Have Laptop Will Travel

AMD slowly gaining the upper hand

Originally posted on September 17, 2007 @ 11:46 pm

After my initial foray into the land of Intel processors I decided to throw my support for AMD when it came time to upgrade to my second desktop. Even though I had no choice but to go back to Intel when I bought my first laptop (AMD powered laptops were hard to come by a couple of years back), I am now saving up for a new replacement laptop and I am strictly looking at AMD laptop models.

Why, you may ask, do I support AMD? Well, for very obvious reasons. I love backing the underdog. Intel has been dominating the processor market for so many years now that they practically had a monopoly up until seven years ago. AMD was the little engine that could that tried its best to go head to head with Intel not with clever marketing but with sage business decisions (lower prices will attract buyers) and a desire to really give Intel decent competition where it matters the most — the product level. AMD wrestled the speed crown from Intel a few years ago but even though Intel has won it back there is no stopping AMD. It is continually chipping away at Intel’s share of the market.  There are now market studies being released that clearly shows AMD slowly winning the price war and, as a result, steadily increasing its market share.

It feels good backing the winning horse.

Laptop envy

Originally posted on October 11, 2007 @ 11:54 pm

I think it is safe to say that laptops are the new must-have, status symbol accessories. Forget about mobile phones, laptops are the new neck-turners. To prove my point, just go to any restaurant, cafe or coffee shop and I’ll bet the moment someone whips out a cool sub-notebook or the newest “IT” item from Apple and you’re bound to look at the person with envy or wonder how the hell he or she could afford such a great gadget.

I admit I’m one of those guys who can’t look at a new Macbook Pro or Fujitsu Lifebook without drooling. The bad thing is that I go all metaphysical because of it. I begin to wonder how THEY can afford it and I can’t. Am I destined to forever be relegated to the group of people who always have to settle for low-end or low-midrange laptops?

In my envy, I also start mocking these people. I look at the websites they surf (Ha! Plain old Yahoo! Entertainment. What a bore!) or even the kind of information that they look for (Beyonce! Josh Groban! What atrocious music tastes!). I know that I’m being unfair and that my desire to have a really cool laptop has made the worst come out of me. But I also know that I am not the only one who feels the same way. I guess the best thing to do about it is just ignore them, be happy with what I do have — and try to “accidentally” spill cafe latte on those damn Macbooks.

Social bookmarking: An evolution of the internet

Originally posted on August 13, 2007 @ 7:09 am

I am in the middle of a new project with some friends and one of them decided to bring in this girl who has the experience we need for the project. She is quite the techie and her inputs have proved very valuable. One thing she kept talking about though is social bookmarking. I am no slouch in matters involving computer and internet technology but I have to admit that I am not very familiar with the term social bookmarking — maybe because the term uses the word “social”, which I am not online. But when she said dropped names like Digg, Del.icio.us, and reddit I realized that I was just wasn’t familiar with the term but I did understand the concept.

This techgirl is champioining social bookmarking as a great way of building links and being a more efficient way of finding related information on a particular subject. I have to agree, social bookmarking has really made it easier to do research or just read up on topics that are of particular interest to a person. It lessens the dependence on search engine results and is more intuitive and accurate.

Social bookmarking marks another step in the evolution of the internet.

AMD making its presence felt in the laptop market

Originally posted on July 26, 2007 @ 10:57 pm

Here’s something that not many people know about me — I am an AMD supporter. I’ve had four computers pass through my hands in the last ten years. Only my first computer was an Intel (a “fast” Pentium 800MMX with 32mb of RAM!), all of my succeeding desktops have been AMD since then. What I love about AMD is quite simple, it costs so much less compared to an Intel processor even though speed could be considered as more or less just the same. I see no reason why I should pay more just for a brand.

Now, here’s the deal. My first laptop, which I bought almost two years ago, has an Intel processor. ‘What happened?’ you might say. Well, the reason is quite simple, AMD chipped laptops are hard to come by. For some reason Intel has gained a big market share in the laptop market and AMD is still playing catch up. As an avowed AMD supporter, this is not a good situation because it limits my ability to choose the laptop that I want.

I have to say that the present situation seems to have addressed this problem. More and more laptops are carrying AMD processors and this is driving down the price of laptops in the market. With AMD’s acquisition of ATI, I foresee more exposure for AMD in the portables market.

Laptops in a meeting

Originally posted on September 7, 2007 @ 6:31 pm

Yesterday I went to a story meeting with a couple of my colleagues. The meeting’s purpose was simple AND complicated — to develop topics for a new online IT resource for managers that will cater to the more technical and IT related aspects of managing a company. The goal is simple but arriving at that goal was really hard because we had to simplify very complicated IT terms and concepts for the regular manager.

Knowing that we’ve got our work cut out for us, each one of us tried to bring as many helpful tools as we can to the meeting — and funnily enough, that meant bringing our laptops with us for the meeting. When the discussion shifted to the  nitty-gritty of the topic selection, we all whipped out our laptops almost simultaneously. This made us all laugh. One of my colleagues blurted out that about a few years ago being in a meeting where all of the participants have a laptop would have been unheard of because of its high cost. And it’s true, the constant evolution of parts, the new methods of making these parts at a cheaper cost, and the increased demand has really driven prices down, so much that practically anyone can afford a laptop now. Heck, I’m even shopping around for a second laptop just to make it easier for me and my wife to handle our projects! Talk about unthinkable.