Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

The dell desktops we have/had have been pretty solid so that would probably be a good choice.
 
rickhamilton620 said:
If one's looking for a PC alternative, you can't go wrong with any of the "big 3's" business laptop lines.

Latitude IMO has a nicer design, especially with the E6X20 series. You also get a 3 year warranty as standard and they're fairly affordable

EliteBooks look posh, but are pretty expensive if you want to customise....it's better to order one of these over the phone, as the reps can give you discounts. Phoning Dell works too, but you can get a decent deal on a Latitude online unlike HP

ThinkPad's have legendary keyboards and proven toughness, but I've always felt like they were a bit overhyped. They feel like they're made of many plastic pieces...just not that well finished imo.
Click to expand...
TP's are good in that they are easily fixed when things go wrong because they are basically all modular. Also they send you parts, like a friend of mine has one and her keyboard died so she called Lenovo and they asked if she can put one in herself, she said sure (cuz she asked me to do it) and they sent her a new one no problems. Took like 5 minutes to put it in too.
 
:dunno: I don't have any issue repairing things like ipods so I don't really care. The touchpad setup for those are for ease when typing and having both hands over the keys, I sometimes don't have use of my right hand so it's a big deal breaker for me.
 
I'm a little confused. I know you've explained it before, but can you reiterate what it is about the ThinkPads you don't like, if it's something other than the trackpoint?
 
prizrak said:
TP's are good in that they are easily fixed when things go wrong because they are basically all modular. Also they send you parts, like a friend of mine has one and her keyboard died so she called Lenovo and they asked if she can put one in herself, she said sure (cuz she asked me to do it) and they sent her a new one no problems. Took like 5 minutes to put it in too.
Click to expand...

Nice, and yeah that aspect is something I love about owning a business laptop. The tech support don't assume you to be a idiot. Dell offered to send me the new memory when my original 2 GB failed, but I chose to send it in because I had a few cosmetic things (completely my fault) that needed attention. They took care of that and the memory for free. :)
 
rickhamilton620 said:
Nice, and yeah that aspect is something I love about owning a business laptop. The tech support don't assume you to be a idiot. Dell offered to send me the new memory when my original 2 GB failed, but I chose to send it in because I had a few cosmetic things (completely my fault) that needed attention. They took care of that and the memory for free. :)
Click to expand...

Nice, yeah business laptops are generally tougher too. Acer support was really nice in that respect, I sent it in for something (can't remember what it was) and they fixed that and also tightened the hinge for me since it was getting loose
 
smib said:
I'm a little confused. I know you've explained it before, but can you reiterate what it is about the ThinkPads you don't like, if it's something other than the trackpoint?
Click to expand...

Well, I think it is mostly that since I use my laptop 90% as a laptop and in my lap I need a trackpad I like. I don't like the trackpad and the whole laptop is junk to me. Mom's MSI wind is useless to me because the touchpad sucks, the thinkpads have trackpads aimed at people that are not me who do mostly typing so it's irritating for me to use.
Ex: If I am using my beat up old tablet it doesn't match up to the screen size so I can't use it to navigate well, so I type/navigate via trackpad with just my left hand so the MBP multitouch gestural one is perfect, and a thinkpad one is kind of annoying.
My IDEAL laptop would be a touch screen one that actually has graphic pen support, such a laptop does not exist however so trackpad is way up at the top of important things I must like on a laptop.

In other news, mall had dell stand. Dell makes this http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15z/pd.aspx which has the correct multigestery trackpad, metal kat-proof body and spill insurance so it wins the "Computer Kat will probably replace her MBP with" prize. He did not know if you could set the flippy netbook-tablet to be pressure sensitive so I am sad.
 
That looks pretty damn nice, though Engadget had some complaints about the touchpad.
Engadget said:
Speaking of symmetry, you'll find the XPS 15z trackpad front and center in the experience, and we're happy to say it's a fairly pleasant one -- the oversized Cypress pad is quick, responsive and accurate for single-finger input, and comes with a pair of large, clicky and satisfying mouse buttons. What's more, it does two, three and four-finger multitouch gestures, though you'll note we didn't include them in the "quick, responsive and accurate" part. Some work amazingly well (swipe four fingers sideways to engage Windows Flip 3D, then drag one to flip through your open apps) and some fail miserably (far too often, the trackpad detected a pinch-to-zoom motion when we intended to do two-finger scrolling). You can tailor gestures at whim in the Cypress settings page, but we were surprised to find that our changes didn't stick. The next time we rebooted the machine, those problematic default settings were back again.
Click to expand...
Full review.

It's no secret that Engadget has a major Apple slant, but considering your general preference for Macs, you may be likely to share some of the same biases, making it a reasonably good review for you. The touchpad in the 15z is made by Cypress, and while I don't know if that particular one is pressure sensitive, some of their models are, so it's possible. On the other hand, Dell doesn't list it as a feature, only that it's multi-touch and gesture enabled.
 
AiR said:
I have an IPS TV and the black level is disturbingly poor. The VA-Eizo is as close as you get to a plasma on computer monitors, according to FlatpanelHD. Not that I know why I would want an amazing black level on a monitor. But the lack of adjustment and the slow refresh rate (8 ms) puts it behind Dell's U2311H which comes with Dell's snazzy mount that tilts, swivels, rotates and has height adjustment, and an IPS display with faster refresh. Drawbacks of that is shoddy quality (people RMA'ing 2 screens in a row before getting one that works isn't unheard of), backlight bleeding and worse blacks. Not that I know why I need a snazzy monitor mount either for that part.

The viewing angles do not disturb me, I sit straight infront of my monitor. It'd be nice with a proper 16:10 format, but then the cost is suddenly bumped up by 50%. My main usage is surfing and playing games, and TN is arguably the winner when it comes to games. I am undecided, if you ask me "Do you want nice colours?" of course I'll say yes. But my IPS TV has nice colours. I use that to watch stuff. I don't watch stuff on my PC. I play games, but not CS or UT. Bioware games and RTS' mostly. Driving games is about as fast as it'll need to go. If you ask the internet, is the U2311H fast enough, most will say yes. If you ask them about the Eizo, a few will go "mostly".

My current Samsung 223BW is starting to break, it changes backlighting between 50% and 100% in just about half a second, then changes back, and keeps doing that for a while until it realizes it's being silly and stops. But it works, so I don't really need a monitor yet. My Sammy also has quite apparent bleeding in the top and bottom corners in the dark. Doesnt bother me. My monitors lack of adjustment (only tilt) honestly doesnt bother me either.

What I like about the Eizo is that it has a light sensor that adjusts brightness according to the room, and my Sammy is lacking in brightness, even at 100 it's way to dim to overcome the sunlight. Might be the coating, it's matte but it reflects light. On the other hand, on 100 it's way too bright for night time usage. And it's rated at 300cd/m?, just like the Eizo and Dell and just about every other monitor that exist, so the new monitors should demonstrate the same lack of brightness. Eizo do a bunch of 1000cd/m2 models, but 105 625:- is about 102 000:- more monies than I'm willing to spend.

Finding the best compromise is hard.
Click to expand...

I got a Dell U2311H a couple of weeks ago and I'm REALLY happy with it!
 
smib said:
That looks pretty damn nice, though Engadget had some complaints about the touchpad.

Full review.

It's no secret that Engadget has a major Apple slant, but considering your general preference for Macs, you may be likely to share some of the same biases, making it a reasonably good review for you. The touchpad in the 15z is made by Cypress, and while I don't know if that particular one is pressure sensitive, some of their models are, so it's possible. On the other hand, Dell doesn't list it as a feature, only that it's multi-touch and gesture enabled.
Click to expand...

I'd be surprised if the trackpad wasn't pressure-sensitive, I had a mid-90s Dell Latitude that was (worked with the latest Synaptics drivers in 2006). If Kat's referring to the tablet PC that has an actual touch screen, I'm not sure, but the problem with the low end of tablets is they're underpowered for daily use. I've been happy with my tablet but it's not a powerhouse (leagues ahead of my old netbook), and the screen is not pressure sensitive or pen-friendly, as far as I am aware.
 
smib said:
That looks pretty damn nice, though Engadget had some complaints about the touchpad.

Full review.

It's no secret that Engadget has a major Apple slant, but considering your general preference for Macs, you may be likely to share some of the same biases, making it a reasonably good review for you. The touchpad in the 15z is made by Cypress, and while I don't know if that particular one is pressure sensitive, some of their models are, so it's possible. On the other hand, Dell doesn't list it as a feature, only that it's multi-touch and gesture enabled.
Click to expand...

I honestly do not have real brand loyalty to anything. I only like apple as long as they don't suck, same reason why I have not been very complimentary to VW lately.

I meant pressure sensitive on like this. In the magic world where they make things I wish I had, I would really like something like that that works like this.
The touch pad on the 15Z looks at least close enough to the apple one that I would be happy.

thevictor390 said:
I'd be surprised if the trackpad wasn't pressure-sensitive, I had a mid-90s Dell Latitude that was (worked with the latest Synaptics drivers in 2006). If Kat's referring to the tablet PC that has an actual touch screen, I'm not sure, but the problem with the low end of tablets is they're underpowered for daily use. I've been happy with my tablet but it's not a powerhouse (leagues ahead of my old netbook), and the screen is not pressure sensitive or pen-friendly, as far as I am aware.
Click to expand...
Yeah that is what I meant. I wouldn't mind having to buy a full on laptop or a laptop priced netbook for the drawable touch screen though, as if you look at the wacom site the thing is as expensive as my overpriced mac. Would I pay like macbook air prices that option? Sure I'm still saving a ton of money on that
 
Last edited:
seems like my old 32" free sony trinitron crt tv is slowly dying, so...

Could you give me some advice on new tv's?
- max 1000 eur
- has to support the dammed terrestial hdtv "Antenna Ready HD" (MPEG4 / DVB-T2 ) so don't need to upgrade the tv in the next year.
- atleast 42"
- atleast 3 hdmi !

any advices?
 
Panasonic Viera TX-L42E30Y. Or even better a Panasonic plasma, like the Viera TX-P50G30Y.

I finally ordered the ugly Eizo to replace my dying Samsung. Will revert with impressions.
 
Last edited:
Laptop has been getting rather hot lately, so I just got done taking it apart and cleaning it out, something I haven't done with it in about 2 years. Pulled a dust clod half an inch thick from between the fan and heat sink. I think that was perhaps the problem.
 
katwalk said:
Well, I think it is mostly that since I use my laptop 90% as a laptop and in my lap I need a trackpad I like. I don't like the trackpad and the whole laptop is junk to me. Mom's MSI wind is useless to me because the touchpad sucks, the thinkpads have trackpads aimed at people that are not me who do mostly typing so it's irritating for me to use.
Ex: If I am using my beat up old tablet it doesn't match up to the screen size so I can't use it to navigate well, so I type/navigate via trackpad with just my left hand so the MBP multitouch gestural one is perfect, and a thinkpad one is kind of annoying.
My IDEAL laptop would be a touch screen one that actually has graphic pen support, such a laptop does not exist however so trackpad is way up at the top of important things I must like on a laptop.

In other news, mall had dell stand. Dell makes this http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15z/pd.aspx which has the correct multigestery trackpad, metal kat-proof body and spill insurance so it wins the "Computer Kat will probably replace her MBP with" prize. He did not know if you could set the flippy netbook-tablet to be pressure sensitive so I am sad.
Click to expand...
According to Engadget the metal is actually fairly thin, not what you are used to in MBPs (there is a reason it costs 1/3 the price).

Funnily enough my old Acer is EXACTLY the laptop you want. It was a convertible so it was both laptop and a tablet, it used a stylus input and had a touchpad :)
 
Nabster said:
Laptop has been getting rather hot lately, so I just got done taking it apart and cleaning it out, something I haven't done with it in about 2 years. Pulled a dust clod half an inch thick from between the fan and heat sink. I think that was perhaps the problem.
Click to expand...
Thanks for reminding me, I wanted to play doctor with mr denty to see if I could spot any obvious issues.
prizrak said:
According to Engadget the metal is actually fairly thin, not what you are used to in MBPs (there is a reason it costs 1/3 the price).
Click to expand...
Well, in comparison to the unibody yeah.
P1000021.jpg

P1000022.jpg

This one though?
P1000026.jpg

That is the whole front with the keyboard and touchpad. though this angle makes ME look thin too...
That is the one that survived the drop and fall. I actually didn't find any evidence of the trama either excluding the warp of the casing in the right top corner of the 2nd pic.
Funnily enough my old Acer is EXACTLY the laptop you want. It was a convertible so it was both laptop and a tablet, it used a stylus input and had a touchpad :)
Click to expand...
<_< *goes to look at acer's site*
 
katwalk said:
<_< *goes to look at acer's site*
Click to expand...

Also look at Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, and Dell. All offer tablet offerings with stylus input.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top