I have been reading about netbooks as of late. For me, the thought of an ultra portable laptop that will allow me to access the internet and use tools like ssh to manage linux systems sounds like a great idea. If you add Bluetooth support, I will be able to tether my AT&T Tilt to the netbook and use my netbook anywhere I have cell coverage!
Over the last 2 months I have researched many netbooks and with my brother in-laws input, I decided on and MSI WIND u100. Ultimately I went with the WIND over the HP mini because of disk size and price. For $439, I purchased the MSI WIND u100 (black) with 1GB of memory, 160GB hard drive, Bluetooth, Windows XP, and an upgraded 6 cell battery. The HP maxes out at 60GB hard drive and they only offer a 3 cell battery.
I plan on testing the usibilty, battery life, video playback, etc. I will post a 2-3 part review in the coming weeks. If you have someting specific you want me to review on the device, please let me know.
Excuse me while I get my inner geek on.
I had Red Hat system that needed to be upgrade from running Ruby 1.8.5 to Ruby 1.8.6. Unfortunately, Red Hat really lags in releasing RPM’s for many packages, and Ruby is one of the packages.
Now I have drunk the Red Hat RPM Kool-aid. IMHO using RPM’s on your system is the only sane way to manage a Red Hat based system. Compiling from source is ugly and hard to manage in the long run.
I called tech support (google.com) and found an RPM based solution to upgrade, but I ran into a few problems that I could find no solution for through “tech support” I am going to walk you through installing ruby 1.8.6 on a Red Hat system using RPM’s and solving a little issue after you have installed it.
Read more…
I have read MANY advertisements for Cyberpowerpc.com, though I have never paid much attention to them. I generally buy high-end Dell PC’s, or I build my own. I read MaximumPC magazine religously and I was surprised to see the high marks they gave the CyberPower Gamer Ultimate SLI QUAD. I currently have an aging home built dual core E6700 oc’d to 3.06Ghz with an NVidia 8800Ultra. One of the biggest issues I run into is drive performance, since I am running dual 400GB drives in a RAID-1 configuration. My ASUS mobo basically sucks and the RAID performance really sucks. I am going to turn this box into my new sever at home.
Back to my CyberpowerPC.com story. I spent the last few weeks pricing out rigs and looking at many PC manufactures, I also looked at parts to build my own. I came to the conclusion that I could buy a system from CyberpowerPC.com cheaper than I could build one, plus I get VIsta (I already have XP for a new PC if I need it) and some nice freebies. Read more…
I have really enjoyed my blogging experience to date. I have installed WordPress many times in the past, but someone else set the site up. When my friend Matt built my hockey team website (tnt-hockey.com) with WordPress, I figured it was time to learn how to USE WordPress (You know this if you have been following the site for more than 9 days!).
Today I was chatting with Matt and he was complaining about how Godaddy’s web hosting service kind of sucked for WordPress. Things like ftp uploads did not set permissions correctly on his files and permalink redirects taking 3+ hours to change.
I have a GoDaddy virtual server running CentOS (which effectively is my own Linux server on the Internet). I offered to let Matt use my server for his blog. I did this because he is a friend; it will not cost me anything; he turned me on to WordPress; and he did build a pretty awesome hockey site. Read more…
I admit it, I am a phone geek. I love my phone and the accessibility a well designed phone gives me and the productivity lifts I enjoy from said phone. I have been using an AT&T Tilt aka: 8925 aka: HTC Kaiser. The stock windows mobile 6.0 ROM is really quite terrible, but with a custom cooked WM 6.1ROM, the phone is quite excellent. It does just about everything I need it to do. With the new Opera Mobile Browser, the browsing functionality is more akin to the Iphone.
6 Weeks ago, my boss decided he needed a new phone. While he was happy with his Samsung Blackjack, he wanted an Iphone. I ordered him one and went ahead and ordered one for myself. My IT guys support everyone else, but my boss views me as his own personal IT person, so I figured I might as well be familiar with the device and I thought it would be nice to eliminate the need to carry my trusty Ipod Nano. Here is what I found:
Pros:
- The web browser is totally AWESOME! Opera is nice, but I never have experienced such seamless web browsing from a mobile device.
- The new Exchange plug-in is pretty, reading email and displaying attachments is pretty darned slick.
- Once you get the hang of the layout, it is fairly easy to navigate the phone.
Cons:
- You MUST have Itunes to activate your Iphone (We have a corporate account, so we did not need to go to an AT&T or Apple store). This is a pain in the butt in a corporate environment. There really are no management tools for Itunes, so I doubt these phone will make it across our corporation.
- No wonder there is a program called “jail break”. I felt like I was in jail using this phone! There are limited applications (most a not free), you can not edit Word documents, Excel files, etc. etc.
- Notes do not sync with Outlook, that totally sucks
- The phone crashes more often than my Windows Based phone (WOW!!)
- The Ipod functionality IMHO sucks, I prefer the interface of the wheel over the touch interface.
- I could find no functional voice dialing option. I love Microsoft Voice Command, it works in conjunction with my Motorola H700 Bluetooth head set seamlessly (until the H700 died last week!)
- You cannot add attendees to a meeting you set up on your Iphone (total suck)
All and all, I liked the Iphone, but not enough to keep it. If you want a read only device that displays thinks beautifully and you do not need a mobile computing platform, the Iphone is the bomb. If you need a mobile computing platform, the Tilt with a custom ROM is AWESOME. I can recommend a ROM if you want!