khaled, Mustafa Sandal, Karen Ziod, Elvis Crespo and Wayne Wonder. We arrived kinda late in the evening but the event did start early in the afternoon. Though the only atrtist that we know of is Mr. Mayer, we did enjoy the different musical tonalities of the musicians that we did manage to see. Then again, we did buy tickets to see John Mayer, and see him we did. Swarming through the thin crowd, we positioned ourselves a few feet away from John Mayer himself. His set was a mix of new and old tunes from the recent hit “Waiting on the World to Change” and old favorite “No Such Thing.” I would have preferred him to perform “No Such Thing” and “Daughter’s” but then again, John Mayer’s set was more than the price of admission in our case. I dunno if I’m getting old, but we were surrounded by a group of delightful ladies, however, i could only take in so much delight. Alas, the event was not as heavily attended as it could have been. On a final note, we had to walk way around the main gate where the parking lot was direclty in it’s opposite direction. With sand all over the place, your shoes would dig into it like it would on a sandy beach. My wife defintiely in no mood for happy thoughts during the walk, and would not take the shenanigans from oogleing construction workers during the long walk to the main gate from the parking lot, with lots of sand and to top it all off, walking in high heels (my fault really). Oh, on a final, FINAL note, during a break in the concert while taking in Pepsi and fried chicken drumsticks (which was notceably large, would have come from a large chicken, dare i say mutant chicken), our photo was taken and published later November 2, in E+ weekly, check it out here. – Arvie
Foggy Morning in Dubai
Greetings and Salutations
Welcome one and all to my new blog space. I’ll be talking about things of interest to me (and my significant other) as we live our lives apart from our friends and relatives, sort of a general update page if you will (at the moment we are living in Dubai). I will be posting a lot about places, events and oftentimes an informal review of technical gadgets, games (Console and PC), software and how they intergate into our lifestyle. I also dabble in photography using my trusty Nikon D70 and Canon PowershotA95 so you may want to check out my flickr page. I am also facinated by Japanese classic super robots, as i have watched them growing up back home in the Philippines, my collection of super robot chogokins will also be featured somewhere in the space. Music also plays a big part of my life, being a member of a “new wave” band covering stuff from Echo and the Bunnymen, Bolshoi and New Order and finally retiring during the early post college days from a Heavy Metal band called “Machine Head a.k.a Isgnirit Giniris“, covering stuff from Iron Maiden to Metallica. Forgot to mention i play backup guitar, keyboard and bass (a bit for drums but who am i really kidding) By profession I am a technical guy specializing in designing and implementing local area and wide area network connectivity and security. Primariliy a Windows person (ever since version 2.0, now fiddling around with Vista), Apple system OS and OSX holds a dear place in my carreer (i also managed more than 100+ of those back in the day), my DOS skills need a bit of brush up but i could still hold my own (loved to do those memory tweaking using QEMM), and finally Unix still remains known to me (got a few training in AIX, Solaris and HP/UX) but i just can’t effectively use it as my desktop (sorry but it’s just me). Before I go, a bit of explanation rgearding the name of the space which I affectionally call “EsPace“, just a playing around with the word space, letter “S”, then.. pace. I dunno what it really means, at any rate, that’s all for now and see you later. - Arvie
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