Posts by Jonathan Portwood

Acer Aspire One 532

A great Netbook indeed.

I just purchased my Aspire One 532h-2Cr in Bangkok a few days ago. It cost the equivilent of £205 and came with a 250GB HDD & 1GB RAM, bluetooth was also included. There is no Microsoft Tax in that price as it came with something called Linpus Linux. This I wiped and replaced with Ubuntu 9.10 as soon as I got back to my hotel room! Just upgraded the RAM today to 2GB, a Kingston PC2-6400 (800MHz) module and its working great, so I don't understand why Acer in the UK has put, what seems to me, to be an artificial cap on the RAM amount in the system.

I would have liked the higher def 1280*720 screen, but that wasn't availible where I was shopping, and would have probably been significantly more expensive as well. As far as the keyboard goes, it is one of the best I've seen on any Netbook. I have quite fat fingers, but I'm able to touch type with out any problem on the Aspire's keyboard, which is more that can be said for most Netbooks that I've tried. Admittedly the keyboard on mine is an International one, not UK specific, so all of the 'problem' keys mentioned in the article are fine on my keyboard. As for the touchpad, I've never been a fan of this type of pointing device, so I'm using a Microsoft Arc Mouse with the Aspire, which works well for me. I'm happy to carry the mouse, especially as it folds up pretty small, along with me.

Over all I'm really happy with this system, especially now that I've upgraded the RAM and have Ubuntu desktop (not netbook remix) installed.

The key to safe driving?

More Big Brother Technology!!!!

Yet more technology to enable Big Brother to control our lives! When will the authorities accept that talking on a mobile phone using an hands free set is no more distracting than talking with your passengers. If they are going to start punishing those who use a Handfree set then please start to punish all those who talk to their passengers when driving. The latter is in my opinion far more distracting than taking a call on a mobile phone using an handsfree set.

Yes I fully agree texting or using a mobile without an handsfree set is wrong and distracting, but it's a totally different thing if an handsfree set is used.

JRP.

Dell extends laptop warranties to cover duff Nvidia GPUs

Good on yer Dell!!!

Finally it's nice to see a 'big' corporation take the responsibility for a fault, up-front, and not have to be goaded into doing something by their disgruntled customers, even though, as in this case, the actual fault is that of a supplier!

My only dissappointment is that my particular Dell model isn't mentioned. I have a Vostro 1700 (purchased in March 2008) which has the exact same nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card that the Vostro 1710 has in it. Also my system was purchased and so built by Dell within what must have been the period that nVidia were supplying the duff GPUs!!!

I'd love to know exactly how nVidia and Dell have come up with a list of the models that are likely to be effected, especially as nVidia initially only admitted to supplying the duff GPUs to HP!!!!

Thankfully I've so far seen no problems on my particular system and I already have the extended (3 year) warranty, so hopefully if anything does go wrong it'll be within that time frame!!!

Jonathan.

Intel says 'no' to Windows Vista

Is Vista Really SOOOO BAD?!?!?

It puzzles me to read so many people saying how 'slow' Vista is, in their opinion. My own experience is completely the opposite. I upgraded a (then 2 year old) Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook right after Vista was released to the public, back in Feb 07. Went from XP Pro to Vista Business and the system was way faster, both at booting and loading & running apps and far more stable with no systme lockups or crashes and BSODs, under Vista than it had been under XP Pro. The system felt like a new system after the change over! And this was despite Dell's website saying that that particular model wasn't 'Vista Ready'!!!!

BUT then I'm not a gamer, just an IT support bod for several NGO's, providing support services to 'regular' users, most of whom don't waste hours of their time playing pointless games.

I happen to be based in a country where the piracy of Windows OS's is rampant and almost institutionalised, and where the OS of choice for that is XP. Trying to 'fight' that is an uphill struggle that involves education as much as enforcement and isn't something that is going to change overnight. I don't see Vista being pirated here anywhere near as much as XP is and that I think is down to it's stricter activation as much as it is down to it's perceived inadequacies.

Personally I like Vista and would recommend it to anyone buying a new system today. Upgrading old hardware is another story. I would only recomend that if someone's system was purchased within the last 2yrs, from now, within 1yr prior to Vista's original launch.

Of course businesses are not going to rush out and buy a new OS as soon as it appears, they have far more to consider in the cost/benefit equation than just the fact that it's new so we've got to have it! If Microsoft have failed with Vista, then it's because of it's rediculous pricing, especially in the UK, but elsewhere also. They have over priced it for what it is, and don't seem to understand that the current pricing just makes them look greedy and actually helps to give both Vista and MS itself a bad name.

JRP.