February 2008 Archives

The LifeBook P8010 is the latest model in long line of terrific ultraportables from Fujitsu. Its predecessor, the P7230, was very popular and the P8010 looks to continue that success by way of some cutting-edge technology. The first major improvement is the screen, which has grown to 12.1" (1280x800) and is now backlit with LEDs (which reduce power consumption, cut weight, extend display life).

The second major change is the inclusion of Intel's newest mobile processor, the SL7100 Core 2 Duo, running at 1.2GHz. That might not sound too impressive, but given the 800MHz front-side bus, 4MB of Level 2 cache, and GS965 chipset with integrated X3100 graphics (using up to 384MB of system RAM for video), this should benchmark very well against older C2D systems with higher clock speeds.

My first impressions with this machine (it was shipped from Japan on Friday) are that it is quite swift for normal tasks and even processor-intensive activities, like video encoding, are quite acceptable for an ultraportable. The 18mm-pitch keyboard is reasonable, although users with largish hands may notice the loss of that extra 1mm from full-sized keyboards. Body flex is pretty minimal. Not quite as rigid as the Panasonic Toughbook I used to have, but perfectly fine.

I don't have a sense of battery life yet, but after about 3 hours of modest use, power shows around 50%; definitely a good sign. I'll update this post more as I use the machine.

Overall, the P8010 seems fairly pricey (they start at $1700 and can go up fairly dramatically once you start adding more RAM, bigger HDDs, and so on), but anyone who has complained that the MacBook Air is too hamstrung by a dearth of ports, fixed battery, etc. need only look to the Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 for a very attractive alternative. And it already comes in black!

Full video review:

Additional resources:
• Fujitsu North America product page
• Original Fujitsu press release (1/6/2008)
• Matrix comparing the P8010 to several other ultraportables

Here's a humdinger of a story, thanks to KETV in Omaha, Nebraska: Police: Child Shows Investigators How To Use Marijuana

I'm not sure which I find more ridiculous: that these idiots would be granted a license to own a shotgun, or that they don't need a license to bring two children into the world.

Seriously...society restricts all sorts of activities to only those who can show they won't endanger themselves or others -- driving, owning handguns, scuba diving, drinking, operating heavy machinery, hunting, and so on. But, to be a parent, all you need to do is be able to procreate.

If the State actually has a significant interest in both (a) promoting healthy and stable families (the reason given for denying marriage licenses to gay couples) and (b) ensuring safe conditions exist for children (the reason for requiring schools and daycare centers to be licensed), then why is it that just anybody can produce children without the state requiring them to take a class or a test or something like that?

I mean, we insist that every prospective driver knows what a stop sign means before we say he can drive a car. Why don't we insist that every expectant parent knows that babies require regular feedings and diaper changes before being able to keep their offspring?

I'm not advocating a Brave New World-type scenario where the government controls baby production. I'm just suggesting that every parent should have certain knowledge before he/she is allowed to care for children. Why would we hold parents to less of a standard than we hold daycare workers? Seriously...why?

CNN has a video story of an Armenian family who is being deported from the US.

People get deported every day. But, there are two things about this story that seem absurd.

First, the family has been here for 15 years without a problem.

Second, the family has a 13-year-old daughter who -- you guessed it -- was born in the US and, therefore, is a US citizen. And because she wasn't born in Armenia, the US government won't pay for her plane ticket to Armenia so she can stay with her family. So, the family has to leave the 13-year-old here in the US by herself.

Help me understand, folks. Is this situation the result of "compassionate conservatism" or is it due to the administration's "family values?"

It amazes me what religion can do to people's sense of what's right and wrong.

CNN.com has a story about a man who killed a convenience store clerk during a robbery 14 years ago, but who just recently turned himself into police. The crazy bit is the reaction of the members of the church where he had been a youth pastor: "He's a hero, really," and "To lock him away someplace and say he owes it to society is robbing the next generation of a mentor" are some off the more bizarre comments congregants made about the situation.

So, let me get this straight: doing something awful (like murder) is no concern at all as long as you confess, and when you do, you're setting a better example for others than someone who didn't do something bad in the first place? I just don't understand that kind of logic.

The writing was on the wall, but it's now official: Toshiba has abandoned the HD DVD format and has ceased production of all HD DVD players.

I have one word: FINALLY!

Now we can all get on to the important business of making really inexpensive Blu-Ray Disc players and dropping the prices on BD format movies. I, for one, eagerly anticipate being able to pick up a $99 Sanyo or Emerson BD player for Christmas. OK, maybe not this year...but definitely by 2009.

The 605 WiFi, a fifth-generation portable media player from the French electronics firm Archos, is an impressive device. It boasts a vivid, high-res 4.3" touchscreen, 802.11g Wi-Fi (more on that later), and the ability to handle a reasonably broad array of media formats (although the larger, more expensive Cowon A3 handles far more). Plus, the 605 WiFi is available with hard drives of 30, 80, and 160 gigabytes or with 4GB of flash storage (the flash model also sports an SDHC slot for unlimited expansion). This review focuses on the 4GB flash version, which can be had for under $200 online and at a few brick-and-mortar electronics retailers.

The Discovery Channel's website continues to have just awesome stuff. If you're a dinosaur fanatic as I was as a kid (OK, still am), then you'll get instant thrills out of their Dinosaur Planet "Dino Viewer"

It offers everything from profiles to 3-D rotating views to size comparisons (making it simple to tell just how easy it would have been for any given dino to eat or squish you) to rendered animations of the animals in motion (example shown) and all sorts of other nifty info. If you have little kids, I guarantee they'll get a kick out of this.

Mark Fiore has whipped up a truly awesome cartoon explaining just why the Fed's warrantless wiretapping program is a good thing...really. Give it a watch!

I was reading a bit on the Discovery Channel website this morning and one of their links took me to a webpage hosted by the US National Park Service. The contrast between the highly professional Discovery Channel webpage and the old-fashioned page on the NPS.gov website just astounded me. Take a look:

Screen capture of the Discovery Channel webpage

Screen capture of the NPS.gov webpage

That NPS webpage is so plain and fundamental -- so old-fashioned -- it gave me a real sense of nostalgia. And we're only talking about memories from a decade or so ago!

I was introduced to the World Wide Web back in August of 1994 when a friend (hi, Mitch!) and I attended a PC User's Group meeting (we weren't members) that was giving a live demo of this new branch of the Internet (I'd used email and Gopher before in school, but nothing on the WWW). The pages were so alive and rich, I remember thinking at the time. This NPS page looks exactly like the WWW that teemed and thrived in those initial years; early HTML standards hand-coded with text editors. How simple, how quick-loading! Of course, then we moved into the whole flaming, spinning logo era and innocence was lost.

Anyway, pardon my reminiscing. I thought I'd post these screen caps because in a few years, it will be more and more difficult to stumble across a page that has none of the pretense/sophistication that more contemporary tools like Javascript and CSS enable.

Over two years ago, I initiated a general plea for a gPhone. Apparently, PalmSolo has witnessed the answer to my request at MWC08.

Check out his photos and video of HTC's gPhone, an Android test mule, in action (via ZD Net)

I'm fairly certain that my 700p will be my last Treo and that something running Android will be my next smartphone. Now if I can just go another 8-9 months...

CNN has two videos of cops acting like disrespectful bullies to a quadriplegic and some little kids.

Quadriplegic dumped out of his wheelchair

Cop puts skateboarder in headlock

I know they have stressful, dangerous jobs (well, some of them), but if they want respect, they're going to have to stop acting like this.

I admit it: I'm tired of hearing about the MacBook Air. Apparently, Apple's marketing people believed (and perhaps rightly so) that the only spec that consumers cared about was thickness, as that's the Air's only really exceptional bit ("world's thinnest notebook"). It's not the fastest, the lightest, the longest-running battery, the best screen, the most ports, or any other really meaningful spec...no, just the thinnest. Whee.

But that got me to thinking. What other claims could rival laptops make to pump up their own launches? Here are some I'd like to see:

"World's most symmetric notebook!"

"World's shiniest On button!"

"World's most tapered laptop!"

"World's quietest screen hinge!"

"World's strongest security lock!"

"World's clickiest keyboard!"

"World's longest power cord!"

"World's squarest trackpad!"

"World's fewest USB ports" (actually, with just one, the MacBook Air can claim that, too)

Microsoft's recent play for Yahoo!, an effort to advance its online advertising market share and more effectively dominate the entire world compete with Google, got me thinking back a bit to those interesting days in the late 90s when Microsoft was having to defend its monopoly status in the operating system market. A couple of graphs and quotes might be helpful, here.

So, according to Microsoft, the market on the left is just fine and doesn't need any intervention, whereas the market on the right has no compelling "number two competitor" and would benefit from some consolidation.

I think that's called wanting to eat your cake and have it at the same time.