Share on Facebook

It’s cheap. It’s fast enough, big enough, and has enough memory. Windows 7 runs “pleasantly” on this machine.

That’s it in a nutshell. If you’re looking for a solid laptop for the money – this is the king (8 a.m. today, 9 a.m. could be different) of the sub $500 lappys.

The processor, while sitting in dated socket 478 architecture, is much faster than either the celeron 900 (2.2 ghz) or the and v120. These seem to be the processors of choice for cheapo notebooks.

The hard drive is 320 gb, which is larger than the standard 250′s that seem a staple of < $500. Interestingly, I ran a slew of benchmarks (thanks passmark.com) against this and a decked out Lenovo I7 machine w a 500gb, 7200 rpm HD and this machine had faster sequential read and write times. They were barely better, but this laptop was demolished in virtually every other test.

You won’t be playing the latest 3D games on this laptop, but you already know that. (And you know that video games are a needless timesuck.)

I bought this as cheap “kick around” laptop as I can’t have my kids beating on my work machine, but I’d feel confident working on this box.

Developer thoughts: in the “old days,” the first thing I would do is install visual studio, the latest dotnet framework (didn’t even care enough to spell it the way Microsoft wants me to) and the latest version of office. I installed office 2007, Java SDK, android SDK, and some PHP utilities.

I informally queried some other development guys I know: not one had any version of vs on their primary “home” boxes and only one had office – 2000…

Wiseman say, “short MSFT.”

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

This could be the beginning of the end. Premature to say that? Of course, but – although I love their development tools – they just don’t seem to get IT.

Being the world’s largest software company isn’t easy. There has been a target on their back for a long time and Google and others are now smelling blood.

MSFT profits fell 32 percent to $2.98 billion, or 33 cents per share. Sales in the fiscal third quarter dropped 6 percent to $13.65 billion from $14.45 billion last year.

Share on Facebook

The market is smart: analysts at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs cut eBay to “Neutral” from “Buy,” while Lehman and Jefferies both lowered their price target.

Why eBay is Falling Apart at the Seams…

The internet has changed. In the late 90′s and early 00′s, the internet was still relatively new and there was a large degree of novelty. It’s good to understand the two demographics that sell on eBay: (1) legitimate businesses looking for a new avenue of sales, and (2) people attempting to sell their own out-of-favor items.

Ebay hasn’t managed either category well.

The business aspect of selling on eBay has simply become more expensive. Plus, as it’s grown, it is harder and harder to reach the exact right demographic. The web is moving toward smaller and smaller niche markets. Ebay also has trouble resolving conflicts. By now, most serious users have had a bad transaction and it has soured them on the experience somewhat.

As for the large number of people who used it to clear out their garage: they still use it, but they’re aware of other, cheaper alternatives as well – such as Craigslist. Early on, People flocked to eBay just to prove they “got it” and used it in place of traditional avenues – garage sales, donations and trash dumps…

Simply put, eBay is failing to respond to the changing face of the internet.

Ebay is Not Creatively managing their Business.

Okay, so you’re in charge of eBay – what do you do? Revenue is decreasing, you’re getting tons of bad press and the overall experience is suffering. The current answer: “Let’s raise prices!”

Here’s a quote from the stock’s message board:

I am a seller who has pulled back 75% of our sales and have told our account rep it would remain that way until the changed back. MANY SELLERS have pulled back or closed shop all together. Still time to short this as IT WILL go to $20 or less in my opinion.

Go to eBay and click on COMMUNITY and then NEWS. The go to JULY 10th and click on the Line “A Message from Lorrie Norrington: Updates on Feedback”

Two QUOTES from that News Release: (1) When we get something wrong, we want to make it right & (2) Finally, we’re working to resolve other important issues that eBay sellers have raised over the past several months.

Wise Man Say, “Losing customers not good way to make money.”

Share on Facebook

He is the best photographer dallas in all of Texas. The cool thing you’ll notice about his photography is that he also caters to professionals. He is a prominent member of the community and he is involved/supports local theatre.

He primarily specializes in the headshot dallas. Mark studied at the New York Institute of Photography, and numerous seminars and workshops in Photoshop. He has also worked and studied with Michael Grecco, one of the country’s top portrait photographers. Michael Grecco works out of Los Angeles, California and specializes in dramatic lighting techniques.

Share on Facebook

There are several root problems: we’re busy, we get deeply engaged in conversations, we are cell phone addicts, we get trapped in thoughts……

1a. If you are waiting to get into an elevator: Let people off the elevator before you crowd into it. Then, let Women and children enter the elevator first – no exception. Hold the door and be polite.

1b. If you are waiting to get out of an elevator: if it is crowded and you are at the front, get out of the elevator to allow people to exit – then step back in. (Thanks JP.)

2. If someone is carrying a package, pulling luggage, walking a child – be polite and hold the door for them (even if you have to cover your phone and whisper a polite, “here you go” and continue on). But this brings us to….

3. Don’t talk on your cell phone in an elevator.

4. Watch for rude behavior when your deeply engaged with a coworker and you’re trampling people en route.

5. Don’t EAT on the elevator.

Share on Facebook

Anyway, this PSP looking device doesn’t play games. That’s right – no games?

And it looks like a cell phone………………………… but it’s not?

No, Sony created a portable wifi gadget the size of a cell phone so that you can carry something else around in your pocket that can do things your existing cell phone can already do???

I don’t get it. What am I missing?

Share on Facebook

I’ve started producing some podcasts for various sites. After experimenting with a bunch of different setups, I think I’ve come up with a winner. I use the Olympus WS 300M along with the Logitech Premium Headset. Here are some initial observations:

• You NEED an external microphone if you’re serious about sound quality. The internal Microphone just won’t do it for you. If you don’t have an external microphone, set the unit about 2 feet from your mouth on a towel (sound absorbing) and don’t move it through your recording.
• DO NOT RECORD in stereo mode unless you have their ME-51S Stereo Microphone. The Stereo Recording feature of this unit is great, but you’ll burn needless space if you’re using a mono microphone and recording in stereo (2x). Basically, if your mono microphone has 1 ring (true mono) you’ll be recording on the left channel only. If you have a hybrid mono microphone with 2 rings, you’ll be recording the exact same sounds across two tracks of audio.
• Stereo recording doesn’t produce a better podcast. Unfortunately, I found this out AFTER spending another $50 on the Microphone.
• This is primarily a Windows unit as it records directly to WMA. Of course, with a little creativity you can use it on a Mac, but this aspect peppers the Amazon reviews with negativity.
• Use the highest quality non stereo setting. You can experiment with the lower settings, but they are generally useless. These would probably work fine for classroom recordings and such, but don’t use them for something you plan on disseminating on the web.

As for the unit itself, Will store up to 17.5 hours in HQ mode using the 256MB of internal flash memory. Unfortunately, you cannot add additional memory.

One of the coolest things about this unit is the ability to plug it directly into a USB port on your computer (it is USB 2.0). The Olympus WS 300M can record your podcasts in up to 5 pre-named folders with 199 files per folder maximum.

Battery life isn’t great, but it runs on a single AAA battery. It feels cheap as it is so light and made of flimsy plastic (1.9 ounces). This will undoubtedly be an issue for me as I am quite hard on electronic devices.

Share on Facebook

hmmm

I think I need one.

Share on Facebook