A powerful low-end machine sounds like an contradictions in terms, but I stumbled across one during the research for my previous blog entry. First let me state that I have no preference for Gateway Desktops, never having owned one.

The Gateway desktop in question is the Gateway DX4200-UB001A Desktop Computer, which has a Quad Core AMD processor machine with a huge amount of memory and a 64-bit Windows operating system. To be more specific, the Gateway DX4200-UB001A has a 2.2GHz AMD Phenom X4 9550 processor, 6GB (yes that’s not a typo) of RAM, and a 640GB 7200 rpm Western Digital hard drive. The 6Gb of RAM would really be wasted if it was for the fact that the computer ships with 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit Operating Systems are able to make full use of 4GB or more of RAM). It also has an integrated 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card, which is actually one of the weaker components of the system. It is because of the graphics card, which may prove difficult to upgrade, that the system is fine for casual gamers but not for serious gamers.

Additionally the system has a 15-in-1 media card reader, HDMI and DVI output connectors, 6 USB ports, and 1 Firewire port.

One thing to note is that the system doesn’t include a monitor.

Once you’ve got your notebook or desktop computer, there is one more important thing you need to buy:

A printer.

Printers are probably my least-favorite computer peripheral, but that comes from some bad experiences with dot-matrix printers a long time ago. Fortunately they have improved a lot since then, and a good printer is a necessity, especially for school or college.

First up is the Lexmark X4650 all-in-one inkjet printer. It prints, copies and scans, but does not fax. It’s main selling point is wireless connectivity. It prints text  documents at a decent speed, but is a bit slow at color printing. It has a card reader to print photos from SD, xD, MMC, Memory Stick and CompactFlash memory cards.

If you need faxing or a faster printer, the Lexmark X7675 all-in-one printer may be a better option.
The X7675 also has wireless printing, but the print speeds are fast, ranging up to 32 pages per minute. 25-page automatic document feeder for multiple-item fax or copy jobs.  Photos can be printing with a PC by using PictBridge-compatible USB devices or flash-memory card slots. The printer also has high-end features like two-sided printing and a 2.4 inch color display to preview photos.

Here’s a category I didn’t even know existed: Back to school (or college) Desktop Computers. I saw them advertised last weekend. Of course the desktop computer is not meant to be lugged around between classes (although LCD monitors are a darn side lighter than the old CRT monitors). This is probably more for the student who either has a not very powerful notebook for taking lecture notes - or some other means, maybe a voice recorder - and then uses the Desktop PC for term papers and the like. With the right choice of a back to school desktop, it can be used for a media center or gaming machine.

The Gateway FX540B Desktop fits into this category. It has a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor running at 2.4 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM which is upgradeable to 8GB, a NVIDIA GeForce 8600 Graphics card with 256MB memory. Additionally it features a 500GB 7200 rpm hard drive and a Gigabit Ethernet network adapter.

On the down side, it runs Windows Vista Home Premium, so the 2GB RAM is barely adequate, and doesn’t come with a monitor. It has plenty of room for upgrades though. It is also multimedia ready and capable of gaming.

The Sony VAIO VGN-NR430E/L Notebook is my last minute pick for another back to school or college notebook. It was also CNET’s pick for entry-level Back to School laptops.

There are a lot of Sony products I really like, but I must admit that the VAIO notebooks just don’t seem to appeal to me. Like a most Sony products they look very good, it is just that they had a reputation for being loaded with bloatware. According to CNET this model has the minimum of bloatware.

Now to the important stuff. The specs are; an Intel Pentium Dual Core T2390 processor running at 1.86 GHz, 2GB of RAM, Integrated graphics with 358 MB RAM and a 160GB hard drive. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium and apparently the 2GB of RAM seems to be enough as long as you don’t try to play games on it. The Sony VAIO NR430 has a 15.4 inch screen (measured diagonally of course). The VAIO NR430 has four USB 2.0 ports, a mini Firewire port, and Memory Stick and SD Card readers. Networking options include built-in Ethernet,  802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11 pre-N Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The VAIO NR420 weighs 6.3 lbs and comes in “Night blue” (not to be confused with “midnight blue”).

Some of the notebooks available on “Back to School/College” sales almost make me wish I was going back to college. Well, maybe not…

The first notebook I looked at was the Dell Inspiron 1525. The configuration I was looking at comes in 8 colors, with Jet Black being included in the price. Since I would probably go for the basic black, it is nice to see a choice of 4 patterns - great way to distinguish your notebook from everyone else’s.

As for specs, it has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5750, 2Ghz (with the choice of processors up to an Intel Core Duo T8300 running at 2.4GHz) with 3 GB of memory. It runs Windows Vista Premium with SP1 – which is preferable to Vista Home Basic. The 3GB of memory is just about the minimum for Vista, as you don’t want the notebook slowing to a standstill when you are wanting the word processor and fast.
The standard 250GB hard drive is a good size, about the minimum I would personally go for in a notebook. The CD and DVD writer is almost standard nowadays. This Notebook comes with a 802.11g wireless card, which is also pretty much standard.

For those of us who may like the eye candy look of Windows Vista, but who are unwilling to upgrade to Windows Vista, there is an alternative. Stardock Window Blinds. Window Blinds is one of the most popular applications to “skin” or “mod” the Windows Desktop. Window Blinds at it’s simplest provides more Desktop themes for Windows XP and Windows Vista, but goes beyond that.

I’m running the trial version on my main Desktop PC and Windows XP could easily be mistaken for Windows Vista. The Start Button has been replaced by the Windows Logo, and the look of every application has been changed. Window Blinds was around when Windows XP was released, and you could use it to make Windows 98 look like Windows XP. It doesn’t stop there. In “Muchhala’s World” blog, there as a blog entry “Desktop Modding Explained” which covers the different types of Desktop Modding that can be done, with an example in “My Desktop - May 2007“.

Stardock has a number of other programs, including ObjectDock, which adds Mac OS X Dock Bar functionality to Windows.

Stardock’s programs are also mentioned in the book “Career Building Through Skinning and Modding” by Jeri Freedman.

Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and updated Windows XP to Service Pack 3 on one of my machines. I’m still trying to find out what extra features it may have added apart from security patches and bugfixes. Microsoft just seems to lead you in circles on their website. I did make sure the machine I updated had a Pentium processor, as I had heard that Windows XP SP3 caused problems on machines with AMD processors. Of course Microsoft may have fixed that by now, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

Firefox 3 is a different story. After only using the portable edition for several weeks, I finally installed Firefox 3 onto all but one machine, which is actually the machine I’m writing this particular blog entry on. I’m having to jump through a few well-documented hoops to have Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 running on the same machine (but obviously not at the same time). The main reason is because a large number of my favorite Firefox 2 add-ons have not yet been upgraded for Firefox 3. Eventually I guess I may have to do without Tab Mix Plus.

Today I saw a print ad for the Livescribe 1GB Pulse smart pen. It is not available on Pricegrabber.com yet, but is similar to the LeapFrog FLY Fusion Pentop Computer.

The FLY Fusion Digital Pen is targeted at children ages 8 to 16, to help with homework as well as play games and double as an MP3 player. A number of adults find it useful too, both in business settings as well as for general writing. I must admit that when I first saw it advertised I thought it was pretty cool.

Basically, the FLY Fusion Digital Pen makes use of a tiny camera to record handwriting on special paper (called “FLY Paper“). This is then stored in the pen’s memory, and when the pen is connected to a computer the digitized handwriting can be converted into various formats. Additional software can be purchased to add functionality to the FLY Fusion.

The Livescribe Pulse “smart pen” adds sound recording, so it can record sounds while you are writing. This seems ideal for college and also business meetings. It also uses special notepaper and ink refills.

This technology is still developing, but is already a viable (and cheaper) alternative to tablet PCs.

Yes, I know that two boots are worth more than just one, but this is a technology, and a single boot is standard for computers.

As I mentioned previously, the latest version of Apple Inc.’s Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard includes “Boot Camp” software which allows dual booting between the Mac OS and Windows.

This week I read about an interesting use of dual booting. It involved installing Debian Linux on the External flash drive (a High Capacity mini or micro SD card) of a Nokia N800 or Nokia N810 Internet tablet. The the default Operating System, Maemo Linux OS2008, would be booted from the internal flash drive, and Debian Linux from the External Flash drive. Then at boot up, the user can select between OS2008 and Debian Linux – not bad for an Internet Tablet. I can already hear people saying “Why would anyone want to do that?”. There is a good reason, as a lot more software is available for Debian Linux than for Maemo Linux OS2008. I must admit that the instructions are not for the faint-hearted.

Dual Booting with Windows XP can be “interesting” enough, especially if you don’t know what you are doing.

At the end of my previous blog posting I’d barely answered the question why the iPhone?.

Initially I was looking for a phone which had decent web browsing and email capabilities, and was considering a Windows Mobile professional phone with a QWERTY keyboard. The AT&T Tilt was on my shortlist. Then I ran a “jailbreak” on my iPod Touch. This allowed me to download and run third-party applications on the iPod Touch, most of which were free. Instead of just using the iPod Touch for an hour or so a week to watch video podcasts, suddenly there was a whole lot more functionality. This got me thinking how much more useful the iPhone would be with “official” third party applications. These are third party applications written for the iPhone and vetted by Apple. I’d also taken note that some of the software I used on my Palm would soon be available on the iPhone.

Then there are the 3G iPhone’s missing features: battery is not removable, no video record feature, no MMS messages and no copy and paste (I’m probably missing a few). I took stock of these and decided that they were outweighed by the unique touch interface and the possibility of the iPhone becoming the next mobile application platform.