Posts about hardware, software, or the tech industry itself
…but you can’t fault my persistence. I have managed to break my main PC again. The exact same cause: once again, I decided to try putting my machine in standby after an update. And once again, when the machine came out of standby, it horrendously corrupted my ATI SATA RAID array (of Western Digital Raptor drives). Exactly the same steps, exactly the same results.
There is a sub-class of computer enthusiasts who build extreme gaming rigs. They do crazy things like refrigeration for cooling, and spend thousands of dollars to squeeze an extra 5% of performance out of their computer.
Apple learned a great deal from the battery complaints that users had about the early iPods. First, instead of just making it challenging to get at the battery in the iPhone, they have actually soldered it in. Second, they have announced the battery replacement cost and policy almost concurrent with the release of the phone itself (Apple: iPhone Battery Replacement Plan Details – Gizmodo ).
I’ve been working a lot lately, scrambling to catch up with some application programming work. Part of this is a result of being behind the technological curve in terms of the particular programming environment I’m working in (J2EE/WebSphere/Hibernate/Spring). Suffice it to say I’ve been working some overtime.
I mentioned some months ago that I was experimenting with Windows Live Writer. This is an off-line blog editor, somewhat like Ecto or Qumana. I’ve been quietly using the Beta 1 version ever since, and have been very happy with its functionality.
I mentioned in my review of the iLiad a week or so ago that I was experiencing some problems with the CF memory card I bought not being consistently recognized. About 50% of the time I started up the iLiad, my PYN 8GB Compact Flash memory card would not appear despite being physically inserted. Removing the card while the iLiad was on, powering the iLiad off, inserting the card, then turning it back on seemed to “correct” this problem…until the next time it failed.
Electronic books, or “e-books”, are coming. Some would say they are already here, with several major releases such as the Sony Reader and iRex iLiad over the last year or so.
What is the big deal? Haven’t we been able to read books on computers or electronic devices for years? Yes, but try reading pages upon pages of text on a glowing computer display for hours and hours: your eyes will suffer. LCD displays without backlighting have viewability and resolution limitations. Most of the attempts at electronic books until the last year or so have lacked a great deal of the convenience and eye-friendly readability of the paper alternative. That is, until the development of e-Ink.
E-Ink or “electronic paper” is a totally different kind of display technology that is far more like the paper it is attempting to replace than anything that has come before. I’ve been watching the various e-Ink based devices for some time now, and made the leap a couple of weeks ago: I ordered an iRex iLiad. I’ve had it for just over a week now.
So what is it like? Is it worth the price I paid? Read on…
All the cool people in the world use Macintoshes. If you use something other than a Macintosh you are, by definition, not cool. It goes without saying that the only real innovation that takes place in the world takes place on a Macintosh, and the greatest innovations that occur on Macintoshes occur within the Holy Shrine itself: Apple.
Sony just can’t seem to stop screwing their customers with various forms of DRM. First there was the Sony CD rootkit debacle (insert a Sony CD into your PC and get hacked by the best!) Now it appears that several of their latest DVD releases, including Stranger than Fiction and Casino Royal, won’t work on some consumer DVD players.
I have toyed periodically with various ways of monitoring RSS feeds and bringing them to my desktop. Nothing I’ve used has felt quite “right”, and like PDAs I’ve ultimately ended up relegating several “almost but not quite” solutions to the junk bin. I’m feeling tempted to try again.