Mac or PC?

A couple of months ago, as my work laptop was due for replacement, I struggled with the decision of which laptop I should request next. The options were somewhat limited to a couple of Windows machines, and a couple of MacBooks. For years I have resisted the Apple temptation, and faithfully stuck with Windows. In the last couple of years, though, more and more of my friends and colleagues have made the move to a Mac and keep exalting its qualities.

SSD Woes

About a year ago I upgraded the SSD on my laptop to one with more capacity. The original was very small and within a couple of months was bursting by the seams. The new SSD, from Crucial, offered 512GB at a reasonable price, and it certainly improved the overall usefulness of the laptop. A few months ago, I started having some issues that I initially assumed were caused by some OS problem.

Delivery Times... Last Episode!

For all those hanging in the suspense of my Lenovo delivery... let your hearts be still! It has now been delivered!!! Yesterday, 29 November 2010. They sure took their time.

What surprises me the most is that everyone involved seemed to think this was just natural and nothing wrong was going on. The supplier now changes the delivery date for sometime next week, for the umpteenth time, and that's just normal. No problem!

Am I getting too demanding in my old age? Oh, well, just happy I've got it now. Time to set it up the way I like it so I can actually start using it. First impression is... wow!! I have never seen a computer boot this fast, and it's got Windows 7 Enterprise (same stuff as in the Ultimate flavor), Office 2010, anti-virus, firewall and a growing collections of applications installed. I will do a proper review as soon as I get the time to play with it.

Future of Storage

For years and years the main storage device in a computer hasn't changed much. Removable storage, in the last 30 years, has gone from floppy disks holding 1.44 MB to Blue Ray discs holding 128 GB (BDXL), with many options available both in the past and the present, like CDs, DVDs, USB drives, etc. For a computer main storage device, though, we have been stuck with Hard Disk Drives (HDD) since they came up.

Huge little speakers!

Picture this... you go to a customer to present a service or product, and have a nice PowerPoint presentation ready to show. It even includes a video with other satisfied customers testimonial or a positive review taken from YouTube. Another scenario... you are teaching a lesson or training a group of executives and have decided to show off your new iPhone ability to show video, and even took the adapter that allows you to connect the phone to the multimedia projector.

Can  you picture that?

Well, when you are about to start you realize the sound coming from the laptop or the iPhone/smartphone speakers is not nearly enough, and there are no speakers in sight!

Tablets and the iPad

For a very long time tablet computers made tentative entries in the computer market, but never caught the consumer's attention. Sony launched a pretty impressive one that I tried in one of the stores at the Heathrow airport while waiting for a flight, and I always wondered why in the world people wouldn't go crazy about these futuristic devices. Well, that is until Apple got in the game, of course. Apple launched the iPad, and all of a sudden everyone and their cat (literally, there was actually news of a guy who bought one for the cat... anyway) had one! For once, I thought this was a bad idea! I could understand the "coolness" of having an iPad, but the practicality of its use eluded me. Not powerful enough to be a full fledged computer, and too big to be portable.

Man, was I wrong!