Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream.
Discover.
– Mark Twain
One of the things that the internet allows almost everyone is the ability to express their opinion in a venue that others can “hear”.
Just do an internet search on almost anything you can think of… you’ll find reviews, comments, rants, and sometimes raves!
While you rarely know anything about the individual who wrote the posting, from a well thought out post you can gather some important questions to get the answers to before making a decision, so as a tool for an informed consumer the internet can be invaluable not only in locating the “best” prices, but also in finding the “best” products and “best” vendors!
It only takes a little effort to learn a great deal about any good or service you’re considering — it’s totally up to you whether you make an informed decision or just wing it.
Everyone’s making them and they come in really handy…
Basically they’re devices you can use to access a bare hard drive. Most of them supports PATA and SATA 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives (though some vendors require a bunch of adapters to do it). The APRICORN DriveWire unit is clean and simple and priced around $30 (use a price search engine) or less.
I was so happy to find these units that I purchased two of them and gave away my previous ones made by another vendor.
If you’re going to routinely swap drives on and off a computer, and don’t want to spring for an external case you might be better off with a hard drive dock also available for about $30, but they don’t support PATA (PATA is not hot swapable).
If you’re going to use these units to upgrade a computer’s hard drive, remember Acronis TrueImage is a great tool (you can find shareware and OpenSource tools as well — but TrueImage is well worth the price and has many additional features that you’ll likely find useful).
Over the past couple weeks I’ve had to “reactivate” two copies of Vista; now I did update the video cards and the optical drive (which is likely what triggered it), but interestingly enough, these are the two oldest copies of Vista (the first two computers installed with it).
It’s not difficult…
You try the online activation, it fails.
You call the automated telephone activation system, it fails.
You request a transfer to a Microsoft activation specialist, you read them the codes, answer a couple simple questions, and they give you the activation code which you type in and then you’ve activated.
Hopefully my activation is good for another twenty months (or more)!
NOTE: While I’m sure that changing the hardware triggered this, I suspect that Microsoft has implemented a more rigorous inspection of the computer fingerprint to defeat bulk copies of Vista by questionable computer manufactures.
I purchased a MSI Wind U100 a couple weeks ago for an “on-the-go” computer.
At $299 plus $99 for a 2.5″ SATA2 500GB Seagate hard drive and $15 for an additional 1GB of DDR2 it’s a fairly economical solution to use to browse the web on the go, send/receive email, mapping, GPS, music and videos, contacts, date book, etc.
I looked at all the options, but I choose this one because I wanted 2GB of memory (most of them come with only 512MB built in so you can only have 1.5GB total and a couple only allow 1GB total).
The Atom N270 processor is by no means a top performer, but it does a fairly good job and mine is running Vista Home Premium with no issues at all (it ships with Windows XP Home).
The only thing I dislike about it is the fact that the keyboard is so small; but if you want a small notebook you’re going to have to live with a small keyboard!
No one computer is right for everyone, so you’ll have to decide what’s right for your particular needs, what your intended use is, and your budget. There are actually models of netbooks you can purchase with an AT&T wireless modem installed for $99 (of course you have a two year contract your saddled with).
Bigger than a PDA, but far more flexible!
I have computers running Windows (most flavors), OS-X, Linux, and BSD (or we could generically call those *nix) — and have had computers running SunOS, Solaris, and OSF… so I consider myself well versed in operating systems from a user standpoint (and a developer standpoint as well).
Recently I took a look at how practical each of the “popular” choices were as a desktop environment for what I would consider an average user; and I set the goals of an average user to be:
And I looked at Windows (Vista Ultimate, but for this much would apply to XP as well), OS-X, and Ubuntu Linux (I felt that was a good distribution for an average user).
On email, managing contacts and schedules, browsing the internet, and office tasks I would say that all three of the operating systems were reasonably equal… very few real differences in capabilities or ease of use (both Vista and OS-X have option for commercial as well as free software; on Ubuntu only free software was used). For multimedia both Vista and OS-X were far better than Ubuntu (yes, Ubuntu could do most everything the other two could do, but the software was very piece meal, and didn’t “fit” well with the rest of the system). For managing finances all of them had non-commercial and commercial solutions and depending on your needs whether any or all of them would be sufficient.
Vista
Microsoft’s current Windows operating system for desktop PCs. Vista is well suited for most tasks an average user is likely to do. Since the cost of Vista is included in most PC purchases only upgraded expenses need to be considered (this isn’t true if you’re building your own PC from parts — but if you’re recycling an old PC it may already have a license for Windows). The cost of a PC does not generally include an office suite. There’s a host of free software that you can use if you elect no to purchase additional software from Microsoft.
OS-X
Apple’s current operating system for Macs. OS-X is well suited for most tasks an average user is likely to do. Since the cost of OS-X is included in Mac purchases only upgrade expenses need to be considered. The cost of the mac might include iLife, but not iWorks. There’s a host of free software that you can use if you elect not to purchase additional software from Apple.
Ubuntu
Provided you have a way to download Ubuntu and burn it onto installation media (CD) there’s no cost in acquiring it. If you have very old hardware using Ubuntu (or a lighter weigth Linux) might be the only option you really have — but my comparison here is not based on what’s cheapest, it’s what’s reasonable. Most all of what you will need will be installed with the operating system. There’s a host of free software that you can use by simply downloading it.
Observations:
Conclusions:
For most computer users I’d recommend that you consider using either Vista or OS-X for your computing needs. Leave Ubuntu (and other *nix based operating systems) to more experienced computer users who have a “need” for it. I suspect that we’ll see improvements in the cohesiveness of non-commercial operating system, but for the moment they just aren’t ready for prime time.
That’s what I have to say to the Christmas gluttony of retail insanity!
This time of year should be about making sure that everyone has enough rather than making sure a few have more than they need.
Stop pending money that you probably don’t have on gifts that others probably don’t need, and focus on helping those around you live with dignity.
Take back the holiday season, stop supporting the retail sector, and start supporting your neighbors and neighborhood!
Irregardless of what star, moon, or heavenly body you look to for inspiration, or what deity or faith guides your life… may this season bring peace and happiness to all, and to all a good night!.
Yesterday Microsoft made some significant changes to the order policies for Windows XP; while they did not extend the January 31, 2009 cut-off date for ordering licenses for Windows XP, they are allowing distributors to schedule delivery for their final orders over time — until 30 May, 2009. More importantly, distributors will not have to pay for the licenses until they take possession of them.
There’s no way of telling if Microsoft will further extend Windows XP availability, they’ve already extended availability to larger computer manufacturers and OEMs by six months (until 31 July, 2009); and Microsoft has allowed the sale of Windows XP on low-end notebooks until 30 June, 2010.
Currently Windows XP “outsells” Windows Vista about 3-to-1 so it’s obvious that Microsoft isn’t convinced they can maintain the current sales volume by forcing Windows Vista onto consumers and businesses.
Vista may well become a collector’s items — and maybe earn the nick-name of the Windows that never was…
Whether you have a Windows PC, a Mac, or a *nix box, the one thing you’ll have a headache with is all the cables.
And for those of you who try to say you don’t — all I’ve got to say in The Nile ain’t just a river in Egypt!
There are all kind of products sold on the market to manage the cables on your computer, and many of them will make it look better, but most of them just make it that much harder to do anything with them — so if you’ve got an Architectural Digest shoot coming up you might want to run out and buy one of those, but for those of you who just want to get a handle on the cables I’ve found something that might help.
What I’ve started doing is taking a couple (sometimes three) Velcro ties and bundling all the cables that come out of the back of the computer for about a foot to a foot and a half… what that does is it keeps them together and out of the way for sliding the computer back and forth, but doesn’t create a nightmare every time you need to do something.
You want to make sure that you allow all the cables to gently bend into the bundle (not sharp kinks — it’s just not good for the cables of the connectors), and make sure that there’s reasonable clearance behind the computer (if not, you can bend the bundle to one side).
The Velcro ties are fairly inexpensive, and you can get them at office stores, dollar stores, etc.
