Only if you think churchill was retarded, this guy, has recently quit, WHAT A SURPRISE!!! Must have something to do with personal honour, or perhaps it has something to do with claiming over 100,000 quid for living 30 minutes on the tube from the center of london.
Churchill has got nuffin on me guv
hi there!
can someone explain to me why windows update in vista takes 2h30m to download 57 updates and only install 28 of them, spending more than 1 hour to install the .NET 3.5 service pack (or was it 3.0??)
I mean, 2h30m??? seriously?? to only download 57 updates and ONLY install 28 of them???
It beggars belief, I am hoping someone actually knows the reason for this ridiculous problem
Well, I guess it was inevitable. People think more about small green pieces of paper than they do about something that will help us more in our lifetime than anything else on the planet.
Looks like we’ll be here stuck for a while longer. Although it didnt have to be that way, my article talks of course about fusion power (what gave it away? was it the title???).
For those who don’t know and perhaps there are many who don’t, fusion power is a source of enormous energy resources that can be generated from combining one of the most abundant elements in our universe: Hydrogen together to create energy.
It isn’t like Fission power, which is to create a chain reaction, but a lot different and safer and far more powerful. FIssion relys on splitting atoms to produce neutrons, which cascade into other atoms causing them to split, repeatedly, releasing energy at each stage. Uranium is the element that we use normally for this, when we split it using a single neutron, we get three neutrons each. For each neutron, you can split another uranium atom. So basically it works like this, for each atom you split, you get neutrons to split another three, for each of those three, three more each. You can see how this is great, each atom you split, produces energy, each one you split, creates three splits each, repeatedly this goes out of control, creating a huge fireball (normally called a nuclear explosion).
Thats the problem with fission, you need to reduce the number of atoms split, in order to keep the reaction from running away annihilating everything. With bombs, this is great, with a power station, it’s not so great.
FUSION, on the other hand, doesnt work in this way, what it does is take two atoms of hydrogen and heat them into a gas with millions of degrees temperature. Once here, we call this gas a plasma, we contain, heat and increase the pressure on this plasma, until somewhere high above the normal pressures of space, the hydrogen atoms are squeezed together, to such an extent that they merge together, into the next element up from Hydrogen, which is Helium. When this happens, we get a release of energy. Multiply that by millions of reactions and you get a large amount of energy.
The only problem is that in order to get to this stage, which is called ignition, uses a huge amount of energy also. So there are two problems, one to obtain ignition and the second, to get there with the least amount of effort possible.
So, whats all this science for? The reason I explain it, is that right now, we have a power problem in the planet, we all use too much energy that we’re running out of resources. The benefit of fusion is that it uses Hydrogen, which is everywhere, I mean, we can never run out of it, not within a million years and in space, you get 1 Hydrogen atom per 1m2. So, hydrogen is literally everywhere. we just have to use it for something.
Creating a fusion power plant is expensive and we havent built the first one yet, not one we know can work, continuously, producing energy for us, right now, they are just toys for scientists to play with. Maybe thats the reason they have no money, cause why invest in something that creates nothing but happy scientists. The reason is that most of the problems on our planet come from limited resources and limited space. Fusion would solve that first problem, nothing will ever solve the second one, until we have a way to create warp travel and go past the outside of our solar system, we shall always have that problem.
What has this got to do with bankers? Oh, I don’t know, maybe something to do with the 700 billion dollars the US gave to save their sorry asses and the unbelievable 200, 300 billion we spent in the UK.
Side Note: Where the hell did the UK get that kinda money from? I mean, nurses have no money, teachers have no funds, science goes to waste because of “resource problems” But when the fat cats get into trouble, 200 billion appears from nowhere, was it lost behind the sofa or something?
Well, the reason is that it costs something like 20 billion for ITER and probably another billion or so for this or that experiment, go google for Hubbard and fusion to find more examples of experiments being done in this area, some of them, reduce the energy required to create fusion to a much lower level. Why can’t we give them some money and get fusion power within 5 years and not the 100 I saw quoted this week. All the worlds energy problems solved for 700 billion, or save some fat cat bankers?? Which would you choose?
Why is this so hard for everyone to understand?
Dear lord, let the fun continue.
OVI, sounds retarded, whoever thought that name was better than errr, Nokia Apps or Nokia Point, or something equally *normal* I dont know, but they decided to name it after an african freshwater shrimp or something.
I decided to go and see what I would find and download, any free stuff? lets find out. So I open the web browser, navigate to their site, oh look, they have an app to install on my phone, cool, lets go and find out what it’s like.
Please sign up to continue
What? Why? I just want to download a free application, to download other free stuff, I dont care about my “account” or anything else, but ok!! this is 2009 where you’re supposed to have a surplus of redundant accounts spread all over the internets like herpes on the face of a whore, so lets go create an account!!
I enter all the details
Please enter a correct username
apparently I cant use my email address as my username, so ok, I chop off the gmail bit and continue. But oh NO!!! another error. I have to reenter my password, TWICE, on my mobile phone, typing my “secure” password is like 25 letters, so 50 characters later, I can try again
Please enter your phone number in the correct format
Urgh, ok, I entered the 0034 notation instead of the +34 notation that it wants, so ok, I will do it again in the way it ways
Please enter your password to continue
What??? I just did, urgh, ok, typing typing, another 50 characters and another 2 minutes down the drain…
Please type the captcha text
fucks sake, ok, this is annoying me now, ok, I type the captcha text, try again
Please enter your password to continue
YOU ARE FUCKING JOKING RIGHT???? AGAIN???? HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO ENTER THIS FUCKING PASSWORD, another 50 characters later, I send again
Please type the captcha text
ok, hmmm, it didnt SAY anything about it last time, it wasnt highlighted in red, or with an error, just the password, so why in the name of your god didnt it tell me???? I mean, I am on a mobile, where typing isnt exactly the easiest thing to do and making it EASIER for the users to create an account SHOULD be the best way to go around this issue.
So ok, at the end, I go through the entire form checking and double checking everything, I know I should have done it before, but normally you fix ALL the things it complains about, not filling in things you have not been asked for. but I can see that this might be a problem not just for me, cause when I explain to a friend of mine he also thinks the same, why didnt it just SAY SO, why did it submit the data and lose my old data? Why didnt it just retain the old data someplace, why does it make my life so hard.
I currently work for a company where we actually try to retain and keep as much as possible, basically, if you make a mistake in the form, as much as humanly possible is retained. If you enter your credit card details and then think, OH YEAH!!!! I have a user on this site, you can sign into the site and the form will be redisplayed to you, WITH ALL THE DATA, you lost NOTHING. This is 2009, nokia, get with the program dumbasses.
Instead of trying again, I closed the browser window and went to slashdot instead, I have better ways to waste my time. OVI just lost another user. Will the last one please turn off the lights.
Now, normally I dont like to critisise, LOOOL, oh wait, screw that lets just get on with it.
Nokia Email. Why? I mean, what did I do to you? You *seem* like a respectable application, I mean, Nokia should know how to build an application for a mobile phone, it’s not like they just started yesterday. ALTHOUGH YOU WOULDN’T REALISE IT.
If you dont know what this seemingly great application is, you can go here and download a copy:
http://email.nokia.com
Can someone please explain me who the fuck decided to make the “c” key (on nokia, this is the delete key) delete my email account. This sounds like a normal thing to do, a delete key, that deletes things. But you see, nokia doesnt realise that on SOME mobile phones, the c key is VERRRRRRRY easy to press, I mean, incredibly easy, it’s hard to explain, you think that getting out of bed and putting trousers on without falling through a plate glass window, impaling yourself on a shard of broken glass, falling over the balcony onto some electrical cabling that has no plastic sheilding and getting electrocuted is easy, but thats nothing compared to how easy pressing that little “c” button is.
So what happens when you put your phone in your pocket after checking your email? SOMETIMES, you bend down, your keys push against the plastic of the phone in your pocket and SOMETIMES, that happens to be a button. So now, you just clicked the delete key, without knowing it. Hmmmm, problem step 1.
Step 2 comes in the form that it asks you a question, just to make sure you dont want to do something stupid, I mean, like, errr, deleteing your email account from the application losing all your stored emails. Something like that.
Are you sure you want to delete <email account> Y/N
Normally I would hesistate at this question and select N, cause, normally I dont ask my keys to stop pressing buttons on my phone. I normally assume that one of the most easily pressed keys on my phone, is normally the one that gets pressed and has such a destructive power, it’s kept under control, like
Are you sure you want to delete <email account> Type: supercalorfragilisticexpialadocious
Might be a better choice. But I digress, after the keys in my pocket decided to delete my email, the phone asks me am I sure. Of course, because the my front door keys are making this decision for me, they make the next decision too. Because nokia obviously hasnt a clue how mobile phones are constructed, they happily put the confirm button on the edge of the phone also. So now your keys push the confirm button.
bye bye email
Nokia, the guy who wrote this software is the most retarded interface designer I ever met, please fire him. Seriously, this guy is fucking retarded, who puts the most important key on a phone on the OUTSIDE of the device, where it can be pushed ALL the time, then who lets this guy sit at a computer long enough to figure out how to use the button in the first place. THEN put whatever he writes on the internet so other people can download it!!!
Words fail me. Nokia, you suck, my next phone will be an iphone, screw you and your retards.
Next Up: OVI and why the signup process for a service is the most important part of any website, at least try to get it right!
And there was much rejoicing, what an excellant picture!!! (so I had to add my little personal touch)
Urghhh, it was great
Hi guys!!!!
So, basically, I went to a friends birthday party and it was kareoke, I decided to sing Nirvana: Smells like teen spirit, which on the face of it, sounded like a great idea!! However, when drunk, lots of things sound like a great idea.
I found the writeup on the anti-kareoke website describing my performance, I hope you enjoy it (Sorry it’s in spanish, use google to translate it)
To explain myself, cause I didnt have much chance, I wasnt actually that drunk, yeah, actually, I was quite drunk, but I could stand up, when I wanted to sing, I knew the words, but standing at the stage, I forgot everything, then had to read the lyrics, but decided that in the face of not remembering the lyrics, I’d just be crazy, so then started to french kiss the baby and the use the guitar as a giant penis. In fact, whilst I was on stage, I remember reading the lyrics and they were making me laugh, ahahha
then, when I remembered the lyrics, kind of, started to put things on my head and try to dance, when that didnt work, thrusting across the stage SOUNDED like a good idea at the time.
La actuación de un sujeto que atendía al nombre de Christopher y su colega, fue más caótica, aunque tuvo momentos muy cachondos.
(English): The performance of someone whose name is apparently christopher and his mate, was more chaotic, although there where very funny moments.
Kurt probablemente se revolvió en su tumba al escuchar lo que estos tipos hicieron con “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, pero desde luego no dejaron a nadie indiferente.
(English): Kurt would be probably spinning is his grave listening to who has done this to “Smells like teen spirit”, but no doubt, they didn’t left anyone indifferent.
Muy divertido el momento en el que Rachel apareció a medio tema, y utilizó al “guitarrista” como si fuese su potro personal, cabalgando sobre él por el escenario. Al finalizar, Rachel comentó: “Esta ha sido la actuación más alcoholica, cocainómana, heroinómana de la historia de Anti-Karaoke, y esto no es un cumplido. Pero no todo puede ser bueno!”.
(English): A very funny the bit when rachel appeared during the song and started to ride the guitarist as if it was her personal horse, riding on him around the stage. At the end rachel comented: “This has been the most alcoholic, cocainomaniac, and heroinomanic performance of the history of anti-karaoke. This is not a complement. But not everything can be good”
Now THATS A FUCKING PARTY!!!! Then I go and find more pictures, Rachel, if you’re here, please take a copy of these pictures if you want them. Thanks for letting me grab part of the page into my blog! MUA!!
AK - Getting Ready
ROCK!!
Kiss the baby!!
I hope you had as much fun as I did!!
UPDATE!!!! I found these super awesome pictures on their website!!! HERE WE GO!!!
Rant time. For eons linux developers have just done what they want, when they want, with little or near fear for pissing anyone off, cause mainly, nobody used linux apart from the other people who also felt the same way. This is a rant about linux configuration files.
I was there *almost* at the beginning, when linux started to grip onto “normal” people, I was always messing around, configuring, reconfiguring, compiling kernels, trying out OS2 (or at least playing). Anything alternative, I was interested to see what I could do with other platforms. That said, I never really made a big effort to push out anything interesting, I never committed any patches, any extra code to external groups, just playing around, with my own stuff. Enjoying life. Back then, it was 1995. Books on linux weighed about 10KG and came with two cdrom’s (the one I remember the most, was with redhat and slackware on the other).
Now 13 years later, I’m bored of it and I’ve been there and done that and now I just don’t have the same push inside me to learn so much, I have my life in front of me and although right now is STILL presents me with an LCD screen for about 10 hours a day (much to the chagrin of my girlfriend). I don’t plan on staying this way, one day, the only thing that will be in front of me, is my Dragonball comic books (thanks ceci! I love you lots) and a swimming pool and doing some minor work, whilst my company employees do the 10 hour days. I promise to try and treat them like humans, they should be allowed a swimming pool one day.
The one thing that I never really understood, was configuration files on linux, you see, 13 years ago, those files were still there, still written the same way, with the same awful gui tools, that either don’t work, or work barely, designed by morons, written by barely competent programmers. Or they just didnt write one and instead wrote man files, which helped, but still.
You open up the samba configuration file (FOR EXAMPLE!! Open another if you want, say mysql config) and you’re confronted with the same “normal” format, with arbitary rules, you still have to open the file using vi, or whatever. You still have to wade through the documentation thats written inline, that makes the files about 100x longer than it might be normally (like the apache configuration)
The syntax is arbitary, maybe the guy thinks his syntax is better than the other guys, perhaps he writes is like “key: value” like syntax or perhaps “key = value” syntax, then there is the whole issue of line endings, etc, etc.
In other words, these guys are all fucking morons. Listen guys, 1995 was like 13 fucking years ago, get with the program. Nobody gives a flying fuck about your fucking stupid retarded configuration files that require knowing how to use vim to play about with, you wonder why only experts use linux and don’t get me started with your mother. The only reason your mother can use linux is because YOU installed it (99% of the time) and then when you did, you probably turned off the auto-update feature, because that solves like 100% of all problems. Install it, never update it and linux is rock solid. You want to know how many times I’ve fixed my girlfriends laptop because an update has totally fucked things up? (Fedora, dont say: cry cry, fedora is bleeding edge, it has the same level of software as ubuntu in most cases).
HA HA!! I feel much better now. OK, so everyone is now probably wondering whether Chris will put down the AK-47 and give a solution. Cause well, if you dont like it, fix it, right?
Well, unfortunately I can only suggest a solution, not give one, because I dont have like 1 million man hours to expend on fixing your shit, so here goes, a POSSIBLE solution.
Machines can read XML (HAHAHA, you saw that coming right? Pity you didnt see it coming and then actually DO something about it). They can do it very well, we have documentation formats that are readable by computers and structural formats to arrange data, we do this very well and some formats are better than others. But I will pick XML just because, I could pick json, but I dont think that you can put documents very easily into that format, XML just has these things, so I picked that.
If you rewrote all your config files in XML, you could add the documentation inline as well, you could automatically update your documentation from the config file, your computer could read it and write you out a manual file dynamically on the fly, then you could write tools which interact with the values inside, you could query, set, insert, update, delete values by merely using a simple too. Hell, it could even be the same tool for the entire system.
Hell, even application developers have it easier, just linux against libConfigXML or something and import the code that is needed to read and write configuration files, need to import another application config, because maybe you depend on it’s config, you could use dbus to talk to the app, or open it’s config, ask a systemwide daemon to return you the information (hence dbus). Then bingo, it’s easier for everyone.
Oh wait, Apple has already done this, and most of the system is written using plists, not exactly the same, but brownie points for getting BSD’s head out of its arse and doing this for them, did they backport all the changes? nope, cause they are retards who believe that making life EASY, or EASIER for the rest of us is like pedophilia or something.
Listen guys, I know you’re clever, but some of your decisions are just stupid dumb and configuration files might actually be simpler if you started to work together, it doesnt matter if it’s not perfect, it just has to work, you can improve it AFTERWARDS. But are we really going to sit here in 2020 and STILL be using retarded configuration files???
The windows registry was a good idea, implemented badly. You needed special tools that only really worked when the system did and was hard to think through, gconf, a system of xml files, has the right idea, but extended through the entire system, NOT JUST GNOME. xml is text, if you want, open in VIM, or for the rest of us:
systemconfig samba write dns-proxy “yes”
will be about a million times better than the current shit sandwich you have. I know this isnt a major showstopper for linux, but it’s the little things that count, sometimes you think that the little things dont matter, but what people dont realise is that maybe someone somewhere has a fucking ace idea that they want to do, that would make linux configuration domain wide simple, easy and automatic or whatever, as well as keeping the flexibility of today and the extendability of tomorrow. But you’ll never see it, because you’re all too retarded to think about the bigger picture.
Please someone, help the others take their head from their ass.
Going through the macbook that I bought recently and saying my opinion on parts which I love and parts that I hate (there are more parts that I love than hate btw). I thought the obvious place to start was iPhoto. This isnt as cut and dried as the hardware, but I believe that this application solves a big problem for a lot of people and it does it in a clever and simple way. So I reckon it might resonate with a lot of people.
When I opened the macbook up the first time, I found that there was this app which would run when I would plug the N85 phone, or my girlfriends iphone into the usb. This is an example of what 99% of people want with their machines. An application that can be left on, or turned off, that does exactly what it is supposed to do AND MORE.
When you plug it in, iphoto is auto-set to start running, this can be configured off if you dont like it, but I do, when it starts up, it’ll mount the camera and has options to import the new pictures. You can choose to show only the new pictures, also after importing them, you can choose to delete them from the device to free up space.
When you think about it, this is exactly what people want, they want to do just this, it’s really simple, it’s really easy and it gets better. You see, importing into your mac isnt the only thing they have done, they have shortcuts to EXPORT to online services built right into the application.
Select a group of images, click the facebook icon, enter your details, it’ll create an album in facebook for you, no fuss, no messing around, quick, easy, simple. Same with flickr I’ve been told but I aint tried it, I dont have an account. Also, the fantastic MobileMe is right there.
This is an application that blows what I see of the competition to bits, on linux? f-spot perhaps? if you like being anally raped by microsoft, go for it, but what else? This is built into the macbook without any fuss, I can start uploading my pictures where I need to put them, MobileMe is a great way to keep control of your data, if you don’t trust that facebook will do what you wish when you mean DELETE THE FUCKING PICTURE. But I guess thats always going to be a problem when you start using online services. If you are that paranoid, you could just write your own gallery, or use Gallery2 which can be installed on your webserver (if you have one).
The other cool thing is, I can select some photos and create a calendar of them right away, I can also print that to PDF and take it to be professionally printed, quick and easy, you know, I tried to do this on linux, I found about 12 dozen crap windows utilities which basically were macros for excel and nothing else, you had to pay, with macbook? nope, you just use the built in tools.
Also, if you create an online gallery, iphoto keeps a connection with that gallery in iphoto, so you can basically update it with more pictures, I guess like a “folder”. This is really handy if you want to add-remove photos from an already created album, you can even rename the album inside iphoto, but I had some problems with this, because it keeps reverting to the facebook album name, maybe they are fighting over it and facebook keeps winning.
The only gripe I have, is that playing videos, opens an external quicktime video window and doesnt play inside the iphoto interface, this I guess is a limitation of the system, or maybe just lousy programming, but I would like to see the next version has this fixed.
Also, if you want to create a slideshow, you can just select some files and do it right there and then, bingo, instant slideshow, WITH MUSIC (which some people see as retarded music, my dad would be very impressed with what he would do in a short time if he needed it, he isnt going to hunt for mp3s and shit like that).
Another great thing, is the information for each photo, if like you, I have GPS on my camera, iphoto will import that information and if you click the info button, it’ll flip over and show you where in the world that photo was taken (of course, depends on whether your photo recorded it to begin with). And then of course, the other extended data.
Additionally, you get a faces browser, where it’ll do some facial recognition based on what it knows about faces and the more faces you identify, the more faces it will try to select you, you get the choice of overriding the selection, entering a new one, moving the “square around”, etc, etc. This can be handy if you want to show people pictures of your brother, for a birthday party, you can just select his “face” and bingo, instant personalised photo album.
It’s hard to estimate how great this application really is, but one of the problems that I had in the past is that I have thousands of images on my computer and I needed to organise them just into simple folders. Apart from f-spot, which I won’t touch, I couldn’t find any solution that would work on my fedora linux installation and windows? Neither, perhaps it’s just because the internet is a big place and I just couldn’t find it, but seriously, I turned the machine on, one of my biggest archival problems, eliminated, before I even opened the machine. That just makes this one of the macbook’s biggest selling point, how many of you have thousands of images that you need quickly organising? Macbook’s have it all built in, you want to go and buy a substandard laptop from HP, go right ahead, then please tell me how you managed to catalogue and archive all your pictures on it, document some steps, I bet you that your list of things in order to do it are larger than mine.
Just another reason why Apple has got things right. Next up, Time machine.
(I took the images from http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/what-is-iphoto.html, hopefully nobody will sue me :D)
Hi,
This is the first in a series of posts, that I hope will explain to a new macbook user (that is currently myself) why mac osx and macbooks, are just so awesome and why you should learn to love the Apple, even if you dislike other things. You can’t ignore what they have done and how different they are from generics and how everyone, if they had any sense, would just copy them and give up.
The first thing is the hardware, it’s amazing. Simply put, construction wise, it’s the best laptop you can buy, I think the only laptops that come close, are from Sony and they cost like 2x the price and have other drawbacks.
The entire thing, is built from a single piece of aluminium, save the battery cover, which is supposed to come off, so is separate. The laptop is so light, I can pick it up, comfortably, with a single arm. No heavy strength required, no strain past a minimal force required. I tried that with some laptops at the weekend, they are all about 2x as heavy for almost the same spec. I guess thats all the steel and plastic coming into play.
It’s also tiny, compared to my similar specced laptop that died recently, it’s about 1inch smaller on dimensions and 50% as tall as my old laptop, this was a HP 2xxx series laptop, compared to acers and others, the HP was small, compared to the macbook, the HP is enormous. Compared to my previous laptop before the HP (another HP), it’s absolutely tiny.
Apart from that, there are no fans on the base. This is just plain common sense, why nobody has thought of this before, I dont know, what are acer and asus thinking here I dont know. The heat from a cpu and northbridge comes to about 60 degrees when under load, and all of that heat, is being expelled through the base of the laptop.
Think about that for a second, the base of a laptop, where does that happen to be? What does it usually come close to? Thats right my clever friend, THE TABLE, THE DUVET, THE TABLECLOTH, ETC, ETC.
Now try to explain me WTF are these guys thinking? you are trying to expel, at 4000 RPM, the quantity of air inside the laptop, THROUGH THE BOTTOM OF THE LAPTOP, where it’s almost always blocked by something. Put your laptop on the desk, one where you can see underneath it. Now, look underneath at the gap between the desk and the laptop, about 5mm, right? Put a tablecloth beneath it, how much space now? Oh, whats that? you can’t see because the tablecloth blocks your view?
OH DEAR LORD SAVE US FROM THESE IDIOTS!!
Laptop overheat often? Have your cpu temp at 90 degrees? All of these things, caused by stupid fucking designers who havent thought for long enough to reach past dinner time. How does apple solve this incredibly difficult and technically challanging problem??
Thats right, it puts the fan beneath the laptop display, in the “hinge” of the display where it connects to the base, then, to follow up, you put a piece of material to “divert” the heat upwards, then, all the heat, comes out of the fan area, which because it can be as wide of the hinge, it is about 3x more area to expel air through, then immediately gets diverted upwards (where funnily enough, hot air WANTS to go) and what do you get as a result?
No burned testicles, for a start.
Sorry to put it bluntly, but how does it take a company with about 1% mindshare on laptops to get this right, whereas for years, all the PC manufactures combined, got it wrong, COMPULSIVELY.
The second act of genius. Laptop batteries are actually the same shape normally as the batteries you buy for your walkman, or other portable equipment. Cylindrical. The problem with this shape, is that as you learned when you were 1 year old, or thereabouts. Cylinders, dont fit into square holes. Not without much forcing and hammering anyway. Which I doubt would do much for your battery life if you happened to try that one.
So, how does apple get it right where again, everyone else has failed (except those who now source the same battery design). Build square batteries!!! OH NOES!!! Seriously, thats how they increased the battery life. Square batteries, for a square hole. GENIUS!!
Actually, the battery isnt technically a square, it’s lots of “plates” of batteries on top of each other, like sheets of paper is apparently the way it’s constructed.
Not exactly rocket science, but again, nobody else thought of it yet (unless by this time, they are all buying the same kit, but at the time of writing, almost everyone has cylindrical batteries inside a square looking casing. Not exactly the most amazing piece of design ever.
The upshot of this new battery is, that I am not sure how to compare this against other macbooks, or previous designs with “normal” batteries, but when I use this thing, I get like 3 hours continuous usage of it and I plug it into the electricity once every two days, with my previous laptop, I had to charge it each day. I have heard it’s quoted to 6 hours, but I am guessing that is for very light work, which I havent done any of yet, so I am going to leave that alone for now.
This, is amazing, on all laptops, mine, yours, everyones, I have always used an external usb mouse, because the trackpad really sucks, they are small, they dont work very well and the stupid scroll side thing they have, is annoying, especially when you do it by accident. My very old HP has an OK trackpad, but it’s still not perfect, at least it works properly, except it’s quite small and you find you are always repositioning your fingers to the top or side to get “more space” to work with. So then my newer HP is even worse, when your fingers get hot, which isnt a surprise if the laptop is running hot as well, the “shiny” surface just leads your fingers to stick, like on glass. HP, please eliminate shiny trackpads, you might find people like them more, “rough” trackpads are just nicer, your fingers glide over them better. I realise that shiny looks more cool, but cool isnt cool when your fingers are hot and sticking to the pad, making usage very hard. The happy thing is, that HP decided to include a button to turn it off, so at least you can ignore it.
The macbooks new trackpad, is amazing, it’s huge for a start, the entire thing is a button and it supports gestures which arent completely retarded. For example, right click? Click with two fingers, detectability rating? always works, no problems. There are other gestures which just work, no playing around, it’s fantastic, get this.
Two finger click: right click on mouse
Two finger drag in any direction: scroll current area (great for firefox/safari)
Four fingers down, show desktop
Four fingers up, expose windows
Three fingers left/right: prev page, next page.
There are others too, but I dont use them. The trackpad also has zoom like on the iphone, but I dont use that anyway, although it sounds very cool. To me, it’s useless, until I get an app which would use it (iphoto sounds like it might be worthwhile).
So, at the end, you find that you use these functionalities a lot, therefore, because the trackpad is large and FUNTIONAL, you find that actually, you dont want, or NEED an external mouse now. The other upside is, no usb device, no extra power drain. So more battery life, not much, but that has to be a plus, right?
Now, this is where I think Sony and Apple sources the same hardware, the keyboard, like the new apple keyboard, not the old chunky one, it’s fantastic for long programming sessions or where you need to quickly touch type, the key travel isnt huge, so you can shorten your keystrokes and I think it increases my speed when I know what I want to type from memory. Programming wise, like typing in different characters and keywords with special symbols, I find it easier because I can rattle it out a lot quicker.
This is very subjective, of course, people might be faster than me with a normal keyboard, but I found that with the right keyboard, which obviously can change per person, you find your rate can increase or decrease, I found the old keyboard a little awkward to use because the keys feel very large.
This makes a huge difference for me, so I love it, but I am guessing that if I spent 2x the money on a sony, I would be equally happy with the keyboard. So I will say that it’s better than 90% of the competition, fairs fair?
At the end of this, can you see, I went from being a PC/windows guy, to someone who would put linux on their computer, to someone who would buy a macbook, why? Because on mac I can run linux or free software, but I had other problems with linux at the hardware and system level, so for me, it made more sense, get rid of those problems and concentrate on something more important, like your work.
However, this post was just about the hardware, the next part, will discuss software and other aspects of the macbook which I think you might find interesting, please feel free to comment on things you disagree with.
From a hardware and construction point of view, is anyone out there willing to put their neck out and tell me that macbook doesnt present you with the best hardware that you can buy? Considering that a macbook, well, the macbook that I bought, was the same price as my previous PC laptop. Which would you buy, think about the design desisions that went into the construction, would you trust more a creative and innovative constructor like Apple, or a tired old PC constructor like ASUS or ACER, who seem more interested in just pushing out any old crap? For the same price? You’d REALLY buy another HP? another asus? another acer?
Fools and their money are easily parted.
