well… its official…  i sold my TC1100 tablet pc today on eBay.  my work did decide to go the route of the Dell Latitude XT tablets (heck yea!) and in turn i’ll be getting one from work so i figured i’d sell my ole sturdy, fun baby; my tc1100.  she’s been a great companion but lately has been sitting on my desk just gathering dust since i have a vaio in the living room and an XT at my desk at work (along w/3 other laptops or parts of them and 2 desktops; gotta love hardware rollouts and testing!)

i still wish other tablet makers would try the TC1100s combination slate/convertible design.  ahh, the  memories i’ve had with my TC1100.. installing of vista and ubuntu; rekindling my love of ubuntu, the failed attempts of OSX, perfection of usb booting and ghosting.. 

(pours some beer on the floor) for my tablet.. 

so, now what do i get w/that money from selling my tablet?  i was thinking of getting my camera since that would be coming out here in the next couple weeks (Sony Cybershot DSC-T300) but realized that i will be doing a TON of traveling for work in the next couple of months and also will be going to the WES 2008 conference too.  so i decided that i needed a good mobile, surfing and basic word processing/writing/blogging computer. 

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fanboy, blogging, geek, life, ubuntu, eee, tablet pc, handheld, mobile, hardware, mac, linux, windows, opinion, vista, general gadgets | 3 Comments »

Happy New Year to everyone!  This last year was a pretty crazy year in regards to technology, gaming and being a geek.  Today’s post will be a personal recap 2007, and what i thought was the biggest trend from it.

2007: The year that gaming really went mainstream?

2006 yielded an estimated 12 billion dollars in revenue for the video game industry however 2007 could end up being an even better year.  This year we saw the X360 sales thrive (not counting japan of course) w/the release of much the anticipated Halo3 (which itself set a record for most copies sold on release for any media; movie, music, game).  We also saw gaming go mainstream with the help of the casual gaming system, Nintendo’s Wii (ie money printing machine, hehe).   Sony’s PS3 also started to pick up steam in sales with the price drops and release of two new models; however the PS3 was/is still trailing the pack in sales but has seemingly helped the next-gen format war for blu-ray vs. hd-dvd (x360 did not include the hd dvd, optional drive vs sony making blu-ray a requirement in the ps3).

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fanboy, blogging, Zune, launch, ds lite, life, x360, iphone, osx86, ps3, wii, opinion, gaming, linux, hardware, applications, console, culture, geek, handheld, apple | 2 Comments »

-view post to see embedded video!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1rvnK9SmXfg

-video demo of my HP TC1100 dual booting w/XP Tablet Ed2005 and Ubuntu 7.10 (gutsy gibbon). also a quick demo of using the digitizer/pen in Ubuntu; my first attempt at a ‘tabuntu’ machine (not coined by me, tabuntu = tablet ubuntu device!) and also how the onboard keyboard looks/works.

enjoy!

review, ubuntu, tablet pc, fanboy, culture, linux, opinion, geek, hardware | 1 Comment »

being as big of a geek as i am, i admit that i am a bit disappointed in myself for not really getting onto the whole linux bandwagon a while back.  linux, imo, is the uber geekiest of all operating systems and should come naturally to me since i did mess around in AIX (unix variant) and kornshell scripting.

a few weekends back, i fixed up an ‘about to be junked’ laptop and was able to revive it w/a few hardware swapouts (new hd, memory) and a full disassemble and clean (pop was spilled on it).  since i now had a decent laptop along w/my tablet i figured i’d remove my vista from my tablet (since it ran a bit sluggish and i downgraded my memory to a 512mb stick) and in turn install ubuntu.

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life, ubuntu, tablet pc, culture, applications, windows, opinion, linux | 5 Comments »

just in the last month, ASUS has released its eagerly awaited Eee pc. the Eee pc is basically a super compact laptop made mainly for websurfing/chatting. it has a 7″ lcd and weighs in at around 2lbs. it has either a 2gb, 4gb or 8gb ssd harddrive and various memory flavors (4 different models total) and the best part being that the pricing on it is very reasonable; starting around $245 for the basic model to the top end model at $425. all models include wifi, usb ports, and the ssd. also, it comes with a preinstalled linux variant os; xp can be installed but you’d really want to do this if you have the 8gb version.

to me, i get to finally say ITS ABOUT TIME the small, mobile computing niche saw a device w/a realistic pricepoint. i really want to love the UMPC format but who really is looking to spend over $1,000 on an ultraportable laptop that only has 7″ screen and will probably only used for web surfing?

however, to me i see this device as being a fun, ongoing project. i’d really like to see if one can get OS X Tiger to run on it; since it does run an Intel processor vs a VIA or non-OSX86 compatible processor. i have not purchased the Eee pc yet but now have decided to wait for the black version and hopefully will be getting the 8GB version in the next month or so.

i’m very curious to see how XP runs on it, 1gb memory and an 8GB ssd should be pretty speedy. the Dell D430 i have runs XP pretty nicely, boot up time is around 19 seconds from start to desktop (it also has a 30gb SSD).

plus, streaming is where its at for music even though a nice ole USB flash drive or HDD would work just fine too. yes, harddrive space is not a limiter here, rather memory limited to 1gb may prove to be a downfall found out topend model does allow upgrade to 2gb but voids warranty in process, worth it imo.  also, top end 8GB model will not be available in USA; so it looks like i’ll have to ebay it or import it, boo!!  whats up with that ASUS?

but then again, it is only a $425 ultra portable.. anyone have one yet? let me know if its what you expected or not.

handheld, geek, osx86, laptop, mobile, opinion, hardware, linux, windows, general gadgets | 4 Comments »

well…. i’ve had my PS3 for about a week now and have some definite feedback about my PS3 experience thus far (some goods, a few bads, and more annoyings)

Goods:  Amazing graphics, beautiful Blu-Ray movies, great sound.  Linux can be installed, not a bad sized HDD.

Bads:  Games? hello, when are they coming out?? Price (even though i scored mine for $500).  Power consumption.  FREEZING UP OF THE PS3!!!

Annoyings: FREEZING/Locking up of my PS3 randomly.  Not able to save NDFS:Carbon gamesaves to a SD card.  Background Downloading isn’t really background downloading (does not download when watching a movie, playing game offline, etc).  Searching for music is impossible.

So…. here’s my PS3 story so far…

as most know, i got my Wii on launch and really had no interest in the PS3 due to its super high price and lack of innovation (besides awesome graphics, nothing really that new).  however after finding a great deal and my pal urging me to get one and seeing the upcoming game lineups for 2007, i decided it was time to get me one.

i got the 60GB version, an extra controller, the blu-ray remote, and 3 games.  i hooked it up to my HDTV via HDMI (max output of 1080i on my Olevia) and have sound going to my receiver via Optical Digital (instead of HDMI audio). 

the first thing i did was updated the firmware to v1.60 (since it enables background downloading and adds more video formats).  i then went ahead and installed Yellowdog Linux and shortly after removed linux (yea, its cool to say you have linux on your PS3 but really what am i going to use it for? plus, i’d rather have the extra 10gb of storage for trailers, demos, etc).

however, most recenly i’ve noticed a few disturbing trends w/my PS3. the most annoying/discouraging being that my PS3 has started freezing up almost on a daily basis.  the lockups will occur randomly; sometimes when on the XMB, while exiting a blu-ray movie, or while loading a game.  last night, i decided to go and get 3 demos (GT, Armored Core, and MLB) and downloaded them overnight.  however this morning after downloading the demos and 2 trailers, my PS3 locked up 4 times in a row.  the first time it locked up when i tried to play the movie trailer for Stardust, it started the video but then went to a blank screen and i was unable to get to any menus or even exit the video. ok, no biggie, maybe a corrupted video.    after warm rebooting the PS3, i browsed to my Games on the XMB and when i paused on my Blast Factor demo, my PS3 locked up again.  This time though i had to do a full cold reboot (turn off power switch, unplug from AC).

at this point, i started to get very worried and annoyed.  when you pay over $500 for a gaming system, you do not expect it to lock up.  especially considering that my Wii has only locked up twice and that was after playing it for over 10 hours straight.

so after getting a bit freaked out, i decided that maybe my probs will be resolved by doing a complete full format of the hdd.  before doing the format, i deleted all of my music, pictures, movies, and game demos.  i then did a backup of my game saves and proceeded to do a full HD format (allocating all space to the PS3, no linux partiton for me since again its pointless imo).  tonight i’ll check to see if this has helped or not. 

if my lockups continue, lets just say that you don’t want to work for Sony’s Tech/Customer support because i will have an earful for them.  maybe i’ll record the call and post it up.

btw, my PS3 is NOT OVERHEATING, i’ve checked the heat and also have it in a nicely ventilated area. however  i have heard of other users w/similar lockups that only started happening after the v1.60 update (yet my pal’s PS3 has not locked up on him ever).

updates will be added…

culture, ps3, fanboy, review, geek, console, linux, gaming, opinion, hardware | 10 Comments »