Unless it’s really, really fugly. I maintain that the new MacBook Pro and it’s light edition are fugly. Not that Apple can’t make beautiful stuff, again subjective, and I’d buy the Mac Air tomorrow if it could run a business OS at the core without being virtualized through MacOS. I don’t mean to hate but the OS is cute enough for a phone, not so much for anyone that extensively (ab)uses spreadsheets and 20-30+ browser windows at once.

Now this obviously didn’t sit too well with many of my Mac readers (I am shocked I have any to be honest) who dared me to say what I use as my laptop.

Dell XPS M1530

It cost me about $1200 for the midrange Core 2 Duo, 4 GB DDR, upgraded Nvidia video, highest resolution screen available, big battery (and extra standard battery when I’m not flying) and a few other accessories (TPM, fingerprint reader, webcam).

Is it perfect? Far from it. The aluminum-ish casing is basically a dirt magnet, the speakers at the top of the keyboard are a hair/dandrif/dog hair magnet and the screen are frustrating at times.

But the unit is light, it flies, it lets me do virtually anything I do on my desktop and most things actually flow a bit faster.

I’m not claiming it’s the most beautiful thing on the market (again, think that belongs to Air) but for the mix of beauty, functionality and size/weight along with a solid OS it’s pretty much the best. For what it’s worth, the unit has never blue screened.

I have previously mentioned that I cannot phantom possible use for the rise in the Mini-PC laptop world. You know, the kind where you have to hunch over like a squirrel about to devour a nut and contort your fingers in order to type anything while you sit 3″ away from the 7″ screen that you can’t make anything out on. Paired with the latest in the light-speed C7 chip not fit to power a middle school calculator watch, it really makes one wonder just who in their right minds would want one.

Then my mother pretty much makes me eat my words by asking for a small PC so she can chat and email now that she’s done working. My parents are typical middle aged couple that have postit notes and directions on what to click on, what to drag where and how to troubleshoot their home laptop. But there is unrest at the Sr. Mazek household - they have been fighting over the PC. My dad has been accusing my mom of messing up his computer. And now that they want to watch their grandson around the clock, mom wants a PC.

My first (mean) thought is to ask the folks in Dallas to pull one off the rack and ship it to her. I figure once they plug in one of the monsters and it blows them clear across the room they’ll stop asking. But I figured, OK, I’ll go find you a cheap laptop.

So I went and looked at Eee’s, and MSI Wind (which I wanted but they are all out of stock) and I ended up with Acer Aspire One since it was 1) In Stock 2) Cheap and 3) Had a webcam. About $300 or so, with 9″ screen, 120GB hard drive, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom, Windows XP Home, 0.3 Megapixel camera, bunch of USB ports (3) and connections, Ethernet (Gigabit lol), VGA out as well as a memory reader:

Here it is next to a can of coke and Red Bull. It’s tiny. That’s pretty much it’s only downside - it’s tiny. The keyboard is very hard to type on and the mouse pad sucks. Instead of Dell-style mouse tabs on the bottom it has them on left and right. However, when you tap the mousepad twice it does left click so it’s not as bad as it might appear.

Weight just about 2lb. Promises about two hours of battery. I am sure that assumes that no applications are open, that you’re running in BIOS, with the light display turned all the way down.

For $300, not bad. For more, you’re better off with a real laptop.

We’ve got your green right here.

As some of you have figured out already, OWN has committed to scaling out our other product lines to EU and Australia. This commitment came out of the loyalty we have received from our partners in UK and Australia and we are bringing Shockey Monkey, LiveArchive, Exchange 2007, Offsite Backups and Sharepoint over the Atlantic and Pacific, starting May 1st, 2008.

It’s not easy, being green

ExchangeDefender was our first and only global infrastructure project. We learned a lot in the process and with the desire to scale out the US-based services we wanted to do something that was wildly different from our strategy in United States. We are based in Texas, where everything is bigger, including the power. <sarcasm>If there was a global capital for tolerance, it would be Texas.</sarcasm> When we sat down to draw up the new global infrastructure, we wanted to change our 80lb, 3 AMP server habit and we started testing the green stuff. Surprisingly enough, there is quite a bit in the way of components that are green and still performance conscious.

Performance was our key concern. SuperMicro, Dell and other manufacturers provide greenish, power-effective, systems but they seriously lack on the horse power or space. But if you look a little harder, there are devices that are both sizeable and capable of performing well under the load.

For example, Western Digital manufactures a SATA2 3 GB/s drive, 1 Tb in size, that consumes 40% less power. Because it draws less power, it heats the chasis less (less cooling needed in the HD slots) and is overall more cost efficient. It spins at 5,400 RPM which is your average laptop drive, but under load speeds up to 7,200 RPM which is average for the desktop. For low intensity storage, low priority inserts, etc, we were able to adjust some of our own (read: poorly written) code to work on it quite well.

For their part, Dell also has a low power high performance solution in PowerEdge R200 for smaller nodes. It also has the PowerEdge 2900 III Energy Smart, about 2x the price of the regular model. For their part, SuperMicro brings forward a 1U server with a 260W power supply drawing less than 0.4 AMP at full blast. (if you don’t know me, this would be a great place to stop reading this post)

Texan by the grace of god..

So there you go, Own Web Now Corp has gone green. We felt that as guests in these nations we should start to be more respectful.

As for our beautiful home, crank that Dell: “Malaysian by birth, Texan by the grace of god”; We will continue to rack servers that weight more and consumer more power than a teenage girl because nobody wants to see that buffering text while waiting on pr0n to load. As vulgar as that may seem, it’s the truth, people pay for performance and convenience - and the market isn’t ready for the green.

Looks like it, at least according to Gizmodo’s tally of people that got the chance to play with it ahead of release.

I must admit, I want one and I’m sure the video on this device is awesome (having seen Vladfire on first gen) but $249 for me is a showstopper. Two years ago, sure. A year ago, maybe. But today I look at what $250 buys and a portable media device at $249 just seems like a mountain of cash.

I guess time will tell if this is the great player to dethrone Apple, but for the moment I’m sticking with my iPod Shuffle clippy.

The following is my personal review of the Digital Loggers, Inc Web Power Switch. Own Web Now Corp is a Digital Loggers, Inc customer that has paid for all the units in use, we/I have not been compensated or enticed to write this review in any way, it is offered to the general public as-is with no warranty.

I first found out about the Web Power Switch from Randall Richardson from our partner MicroLogix Information Systems. He spoke about this $89 power switch on one of the forums and I initially dismissed it as a joke as we’re an all APC company. We have tried a number of power switches over the years but only APC ever lived up to the promise, even given the price tag. But less than a $100 for an industrial quality 15 AMP power switch? Might as well give it a shot.

And I did. Ironically enough, we already used DLI products in one of our remote data centers. One of our DC partners provides a Digital Loggers, Inc Ethernet Power Controller II which has a number of cooler features albeit at a higher price. So, what do you get for $89?

First, the Web Power Switch comes with a standard plug, meaning you can just plug it into your current battery power supply or other PDU. It includes 8 remotely controllable ports and two unswitched (always on) ports that are not controlled over the web. The unit itself is sturdy and loud, believe me, you hear it when the port is switched on/off. Top of the unit has several controller lights, indicating system status, remote access and power. Side of the unit has a 10/100 network port and a power switch. Aside from a registration postcard, that’s all you get.

The main screen (Outlet Control) is pretty simple and self-explanatory.  It shows you a list of what is connected to each switched port and gives you an option to either switch the port on/off or cycle (reboot). You can also shut off/on all outlets or cycle the outlets sequentially one at a time.  On the cheap ($89) unit I found that the cycle does not work – it shuts the server off but does not power it back on. However, on/off works. Cycle also works perfectly on the more expensive power switch.

Setup is straight forward as well. First, you can configure outlet names so you know what is connected to which switch port. Network configuration and authentication credentials are also pretty simple to configure. One caveat is that the switch is HTTP only, meaning all data sent to it is sent in clear text. If that bothers you, you can always put the power switch on the private network and there is a setting in network configuration that allows you to only accept connections from the local subnet.

Finally, there is some control over the behavior of the device itself. You can enforce password lockouts. You can control how the device behaves after it comes back from a power loss state. There is also a handy list of links.

On an upgraded model, one with Autoping for $37 more, you can also setup the web power switch to ping the target host and reboot it. As you can tell from the reboot counts, we’re making ours pay for itself.

In closing

If its in the budget, go for the more expensive switch. The more expensive switch has all the features described here along with an auto reboot built in plus it gives you access control. The device is simply accessed with an htaccess authentication prompt and can be easilly scripted whereas the $89 web power switch requires you to to authenticate as a form post first.

The verdict: You’ve got to be kidding me, right? First, a 15 AMP switch tends to cost well over $100 even for the ghetto brands like Triplite. To have those ports remotely controllable, with authentication, with autoping.. $89 is a steal. If it even saves you one after-hours emergency trip to reboot a server it will more than pay for itself. No, it’s not APC but you can’t spend $89 any better than this.

Nearly a month after I got the Samsung Blackjack for development purposes (and a day to a month that Katie took it from me) I’ve placed an order for another one.

As much as it pains me to dump the Windows Mobile 6 Professional for a Windows Mobile 5 device, I’ve gone way past the time to upgrade to a new phone. And looking at the market there just isn’t anything to “upgrade” to. I’ve spent TechEd and WWPC looking at new devices, checking out the Palm offerings, checking out all the HTC offbrands, etc. Frankly, everything on the WM6 Professional side was just far too bulky. The device that came very close to winning was the HTC VOX but it was again a little too bulky with too small of a screen and way too big of a sticker price (the days of paying more than $200 for a phone are gone).

So what finally pushed me in the Blackjacks direction? Few things. First, I wanted a phone on which I can easilly type longer messages and notes. Second, I wanted something that can quickly switch around from web browser to email, mp3 player, calendar and contacts. Third, and perhaps most important, I wanted something that could easilly take videos and pictures because frankly I don’t get out much and when I do having something to take me back to the good times, when I’m in a middle of an all nighter, it helpful.

Finally, Katie doesn’t put up with crap. She has an even less patience with broken technology than I do. And she took to the Blackjack like a retard to an iMac (no offense to retards, just implying that it was a very easy pickup) and has used it as camera, phone, navigation device, email… its even hooked up to the car. She is nearly attached to the thing and with WM6 due this quarter it seemed like a no brainer.

I also figured that the next generation of devices was bound to show up soon – right now its the same ol broken crap with just a few more features. So $100 out the pocket to wait it out seemed reasonable.

Hope this review helps you. Not your traditional device review but sometimes lifestyle uses of devices are more relevant than the specs and ratings that just don’t hold up when mashed together with how you use it in the first place.

Since roughly Monday I have been on a pretty steady load of Nyquil and an assortment of other medications I generally do not take. I don’t remember the last 24 hours at all. I remember very little of the last three days but the good news is that I can finally breathe.

So to my surprise, I opened up the Google Reader this morning to find stories of people lining up for the iPhone. Amazing. Ryan from Engadget has a great summary of the reviews so far, to say that this is Apple’s usual polished brick for homosexual appeal would be an insult to both the gay & lesbian community as well as to the bricklayers union. What a truely useless gadget that does.. well… nothing right. Not a good PDA, not a good cell phone, not a good camera, not a good ipod – then what the heck is it designed for? I love the commercials too, showcasing how you can search the web and get data back instantly – yeah, thats gonna happen. It would take more than twice the length of that entire commercial to download the front page of the newspaper, but as with all Apple commercials since 1984, it is aimed at non-conformists who don’t rely on evidence but word of mouth (or word of vendor selling the device/software). While anyone could predicted all of the above, I really didn’t expect people to start lining up for it. Even the Zune’s #1 fan doesn’t appear that big of a loser right now.

In other news…. new CTP for Windows 2008 server, just as I was finishing up the beta3 deployments. This world sure moves fast when you’re on drugs.

Got a new cell phone for development, as usual, part metalic part plastic. I have a few issues I was hoping someone out there might have a few tips to share with me:

There are a few scratches on it and I was wondering if there was any way to “buff” those out. They are quite superficial but I’m not looking forward to having them tear a hole in my pocket or something.

Second, I’d like to paint the device. Don’t ask why. Any ideas, aside from “try a sharpie”?

The phone in question is a T-Mobile SDA (HTC Hurricane).

Believe it or not, this question comes up more often than anything else in the ITPRO circles – “I need to add more hard drives to my PC but I don’t have any more 3.5” slots. This happens to be true for most people that bought a desktop PC from Dell, HP, Sony, etc because those manufacturers use a 3.5” internal bracket to suspend the drives from the 5.25” cages. If you bought an OEM case, such as ones from Thermaltake, Antec or Cooler Master you would have six or more internal 3.5” slots.

Let’s face it, the storage demand over even the past two years has gone through the roof. If you thought you needed another hard drive for your MP3s, imagine what happens when you start doing videos. You’re likely running out of room in your case and are resorting to the external USB hard drives all plugged into that $4 Walmart power strip. Now while there are certainly faster ways to light your house on fire, this solution certainly brings that sense of surprise when the fire department tells you that the third USB hard drive you jam-fitted into the power strip at an angle is the one that sparked the place down to foundation.

Could be worse though. Let’s suppose you bought a Media PC case that was designed by an Asian. There is nothing worse than opening a Made in Taiwan case, looking at the mess, and not being able to beat the dumb#@%* that designed it half to death. There are times I look at these cases and wonder if those bastards were just hoping to extend their little spec of dirt in the middle of Pacific with all the returned cases because their design made them useless. For example, the last Media PC case I bought had a 3.5” slot where 2” of it were blocked off by the case fan. Brilliant! How the #@%% am I supposed to plug in the SATA data and power cables into it?

Now that the brief moment of rage is gone, let me offer you a solution that OEM’s have been using for over a decade. The solution is called a 3.5 to 5.25 hard drive mounting bracket. These metal brackets mount to the side of your 3.5” drive and make it fit into the 5.25 slot, of which every midtower case seems to have at least 2–3 spare ones. These brackets cost just a buck or two. There are also 3.5” hard drive cooler kits, Internal cooling cages, Internal RAID expansion kits, hot-swap SATA adapters and more. All are great solutions to the climbing demand for storage and major PC manufacturers inability to provide consumers with reasonable way to expand internal storage. So there you go, I hope I saved your house from a USB drive started fire  

Happy Easter!

Ok, so I was dead wrong about the coolest feature in Windows Mobile 6. Don’t get me wrong, storage card encryption is cool, but coolest it is not. Over dinner I got a chance to play with the Mobile Terminal Server center and wow.. best…feature… ever.

In the long long ago (yesterday) when you opened a terminal server session to a Windows server you had two options: constrain resolution to the resolution of PocketPC (320×240) or die while scrolling around to the part of the screen you were interested in. Logging in was also a joy, with the terminal services client only accepting the server address as the only option, login information such as username, password and domain were up to you to type in during the session. No choices in terms of sound or color depth either, Windows Mobile 5 just picked the wonderful 16 color choice for you.

With Windows Mobile 6 not only are you given a ton of options to preset quickly on your PocketPC before the session starts, you’re also given the ability to provide authentication info, session preferences for audio and display quality but.. drumroll please.. once the session is active you’re given the ability to quickly scroll around the screen through a cool screen zoom map in the lower right hand corner. Just like in the WindowsXP magnifier tool where you can move the magnifying lense across the screen, Windows Mobile 6 gives you the ability to move the “display” around to the part of the screen you want to see in the remote session.

Say it with me: no more scrolling!!!

Oh, and don’t ask me for the ROM. Not only am I not going to support you through learning how to flash a device but this practice itself (pirated ROM) is illegal, voids warranty and is not easy. In short, you’d be insane to try and do this.

Second coolest feature: Pocket Internet Explorer

This is something I’ve been begging for for years – PocketIE should not download images. In Windows Mobile 6 this is an option, allowing you to quickly load up the page without the clutter and without the delay for the page to render. Not just that but you can browse around in full screen mode and without images that really makes a huge difference.

Office Mobile and live.com features are also integrated in Crossbow, making it a true business device instead of an Ipod with a dialtone. Make a commercial out of that.