Analyzing The Ongoing Communications Revolution

The last two or three generations have all gone through some form of communications revolution or the other. From the introduction of the telephone, to the early days of the "wireless", the widespread availability of low-cost printing, the ubiquity of broadcast media, all the way to the modern day proliferation of mobile phones, computers, and the Internet. And those are only a few of the technologies that have continued to further empower, enable, and connect people around the world. There are many more.

What is important and relevant to us these days (and to this posting, of course) is the communications revolution that we're going through right now. And, as with every communications revolution, it's not just about the technology, it's about what people are doing with that technology. That is, for example, while it Internet itself is really quite remarkable, what's even more remarkable is what people are doing with it, what they're using it for, and the content they're creating on it.

Recently, Wil Wheaton wrote a good article about all this in his weekly 'Geek in Review' on the Suicide Girls website. He writes:
Communication empowers people, and an empowered people are very, very scary to the powerful upper class who hope that we’ll just go away, right after we buy a lot of crap from them that we don’t need. And holy shit are they scared right now. The revolution may not be televised, but it’s being blogged, YouTubed, MySpaced, Facebooked, Dugg and Netscaped.

The follow-up discussion about that article on his blog is good too.

Phil Plait from the Bad Astronomy Blog then carried the discussion forward by talking about the problems we face when going through revolutions:
Old media (especially movies and radio) are dying, but their death throes are damaging new media too. Wil makes this point about DRM, the RIAA, and other hurtful acronymicious things. They are scared of teh ‘tubes, so they try to make them knuckle under. It’s not working well.

And there's much more discussion about all this on the comments to his posting as well.

My own take on all this mimics what Wil and Phil are saying, of course, but I just wanted to add something that Isaac Asimov wrote in one of his essays (I don't remember which one). He said that it's cool to be living in an age in which you can actually follow the evolutions and revolutions in technology that take place in your own lifetime. Before this, things happened over a number of generations. Nowadays, Moore's Law holds.

And the awesome thing is that, the people who are able to follow these evolutions and revolutions (i.e. those who learn from the past, live in the present, and create the future -- like Phil and Wil), what do they do? They blog, they make websites, they write articles on those websites, they record and freely distribute audio and video netcasts...basically, they use all of these revolutionary technologies to, well, further the revolution. And it's not the technology revolution they're furthering, it's the social one. The one that talks about equity, fairness, honesty, peace, justice, kindness, and so on and so forth. And that, really, is what it's all about.

Style Undecided

Everyone has his or her own way of writing things. This 'way' includes spelling choices (British vs. American); whether you use a serial comma (or Oxford comma) or not; which other punctuation marks you regularly use (brackets, dashes, hyphens, ellipses, emoticons, colons, semicolons, slashes, quotation marks, apostrophes, etc.); how and when you use boldface and italics; how you write times (3:15 PM, 3:15pm, 0315, 0315 HRS, etc.) and dates (30 August, August 30, etc.); how you quote material and write titles of published works... The list goes on.

For most of these things, I prefer one way over the other(s) and I stick with that in all my writing. Though sometimes, I use a hybrid. For example, I will mostly use British spellings (colour) but will use American ones when writing for select words (standardize). Sometimes I switch between the two systems, depending on what I'm writing. Here, for example, I would probably write 'programme'. For a university assignment, I would probably write 'program'. On the Internet and in programming, I have to use 'color' instead of 'colour' all the time. It's not that hard to switch, though.

There are two style choices, however, I'm not so sure about: writing times and writing titles. And my not sticking with one convention is starting to get on my nerves.

Writing Times

I tend to switch between two writing styles when writing times. I use uppercase 'AM/PM' when writing specific times, such as "the movie runs from 11:30 AM to 1:15 PM". But I use the lowercase 'am/pm' when writing times within flowing text, such as "see you at 3pm". In my opinion, "see you at 3:00 PM" reads too formally.

My problem, however, is that I am tempted to use the lowercase 'pm' notation all the time (ha ha, a pun!). I know that's what some writing style standards use and I am tempted to adopt that all the way as well. Maybe I will. Meanwhile though, I'm stuck in the middle.

Writing Titles

And then there are titles of published works. Which do you think is correct: "I watched 'Transformers' on the weekend" or "I watched Transformers on the weekend"?  Both are, actually. It depends on whether you're using rich text (in which you can use italics) or plain text (in which you can't).

At one level, I want to use plain text all the time. That is, I would write the movie title within apostrophes. I would also write things like: "The movie was *really* good" instead of "The movie was really good". By doing this I don't have to worry about people using plain text e-mail clients or about any font conversion problems (though that's more for smart quotes in word processing programmes). It's also pretty clear in the first version that I am emphasizing the word 'really' so that's not much of an issue either. For the most part, though, my choice is determined by the context. If I don't know which e-mail system someone is using, for example, I stick with plain text. When I know someone uses rich text, I will use the italics (and boldface and bullet points, etc.).

For blogs such as this one, though, things are different. I can use italics all the time with no problems whatsoever. Why don't I, though? Well, primarily because I'm a bit of a computer snob and I think plain text is the 'classic', format independent, platform independent way of doing this (i.e. it's cooler...in a geeky kind of way). And if I switch over to using italics all the time then...well, then, I should start doing that everywhere else too (i.e. in my e-mails, documents, etc.). Right now, I'm stuck in between the two and am, therefore, somewhat inconsistent. Even on this blog. And it bugs me.
By the way, last year I finally resolved the quotation mark vs. apostrophe issue that I used to have. I now use apostrophes to emphasize words or phrases. That's why, a couple of paragraphs ago, I wrote 'really' instead of "really". I then use quotation marks only for direct quotes from speech or text. You might, when you read this, be thinking: "Well, duh! That's the way it's supposed to be". But please understand that I come from a computer programming background where only single characters are placed within apostrophes. All other text is placed within quotation marks. It took me a while to finally get that out of my system!

Style Manuals

One way to resolve my dilemma, of course, is for me to choose a style manual I like and then stick with it. Nadia, for example, follows the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). I follow that for the most part as well. The Oxford Manual of Style is another popular one and most publishing houses (academic and otherwise) generally have their own, internal, published or unpublished writing guides. Of the ones available on the web, the two more popular ones are the Economist Style Guide (though that's mostly for magazine and journal research) and the Wikipedia Manual of Style (which is primarily an encyclopaedia style guide).

I mostly follow Chicago though I do take elements from other style guides. At least I think I do. I havent actually read all of CMS to see whether I'm following it or not! What I do know, though, is that, in the am/pm vs. AM/PM debate, Chicago chooses the latter. And we're back to my indecision.

Broadband Ho!

After using a dial-up Internet connection for about a year, we finally got a broadband (ADSL) connection at home yesterday. And boy is it a relief to browse at those speeds again. At home, that is -- I'm not counting my blazingly fast work and university Internet connections. Anyway, dialup was really, really starting to get on my nerves. Especially when coupled with my horse-and-cart speed laptop. Though, to be fair, my laptop on its own isn't really all that bad. The two together, however, do not make for a happy Ameel. So: one down, one to go. Of course, I'll have to wait for about another year before I can even begin to think of upgrading my laptop. Such is life.

Three other fun tech-related things happened yesterday. First, we got a wireless router at home so, not only are we connecting to the 'net at broadband speeds, we're wireless as well. Second, I got my laptop a USB wireless LAN adaptor (duh!). And third, I got a USB hard drive enclosure for my previous laptop's hard drive. That is, having already stripped my previous laptop of its RAM, I am now going to remove its hard drive (a good, 5,400RPM, 60GB hard drive) which I will then start using as an external hard drive (for current data backups, etc.). That last thing is quite a relief, actually, since my only other data backup is on my iPod. Once again, bless Nadia for having the foresight to get me a 60GB iPod a couple of years ago! Anyway, I now need to find some good backup software to use. I guess I'll start by exploring the one that came with the enclosure and then hit the 'net. At broadband speeds. Hee.

Ooh, and one more thing. Being in Australia, I am finally reaping the benefits of the excellent electronic funds transfer system that they have here. All of the hardware we've recently bought was from an online store (Discount Junction) that saved us quite a bit of time, money, and hassle. Most cool.

In other news: Nadia and I are going to watch Die Hard 4.0 (a.k.a. Live Free or Die Hard) tonight. I'll have more on that over the next few days. We're also going to the Cure concert on Sunday. Yes, life is good these days :)

[Aside: Hmmm...I still haven't posted my Harry Potter blog entry. I started it a week ago and have been saving it as a draft since then. I shall work on that next, I think.]

Near-Term Goals for This Here Blog

There is a lot that I want to blog about.

For example, I have recently watched the following movies:

Read the following interesting articles:

Read or re-read the following awesome books:

  • Frank Herbert's first Dune trilogy: "Dune", "Dune Messiah", and "Children of Dune"

  • JK Rowling's "Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows"


Started listening to some really good netcasts on TWiT, including:

Discovered a couple of really good musicians:

Bought tickets to a couple of great concerts:

  • The Cure: 12 August, 2007 at the Rod Laver Arena

  • The Police: 26 January, 2008 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground


All of which are blog-worthy items. I have also recently started extensively using the moste excellent Google Reader which is something that I really want to blog about.

Finally, aside from everything already listed above, I am now formally declaring the following topics as future postings of mine for this here blog:

  • Facebook (and social networking in general)

  • Living in Australia

  • Why blog?

  • The problem with this blog


All of which I will about write soon. I hope.

Huh?

Why have I just written all of this? Well, all this is thanks to first item on Web Worker Daily's '10 Ways to be Productive with Your Blog' which is: "Post goals". Tthat's step one done with. Let's see how the others go :)

Oh, and I have also recently added a new page to my website called '(Much) More About Me', the title of which is rather self explanatory.

8 Facts

This is going around the blogsphere these days and I, too, have been tagged. So here goes.

First, the rules:

  • Each player lists 8 facts about himself/herself.

  • The rules of the game appear before the facts do.

  • The player ends by tagging 8 people, which means (a) listing their names in your blog, (b) going to their blogs to tell them that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog for details, and (c) going back and commenting on their lists.


There are various versions of the "rules" going around and most bloggers (myself included) have changed the rules' wording to better reflect their writing style. I guess that's only fair. There biggest difference among various postings of this, however, is in the third rule. In one variation you're supposed to tag 4 people while in another you're supposed to tag 8. More on that later.

Next, the facts:

  1. I was given four other first names (Ameer, Sameer, Adeem, and Aleem...I think) before they finally settled on 'Ameel', about a month after I was born.

  2. I was named Ameel because my grandmother really liked the name Emile (after Emile Zola, one of her favourite authors) but they couldn't exactly give a Pakistani boy a French name so they found a similar-sounding Turkish substitute. Ameel, in Turkish, means "full of hope".

  3. I am a drummer and I own a drumkit (1 snare, 3 toms, 1 kick, 1 pair of hi-hats, 2 crashes, 2 rides, 1 tambourine), a set of conga drums, a pair of bongo drums, a darbouka, a dhol, a dholki, a couple of tambourines, a couple of shakers, and a whole bunch of drum sticks and brushes. I also have access to a dumbelek that belongs to Nadia. When we moved to Australia, I brought with me only one pair of drumsticks and one pair of shakers. I haven't played the drums -- of any kind -- in over a year.

  4. If I had enough money, I would quit my day job to work as a record producer and session drummer/percussionist.

  5. I have been using computers for 23 years now (starting with an Apple IIc). I wrote my first computer programme 17 years ago (in BASIC) and made my first web page 11 years ago (using notepad, in pure HTML).

  6. I am obsessed with (convertible laptop/slate) tablet PCs these days and would love to own one. I would specifically love to own the Lenovo X61t though I would settle for the Fujitsu Lifebook T4220 as well. Of course, I won't be able to afford either one for at least another year and a half.

  7. I find all kinds of wordplay to be a lot of pun.

  8. When (not if!) I can afford to do so, I intend to build a home cinema (or, more likely, model my TV room) in the style of USS Enterprise's main bridge. I already have it all planned out. (Yes, I know. Yes, I am.)


Finally, the tagging: 

Er, I can't think of anyone I can tag. Maybe I'll just add this bit later.

Downgrading

It's hard to go back to using something older and obviously less-better than what you've gotten used to using. Okay, that was a convoluted sentence. Let me start again. It's hard to go back to using Microsoft Windows 2000 and Office 2000 when you've been using Windows XP and Office 2002 & 2003 for over four years now. That's what's happening to me at my "summer" (it's winter in Australia) internship here in Melbourne. The multinational company I'm working for is quite awesome, as is its global IT setup, but its basic software installation is still seven years old. And the fact that I'm having to spend all day using an older version of Microsoft Word (which is what I spend most of my day on) is rather frustrating.

It's not all that bad, actually. Most of the functionality I need is there and the hardware that I'm using (a Pentium-IV HT processor with 1 gig of RAM) barely even notices that it's running software (the good part about using brand new hardware with older software). I'm also using a higher resolution display so I get more screen real estate than I normally do, which is quite cool. No, all that is just fine and dandy. Actually, it's quite awesome. It's just the little things that get to me.

Styles, for example. Style functionality was a major change between Word 2000 and 2002. In 2000, you went to Format > Styles in the menu bar and got a pop-up options window that let you manipulate the styles used in the document. 2002 onwards, Format > Styles, or just clicking the styles icon in the menu bar, opens up a panel on the right side of the text editing window. This allows you to manipulate styles while still being able to work on the text itself. This change was awesome and it revolutionized the way in which I used styles. I no longer have that coolness to work with.

Copy-pasting behaviour also changed between the versions, with the newer one letting you be more accurate with your selection (instead of quickly moving your selection to include the paragraph mark after the last word and then being a pain about letting you deselect just that). Windows 2002 also made it easier to work with hyperlinks and with document versioning (accepting/rejecting all changes in the document, switching views that do or don't show markup, etc.).

While these minor things don't really make my life all that much harder (since I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts and those are mostly the same between the two versions) it does frustrate me a little every now and again. Particularly the styles thing.

All my complaining aside, I don't really blame the company for sticking with the Windows 2000-based system that they have in place right now. It's hard (and expensive) to upgrade on a global scale, especially when you're as big as they are and you want to guarantee an excellent level of technical support (which they do and are very good at). What's fun though is that, over the next year or so, the whole organization is moving to a Windows Vista setup. Office 2007's new, tabbed menu system might confuse the heck out of some people (even though it's not all that different despite appearing to be drastically better that the current one), but for the people like me who are suffering under Office 2000, it should bring about a much appreciated jump in productivity. And if not an increase it productivity, at least a decrease in overall levels of frustration :)

New Rule

"At least one posting per week." That's my new rule for this blog. If I don't force myself to start writing regularly at first, I'll never get into the habit. It'll be like starting a new exercise routine.

The problem, of course, is that I actually need something (relatively intelligent) to write about. I don't want to write crap, y'know. I do, on the other hand, want to write about movies and music and stuff like that but I haven't watched a movie (even an old one shown on free-to-air TV) in; well, at least a couple of months. And though I've heard some new songs, there's not much I can write about them. Except maybe that (hmmm) Justin Timberlake appears to be a real musician after all. His music has never been all that bad, but I actually like his new stuff. Strange. Oh, also: I like JoJo's new single 'Too Little, Too Late'� (okay, so it's not all that new, really), Nelly Furtado's latest 'Say It Right', and Missy Higgins' 'Steer' off her new album. Yes, the radio station that wakes me up in the morning mostly plays pop. On the rock side of life, though, RHCP's first three singles off of their new album are quite awesome.


And that's really all I have to say about that. Fortunately, I've made a list of other things that I can write about and do, in fact, want to write about on this blog. Eventually. One at a time.

Tablet PC Links

In an attempt to confirm my status as Officially Obsessed with Tablet PCs, here are some tablet PC links.

If you want news, views, reviews (in text, audio, and video), or just generally want to know about tablet PCs, then these are the sites to go to:

If, however, you are thinking of buying a tablet PC, here are a few specific links:

And if you are a student, here are some specific links for you:

There are many other sources of information out there, of course, but those are some of the most useful ones.

Updates and New Entries

I think I'll stop posting stuff about tablet PCs now (unless something new and really exciting comes up, of course). I do, however, want to end this series of posts by saying that Lenovo has just announced the launch of the X61 Tablet which is an upgrade to its X60t (the usual abbreviation for the X60 Tablet). This version, due to be launched in June, includes Intel's new Centrino Duo chip (codenamed Santa Rosa) which increases power and battery life (especially if you use Turbo RAM) and includes the draft 802.11n wireless standard. Most cool. Fujitsu, meanwhile, has announced the launch of the T4225 which is its upgrade to the T4215, also with the new Santa Rosa chipset. And finally, Toshiba has announced the launch date (everybody loves end-June, it seems) for the wireless dock-enabled version of the R400. Fun things are happening in the tablet PC space, I tell you.

Oh, and Dell has announced its entry into the tablet PC space (specifically, the convertible tablet space) but there aren't too many details about that available on the 'net at this time. And I should mention that both HP and BenQ's latest offerings (media-ready convertible tablet PCs) are quite good too. I wonder when Sony will make its entry. I guess we'll just wait and see.

Obsessed with Tablet PCs

Okay, so I'm obsessed with tablet PCs these days. I've been looking around at laptops since my old one died anyway (and am somehow, magically, hoping to acquire another one) but now that I've started looking at convertible tablets (during study breaks while preparing for my final exams) I find that I am quite obsessed with them. And truly, they are worthy of such an obsession.

Anyway, since I've done some more exploring -- during which I found out a lot more about my three favourite laptops -- I've shortened my wish list a little bit.

The Toshiba: Not Enough Horsepower

Basically, the Toshiba Portege R400 is out of the running. Why? Well, because this laptop is designed for the "mobile professional". That is, in order to gain mobility, what it gains in battery life (5 hours with the additional battery) it sacrifices in power. My biggest problem with it is its 4,800 RMP hard drive speed which, for me, is far too slow. The processor and all are still pretty good -- especially since the system was specifically designed from the ground up to run Windows Vista -- but the slower hard drive messes it all up for me. Why? Because it makes it harder to do the high-end multimedia stuff -- like sound, image, and video editing -- that I would want to do on my laptop. It only other real negative is the fact that it has no built-in modem.

On the other hand, its styling (think Apple), material and coating (think high quality grand piano) and display (probably the best among all laptops) really are quite awesome and its edge display (which is a first for laptops) is really cool too. Oh, and its as-yet-unreleased wireless dock is supposed to be incredibly convenient. That, however, is for an updated version of the R400 due to go on sale end-June.

The Fujitsu: Quite Awesome

Next we have the Fujitsu LifeBook T4215 which is really quite awesome. Everything about it is cool and it has a very good "inking" experience (i.e. when you write text on it using the stylus). The advantages it has over other tablet PCs -- and in my case over the Lenovo -- include (1) the fact that it has a built-in optical drive (i.e. CD/DVD reader/burner) but is actually lighter than the Lenovo, (2) it has a touch pad instead of a track stick, (3) its speakers are better placed (in front instead of underneath), (4) parts its keyboard are nicer (the bottom-left key is the control key and not the function key), (5) the screen can turn both ways when you go into slate mode, and (6) you can replace the optical drive with an extra battery. Two other things may or may not be advantages. First, its stylus clips in to a pen-shaped slot next to the screen. Some people find this irritating but others say its helped them not lose their pens because you can easily tell when you've forgotten to put it back. Second, its fingerprint reader is on the bottom-left side of the screen. That might be irritating to some right-handers when logging on but its coolness lies in the fact that you can use it to scroll within documents.

On the other hand, some say that the Fujitsu's weight distribution when it's in slate mode is not ideal. But that's just nitpicking because the inclusion of the optical drive and the touch pad, and maybe the placement of the control key, are the things that really matter to me. (I can balance the slate regardless of weight distribution, I rarely use the speakers anyway, and, really, I can live with turning the screen in only one direction). So, like I said at the start of the paragraph: this is quite an awesome PC.

The Lenovo: Also Quite Awesome


Finally we have the Lenovo ThinkPad X60. And what a machine that is! I've spent the last couple of days watching the video reviews of these laptops on GottaBeMobile.com and, from what I've seen, the X60 is really fabulous. It has a full-size keyboard (which includes all the extra navigation keys like Home, End, Page Up and Page Down in their horizontal grid configuration; and, even though the placement of the control key is irritating, you can get used to its positioning), excellent hardware (with lots of hardware options), and a great display (also with many different options). It also has a whole range of extras, the coolest of which are its (1) UltraDock: a mobile docking station that lets you adds lots of things to it, including an optical drive, an additional battery, and more ports, (2) its US version has a built-in WiFi (wireless broadband) card, (3) inclusion of the draft 802.11n wireless networking standard, and (3) nifty battery management software.

Other good things about it are the fact that you can upgrade the on-board battery from the standard 4-cell battery to an 8-cell one (the Fujitsu comes with a 6-cell standard) and you can add an extended battery to it too (which is wedge-shaped and clips on to the bottom of the unit) to get up to 10 hours of battery life. It also has a FireWire port that the Fujitsu doesn't have (which makes it easier to connect to multimedia devices like digital cameras) even though it doesn't have the Fujitsu's smart card and memory card readers.

On the other hand, the Fujitsu has two useful features that the Lenovo doesn't have: rubber covers for its external ports (which make it look nicer when closes) and non-slip grips on the back so it's easier to hold in slate mode. Other than that, though, they're about the same (a lot more on that in a bit).

Australian Prices

In my previous posting I quoted US prices according to which the Toshiba was the most expensive of the three systems. In Australia (where I am these days), the T4215 costs about $3,000; the R400 costs about $3,050; and the X60 costs about $3,900. That makes the Lenovo the most expensive. The Fujitsu, on the other hand, is the cheapest in both countries.

By the way, these prices are for the basic, standard-configuration systems. Fortunately, those are quite good. But when you add in some of the extra stuff (like a 7,200 RPM hard drive, 2GB RAM, a good carrying case, an optical drive, etc.) these prices cross the 5k mark pretty quickly (an near 6k for a darned good system).

Pros and Cons Recap

Now here's the problem: with the Toshiba out of the picture, I'd have to choose between the Fujitsu and Lenovo. Unfortunately, for systems that are so different in so many ways (both major and minor), they really are about the same. Actually, let me list the major differences one more time to make things a little clearer before I move on:

Fujitsu: Pros: has a track pad and an optical drive; is slightly more powerful than the Lenovo; costs considerably less. Cons: doesn't have a full keyboard (though I like its control key placement) or a FireWire port (though that's not at all essential since most digital cameras can also use the USB ports).

Lenovo: Pros: has a full keyboard, a FireWire port, lots of accessories, and a higher screen resolution option; it also includes the draft 802.11n wireless networking standard. Cons: is a little less powerful; doesn't have a built-in optical drive or a track pad; is more expensive (especially when you have to spend even more on an optical drive).

So, Fujitsu or Lenovo?

So what does that mean? Which should I choose? Well, it depends on what I want to do with my laptop now and in the near future and also how/when/where I use my laptop. Listing that down will help me figure out which pros and cons are important to me and which aren't. That should help me eliminate one of the two options.
Now I use my laptop as my primary computer. I use it to work, play games, watch movies, listen to music, browse the Internet, make websites, create/edit graphics, and create/edit audio. Basically, I do everything short of video editing...but that is something I want to do (to a limited degree, of course) on this laptop. And how do/where/when do I use it? Well, I like sitting on a chair and working on a table (i.e. not on the floor/bed/sofa or with stuff in my lap; unless I'm reading a book), I almost always use an external mouse, I usually have lots of windows open, and I takes lots of detailed notes in class. I also like to keep my laptop with me all the time.

When you put the pros and cons in the context of how I use my laptop, how I intend to use my laptop, and my current situation (I'm a student living on a budget), here's what happens:

  • The track pad/stick doesn't matter all that much

  • The higher resolution display makes a difference (+2 for Lenovo)

  • The full keyboard makes a difference (+2 for Lenovo)

  • Battery life doesn't really matter all that much (just over 3 hours is all I really need in one sitting) but the Fujitsu's 6-cell battery is cool when compared to Lenovo's 4-cell standard (+1 for Fujitsu)

  • The on-board optical drive is convenient but not essential, though having to buy an extra optical drive costs money and carrying it around may be a pain (-1 Lenovo)

  • Standard configuration cost is an issue and the Lenovo is a little more expensive to start with (-1 for Lenovo) even though I know that is because it has a better screen and keyboard

  • Processing power is not much of an issue if I'm going to customize the system, but it does matter in the standard configuration (+1 for Fujitsu)


And when you put that all together, funnily enough, you break even again. So what now? Well, you factor in two more things: time and money.

Basically, it boils down to this: if I can only afford the standard system and I have to buy it at today's prices, the Fujitsu wins hands down. It's cheaper, it has a built-in optical drive, and its screen and keyboard are good enough (they're comparable to the ones I'm using now). It's also more powerful, and buying this will give me the biggest bang for the buck. On the other hand, if I can afford to customize the system I'm buying, the Lenovo would win hands down. Its keyboard and screen are better (which is good since I expect to use my laptop for 3-4 years and this is important to me), it has FireWire support (which is nice), it includes the draft 802.11n wireless networking standard (making it slightly future proof), and its battery and lack of optical drive don't matter all that much since I will be getting the 8-cell battery and maybe the UltraDock (or, at the very least, an external optical drive).

Of Course...

Of course, at the end of the day, none of this really matters. The whole discussion, comparison, and conclusion are all just talk because I actually can't afford to buy either of these tablet PCs. In fact, I won't be able to buy one till this time next year; i.e. once I've graduated and have found myself a high-paying job. Even then, I'd be leasing the system because I could never afford the lump sum especially since my first priority would be to pay off my loans anyway. Unless, of course, I got a really, really cool job and they gave me a big starting bonus (like big consulting companies do)...but I don't think that's going to happen (mainly because I don't think I'm going to be applying to big consulting companies).

Still, it's good to dream, isn't it? :)

I Want a Tablet PC

My post-warranty laptop died a few months ago (motherboard problem...long story) and I am now stuck using my mother's ancient Compaq. This is a problem. See, I'm a techie and techies don't have/want/use crappy laptops. Actually, wait...let me clarify: this laptop is not really "crappy", it's just old. It's large, heavy, has an old keyboard, no built-in wireless adapter (it's pre-Centrino), a slow (4,800 RMP!) 30GB hard drive, a non-functional optical drive, an old model touchpad (i.e. less responsive), hard-to-press function keys (the ones that adjust volume, etc.), a dying battery, and an incredibly heavy power adapter. On the other hand, it has a great display and good quality JBL speakers. Oh, and it works. Unlike my old laptop. Anyway, so it's old which, in laptop terms (particularly to a techie) means that it's crappy. Actually, even if I wasn't a techie, having to move to anything older is, well, a bit of a pain.

So, while taking a break after today's final exam and before studying for tomorrow's, I am looking up laptops (or notebooks, as they are also called...though mine have never been small and light enough to warrant my calling them anything different!). I am also making a wish-list short-list of the ones I want to buy, the result of which is this blog post.

Now, choosing the right laptop is very difficult (it depends on what you want to do with it and how much you can afford). Fortunately, I already know what type of laptop I want to buy -- a convertible notebook/tablet -- so this makes my life a little easier. A convertible laptop, by the way, is a laptop that can switch between being a regular notebook and a tablet PC. You do this by twisting its display around and laying that flat on the keyboard, and then using a digitizer pen to write/draw on the screen itself. (Check out the sexy Toshiba Portege R400 for a demonstration. Click "Product Tour" in the Additional Information menu to access the Flash demo.)

Why?

I want this type of laptop for a number of reasons. First, they're really small and light (they get listed in the ultraportables category) and, thanks to my constant travelling -- 30-40 minutes (one way) walking and then taking a tram between home and university every single day -- I really could do with something this small and light. I was already a little tired of lugging my old laptop around and this "new" one one just makes things worse. The downside to getting a convertible, of course, is that they're rather small, with screens measuring only 12.1 inches diagonally. (That means the screen is about the size of an A4 page, by the way.) But that's okay. I am more than ready to sacrifice loss in screen size over loss in weight!

Second, I have come realize that I don't want a laptop to be my primary computer. Very few laptops laptop are able to run all the high-end games and multimedia applications (graphics, video, and audio) that I want to run. And the ones that do run them either run just one of the two (high-end MacBook Pros will run the multimedia applications but not the games, for example) or are not really "laptops" but "portable desktops" (like the high-end Alienware or Voodoo series that are designed for serious gaming enthusiasts). As a result, I am no longer looking for a laptop that is a jack of all trades machine (i.e. used for work, travel, and fun).
My overall game plan, by the way, is to first buy a laptop that I can use for work, travel, and most high-end applications and games, and then buy a desktop that I can use at home for games and multimedia. Later, I will get an Apple desktop for my music studio and a regular desktop (running Linux) which I will use as my very own file, print, web, proxy, database, security, gateway server. Hey, one can dream, right? :)

Anyway: Third, convertibles are really cool. They're incredibly useful, particularly since I am a student again and taking lecture notes on my laptop would make my life significantly easier. I take very detailed notes but I can't take them on my laptop for all my courses because some of them have too many diagrams involved (try learning macroeconomics without using diagrams!). I could, of course, draw all the diagrams in Microsoft Word (which is what I use for taking notes) but there's just never enough time to do that. As it is, Word isn't the best for drawing diagrams and pictures (I prefer Visio). Also, convertibles are incredibly cool in themselves: I mean, being able to flip your screen over and write on it with a pen is just...whoa!

The Wish List

Anyway, coming back to the point of this post: my next laptop will be a convertible tablet PC. So let it be written, so let it be done. In fact, I have already short listed my favourites in this category (in order or preference, with most of the bells and whistles included in the price):

  1. Lenovo's ThinkPad X60 (IBM/US version) which costs about US$2,500 and is really quite awesome except that it has only a TrackPoint mouse (i.e. the button mouse in the middle of the keyboard) which is something I am not used to using.

  2. Fujitsu's LifeBook T4215 (US version) which costs about US$2,700 and is a really good overall system.

  3. Toshiba's Portege R400 (Australian Version) which costs about US$2,900 and is (maybe) not as good technically, but is stylistically cooler than the others.


There are a few others too -- like Gateway's E155C and HP's upcoming Pavilion tx100 -- but they're not all that great (or quite what I want). If you're interested in finding more about convertible tablets, by the way, check out PC Magazine's listing of Tablet PCs (sort by Editor's rating to make your life easier) and Laptop Magazine's article "Tablet PCs on the Move". And if you're really interested in tablet PCs, check out GottaBeMobile.com which has full "InkShows" (video shows) on the ThinkPad X60, LifeBook T4215, and the Portege R400 (each has move than one video, by the way; most cool).

Of course, each of my top three can be further upgraded (more RAM, faster processor, faster, larger hard drive, optical drive, better dock, etc.) so, in the end, it's probably not all about specs. However, most of this talk is moot since I can't afford to buy any of these for, well, quite a while yet anyway. But, I will buy one eventually! I just hope it's sooner rather than later and, just in case, I want to be prepared :)

Ninety Degrees of Randomness

I didn't think I wanted to start a blog. And then, when I signed up for a Yahoo! 360-degrees account (I'm a long time Yahoo! user), I found that I already had one (as part of the whole 360-degree package). Now this was a dilemma. I don't usually sign up for things I don't use so I went ahead and made a token entry:
So here I am, typing my first blog entry. Do I really expect to maintain this blog and/or use it regularly? No, that is most unlikely. In fact, I probably won't even visit this site very often. I just don't have time for writing blogs and maintaining pages such as these, unfortunately. Such is life.

Still...I might just. Who knows? :)

That, I thought, was that.

And then, while flicking through channels on TV, I watched a bit of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Now, I really like the Terminator series (yes, even part three) but, since Nadia hasn't seen it, I can't talk to her about how cool I think it is. And that's when it occurred to me: when I don't have someone (such as my sister, Maliha) to talk to about the many, many different kinds of movies that I love, I can blog about it instead! (Yes, the word "blog" can be used as a verb). Talking out loud (on the Internet, at least) even though no one might be listening sure beats talking to no one instead. And so I started blogging every now and then on my Yahoo! page.

However, since Nadia I have gone through all this effort to make our own website, it makes so much more sense for us to host our own blogs here (she had a temporary blog elsewhere too). And so here we are.