Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

THanks for the suggestions. How do I know which switch I want? I'm not familiar with the types of switches. I've read descriptions, but I would LOVE to try them side-by-side-by-side. :(

Here's a pretty good guide.
http://www.overclock.net/t/491752/mechanical-keyboard-guide

I went with Cherry MX blues. Clicky and tactile. Fantastic for typing.

It really comes down to personal preference; I have used MX Reds on a buddy's Corsair K90 and wasn't a huge fan. Based on that I decided on the Blues.

I, too, would like to have one keyboard with each switch type to try out and decide which I like the best but at the better part of $150 apeice I think I'll pass :p
 
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Random thoughts from a library lab laptop (because my computer looks like ass physically atm plus has a battery life of 10 minutes....). I happen to have one of the relatively new E6420's as opposed to the T61's of a few years ago.

* The keyboard feels amazing...miss my own personal E6420 already..wish I never had to get rid of it.

* Lab machines tend to look like ass after a month...this is no exception. The ThinkPads hid the grime and dirt better due to the matte soft-touch exterior coating. The brushed metal lid of the E6420 definitely shows some dripped substance on the outside and fingerprints galore. eww.

* 1366 X 768 is a terrible screen resolution. Seriously, I feel like I'm peering through a netbook screen, the real estate is so bad. The large screen bezels top and bottom of the display don't help...the lack of a webcam on the systems my college ordered only exacerbates this.

* 8 GB of RAM and an i7 = solid performance...no complaints there.

*I forgot how shitty multitouch is on windows laptops. The 2 finger scrolling on this thing is near unusable...actually scratch that...it IS unusable...disgustingly so.
 
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*I forgot how shitty multitouch is on windows laptops. The 2 finger scrolling on this thing is near unusable...actually scratch that...it IS unusable...disgustingly so.

this i never quite understood. why not just keep the old method of having a little area at the side to use for scrolling? that still works perfectly fine on my laptop :dunno:
 
Hinge replacement is very cheap and easy on most pc notebooks.
There is a noticable price difference between the US and Europe in this case. Replacement hinges for my laptop cost over ?50 over here. Ordering from the US will get me one cheaper (I've already ordered for like $15), but many US stores will rip you off on shipping costs (up to $20) and of course there is the ten to fourteen day delivery time.
 
this i never quite understood. why not just keep the old method of having a little area at the side to use for scrolling? that still works perfectly fine on my laptop :dunno:

Have you tried the multitouch system on OSX? It's absolutely one of my favourite things about my MacBook, and something I would hate to go without.
 
my mum has a macbook pro, but i've never really tried anything multitouch on that except the 2-finger scrolling. and that just feels like a step back from having a dedicated scrolling area. my comment was aimed JUST at that, i agree that having a multi-touch system is quite a benefit once you get used to it and incorporate it into daily use.

edit: my hate might also just originate in me not being used to it. 2-finger scrolling always goes wrong for me at some point, which would probably get better once i was in a position to use it regularly.
 
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my mum has a macbook pro, but i've never really tried anything multitouch on that except the 2-finger scrolling. and that just feels like a step back from having a dedicated scrolling area. my comment was aimed JUST at that, i agree that having a multi-touch system is quite a benefit once you get used to it and incorporate it into daily use.

edit: my hate might also just originate in me not being used to it. 2-finger scrolling always goes wrong for me at some point, which would probably get better once i was in a position to use it regularly.
I used to think like you before I had my MBP and it actually is much nicer to have the two finger scrolling, mainly because you can scroll anywhere you want and you can also do horizontal/vertical at once pretty easily.
 
For me it's absolutely seamless and has become second nature. I'd be annoyed by being constricted to a specific part of the touchpad. I don't even use my corner buttons anymore, since they acted up a while back :p And I don't really miss them.
 
this i never quite understood. why not just keep the old method of having a little area at the side to use for scrolling? that still works perfectly fine on my laptop :dunno:

It's annoying to say the least. I turned multi-touch off completely as it was the only way to get work done (scrolling through lenghty acrobat documents and webpages) on this damn thing. Otherwise it would either scroll too little....or jump to the top or bottom of the document or webpage.

Have you tried the multitouch system on OSX? It's absolutely one of my favourite things about my MacBook, and something I would hate to go without.

On OS X it is indeed perfect. Given that Apple invented it and target select hardware that Apple control it's no surprise. I dunno why MS doesn't standardise trackpad drivers/trackpads. I mean I know the real reason why (they can't afford to alienate their partners and partner/suppliers) but man is the crapshoot "will this trackpad suck?...yes it does suck." game is annoying on PC's.
 
They're USB drives. Even if the drives were damaged, wouldn't the system at least boot up and the control panel be accessible? The freenas system runs off an SD card.
Could be fried USB controller then. It really depends on what on the drives is broken, if the controllers (on the drives themselves) are fried then its possible they won't be visible best thing would be to see if BIOS can see it
 
you can scroll anywhere you want

Do you mean you can scroll any window under the cursor, without having to click it to gain focus? If so, you can use a program like X-Mouse Button Control to get that functionality. Why it isn't Windows's default behavior is anyone's guess...
 
this i never quite understood. why not just keep the old method of having a little area at the side to use for scrolling? that still works perfectly fine on my laptop :dunno:

On my notbook, I get annoyed when I actidentally just try and move the mouse, but I happened to be on the part of the pad that thinks i want to scroll, or turn the volume up, etc.
 
OSX got multi touch down perfectly. I always wondered why Windows machines struggle so much. That said on my laptop scrolling is quite good. (It didn't receive any complaints from my Apple obsessed friend :p) and I like multi touch options. I have quite a few of them in action. Double finger tap to right click, Triple finger click for the middle mouse button. 4 finger swipe to get to the start screen. When you get used to them, its hard to go back.

I wish I had the ability to customise 3 finger swipes as well. Unfortunately my Elan drivers does not allow me to do that.

Do you mean you can scroll any window under the cursor, without having to click it to gain focus? If so, you can use a program like X-Mouse Button Control to get that functionality. Why it isn't Windows's default behavior is anyone's guess...

I think what he means is that you don't have to move your finger to a separate point before scrolling.

On the other hand that program is AMAZING! +rep for you for mentioning it. I'm setting it up right now but one thing I noticed was that when you give focus to the Explorer, you have to click on the other program to make it scroll. This only happens with the Explorer. Any way to fix that? Never mind. It works now :D
 
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What the ... ?

At the moment I'm installing a completely new Windows 7 on a completely new SSD (OCZ Vertex 4) in my old work notebook. After I installed it (AHCI-mode of course) I went on to install Windows Updates. Because I only have a standard Windows 7-DVD with SP1 there were quite a few Windows Updates to install (100+) which didn't bother me, I just said "just install them, they were installed on my old installation, too".
The next reboot: instant bluescreen.
I: :-? :dunno: :think:
OK, revert it and install the updates again...
The next reboot: instant bluescreen.
I: :-? :dunno: :think:
OK, revert it and install only 5-10 updates at a time and reboot every time inbetween...
Every reboot it was fine, now I installed the last updates and there wasn't any bluescreen again. :dunno:

Apparently Windows doesn't like having too many updates installed at one time, but I never had such problems before...
 
Ok, brochacos. I bought an iPhone 5 and I'm looking to get one of those battery cases. Anything good out there?
 
What the ... ?

At the moment I'm installing a completely new Windows 7 on a completely new SSD (OCZ Vertex 4) in my old work notebook. After I installed it (AHCI-mode of course) I went on to install Windows Updates. Because I only have a standard Windows 7-DVD with SP1 there were quite a few Windows Updates to install (100+) which didn't bother me, I just said "just install them, they were installed on my old installation, too".
The next reboot: instant bluescreen.
I: :-? :dunno: :think:
OK, revert it and install the updates again...
The next reboot: instant bluescreen.
I: :-? :dunno: :think:
OK, revert it and install only 5-10 updates at a time and reboot every time inbetween...
Every reboot it was fine, now I installed the last updates and there wasn't any bluescreen again. :dunno:

Apparently Windows doesn't like having too many updates installed at one time, but I never had such problems before...

I wouldn't discount a SSD problem, either. I've been seeing more than one or two at work (datacenter) that come out of the box with all sorts of problems, just like spinners do.
 
Ugg, YouTube and FiOS really don't mix for shit... 83 megs down and it stutters playing 720?????? According to Google its common...
 
Ugg, YouTube and FiOS really don't mix for shit... 83 megs down and it stutters playing 720?????? According to Google its common...

I get YouTube stuttering on my workstation at work which has a dedicated gigabit network drop XD
 
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