• a temporary image of my laptop’s drive (no space but need to clean up with a fresh install)

компютри втора употреба

• another storage media for my MP3s (my iPod is acting up)

On a side note, any comments on the “modern” Winamp version? I’m thinking of using its library features. Since my media “server” back at home was decommissioned, I’ve been having problems with my muzak itches.

Another side note, is there a portable music player out there that has a ≥60GB flash drive? I might’ve dropped my iPod too many times. A fancy UI is the least of my concerns.

If your laptap starts to crawl if you have too much programs running at the same time, you can try adding IGB of RAM from PC Express.

[found by D. Billano]

I was watching CSI:NY and noticed the brand of one of the tablet PCs that they use. The show became less interesting as soon as I started browsing the product’s page.

I think tablets will be the new thing. I seriously want one. Screw ultra-thin laptops. Tablets are way cooler. The rumor that Apple is working on a tablet could still be true (multi-touch et al on tablets?). I dug around and found a few more things below.

• If the screen is an active digitizer, you get hover functionality (similar to mouse-over)
• Local prices aren’t that bad
• Most of the tablets are convertible laptops (I kinda don’t like this because of the hinges, added weight and size)
• As usual, drivers and apps on Linux are still young
• The Sahara Slate i440D makes me drool but HP’s TX2000 is cheaper

I haven’t used a small computer for a very long time. I wonder how a 12″ screen would feel. I think widescreen 15.4″ screens are huge already (all along I thought my laptop was 17″). I bought a 19″ LCD panel last December for desktop use and it’s been nothing but fun. We used to have an 11″ Twinhead laptop and the small keyboard was the only thing I didn’t like about it. Acer used to release laptops that made you position your hands in a way that they won’t be strained even if the laptop was small (I haven’t seen it on new laptops lately).

It could be that the desire for tablets are filling in the shortcomings of handhelds with Windows Mobile. Recently, I found it annoying that most handhelds come with puny internal memory. I multi-task a lot and the limitation on how many programs that can run at the same time makes me feel like a handicap. Tablets are like enlarged handhelds (all it needs is a SIM card slot!). I acquired a fetish for touchscreens.

Although I’ll still use a portable keyboard and mouse when I’m working, the mobility it gives as a tablet is a huge bonus. Picture yourself updating your blog in the morning while in the crapper! How cool is that? Even Sanya told me once to get a tablet (she ended up buying a MacBook though).

Fears that the benefits of an active digitizer touchscreen won’t be maximized on Linux are holding me back. Anybody used Vista on tablets? How about XP Tablet Edition? I could settle with Cygwin but I’ll use SSH with PuTTY on the loopback because the native terminal on Windows is lame and boring. Let’s not forget Compiz Fusion too. What will I do without my wobbly windows?

P.S. Product placement works.

First thought: I like the hardware. It’s almost everything that I was expecting to be out for PC laptops by late 2007. To be precise, it’s the LED screen and SSD hard disk was what I was waiting for.

I want a laptop that’s just the right size (I’m sick of bringing a 17″ laptop) and a decent battery life. Weight is not much of a priority but it’s also a bonus.

I can only say I like the hardware because I haven’t used Apple’s OS extensively. I like the developer environment that Linux gives me. I know it’s possible to achieve the same feel on a Mac but, err, you know, I’d rather to stick to whatever works for me.

Lastly, there’s no Compiz Fusion on the other dark side. I know it’s lame but I sometimes miss my wobbly windows.

This is what happens when you don’t have the will to work at 5AM. This thing is cool but can’t they think of a better name?

Too lazy to change my wallpaper. Does it even matter?

Txting is fun again. Yay!

Porn on the go.

Getting closer to wardriving.

When I moved to Makati, I had to switch to Globe because they managed to have two antennas on every floor. My SMART number was my first number. I had it for about six years. It sucked that I had to tell everyone that I changed my phone number.

Not only that. Globe’s GPRS rates are horrible. I love SMART’s flat rate at P10 per half hour. Not to mention that SMART had a better quality of service (in the context of GPRS). “You won’t know what you’ll be missing until it’s gone” as they say.

On the bright side, most of my contacts are on Globe. It was a bit easier to call them. No more trunk congestion. Also, I sorta got into this exclusive circle of the txting craze. I got my daily barrage of sweet “quotes” with group messaging. Props to this unlitxt promo.

Last Thursday wasn’t my lucky day. I forgot that I placed my phone on top of the ATM. When I went back for it (just about 5 minutes), it was gone. Since there’s no way to turn off the XDA, I could call it and whoever took the phone couldn’t do anything about it unless they pulled out the battery and smashed it into smithereens. Unfortunately, my SMART sim was clipped inside the phone.

I kept calling my phone but no answer. I sent a message asking to return the phone and I’d reward them for their trouble. After thirty minutes, there was a reply. I was so thrilled that I wrote the wrong answer telling them to just leave it to the guards at the bank. They probably thought I was going to dupe them with the reward and didn’t show up.

Losing the phone didn’t have a big impact on me. I didn’t feel like I lost a limb. What sucks is that the important notes and contact numbers are in there. ActiveSync is shit. Microsoft misinforms by giving you an option to backup your mobile device everytime you sync it. Much to my luck, you can’t retrieve the database from the “backup” (or it’s not that easy). Yay Microsoft!

But since I love having the “power” to check my mail while on the go and the ability to read my eBooks, I’ll be getting an XDA again and maybe, just maybe, I could still load my phonebook there.

• I’ve had a couple of crashes (mostly when the battery is almost low on charge). Then sometimes, it takes more than one reset for it to come alive. What else can you expect with a Microsoft product?
• In the messaging system, it would be really great if I had a way to filter incoming messages and a way to sort messages into folders.
• Having no keypad has its downsides. I am given several character/text input methods. One of them is the Phone Pad (a traditional phone keypad emulator). It feels different because you don’t get tactile response (similar to Maddox’s description). I wonder how it’s different with the iPhone specially that it uses a QWERTY keyboard. I am fortunate enough that it recognizes my handwriting so I prefer to use the stylus.

Hmmm… that’s pretty much it (for now). I thought I had more to say. Other than these small complains, I’m quite satisfied with it.

I accidentally dropped my mobile phone earlier this week. Just when I really needed it. I was forced to buy a replacement and failed to resist the temptation of a second-hand Xda II.

Anyway, it sorta reached my expectation. My main purpose excuse for getting a PDA phone is to fulfill my need to read eBooks. Also, it would be really awesome if I could read my RSS feeds and access my servers via SSH through the phone. I’m starting to put the calendar and notes features into good use.

So I took the 64MB SD card that’s been hiding in my laptop for ages and loaded a book on Python in CHM and another educational magazine with lots of images in PDF. The phone came with a PDF reader and I downloaded a free CHM viewer but the problem is that both applications took too much resources to load my files.

My work around for the CHM is very simple. I extracted the HTML files using arCHMage then used IE to view the pages individually.

sudo yum -y install archmage
archmage /path/to/your/file.chm /path/to/output

Then for PDF, use the ultimate image manipulation tool, ImageMagick. You might want to check first if you can natively view the PDF without eating up too much resources. Converting to JPEG takes some time and quite a lot of memory. Plus, with little-to-none readable text at twice the file size, you might want to reconsider.

sudo yum -y install imagemagick
convert /path/to/your/file.pdf /path/to/output/prefix%03d.jpg

I haven’t tried the available tools for Linux that will allow me to sync with Pocket PCs but by the looks of it, development is still at its early stages. It also sucks that my SD card reader works only half the time.

I’m looking into having this phone traded in with an Xda IIs when I get enough money (it’s getting a lot harder to sell crack nowadays). I think buying an SDIO wifi card is not worth it.

My mouse is acting up. I think it got squished in my bag. It takes a couple of clicks before it makes a real click and if it did, it would be a double-click.

A4tech added this little button that most of my friends like to call a nipple. This button is supposed to make your life easier by doing the double-clicking for you.

At first I thought it was a stupid idea. But later on, I got used to it when navigating through file managers (I don’t like single-click activated icons). It’s pretty much second instinct to use it. It’s just about to be as useful as the wheel.

I’m a poor boy from a third world country and I can’t afford a new mouse right away so I’m putting up with my current mouse by switching to left-handed mouse. After all, I’m a real lefty and I got used to it in, err, 5 minutes (Am I ambidexterous? Yay!). Besides, I hardly even need the mouse in most of my tasks.

Wow, I’m this geeky. I actually wrote an entire entry about a friggin’ mouse!!

If I’m not mistaken my radar tells me that it’s already here locally (Philippines). My gadget master friend in Hong Kong told me that unlocked iPhones have been in the HK market for about a month and a half already. It originally came out with a price tag somewhere around USD2000, and dropped to USD1200 now.

You can shave off a hundred dollars by buying from the US and get it unlocked for USD800-USD900. Locked or unlocked, it’s still not economical but a couple of Apple zombies still bought them.

I also found out about this Turbo SIM that disguises your carrier’s SIM as an AT&T SIM. It seems that Bladox stopped selling it. All is not lost though. Thanks to eBay, you can still get one with prices averaging at USD200.

Links

• HK Phone Daily (with photos of the phone on Peoples)
• Turbo SIM (Ars Technica)
• Bladox
• Press Release via Google Cache