The totally off-topic thread

[anat0l]

*phew* Just finished uploading two sets of well overdue photos to my FT Galleries.

One is a handful of pics I took during my South Africa trip in October 2009. The other is a set I took for my short trip to Japan in January 2009 :shock:

I intend to write TRs for both of those; perhaps not as long as I normally would (the pictures will probably tell more of the story). Then I have to get along to writing one for my latest trip to Europe et al.

 

[notzac]

...I intend to write TRs for both of those; perhaps not as long as I normally would (the pictures will probably tell more of the story)....

TRs really do take a bunch of effort to write up! Love reading them, but until I tried writing one myself ... didn't realise what was involved.

 

[samh004]

TRs really do take a bunch of effort to write up! Love reading them, but until I tried writing one myself ... didn't realise what was involved.

I'd liken it to writing a blog, especially when you're on holiday as it's essentially the same thing. Takes a lot of effort.

 

[samh004]

Just discovered I can change the number of posts per page, ahh, much better with 40 now!

 

[anat0l]

Just discovered I can change the number of posts per page, ahh, much better with 40 now!

:shock: With so many posts on the board (and no doubt many, many threads viewed), I'm surprised you never noticed!

Viewing @ 10 per page is quite inconvenient. Trying to up the post view count was one of the first things I did (and a good reason to sign up as well as the ability to post).

I do similar things on other sites/settings. For example, I like to search on Google with results published @ 100 per page.

 

[samh004]

:shock: With so many posts on the board (and no doubt many, many threads viewed), I'm surprised you never noticed!

Viewing @ 10 per page is quite inconvenient. Trying to up the post view count was one of the first things I did (and a good reason to sign up as well as the ability to post).

I think the default was 20, so I just doubled it.

I do similar things on other sites/settings. For example, I like to search on Google with results published @ 100 per page.[/QUOTE]

I rarely need results past the first 5, but I'm not a very advanced user/don't search for hard queries.

 

[yo yo ma]

Well forecast storms wednesday afternoon and showers thursday-knowing how accurate forecasting is means rain could come to the Aussies rescue

I enjoyed seeing Clarke & Watson going for single figures... On reflection, hope the rains stays away.

 

[thewinchester]

Sony Vaio? One word .... YUCK:!:

Sorry, as someone who has an absolute hate for Sony laptops I must concur and chime in.

As a poor soul who's worked in IT for longer than I care to remember, I've gone through and seen my fair share of manufacturers.

Working in a university for over 5 years, I went through at least two SOE (standard operating environment) selection programs. Not withstanding what the selection committee already knew about the market, we basically put each vendor's equipment through its paces.

Some of us had the privilege of test laptops which we spent the better part of a month crucifying. From battery tests, day-to-day use, hardcore beating up in workshops and service calls, we gave each unit some considerable testing. Oh, and of course I made a point of dropping each laptop a couple of times during the trial just to see how good the parts and build quality were.

And of course I have a couple of friends who hopped on the Sony bandwagon a while back - and they are the bane of my bloody existence. As designated IT pro, working on their Sony units frequently drives me around the freaking bend. I'd say they're only good as glorified paperweights, but I think paperweight sellers in local markets might be put out by that.

There's a number of brands I'll never, ever buy/use again, which include:

• Sony: loaded with rubbish software, truckloads of custom drivers, poor support website, and dreadful build. Try updating drivers on these when a new OS is released - you'll want to kill yourself.
• Asus: wouldn't know good support if it came up and bit them, build quality worse than dreadful Sony equipment.
• Acer/BenQ: fall apart at the seams, service staff are the scum of the earth.
• HP: I'd use one at a stretch, but never been a fan of their service staff. Some of the ABS moulded plastics can also break as easy as the Asus units would.

I prefer to stick to:

• IBM/Lenovo: The ducks nuts AFAIC. Service and support is top shelf - both online and offline (buy the extended global warranty with accidental damage, can be a lifesaver). Build quality has no peers for ThinkPad series units, particually for models with mag alloy roll cages. Designed to take a kicking and keep on ticking. Steer clear of C series or IdeaPad's, as they're tryhard thinkpads which don't stack up for travel and will bring you tears with drops or scratches.
• Dell: Pick carefully here, but most of the Dell's at the AUD1500 and upwards price point are quite reliable. Service again is generally reasonable for business customers, home customers shouldn't bother.
• Apple (MacBook Pro): I'm platform agnostic, and I can swing both Windows or Mac without problems. The aluminium unibody gives them serious protection, and support generally isn't a problem - particularly if you have an apple store, authorised repairer or Genius Bar nearby. Applecare warranty is an absolute must, and you can purchase these warranties online for a fraction of what they charge in-store.

Right, laptop rant over. Glad I've got that out of my system.

 

[anat0l]

Sorry, as someone who has an absolute hate for Sony laptops I must concur and chime in.

As a poor soul who's worked in IT for longer than I care to remember, I've gone through and seen my fair share of manufacturers.

This is quite interesting to hear; thanks for those comments thewinchester.

My Asus at home hasn't kicked me yet; going on 3 years now so that's not awfully bad (it's passed the 13 month curse, which is more or less what I got on other brands).

When I worked for Harvey Norman a handful of years ago, we sold HP, Compaq (both before and after they were taken over by HP), Toshiba, Packard Bell, Sony, Acer and LG laptops. Of all of those:

• I was one of the few in the store that could talk to HP's Indian call centres (i.e. had the patience and could understand them), log jobs and get them sent out to repairers. Needless to say, most of what we sold were these, and they were the most popular to come back for repairs. That says it all. Plus, I hate the bloatware package that HP preload onto their systems - with a passion.
• Toshiba had the best service, but now their off-key price differential and parts suck now. Plus, I don't like their preloaded software. And a BIOS that's configured from Windows - can you say 'stupid'?
• Packard Bell laptops - do they exist any more? Repairers were cough.
• Sony were way overpriced and still are, and they didn't fare much better than the rest of the pack. Yes they looked good, but that is all...
• LG laptops didn't look all that great, but I had no problems with service and were generally reliable. They were unique in that they had almost no preloaded software / bloatware at all, and you could configure/install what you wanted from the ground up (the package from LG included a Windows XP OS CD with the model drivers prepackaged, and an Applications CD). So if you didn't want to install Battery Miser, for example, you didn't have to.
• Acer - cheap and nasty. Service was very average - I hated their telephone holding music; it sounded like the music from some 70s or 80s cougho.
• Extended warranty repairs on laptops was a different kettle of fish with a different repairer to standard warranty repairs. The company we used when I still worked there was very good and I got along quite well with them. When I left, they started using a different repairer for laptops, and they sucked bad.

I completely forgot about IBM/Lenovo, and I agree they are quite reliable and stolid.

I can't bring myself to buy a computer from Apple due to the high cost differential.

 

[Mal]

I completely forgot about IBM/Lenovo, and I agree they are quite reliable and stolid.

I try to only buy "business" laptops. The service/build quality/warranty and overall specs are much better than "home" laptops.

The Thinkpads are great laptops. I'm quite sad that my last laptop replacement was from a T4x to a Toshiba Satellite (my current laptop). The difference is astronomical, although I haven't yet had to use service from Toshiba. The Toshiba support website is an absolute mess with drivers etc, where compared to the logical layouts and search functions used on the IBM websites.

The Thinkpads did occasionally have design or build issues - mine failed the main fan about 2 months before warranty was up, but that was fixed quickly and efficiently (including free shipping both ways) to the repair facility in Sydney. They even allowed me to remove the HDD and store it rather than shipping it.

My thinkpad eventually died from a video issue, I think it was a fairly common issue at one stage with the T4x's where the solder between the video chip and motherboard cracked over time.

I don't believe the quality went down when that division was sold off to Lenovo either.

My HP Mini 2140 was also a great Netbook, but we both know that's currently awaiting disposal after it suffered some critical damage to the screen. (replacement screen is about $130 or so for a non-genuine... or $600 for a genuine from initial prices I've seen).

HP also had an excellent support site, but never had to use their repair services.

I hate Acer with a passion. Cheap nasty junk, and am still not sold on Dell, although others do like them.

 

[anat0l]

am still not sold on Dell, although others do like them.

I'm not sure why people aren't, really.

I've never bought a Dell before and not a big supporter of any kind, but with the specs they are offering at the prices advertised, plus next day service, why wouldn't you?

Perhaps if you bought it as a business asset rather than a home user you might get a better reception from Dell, who supply quite a few corporate orders. All computers at UQ are either Dell or Apple.

I've heard some horror stories about some Dells that needed repairs (both quality of the parts and the response from even supposed "next day service" calls), but most other people I know that have Dells haven't had a problem. Not sure how they are on the "bloatware" side of things, but from a glance there doesn't appear to be much preloaded on systems.

 

[Flashback]

I concur with the business grade HP & IBM/Lenovo laptops being quality systems and also having good support. Have dealt predominantly with these 2 brands over the past 4 years now and haven't looked back.

I wouldn't touch Toshiba, not after my last laptop was in for warranty repair 13 times in the first 12 months, I had about 5 months usable time with it.

Currently operating off an MSI Wind U100+, does everything I need even with the smaller resolution. Anything I need a bigger resolution for I either plug in a monitor, or use my desktop which has dual screens.

 

[samh004]

• Acer - cheap and nasty. Service was very average - I hated their telephone holding music; it sounded like the music from some 70s or 80s cougho.

You've seen a few then?

My dad did pretty well with Toshiba in HK, and even had a touch-screen laptop for several years that worked flawlessly. He now uses a Black MacBook (older generation) on the road and a dual-screen desktop in the office, but not sure which brand.

 

[thewinchester]

I was one of the few in the store that could talk to HP's Indian call centres (i.e. had the patience and could understand them), log jobs and get them sent out to repairers.

I want to reach over and give you a big hug :mrgreen:

I feel your pain of the HP offshore call centres, and despite the sheer volume of HP product in terms of printing and enterprise gear we purchased each year (AUD 2m+) they still could not give us local staff.

Try as we might, those offshore call centres were a nightmare. We'd spend an average of 45min+ on the phone just to get simple printer parts replaced. And of course they'd try and take us through all the diagnostic steps that we'd support techs or our in-house Electronics Technician had already been through and tell us things which just weren't true about the problem.

I understand most of these places run on call scripts, but when you get a registered customer call, who tells you from the outset he's already followed all diagnostic and customer permitted repair options - don't run through the blasted script. Skip over and just get round to authorising dispatch of the dammed customer replaceable unit we need.

Meanwhile, surprised your Asus has held it together for as long as it had. I purchased an 8 series, and the screen hinges were loose inside three months. Other problems included significant cracking of ABS moulded plastic, noisy, unable to dissipate heat effectively, etc.

Also, when Win Vista came out, it was impossible to get drivers for the unit despite the range only being 6mths old. Took them nearly 14mths to get a complete set of drivers out.

 

[anat0l]

Meanwhile, surprised your Asus has held it together for as long as it had. I purchased an 8 series, and the screen hinges were loose inside three months. Other problems included significant cracking of ABS moulded plastic, noisy, unable to dissipate heat effectively, etc.

Also, when Win Vista came out, it was impossible to get drivers for the unit despite the range only being 6mths old. Took them nearly 14mths to get a complete set of drivers out.

To be fair, the laptop acts more as a desktop replacement in a way - it hasn't gotten out on the road much. The laptop hasn't been thrown against the wall, or similar punishment. Noisy? I'll award that, especially when I really tax the thing. Heat dissipation doesn't seem to be a problem; the heat is discharged mainly through the back and the only thing in the way is the A/C cable and a USB port. Neither have failed.

Given a bit more punishment and different operating environments, we might actually see how well it performs.

Thankfully, the preloaded drivers for all the parts in the system worked fine out of the box (and with the then Vista with no service pack, thank god!). Subsequent driver updates for any devices have also been trouble free.

 

[Flashback]

It's going to be 38 here today. Geez I'm sick of all this hot weather! Especially considering we moved office on the weekend when it was 36&39 :shock:

 

[Mal]

It's going to be 38 here today. Geez I'm sick of all this hot weather! Especially considering we moved office on the weekend when it was 36&39 :shock:

The forecast says it's -6 outside at the moment here... Having just walked for a while outside (went and saw Wicked tonight and just got back home), I believe the forecast.

Brrrrr ! Oh, and I finally picked up a scarf too. Needed it tonight !

 

[anat0l]

It doesn't seem to matter that it's sub-30 degrees here: humidity is annoying.

At least our nights are not stifling, they are quite mild and pleasant. I haven't had to use a fan or air conditioner yet.

 

[drron]

And here in downtown Mackay i havent seen rain for 48 hours-unheard of at this time of year.Townsville is copping it though.
Yesterday was full of drama here-MKY was evacuated when the smoke alarms went off.And some geniuses planted a bomb in the TAB closing the Bruce highway for~ 12 hours.Bomb found at 1000 and at 1800 it was reported that the police were waiting for either the Brisbane or Cairns bomb squad to arrive.love that quick response.

 

[samh004]

At 7/256 or 7/50, Australia really isn't in a good position!

Rain has so far managed to stay away, but for how much longer?