Buying the right laptop to suite your needs

Buying The Right Notebook Computer By: Roberto Sedycias

The single most important reason anyone buys a notebook is for portability. This is something that you can take anywhere. If you frequently travel in your work, you need a notebook. If you are a student going back and forth to the university, you need a notebook. If you are journalist traveling the world and submitting articles, you need a notebook. And today's notebooks can be as powerful as most desktops with dual processors, large capacity internal drives, and other attractive features. But which one is right for you? How do you determine what type of notebook will fit your current needs plus allow you to expand for the future?

And the first part of the answer to the question of which one is right for you leads to a half-answer: "It depends." It depends on what you are going to do with the computer. Are you going to use it for work or recreation? Is it something needed for your profession or are you a hobbyist? Do you play a lot of games? What level of internet access do you need? It is also important to remember that unlike desktop models, notebook computers cannot be upgraded easily. In fact, they usually have no upgrade path so you should take the time to get exactly what you need in terms of features and performance.

One characteristic of a notebook computer one should consider is the screen size. If you need to be able to have a lot of landscape for projects you are working on then consider a wider screen. Screen sizes usually can range from 10.4 inches to 17.1 inches. If you do a lot of work on an airliner in economy class, you are probably better off with a smaller screen size (because of the reclining seatbacks in front of you). Also a smaller notebook is just easier and lighter to carry around. Some who do presentations with their notebook computers will benefit from larger screen sizes such as those that use the newer WXGA technology. WXGA notebook screens can achieve resolutions up to 1366 by 768 pixels.

Battery life in your notebook computer is very important too. If you move around quite a bit, you might want to consider buying a notebook with not only a long lasting battery (most go 2-3 hours), but also one where buying a spare battery is not very expensive. One very inexpensive solution for the battery problem is to buy an external universal battery that can last up to 3-4 hours.

Another feature you need to consider when buying a notebook is internet connectivity. You will find that a popular way for people to work these days is with a wifi-enabled notebook at a wireless hotspot (such as in coffee shops, restaurants, libraries and airports). If you are buying an older used notebook, you may have to get an additional wifi-card if you want to have the mobile connectivity provided by this technology. Also, you will find that most hotels nowadays offer high-speed internet access but it is usually through a wifi connection.

And lastly, you need to consider what other options you want for your notebook computer. Do you want a CD writer or will you need to record DVDs? Do you need premium sound? How large of a disk drive do you need? When it comes to disk space, CD/DVD writers, sound cards, memory, and processor speed, it's best to get it now as opposed to get it later. Here's why: The upgrade path for most laptops and notebooks is not very long. This is because notebooks are probably replaced every 2-3 years. They are quick becoming just as expendable as a set of tires for your car. And if you do not maximize on memory and processor speed, your notebook may not able run efficiently the new application and game software. The more your notebook is adaptable to software upgrades, the longer it will be an effective tool for you.

Real police state or really paranoid?

A post at one of my daily visit sites caught my eye, labeled AT&T Whistleblower: Spy Bill Creates 'Infrastructure for a Police State'. Reading further, it caught and peaked my attention and curiosity. A police state? The poster, Mark Klein is a retired AT&T engineer who came out in the open with the technical documents at the heart of the anti-wiretapping case against AT&T is very upset at the Senate's vote to hold a vote on a bill intended to put an end to that lawsuit and more than 30 others as well.

Now that might not sound too ominous, but stop and think about this...what would stop the government from choosing your family members as a target to start using wire taps on their phones or use specialized software installed without their knowing (all thanks to Microsoft's remote desktop app, or any number of remote desktop apps used by ISPs to help customers who aren't computer savvy) to monitor their computer activity etc., because let's say that family member(s) might have raised red flags at homeland security because they felt those member(s) might be transferring money to people outside the U.S. to fund terrorists activities even though those family members were actually helping out a college going son/daughter who was travelling through Europe or wherever, to make sure that person has enough money to live on and so forth. Or maybe the flags were raised because HS felt that those family members were suspect because those members were avid firearms collectors and have a large collection of various vintage/newer guns and what-not, and therefor are now being looked at as arms suppliers to some terrorist cell here in the U.S. or abroad.

Old arguments, I know, but drives the point home. And one important point is...why should any United States citizen feel the need to slowly sacrifice our constitutional rights in order to ensure a greater degree of protection by the U.S. government from all those really bad people in the world who want to see us all dead because those bad people think we have too much freedom? Like the old saying goes, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." So let's not forget all those promises made by a distinct, power consumed dictator from the early 20th century in nazi germany. His promises were to ensure greater freedoms, better way of life and so on. But it all came at a terrible price.

Here's a couple of excerpts from the post at Wired...
The vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and endorses an all-powerful president. It’s a Congressional coup against the Constitution.

The Democratic leadership is touting the deal as a "compromise," but in fact they have endorsed the infamous Nuremberg defense: "Just following orders." The judge can only check their paperwork. This cynical deal is a Democratic exercise in deceit and cowardice.

You can read it in it's entiraty at the Wired site.

And this should give you a warm fuzzy feeling all over: Klein saw a network monitoring room being built in AT&T's internet switching center that only NSA-approved techs had access to. He squirreled away documents and then presented them to the press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation after news of the government's warrantless wiretapping program broke.

Make no mistakes about it, the technology is available to monitor your every move in ways that'll give you cold sweats. Just Google R.F.I.D. for example...a cool technology, but the uses can be pretty freightning! Take a look at all of the states and countries that have cameras atop light poles etc., to make sure that "your safety" is always the top concern of the respective law enforcement agancies of those country and states where all the cameras can be found.

Then again, if you're still sceptical, go and Google the terms "Police state, new world order" and related search terms. Sure there's alot of bunk and junk that you'll find, but there's also credible information you'll find as well. But again, in another year or two when you suddenly relise that more than half of your constitutional rights have been stripped away and you find yourself in a situation where you desperatly need to use those rights, and those rights are no longer available to you, you will know without a doubt that this country is in trouble!

A quiet day and it's Friday at last!

Today is one of those really rare days that I haven't had in a long time...a quiet, peaceful almost dull day. But today dull is most welcome compared to how the last two weeks have been...too full of everything but peace and quiet! I'm taking this rare occasion to be lazy today and just enjoy checking out some sites. I'll share some of my laziness with you and list the of the sites you might enjoy checking out as well.

If you're a photoshop user, here's a site well worth looking into: http://www.worth1000.com/. The site is all about photoshop humor pics and the like. Take some time to check out all the categories, there's some talented photoshopers out there who uploaded their pics to the site. For you Twitter users, I took some time to look into and join a site called Plurk.com. It's pretty much simular to Twitter, but with other funtionality and it doesn't crash like Twitter lol. In the mood for something weird and bizarre? Click over to thedailyweird.com for pics of the outlandish, just weird, bizarre and funny of pretty much everything.

Now if you're a fan of old time radio shows, shows from the 1930's, 40's and so on, this site is one I just came across and has a nice big list of all the old time greats like Abott & Costello, Dimension X, Dick Tracy, Fibber McGee and Molly and many more all at OTR.net.

I'll post some more links to sites I've come across that you might be interested in checking out later on. Here's a Google video site I found awhile ago for anybody who enjoy doing OS hacks etc., or anyone who enjoys learning about new or not so new tips and tricks about PCs, the web and so on. The video episodes are called Try It Yourself and covers a wide range of pretty cool tricks and tips.

Time to wrap this post up and get back to being lazy for a little while longer before I need to return to reality and get back to work ;)

The future

I know this is touchy subject for a lot of people here in the U.S., yeah, I'm going to touch on a sticky realm called Politics. I can almost hear all the chatter now..."Oh we all know things are screwed up as it is in this country..." and so on and so on. I bet you know who I'm going to post about...Barack Obama. I'm going to make this kind of short by saying I am not going to vote for this person. My reasons why...

I do not feel that his steadfastness in his beliefs are sufficient in that his wavering due to the allegations against his pastor (which tells me he glorifies his public image so much so, that he used this as a way to make himself appear to be this dignified, pious, moral superior above all others.) which should not be the focal point of his climb up the political landscape ladder. None of us are perfect, all of us will always need to adhere to the need for learning wisdom and moral correctness. No, I will not preach to you here. Now given the supposed cases of Obamas involvements in drug use, which face the facts, it's nothing new to any political official to have been accused of that, let's keep in mind that a question needs to be asked..."What if it's true?"

I know that there will never be any candidate that's going to be perfect. But in this day and age, it seems like any future president etc., seems to use his or her public image to his or her advantage and not his/her knowledge, wisdom, intelligence or supposed wanting to help heal this broken economy or political cesspool this country has turned into. Even though I wasn't born until 1969, I have always loved how the 1940's & 1950's culture/way of life used to be, from all the stories I've heard from family and friends who grew up back then...how it used to be that family was the focal point, providing a good life devoid of fear of not having food on the table, or not having even enough money to buy gas to get to work. I know, it wasn't perfect back then either! But I hit on a few key points we are very sadly lacking today...

Family and providing for that family for a good life.
Having the basics in life like food, good clothing.
Moral values.

Sad as it is to admit, this pic pretty much says it all about our normal existance in this country...

So what's the magic answer to it all...the problems we face in todays society? Getting back to a morally based society where the family came first, getting back to a way of life where we ALL need to stand up for what's right and say NO to the things we know, without a doubt are just plain wrong! I think that today, and all of us are guilty of this, use our fear of "hurting somebodys feelings" by speaking out against those situations and circumstances we identifie as beaing wrong. And we then choose to take the easy way out and say that it's alright, let's just suger coat it just enough so nobody gets hurt and we try to satisfy all the people all the time...knowing that it's wrong.


So maybe there's no majic answer to it all, but freedom of thaught and speech are still apart of this society, and should be apart of ALL societies period. Now who do I think should be the next president? Someone like the late Pres. Kennedy. But, those are just some of my thaughts. What about you?

Time for changes

Here's a question for you...

When is it the right time in life to turn away from a perticular situation in life and never look back, knowing that the very things you're turning away from have been things you grew up with in life? Things like your hometown, a house you grew up in that holds alot of memories and all that.

My wife and I are moving away and have decided that it's time for a change. A change such as starting over fresh in a new city, getting away from a situation that's been pretty much degrading to the point where we're both really ready to start over with a new direction in life. One that's really going to be for the better.

Leaving behind things that were always comfertable can be hard, but you know something? A fresh start can actually be the most invigorating thing ever, despite leaving behind memories that are really a huge part of ones self.

Yes, change is good. We're thinking of this as a "soul cleansing" of sorts. With all of the world undergoing so many changes everyday...good and bad ones, maybe this is for the better.

And an update...at long last!

Holy crap! How long has it been since an update? Too long. That's what happens when life throws everything but the toilet at you...you get bogged down by crap that gets out of control!

And the point of this whole blog was to try and do daily posts about all the cool and weird stuff I find out on the Web. Yeah, right, so much for daily updates LOL!

Seriously, lately life has been kind of rough and mean to me and my wife. Not to try and gain sympathy or anything, but we're selling our house and land to move to another location and it seems like anything that can go wrong has. And it's costing us a hell of a lot of money and time right now. With the cost of gas and everything else going out of sight, it's getting pretty rough around the edges.

Anybody have an extra $3,000 their not needing and want to be a nice person and contribute to a worthy cause...namely save our butts from realestate hell? Just kidding. But you know what? It would help :)

I'll try and get back on track with all this soon enough. So stay tuned!

Modern day pirates

If you're a geek and proud of it, then one of your favorite movies (and if you haven't seen this yet, the link to the video is below) in your list should be Pirates of silicon valley. Never seen it? here's a brief on it:

It's the history of the two most well known companies on the planet...Microsoft and Apple. When I first saw it I was loving it so much I watched it again and again. When you watch it and let the reality sink in, you start to understand a key point to Microsoft's success: Bill and his group rose to power in the earliest days by making it seem as if his company was this immense and all powerful company that had the keys to the kingdom, the only ones in the world with the code, the only ones with the goods. BUT, they had very little back then (as in claiming they had an actual OS and didn't and so on...). Steve Jobs and the awesome Woz (more Jobs than Woz) claimed the same when it came to their first Apple computer as well.

Is this how you get to be a top dog in todays world...


Here's a question for you, and please feel free to comment on this: What would happen to a person or persons if they were to try and market or lay claim to the latest new OS, computer or gear, AND used the same approach...having only one working prototype of that OS/computer/gear etc., and trying to market it to the world promising to deliver say 1,000 units and only actually having 1 or 2 units? As opposed to the 1970's and how Microsoft & Apple became successful during that economic/legal/marketing era.

Yes, I do understand that today, a person would get sued beyond belief for trying to sell products like that, but other than slick salesmanship, what allowed Microsoft & Apple to get away with it all and become the 2 most powerful companies in the world, when it comes to software/computers etc., back then? Why weren't they shut down early on for the blatant deception? Anyways, go and get this movie. You'll thank yourself for doing it!

Computing from the past

I was going to talk about a pretty interesting idea/theory about our military and the use of virtual reality. But I became a little busy today and didn't get the time to set down and type out an actual full blown blog session on what I really wanted to write about.

I do however want to drop a quick post about a site I found with videos of the last 20 years or more of computers and technology. If any of you remember the good old days of services like The Well (predates the Web), which was a BBS service, then you'll get a huge kick out of all the great videos that you'll find at this site: cchronicles.com - The Computer Chronicles. Which was on PBS and a few other networks I believe. The same content can be found at archive.org & other sites, but this site has all of the shows in one convenient place.

If you're into old computers, old such as PCs that had only 12 or 20 gig HDs, 64 megs of RAM etc., (hell, back then if you had a PC with all that, you were the big dog on the block LOL), then you are going to love watching these videos for a trip back to the past when tech was in the middle ages compared to today! I'll post more sites like these as I find them. Enjoy!

Here's one of the videos from cchronicles.com:
A look at new email systems in 1985, comparative advantages and pitfalls and new email accessories and tools.

A chance to try a differant road now

Woke up this morning to a missed phone call. It had been from a local company that I wanted to try and get a position with. I must have over slept, I don't normally do that. Anyhow...the company is decent size. From the individuals I had met there so far, a good group works there.

What's this post got to do with technology? Well, other than the fact I'm using tech to distribute this message to you right now...not really much at all!

But remember now, I will be more than likely posting something of either a rant or a rave here, aside from my musings on technology and so on.

Ok, how about I rave about something tech related now? Yay, you must be thinking...or not at all since I am a stranger to you and not a well known like say Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton (well knowns if your into geek living and all).

My rave...it's about the Mini Dell UMPC.
Why on earth would I or anyone else ever want one of these? Well, I can't speak for you, but for me...the portability factor, the "it's pretty damned cool anyways" factor. Not to mention the fact that even though todays laptops are ultra portable, there's a new type emerging getting super ultra portable now. Still infinately as functional (sure, if you start shipping them with WinXP, not Vista) or even better...Linux!

But anyhow, this time I want you to go to the link and check this mini out. Pretty cool.

Oh yes...I am going to be talking about a real subject next time around. I wanted to start on whether or not the real possibility exists that we are developing (we meaning the U.S. government/military) a mass used virtual reality application used for...

Guess you'll have to come back around again to see where all this is going ;)

When I think about all the lost times...

16 Years ago I was so set in my ways. I had a "plan", or so I told myself: get those degrees and certifications. Apply myself accordingly, make a great income and life will take care of itself. Along the way "things" happened. I made a few very stupid decisions. I was offered a good paying job, took it, ran with it and ended up pushing my love for technology off to the side and allowed my then new job to dominate everything.

Had I just remained focused, just settled on a so-so job and went on to complete those certs and degrees, today I would be in a professional position. The almighty dollar would be so much more mightier than it is now. I would be making a differance in life not only to myself...but to others in a way that would be so much more satisfying to me now.

But anyhow, the time is now, that was the past and I have learned a great deal of a lesson from all those lost times: Stay focused!

But you know what? The journey is really just starting for me. So come along for the ride and let's see where this road ends up.