Search results

  1. F

    Netbook for the wife

    To correct your error, here's a link to Sony's business unit. The X200 is a little too small and the X301 uses the SU CPUs. But trying out the 301 anyway, with a depot-only warranty, no optical drive (and no BD option at all), a slower CPU, worse GPU (the Vaio is switchable between integrated...
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    Netbook for the wife

    None of what I described was "pretty" with the possible exception of the screen. BTW they rate the extended battery at up to 11 hours, so 7-8 is probably actually doable on it. I understand your dislike for the brand based on past experience. I would hesitate on such a large purchase myself...
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    Netbook for the wife

    The Vaio Z series start at $1800. The base warrant includes on-site & toll-free support and they offer an international plan. The chassis has carbon fiber. You can order the clean start version for a crapware-free machine. The screen is 1600x900 and is scratch resistant. It has the TPM chip...
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    Netbook for the wife

    I know too many people that cannot get broadband due to cost or a simple lack of availability to think that downloads have a chance at replacing physical media. The future may simply be too fractured, with DVD, BD, and downloads each fighting for market share. Regardless, my personal purchase...
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    Netbook for the wife

    More like the "Executive" thin & light category. To me the garbage category is all of these notebooks with number pads and 16+ inch lo-res screens & super glossy chassis designs. I just about puke when I see those things. My personal laptop requirements are a bit different from my work laptop...
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    Netbook for the wife

    I'm not looking for software on BD. When I travel I like to grab 4-6 movies to have available in the hotel room. We currently buy a mix of DVD & BD but that will move towards BD almost exclusively over the coming months. So a laptop for me should have a BD drive in it or, possibly, no optical...
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    Netbook for the wife

    I wouldn't buy any new laptop without at least a BD-ROM drive. E-SATA doesn't count as I wouldn't want to haul an external drive on trips. BD capability is not so much for today but for 2-3 years from now when BD has taken over as the dominant media format. (I could be wrong and digital...
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    Firefox 3.5 is out.

    Well I see one bug in the display. Click a link to go to another page in the same tab and if the title bar is longer than the "Loading..." text, the text that was there before (the old title) is only overwritten with the "Loading..." portion; the text of the old page title after that is still...
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    Firefox 3.5 is out.

    Control-T and the new tab button behave as before, but if you click a link on a page that opens a new tab (say, the link in Merc's sig), the new tab is opened adjacent to the current tab, not to the far right.
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    SSDs - State of the Product?

    Some things arent arguable. SSDs consume less power, are quieter, generate less heat and as a consequence require less cooling. IOW they are less expensive to operate and lead to a more pleasant computing environment.
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    PCI-X SATA 2.0 Raid controller?

    On my rig*, IE8 loads & has the bloated Yahoo home page displayed in a hair over 2 seconds. Add/Remove takes about 2 seconds to load & fully populate. Word 2007 loads in around a second, as does Excel. Outlook (full, not Express) takes longer; maybe 3 seconds. Firefox is around 2 seconds...
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    Patch your D-Link Router

    It got the Feds attention. This was in my daily DHS Cyber Report email:
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    Small, quiet, low power rsync target

    I can understand why Merc doesn't like it as much. It's highly Windows-centric - there's no Mac or Linux widgets so you have to use their tools and do whatever passes for network backups, for instance. And most of all it's not designed as an administrator's server. It's designed for average...
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    Small, quiet, low power rsync target

    Windows Home Server (to avoid your initials..) uses Volume Shadow Copy to back up only the blocks that changed since the last backup. It does not do traditional image backups that I know of. Bare Metal restores are easy: Boot off the supplied restore CD, it finds the server, you pick the...
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    Merc's Useful Tools of the day

    As would CCleaner & MalwareBytes.
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    Small, quiet, low power rsync target

    If your workstations are mostly Windows, consider what I did and what MaxBurn mentioned - Windows Home Server. You get automated daily backups (incremental so they're fast), access to shared files over the 'net via "yourserver.homeserver.com" (it uses SSL and you create/manage the IDs), runs...
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    SSDs - State of the Product?

    What are you talking about?
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    Televisions as monitors: What are you using, and why?

    Vizio 32" 1080p 120Hz for $467 no rebates. Vizio 32" 1080p 60Hz for $448 no rebates. Toshiba 32" 1080p 60Hz for $450 no rebates. LG 32" 1080p for $460 no rebates. I didn't see the refresh rate. That rebate at CostCo only makes the price competitive; not particularly superior.
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    Small, quiet, low power rsync target

    nVidia's site doesn't list chipset drivers but they must be out there since Ion-based Linux devices exist.
  20. F

    Small, quiet, low power rsync target

    Shove this in an ITX case. Sample build.
  21. F

    Blu-Ray

    Ditto.
  22. F

    Simple video editing and DVD authoring

    We've been looking for video editing software as well. I'll have my wife try Nero Vision since she already has the Nero suite installed. Cyberlink's PowerDirector has also been recommended by one of her online friends who makes the occasional YouTube video.
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    NSK2400 build notes

    It's called a "gravity reset". :aok:
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    Televisions as monitors: What are you using, and why?

    FYI the follow-up series "life" is coming in March. And "planet earth: Extremes" is running now, although it seems to be existing p.e. footage with Mike Rowe narrating.
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    RIP Anabelle

    Doug, the bad thing about the keycaps wearing off is that's it's easily avoidable by painting the inside instead of the outside. They cheaped out either on the engineering or the manufacturing. :nono: Otherwise I would probably be typing this message from a Saitek right now. LM, I agree...
  26. F

    Blu-Ray

    Yeah, and BDs that I play on my wife's laptop load quite fast as well. But standalone players don't seem to come with C2D and C2Q processors. Although our Samsung does have 1 or 2GB of RAM (can't recall which).
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    RIP Anabelle

    Heh. Shows you how much I use the top row other than the light button. Yeah, mine has it but I don't think I've ever used it.
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    RIP Anabelle

    FN-Pause/Break = Scroll Lock.
  29. F

    Blu-Ray

    I think you just answered your original question. Stick with DVD until you have a reason to go Blu-ray; probably couple the purchase with an HDTV. Updates and firmwares will continue and if you don't buy now, the player you buy later will have more and better features. For instance, a...
  30. F

    RIP Anabelle

    I was really hesitant to give up the Insert key to be honest, but in the end I can't say I've missed it. The times I actually hit Insert are so few that doing Num Luck - Keypad 0 - Num Lock isn't too much to ask. Well under once a month. If you pick up the keyboard you can certainly flex it...
  31. F

    RIP Anabelle

    I had the same thoughts about the size of the Logitech gaming keyboards, but I still wanted an illuminated one. After eliminating Saitek from my list because the keycaps were painted on the outside & could wear off, I went with this Logitech.
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    RIP Anabelle

    I just do KM (not V) and use Synergy. While Synergy works through Win7, development stopped pre-Vista. It appears that Synergy+ is being actively worked on, though. Maybe I'll give it a look. So, what keyboard & mouse are you looking at as replacements?
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    SSDs - State of the Product?

    I fail to get only about 1 in 20 rebates myself so it's worth it for me to send them in. They're the icing on the cake to me; I don't buy unless the pre-rebate price is already acceptable. Right now I've 3 rebates in process, one for the Vertex 120 I recently picked up.
  34. F

    Windows Home Server / Home Server OS

    To restore a client, you boot the client off a recovery CD that comes with WHS. It finds the server and you restore from there. Assuming the recovery CD has network drivers, it's about a 4 click process to recover a client. For the server, I haven't done it yet but from what I gather you...
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    Windows Home Server / Home Server OS

    AFAIK OEM is the only outlet for WHS. As to OS restore, from here:Users can perform a Windows Home Server reinstallation using the Server Restore DVD. This will keep all existing files and the storage pool intact. Simply insert the DVD into a home computer that is attached via Ethernet cable to...
  36. F

    Televisions as monitors: What are you using, and why?

    We opted for the Discovery Channel/US version of Planet Earth. The only difference is Sigourney Weaver narrates instead of that British guy. After listening to both versions, I prefer her voice to his. Odd thing is the BBC version is the only one I've ever seen in stores. You have to buy the...
  37. F

    New Laptop Bag

    Speaking of gear toting, does anyone have a SCOTTEVEST?
  38. F

    Online backup

    You can get a 250GB external drive for $60 delivered. No recurring fees although you would want to move it off-site; maybe just put it in your car each morning. My concerns with the online backup services are twofold: 1. Their viability as a profitable company. Will they be around when you...
  39. F

    Online contacts or address book?

    I write 4 or 5 checks a month. I can write a check faster than I can log in to an online account and navigate screens. I have set my mortgage to auto-pay and will do so with my car payment but otherwise I don't see much advantage to online banking.
  40. F

    New Laptop Bag

    True, although as you mention ships are too slow considering how much vacation we get. The train is a good idea. Some friends took a train from Chicago to Texas in 2008 and boarded a cruise ship there. They flew home, but could have taken the train if they had an extra day or two. They...
  41. F

    New Laptop Bag

    Thanks. He's 80 years old and this wasn't unexpected, but the past couple of months things have been happening too fast for us to adjust. He's off all meds except pain killers and is starting hospice care. A smoker for over 60 years, there's a large mass in one lung and he has an enlarged...
  42. F

    New Laptop Bag

    I would think "highly ineffective" would be redundant when talking about the TSA. :compress: Along with my siblings I am flying this weekend to visit my father who will probably pass within the next few weeks. After I return I will really, really try to not fly again. I'm sure it won't be...
  43. F

    Online contacts or address book?

    For both work (Exchange) and Gmail I'll often just compose a draft message and save it. Drafts persist across sessions and machine so they can be stored forever and viewed/updated from any PC or my smartphone.
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    New Laptop Bag

    I went the backpack route. Got a $30 or $40 leather Samsonite at their outlet store a couple of years ago and it's held up well for the daily to-and-from the office. For distance traveling I use a wheeled backpack. It sucks as a backpack but it has wheels and a telescoping handle and a...
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    Network

    dd, it sounded to me more like (Router C) --WiFi -- (Computer A) -- wired Ethernet -- (Computer B). If A loses internet connectivity when B is plugged in to A then it's most likely a subnet issue and A is somehow thinking B is the default gateway.
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    Online contacts or address book?

    If it's the only thing you carry, then it's not strange at all. But if you're also carrying a portable electronic device - cell phone, pager, PDA, laptop, etc. - then why carry more than one device? The advantages of convergence can lighten your load. The penalty is typically having to...
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    Memory & Hard drives

    Programs are always copied. In fact, there's no guarantee the entire program is ever read into memory as the OS may page in the portions that are needed as they are called for. Data files are usually opened. Which means the program can read and optionally write to the file (there are usually...
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    Online contacts or address book?

    Palm webOS Synergy. It seamlessly merges my contacts from Exchange, Gmail, FaceBook, and LinkedIn into a single contact list on the phone. Duplicates are automatically merged together so someone who I have as a contact on LinkedIn and in Exchange only shows once. Updates are synced...
  49. F

    Small build

    Yes, and it works great except for her laptop. Reading Wikipedia, it seems the abliity to do wireless WOL depends on the WiFi chipset.
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    Small build

    I use sleep on my wife's laptop & my work laptop. Sleep works fine with McAfee's disk encryption (formerly SafeBoot). I haven't tried hibernate; I've little use for it. Only problem I've noticed is my wife's laptop doesn't do a wake-on-LAN over wireless for it's nightly backup to WHS...
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