April 5, 2008

Well today was a fun day. We went to go pick up two new chinchillas. The trip was a short one really at only 90 minutes each way. Needless to say this is a LONG entry today. Enjoy the rant. This entry will have an update on the chinchilla outcome at the END.

One thing that annoyed me lately is the Adblock Plus doesn't work on Firefox 3 Beta 5. Now, it is sort of expected that stuff wouldn't work but I had it working fine on Beta 3 and Beta 4. Beta 5 is the final beta release and the full release will be coming sometime in June. They may even get it working before the full release.

Now, what is annoying me is not the Adblock Plus won't work yet. What is annoying me however is that all these ads really slow down the computer! Now, maybe using a Pentium 3 750MHZ ThinkPad isn't really that good of an idea to begin with, but I would hate to throw out a working computer! I know that all these ungodly annoying ads are what PAYS for most of the websites we get, but they have got to go!

I have only 384MB of RAM on this T20 but I can run Office 2007, Visual Studio 2008 Professional, and Windows XP just fine. These don't slow down the computer nearly as much as Firefox does! Is Firefox to blame here? Absolutely not. Now I do not mind ads on a site but FLASH ads are murder.

If an ad was a simple static PNG or JPG its not nearly as much of an impact on people who use an older computer. Just try loading Engadget on something like my T20. Now as someone who uses an older computer quite a lot, I think I speak for a lot of people here who have no reason to upgrade.

The worst ads however are these ones that TALK. These, and all sounds on the computer, for some reason go over Windows Media Player 11. Now I use this a lot so I can listen to music on my Acer instead of using my Walkman like I am now as I write this in the back seat of a 2003 Ford Focus. This is one reason I will not go to a site like Freeware PPC or Palm without an Adblock installed. I do not car if I "won" two "free" iPods or an Xbox 360.

Now this rant is not just about flash ads annoying me to death. Its also about other stuff like why we need to stop neglecting older computers. Now I know I probably sound like an old man complaining that the old days were better. The thing is however that some older technology was better. Now I don't mean we should all drop a 3.2GHZ 8 core Mac Pro for a Pentium 1. I am talking about stuff like the ThinkPad line for example.

The best thing about an older ThinkPad is that these things are like tanks. I can use my T20 and not worry is something is going to break anytime soon. Sure my older 570 needs new hinges but it still works. The build quality on these older ones is simply amazing.

Look at taking it apart for example. IBM and now, Lenovo, provide a full hardware maintenance manual online. This even tells you the part numbers and how to replace them. If you have a broken keyboard, all you need is a new one. Its easy to replace for even an average user. This is something a lot of companies should work on. I would rather get a part and replace it myself then send it in for service. When you need to send your computer in, you are without it for a few weeks.

Now, sometimes older technology is nice but kind of pointless to use right? I mean who wants to use an old Macintosh 128k? Well, I should say it more like this" Who, besides the die hard Macintosh fans, would want to use an old Macintosh 128k?" right? There is a limit on old technology to me. While it may be fun to mess with something old like that, its not very useful.

One of these things that I love the form factor of is the Handheld PC line. These were pretty much a mutated offspring of a Laptop computer and a PDA. These can, however, be made quite useful if they made a little change here and there. Here is my proposed "Bloggers PDA" device.

Now, there is a device which we will use the basis from. This is the MobilePro 880 by NEC. Very similar to my 780 but with a 9.4" square 800x600 LCD. So, we will take the form factor of this including size. Now there is some stuff around the screen so lets up the size to 10" since I think it would fit. Also, replace the old DTSN screen with a newer and much nicer TFT. Lets also replace the CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent light) backlight with a nice LED backlight.

The next set of changes I would make is to use a faster 624MHZ XScale processor to speed it up. Lets also add some software that could use dynamic scaling to make it more power efficient. Lets also add a nice big LiPo (lithium Polymer) battery for a good battery life. Lets shoot for at the least 6 hours. This would be user replaceable, unlike a certain 1800 dollar base model MacBook Air.

Next, we will add a TrackPoint while retaining the touch screen. This would make it a bit more easy to use. This means that you don't need to pick up the stylus all the time. The dual pointing methods could also include a touchpad for wider range of user preferences like the IBM ThinkPads have now with the UltraNav system.

Now I did say this would be aimed at the blog user. So we will need a nice sized memory right? How does 4GB of internal flash sound? This may not seem like much at first but consider that it would also have CF, SD, and a PCMCIA CardBus slot. The CF slot would be a Type II and the CardBus slot a Type III. Why a Type III if most cards are Type II? A Type III slot will allow the use of two Type II cards at once.

Now, as this is being aimed at people on the move, we are going to need some sort of wireless communications right? Well, There would be 3 models of the device. One would be standard with WiFI G and Bluetooth. Thn you have the GSM and CDMA models which will have a cell phone in them with 3G speeds. Why 3 models? Not everyone wants the phone part so it would be something that could be removed easily or added later on if the user so chooses.

Now, of course we are going to need some good software right? Now we know XP will not run on a ARM based processor like the XScale. This means we will need to go with Windows CE or Linux. I personally vote for Windows CE. Now, on its own, Windows CE is not perfect so it will need some changes. Keeping Windows CE as the core, it needs a new name right? I was thinking something along the lines of Windows Portable Edition. I shall call this Windows PE from now on.

Windows PE would need to have some good features for a blogger right? Of course, a word processor is needed. The new word processor software would be based on Word 2007. This could be called Office Mini 2007. It would also have a "Publish to Blog" button of course. We also would have the full suite of basic office software since there will be other people who want this.

It would have a Mini edition of Windows Media Player 11 also for music and video playback needs. Now since we are dealing with a device with only 4GB of internal memory, which will be shared with software, we would need to use a codec for audio and video that takes up a smaller space as possible.

It would also have a decent browser such as FireFox 3 or Internet Explorer 7 to provide full internet including stuff like YouTube and flash games. There would also be a full Instant Messenger, SMS, and Email suite for communicating with friends. The instant messenger would be Pidgin of course. Now, since we have a full internet browser we will need to have an option for an external mouse right?

The device would have full USB 2.0 host and 2 ports. These would have full power so you can charge your MP3 player or cell phone over the battery if you so wish. There would also be a docking port on the bottom so you can add 4 more USB ports, LAN and VGA ports and a DVD RW drive. There would also be a second extended battery on this base. The base would be sold as an add on to keep costs low.

So there you have it, a PDA made for bloggers and normal people! Now, I know not many people would but this since PDA users are starting to become a technological minority lately with cell phone PDA users becoming a stronger force. I still like the classic PDA, sorry. I just don't see much need to cross the two together.

I wanted to do a rant about living in a world dominated by Apple but this entry is already quite big. Its almost 4 pages at this point and an anti Apple rant would probably add 3 more since we all know how much I can't stand Apple. I guess I could include it in tomorrows entry or another day maybe.

Now I would like to do some more normal blog stuff. I really love those noise canceling Sony headphones that I got for 40 bucks at RadioShack! They are pretty much perfect for car trips since I can use them to block out most everything. They also sound really good too. They are one pair of headphones that have good bass. It really is true that you get what you pay for an all.

I really am a Sony fan. When I look at all the Sony stuff I have, I need to laugh. I have had a PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP. I do have a Vaio desktop but not a laptop. I have 3 Clies and a lot of stuff for them that is Sony branded. I also have a NetMD and a Walkman MP3 and CD player. I use Sony headphones most of the time. I just need a Vaio laptop and a Bravia TV!

Speaking of TV… It will be 2 weeks Wednesday since I sent mine in to get fixed. I really hope to have it back soon since I want to use it as a monitor for that old Vaio. I decided to put the XP hard drive back into the ThinkPad since I will get my TV back soon. I can't say this on a forum because I would probably be killed but I will say it here.

I see Linux to be more of a hobby then an operating system. Sure you CAN get along without using Windows but no matter what, you need Windows for something in my opinion. Sure you can use different software but I always end up missing XP for some reason or another. I like to play with Linux but I don't think I could use only Linux. Linux just isn't really there yet in terms of user friendliness and hardware drivers. Maybe in a few years Linux will be the dominating operating system but I think Windows is here to stay!

Okay here is the chinchilla update. We ended up with 4 instead of the planned 2. We got a good deal though. So, here is the color and name list. I will take pictures when they settle in more.
Girl:
Kiki: light tan
Candy: beige
Boy:
Chilly: black ebony
ChinLee: dark tan

We had McDonalds for supper since we didn't have time to really eat with the whole chinchilla pickup thing. We also needed to get a second cage since we didn't count on getting 4! I will do the full teardown on the buggy tomorrow. The weather will be in the 50s.