Archive for the 'Computers 'n' Gadgets' Category

My new standard for laptop battery life

Sunday, December 3rd, 2006

I’ve been using my X60 for a few days, mostly at home while sitting on the couch or in bed. In this very short amoutn of time, this laptop has established itself as the one which I’ll be comparing all others to in terms of battery performance.
In the “Thinkpad default” power profile, with normal usage, […]

Rejuvenate My System

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

So I’m playing around with the random ThinkVantage software that came on this X60, and I find an option to “Rejuvenate My System”. Intrigued I click on it, and am greeted with the following message:

This option optmizes performance by defragmenting your hard drive and restoring your system and application files from a “known good” backup […]

Windows Live Writer Test

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006

This post was written with Windows Live Writer 1.0 beta. It is a little client-side UI that works with wordpress, and lets you do a semi-WYSIWIG composition of a new post.

Consolas font

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006

So I just found out about the new Consolas font from Microsoft that is being distributed with Office 12 and Vista. It’s a nice looking monospaced font that I think compares favorably with things like Bitstream Vera Mono on Linux, or Monaco on Apple.
Even better, you can easily use it on Windows XP. If you […]

Predicting javac’s behavior

Monday, November 6th, 2006

I really like java as a language, but the behavior of the compiler can be a pain in the ass to deal with.
The problem with javac, is that it does some stuff that is akin to what make does. It figures out dependencies and compiles them for you. It tries to understand your source structure […]

Internet Explorer 7

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

It’s finally out, and looks pretty good to me so far. It’s pretty fast, and it has tabs, and it has tab thumbnails. It also seems to be a little bit more standards compliant.
The way they got rid of the menu is interesting. It seems hard to find things, but maybe I just have to […]

iPod’s success

Friday, October 13th, 2006

Some dude goes off about “Why Microsoft can’t compete with iTunes”:http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/F6DC3D84-5B4D-43D4-B9ED-1F2033A895DA.html. I think he’s taking something simple and trying to make it into some grandiose statement about Apple vs. MS.
The success of the iPod is actually not too difficult to understand. Apple simply had the best software + hardware combo, and the best marketing. And […]

Return of the Floppy Drive

Monday, October 9th, 2006

I thought these things were totally outdated, but apparently not. They have saved my ass twice in the past week, both during Windows installs. I guess the real problem is that the XP installer is 5 years old, and doesn’t have any modern drivers.
Microsoft should really release setup disks with updated drivers once in a […]

Installing Windows XP SP2 on an Asus P5B Deluxe/Wi-fi

Thursday, October 5th, 2006

I didn’t search for hours, but a cursory search didn’t come up with any hits, so here’s my guide to using this (fairly popular?) motherboard. I think it applies to the Asus P5B Deluxe as well.
First, the relevant config info:
* Intel C2D E6600
* 2GB 1.8V GeIL Memory
* NEC 16x Dual Layer DVD drive (*Parallel IDE*)
* […]

That’s so linux

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

“This is awesome”:http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2006/09/whats_so_difficult_1.html. And people wonder why Linux isn’t more popular as a desktop platform.