You’re all very tired of hearing about my latest purchase. Well, I have a nice L.L. Bean briefcase-like laptop bag that I’ve been using for about 4 years now. It’s a great bag. It served me well all through college. What made it even better was that it’s computer compartment fit my old Powerbook (the Pismo) perfectly. It was tight and snug in its padded compartment. It even had it’s own sleeve type thing that fit it.
Well, now I have a problem. The new Powerbook is much smaller. It flops around even in the sleeve thing that came with the bag. Being overly careful with my electronics, and this purchase in particular, I want to make sure it doesn’t flop around and possibly get scratched or damaged (not that I think it’s that sensitive).
There are lots of options, almost too many to count. I’m narrowing in on a sleeve from Waterfield Bags, as I’ve heard good things.
Again, comments, suggestions are always welcome.
Now that I’ve had my Pismo for 4 years, I’ve noticed some marks on the screen that aren’t oils or dirt. They’re scuff marks from my keyboard rubbing up against the screen. This has gotten exponentially worse since I actually started carrying my laptop to class with me (mostly because of the prevalence of wireless Internet available at U-Mass).
It’s such a widespread problem that companies started selling screen protectors. This includes Other World Computing, Radtech, Shaggymac, Acme Made, and Marware. I know there are even more than that, but I didn’t feel like writing out URLs all day.
With such such a large market and demand for these products, one would expect clear favorites to emerge from the various vendors. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Radtech seems to get the most press, with the most options and excellent pricing. Personally I’m leaning that way, but I’m also a big fan of OWC.
Making the decision even harder is the fact that many people keep reiterating that no such product is needed and that there is no chance of the keyboard touching the screen. However, I don’t remember much hubbub about people having this scuffing problem when the Pismos were released either. It seems to be a problem that develops later in the laptop lifespan. Honestly, I don’t want to be the poor sucker with the scuffed 12″ like all the people who in their first months of owning an AlBook claim these products aren’t necessary. Am I being paranoid? Probably. But why not spend the measly $15 on a protecting cloth that doubles as a cleaning cloth? I’ll probably just get a Radtech cloth and be done with it.
Leave comments if you have any opinions on this subject, including mini-reviews of products you’ve used.
Update: I got myself the Radtech ScreenSavrz partly thanks to one member at Macworld Forums pushing me. It doubles as a cleaning cloth. I’ll have a mini-review when it arrives.
Labor Day weekend, the project that I’m working on at Raytheon will be migrated to Raytheon’s new facility in Woburn from the old one at Bedford. Now, it’s not that I dislike Bedford or anything about it, but the new building (which was originally Genuity’s) is simply amazing.
Nearly every surface is either glass or mirrors, which is actually a little disorienting. Every time I was waiting at the elevator, I’d think it was open because the reflection off the mirrored doors was so clean and clear, I swore I was seeing the inside of the compartment.
Other than that, it’s superior to Bedford in nearly every way. All the parking spaces are in a garage and there’s a covered bridge into the building. The building essentially has its own exit off route 93, which will be convenient not only while still living in Northborough, but once I move out and get my own place. There’s even a Target and a train station within walking distance.
Maybe this is just an indication that I get excited about mundane stuff though.
For my last birthday, I got an EyeTV from Elgato Systems. For those of you not familiar with the product, it’s essentially a TiVo type device for one’s computer. You can record TV shows to watch later, watch live TV (with a small time delay for encoding), and pause live TV (the feature I use most by far).
In order to efficiently use the EyeTV, it’s necessary to have access to some type of TV guide in your computer that allows for channel selection and selection of shows to be recorded. Elgato provided this with an account at TitanTV. This had two limitations: it’s a web based interface and you had to use IE with it. Both of which are something I’m not interested in.
My solution was to use Watson made by Karelia. Instead of some weak web interface, Watson provides a normal application interface to TV Guide. It works perfectly. Using TitanTV drifted from my mind.
Enter EyeTV 1.3.7. This new version of Elgato’s software for the EyeTV adds support for scheduling through TitanTV. What does this mean? It means that you can set up EyeTV to check your set TV recording schedule at TitanTV (hourly, every couple hours, or daily) and record what you’ve chosen. You may wonder why that’s important, particularly because I’m so satisfied with Watson’s handling of this. The point is, TitanTV can be accessed anywhere because it’s got a web interface. You could be looking through the schedule at work, or at a friend’s house, see something you’re going to want to watch and set you EyeTV to record it for you, all without going home! You simply add it to your recording schedule in TitanTV, the EyeTV software will pull in this data, and set itself up to record it for you. Meanwhile, you’re still sitting at your desk. How cool is that?
This may seem completely unimportant for Windows users and for now it is. However, TitanTV’s compatability page makes it seem as though it may just be a matter of time before other PVR (personal video recorder) manufacturers begin to adopt “remote scheduling” and we can all make sure we get to watch the TV we want while still maintaining a healthy social life.
I finally broke down and bought Dragonball Z: Budokai 2. It was on sale for $20 and while I was at it, I got Budokai 1 (again for $20). I was looking forward to comparing the two games, but unfortunately, the first Budokai was out of stock (even though it was the one not on sale).
So, I’m sure you’re dying to know how it is. I’ll tell you. It’s pretty good. The game play is decent and the moves are pretty cool. What problems do I have with the game? It’s a little complicated for one. You get these cards describing new items. Sometimes it’s a new character, a new move, or a new arena. However, sometimes they’re items. If it’s an item or move, it shows up in your list of capsules (confused yet?). How you enable these capsules for characters isn’t obvious. Once you go to do this, sometimes you can’t enable them (but there is no explanation of why). Once you figure it out, it’s not so bad.
Another problem is the lack of characters at first. You can’t even play as Vegeta at first. Vegeta damnit!! Luckily this can be fixed by playing the narrative mode of the game, but knowing which characters to pick as allies and whom to fight in order to unlock these characters is not obvious. I personally looked online because I don’t have the patience to try out all the combinations (which would take forever because who you can fight is based upon the level you’re at and you can’t choose to arbitrarily fight them).
Other than that, it’s a good game. I’ve unlocked Vegeta, so it won’t long before poor deluded Bob tries to beat me with him.
