7hunters.net

My New Apple MacBook

SEVEN:  For once I get to recline and relax in my bedroom without the whiring noise of ATX towers with their myriad of fans.  Technology in general is getting slimmer, sleaker and more streamlined — and our computer room is no exception.  Once not so long ago our large walk in closet - aka - the office was home to numerous tower computers and large LCD monitors cranking out noise and heat despite the superior Antec power supplies and new fans we installed.

Entire networks are moving toward getting fewer servers in the server room.  With RAID and fail over technologies, Virtual Machines that allow you to simultaneously run multiple servers on the same computer, and SATA drives that can be hot swapped and now come in as high as 1.5 terabyte flavors — technology is being reformed and it’s small, quiet and slick.  At my work they are able to discontinue and move out entire server racks - no longer needed.  Highlander had a plan for replacing almost all his servers at work with one mighty titan that supported up to six drives failing without any data loss or hiccups in the network system.

MacBook

Bright LCD Screen

Highlander upgraded my RAM to 4gb for about $35.00 - not bad.  It’s has a little hard drive with under 120gb - with all my programs installed and information I have about 80gb left so I won’t be editing movies or too many photos anytime soon but since I keep most of my files on our media server - no worries.

This Macintosh still comes with a firewire port.  News has it that Steve Jobbs has said no more Firewire - Firewire has fallen to USB 2.0 - - I really hope that’s a vicious rumor because Steve should know that although on paper USB 2.0 runs faster then Firewire in real live because of how data is delivered - firewire kicks its butt.  USB 3.0 is coming down the pike - but I still see a need for Firewire especially if one works at all with video.

What I love about this computer:  It came out of the box ready to go.  No messing with endless disks, trying to find drivers, installing anti-virus, worrying about spyware, trying to get it on the network. No crap to deal with, it just worked.  Not only did it work but it has some really cool features that made me think of it as a computer from the future (and keep in mind I’m using Windows 7 as my main work station for 8 hours a day - so I’m comparing this against the latest and greatest from Microsoft).

The track pad has multi touch support which allows you to easily scroll the screen.  It has multiple screens that you can switch between like in Linux’s Gnome.  Iphoto has a face detection system that asks you to identify the person - then after that it automatically at least attempts to identify the people in your photographs and label them accordingly.  It also groups photos by event.  It came with iLife and lots of great applications pre-installed.  The onboard camera worked right off.  It’s a blessing to go back to having spotlight - I can search for anything in seconds on my Macintosh - a feat that flat out doesn’t work in Windows 2008 server and works only moderately better in Windows 7 beta 7000.

Okay the downside.  Macintosh has always stuck stubbornly to floating windows - no matter how many of us Macintosh users have told Apple - DOCK THE DAMN THINGS - Apple has yet to listen.  I multitask a lot and I tend to get windows floating all over the place and most of the Adobe windows look pretty much alike so I’m sitting there clicking on a window like a dummy wondering why it’s not doing anything then realizing I have the wrong app.  There are hot keys and ways to get around this - not all I have picked up fluently yet in my Windows dominated world - it just seems so stupid to design such a totally perfect computer then keep a huge design flaw in it for years and years just because.

Navigating the Macintosh can be awkward and hot keys are really a must which I don’t think all users will pick up on.  But then again maybe they don’t multitask so much.  I really wish the Macintosh .me and .mac accounts would die already.  I recently graduated from a college that required a .mac/.me account.  The over burdened flash menus took forever to load, had annoying and underpowered features and the amazing functionality it boasted was available for free by much better hosts (Google anyone?)  Still though Macintosh has dogedly tried to work their outdated online services into their computers.  (I ended up ditching my .me account and built something similar using free services via Google and 000webhost.com )

The onboard camera worked beautifully for video and taking snapshots but during a Yahoo meeting I couldn’t hear or send audio despite the microphone registering okay (using Yahoo Chat). I take a lot of photographs and iPhoto is the default application.  Too many photo applications try to think for the end user - I don’t need them to.  iPhoto managed to replicate my data three times to various folders. Why? WHY??!!!  Because I’m very good at navigating a computer I finally found where it saved my edited images at - they were in one of three identical folders with the same name, different location on the hard drive.  Argh, and it couldn’t preview my RAW CR2 files.  To be fair I don’t like Lightroom or Picasa either.

Over all though - to be free some spyware, viruses (mostly), and to have everything just work — wow.  Using Windows 7 everyday - something is always crashing, usually the desktop, and although unlike most Windows versions, 7 recovers itself after awhile even from the worst crashes - it’s still time consuming and annoying.  I’ve learned it’s quirks and work around them.  Other technicians in the office all have different quirks they’ve learned to work around.  So far none of us have encountered an identicle bug - they’re all very unique - which I’m not so sure bodes well for the new Windows release (look for the new Windows 7 release this August - and YES, it is better than Vista and we’ll be covering its new features).

Next week with luck we’ll be reviewing thin clients, working within the “Cloud” with Google and Amazon, and other goodies via Highlander.

-7

by HIGHLANDER

So recently I’ve become obsessed with saving electricity, which probably stems from my obsession to save money.  I’m the kind of person who will spend more money now to save money down the road for an indefinite amount of time.  I’ve recently started buying electronics which not only reduce our carbon footprint and make me feel better about “being green”, but I’ve also started accumulating ACTUAL green (money, duh!).  And in the end, to me, that is what being green is all about.  We are living in an exciting time where purchases in electronics which are geared towards saving us electricity can actually pay for themselves inside of a year or less.  And as any bankers out there will tell you, a year is a pretty short amount of time to see a return on any kind of investment, let alone one that will continue to save you money after it’s paid for itself.

As a side note, Seven and I have found a sort of serenity around using lower-powered electronics - a theory she calls “Less is More”.  Basically, the items we buy which use less electricity also (99% of the time) are quieter and produce less “background” noise.  This alone is enough to justify some of the expenses involved here, we think.

Case 1:
Xbox vs. Popcorn Hour

For years, I had a modded Xbox which ran XBMC to stream TV shows and movies from my computer to the big screen.  Recently, I purchased the Popcorn Hour, a low-wattage, Linux based media player to replace it.  While the original reason I purchased the Popcorn Hour was NOT for power savings - it’s saved me enough dough in electricity for me to include it here.

The premise is this: An Xbox (circa 2001-ish?) is noisy, fans are blowing everywhere, and has lots of blinking lights.  While it makes a fantastic media front end, it is not exactly easy on the monthly electrical bill.  Enter the Popcorn Hour.  I went with the A-110 model, which has HDMI 1.3b, and optical digital audio.  While it facilitates adding a SATA hard drive, I have chosen not to so as to further the energy savings it provides.  There is an ethernet port on the back which streams digital media from our server to the living room, and as an added bonus supports high definition playback, something the Xbox’s 733 MHz CPU couldn’t handle.

The Popcorn Hour, when in “standby” mode, sips about 5 watts of power.  Under full load, watching an H.264 video at 1920×1080 with DTS 5.1 surround sound, it uses an astounding 15-17 watts.  In contrast, the Xbox would, under full load, consume about 45-50 watts on a good day.  Total savings: 40-45 watts.  Total cost: the Popcorn Hour I purchased was about $215.

Case 2:
Broken UPS vs Regular ol’ Surge Protector

So when I first moved in with Seven she had this old UPS battery backup system.  After our first thunderstorm in the new place, we quickly found out that the battery didn’t work and the only thing it’s succeeded in doing is beeping loudly when the power goes out in the middle of the night.  It wasn’t until a few weeks ago when I got my P3 Kill-a-watt device (as mentioned previously) that I detected something strange.  This UPS, when plugged in by itself, with no devices connected to it, was consuming 45 watts of electricity and performing NO FUNCTION.  When the power went out, my computer went off.  Not even 2 seconds of protection.

The solution, to use a regular run-of-the-mill surge protector to protect my equipment.  It performs exactly the same function as the UPS with the bad battery, but it only consumes 1 watt without things plugged into it, presumably so it can make the LED light come on to let me know it’s protected.  Total savings: 44 watts.  Total cost: Free if you have an extra surge protector.  Now where can I find one of those…

Case  3:
Regular Ol’ Surge Protector vs. The Smart Strip

This one was easy: The Smart Strip advertises itself as a way to save you money, so of course I wanted one.  The premise of this device is simple, you have one plug-in on this surge protector that, when the item plugged into it is turned off, will automatically cut power to devices plugged into the “slave” outlets.  As an added bonus, there are three power connectors that are always hot, so you can leave devices plugged in which take a long time to boot up.

In my house, the TV setup seemed to be the ideal place for this gizmo.  I can have the TV plugged into the master plug, and plug in my Xbox 360 (famous for stealing idle watts), my surround sound, video switcher, and ethernet switch into the slave ports - as all of these devices do not need to be on or idle if the TV is off.  The result is amazing - almost like magic.

I turn the TV on and BAM!  There goes on the ethernet switch, the sourround sound clicks on, the video switcher clicks on, and my 360 goes to idle, waiting to be played.  It’s important to note that I have the Popcorn Hour mentioned above in one of the “always hot” outlets, as it takes about 3 minutes to boot up.  But I don’t feel too bad about that, since it only consumes 5 watts while on standby.

Total watts saved here will vary depending on what you have plugged into it and how often you keep the master unit on, but we consistantly save 150 watts or more since we used to have all of this stuff turned on 24 / 7.  Total cost: I bought the smart strip on Amazon.com for 34.99, and recycled my existing surge protector to be used in the computer room.

Case 4:
Huge Windows “Gaming” Computer vs MSI Wind U100

I used to do a lot of PC gaming and I built a pretty sweet setup prior to being enlightened on the philosophy that less is more.  This PC packs an AMD Quad Core Phenom, and (used to have til Seven stole one) Dual NVidia 8500GTs setup with SLI.  A pretty sweet setup indeed.  The only redeeming factor was that it has an Antec Earthwatts 500W max power supply to provide it with clean, efficient energy.

For convience sake, I’m the kind of person who needs my computer turned on and readily available 24 hours a day.  I might get a call in the middle of the night about a server at work being down and I don’t want to wait for my computer to boot while I have my boss on the other end of the phone at 3am.  Thus - this beast stayed on non-stop.  Constantly consuming approximately 300 watts.  Something had to be done.

For valentines day (best VDay present ever!) Seven bought me an MSI Wind U100 netbook.  I cannot explain enough how this thing ROCKS!  First of all, I loaded OSX on to it using WindOS X, so it is sporting the internal workings of a Macbook (more on this later!).  The best part: I have a 20 inch widescreen Dell monitor on my desk, and I prefer it because of the 1600×1050 resolution it provides.  The Wind has a VGA port on the side and I can plug it directly in and have my mac goodness on a huge monitor from a tiny computer.

Okay so now for the REAL best part: this netbook consumes a max of 25 watts under normal operating conditions.  I could stretch this further by unplugging the power connector while using it, thus allowing it to run on battery for the short bursts that I’m actually at the wheel.  However, I’ve decided it’s not worth straining the battery over, especially since my old PC used more electricity and was also always on.

So - total power savings: on average 275 watts, though much more if my gaming PC was under load, saving up to 475 watts.  Total Cost: I don’t know how much Seven paid for my gift, but Amazon is selling them now for about $379.

Case 5:
Trendnet 100MB Ethernet Switch vs D-Link 1GB “Green” Ethernet Switch

The savings here are not as much as are being hyped by D-Link, but its enough to get me excited.  The Trendnet ethernet switch, and many others like it, power up all ethernet ports on the switch when the device is turned on.  So in my case I have 8 ports on both of these models, and when I was using the Trendnet model, all 8 ports were powered up and awaiting me to plug in an ethernet device and go.  The D-Link “green” ethernet switch doesn’t power any port that isn’t connected.  Therefore, you could theoretically only use as much power as you need for your application of this switch to work.

Another way the D-Link switch saves power is it runs a line diagnostic and adjusts it’s power usages accordingly.  Therefore, if you have a 2 or 3 foot ethernet cable plugged in, that port doesn’t consume as much power as one sporting a 100 foot cable.

The problem here is that the power consumption differences are so minimal I have a hard time recommending anyone go out and replace their switch for solely this reason.  However, if you’ve got to replace a switch anyway, next time consider the the D-Link “green” ethernet switch line and put a little less strain on your power usage.  And as a bonus, this switch supports gigabit ethernet and has jumbo frame support.

Conclusion:

Saving electricity through the use of advances in technology is something I think everyone should consider.  We use stuff every day that consumes electricity - why not look at alternatives to these products which are more energy efficient?  Am I going to be single-handedly saving the enrionment?  No.  Am I going to feel good about using less electricity?  Yes.  And the proof is in the pudding when the electric bill arrives!

Now - if I can just get Seven to let me buy a more efficient electric scooter.  More on that later!

A leather clad chumby

SEVEN:  We managed to collect a reasonable number of interesting gadgets for 2008 that we tried out here are a few of them to start off our new technology blog.    We needed his/her alarm clocks so Highlander set out to find THE coolest alarm clock on the planet.  He ordered a Chumby from eBay.

What I like about the Chumby is it has a wireless internet connect so it begins to play Pandora.com playlist selections when the alarm goes off.  You can change the look of the clock  almost indefinetely and it has games and other interactions packed in.

Downside - after playing about two songs it begins a blaring alarm that is so abnoxious I want to kick the darn thing.  It’s terrible.  It gets unplugged easily and then doesn’t work.  The leather is a bit off colored with age and soaked up the nicotine of the last owner making it smell very bad.

HIGHLANDER LIKES: This thing is awesome!  My life is complete now that I have Linux on a device by my bedside.

HIGHLANDER DISLIKES: Like 7 said, this is really easy to unplug accidentally.  It comes with a 9-volt battery to store it’s settings but it gets drained in about 3 or 4 minutes of use.

Kill-A-Watt

SEVEN: This cool little device reads out how much electricity is used by each item.  I believe this will easily pay for itself this month as we alter our energy consumption.

HIGHLANDER: Ask Seven, I’m a nut about saving energy.  I even switched to my full time PC being a Netbook.  So of course, I had to get one of these.  I’m also a stat junkie - and this thing gives you everything from current Watts, Volts, Amps, and Kilowatt hours.  It’s a great way to figure out exactly how much your gadgets are costing monthly.

Ultra Cheap Light Stand

SEVEN:  After shopping around for lighting I found a light stand with umbrella for $35.00 on Amazon.com Lighting equipment for pro photography usually starts out about $500 and goes up to thousands - so I dropped the $30.

I think the best part of this kit is that when people (untrained photographers at least) see this they’ll think you’re an awesome photographer with LeeT equipment.  After turning it on - realizing the bulb was way too dim - replaced bulb - realized it still didn’t work right…. well I don’t know what in the heck I’ll use this for honestly but it looks darn impressive.

The New Amazon.Com Kindel 2 with eInk

SEVEN:  Amazon.com amazes with their new Kindle 2.  This little book has a nifty price tag of over $350.00 (I think we pre-ordered for a stomach churning $400).  The e-ink this uses is so incredible words can’t describe it.  It’s exactly like reading a book even easier.

SEVEN LOVES:  I like the fact I can increase the text size.  I have severe vision problems and have trouble reading text on a computer screen but the e-ink in the Kindle has no similarities to trying to read on a computer screen.  It also comes with voice to text - so it can read to me if I’m on the move.  I love how little energy this takes - we might charge it up to full once a month.

The e-Ink only takes energy when it flips a page as I understand it.  It can store thousands of books - a full library and it’s fully portable. Imagine having a full library in your purse.  It should be used in every school and for every school kid - no more back packs full of books.

Additionally a person can download books extremely quickly and there are a ton of free ones from Amazon.

SEVEN-DISLIKES:  I can’t seem to get it away from Highlander and he keeps telling me to purchase my own.  If the price was around $50.00 I would get one for every person in the house.

HIGHLANDER LIKES: I love how this can read mobipocket books.  It can also read TXT and PDF files, as well as word documents, if they’re converted through Amazon’s either free or cheap service.  For the free service, you e-mail them a document, and they e-mail you back a file for your Kindle.  You then move it on to the Kindle via USB.  You can skip the last step if you pay Amazon $0.10 they will deliver the file to you wirelessly.  Very cool for those of us too cheap to buy books from Amazon.

HIGHLANDER DISLIKES: Honestly, nothing.  It’s the perfect reading device.

The Popcorn Hour Media Server

SEVEN:  Highlander will have to explain the technical aspects of this little jewel (shown here on top of the XBox 360 for size comparison).  It manages all of our television and movies and has its own remote.  The kids and I both can use it easily to watch tv.  I love it and think it’s neat.

HIGHLANDER: Everyone I know - I recommend the Popcorn Hour to.  Everyone.  We have a 3+ TB media server, and this little, low-power consumption, remote controlled wonder can stream all of our media files and play them back on the big screen.  What I like most about this, of course, is that it will play MKV files encoded with H.264 at 1920×1080 progressive scan - Which is something many modern desktop PCs even have problems with!  Seven doesn’t know it yet (though I’m sure she suspects) but I fully plan on hooking this guy up to a 1080p projector and playing movies a 6 or 7 foot wide screen.  Stay tuned!

G1 Android VS. Apple iPhone

SEVEN:  I absolutely hate cellphones.  I hate them with unholy passion from struggling to get them to work right to having people call me I don’t want to hear from, to dealing with rude people checking their phone every five seconds when I’m trying to talk to them.  But I have been traveling enough that even I had to admit - I needed one.

Highlander bought me an iPhone for my birthday.  I have that terrible love for Apple that so many technicians frown upon  (who have never used Macintosh products because they think they are an elitist snob product and don’t realize they are simply made better….).

I love this phone.  I like how it has so much EASY functionality.  I am cellphone illiterate and I could work this phone out of the box.  It has nifty applications so I can check on the latest LOL CAT post,  surf the net, stay in touch with family, get directions/map when I get lost, listen to music or play a game when I’m bored and the charged battery lasts nearly forever.

SEVEN-DISLIKES:  With my hearing I usually can’t hear it when it rings.  It has a very low volume and it has to be hacked to be louder.  It tries to turn on “Edge” by default and AT&T charges an unholy amount of money for net traffic a penny a kilobyte.  So you can check an e-mail and fork out $3.00 without blinking.

It is hard to turn Edge off - Highlander found an application so I could manually disable Edge and have wiFi (free).  I also have an application so when I am on high speed wireless internet (wifi) I can place mobile calls through Skype - free calling - good time.

Finally Highlander put a “Go Phone” Sim in my phone so I pay the great amount of $25.00 per month to have an iPhone and NO contract.  Cell phone companies are almost as crooked as credit card companies and I am very satisfied not to have to mess with one.

Finally the keyboard took a little getting used to.  It’s built into the phone and made for chubby finger tips but my nails kinda get in the way.

I think my iPhone is way better then Highlander’s G1 Android - which he signed a service agreement on and pays a $75.00 per month bill, AND - it just isn’t as cool as my iPhone ;-P

HIGHLANDER: When I left my corporate job to work in the public sector, I found out quickly that an ammenity I was used to (cell phone service with e-mail and web) would not be provided.  So - I decided to get the Google phone.  Sure the G1 cost quite a bit, and the monthly fee is pretty ridiculous, but I like having an always on, everpresent internet connection wherever I go.  $75 may seem like a lot until you get a pay-as-you-go plan and spend a penny for every kilobyte.

I also love how the phone ties in with my google account.  I can take a picture and automatically upload it to Picasa.  I can receive my e-mail there and it’s not just POP mail - if I check it on my phone or update it or something, it updates it on the gmail website.  I have instant access to google maps, and a wicked cool accelerometer-based google street view!  My phone is WAY better than Seven’s!