18th Moon Station

Height x Width >>> Thickness

Remember back then when there’s still a category called Sub-notebook ? These are notebooks that focus on size and mobility (and battery life), even at the sacrifice of features and a much higher price. Taking it to the extreme, there’s the UMPC devices which are pocketable.

I remember my first notebook is a Fujitsu P1220 with it’s Transmeta Crusoe processor and very high price for the low specs. But I love the form factor. 8.9” might not be small and most peoples will feel uncomfortable with the small keyboard size. But I carry that notebook around (without the power adapter) in a bible case, easily mix up around the crowd of Christians after their Sunday congregation in malls :P

Try that with the netbook or today, or even the latest generation of 10” tablets. My current 11” notebook barely fit into my work bag, and that’s with zero padding at all.

Netbook won by price, but they succumb to the temptation of “bigger”, like what mobile phones could turns into. Larger screen and mobility is trading off with one another. For now, it seems to be settling on the mantra of “95% full size keyboard”, or the 10” area with some at 12” (but those are usually the higher priced model win non-Atom processors).

Then, perhaps in attempt to give illusion of portability, they start to throw in ideas like “lighter weight” or being “razor thin”. Lighter weight should make it more portable, right ? And the thin profile is sexy.

Personally, I don’t care about the device being less than a centimetre thick. I’d still gladly take a 2 cm device if it can be reduced to the smaller than the 8” size. The main bulk of a device’s size is it’s surface area, not thickness.

That’s why, I’m kind of glad with the approach of Windows 8. The OS will came to the tablet size, which is hopefully more portable (less than 10” for me) and yet still run the same Windows software. Of course, this is if most of the portable device ran on ARM processor that would still be half true because x86 apps will not run.

PS: why not using the tablets available in the market today ? Because they’re not the same notebook computers of course. iPad and Android users might argue… but will you buy an iPad when you really want a Macbook with the full Mac OS ?

PS2: For extra, here’s an introduction to archive site for the LeoG forum, a forum focused on sub-notebook users before the marketing term “Netbook” even arrive.
oion's gallimaufry: QND: LeoG.net Forum MINI ARCHIVE

90 Degrees Tilt

My main PC is a mini-tower, and it’s not one with the best heat distribution or air flow around. In fact, most of the time I find myself gathering envelope of old insurance policy notice letters to push fresh air into the casing, or shutting it down because it gets too hot.

Yesterday, I had several instance of crashes, which probably because of the heat issue. Tried cleaning, but the screw around processor fan is too tight, I can’t took it off. The dust deposit inside must be horrendeous already.

So, in a fit of rage, I tilted the case so it lay on one side. The fan sound surprisingly gets better. Perhaps this position is better because heat does moves up after all. But a water cooling system for the CPU and graphic might be a better choice.

But next year, maybe I should save for a Windows 8 rig next year using portable tablet and docking station (hoping there’s a system like that by then).

Cracks

If I should choose, my favourite type will always be the serial key, which sadly is a rarity.

It's the most light weight (practically just string of texts) and the safest (nothing to run)

Hope I squashed the last bit of that thing I accidentally evoked.

Mini WiFi access point

When needing mobile internet connection on the move, a pocket Wi-Fi modem is a good choice.

Huawei pocket wi-fi 3G wireless modem through USB connection

One of my recent purchase is a Huawei E5830. I bought the unlocked Three Mobile version with 6 month unofficial store warranty for IDR 860k. The verdict, doesn’t regret it at all, it just work all the time (so far).

I need internet connection for use in my notebook when playing in place that doesn’t provide public wifi network. In addition, I also need internet connection for my phone to save on bill because the carrier I use doesn’t have (fake) unlimited intenet option for loyal post-paid customer like me, at least in the plan I use.

Basically, this is a 3G modem + wireless access point equipped with internal battery to be used without direct power either from the plug or USB hub. It has small pocketable size and is a good choice for the recent wireless devices who don’t always have slot for cellular card; or in my case, don’t have the cards for every single devices I have.

Ruining habit

After installing the newly released Firefox 4, consenting knowingly that several of the plug in I use will become unusable, I found a slight nuisance in the minor change of user interface.

They simplify the context menu by removing the “Open Link” item which after all is using two clicks to achieve what you can do by single click on the link.

The problem is I already had a habit to right click and choose Open Link in New Tab. Like all habit, it’s muscle memory to right click, slide the pointer slightly down, and click. After trying the FF4, I accidentally clicked Open Link in New Window numerous times.

Just have to get used to it, right? It’s just that I used three browsers, Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox. As my memory serve me right, all of them have three choice to open link with the same structure.

• Open link
• Open in new tab
• Open in new window

I didn’t use Chrome and Safari so I don’t know their context menu,

Add: I just used a PC with older version of Firefox. Apparently, Firefox don’t have the “Open link” menu option, my mistake. They only switch the position of “Open in new tab” and “Open in new window”. My mistake.

New Router in the house

TP-Link TL-WR1043ND Wireless N Gigabit Router, that works well but not without it’s quirks.

My previous router (Linksys B/G home router) has been slow and recently can’t be connected wirelessly by the notebook in my home as well as dropping connections. In addition, I had extra need to have file sharing but without having to keep my desktop PC on all the time because it had heat dissipation problem when left in tropical weather without air conditioning.

Flickr for W7, useless without touch

Yes, I checked the download page for Flickr for Windows 7. It states clearly, this is for touch enabled devices.

Mine can’t be used beyond this state. The reason is simple… seems like the developers are targeting only touch enabled devices, which I don’t have. The result is that nearly all the option is useless, inaccessible. It doesn’t respond to mouse clicks or keyboard press at all.

Well, the option and upload button works, but the upload interface is not working without touch screen either.

There are drivers like MultiTouch Vista that seems to be a driver and service to emulate multi touch input device using multiple mouse. But it’s in Alpha (and probably not developed anymore), aimed to developers, and user would have to compile it themselves, something I’m not too comfortable with yet.

Technorati タグ: application, flickr, multi-touch, windows 7

Second year, same problem(?)

The last two years, I’ve been using HP brand notebook, Pavilion TX series. Well, I put my trust for them based on recommendation about the good customer care service in South East Asia (I also heard they’re competing with Dell for the worst in North America).

Last year, about a year after purchase (and end of the warranty period),  the motherboard is busted. The notebook doesn’t start at all… it doesn’t enter POST screen at all.

My second notebook is the updated version with active digitizer screen. After a year, it starts acting up. Start up to Windows became difficult as time after time the system would just like hanged during the start up.

Today, the system doesn’t start at all, not even the POST. The lock key light only blinks. I wonder if this is another motherboard busted.

Anyway, I’ll stay with this one, probably try getting repair. But next year, maybe I’ll switch brand.

*sigh*

Channels

One of the Wi-Fi setup I don'rsquo;t understand is Channels. Not that I deeply understand other home router device setting. But my first encounter with this one is when a technician is installing wi-fi to the neighbour’s house.

He set a higher channel, and other devices can’t detect it at all.

Now I had problem recently with Wi-Fi not connecting. One of my suspects is the channel. And right, even though it’s set to Channel 6, problem persist. So I set it to Auto and somehow things worked out well.

SeaMonkey

While not a user of any major browsers other than Internet Explorer and Opera, I do sometimes play with Firefox in my brother’s notebook. But my primary Gecko browser instead is Sea Monkey, which is mostly the same other than some inconvenience.

Sea Monkey can use ABP and NoScript, which is probably the essential extension and function other browsers should provide (whitelisting). Sadly, many other extensions for Firefox doesn’t work, even spell-check dictionary labelled working for Sea Monkey.

But another built-in feature I loved from SeaMonkey would be the cookies. The part where everything is presented in list instead of tree per-domain is not so convenient, but they have the feature to automatically block cookies from certain domain if removed. IE’s implementation require typing the domain by hand and doesn’t accept wildcard.

Firefox doesn’t have the feature, and moreover when trying with my brother’s computer (using latest Firefox release) it has trouble removing certain cookies manually (remove all works though, killing all indiscriminantly).

Opera… while I like it, the content-blocking is less elegant than ABP. Moreover it also doesn’t seem to have the built-in feature to block tracking cookies from specific domain without cluttering the cookies list. And worst from the newest version, my bookmarklets doesn’t work anymore.