Have Laptop Will Travel

Laptop battery fires are dangerous!

Originally posted on July 25, 2007 @ 11:40 pm


Practically every single one of the big name companies that manufacture either laptops or batteries for laptops (Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell, among others) have recalled batteries because of certain issues. Although I commend these companies for owning up to the defects or potential dangers that their products might possess and assuming the big financial burden that a recall entails, it should not mean that laptop users should become complacent if their laptops are not included in any kind of battery or product recall program. It is okay to think that your laptop is safe and functions well, but it does not mean that you should be too confident and not take the necessary precautions. I still have to warn laptop users to be extra mindful when using their portables especially during extended usage times. Heat is the biggest enemy of laptops and an overheated machine could actually cause the batteries in the laptop to explode with disastrous consequences.

To illustrate how potentially dangerous a laptop battery explosion is, just watch the video made by the team at PC Pitstop as they simulate a laptop battery fire. If that doesn’t make you more cautious, I don’t know what will.

6 Essential Mac Applications For Work On The Road

Originally posted on July 7, 2007 @ 12:04 am

I’m a serial entrepreneur who has sold more businesses than most people will have jobs. I think the average American has 8 jobs in his/her life and 2 career changes. Me I’ve had countless ‘jobs’ and I’m working on career number 5. All before I’m 28. Wow. The underlying factor is you know what I love what I do. I’m ready to hit the road again. I’ve got the foundation for a nice income setup and you know what I’m ready to work on the road again. At lot must be done to get ready to hit the road. Number one is making sure clients are happy. `Number two is getting more organized than usual. I have a tendency to not be nearly as organized when I travel for some reason. So I try to overplan and be more organized that way when it all falls apart I can have something to fall back on and that’s a solid travel routine.

1. Checkoff
Checkoff is great for me because I’m totally disorganized without it. It’s a great way to make a simple list that I will actually use. It’s like an offline Tada List.

2. Skype
What’s not to love about Skype. it’s a great way to stay in touch with my closest business allies. Without them and it I’d be lost.

3. OpenOffice
I still like to have a copy of my documents offline. And I’m not going to pay for a Microsoft product when I can use a great open source project’s work.

4. WriteRoom
I’m easily distracted and this program takes all my distractions and tosses them into a deep deep black hole.

5. Coda
I don’t do a lot of coding but when I do I need something that just works for me. And this thing get’s the job done and does way more than a simple text editor.

6. iBank
Organizing finances on the road is a hugely important thing for me to do. This program has made me happy a gazillion times over.

Russia based malware preparing for attack?

Originally posted on August 4, 2007 @ 10:15 pm

 Malware and other malicious code still remains to be one of the biggest headaches of a computer owner. I hate to say this but attempts to get rid of bad software is just a never ending war of escalation. A hacker or malicious coder makes a virus, a software security company finds a solution to stop the virus, the hacker then attempts to create new code to bypass the new security. It just goes on and on.

At this stage of this cycle it looks like the hackers are on the upsurge. Security vendors have reported that there has been an increase in malware activity in Russia.

Researchers from Trend Micro revealed that they have discovered a Russian server that is hosting around 400 types of malware in what is seen to be a likely preparation for a future large scale attack.

According to the report, Trend Micro network architect Paul Ferguson said that the server had a “cornucopia” of new malware. Further investigation revealed that web sites containing malicious iFrames that were proxying requests for the malware. All of the web sites had, according to them, Italian sounding names and content but the hosting facility is located in Germany.

This is a great caus of concern for us desktop and laptop users. I would suggest being more vigilant in opening ALL attachments and in allowing scripts to run on web sites you are not familiar with.

[tags]malware, Trend Micro, iFrames[/tags]

iPod plays FLAC? Yes, if you’ve got Rockbox

Originally posted on July 28, 2007 @ 10:52 pm

One of the biggest shortcomings of the Apple iPod is the fact that it only supports a very limited number of audio formats, namely, AAC, MP3 and WAV. That’s a paltry three formats when other competing music players can support more than five formats. I have nothing against the AAC format that Apple developed. But I am really just much more comfortable with the other audio formats that I personally think sound much better. For example, I think that the FLAC lossless format is far superior to the Apple Lossless format. the logical solution would be to just get these competing players but I Apple’s good customer support and the iPod’s better resale value is something that I just cannot ignore.

What I have done instead is to install Rockbox on my 5G iPod. The Rockbox is basically an operating system replacement to the  existing OS installed in various music players. The plug-in architecture of Rockbox means various features can  be added to further enhance the capabilities of these players.

I’ll write about the other great features of Rockbox at some future time. Right now I am quite happy that with this firmware/OS replacement I can now load my favorite FLAC files on my iPod. These files have now been freed from my laptop. Even OGG files can now play in my machine. Nothing gives a smile to your face than to hear your favorite songs in lossless fidelity. My Tom Waits collection appreciates the upgrade.

One Laptop per Child XO laptops to start production

Originally posted on August 3, 2007 @ 5:59 pm

I think the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project is a very commendable effort. I also applaud the fact that the big name companies are also contributing something for this project to succeed. It’s a great PR move for them because it dispels the negative image of these companies as money-grubbing capitalists. I won’t even question their  sincerity just as long as they do get to help the underprivileged get the chance to get a better education.

The OLPC project looks like it really is gaining momentum with  the announcement that they are going to start the mass production of their XO ruggedised laptop. Shanghai-based manufacturer Quanta will be manufacturing the laptops.  This month, the production line will be turned on for initial testing with actual mass production to happen in October.

The OLPC XP laptop is planned to be sold for just $100 per machine. The organization hopes that these affordable machines will help improve how children are educated in the developing world. Currently each laptop’s manufacturing cost is pegged at $175.

Here is a very telling quote frm OLPC’s chief technology officer Mary Lou Jensen: “Next year we should have a cost-reduced version. We’re trying to take innovation in electronics, drive costs down and not use bloated software. This is the opposite of what the PC industry does traditionally.”

Amen to that.