Category: Hardware

If it’s not software, it’s hardware

Categories
Hardware Networking

High Pings

I’ve been wondering why my ping times have been so high on my laptop, and so low on any other computer I have here. I finally found the culprit.

The Intel 2915 wireless card (part of the whole Centrino package) has a power saving mode with 3 options, High, Medium, and Low (creative eh?). Mine was set to high. Which created pings that varied from 20ms to 400ms. Going to medium brings the average down to 2ms, which I can deal with.

Why this is a separate setting in Access Connections (the utility used on Thinkpads to manage different connection settings) rather than in the Power Manager as part of a profile? I don’t know. Ideally it would switch to high when I unplug, and go medium when I’m plugged in.

Anyway, always good to know why stuff happens. Very good for gaming, VoIP or anything where latency is an issue.

Categories
Hardware Software

Vista Requirements

According to this article about Windows Vista Requirements:

Other requirements included a SATA or 7200 rpm EIDE hard drive. For Vista on notebooks, Microsoft recommended the Acer Ferrari 3400, the Acer Ferrari 4000, the HP Pavillion zd8230, the IBM Thinkpad T43 and the Toshiba Tecra M4.

emphasis mine

Sweet! If IBM/Lenovo will adjust their BIOS so there’s no more error when using a standard Hitachi or Seagate 7200 RPM drive, this sucker will be ready to go.

Very cool, this is a rather decent system. I like hearing that it’s anticipated to work well with Vista. That means I can keep it around for a while, and still be modern.

Categories
Hardware

The ports keep marching forward

I’m a strong believer that form = function. A well designed product just works better.

My T43 is a fairly well designed computer, minus it’s few shortcomings. Now take a look at the T60, which I just don’t understand. Why is the VGA port half way down the side of the laptop? Why is USB so far down the left side? Why is Ethernet there?

Perhaps they are operating under the idea that everyone uses their laptop on the go, and nobody uses it at a desk. But personally I find even the T43’s Ethernet (which is further to the back on the left side) a little annoying. I think the new positioning is just asking for it to get hit and broken.

Am I the only one who likes the cables in the back (out of the way)?

Hopefully they at least figured out that using an SATA drive would be a good idea. That way they get rid of those 2010 errors plaguing T43 owners.

I do however like that they kept the same simple design, rather than go with the glow-in-the-dark plastic with flashing lights design that many seem to like.

Categories
Hardware

When did Logitech drop the ball

I’ve been a fan of Logitech products for a while. I’m typing on a Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo right now. My only complaints about this Keyboard/Mouse combo are:

  1. Mouse batteries drain way to fast. Should be rechargeable.
  2. Software for it is extremely buggy. Doesn’t work on my Mac, and causes my PC to blue screen about 3X a day if installed. So I use the built in drivers on both OS’s. Meaning most extra keys don’t work.

I like some of the newer models like the MX 3100 (which you can find cheaper at ZipZoomFly. But no Mac support, and I’ve read it has issues with some KVM’s (which I do have). They also have a Mac Keyboard. Which is listed on Amazon @ $99.

Why the heck are their platform specific keyboards? For a long time keyboards worked well on either platform, then Logitech apparently stopped caring about the Mac drivers, and moved on to their next generation (leaving their PC drivers in the dust too).

Are their best days behind them? Their products have always been nice, but unless they start working on drivers and compatibility, I’ve got to start looking elsewhere.

For now I think I’ve got to get some Radio Shack brand rechargeable batteries, and just forget about all the extra keys on my keyboard. I considered a replacement several months ago. But I don’t see a good alternative to what I have. Mine works pretty well with a KVM and cross platform. Heck mine even has Apple and Alt written on the same key.

Someone should tell Logitech to stop making half assed products. They aren’t the only ones. I’ll be ranting about more in coming months. Some companies seem to intentionally cripple products, and it’s just stupid.

Categories
Hardware

New Keyboard

I said the other day, I asked IBM support for a new keyboard because I felt the one that shipped was of lower quality (to which many Thinkpad users agree). Yesterday, a 14″ keyboard arrived. I called them, they acknowledged the error, and sent me a 15″ keyboard (my laptop has a 15″ display, so the frame of the computer is a bit different). Today it arrived.

The difference may be subtle to some, but it outright obvious to me. This keyboard feels “smoother” than the old one, just like others have said. The right side has absolutely no flex anymore, and the keys are very quiet. I could type on this, and someone just a few feet away would not know I’m typing. The squeak sometimes apparent in the trackpoint scroll button is not there (another annoyance).

This keyboard lives up to the IBM Thinkpad reputation. No question about it. This is like comparing a McDonald’s to a 5 Star restaurant. Sure McDonald’s isn’t so bad you can’t eat it, most enjoy it every so often. But when you want quality food, you don’t even think McDonald’s.

Perhaps in the future IBM/Lenovo will stop using these lower quality keyboards.

I’m one happy customer at this point. My laptop feels just like my old A31 did (the A31 is apparently one of the last actually manufactured by IBM), but with a little better performance, and a thinner profile.

Thanks to IBM for taking care of this problem. This keyboard is exactly how a laptop keyboard should feel. Quiet, no squeaks, no flex. Just solid typing. I can finally type full speed without tripping over keys that almost feel loose.

Categories
Hardware Software

Microsoft’s Hibernation Bug

This bug annoys me to no end. There are quite a few of us out there who need more than 1GB of RAM to get by these days, especially those on a laptop (trying to minimize use of that paging file because it’s on a 5400RPM Hard Drive). Officially it diagnoses the cause as:

This problem occurs because the Windows kernel power manager cannot obtain the memory resources that are required to prepare the computer to hibernate.

It seems to be something related to memory fragmentation, as many people have noted. I really hope Microsoft doesn’t wait until SP3 to release a hotfix for this. There’s more discussion of this problem here.

Oh come on Microsoft. Get us a decent patch. I really don’t want to be using something that you consider so experimental you won’t even post on your website. Especially when one of the files involved is Ntoskrnl.exe. Please take care of us. Us large memory users are Power Users, and do represent a fair amount of your business (especially since many Power Users work in corporate IT departments). Keep us happy.

Categories
Hardware

New Laptop Redux

I definitely like my new IBM Thinkpad (made by Lenovo). I did have a few complaints of things that weren’t quite ideal, so I though I’d do a quick little post on how they have been resolved (or if I adjusted to them):

  • PATA->SATA Bridge – This little chip was causing problems prohibiting you from using a third party hard drive in a T43 without an annoying error on boot. While still not officially supported, IBM did release a new BIOS to disable the error. This makes it easier to upgrade. So I consider this fixed. A major setback, as I really want a 100GB Hard Drive in this beast.
  • Fan Noise
  • Web Navigation Keys – I got used to not having these anymore. Still liked the feature though.
  • IBM Backup Software Stinks – This wasn’t a big deal, I got Acronis True Image, and I’m thrilled with it.
  • No 2nd hard drive – Now that I can get a 100GB Hard Drive, I could partition. Now I have a lighter computer, and the storage. Very cool

In addition to these mainly minor complains, the Keyboard is a little strange. Still better than many other brands, it doesn’t feel “right”. Especially compared to my old A31. The response isn’t always there, causing missed keys, and it occasionally squeaks (mainly the trackpoint scroll button). There’s slight flex on the right side. After a little research, I found out that some T43 keyboards are made in China (Alps brand), and others are made in Thailand (NMB). A simple call to IBM today and the support rep had no problem sending me a new keyboard. This type of stuff typically ships same day (and arrives the next). Now that’s service!

So yes, I’m very satisfied now. I was satisfied, now I feel very satisfied. The keyboard was the last thing that got on my nerves. Once you miss a few keys, and know your finger touched them, you get a little frustrated. At first I blamed it on myself, and that I just need to get used to the new laptop, but I’m convinced it’s the way the keyboard is. I hear the NMB are vastly preferred.

A few weeks ago, I decided to make backup CD’s for my Thinkpad (restores to factory defaults should the HD die or I replace the HD). I made them, but the last one failed. I tried again, and couldn’t do it (in retrospect, it appears that uninstalling the backup software may have broke a shortcut or two in the whole Access IBM deal. I found a few dead ones, fixed them, and everything was fine). Called IBM, and they sent me the CD’s ASAP. Hopefully no need for them, but it’s good to have in case there is a problem.

So IBM service just rocks. They make stuff like this so easy to resolve. When I asked the rep just said “sure, I can do that for you”, and got my information. My last real complaint on the replacement computer is resolved. I guess I’m once again a completely satisfied customer. They screwed up my A31’s repair pretty bad, and the replacement process was way to slow. But I feel that I’ve been taken care of very well again.

So for anyone out there that just doesn’t understand why their Thinkpad keyboard feels inferior compared to other Thinkpads they have used, check the part number and see what model it is. The NMB’s (made in Thailand) are considered to be the better made ones.

So yes, the Thinkpad T43 gets a 5/5. It’s a fantastic laptop.

Categories
Hardware Mozilla

Nokia 770

After seeing Doug’s post on the new Nokia 770, I totally want one. $350 is a little steep for 3hr battery life, though still extremely cool. Being Mozilla based makes it even cooler.

Checking out Maemo Planet shows some really interesting stuff is going on in the Maemo Platform. There’s already quite a few things ported. I think there is serious potential here. I imagine it’s only a matter of time until Skype ports it’s software to this device as well.

Everything but that price, and the battery life sounds perfect. I think I want one.

As usual Engadget has some pretty pictures.

Categories
Hardware Open Source Software

Ubuntu Live Trial

On Monday, I decided to see if Ubuntu’s Live CD was good enough to work for the week. I put the CD in, rebooted, and said “no Windows until Friday”. Surprisingly, it recognized all the hardware in my Thinkpad T43 (at least all that I cared enough about to notice), and actually did a good job. With 1.5GB of RAM in this monster, it was rather smooth once it loaded. My only gripe is that it didn’t have an easy way to save the session to a USB flash device on shutdown, and allow it to re-init based on that session next restart. If the Live CD was smart enough to do that, it would have been truly perfect.

OpenOffice did the trick, as did Firefox. Really had no issues at all. Printing worked, so did networking.

Live CD’s are definitely useful. Find a computer that doesn’t work in a lab? Just put in the CD, and you can use it without problems.

Really says a lot for Linux. Ubuntu is definitely a great distro, the best I’ve seen so far. Now if I had a bigger hard drive, I’d have a partition for it. Eventually I will… I hope.

Categories
Apple Hardware Mozilla

iPod Sync Teaser

Coming Soon

iPod Detected

Yummy. Properly detecting iPod, syncing address book, and everything. Very cool.

First release will likely be Windows only, but Mac support is easy once I get things stable. I just don’t feel like debugging on two platforms at once (reformat iPod each time).

Update [12-26-2005]: It’s out, and available here.