A Piece of Shit

First, some clarifications: I am HP man, I always was. My current laptop is HP, my wife’s laptop is HP, my previous laptop was HP, my printer is HP…

When it came time to replace my trusty HP nx9030 I tried to find best laptop in reasonable price range. I thought that I found it in HP 6730b. It had decent processor, lot of memory (4 GB), nice screen… Only thing I found wrong with it was keyboard design where they jammed Home, PgUp, PgDown, etc. keys in vertical line at right side. It wasn’t as nice as almost-standard placement on 9030 but I could live with it.

I should have seen trouble when I managed to scratch it’s scratch-proof surface. Next thing to go was power adapter. After that my screen went crazy. Then another power adapter went down. Then it started to go crazy. It would reboot without warning (and no, it wasn’t Windows’ fault). My guess is that it overheats. Although that doesn’t explain why capacitive keys at top (volume, wireless, etc.) sometime turnoff until next reboot. Booting from USB is broken for last few BIOS revisions - to do USB install I need to downgrade… And trust me, these are things that I hate the most - I will not event get into a lot of small issues. Only thing that works correctly is keyboard - no, wait, I had to replace that also…

I owned this laptop for little bit over two years now and I still cannot trust it. It just keeps failing me. It might be me, it might be my particular laptop, it might be whole series. I just know that I am utterly disappointed.

Bright side?

There is single bright point in whole situation - HP support. Guys were more than helpful with all these problems and did their fair share of fixing. They are only reason I would even consider HP again.

[2011-02-20: Guess what? Laptop is dead again. I would guess that whole charging circuit on laptop went kaboom. Good news is that power adapter seems to be ok…]

[2011-03-22: As soon as I said that HP support is only bright side, I should have known that this will turn bad. I got laptop from last service and from plastic seemed little bit “wobbly”. When I opened case I saw that four screws keeping plastic were missing altogether. Laptop is working without them but my trust in HP support is shaken.]

[2011-03-31: Yes, I am selling this laptop. Interested?]

WordPress Vs Blogger

It may be little unfair to compare self-hosting solution that you can configure to suit your needs with solution that needs to satisfy masses but I will do it anyhow. :)

Speed

Thing that annoyed me most with Blogger was getting to Google Webmaster Tools and then seeing that my blog was slower than 75% of all other locations. It may be that some of that slowness came because of SyntaxHighlighter but definitely not all can be blamed on it.

Nicer links

Links that were available with Blogger were not bad (e.g. http://blog.jmedved.com/2011/01/wordpress-vs-blogger.html) but WordPress can have it much nicer (https://www.medo64.com/2011/01/wordpress-vs-blogger). Although this isn’t available upon installation but only with some .htaccess magic, WordPress gets a point here because it can do this. Blogger just never took efforts to do it.

Search

Blogger never had search integrated. WordPress gives you proper search limited to your blog only. It just works as it should.

Source code

I try to keep number of programming-related posts at this blog at cca 50% (although you wouldn’t say this judging by last 10 posts :)) so it is fair to say that I have big need for syntax highlighting. With Blogger I had solution that kind-of worked but with WordPress it is just much better. Although I use same underlying solution (Alex Gorbatchev’s SyntaxHighlighter) WordPress just integrates it much better. There is no need to load all brushed, there is no need to do any preparation of XML (< and > characters get replaced automatically). I just installed plugin and all started working.

Basic functionality

One may be puzzled that I left basic functionality as last point but there is reason for it. Basic functionality that you would expect while writing posts is almost equal for both of them. I just find no big difference here. I might even say that Blogger had slight advantage here (mostly because of integrated preview and easier date entry) but I do not find anything worth complaining about. Once you sum all advantages and disadvantages on both sides, there is just not clear winner.

Conclusion

Never mind all complaints above - I used Blogger for full two years and I haven’t felt punished. Although I find WordPress better solution there is also more maintenance involved. Blogger just worked without any effort on my side. For self-hosted WordPress there is more of effort involved (e.g. backups, security…). Life is just not as simple as before.

I do intend to use WordPress from now on, but we shall see how wise that decision was once something fails and, Murphy says, something will fail.

HTC Desire (With Froyo)

Two months ago I bought myself a Desire. This was a big deal for me. Windows Mobile developer buying Android phone - betreyal! As I received Android Froyo upgrade last night, I decided to write my experiences with this device usage.

Upgrade

As old Windows Mobile user, I am not used to OS upgrades. It is just not something that happens that much in Windows Mobile world. Even if you get an upgrade, it also means that all your data is gone and all applications need to be reinstalled.

Whoever thought of Android upgrade process is genius. Phone informed me that upgrade is ready, asked me whether I will download it over WiFi or mobile and, after download was over, asked me to confirm upgrade. As simple as it can possibly be.

It took next 15 minutes for upgrade after which I was greeted with all my data, applications and widgets completely intact. I do not think that it can get anything better than this.

Screen

First thing that you see on is 3.7" screen with 480x800 pixels on it. Usage on sunny day is usually crappy - barely anything is visible. You forget all that while inside - pictures are bright and vivid and pure joy. Big part is probably because usage of OLED on my model. Newer models will have SLCD display and, while picture may not be so great, this will bring better battery life.

Battery

Battery-life is usually annoyingly short. That would sum it up. Normal usage will get you through day but not much further. Late night charging is back in fashion.

Camera

Camera is 5MP and probably best phone camera I saw. It is still inferior to any standalone digital camera. Pictures will be good if lighting is excellent - anything less than that and you will probably not be satisfied. Yes, it does have LED flash but only thing that flash is good for is for flashlight applications - for camera not so much.

Camcorder mode is great. It has 720p capture (came with Froyo update) and it gives decent resulting video.

Speed, memory and everything else

This device has fast processor, plenty of memory and I will not write much more. Boring technical specification data can be found at HTC pages.

Annoying stuff

This phone has it’s own death grip. My way of holding phone includes pinkie holding phone’s weight (cross between balance and four edge grip). When I hold this phone in left hand it just happens my little finger fits perfectly over microphone. It would be understatement to say that it’s usage as communication device is slightly compromised.

HTC decided to modify standard Android calendar application. And they did beautiful job - except two small details. Idiotic remainder is turned on by default. Yes, I know that it was turned on Windows Mobile also, but there you could disable it. Here you can choose only what annoying time you want to set it. There is no option to turn default reminders off!

Often I first browse my calendar to find suitable day and only than I add new event. On Windows Mobile I came to expect that new event will default it’s day to one that I am currently viewing and give me next available time as default value. This works ok when you use Add event from list. If you use same function from menu it defaults to current day. If you are not careful, it is easy to make appointment in past while thinking you made it two weeks in future. Yes, it behaves differently whether you use on-screen function or menu item. I hope that this is bug since alternative would be that designer actually thinks this is useful. I dread that world.

It used to be that you cannot send contact via SMS. Froyo finally fixed this so I will not complain too much. I will just say: about time.

Also there is one thing that no smartphone can get right (except iPhone) - input of simple letter Đ (latin letter D with stroke). When this letter is part of your national alphabet this deficiency quickly becomes visible. Mind you, this letter is supported - you just cannot use keyboard to enter it. And yes, this phone is legally imported in Croatia and it is intended for Croatian market.

Conclusion

Even with all annoying deficiencies, I consider this a great phone. I would even dare to say best phone I had yet.

Now I wait for Windows Mobile 7 to throw me off my feet.

HP Mini 5101

My laptop was on repairs for a while so I decided to join two needs. First one was me having a laptop and second one was me having something for wife as Christmas present. This laptop is result of those needs. :)

HP mini 5101 has an Intel Atom Processor N280 (1.66 GHz) and up to 2 GB of RAM. While this may not sound so powerful, it works nicely with Windows 7. Standard 2.5" 160 GB hard drive is something that offers good performance and space for a nice price. All things considered, I am not sure that SSD drive would behave that much better on this machine.

Until I saw this notebook, I never imagined 10" screen as being that small. If you open Visual Studio 2010, there is huge amount of scrolling needed. Resolution is 1024x600 and that ensures that not even all dialogs are visible. There is option of HD screen (1366x768) but I am not sure that it would improve things much. It would just force me to use higher DPI setting which brings same problem back. Fortunately there is support for external monitor and that is life saver.

Case is definitely bright point. It is light but it looks like something that can handle man’s hand. What reminds you that this may not be toy for stronger gender is finish that just attracts fingerprints. However, in gentle hands that clean it once a while, it looks good.

Keyboard is one of those Chiclet-style (every key for it self) and it spans almost from edge to edge. I still prefer standard HP notebook keyboard but I cannot say that I considered it too much of punishment to use this one. Only weak points are plastic connections of keyboard to notebook body. That plastic just breaks too easy.

I can say that programming on that machine was quite good experience once you connect external monitor. Without external monitor, there is just not enough screen real-estate to do anything but basic browsing.

Since I got my laptop back, only thing that I miss from HP mini is it’s weight (1.2 kg). However, once you arrive on your destination, there is that point when you actually need to use your computer. And comfort of full laptop is not something that HP mini can challenge.

[2010-04-06: I upgraded memory from default 1 GB to 2 GB. This did not improve Windows Experience Index but it did wonders to working experience. For those interested full scores are 2.3 (processor), 4.5 (memory), 2.0 (graphics), 3.0 (gaming graphics) and 5.9 (hard drive).]

HP ML150 G5

After quite a long time, I got my hands on one server - HP ML150 G5 to be more precise.

First thing that I must notice is that this guy is heavy. It has slightly less than 30 kilograms and while this doesn’t seem like much, it’s shape ensures that getting good grip is thing of luck more than skill. Although I would like some grabbing handles somewhere on side, once you put it down you can be sure that it will stay there. Of course, basic rack conversion kit is included.

This is entry server and I got entry configuration:

• Intel Xeon E5430 (2.66 GHz)
• 2 GB RAM
• 2x SAS 72 GB

As you can see, this is almost as low as you can get for something that ought to be Hyper-V server, but there is huge potential for upgrade. You can add one more processor, add more memory (total of six slots) and throw in few more hard drives (four SAS and six SATA).

Installation of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 went without a hitch. All devices were recognized without problems and I haven’t bothered to update any drivers. Once SQL Server 2008 ended up on machine, everything went to hell. Each time any real disk activity occurred, machine would just freeze. Root cause was traced to BIOS that was from January of 2008! Once I upgraded to latest version (both BIOS and iLO), it started working properly. This was first time for me that BIOS bug caused that much of problems.

Intention of this server is to take role of aging SQL Server 2000 installation (1.7 GHz P4, 1 GB RAM). Total load of this is not enough to saturate even basic configuration. However, if everything goes alright, upgrades are planned and more load will be added. Than we shall see true nature of that beast. And I have a good feeling about it.

Corsair Voyager Mini

In order to make Windows installation faster, I decided to buy this USB. While I have great experience with my current USB, I decided against buying same one. Distinguishing between them would probably cause wrong one getting deleted all the time.

Since I did own both Corsair Voyager and Voyager GT before, I decided to check their Voyager mini. It seemed like nice USB drive. It was cap-less (I hate those) and it’s look and size ensured were quite appealing to me.

I will start with one good thing and that is speed. This little guy is fast. It is not as fast as his big brothers (especially GT family), but you will be satisfied. Windows installation just flies on this one. Unfortunately, this is first and last thing I liked.

Most common operation with USB drive is inserting it in USB socket and this is where this drive fails miserably.

In order to insert it into USB, you need to grasp it “just right”. If you grasp it too high it will just retract back. While this is not problem if your computer is on desk, it is quite annoying if you need to plug it in laptop. Only way you can do it every time is to raise laptop (2700 grams) in order to plug Voyager mini (5 grams).

To make things worse, you can insert it up-side-down without any problem. This will not break anything (there are no short-circuiting issues) but it is quite annoying when you don’t notice it. Those computers with vertical connectors are most annoying ones since you are never sure and there is nothing to block you if you insert it wrong way.

While this drive looks like Voyager, it is not. As much as I am satisfied them, I am dissatisfied with this one. I can only find fortune in fact that, since I use it only for installs, it is not used much. I do wonder whether guarantee covers burning…

Sheraton Air

Due to airplane troubles, I was late for connecting flight and, since there were no flights that day, Lufthansa offered me a lodging. Here I must commend Lufthansa since whole process was done without any pain or suffering regardless of fact that there were quite a few of stranded passengers asking all sort of questions.

I got room at Sheraton Airport in Munich and it was arranged for shuttle bus to pick me up. After an hour someone finally appeared and started throwing bags inside. It took something like fifteen minutes to get to the hotel and then we went through check-in procedure. That took a while since there was only one guy at reception but he was fast so it wasn’t as bad as it could be.

Once I got my room (number 256, but on first floor - quite strange) I took a quick shower and went down for a free dinner. Well, it was not actually free, it is just that Lufthansa payed it and not me.

What greeted me was pasta and some sauce. Generally I do not have anything against such provisioning, but in this particular case it seems that pasta stayed out for a while. It was completely dried and pretty much worst pasta meal I ever had.

Since I needed to go very early, I got an early-bird breakfast and they even gave me free Taxi ride to airport (if you want to go before 6:30, you usually need to pay).

Final conclusion? Service is great - only if food was any good.

HTC S740

HTC S740 is mobile phone based on Windows mobile 6.1 Standard. I short, that designates phone that has number keypad and no touch screen.

Usually those smartphones are cheap and with weak hardware. This one is neither. Cost is around 350 € and for that you will get Qualcomm processor running at 528 MHz and 256 MB of both RAM and ROM. From hardware side there is also wireless connectivity (bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g), GPS, nice 3.2 megapixel camera and slide-out keyboard.

There are two things you will notice when you take it into hands. First one is uneven background plate that looks like F-117 stealth aircraft (although manufacturer like to think about it as diamond edges). This is highly unusual design and it surely catches eye. Another thing that will not escape you is heaviness of this phone. With 140 g it is not phone for weak, but in defense, it does fit well within hand.

Screen itself is right behind plastic (most Smartphones put it a little further behind). This does great deal in enhancing quality of images on it. While I cannot say that this is best screen I saw, it is definitely the brightest one and readability is amazing even on direct sunlight.

Battery is quite good (1000 mAh) and it can last for a week of phone usage. As soon as you start Wi-Fi connections, be happy if it lasts for a day. Since Smartphone platform has always-on model some Pocket PC software can also drain battery (e.g. Skyfire).

Weak points

Slide keyboard design doesn’t cope well with left-hand use. It is just too easy to tilt it with your left thumb. Currently I only have troubles with pressing thin volume up/down buttons while keyboard swivels, but I have doubts that this is beneficial in long run.

Every touch leaves fingerprints on front surface. Although it did look great once you unpacked it, that is also last time it will be smudge free. That glossy finish seems to even attract dirt and make it stick.

Idiotic decisions

Designer of call and end keys obviously never used them on mobile phone. If he did, maybe he would take notice how difficult is to press those two keys. They are very thin and protrude less than a millimeter over other keys.

Placement of micro SD card is also story of it’s own. You cannot change it without turning off the phone - it is mounted right bellow SIM card. Every change of card will include shutting down the phone, removing SIM card, removing SD card, installing new SD card, installing SIM card and then powering up the phone. There is no possibility of doing this fast.

Conclusion

Although this article is somewhat focused on bad points, in reality it is a good phone. I like it better than HP iPAQ 514, especially hardware. If only designers had half of brain…

One Mighty Wallet

I accidentally stumbled across this wallet and I liked the idea. I didn’t care about Tyvek nor did I cared how thin it was. I fell in love with number π (pi) on Dot matrix printer style paper.

I shared my excitement with wife and she immediately noticed that you don’t have pocket for coins. Disappointed with this, I decided not to buy it. That decision didn’t last too long since I did order it next day.

I have wallet for more than a month now and I cannot say that it is most practical wallet I had. I keep my coins floating freely in my pants (no pocket for coins), least used cards are hard to extract from wallet (only two compartments) and my driver’s license cannot fit.

However, every time I take it out and I see those numbers, I do not care. This is ultimate wallet that programmer can have.

[2009-07-11 For those who are wondering, fifty (50) Euros is biggest denomination that still fits inside of wallet] [2022-03-03 Newer version of this wallet has holes painted instead of punched]

Logitech V470 Bluetooth Mouse Review

Some time ago I was in Zagreb for a trip. Suddenly, an opportunity to play Starcraft was there, but my mouse was not. That is reason why I decided to go to closest store and buy myself a mouse for laptop. Until this moment, I used my trusty Microsoft’s IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0A for both home computer and laptop. Although it is very comfortable, it wasn’t well suited for use on road.

There were two requirements for new mouse. It needed to be comfortable for big hand and it needed to use bluetooth. It proved that later requirement was rather hard to fulfill. For some reason, all manufacturers like to have their own wireless dongle. Decision to avoid certain loss of that dongle was what kept me of Microsoft Arc Mouse. That mouse looks powerful!

One mouse that looked promising was Logitech’s V470 bluetooth mouse. It’s price was around 50 EUR which is little bit high, but it did looked fine and I did wanted to play Starcraft that night so I bought it.

Everything was packed in that “wonna bet that you cannot open me” plastic bubble but knife sorted that out. Inside of package you get mouse itself, instruction manual wrapped together with installation CD (I never used it - works without any additional drivers - at least on Windows 7), small cloth bag and two Duracell batteries. I was reminded that I need batteries when I saw that they are in package. Thanks Logitech for not going usual “batteries not included” route.

Connecting mouse to computer was painless. Just turn it on, press small connect button on mouse (bottom side) and search for new device on computer. Two of them will start communication and after ten seconds you are ready to use it.

I will not cover technical specifications here, but issue of comfort. Although this mouse is not quite big enough for my hand, it is bigger than those tiny laptop mouses. I had no problems with prolonged usage once I got used to it’s shape. Bluetooth connection has range of few meters - much larger than my arm in any case. Cursor movement is little bit faster than I was used to, but I got re-adjusted quite fast.

I found only one troubling issue. After you don’t move mouse for ten seconds, it goes into sleep mode. Waking is fast, just a fraction of second, but noticeable. You get feeling that mouse is stuttering a bit.

As final conclusion, I must say that this is one mighty mouse. :)