I bought an eMachines emd644 notebook to replace the MSI laptop that just died the start of the year. Price at just a bit more than 20,000php, it's the cheapest notebook (not netbook) I've bought over the past few years.
I didn't really review the specs when I ordered it. But to my surprise, it packs more than I expected. It has the now standard but hefty 2GB of RAM. It has a 500GB hard disk that tempted me to send my current laptop off to our personnel and upgrade to this one. It has bluetooth which I almost never use. And it has a Zacate dual-core processor running at not-so-fast 1.6ghz, but with a much better graphics core than my current AMD P320+HD4250. I didn't really expect to find the new AMD processors so soon especially when it was just shown in the CES exhibit earlier this month. All in all, it's still too powerful for a regular company sales agent, that I think I could have gotten a better deal if I found one with a smaller hard drive at the least.
To my chagrin, installation of Ubuntu 10.10 wasn't flawless at all. I had to do some voodoo to get the Broadcom wireless working. The Atheros wired ethernet is not working at all! And once I installed the AMD proprietary graphics driver, I got the annoying "Unsupported Hardware" overlay at the bottom right of the screen. Couldn't they have just made that overlay an option that could be easily switched off?
Well, besides those minor issues, I'm pretty happy with the new laptop. Of course, I'm not the one really using it. Linux still has a bit to catch up when it comes to outright support for the latest and greatest hardware. I've learned that over the past with missing out-of-the-box support for ATI HD4250, Intel's Core i3/5/7 and now with Zacate. But I've grown to the challenge and learned to work along with the problems.
20110126
Mobile Deaths
Another laptop died this month. It was an MSI budget laptop bought in 2008, when 25k pesos was the budget price for laptops. Last year, its two twin sisters died the same way. Motherboard deaths.
Two years is't really good enough for laptops, considering some of our desktops are from more than 5 years back and still running fast under Linux. My very first laptop, a Compaq, got a broken back (LCD problem) after 3 years, but reached 5 years before its adaptor gave up. It would have still been fixable, but I was only using it as a fax server by then.
So now, I'm holding off from buying MSI notebooks for the time being. Before it was Neo's when my most expensive laptop died of heat stroke in just over a year. Then it was Toshiba's. It lived but a year. It was intended for my dad, but he never got to use it all. That one, we bought in the States, only to find out it was made in the Philippines. Not that there's a problem with that, of course. It was just funny, sort of.
Since then, when people ask me what's a durable laptop, I always say there aren't any. They all go down their death spiral the moment you buy them. That's half-serious. I encourage people to buy just what they need, and not more. If you're getting one for business apps like openoffice/libre office + email/internet, you'll be just fine and dandy with a 20k laptop. If you just want to stay connected so you can twitter your breakfast, a netbook worth 11k is quite good enough (until the battery runs out).
Brands don't matter much nowadays. Right now, I'm into emachines. I have now 10 or more emachines laptops in our company. The time I get too many hardware problems and premature deaths with them, I'll have to review my choices.
Two years is't really good enough for laptops, considering some of our desktops are from more than 5 years back and still running fast under Linux. My very first laptop, a Compaq, got a broken back (LCD problem) after 3 years, but reached 5 years before its adaptor gave up. It would have still been fixable, but I was only using it as a fax server by then.
So now, I'm holding off from buying MSI notebooks for the time being. Before it was Neo's when my most expensive laptop died of heat stroke in just over a year. Then it was Toshiba's. It lived but a year. It was intended for my dad, but he never got to use it all. That one, we bought in the States, only to find out it was made in the Philippines. Not that there's a problem with that, of course. It was just funny, sort of.
Since then, when people ask me what's a durable laptop, I always say there aren't any. They all go down their death spiral the moment you buy them. That's half-serious. I encourage people to buy just what they need, and not more. If you're getting one for business apps like openoffice/libre office + email/internet, you'll be just fine and dandy with a 20k laptop. If you just want to stay connected so you can twitter your breakfast, a netbook worth 11k is quite good enough (until the battery runs out).
Brands don't matter much nowadays. Right now, I'm into emachines. I have now 10 or more emachines laptops in our company. The time I get too many hardware problems and premature deaths with them, I'll have to review my choices.
20110120
Photos in a Fictional World
It seems strange having to write stuff without posting any pictures. That's especially true with hardware reviews. :) Well, maybe I'll go back to reading camera reviews, and one day get my own. I've never had one my entire life. It's been a long itch. Then, maybe I'll get back to posting stuff.
What's a good digital camera for a neophyte photographer wants to get better at this?
What's a good digital camera for a neophyte photographer wants to get better at this?
Laptop Scoliosis
I bought an MSI EX460 a whole year ago, and just forgot to post my rants about it. It's entirely too old for that now as I think you can't buy this model any more except through the bargain bins.
I selected this model mainly for Linux graphics work. It sounded nice enough, with a Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, and a video card with its own memory. But I only really saw how it looked like after it was delivered.
It wasn't really that bad, except that I wouldn't want it for my own, if only because the keyboard is off-center. With some unused shortcut buttons placed prominently at the left of the keyboard, it felt to me that there's a grave discomfort in having to maintain your hands slightly to the right and not center of the screen.
That, and too many blue lights.
I selected this model mainly for Linux graphics work. It sounded nice enough, with a Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, and a video card with its own memory. But I only really saw how it looked like after it was delivered.
It wasn't really that bad, except that I wouldn't want it for my own, if only because the keyboard is off-center. With some unused shortcut buttons placed prominently at the left of the keyboard, it felt to me that there's a grave discomfort in having to maintain your hands slightly to the right and not center of the screen.
That, and too many blue lights.
20110112
The Last Box
The last box might as well have died last Saturday. It's the last computer in our small office of 20 that's still running Microsoft Windows. While the rest have been linux-ified, (some after being rendered untrustworthy by malwares), the last one has been churning on for a couple of years, trying and failing to update during shutdowns, but otherwise left to its own lifeline.
Last Saturday, it refused to boot up. It's not the dead like nothing's turning on, but it was in a zombie state, trapped in dying and living in an infinite loop of failing to even get a second into booting Windows. Unfortunately, it's not going to be as easy as a reformat. The only reason that we still have a Windows computer in our office is that it runs Autodesk Inventor, which we use for drafting and project plumbing design and layout. What this meant was that my weekend was booked. I had to get it up and running come Monday.
How did it go? First, I tried the Windows Repair option using the OEM CD. It got to detect the previous installation. It copied the original Windows files that are sure to work. And then after 15 minutes or so, I got to the Detecting Device part. Suddenly, the mouse and keyboard stopped working. The system was now asking me to insert an Nvidia NForce driver installation CD. That was the trap.
First, I have thrown all my driver CDs away already, being too used to modern Linux installations in which hardware just worked automatically. Next, the mouse and keyboard don't even work. It looks like it turned off the USB subsystem while waiting for the motherboard drivers. I can't cancel the prompt or even browse for the files needed in the hard disk. The only interface left was me ejecting and loading the CD drive. So, that was a failure.
It looks like I needed a really fresh installation after all. Ok. No problem about that except for my worries with the licensing and activation of Inventor, which I have no experience yet. It was a good number of hours of installing Windows XP yet again, and the cyclical downloading updates, restarting, and downloading updates, and restarting again and again. I got to the old Windows installation routine from 3 years ago, installing our a basic software set which includes 7-Zip, Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Adobe Acrobat Reader, MS Security Essentials. And then the behemoth of Autodesk Inventor 2008. (We're still using an old version because we decided not to renew subscription until perhaps the software can run in our primary OS, which isn't Windows after all.)
I found out activating Inventor was a problem. I couldn't figure out how to input the correct serial number of the installation. Upon running Inventor, it automatically directs me to activate over the internet. But to activate, it first needs the correct serial number so it can generate a proper Request Code. It was a chicken and egg bug, it seems.
Fortunately, after some meditation and a bit of RTFM, I found my solution. I only had to copy the license files from the previous partition to the new partition. It was that simple after all. I got it to running state, applied 3 sets of service packs for Inventor and Autocad Mechanical, and I could now rest easy. At least till the time I upgrade to the next hardware or software.
So there was the last box. It went down but it refused to die. I don't have high hopes of seeing Inventor for Linux see the light of day. (We might try Varicad first, or some other more linux friendly CAD software.) Till then, it will just have to live and survive.
Last Saturday, it refused to boot up. It's not the dead like nothing's turning on, but it was in a zombie state, trapped in dying and living in an infinite loop of failing to even get a second into booting Windows. Unfortunately, it's not going to be as easy as a reformat. The only reason that we still have a Windows computer in our office is that it runs Autodesk Inventor, which we use for drafting and project plumbing design and layout. What this meant was that my weekend was booked. I had to get it up and running come Monday.
How did it go? First, I tried the Windows Repair option using the OEM CD. It got to detect the previous installation. It copied the original Windows files that are sure to work. And then after 15 minutes or so, I got to the Detecting Device part. Suddenly, the mouse and keyboard stopped working. The system was now asking me to insert an Nvidia NForce driver installation CD. That was the trap.
First, I have thrown all my driver CDs away already, being too used to modern Linux installations in which hardware just worked automatically. Next, the mouse and keyboard don't even work. It looks like it turned off the USB subsystem while waiting for the motherboard drivers. I can't cancel the prompt or even browse for the files needed in the hard disk. The only interface left was me ejecting and loading the CD drive. So, that was a failure.
It looks like I needed a really fresh installation after all. Ok. No problem about that except for my worries with the licensing and activation of Inventor, which I have no experience yet. It was a good number of hours of installing Windows XP yet again, and the cyclical downloading updates, restarting, and downloading updates, and restarting again and again. I got to the old Windows installation routine from 3 years ago, installing our a basic software set which includes 7-Zip, Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Adobe Acrobat Reader, MS Security Essentials. And then the behemoth of Autodesk Inventor 2008. (We're still using an old version because we decided not to renew subscription until perhaps the software can run in our primary OS, which isn't Windows after all.)
I found out activating Inventor was a problem. I couldn't figure out how to input the correct serial number of the installation. Upon running Inventor, it automatically directs me to activate over the internet. But to activate, it first needs the correct serial number so it can generate a proper Request Code. It was a chicken and egg bug, it seems.
Fortunately, after some meditation and a bit of RTFM, I found my solution. I only had to copy the license files from the previous partition to the new partition. It was that simple after all. I got it to running state, applied 3 sets of service packs for Inventor and Autocad Mechanical, and I could now rest easy. At least till the time I upgrade to the next hardware or software.
So there was the last box. It went down but it refused to die. I don't have high hopes of seeing Inventor for Linux see the light of day. (We might try Varicad first, or some other more linux friendly CAD software.) Till then, it will just have to live and survive.
20110111
Sun Wireless Broadband in Ubuntu 10.10
For a welcome surprise, it's even easier to install Sun Wireless Broadband in the latest Ubuntu version. After I plugged in the USB modem, I clicked on the Network Manager icon and proceeded to create a Wireless Broadband account. I still specified fbband as the APN, and set Authentication method as PAP only. but that's it! If I know better, those might not have even been needed.
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