skippy dot net

Years ago my mom bought a tiny Sony Vaio PictureBook PCG-C1VN . This was the second sub-notebook computer I had ever seen: the first was a Toshiba Libretto owned by another guy at the consulting company I was working for at the time. The PCG-C1VN was perfect for my mom, who only needed a computer to give her PowerPoint presentations when conducting a training or retreat. Remember, this was years ago, before the proliferation of USB media. She learned pretty early that simply burning her presentations on CD was insufficient because while every facility had a projector for her to use, not every facility had a computer to connect to that projector, and when they did they didn't always have PowerPoint. So she bought the PCG-C1VN and took that loaded with her presentations. All in all, this worked out extremely well for her.

Late last year, during the height of the One Laptop Per Child Give One Get One program, I bought an XO-1 laptop for myself. I used it off and on for a couple of months, and finally sold it to a friend of a friend. It's a terrific piece of hardware, with some very clever software, but it's not really something I need. I occasionally sat on my porch using the XO-1, but as often as not it sat powered off in my office.

The XO-1 isn't exactly a netbook, but that's how I was treating it. Sometimes I don't want to lug my laptop around with me, when all I really need is something on which to check email, or occasionally ssh into a server somewhere. I can, of course, do both of those tasks from my phone, but anything more than just skimming the contents of my Inbox from my phone involves too much typing on the infuriatingly small keyboard on my Palm Centro.

So last night, with help from Mike, I installed Debian onto the PCG-C1VN. It, too, isn't quite a netbook, but it's closer than the XO-1. The Sony has a Transmeta Crusoe CPU running at 800 MHz, and while it only has 512 MB of RAM, I think I can install a slim window manager (matchbox, openbox, etc), a small terminal, and the Epiphany browser to get most of what I need out of this small form factor laptop. It won't be a speed demon by any stretch, but it should be satisfactory.

I thought long and hard about installing Ubuntu onto the PCG-C1VN so that I could try out the new netbook remix, which puts a nice netbook interface over the top of a standard Ubuntu installation. The netbook remix looks slick, but, alas, I think that running a standard Ubuntu installation would be too much for the poor little PCG-C1VN to handle.

Or maybe I'll break down and finally buy a true netbook, like the Asus Eee. Everyone I've seen using the Eee seems to really enjoy it.

In response to my post about my quest for a new laptop bag, Bob suggested the Jack Bauer manbag as something to consider. I followed the links and found the Rothco Classic Messenger Bag at CampingSurvival.com. The price was right, so I ordered it. I also ordered the Odessa Retro Messenger Bag, because it was cheap and looked like it might make a nice supplementary bag for when I'm riding around on my bicycle.

Both bags arrived yesterday, and while they're both decent enough bags for the price, they both have just a few shortcomings. The Classic Messenger Bag (hereafter referred to as the Jack Bauer manbag) provides a single main compartment, along with two small pockets covered by the flap and two small pockets along each edge of the bag. There is no padded section on the webbed shoulder strap, but it seemed comfortable enough in the little time I slung it over my arm. There is no padding whatsoever inside the bag, so it likely would not do for any long-term travel with a laptop inside.

The most troubling thing about this bag, though, is the placement of the Velcro pieces used to keep the main flap secured. Take a look at these photos to see what I mean:

The flap itself has a single long piece of Velcro along the length of the flap, but the interior pockets have vertical strips of Velcro. This doesn't provide much surface area for the hook-and-loop fasteners to make a strong connection. Moreover, it seemed to me that the perpendicular orientation of the strips made it hard for the hooks to grab the loops, and the flap never really felt secured. It was extremely easy to open the flap, and I worry that the flap wouldn't be sufficiently secured to keep stuff inside.

I honestly wonder if perhaps this is a manufacturing defect on the bag I received. It makes no sense to me why such a long strip of Velcro would be used on the flap, and then such small pieces would be so poorly positioned on the inside.

The Odessa Retro bag does not have a flap, and instead has a zipper along the top that closes the main compartment. There is a large exterior pocket on the back side of the bag that is fastened with a single button, two smaller front pockets with buttons, and two even smaller pockets along each side with buttons. The webbed shoulder strap does have an adjustable padded section for greater comfort over time. The shoulder strap is adjustable in length, but there's not much length to it. I'm a tall guy, and it sits comfortably enough, but I would really like to have a little more slack available. The interior compartment has a number of smaller little pockets along one side, which look like they'd be handy for the variety of small accessories I would like to take with me: extra batteries, battery charger, USB sticks, etc. None of the interior pockets fasten in any way, though, so there's a good chance stuff might spill out into the main compartment. I would actually prefer this bag over the Jack Bauer manbag for carrying my laptop, except that the zippered opening doesn't easily fit my laptop! I can work it in, but it's not easy. I don't want to wrestle with my bag to get access to my laptop, so I don't expect I'll be using this unless I get a smaller laptop.

I want a new laptop bag. I'm somewhat particular though, in that I want a laptop bag that doesn't look like a laptop bag. I don't want to carry something that screams "I have a laptop!". I want to avoid the black, fake leather exterior. I want to avoid the traditional laptop bag form factor. I want to avoid a name brand logo emblazoned on the straps or flaps. I'm also a miser, though, and don't want to pay a lot of money.

I've looked at a couple local shops, but they all seem to carry the same lame selection of laptop bags that look like laptop bags. I refuse to buy online because I want to inspect the bag with my own eyes and hands before purchasing. I want to check the relative size and strength of the straps and handles and fasteners. I want to feel the external surface, and evaluate the internal padding. I want to eyeball the storage capacity of the various pockets for my laptop, its AC adapter, and any miscellaneous gadgets I may want to lug with me. I want to see how it'll feel on my shoulder.

I have a STM 13" Loft bag for my old Averatec laptop. I like it well enough: it doesn't look completely like a laptop bag and it fits the laptop comfortably. It's a little cramped when I add the AC adapter, and there's not a lot of room for many other gadgets. I almost bought a 15" grey Loft bag recently, but decided to wait a little longer to see if I could find something superior.

I also have a LowePro CompuDaypack which is great for taking both the laptop and the DSLR camera, but that's not always what I want to do. Further, the backpack form factor isn't the most convenient for many situations. For example, it was entirely too bulky for me while walking around the IFA consumer electronics show. The CompuDaypack makes for a nice travel accessory, keeping all my precious electronics close at hand in the airport, but is way more than I need for going to meetups and similar events.

I think I would like a laptop bag that looks more like a messenger bag -- something reasonably amorphous that doesn't necessarily declare that there's a laptop inside -- provided it could comfortably hold the laptop secure. Along with the laptop and AC adapter, I also want to be able to carry with me my Flip video camera, possibly a point-and-shoot camera, a few spare batteries for the previous two items, and possibly even a battery charger for the batteries. I'm sure that there are all manner of other things I'll find that I want to take with me at different times, so I want to make sure that my laptop bag is sufficiently accommodating. I don't need crazy iPod integration, or an included laptop cooling pad -- both of which I saw in bags last night at MicroCenter. I want high quality materials and construction that will last me a while (I don't want the shoulder strap or clasps breaking any time soon!), and I want it to look halfway decent so that I can take it with me to business meetings without looking like some kind of dolled up bike courier, but also not so fancy that I look like a corporate stiff when I walk into a coffee shop. I'd like something that's comfortable on my shoulder, and easy to access for when I'm on an airplane.

Nicholas from Crunchgear recommends Crumpler bags. They look like decent enough bags, but a recommendation from a trusted source just isn't sufficient for me: I need to see the bag with my own eyes before I'll buy it. Plus, the Crumpler bags are more than I really want to pay. Jorge Castro recommends Tom Bihn, but Tom Bihn laptop bags are also more expensive than I really want to pay. (I did say I'm a miser, right?) Jorge highlights the lifetime guarantee, which is a nice selling point, but to be honest I've never had a laptop bag break on me before.

What laptop bags do you use and recommend? What are the chances of me finding a local retailer for them, so that I can kick the tires before purchasing?

I mentioned awhile ago that I was looking for a new laptop. Folks who commented -- online, and off -- had good points to make about their preferences, and I took a lot of them to heart as I evaluated what, specifically, I was looking for.

Last week I bought an HP 8510w laptop. I had seven days to return it if I decided I didn't want it. That week has passed, so I guess I'm keeping it! Now I feel comfortable posting the details about this laptop.

The "w" indicates that this is the "workstation" class laptop (indeed, on the case it even says "mobile workstation"). This is intended as a desktop replacement, suitable for hefty applications. This is the laptop that is being recommended by the college of Engineering for students to buy, because it has the oomph to execute the applications used in our college. The biggest difference between the 8510w and the 8510p, which is the step-down professional consumer model, is the graphics card. The 8510w comes with an Nvidia Quadro FX 570M graphics card, and 512MB graphics memory. As I mentioned in my post linked above, hardware OpenGL acceleration was a requirement in a new laptop.

Predictably, I installed Ubuntu 8.04 onto this laptop. I installed the x64 version. To my delight, everything I needed worked right out of the box: wired and wireless network, touchpad and thumbstick, hardware WiFi kill switch, Bluetooth, and the volume slider at the top of the keyboard. I installed the binary Nvidia drivers to enjoy the fancy new desktop effects in Ubuntu.

When I got the laptop home, I connected it to my television via the HDMI connector. Using the nvidia-settings application, I was able to access the TV as either a mirror of the laptop display, or as a second display. The laptop also has an analog VGA connector on the back.

Both suspend and hibernation work. The wireless network re-initializes just fine after waking up, so I've taken to putting the laptop to sleep rather than shutting it down most of the time. For reasons now forgotten, I never used either suspend or hibernate on my previous laptop.

I get just under 3 hours of battery life when using the laptop on a regular basis. If I leave it on but not doing anything, the battery seems to last well over three hours, though I admit that I haven't bothered trying to quantify this. Putting the laptop into sleep mode uses almost no battery: I put the laptop to sleep with a full charge, then left it unplugged in my office through the work day. When I finally woke it up, the battery reported it had more than 2.5 hours of charge left. HP sells an extended life battery, which when combined with the stock battery provides more than ten hours of battery life. I've considered getting this extra battery, but frankly I don't need that much battery capacity right now.

The only thing I didn't try was the fingerprint reader, for which I have no real use. There do exists a few libraries and suites of applications for various fingerprint readers. The fingerprint reader in the 8510w is supported by at least one of these. However, since the libraries are not yet integrated into Ubuntu, I've not bothered to compile them. I'd prefer to wait for them to trickle into the distributions so that I know everything continues to Just Work.

Here's the output from lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Quadro FX 570M (rev a1)
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b9)
02:06.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b9)
02:06.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 03)
02:06.3 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 20)
02:06.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 10)
10:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)

And here's the output from lsusb:

Bus 007 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 08ff:2580 AuthenTec, Inc. 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 03f0:171d Hewlett-Packard 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  

I am in the market for a new laptop. My current laptop is literally falling apart, as some of the case screws have fallen out. I could replace those, but that would only fix one small problem. Also problematic is the fact that my battery only holds about 25 minutes worth of charge. And lately, doing anything remotely CPU intensive causes the system to overheat and shutdown. I've taken the system apart several times, inspecting the system fan and looking for obvious problems that might cause overheating. Alas, I've found nothing. So I've been forcibly setting the CPU frequency to its lowest setting, which makes the whole thing more sluggish than I would like.

So I'm looking for something new. Through the OSU technology store I can purchase a Hewlett Packard 8510w laptop. This is the "workstation" caliber laptop, with a sturdy metal case instead of cheap consumer plastic. It also comes with a high-end Nvidia graphics card -- something I've really missed on my current laptop (I miss playing Quake, surprisingly). Other features include 2 GB RAM, roomy hard disk, Bluetooth, and a 3-year accidental damage warranty. That last is extremely appealing.

If I get that laptop, I'll install GNU/Linux onto it. Before I purchase it, I intend to take an Ubuntu LiveCD to the store to try it on the floor model, to get an idea of what hardware works and what doesn't work. I expect most of the hardware will work. Certainly the NVidia card will be supported by closed-source drivers. Bluetooth should work. The wireless chipset should work (though may require a binary closed-source firmware blob). Audio may require some fussing to make work; though I might be presently surprised. Assuming all the hardware works, after installing Ubuntu I'd have to install all the proprietary audio and video codecs so prevalent today (though I could consider purchasing the Fluendo closed-source GStreamer plugins).

I did use an Ubuntu LiveCD on the HP 8510p -- the consumer model of this laptop, with the ATI graphics card instead of the NVidia. Most everything worked just fine: volume control buttons, WiFi kill switch, touchpad -- including the scroll portion -- and Bluetooth. That was all very refreshing, and helped solidify my interest in the 8510w. This page about Debian on the 8510w leaves me more than a little concerned, though, as it describes considerable more hoop-jumping than I'm inclined to do.

In the interest of comparative research and being an informed consumer, I picked DrBacchus's brain about his satisfaction with his Apple laptop. A long-time GNU/Linux user, several years ago he purchases an Apple laptop and has been using a Apple ever since. He's mostly satisfied with it. He came to the conclusion that he was tired of trying to get all his laptop hardware fully supported and properly working with the various GNU/Linux distributions. I share his frustrations on this issue. He's grown to appreciate most of the iLife products (iPhoto, in particular), and he raves about Keynote for his presentations. I don't give many presentations, so that's not too big a deal to me.

My sister has been using a Mac for a number of years, and she seems fairly well satisfied. At least, I haven't heard her complaining about it lately. She purchased a Mac specifically for the ease-of-use when she joined the Peace Corps: she didn't want to suffer through system instabilities or application failures when she was literally isolated from any meaningful technical support. This seems to have been a good choice for her, and worked fairly well.

While chatting with Carina the other night, I admitted I was growing increasingly frustrated by all the hoop-jumping required to enjoy various multimedia in GNU/Linux, and that the ease of a Mac had a very strong appeal. She admitted that she intended to purchase an Apple when her current laptop expires. But then I remember that I don't particularly like OSX; nor am I keen to pay Apple every year for operating system upgrades. I'm also reminded of Mark Pilgrim's juggling oranges and when the bough breaks essays detailing his dissatisfaction with Apple. His comments really hit home for me, highlighting the subtle importance of "Free as in Freeom".

I don't expect to use iTunes, primarily for philosophical reasons; but also because I don't use my computers to listen to a lot of music (in fact, I don't listen to a lot of music). I might be willing to try iPhoto, but I've been working happily enough to date just making directories for groups of photos based on date, then manually selecting the ones to upload to Flickr and finally burning to DVD when I have several gigs worth of photos. I might enjoy using iDVD, since I find the GNU/Linux DVD authoring utilities to be more frustrating than they need to be most of the time. Time Machine doesn't interest me much; and the OSX Dashboard and widgets don't interest me too much, either.

The real value of purchasing a Mac would be the knowledge that all the hardware was absolutely supported by the software. Of course, I could also try running Ubuntu (or another distribution of GNU/Linux) on a Mac laptop, as I know folks do, but it would require time and effort to get everything set up. I expect that the latter would exhaust the former, and I'd be left with something that was almost but just not quite working perfectly. If I'm going to be in that situation, why should I pay the premium that Apple commands for their hardware? Better to save money and get less expensive hardware that is equally poorly supported!

Complicating my decision making process is my intense aversion to spending money. I particularly hate to spend large quantities of money, as I almost always experience buyer's remorse. I know that as soon as I purchase a laptop it will be largely out of date. I don't intend to purchase another laptop for at least three years (preferably longer), so I need to make sure that I can be content with whatever I purchase for at least that long. I expect the Apple to work through that time frame, and be well supported. I imagine that the HP hardware would last that long, though I'm not entirely keen on the way Ubuntu has been developing lately, as features and services continue to be added that I don't use and which will only suck up battery life (things like the Tracker service: I don't lose files, so I don't have a need for a file indexing service -- yes of course I can turn this off, but that's more hoop-jumping, dammit!).

And then I keep remembering that the overwhelming use of this laptop will be for low-resource tasks like email and news reading. Occasionally I'll record something for LibriVox, or produce a DVD of video of the kids. As previously mentioned I would sometimes like to enjoy the diversion of Quake and similar games. I could invest in a (reasonably) powerful desktop computer for these more demanding activities, and then continue to make do with my current laptop for mobility when reading email. I would prefer, however, to minimize the number of computers in my home, and using a laptop exclusively seems like the best way to do that.

This is the first time I've ever seriously considered purchasing a computer and not running GNU/Linux on it. In some ways I feel like I'd be selling out, but that's not a particularly compelling reason to avoid the Mac. I've certainly enjoyed the benefits of Free Software for many years, and in that time I've almost entirely ignored any benefits I might receive from proprietary software. I wonder if I could be happy using a proprietary system for three years? The fact of the matter is that I'm not a developer, I'm a user. What little development I do do is entirely web-based. So while I appreciate the benefits of Free Software, it's not something to which I am fundamentally connected.

I had hoped that distilling my thoughts into this post would help me reach some sort of conclusion; but I'm afraid all I've done is ramble! I guess that should be indicative of the fact that I'm not yet ready to make a decision. If anyone has any input on the matter, I would like to hear it.