Sat, 13 Aug 2011
I broke down and purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad W701ds. I had two goals:
- Replace my constantly overheating Thinkpad T61p, my main machine upon which I engage in both business and pleasure.
- Finally overcome my demons and create a portable system I can actually make electronic music on without crying.
I am a technology curmugeon in that I really don't care very much about operating systems anymore and when I have to think about upgrading to the latest version of Office, it really makes me ill and I'll resist doing so until it becomes necessary. So it was with trepedation that I upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit, which you gratefully can configure to work exactly like Windows XP. Here's how you do that...
- Control Panel >> System and Security >> Change User Account Control settings >> the lowest setting
- Control Panel >> Hardware and Sound >> Mouse >> Pointer Options >> Take pointer speed down a couple of notches
- Personalize Desktop >> Windows Classic Theme
- Screen Resolution >> Make text and other items larger or smaller >> Smaller - 100% (I love how the default of Windows 7 is not the native resolution of the screen?)
- Uninstall 'Bing Bar' (for God's sake)
- Download and install Firefox
- Set homepage to https://encrypted.google.com/
- Unlock Taskbar >> Toolbars >> New toolbar... >> %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch >> Select Folder >> Drag Quick Launch all the way to the left >> Uncheck 'Show Text' and 'Show Title'
- Taskbar >> Properties >> Check 'Use small icons' and 'Lock the taskbar'
- Control Panel >> Easy of Access > Change how your mouse works >> Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen
- Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Local Security Policy >> Local Policies >> Security Options >> Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication Level >> Send LM & NTLM, use NTLMv2 session security is negotiated
Ok, anyone reading this interested in this laptop needs to know a few things:
- This sucker is about 2 inches thick and weights enough that you are concerned about it when you are carrying it around.
- The main screen is the prettiest screen I have ever seen in my life. The secondary screen is nowhere near the quality and is by no means essential.
- The speakers are loud! (HOORAY!)
For low latency audio applications, so far the only thing I've had to do is disable my wireless network adapter in order to avoid any large spikes. That makes me happy.
Thu, 26 Apr 2007
Why Do I Need Always On Broadband?
Lately I'm starting to see that I've lost sight about why people use computers, particularly networked computers. As much as the Internet is supposed to be an active medium, one by which we pull content to us instead of getting pushed upon as passive observers, I find that half the time I'm reacting to websites or emails rather than thinking about what it is I am even doing on the computer. Sites like reddit.com used to provide both an active and passive Internet experience whereby I could connect with highly intelligent people and what they value and comb between all their recommendations. Over time, as the site became more popular, the quality of the content diminished substantially. Yet I still found myself checking for new information to consume day after day, regardless of quality. So now I want to step back and start asking myself what it is that I want out of a relationship with computer technology.
