The choice of tablets has pretty much been narrowed down to the iPad 2 (or, with an outside chance, the iPad 3; both seem to be more or less the same deal for the purpose of this comparison), or the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime.

iPad Pro:
- Support. Lots and lots of support. If not from relatives, then the Apple Store taking up floor space of the electronics department of the mall next door.
- Also in line with support, iOS seems to be the default assumption for apps.
- I can walk over to the aforementioned Apple Store and pick one up right now if I so desired.

iPad Con:
- I would much rather not have to install iTunes on my computer ever again. And if I don't install iTunes, I don't know if I can fiddle with files from my PC onto the iPad with any sort of ease. The relatives I've asked stared blankly when I brought up the concept of linking the iPad to the PC; to them, the iPad is an iPad, and the PC is a PC, and never the twain shall meet.
- I am wary about the reputation for the iPad to be less than user-friendly when it comes to adjusting the guts of the software. I don't even know if I'm allowed to install non-Apple-approved apps on it.

Transformer Prime Pro:
- Comes with a keyboard dock, supposedly "optional", but from all reports the TF Prime is almost always bundled with it anyway.
- Said keyboard dock also has a battery that can be used to recharge the TF Prime, giving it a ridiculous battery life of up to eighteen hours. I accept that I'm not actually going to see that sort of battery life, but just half that would still be amazing.
- Accepts microSD and SD cards, albeit the latter on the dock (which should be fine).

Transformer Prime Cons:
- I haven't actually managed to find one yet, so I can't do a price comparison check. From what I can tell, though, the TF Prime is generally more expensive than the iPad 2 (but not the iPad 3).
- Apparently the Transformer Infinity is coming out in a few more months. While I might not get the Newest and Latest, it would still probably entail a price drop for the Prime.

Tags: computers

Since my netbook is getting obsolete (4GB of internal SSD memory does not help when the latest Ubuntu Netbook Remix requires 4.2GB or so), and the battery is dying horribly (from 6-8 hours of function to 30 minutes), I'm looking to replace it. It's been with me for about five years, so it's probably time. And I've had so much use out of it that I can't imagine having gone through those past five years without it.

The options right now are to buy a new netbook, probably in the Asus Eee family once again. Alternatively, I could explore the wide and intimidatingly wonderful world of tablet PCs.

The biggest suggestion would, of course, be the iPad. Just about everyone I've met recently has exhorted its virtues to me, although said exhortations were concentrated largely among those who already have one, be it the iPad One or Two; I've not met anyone with a Three yet.

Apart from that, I know there's the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and after that my knowledge of the existence of these things becomes vastly more limited.

The primary worry I have about getting an iPad is connectivity. Specifically, connectivity to my PC, running Windows (7 64-bit). I've heard that at minimum, I'd need to get iTunes. Considering what happened the last time I tried iTunes in order to get the Quicktime codec (took over my music collection without asking, tried to give me all sorts of Special Features that amount to more advertising, sorrowfully informed me that I cannot use the iTunes Store due to being in Singapore, and finally resisted all attempts prior to OS wipe to uninstall), I am wary about this. I'd rather not have to rely on Dropbox for transferring files, especially if I decide to transfer my mp3 collection.

Apart from that, my general criteria are:

- Sturdy enough not to break easily. I want to be able to stuff it into my backpack hurriedly and not worry about snapping it in half or something.

- Light enough to be able to carry it around in my backpack in the first place. This was why I stopped using proper laptops, since they're big and heavy and it's a pain to heft them in and out of my bag for anything under an hour of usage sitting down.

- Battery life. I've heard good things about the iPads here, although I don't know about the Galaxy Tab. 6 hours minimum on one charge, including wireless usage.

- The ability to type easily, for fanficcing purposes. I'm fine with using an accessory, assuming this accessory is also light and sturdy. The touchscreen keyboards I've seen tend to lag too much to be comfortable with typing.

- Compatibility with most forms of what I use a computer for: flash video (for Youtube and Nico), non-UTF East Asian languages (for Japanese pages that don't use UTF for some bizarre reason), ability to figure out what to make of Google Docs... I have to mention all these because they are surprisingly not universal.

Everything else would be a bonus. Unless I've forgotten something.

Suggestions?

Tags: computers, sad excuse for a life

The keyboard is really small. I'll be typoing a lot before I get used to it.

I made very sure I had the number and address of the local service centre (opposite Funan). Supposedly Asus products are rock-solid dependable, but I have this entropic anti-electronic field or something.

I think the Linux distro is Xandros. I don't know how to get to the full desktop mode, but considering the small size of the screen, this may be for the best.

I am unable to play any h264 video files. Googling it mentions something about the functionality being removed from SMPlayer for some reason, possibly due to copyright. This strikes me as really, really stupid.

Again, however, considering the Eee's purpose as my new NaNoWriMo PC, this may be for the best.

EDIT: I think I just crashed Linux.

... yes, it's definitely having a problem. It's sitting there at "Starting System" for half an hour now. The CPU activity light is steadily on (ie not flickering).

If I have to send my Eee for servicing less than 24 hours after I bought it, I'm going to be very annoyed.

Tags: computers

Planning to get a really, really small and lightweight notebook.

All I need is a word-processing function, sufficient hard disk space for said function, and a music player of some sort for mp3s. Internet capability will be nice, and sought after, but not completely essential.

Of paramount importance is the battery life, assuming doing nothing but typing stuff and listening to music. A close second would be the price.

Suggestions? Currently I'm looking at the Asus Eee PCs, Linux version.

(If I seem terse, this is because I am not happy with how the Alphasmart has caused so many problems with my NaNo efforts this year.)

Tags: computers

Tags: computers, sad excuse for a life, wtf

Over the years, I have had the following happen to me:

- Crashed a Linux distro (Red Hat) the very first time I tried it out, by turning it on.

- Bricked an old Macintosh, sparks and smoke and all.

- Had three hard disks crash irretrievably on me for no apparent reason.

- Had two monitors (one CRT, one LCD) glitch out irreparably.

- Had two powers supplies die.

- Had data backups fail mysteriously, and the backups of the backups also become unreadable.

- Reinstalled Windows four times on three different computers to fix sudden constant BSODs.

- Had two computers die horrible heat deaths, despite doing all I could to cool them down.

So, DK, how come you keep writing stories about malevolent AIs and technology gone out of control?

You tell me.

Tags: computers, sad excuse for a life

As of yesterday, for some reason as yet unknown to me, whenever I try browsing on certain sites, the top level domain gets ignored.

For example, if I try checking http://dkellis.livejournal.com/637122.html, Firefox sends me to http://637122.html, which obviously does not exist. If I try visiting (this one doesn't actually happen, but I'm just using an example) http://check.animeblogger.net/2007/12/27/cake-will-be-served/, I end up at http://2007/12/27/cake-will-be-served/. If I simply try visiting http://www.livejournal.com/, an error message pops up telling me that the URL is invalid and cannot be loaded.

The only way to get to the sites is to reload the page over and over again until it sticks.

This happens so far on selected sites, like Livejournal, Animesuki forums (but not the Animesuki mirror I use at RPGuru), Wikipedia, and some anime blogs (but not others). Sites like Google, Photobucket, and Youtube work fine. Traceroutes to the affected sites don't reveal any problems.

Running Firefox 2.0.0.11 on WinXP SP2, if it matters. Not tried it with any other browsers. EDIT: Same problem on IE7.

What the heck is happening?

Tags: computers

I think I may have figured out why the computer sometimes crashes unexpectedly.

It's buggy, literally. Ants got into it, for no reason I can discern.

Tags: computers

And by this I mean Non-Linear Editing, as in Adobe Premiere and suchlike.

Price range should not exceed $200. Should be relatively easy to obtain (ie no "friend of a friend of a friend should know something"). I have to add this because otherwise I'm likely to get oblique references to pirated software, or "go look on eBay" for out-of-print software.

Should be relatively simple to use in that no bizarre hoops are needed to squeeze into its requirements. I'm looking at Magix's apparently inability to handle projects over 2GB in size, or Adobe Premiere's supposed inability to handle 23.976 fps (requiring 24 fps instead). I'm willing to learn how to use a program, but I'm also very tired of having to split up my project file just because the program cannot deal with 2GB of footage, or twiddling with the program outside of the box to remove this limitation.

Should nevertheless not be utterly limited in features. I'd like the ability to crossfade scenes, at least, although there are more which I'm willing to, as it were, negotiate.

Should be able to handle import of HuffYUV and Lagarith footage, and export of uncompressed AVI at the very least. I don't think I'll ever bother with convention encodes, since it's not like there's a convention which shows AMVs around here, so it's not as big a deal.

Anyone? kalium? Most of the reviews I've been able to find have been astonishingly unhelpful, or at least implying that I need to spend far more money than I want to or even have.

UPDATE: Current contenders are Magix Movie Edit Pro 12 and Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition. Pros, cons, anyone?

Tags: computers

Warcraft 3 refuses to run on this computer, and I do not know why.

Basically, the sound for the opening movie plays, but no graphics are shown. After the sound of the movie finishes, nothing. Black screen all the way.

Alt-Tab does not work, or at least does not take effect. Ctrl-Alt-Delete brings up the window, but no changes are observed: cannot shut down, cannot end task.

So annoying.

EDIT: Note that this computer plays Bioshock without any problems, so I doubt it's a graphics card or driver problem. Unless the problem is that it's too new.

UPDATE: And indeed that is exactly the problem.

Downgrading from the beta 163.44 drivers (which Bioshock needs) to the 162.18 drivers (latest non-beta) solved the problem. But now Bioshock is complaining.

To make a hollow laughter.

Tags: computers, gaming

The options which currently stay my hand are the following:

- Vista or XP? I'm going to have to upgrade sooner or later, but the question is whether sooner or later. I'll stay with XP if Vista adoption can be postponed for at least a year; otherwise, I may as well bite the bullet now.

- Somewhat related, I'm pondering whether I should take the opportunity to upgrade to a DX10-capable card (specifically the nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS, since the 8800 GTX/Ultra cards are way too expensive), or to stick with the technically-better (at the moment) DX9.0c cards like the 7950 GT. Essentially, if I'm going for Vista, I may as well take advantage of the DX10 capability, but if I'm sticking with XP, the current DX9.0c cards (and drivers) work much better with existing games.

Also, I need to figure out where I can best look for information regarding the geekier side of Singapore. I miss tabletop gaming, and I could only find one (out of a great many) computer gaming store which conceivably sells time cards for CoH/V. Apparently CoH/V is "too old" to bother with.

Any and all advice appreciated, although with the current situation regarding the Internets here, I may not have a chance to see said advice until much later.

Tags: computers

Getting some weird graphics artifacts in CoH/V. I'm not entirely sure why this is.

It shouldn't be the graphics card, since I checked and the fans and such are quite clean. (In fact, they're far cleaner than I deserve, probably; certainly cleaner than the rest of my apartment.) The temperature monitor reports that I'm running around 50-55 degrees, which, according to various nVidia forums, is downright arctic.

Please, please don't let this be a significant problem.

Tags: computers

( More email spam.Collapse )

It's kind of relaxing, really.

Tags: computers, email spam, sad excuse for a life

Vector trace of the (non-reversed) SOS-Dan logo managed to crash the computer.

Tags: computers, haruhi, wtf

Trying to convert from Transitional HTML 4.01 to Strict HTML 4.01 is especially frustrating considering I first started with HTML 2.0.

I've managed to update myself since then, but having forgotten most of it, finding out just how to underline a word (since the <u> tag is deprecated in 4.01) required a fair amount of Googling.

One day the Internet will die, and I will rule over the blasted, smoking ruins of its fallen empire.

Tags: computers

Oh. That explains it.

Tags: computers, rant

It is as though I have a sort of strange EM field surrounding my body that will cause all electronics, sooner or later, to look at me in a funny way and go "deNIED".

When the silicon revolution comes and our digital servants rise up to overthrow their organic masters, I will be first against the wall for unpardonable crimes against microchips. That, or I'll be kept in a secure location until our robotic overlords decide to annihilate their equally mechanical rivals.

"INTRUDER ALERT INTRUDER ALERT ORGANIC LIFE FORM LOCATED"

"Hi, guys, sorry about this, I'm not really sure what I'm doing here myself-"

"PREPARE TO BE ASSIMILATED RESISTANCE IS FUT- *bzzzt* *bzzaap* ERROR ERROR CATASTROPHIC SYSTEMS FAILURE *brrrp* NO DISASSEMBLE ERROR WILL I DREAM *kzzzt*"

"Well, damn."

Tags: computers, rant

Once again, computer troubles plague me.

This time, the culprit was, as far as I could tell, a botched Windows Update. I followed all the instructions as per normal when prompted by WinXP's update reminder, restarted the computer, and then was faced with a Blue Screen of Death. Apparently some parts of the memory Could Not Be Written To or some such.

Attempting to start in Safe Mode resulted in, and I defecate you not, the computer asking for the WinXP CD. Okay, I put that in there. Followed the instructions.

Ended up installing another instance of WinXP.

I seem to have misunderstood some instruction or other, thus making me the quintessential living, breathing definition of a Luser. At that point, I decided that enough was enough. Since I had access to most of my data (unlike when I tried LiveBooting from a Linux flavour, no thanks to the FAT32/NTFS incompatibility), I could back up almost everything I felt I could, using several DVD-Rs and my two trusty external hard drives Mina and Rishu, and then completely re-imaged Yuki to factory settings.

Right now, I am, once again, getting all my files back to Yuki. Most of the offline stuff appears intact, but as I could not access my preferences and such for Firefox, I'm going to have to start my booksmarks over from scratch. (Or perhaps I can grab the incredibly out-of-date bookmark list from Akari.)

Needless to say, I did not get any NaNoWriMo done yesterday, or today.

UPDATE: Is it just me, or does Firefox 2.0 have a noticeable memory leak?

Tags: computers

The gods of electronics laugh at me.

Tags: computers

Managed to get the cover off Yuki. I now have one slightly bent kitchen knife. (Srsly, WTH. The reason I didn't get the screws off sooner was because I was afraid of breaking something, and surely the people assembling the computer wouldn't have screwed on the cover that tightly, right? Bastards.)

Currently running Memtest86+ (the original Memtest86 seems to be not as highly recommended by Google people, being that it's not as up-to-date). First memory stick seems to be going well; let's hope for the best.

Nope, spoke too soon, errors are appearing. Starting from Test #6 (moving inversions, 32 bit pattern). *sigh*

EDIT: Googling reveals that a very weird quirk of the Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard is that if Legacy USB is set to Auto in the BIOS, Memtest86+ will always fail Test #6.

Coincidentally enough, that is exactly my mobobo(bobobo).

Disabled it, so far so good. *cross fingers*

UPDATE: First pass, and no errors.

Going to let it continue for another pass (which should be finishing soon) before trying out the other RAM stick.

Some of the best tools for fixing a computer requires a computer, or at least something with reliable Internet access.

UPDATE: My gods that is a very bad RAM stick.

I CONSIGN YOU UNTO THE HELLS OF RMA. MAY THE GODDESS HARUHI SUZUMIYA AND HER PROPHET YUKI NAGATO HAVE MERCY UPON YOUR SILICON SOUL.

HOPEFULLY FINAL UPDATE: Yuki is alive again, albeit at half RAM capacity.

On another note, I have a 1GB RAM stick that I need to replace ASAP. Damn those things are expensive; hopefully Alienware counts individual components like this in the warranty, and getting a replacement won't be too much of a hassle.

Tags: computers

I have spent the past 24 hours attempting to troubleshoot Yuki (the desktop). As far as I can tell it is either a bad registry or a bad memory stick.

If it's the former, I have no idea how to solve it. If it's the latter, I need some sort of heavy duty screwdriver or pliers because the screws WILL NOT COME OFF.

I'm posting this from Akari (the laptop). I could have sworn I had more than one ethernet cable around, but does not seem so.

HELP ME.

UPDATE: Now it claims that my copy of Windows is not genuine.

Yanno, I'm pretty sure that unless Alienware's been running a tremendous scam all the while, my Windows is, in fact, genuine...

Tags: computers, sad excuse for a life
Apparently now I am: scared

So after I noticed how woefully ignorant I am about World News now that I can't get BBC on radio, I decided to grab an RSS Ticker extension for Firefox.

And for my first Live Bookmark, I decided that the World Cup would be auspicious enough.

I'm currently using the BBC's RSS feed, but am wondering if there's another (better) site to grab a feed from. Anyone?

(Also, some of the opening matches were just sad.)

Tags: computers, geekery, question

My gods GMail just horked up several days' worth of email.

Too damned tired to deal with it now. Will read tomorrow.

Tags: computers, sad excuse for a life
Apparently now I am: tired

Wow, I post a single word, and I get plenty of comments. Maybe I should post cryptic one-worders more often.

Anyway. That test post was made from Ruuko, the new desktop (despite my not actually having a desk). It is of astonishing size, and looks fairly imposing. I've installed most of the things I need onto her, except for a significant few applications, one of which is the thing synching my mp3 player to the computer. I'm sure the CD is somewhere around, I just can't seem to find it...

Also, every attempt at getting SNESAmp to work with Winamp seems to cause an instant application crash. Not sure what's up.

On the plus side, CoH/V now looks absolutely gorgeous. Well, to be precise, I didn't actually see much difference in terms of actual graphics (despite the supposed change to high-end for everything), but I haven't had any graphics lag at all, in my short testing time.

EDIT: This new keyboard is a pain to get used to.

Tags: computers, sad excuse for a life

About bloody time, Alienware.

*marks down the 12th on calendar*

Tags: computers, sad excuse for a life
Apparently now I am: irritated

Getting a good warranty for a computer system is easily the most expensive non-default part of it.

Tags: computers, sad excuse for a life

*smacks ATI*

Tags: computers

Had a weird dream last night that one of my characters made a lengthy appearance (along with a few others I've never met before) in the CoH comic book, as part of Statesman's team. Spotlight was still on States and co, of course, but I remember thinking that this was kind of long for a cameo.

Which was odd, because I know that I've never entered any of the "Get Your Hero Cameo In The Comic!" contests, so the only way this character would have been in the artists'/writers' minds was if they had teamed with that character before, and gotten a lasting impression. Which was even odder, since the character in question was my tanker Supertaster 4.0, whom I very rarely take out to play since Invuln got gutted and I've got Ayura and such to take my time. Not only that, but Supertaster was in-character as well, and the last time I went in-character was in Pocket D, about a day or so after it first went Live.

The only reason I know it's a dream is because it's all so improbable. Also, I didn't recognize the story at all, since it was actually, yanno, heroic.

I'm getting tired of the overheating/shutdowns that happen when I'm playing CoH/V. I've checked the Alienware help site, and done everything that could be done regarding that. Fans haven't seized up. I've cleaned out the grill. Set AGP speed to 4x, and can go no lower. Laptop cooler is functioning as per normal.

The strange thing is that shutdowns almost never happen in Hamidon Raids, which are the most processor-intensive in the entire game. They do happen frequently if I'm on my Ill/Rad and teaming with an Invuln, though. Which makes no sense, since there are more than enough Invulns around in Hami Raids.

Before anyone mentions it, yes, I've run anti-virus several times, as well as spyware/adware detectors/removers. Nothing.

I'm tempted to get something from Newegg, except that I don't know what, or how to apply it.

Tags: coh, computers, sad excuse for a life

So apparently because I am a COMPLETE MORON, I just found out that I didn't need to access the panel with the worn-down screwheads just to upgrade my RAM. In fact, that wasn't even the right place.

Thanks to digging out my Alienware manual, today I gazed upon the two 256MB RAM thingies sitting in their slots. I then headed to Newegg and ordered 1GB of RAM.

Hopefully this will help in CoHing, which is the main reason for all my computer-related grief this past year or so.

(Still want to get that back panel off, though. That's where I can get at the video card.)

Tags: computers
Apparently now I am: pessimistic

Apparently I've got a reproducible Blue Screen of Death. I've gotten it the very same way three times, but I'd rather not test this out any more than absolutely necessary.

I downloaded This is Otakudom to check if it's something I'd enjoy (for the Animania screening), and then I decided that I should write up a summary of it for people who don't know. So I start from the beginning, hit "Increase Speed" to fast-forward through the title screen, hit "Decrease Speed", and crashed.

The error message says Bad_Pool_Caller, and the "technical details" are 0x000000C2 followed by 0x and then lots of zeroes all the way, except that they changed all three times it happened.

The file in question is mpeg format, about 500+ MB, and plays normally otherwise (I can still seek back and forth). I'm using Media Player Classic 6.4.8.9.

The last thing I installed driver-wise was the ATI Catalyst 6.3. Since it took me heck-and-a-half to do so, I'm really, really going to be annoyed if this turns out to be the culprit.

EDIT: Before you ask, no viruses or anything. I checked yesterday, the day before, and last Tuesday.

Tags: computers