I adored my Macbook, but at the same time I wanted something a little beefier on the CPU / GPU front than what the current line Macbooks had to offer. The Macbook Pros looked delicious, but the price points made my head hurt. So began the search…

I’ll skip past all the gritty details and laptop comparisons and hours spent reading reviews and articles and becoming familiar (again) with Nvidia’s / ATI’s mobile graphics cards and Intel’s Core i3, 5, and 7 chipsets and the pros and cons of this and that and on, and on, and on.

Instead, I’ll jump right to the end. I bought an Asus U30JC-A1 from XoticPC.com. Regarding hardware specs, this puppy falls somewhere between the 13″ and 15″ Macbook Pros, and it’s half the price.

Some quick highlights: Intel® Core™ i3 Processor 350M/330M : 2.26 GHz – 2.13 GHz, 4GB SDRAM DDR3 1066 MHz SDRAM, 13.3″ HD (1366×768) Color-Shine (Glare-type), NVIDIA® GeForce® G 310M, with 512MB & Intel GMA HD (Support NVIDIA Optimus Technology) VRAM, 320 Gb Hard Drive @ 5400 rpm.

No Bluetooth, but Asus claims up to 9 hours of battery life while using the integrated Intel graphics card (I’ve read reports of 8+ hours from actual users). It’s 4.7 pounds, exactly what my Macbook was. Most ultraportables are around 3 to 4 pounds. I’m 6′ 2″ and 185 pounds — an extra pound is not going to break my back.

Nvidia’s Optimus technology looks really nice. Depending on your point of view, I’m happy / sad to say that I’ve been upgraded / downgraded from a hardcore gamer to a casual gamer over the last half decade, so gaming wasn’t my main concern when looking for a new notebook. With that said, I do like to fire up a little Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Battlefield Bad Company 2, yada yada yada, from time to time. I’m also a frequent Adobe Lightroom user and have been known to do some video editing here and there, both of which will get a nice boost with the addition of a discrete graphics card.

With decent graphics capabilities, outstanding battery life, acceptable portability, a powerful, yet energy efficient processor, an elegant and very solid design (brushed aluminum), and half the price of a Macbook Pro, I simply couldn’t resist this laptop. I’ve been purchasing Asus products for years, mainly motherboards (or mostly mainboards, ha!), and I’ve always been very pleased. This will be my first laptop experience with them. It should be delivered on Wednesday, so cross your fingers. Hopefully all my expectations and presumptions will hold true. If not, back to Mac I go?

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

The ultimate gift for a geek in training!

P.S. I secretly installed Python on it when no one was looking; just in case she gets bored with Webkinz.

International Space Station infected by a Virus. – That’s just sad. Really, really sad.

Google launches Chrome – I wanted to wait until I had some alone time with this browser before I wrote about it. It’s very sleek and super fast, especially if you use a lot of Google’s services (which I do). There is a darkside however. For you security consciousness people out there, you may want to check out Steve Gibson’s security podcast, aptly named Security Now. I’ll be sticking with Firefox for the time being.

Ubiquity, yet another reason not to ditch Firefox. – As you all know, another reason why Firefox is so near and dear to our hearts is because of all the great extensions available for it. Ubiquity is just another fine example of what a great extension can do for you. It has sped up my surfing by 28.37%, no kidding. Install it, check out the tutorial, and take it for a spin.

Google to Acquire Valve? – Say What? I’ll believe it when I see it. If you don’t know who Valve is, don’t bother clicking the link. If you don’t know who Google is, get off my site.

Amazon buys Shelfari. – Old news, I know, but I’m still excited. One of the reasons I stuck with Shelfari over Goodreads was the fact that Amazon was an investor in the company. Now that they own it, let all the Amazon goodness ooze right down onto it. Oh, and check out my shelf. Sweet stuff there.

I’ve been using runningmap.com – This isn’t new either, but it’s new to me. I thought I’d throw this out there to my fellow runners. This is what I ran today.

What would you buy? Here is what I’m debating.

a. The new Rebel XSi camera kit. (coming in April) I noticed the standard 18-55 now has image stabilizer. That’s really nice, but it’s still just an entry level lens, right?. = $900ish

b. The Rebel XTi body only with a decent lens, such as Sigma’s 17-70mm f2.8-4.5 which seems to be getting good reviews. = $900ish

c. Or, since I have no more ties to Canon, make a complete switch to another brand such as Nikon. This scares me a bit since I have no experience with them, but you can’t argue with their reputation.

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

If it were up to me, I would go on using XP and OS X forever, but we all know that can’t happen. So what do I do? When the day comes to replace my Dell XPS, what will I buy? Another XPS, but this time with Vista on it? Sure, you can still buy new PCs running Windows XP, but will that be the case a year from now? Would I even want XP a year from now? A year in terms of technology is an eternity. Microsoft already said they are going to stop supporting XP in 2008. I’m really getting backed into a corner here. I can’t run XP forever, and I highly doubt Vista will have matured by then, if ever. I’d say there’s a 50 / 50 chance that I may eventually go all Mac. Those chances are pretty high considering I’ve been with Windows since the beginning of time (remember the whole technology / eternity thing). It’s really sad too. The truth is, there are really only three reasons why I haven’t made the switch yet.

The first reason is because I dropped $3500 on an XPS about a year ago. I am going to squeeze every last ounce of life out of that computer before I pull the plug.

The second reason is familiarity. I can fly around XP like it’s nobody’s business. Unfortunately, Microsoft blew that right out of the water when the redesigned Vista. Was there something wrong with “Add or Remove Programs“? Not to mention I’m starting to get pretty damn efficient with OS X. Did anyone else just hear a hammer?

The third reason, though it may seem childish to some, is that I’m a gamer. I love gaming. First person shooters in particular. XP still reigns supreme in this arena, but for how much longer? With Macs sporting their new Intel chips, game development has shifted significantly. I’m sure this also has to do with the fact that Apple’s market share is increasing. Game developers actually like to sell their products. Weird! My point is, Apple seems to be moving in the right direction in terms of gaming, and that’s bad news for Microsoft.

So what’s left? Productivity? Mac! Development? Mac! It’s Unix for god sakes. Internet? Mac! Entertainment? Mac! Creativity? Mac!

Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me the reasons why I should, nay,… need to stay with Microsoft. Believe me, I’ll listen. I feel like I’m breaking up with a long time girlfriend. I keep making excuses to stick around, but they’re starting to sound old and transparent. I know what you’re thinking, “stop your bitchin’ and just switch already“. *sigh I have some time to think about it anyway.

Maybe Vista is a reincarnated version of Windows ME. And maybe a year from now we’ll all be saved by the release of Windows XP Ultra Deluxe 2009 Edition. Then all my problems would be solved.

Click on the image to make it larger.

I’m still not 100% convinced that paying for an online education is a good idea, but the fact that it’s O’Reilly makes me much more curious.

Course List:

For the complete I.T. beginner:

* Introduction to HTML and CSS
* Learn Object-Oriented Programming Using Java
* Linux/Unix Sysadmin I: The Basics of System Administration
* Learn C Programming, Part 1

For the beginner/intermediate student:

* Introduction to PHP
* JavaScript 1: Client-Side Programming
* Learn Perl for CGI Programming
* PHP/SQL 1: Introduction to Database Programming
* Learn SQL for Database Programming
* Learn C Programming, Part 2
* Learn VB-Script
* Learn Unix for Web Programming
* Linux/Unix Sysadmin II: Networking and DNS
* Learn XML

For the intermediate/advanced student:

* JavaScript 2: AJAX
* Linux/Unix Sysadmin III: Unix Services (including email and web servers)
* Linux/Unix Sysadmin IV: Scripting for Administrators, Sed, Awk, and Perl
* Learn Visual Basic .NET
* Learn C#.NET

The phone is absolutely gorgeous. It runs OS X and has a 3.5″ widescreen / touchscreen (only one actual button). It plays music, movies, and TV shows, and integrates seamlessly with iLife. I’m excited and I’m not even a phone guy.

Oh, and it has wi-fi and bluetooth capabilities. Wow…

***edit***

Apple partnered with Cingular (now AT&T)

$499 for a 4Gb
$599 for an 8Gb

You can check out live coverage of the keynote, courtesy of uneasysilence.com. They also have a list of other websites offering live coverage of the event.

From what I gather, the iPhone (or maybe iTalk?) has been a hot topic for years now, but many questions still remain. What will it look like? What features will it include? How much will it cost? It seems that no one outside of Apple really knows for sure, but many have had fun imagining.

Here are some pictures of Apple concept phones designed by various geeks around the Net. Some of these images date back to 2002, if not longer.

There’s even a mock iPhone commercial that was released a few weeks ago. It’s pretty damn sleek too. Check it out.

I would buy that in a heartbeat.

What happens if it rains out?

* 1.83GHz or 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
* 13.3-inch (diagonal) TFT glossy widescreen display
* Apple Remote with Front Row
* Up to 2GB memory(3)
* Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
* Slot-loading optical drive
* Up to 120GB hard drive(3)
* Built-in 54-Mbps 802.11g AirPort Extreme wireless
* Analog and digital audio in and out
* FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 ports
* iLife ’06, Mac OS X Tiger

Over the years that line has been getting a little blurred. Mac users are dual booting Windows and OS X, while Windows users are conceding that Macs are a viable alternative to PCs. I can think of a few reasons why this may be the case. PCs have moved away from the conventional beige box look to more sleeker designs. Even Windows got a coolness upgrade with XP. I need not mention the arsenal of apps that run on Windows. On the flip side, Macs have been beefing up their performance and are now in direct competition with the once all powerful PC. Especially now that they are using Intel’s Core Duo processor. More and more third party companies are writing applications for Apple’s as well. Gone are the days when a program would only run on Windows (including games).

As a PC user, sometimes I feel like I fell fast asleep, and when I woke up, I was the only one without a Mac. What happened to our hardnosed “Macs Suck” attitude? To tell you the truth, I never thought Macs sucked. I never really had any opinion on them at all, but I have always been curious about them. Have you ever asked a Mac user how they like their computer? Do it, and then watch the result. Their eyes gloss over and they begin telling you all the fabulous things about their beloved Apples as if they’re talking about their very own children. Steve Jobs must be doing something right to evoke such a reaction.

So I figured it was time I gave OS X a spin. That’s right, I’m jumping on the band wagon. Okay, maybe that’s not the only reason. With the impending demise of Microsoft over the next decade (yes, that’s right, impending demise), I thought it would be a good idea to tuck as many operating systems under my belt as I can. I’ve already mastered all the various versions of Windows (toot toot), and I’m fairly proficient with Linux — OS X just seems like the next logical step. Not to mention Macs are just so damn cool looking.

I didn’t want to dive into a $2000 Apple. Luckily, a friend of mine was able to commandeer me an older iMac G4. I plan on beating the crap out of this thing. The first thing I noticed when I booted it up was how closely OS X resembled Kubuntu (a version of Ubuntu (a distribution of linux) that uses KDE instead of Gnome). I realized that OS X is basically a pretty version of Unix (BSD, in fact), but what I didn’t realize was how much of the functionality is the same, let alone the visual aspects. Needless to say, I was extremely happy to see this, familiar ground and all.

Oh, and one last thing. I am in the market for a new, slightly more portable laptop. I currently have a Dell Inspiron XPS. I love it. It’s fast, it’s powerful, and it’s huge. It’s way to big to lug around. So I decided to take a look at some of Apple’s notebooks, only I couldn’t justify spending all that money on a laptop that I wasn’t sure I would even like. The iBooks are nice and small, but again, I don’t know if I could justify buying a new laptop with just OS X loaded on it. The Macbook Pros look nice and they can dual boot OS X and Windows XP (sweet), and I really like Intel’s Core Duo, but they’re still a little larger than I actually wanted. Enter the Macbook. It’s about the size of an iBook, with the dual boot capability of the Macbook Pro. Nice, huh? The problem is they don’t exist yet. The rumor going around was that Apple was going to announce it’s new laptop two days ago. Alas, no such announcement has been made. But hopes are still high that an announcement will be made by the end of this month. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

If you recall, back in October, I experienced the great cellar flood of 2005 which single handedly wiped out three of my four computers. As luck would have it, my XPS laptop was spared from the devastation of said flood. This was mostly due to the fact that it was 10 miles away, sitting on my desk at work.

After almost five months of desktoplessness, I finally finished all the repairs to the cellar and restored the command center (also referred to as the dungeon) to its former glory. Everything got a complete upgrade; the walls , the ceiling, the floors, the windows, and most importantly my computers. Ahh yes, my new babies. Take particular notice of the brand spanking new Dell XPS 600 sitting ever so menacingly to the left of my desk. This thing is so screaming fast it actually hovers off the ground. Complete with full blown, dual nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX w/ SLI, Creative X-Fi sound, 2 Gig of DDR2 ram, and a dual TV tuner. Click on the larger of the two images above to check out all of my new goodies.

Enter my new camera. The plan is to keep this camera with me at all times. I’m also going to focus less on getting the perfect shot, and more on just getting the shot. If I want to take a portrait of someone, or if have the time to use my tripod, then yes, I’ll whip out one of my big guns. But for everyday use, this camera is perfect.

I also created a new flickr account. This will be the heart and soul of my photoblog. Every picture I take with this little camera will be uploaded to flickr for all to see. I’m not claiming that these pictures will be all that exciting, some of them may be down right boring. Okay, most of them, but that’s not the point! The point is that they will be there in chronological order from now until I die in 2097. You’ll be able to sort them by tags, groups, dates, or photosets (albums).

On the right sidebar you will always see the latest (or random) pictures I’ve uploaded to my flickr account. I can change the photostream by changing the tag associated with it. For example, if I use the tag “friends”, the photostream will only show the last pictures I’ve uploaded which I’ve tagged “friends”. Right now there is no tag associated with the photostream so it will show all of my pictures regardless of what I tagged them. But that’s neither here nor there.

You can view my entire photostream anytime by clicking on this icon located at the bottom of the sidebar. You can also just click one of the thumbnails also located on the sidebar. And that’s that. Exciting huh? Where are you going?

Let the fun begin…

In the interest of avoiding copyright infringement, I should mention that these four pictures were taken by the very creative and talented Cameron Ann. Yes, including the self portrait. Like I said, she’s very creative.

The article goes into the origin of Web 2.0 and the difference between the new version of the web and the pre-2001 crash of the internet now affectionately known as Web 1.0.

fast forward to the present day

I’ve killed my computer. That’s right, dead. How’d I do this you ask? Let me tell you the series of events that led to the final demise of my beloved PC.

Let me first tell you about when it reboots. This is important to know when troubleshooting. Out of the dozens of times it randomly rebooted, only 1 time was while not playing a game. Every other time was in-game. I ran a bunch of benchmark programs and torture tests to try to get it to reboot (processor, video, audio, memory). Nothing. I really tortured this machine too. Nothing I did made the computer reboot. The only constant I had was that it reboots while playing a game. Specifically Battlefield 2 and Half-Life 2. And never at the same point in either game. I think you’re all caught up at this point. This is the information I had to work with. And the following outlines my train of thought and the actions I took.

• Video Card - My first thought was that it must be video related. It just made sense. At the time I was using a nVidia Chaintech 6800 GT 256. I rolled back the drivers. I must have tried 6 different versions of the drivers. Rebooted. Then I switched the video card out completely with a nVidia BFG 6800 GT 128 OC (my original card). Rebooted. I was dumbfounded. Back to the drawing board.
• Software Related- I should first tell you that I am obsessed with having a clean system. I methodically run multiple anti-virus programs a week. Not to mention multiple spyware and adware programs, CWShredder, highjackthis, IBprocMan, Tweaknow Regcleaner, diskclean, defrag, etc… I know every process that is running on my computer at any given time. But still, I had to know. So I reformatted and reinstalled my OS. Rebooted.
• Power Supply- It must be the power supply. Granted 420 watts should be more than enough to run what I have. Perhaps it was bad. Power supplies are one of the leading causes of this type of problem. So I went out and bought a new power supply. Rebooted. Son of a…
• Memory- Another leading cause of system failures. I ran memtest86 for 24 hours straight. No errors. But I still had to be sure. So i popped out one stick and fired up BF2. Rebooted. I popped out the other stick and replaced it with the one I originally took out. Fired up BF2 once again and boom, rebooted. Hmm, well at least I was expecting this.

Audio Card- This was my next thought. The games I play are not only graphics intensive but audio intensive as well. And it is the oldest piece of hardware in my computer. I’m using one of the first edition Soundblaster Audigy cards. So I popped it out and used the on-board audio (which I hear is actually very nice). Rebooted.

• Monitor- I know, I know, I’m stretching here. About right now I’m just praying it’s not the motherboard or processor. And I actually read in some random tech forum that this guy switched monitors and it solved his rebooting problem. I can’t imagine a monitor ever rebooting a computer, but at this point I’m desperate. I have a rather old 21″ NEC that is obviously on it’s way out. So I swapped my computers. I put Big Blue on a 19″ Micron. I switched power outlets too just to be safe. It actually didn’t reboot for several days. I was crushed when it actually did. Son of a…
• Network Card- I figured why not, I’ve swapped out everything else. Rebooted.
• IDE Cables- Rebooted

Where on the home stretch here folks. I should have mentioned before that overheating is not a problem. I have 5 case fans, 1 ps fan and a vortex cpu fan which I can control the rpm’s manually. The processor’s temperature is well below the specified limits.

I figured I’m running out of options here. I pulled everything out of the pc and checked for metal on metal or anything that might short out the motherboard and force a reboot. Nothing. I decided to out pull the cpu and cpu fan and investigate. This my friends is where the problem lies. As I was pulling the cpu out, the cpu and heatsink separated. I had to reapply the arctic silver thermal paste. I hate doing this. And I think this led to Big Blue’s ultimate destruction. Ever since I put the cpu/heatsink back into the computer it has decided it doesn’t feel like booting up. AT ALL. Instead in decides to spew out these obnoxious beeping sounds at me. I’m not talking about any post beep or standard error beeps you would get from a fully functional motherboard. No, this was more like the binary equivalent of getting flipped off by a computer. That’s it, this officially marks the day my computer shit the bed. What pisses me off the most is not figuring out what the original problem actually was. At this point I hope it was the motherboard or processor. That way I wouldn’t feel so bad about frying it myself.

Oh well, what to do now. I’ll be without an uber computer for a while. I have other computers to get me through this very traumatic time. It’s just not quite the same though. I don’t think I mentioned that the motherboard was an Asus KV8 Pro with an AMD 64 3200. I’m thinking Abit will be my next motherboard of choice. Maybe I’ll upgrade a little to an AMD 64 3700 while I’m at it. Yeah, that sounds good. See, I’m feeling better already. I’ll keep you posted. Big Blue shall rise again.