Hewlett-Packard has come to my rescue after three months of seeking out options for a new laptop.  I hadn’t planned on getting one immediately but due to how the current one was working I didn’t have much of a choice. What was purchased however is excellent for having a mobile system. I haven’t tried everything on it as there hasn’t been a lot of time in my schedule but I am quite pleased with the new system and the performance I am getting from it. After doing a lot of seeking and price decision, the final choice was made on a Hewlett-Packard laptop that is very high on the market. Here are the specs:

• AMD Turion X2 RM-72
• 2.10 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache and can handle up to 4000 MT
• 4096 MB DDR2 Memory
• 250 Gig hard drive (5400 rpm)
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
• Nvidia Graphics Card 8200M
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• 8x DVD R/RW drive with double layer support
• 15.6″ WXGA wide screen monitor
• Wi-Fi certified

If anyone is interested in looking up the model, here is the SKU# for it, HPG60-235WM

In my opinion, excellent clarity in the graphics and it just flies when you download files from the Internet. For example I had to reset up my Internet on it and when I got FireFox again it took no time to complete. I have the laptop as a second system as I also have the desktop as my main computer. Since the prior laptop was four years old it was due to be replaced. Oh and by the way, this was a great price and well worth every penny! Happy hunting if you need to make a purchase for a new laptop. I would highly suggest HP as this one was well worth it.

For the past many months I have been toying with two different instant messenger tools to test out their differences. As for myself, I have accounts with Yahoo, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN, and ICQ. The convenience of using Pidgin or Trillian will gather all information together into one simple program. There is no need to opening up every instant messenger, instead I only have to open up just one which brings up all of my contacts for each account.

For example when a new user begins an account on Trillian or Pidgin they are presented with a dialog box and asked what account they wish to add. In this example, the user would choose Yahoo. A new dialog box appears which the user then enters their Yahoo account name and password. The tool then begins to see all of the contacts (or buddies) on their list. The user can then follow this same procedure for AOL instant messenger, MSN, ICQ and other accounts which they have.

When the user has completed adding all of their accounts, they can then set all of the preferences of the program or look at the window of the buddy list. The buddy list is long, narrow, and easy to move around. Pidgin and Trillian set up icons in the status bar where your volume control is. To open the buddy window, double click the icon. To close, click the X in the top right corner.

To send someone a message, you need to double click the person’s name, a second small window will appear. You then type a message, press enter or click the “Enter” button then your instant message will then be sent to them. In some cases, your message may not be received. For example, your message will not be read if the intended person is offline, invisible, or if the person is set to away and does not want to speak with anyone.

Two more very important things to note with these instant message tools. Trillian has a basic application version and a paid version. As for Pidgin, it is a free application. The second issue I noticed regarding Pidgin is the application moves a lot faster than Trillian when running.

In essence, it is user preference for what application is used. The best thing I suggest is to try them both out and see which one is liked over the other. Here are the URLs to both web sites to download the free software and learn more about them.

For Pidgin: http://www.pidgin.im

For Trillian: http://www.ceruleanstudios.com

The anticipated arrival of Windows 7 will not be released until June 3, 2009 however there is a pre-beta of this operating system. With this pre-beta, end users can download, install, and get a feel for what the new operating system will be like. There are many statements how performance can be improved using the new operating system. I decided to research Windows 7 and see for myself.

I found an article explaining the new operating system. Here is a small excerpt from it:

“Through reduced background activity by minimizing the number of services running at startup, the number of disk operations, the reading and writing to and from the the registry, and the indexing of files, Windows 7 promises to increase the performance of the operating system but also to consume much less energy.” (Pociu, 2008)

You can read the rest of the story here.

Resources:
Pociu, Andrew. Windows 7 Improves Performance and Energy Efficiency. [December 2008]

After hearing (and reading) all of the pros and cons on Windows Vista I decided to install it onto my own system and test it for myself. So after I partioned a 500 gig Seagate SATA (recently discussed) I actually decided to see exactly what all the fuss is about with this operating system. Let me tell you, it is absolutely NOTHING in comparison to what the prior operating systems I have worked with over the years. I didn’t know what to think when I was seeing some of the different icons on the interface.

The interface looked nice but what threw me off was the widgets on the right side of the screen. As soon as you boot up, it shows a round clock that reminds me of something I used to see when I was sitting in a cafeteria. Underneath it was a small box with changing photographs then underneath it was another widget. I suppose that was Windows way of helping the user so they don’t have to keep bring up the program itself. But my thought on that is, why bother having this clock that looks like a huge cafeteria clock when you already have a digital clock in the task bar.

I will admit after installing Windows Vista and exploring it for 48 hours, I started seeing things in a different light. The interface is surely different in comparison to prior versions of Windows. The largest improvement that I noticed with Vista is the system actually ran a lot faster of course it could have been because I was running a 3.1 gig dual-core with 4 gigs of RAM in comparison to my 1.3 gig CPU with 512 meg of RAM.

At any rate, I have been slowly installing programs which I used on my previous system and trying them out for a few days then if all works okay I will install another one or two. The one thing I had discovered on it which drove me totally batty was how a dialog box keeps appearing to confirm that I want to install a program. The second issue experienced with Vista was after I removed an application there were left over files that needed to be manually deleted. So when I manually deleted them I got a dialog box which told me I did not have the authority to. What I discovered shortly thereafter this is Vista has a setting that protects the user from deleting files so “just in case” something important is not eliminated. All in all Windows Vista is not a bad operating system.

Well I have reached a new plateau in my life. As of a few weeks ago, I graduated from my MBA program in Business Administration. Since then, little issues which I could not perform while attending college full time have suddenly made themselves more apparent. A perfect example was my desktop computer as I went to use it and things starting acting odd. I had intended to rebuild but was planning for the right time. Now that college is done, I thought it was a good idea to start investigating what I could do for upgrading my tower PC.

After a few days of research I located a good deal for rebuilding the entire tower plus it would give me the opportunity to grow. Here is what I came up with:

- 6000 AMD Athlon X2 Processor 3.1GHz
- Asrock A780GXE/128M AMD 780G+ SB700 Chipset Motherboard
- DDR RAM F2-6400 2048 MB x2 (F2-6400CL6D-4D4GBMQ)
- PC-A59B Lian Li Black Case
- Power Supply: 500 watt from old system, unsure of name
- Hard drive: 500 gig Seagate SATA

I removed my DVD-Rom and the current 80 gig Seagate hard drive which I had in my old system and put that in the new one. The new mid tower case has four ports available so there is ample space to support two hard drives including the DVD-Rom drive. Should I purchase a second SATA drive to ghost the first or a second DVD-Rom, there will be room due to that fourth port opening.

The largest question I have right now is what operating system I am going to run on the desktop. I have considered staying with Windows XP 64 bit. I have also considered Windows Vista however there are questions I have regarding that operating system because others have had issues with it. Another option I am reviewing is leaving Windows permanently and moving to Ubuntu or Debian as I can use VMWare should I need to run Windows.

Currently, Windows XP is on it with a bare minimum while I wait on my hard drive.

This weekend I needed to format my desktop and clean up the multiple files built over months of installation, moving, and deletion. For the past three months I have been reviewing options beyond using Windows because I just want out of the proprietary operating system. So, after doing some final checks I decided on trying out Ubuntu. The great thing about this operating system is the disc actually lets you try it out first before installing. In order to make everything work I had to follow a few short steps:

1) Burn the Ubuntu.iso file onto a CD-R

2) Enter into C-MOS and change boot settings so my CD-Rom was the first to boot up

3) Reboot the computer (be sure the Ubuntu CD disc is in your CD-Rom)

When I rebooted, I saw this really cool logo that Ubuntu uses with some options of how I wanted to proceed. I chose the test option for which the operating system then proceeded to place files on C: as if it was a real install but in essence it was temporary. I would say it only took about 10 minutes to run through this trial install between my CPU speed and RAM size. (3.0 gig CPU and 512 meg RAM)

Once it was completed, a peachy looking background appeared with a few small icons along the top and some along the left side. It was actually quite nice as the desktop was very open and not crowded with icons like Windows usually is on a desktop. To enter the Programs, Applications, and so forth you clicked on the name and there was a drop down of each section.

The user could actually set up how they wanted their desktop very easily by going through the drop down menus. There also was a help section available to guide them if they needed it. Another option available to use was called gadgets and they could be downloaded from the Internet by clicking on what is wanted and after installation they are either added to the list or automatically added to the desktop. I didn’t install everything to test it but I found the most intriguing game called Atomic that really tests your skill. It reminded me of the Windows Mastermind but this one was actually better. How it worked was giving you a chemical make up of something like HOH then it would show you two H’s and an O on this maze like board. The player’s job is to get the letters exactly like the photo. What makes the skill is really having to pay attention how you move the letters otherwise you cannot move onto the next level. Anyway, I only made it to level two as I am very addicted to those sort of things and didn’t have time to sit and fuss around with it. It is a lot of fun though for anyone who likes mind challenging games.

I tested out the Open Office programs that are pre-installed and I am impressed. I have used Microsoft Office for years so it was quite interesting to see how close in comparison these applications are. Ubuntu even comes with its own version of a Project application which I was quite impressed by.

I have not installed Ubuntu yet however it is something which I am keeping and I will be reviewing it again when I get a larger hard drive. Another review will be made either before or after then since I can review the operating system without installing it. Secondly, I want to install Windows Vista however I need a larger hard drive. I discovered after reading, Vista is requesting a 40 gig hard drive and unfortunately I have 40 gigs worth of data that needs saving so I need more space before an installation can take place.

Once I have had the ability to install and try out Windows Vista, I will be posting my opinions.