Archive for April, 2007
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I need a new computer
I need to get a new laptop to replace my two-year-old Thinkpad X41 tablet and I’m considering either getting the new version of the Lenovo tablet or getting some kind of Macbook. I was primarily a Mac user until the late 1990s when an accumulation of discontents pushed me into using Windows (poorly built computers, frequent loss of work due to system crashes, difficulty getting reliable information from Apple, random discontinuation of features we needed, etc.). So I’ve missed out on the whole OS-X development.
Some of the things that pushed me toward Windows have changed—there’s now good support for Chinese, and I guess the OS is less flakey than it used to be. Some things have stayed the same—issues of hardware quality, difficulty getting reliable information (for example, battery life in the Macbook and Macbook Pro systems seems abysmal—on the order of 2 hours, in contrast to claims of 5 hours of battery life), and the machines seem particularly heavy and hot.
I think that Macs do have some advantages now for the video work we’re doing, but I need to explore Vista a bit more. I’m intrigued with the new speech recognition in Vista and I’ve heard good reports on the X60 tablet. The original had a very slow hard drive that made it quite underpowered and it may be that hardware has now caught up to the Tablet concept.
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Vista
I’ve started using Vista on my desktop machines and just came across two features that are quite cool. First, Vista now has something comparable to what Quicksilver provides on Macs. If you hit the Windows/Start key and start typing the name of a program, file, or website it will start running. For example, if I hit Windows/Start and then type “po” and enter, PowerPoint will start.
The system brings up the possible choices in a context-sensitive box (sort of like typing Chinese with pinyin input methods). Very useful feature.
Second is Shadow Copy, which allows me to recover easily from a mistake I frequently make. Let’s say I need to write a recommendation letter for a student for something. I typically open the file most like that recommendation (e.g., the last letter I’ve written for them), update it for the new context, and then save it, writing over the old recommendation. In Vista, after slapping myself in the forehead, I can save the file with a new name, then select the old file, right click and revert it to the prior version. Help for the absent-minded.