Sinabro

Pandora has broken down to the extent that I cannot use it and rely on it every day, especially while traveling—I think she will still work perfectly fine as a desktop replacement. So, I am retiring her as my main laptop. I will find some server/desktop duty for her, perhaps as a replacement for Helen, but this is it for Pandora’s old duties.

Towards the end of my overseas trip this year, I found that Pandora’s LCD monitor loses connection at certain orientations—and this position changes over the duration of laptop’s use in a given position, perhaps due to the wire settling into a particular position under gravity and heat. I also found during the return trip (I am in Frankfurt at the moment), that the internal wireless device has broken down—good thing I always carry a USB wireless adapter with me!

Overall, this whitebook has been a singularly disappointing piece of work, starting with the battery life issue and USB device issue (which still persists to date). All of this at a higher price, shorter warranty, and worse service. I can’t say I am very satisfied with RKC computers, from whom I bought this whitebook, or MSI, who designed the whitebook.

So, for the next laptop, I am buying a name-brand, pre-built laptop (with components upgraded by me, of course). I am specifically buying Asus Eee 1000HE. It seemed very attractive in terms of the price, battery life, and overall reviews I have seen. Intel Atom processor isn’t of course the most powerful CPU around, but frankly, I’ve found recently that notebook CPUs are not really powerful enough for calculations that matter, and for calculations that don’t, well, almost any new CPU works these days. The new Eee will work perfectly for mobile computing (i.e. when I am traveling, when I am home, etc.), and when I am at my work desk, the whitebook (I am thinking about swapping the whole drives, so the name “pandora” will transfer over to the new Eee, and I will have to find a new name for the whitebook) will suffice, and when I am at elsewhere, I will have the new Eee-pandora with me. I’ve gotten used to syncing to workstations (i.e. between pandora and helen), so I’m sure this arrangement will work just fine.

P.S. Ah, yes. I am also stopping my boycott of Intel. It’s not that I haven’t heard bad things about them, but unless all the reviewers can be bought off (which I don’t think is possible to do either by Intel or Microsoft), Intel CPUs are definitely better than AMD CPUs these days. As for Intel’s business practices, I am willing to … make myself believe that it’s anti-capitalist propaganda. As for the Windows that comes bundled with Eee now, well, I am going to disagree with the EULA and see what happens from there.

Well, it happened. The LCD of my Inspiron 700m died. I’ve done what little checking I can do, bu I think it’s gone forever.

On the one hand, it’s a good thing that I have a monitor at my desk (in the office) that I used to use as the second screen for my laptop. I made a few adjustments to the xorg.conf file, and I can still use the laptop as a computer + keyboard.

On the other hand, that’s probably where the laptop will stay, until come up with a better use for the laptop. So, for the next couple months (I expect a few weeks waiting to consolidate my plan for next academic year, and then a little more looking for deals on parts—I’m almost decided on the MSI AMD whitebook), I just won’t have a computer at home, or a mobile computing device. I don’t think it will be that big of a problem.

After all, I could almost count on my fingers how many times I used my laptop not in my office or home in last half-year, and I can do without a computer at home for a while. I’ve done that for longer (oh, a year?) than that before, and maybe this means I will stay at office more (where I inevitably get more done), or get some good reading done at home.

Sigh. I wanted to delay buying a new notebook as long as possible, given the grounds that GNU/Linux is gaining (so, in a while longer, there should be notebooks (of the caliber that I would want to buy) with GNU/Linux on it), and given that AMD is not performing particularly well just at the moment (since I am committed to buying an AMD notebook, not Intel).

But I don’t think my situation will allow for that. My notebook LCD, which have been slowly breaking (it started flicker at some point, say, when I open the lid), has broken to the point that small vibrations cause the LCD to flicker, and I am quite afraid that it might get to the point where either: 1) it won’t lit up any more; 2) the vibrations due to my typing might cause the LCD to flicker.

In that case, clearly using the notebook as the main computing device is not … advisable. (I would still love to see it as my home server and so on.)

Well, here’s my preliminary plan—as soon as my plans for the next academic year is set (I hope to remain in Berkeley), I will begin looking for the notebook replacement, for real. This will most likely mean I will gather tech news (such as, whether AMD plans on releasing a significant update, such as a quad core CPU for mobile devices) and start thinking of my whitebook configuration. Perhaps hunting for deals on replaceable parts such as memory.

My laptop broke another corner. I just noticed that the little switch by the power switch that shuts off the LCD (it also sends ACPI events so that if I wanted to, I can make the laptop hibernate when I close the lid, since closing the lid presses it) broke off. I have no idea how that could have happened. The switch itself is well protected while the laptop is closed and I’m lugging it around. From a quick look, it appears broken off, rather than fallen off.

Oh, well. The good thing is I don’t care too much for that little switch. It has its uses, like when I want to shut off the LCD so that I can clean my screen better. But otherwise, it’s been something of a nuisance anyways.

Anyways. I have my eyes set on the goal—the laptop should last two years from now. Hopefully by then, I would have found a suitable replacement. One that is powerful enough, light enough, and can be run entirely by free software.