New Laptop!
Bought a new laptop, primarily because game development on my 2.5 year old Fujitsu Lifebook started to get too slow.
After doing a lot of research, I decided to get a Lenovo Thinkpad T500. The specs:
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 (2.53GHz, Cache: 6mb L2 1.6GHz)
- Display: 15.4″ WXGA TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight
- Graphics: ATI Radeon 3650, 256MB
- Memory: 4GB DDR3
- Storage: 160GB, 7200RPM
The only other notebook I was considering was the new Macbook Pro. However, when I configured the Macbook to something similar, the price was close to 2X more. With my MS discount, the prices came as such: Macbook: $2299 / Thinkpad: $1179 = 1.95X more.
The Thinkpad was definitely the better deal. Plus, the Thinkpad came with an ATI graphics card. My desktop already has a Nvidia graphics card, so having an ATI card allows me to test out my games on different hardware configurations (and yes, for my most recent game project, even with XNA, I ran into a situation where I got wierd graphic glitches that were vendor-specific!).
In terms of style, Macbook wins hands down. I really wish Lenovo would take steps to update the Thinkpad’s look. I don’t understand the business decision behind retaining its blocky, old-school look. There’s plenty of users that buy notebooks purely for their looks. And it’s not that Lenovo’s incapable of good design; their Ideapad line look a lot better.
Lenovo Ideapad U110
I received my Thinkpad yesterday (took only 5 days, with 2-day shipping), and I’ll now be proceeding to reformatting it with Vista Business x64 (or maybe Windows 7 Beta? Hmm…). This will essentially remove all the crapware that comes preinstalled, like the trial versions of every piece of software imaginable on the planet: Roxio, McAfee, Lenovo Access Connection (a crappy wireless utility), Lenovo Power Manager, and yes, even Windows Live Toolbar.
No commentsRunning Low on Space..
So… Anyone know of good deals of hard drives?
What really kills my hard drive space are the backups I create for the website, the backups for my computer (Drive E: mirrors C: mostly), and the raw assets of my game project files (WAV files for music, sound effects and raw uncompressed AVI for some video captures).
No commentsKeyboard Fight
Think “Fight Club”, but with keyboards.
Two men enter. No keyboard leaves.
Hmm, I think I’ll just stick to donating my old equipment.
No commentsPoor Article Image Selection
The LA Times recently wrote an economics article titled “Dollar is ravaged as Fed goes to zero interest.”
I stress the word “Ravaged” because if you actually view the article here, you’ll see that they decided to choose a picture of a dead goat (I think) “ravaged” by a pack of wolves.
Very clever, LA Times.
No commentsGlenn Jones has created a series of [awesome] T-shirt designs. Here’s were some of my favorites:
Check out the rest of his designs on his website.
No commentsWordpress Wierdness
Stay tuned, while updating my blog I noticed that the right navigation panel is somewhat broken now. It appears at the bottom.
Hopefully this isn’t wasn’t the result of of some hack attempt.
Hmm, maybe it’s time for a design overhaul…
1 commentLaunchy
Launchy is a flexible and relatively lightweight program and document launcher.
What sets Launchy apart is its configurability. Launchy lets you choose what directories to scan and what file types to index, so you have control over how bloated or minimal your indexing gets.
It works similarly to Quicksilver (OS X). I’ve been using Launchy for a few weeks now and it seems to save me a lot of time senselessly clicking around the Start menu. Even though Vista’s start menu also has the built-in search, I prefer using this because I can set the search results to appear in the center of my display.
It’s free, and open-source! (Windows-only)
Recommended Settings:
- Always center on screen
- Ctrl+Space to launch
- Hide when not in view
Get Launchy here.
No commentsWhy I Hate Netbooks
Netbooks are ultra-portable computers, much smaller than your average notebook, and larger than a Smartphone. Recently, they have been making the rounds on the web. The idea is that they are suppose to be used for just internet browsing, checking email, and light word-processing. The most popular model appears to be the Asus EEE Pc.
Despite their low-cost, my issue with Netbooks is that the compromise they make between functionality and portability ends up with Netbooks doing neither well.
Functionality
In terms of functionality, in order to be as light weight, the machines are usually severely underpowered. No one expects to be able to play games on them, but what’s surprisingly is that you can’t watch some high-compression videos on them (forget h.264 encoded videos!). Also, no DVD drive means you can’t use it as a portable media player as well.
And wi-fi browsing? Well, you still need an internet connection… And even if you have one, hi-def streaming is out of the question. No data plans exist for Netbooks.
Furthermore, many Netbooks are equipped with Linux. Netbooks with Linux are returned to stores at least 4 times higher than Netbooks with Windows XP. If your Netbook runs Linux, your Netbook will choke on sites with Flash or Silverlight content.
So it turns out the Netbook can’t even browse the web very well.
No commentsRite-Aid - Candy Companies Alliance
I always had a feeling the pharmaceutical industry had a business partnership with the makers of diabetes-inducing sweets!
Photographic evidence:
(Taken at a Rite-Aid Pharmacy counter).
No comments