Another new toy: Dell Vostro Laptop

Finally, after waiting for two weeks due to stock shortages and shipping, I got my latest toy. My very own Dell Vostro 1510 laptop.

Let me be the first to admit I always said I wouldn’t get a laptop but when it’s made your work machine for years on end you get used to it and having had a laptop with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for about 10 months and have to give the laptop back, you tend to miss the convenience of being mobile and being able to work anywhere around the house.

So I bit the bullet and invested in a business-level laptop. It’s quiet sexy on the outside and the specs don’t look too bad either.

• Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2.1Ghz)
• 2GB DDRII 667MHz
• 1.3mp Web Cam
• 160 GB 5400rpm
• DVD+/- RW  X 8 SuperMulti
• 15.4 WXGA+ with Truelife
• 256 MB Nvidia Geforce 8400M GS Graphic Card
• Gigabit LAN
• Wireless + Bluetooth
• 4 x USB2.0 ports
• Firewire and PCMCIA slot
• SD/MMC slot for memory cards

The keyboard is water-proof and the whole laptop (with battey) weighs roughly 2.5 kg. The web cam is only 1.3MP so it’s not suited to taking video or great photos but will suffices for the odd video call. The capacitative button panel at the top of the keyboard, below the screen has a few multimedia controls on it for and an eject button for the ROM drive. The ROM drive has a front-loading slot since it is built into the chassis.

While most laptop chassis have a smooth finish only the lid has a glossy smooth finish. The rest of the chassis is in a matt black but not too smooth finish, it takes a little getting used to but I think I prefer it to the smooth surface of the Lattitude I had before.

My main gripe so far is the missing home and end keys on the top right. I’m still not used to it yet and keep on pressing the pause/break key while typing expecting to go either to the beginning or end of the line. Oh well, that’s what external keyboards are for if I can’t find myself getting used to it. Although you can use the Fn key and the left and right arrows for the home and end functionality, which I think will take a little getting used to.

I’ve not tested the video out through game-play yet, only full screen vidoes so it’ll be interesting to see how it handles some of the games I play now and again (you know, stress relievers).

June wrap-up

I know, things have been a little on the slow side over here my blog. I’ve been trying, I really have – thing is I’ve just been very busy this month. But it’s been a good month, let me tell you that.

First month completed at the new company has gone really well. Been working hard on an internal project that I demo’ed to the directors and then ran a series of load tests on. Got very positive feedback with a few bugs and feature requests which I’ve got most out of the way already, so things are looking up!

I moved my mobile phone contract  from one provider to another and got myself a new phone. I call it my iPhoney.

Actually to give LG props, it’s actually a pretty good touchscreen smartphone. It’s the first LG phone I’ve owned – after not being impressed by Nokia’s range a few years ago I opted to try out Samsung and I enjoyed their phones (D500 and my previous phone the D900). I wanted to get a nice Samsung Jet or S8300 but they’re not too expensive packages right now and purchasing the phone without a contract just isn’t an option for me right now. So I settled on the runner-up, LG’s KP500.

It’s not a multi-touch screen like the iPhone but it works well, it’s responsive and pretty quick. The big bonus for me is finally having a phone that’s smart enough to run multiple applications and allowing you to easily switch between them. For example checking your email, browsing my news feeds on Google Reader, sending an SMS and taking a call – multitasking WIN! It has a built-in accellerometer so that you can rotate it for viewing web sites and photos, etc in landscape view instead of portrait. It does have a few drawbacks, like not having 3G or WiFi capabilities but I’ve been using 2G/GPRS/Edge for a while now and I’ve gotten used to it (also its data cost is much cheaper than 3G).

It does have Bluetooth though and is USB 2.0 compatible which makes transferring stuff a breeze actually. In fact, I used Bluetooth just the otherday to pull all my data from my Samsung D900 to my PC and then imported all that data, again with Bluetooth to my LG KP500 and voila all my needed data on my new phone. It also has a MicroSD slot for memory cards and came pre-installed with a 1GB card.

Another toy I also got this week is my Vantec NexStar portable 2.5″ drive enclosure with a 320GB Seagate drive – going to make transferring stuff to and from work a breeze now.

Coming soon (on order) is my personal Dell Voxtro laptop – more on that soon.

Otherwise, looking forward to a weekend away with friends in Yzerfontein. Till next time!

Optical illusions: 3D sidwealk chalk drawings

I’ve shared with you some great three-dimensional artwork by Tracy Lee Stum and John Pugh. If you enjoyed those check out a great gallery on the Mighty Optical Illusions website for some more great chalk artwork – amazing how a little perspective in a drawing makes it almost come alive. [via Mighty Optical Illusions]

This last picture I’ve added to this post was done by an artist by the name of Kurt Wenner. Check out his gallery on his portfolio site to see some more great works by him.

VOTD: Church Wars

On the small Greek island of Chios there’s a strange tradition that happens each year over Easter.

Two rival churches have a go at each other, with fireworks. The aim is to hit the opposing Church’s bell tower with their fireworks.

On Easter Sunday evening, as mass is said in both churches, the rival parish “gangs” set to work, lighting fireworks and aiming them haphazardly at each other’s church bells.

Amid the melee, priests in both churches attempt to continue with mass, although the deafening sounds of fireworks and cheers as the rockets hit their targets often drown out the proceedings entirely.

Residents also admit it is not the most safety conscious of ceremonies, with several fires in recent years sparked by rockets and even a few deaths. - source BBC News

These Greeks and their crazy traditions. HOPA! [via DamnCoolPics]

VOTD: Front-wheel drive WIN

This woman is so upset about her SUV being towed away that she gets into her car and drives off, pulling the tow-truck behind her! [via Damn Cool Pics]

POTD: Mother-in-law remote

Simple, one-touch function

[via The Chive]

Japanese Battleship made from Lego

Warhip replica made from Lego blocks

College student Jumpei Mitsui built an authentic scale mode of a Japanese Yamato class Battleship. Some stats  and a video below. [via The Chive]

• 200 000 Lego blocks
• 6 years and 4 months to build
• Weighs 150kg (330 lbs)
• 6.6 meters (22 feet) in length
• 1 meter (3 feet) in width (midship)
• 1/40 Scale
• Motorised gun

Layars: Augmented Reality Browser

No, not a spelling mistake – Layars is going to change the way you browse, with your mobile phone.

Forget the new iPhone 3G S with it’s amazing (cough) copy/paste, video recording and MMS sending capabilities. Layars are the future.

It’s a new type of browser that uses your mobile phone’s camera, GPS and built-in compass to add more detailed mapping and information about the area you’re seeing through your mobile phone’s camera.

What is Layar?
The World’s First Augmented Reality Browser. Layar is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality though the camera of your mobile phone.

What are layars?
Layars are the equivalent of web pages in normal browsers. Just like there are thousands of websites there will be thousands of layars in our application. A layar is the digital view that is added to the camera view. This is the first time that so many brands use one application to provide an augmented reality service on the mobile phone.

They’ll be releasing their product in the Netherlands first and only on the Android platform on the G1 and HTC Magic. They say they will be targetting the iPhone 3G S next and what ever other mobile phones come to market with the required capabilities.

Still interested, want to know more, then check out the video demo below and go take a look at their website, blog or follow them on Twitter.

[via Cherryflava]

Product of the day: Comfort Wipe

So, this is what the Comfort Wipe looks like - it extends your arm a full 18 inches!

Now I’ve seen a number of very strange infomercials in my time but this has got to be one of the strangest ones.

In short it’s a product for people to wipe themselves with after doing their business without touching themselves with their hands (or like normal people do, with the toilet paper, yes I know many countries use bidets).

Take a look at the video below.

Where do they get actors who can deliver those lines with such straight faces? They should definitely have something like the Oscar’s for best infomercial actor.

Now here’s the kicker. I’m always skeptical about commercials like these so I sniffed around (cough) and came up with a post on Cracked where this guy was also a bit dubious about the product’s authenticity and called the number. Imagine his amazement when he got connected to a real person on the other side for that very product.

You have got to read the whole transcript – I was in tears (stifiling my laughter so as not to wake the kids!). [via 2oceansvibe]

Update 20 June 2009 – it appears the product didn’t make it as the commercial was just a test run to gauge consumer interest [via NYMag]

Playing catch up

I know, I know, the posts this month have been far and few between. I’ve had a lot on my mind since last month and my blog has taken a little bit of a back seat.

As you by now know, May brought some news that rocked the boat. I’ve now spent two weeks at the new company and it’s been a good and productive two weeks. It’s the usual work your butt off at the new company to prove yourself time for me, hopefully for the last time. It’s not the end though, I’ve got 3 months worth of work ahead of me and hopefully things will go well.

This weekend started off with a bang around 4pm on Friday. The bang being the sound of automatic gunfire and grenades going off. No, South Africa hasn’t turned into a war-zone but the network at the company did. We had a round of playing network computer games against each other, with even some of management getting involved in the action. It was a lot of fun and was a nice ice-breaker getting into a new company but by 10:30 that evening I’d had enough and packed up to head home.

A friend of ours was down for business this week and she stayed with us from Thursday evening. A little after I got home she arrived after visiting friends and asked whether or not I was keen on going to the rugby game on Saturday (British & Irish Lions vs Western Province) as she had organised two tickets from her brother. Now, I’m no sports fanatic but as of late I’ve been getting more and more into watching and enjoying a few rugby matches so I said, yeah I was keen.

British & Irish Lions vs South African Western Province team on Saturday 13th June 2009

It was my first trip to the rugby stadium in the area I grew up (sad, I know) and it started off with us walking (briskly) in the rain and sitting in the rain for the first few minutes of the match (hence the blurry quality of the photo, as well as having taken it with my mobile phone). There was a lot of kicking going on in the game and I almost wondered if we were watching a soccer match and not a rugby one. Eventually the game picked up pace and with 3 minutes left of the second half Western Province scored their only try of the match bringing the score to an even 23 all. The Lions finished us off with getting their last penalty of the match through the uprights winning 26-23. I’m actually keen now to go and watch some more games – so watch this space.

Today we had family over for Melissa’s up-coming 7th birthday on Wednesday with home-made waffles and sweets. All in all a quiet and chilled weekend which is very welcome. Let’s see what the rest of the week brings. I’ll do my best to try and get a few more posts up soon.