Month: June 2013

I went laptop scouting again after work today.

I’m not really seriously looking at another laptop yet, although if the right deal appears I’ll consider it. But I would like to see what’s available out there. To be honest, while the current crop of laptops exhibit their own brand of shininess, they’ve lost something.

10-15 years ago, laptops used to make a big thing out of flexibility. They’d be built around modular bays which could hold cd drives, floppy drives, batteries, hard discs. If you didn’t need the cd, you could swap it out for a spare battery. They were based on Windows XP, which is still the best OS Microshaft have come out with.

It used to be fairly easy to get to expansion ports to add memory or functionality like Bluetooth, even if that tended to be frustrated by manufacturers filling up all the slots before you bought the machine. The key thing is that you would be allowed into your device in order to improve it.

That modularity is all gone now.

If I look at the Acer manufacturer site or at Dell, I can’t check whether there’s a spare slot for something like a PCIe or mSATA card. What I would like to do is to buy the cheapest laptop I can find which meets the minimum spec. It’s really not worth spending the extra cash on functionality you don’t need and performance is a red herring. Save your cash for things like really matter.

Aside – I would say “like Pick N Mix” there – but that’s an indulgence that I’ve had to ban myself from :-(. Even though the shop is still extremely tempting.

Where was I ? I’d like to buy my cheap laptop and add one of these to it : Little Crucial SSD drive. The idea is that the Little SSD drive sits between the laptop and the big hard disc with everything on it. It stores the most used bits and pieces. So the bits that make Windows go would be on it, Outlook and Skype (bleh) would be on it, the iTunes application and Firefox would be on it but the individual files of the massive music library wouldn’t be used enough.

What does that actually achieve ? It speeds up a machine considerably. A curse of Microshaft systems since Vista got inflicted on us is a crippling of the disc interface. Windows became Windoze as we had to wait for the hard disc all the time. The Little SSD drive (on newer systems) cuts out that wait time totally. Some laptops, like my mum’s, have one already.

So that’s what I’d like to do – take a cheap laptop and turn it into something that flies.

However – I’m frustrated by :
Acer’s website not letting you compare models easily and without clicking on each one (Dell’s is like that too)
Not having a clue whether the expansion capability is part of the laptop

Not got enough intelligence to answer that question at the moment. It’s not a question you could ask in store either, because the most informative answer you’d get is a blank look. Unless it’s PC World where you’d get a “sure it can, you wanna have fries with that too ?”

Bit of sun,

Bit of warmth,

Lots of fresh air,

It can really make you feel so much better.

Played cricket again tonight 🙂 This time it was an away game at a ground I’ve not been to before. It’s out in the country, so no red buildings to lose sight of the ball in. There was also a clubhouse, that’s rarer than you think and almost unheard of at urban grounds because the vandals burn them down. This was happily out of their range though.

To be honest, I didn’t enjoy the first two games of this season. It was so cold that my muscles never warmed up, so I was a Petecicle out in the field. Could barely move. And for someone who’s used to being Zebedee on the field, that’s incredibly frustrating.

Tonight was far better. I was able to keep legging it around, poaching some fielding from other players on the team. That kind of thing can work out well for you, the batsmen stopped thinking about runs when the ball was in my fielding arc. They were believing the “he looks fast, maybe he’s actually does some good, let’s not take him on”.

It helped us keep the scoring tight, although the ground helped more there. The wicket was awkward to score on plus I’m sure that at least once, a hand reached up from under the grass and went “Ball ? you’re going nowhere”. Lots of shots were stopping short of the fence.

How’d I do tonight ?

I really enjoyed it. I dropped one definite catch (need new glasses) but took another catch. I technically had a chance for another catch but it would have been Catch Of The Season material. It was hit powerfully and was in my reach down to my left. If I’d got a paw there, I’d have been fingertips in the grass while catching the ball. But … it was in my reach so I consider it a chance, even if County standard cricketers (who practice) would have thought themselves lucky to catch it.

I’m quite self criticizing in the field. If the ball is in my reach, I think I should be stopping it despite being a lot slower than I was even just a couple of years ago. I think I should be taking all the catching chances too. I need new glasses for definite there, as depth perception is at about 95%. That’s pretty good but the 5% is the difference between thinking a ball is going to knock your teeth out and that ball actually coming to you much more gently.

We won tonight 🙂

I didn’t need to bat, which I’m quite happy about. If the side wins without me slowing them down, that’s a win for the team. I get my kicks nowadays from pinning my ears back and running Very Fast.

I’ve mostly survived unscathed, with tonight’s damage being :
Calf muscles to monitor (because they were tending towards cramp)
Very sore thumb (hyperextended from a dropped catch)
The usual skin issues (my cricket jumper damaged one of the patches that’s healing slower than the rest)
And there were a few things from the fielding that I need to improve – getting to the ball is one thing, you actually have to get a good release on it too to save runs. I got one threatening release away, which may have got a run out, but that was messed up by our keeper. Ho hum.

But yeah – that’s another game played in a period where just 2 months ago, I’d pretty much given up on having the chance.

Or the credit card at least.

Thinking about spending cash again … This time it would be on a laptop because mine has been suffering almost as much as me from my skin condition. Plus I think recent software updates courtesy of Microsoft being idiots and destroying their own software have led to both laptop and desktop being less stable.

What’s the most important thing to consider buying computer hardware ? You’ll be surprised at my opinion there :

Processor – not relevant. Whatever you get now will be superpowered compared to what you had before and you just won’t use it. My next laptop will have more processing power than my gaming desktop (cos you can’t buy less now) but I’ll only use it for web browsing, iTunes streaming, Skype (bleh), email and a few other low requirement things. The hardest thing that it’ll be used for is TV on Demand streaming – that’s too intensive for my current laptop.

Memory – minimum of 4GB now because of Microsoft being unable to write efficient software.

Disc – in a desktop you can play a bit but there isn’t the space in a laptop to fit the 2 drives that make this desktop go Very Fast. My mum’s new Acer has 2 drives (and flies) but that comes at a cost. You’re better off not paying the premium.

Graphics – as long as it can play HD video, fine. Gaming with complex 3d graphics is something that laptops shouldn’t have to be subjected to. That said, my next laptop may be subjected to a little Defense Grid.

So that’s the major performance things marked as – Irrelevant, ignorable, too much compromise and “limited is fine”.

What is the thing to think about most when buying computer kit ?

Time. Definitely time.

Computer kit has a tendency to operate in stages. There are 3 major manufacturers out there who set the tone for the most expensive bits of a PC. Intel make almost all the processors that get sold. nVidia make high end graphics cards. AMD make an effort at keeping Intel honest with processors (and by doing so, drive Intel to keep their development going) and since acquiring ATI, they make high end graphics bits too.

Most of the kit we get is based off the same design. This desktop has an i5-2500K and the only difference between that and the more expensive i7-2700K was that the i7 had a few performance widgets turned on. They’d be present in my i5 chip, just not turned on (that bit of the chip probably failed tests).

It’s similar with graphics. One card may have the same processor design as the next one up in the range, just that 1/8 of the processor is disabled. Possibly for the same reason as before, that bit of the chip failed the testing.

The key is that Design Stage. It tends to operate in steps and we’re seeing two steps coming imminently :

Graphics – there’s a new nVidia design coming out, the 770 and 780 cards. That’s 2 generations ahead of what I have, so my curiosity is sitting up and paying attention. The curiosity goes back to sleep though when it sees benchmarks that don’t show it to be significantly better than the last generation. It’s also cost prohibitive.

Intel chips – there’s a new one coming … These tend to be faster and cooler than what came before. Both things which count as Very Good Things with PCs. I believe the new one is called Haswell and is coming out within a month, although I haven’t caught any good articles about what it is yet. Here’s a Tomshardware article on it.

Ok – your techie alarm went off ages ago and you’re asking “Relevance ?”

Everybody wants the latest shiny. The retailers want the latest shiny on their shelves. However … the retailers also want to get what they have now off their shelves to make room for the new stuff.

This can be a good time to buy. However … Remember the following :

Procrastination can be a good thing. If you don’t need to buy now, wait for better kit and better deals.
It’s not in a retailer’s interest to tell you that you could buy better in a month. They want your money now.
Before a design change step, retailers want you to buy stuff they don’t want to return later and will try to entice you in with deals.
But – what’s left on the shelf is what noone else wanted to buy.
Don’t jump for any old thing, keep your quality control (see end).
A new generation tends to come with bugs … beware.

Only buy if you think you’re getting value.

Ok – all that said, what am I currently looking at ? I have 3 requirements :
Made by Acer – because the family has owned a string of them and they have (mostly!) survived. The only casualties were my mum’s which broke the power connector and my dad’s which had a critical software failure. We could possibly have rebuilt it, given time … but we don’t get that much time to visit. And it was coming up to his birthday anyway – lol.
Touchscreen – yeah, it’s a gimmick and I won’t use it much but. It’s SHINY !!!!!
At least 15″ screen – I like my 17″ Acer but somehow I don’t think fashion will let me get a 17″ touchscreen because fashion doesn’t like massive laptops.

I have my eye on something like : Acer Aspire V5-531P (Amazon link). But I’ll keep my options open. Acer have a few interesting designs coming – I’d avoid getting a separate tablet (I don’t see the purpose) but if my next laptop could become a tablet, I’d be interested. I’d use the tablet mode for web browsing and other “sit and watch it” activities but not for writing blog posts.

Warning – This post is in huge danger of going off at a tangent.

And it wouldn’t be a good one – I try to avoid negative thoughts because they tend to be very self reinforcing. My own state tends to work like that, people with depressive tendencies will recognise it too. The particular negative this time around isn’t something I’d want to put here anyway, it’s an over a coffee thing to people I trust completely (and I can only think of 4 people I’d count there).

Where’s the memories coming from this time ? These go back 30 years !

And they’re actually mostly good ones.

I’ve been watching the Superman movies again. It’s partly in anticipation of the new one coming, I have mixed expectations there as most of the remakes to come out lately have been ok. There have been stinkers like Total Recall but that didn’t have great material to work off in the first place. I’m on the third at the moment.

Christopher Reeve’s defining role will always be Superman, although he did massive things for disability later in life. It’s a shame his accident left him the way it did and took him from us much earlier than it should have. We’ll always remember him as Superman. And the defining memory there will be of the flight with Lois Lane in the first movie.

Superman 1 – great movie. The effects are looking incredibly dated and the Luthorian sidekick was appalling but it’s still very watchable today.
Superman 2 – follows straight on from the first and it’s still pretty good. It’s a more serious movie than the first, although it still has its lighthearted moments. Still an excellent movie, I enjoyed this one again the other day.

Superman 3 – oh dear. There’s lots of series I enjoy but there’s some where I avoid watching or reading bits of them again :
Star Trek V The Final Frontier
Lord of the Rings where Frodo & Sam are in the Marshes (depressing)
Star Wars books by Kevin J Anderson
Formula 1 in the ITV years
Doctor Who in the Sylvester McCoy years
Any Transformers movie done by Michael Bay
Stargate SG-1 seasons 9 and 10 (maybe – they have their moments, like all the ones with Claudia Black)
You get the picture. Superman 3 has its moments but right from the start, it goes for sad attempts at slapstick humour which really don’t work. They insult the viewer. Richard Pryor is a great actor but is wasted here. Lois Lane is criminally underused. The script is appalling.

It’s just a really bad movie – a product of its time. And when I do the box set thing again, I’ll most likely skip it.

Talking of a product of its time – Superman IV was born in the era where we’d finally got our leaders to listen and reduce the nuclear weapon stockpiles. I’ve only seen this one once, so I’ll be curious about watching it again.

Superman Returns makes up the last of the box set, with Brandon Routh being an excellent stand in for the original legend. This one’s a great movie too, I’ll be looking forward to watching it again.

Where’s the dim and distant memory come in ?

My cinema going habit started early. And then it had a massive break. I went to primary school over in Northern Ireland, which was great. The school was excellent and got me a couple of years ahead of where the equivalent school in England was. But we came back (followed the work) when I switched from primary to secondary school.

One thing Ireland had was a good cinema … My dad took me to see films like E.T. and Return Of The Jedi. This was at a time when Star Wars movies were a staple event of Xmas and Empire Strikes Back had just started showing on telly. I think it was before VCRs too (maybe).

One of those films was Superman 3. Strangely, I can’t remember it being as bad as it actually is. I suspect my 9 year old brain was doing a lot of filtering …

The important thing is – my dad took me to see it. I wonder where that tendency I have of not wanting to see films at the cinema on my own came from ? Oh – one reason why we stopped going to the cinema in England was that the local cinema was a hicksville type that got its movies 6 months after the rest of the world. You could watch some off video (rented from Blockbuster!) before they got to our cinema.

PS Still wouldn’t mind seeing Iron Man 3 again.