HYPERAXE

Lately, I’ve been having a hard time trying to decide what notebook would I buy to replace my old but very reliable Asus A3N notebook. Right now I’m torn between 2 brands, a MacBook Pro and one of the Compaq Presarion V3000 Series.

MA701ZP/A Apple Mac Book 13″ 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 120GB HDD Black

• 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo 2 processor, 667MHz system bus, 4MB shared L2 cache
• 1GB (2×512MB) of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300); supports up to 2GB
• 120GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA, Slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD RW/CD-RW)
• 13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy TFT widescreen display, 1280 x 800 resolution
• Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
• Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet, Apple USB modem available as BTO option
• Built-in iSight, stereo speakers, combined optical digital audio input/audio line in, combined optical digital audio output/headphone out
• Built-in 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (802.11g); Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module
• PORTS: One FireWire 400 port (8 watts); Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps); Mini-DVI port with support for DVI, VGA, S-video and composite video output (requires adapters, sold separately)
• Height: 2.75 cm (1.08 inches), Width: 32.5 cm (12.78 inches), Depth: 22.7 cm (8.92 inches), Weight: 2.36 kg (5.2 pounds)
• Built-in full-size keyboard with 78 (U.S.)keys, including 12 function keys, 4 arrow keys (inverted “T” arrangement), and embedded numeric keypad
• Solid-state scrolling trackpad for precise cursor control; supports two-finger scrolling, tap, double-tap and drag capabilities, Apple remote
• Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger (includes Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Address Book, DVD Player, Xcode Developer Tools)
• Quick Time, iCal; iLife ’06 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand), iWork (30-day trial), Big Bang Board Games
• Comic Life, Omni Outliner and Apple Hardware Test, Front Row
• Apple Remote, 60W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, lithium-polymer battery
• with 1 Year Limited Warranty

Compaq Presario 3235-PW

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5500
  1.66 Ghz, 2MB, 667Mhz
• Wireless LAN a/b/g
• 14.1” WXGA BV Display
• 1.5GB DDR2 Memory
• Intel GMA 950 Graphics
• 120GB Hard Drive
• DVD Dual Drive
• 5 in 1 Card Reader
• Modem, LAN, Bluetooth
• Windows Vista Home B.

Both notebook looks good, but processor wise, the Mac Book pro is faster with 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor compared with just a 1.66 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor on Compaq Presario. Then again, RAM wise the Compaq Presario offers 1.5GB memory power compared to just 1GB RAM on the Mac Book. Price wise, Apple notebooks are really know to be expensive and up to know I’m still not sure if this is just because of the Apple name it carries or it’s really worth it based on performance and reliability. I really can’t find out until I get my hands on one of the Apple notebooks, which I am actually longing to have ever since I started earning my own money to buy stuffs for myself. Then again, the Compaq Presario V3000 series seems to be ok as well, and I’m reading some good reviews about it.

Well, basically I just want very powerful notebook that would serve me well with my programming needs. My Asus 3N has been great, but right now wherein I have to run a lot of applications such as IDEs, Virtual Machines, Network remote connections, application servers, etc, all at once it’s already bogging down at times. I know that most people might say that why shouldn’t I just buy a powerful PC. Well, mobility is my answer. With my current job, I need a machine I can take my work with wherever I am, and obviously, carrying  a PC around offices, malls, or coffee shops, isn’t a good idea, right?

Oh well, I’ll just continue to ask around, or maybe even try to look for other options. Shedding a big amount for a notebook is quite a hefty investment, and as much as possible I want to make the right choice.

[tags] Notebooks, Laptops, Apple Mac Book Pro, Compaq Presario V3000 Series, Asus A3N[/tags]

It’s not that I have anything against Google or I’m trying to put them in bad faith or something, but I honestly experienced another problem with my Google for Apps Domain POP Mail account.

It’s a bit weird ‘coz when I tried checking my email over the weekend, I was surprised to see that based on my Outlook’s status bar, it’s currently downloading 180+ mails. Whoah! I was really surprised to see that number of POP mail coming in. At first I thought that I was being spammed (and severely it seems), but when I tried looking into my mailbox while the mails were downloaded, I saw that all my mails, even previously downloaded ones are being downloaded again.  I don’t delete my mails from the server to server as some sort of backup but technically speaking, already downloaded mails in the POP mail client shouldn’t be downloaded again, right? Geesh! It was really weird and troublesome as well since I had to delete all those 180+ duplicate mails.

Oh well, I’m not sure if it’s a Google or MS Outlook problem, but it happened to me again 2 days later. I just hope this doesn’t occur again since for sure my mails by then would be a lot more than 180+.

[tags]Google Mail, Google, Microsoft Outlook, POP, POP Mail Client, E-Mail Problem[/tags]

I’m quite surprised that Google’s mail server for Google Apps for Domain is having problems. Ever since this morning when I woke and tried checking my email through Outlook, I’m receiving “the request was interrupted” or some sort of “timeout” error. It’s less likely to be my settings since it was working last night and I never changed anything both on Outlook and my Google mail settings. Moreover, some of my email accounts including my own mail server is up and running. It’s good though that Google mail’s web interface still works so I was still able to read my mails.

This somehow proves that even the giants of the IT industry experiences flaws and interruptions with their services. There’s really no such thing as 100% uptime, and anybody that claims such things is either boasting of a lie or really has a good system that can live up to that claim. Well, most of the time, the latter proves true just to attract customers and make more money out of a non-existent claim.

Oh well, I’ll just wait and see up to how long Google can fix this problem and maybe I can do a trace of the problem to see if it’s from me, my network or their server. Ciao!

[tags] Google, Google Apps For Domain, Gmail, Google Mail, Mail Problems, POP3, POP3 timeout, Connection Interruption Errors[/tags]

Well, well .. the title of this post might be too exaggerated, but it’s partly correct. It’s official, I am now a board of director or incorporator of a company!

I attended a meeting this morning and part of the meeting was signing of the contract for the registration of the company. Cool, isn’t it? I just can’t explain what I felt when I was browsing through the contract and signing each pages, especially on the pages wherein the incorporators or board of directors were listed and my name was there.

Things really happened so fast. Just a few months ago, a friend asked me to help him out with a certain project, then I met with his group, and in just a couple of weeks I am now officially a board of director. Whew! That was fast!

What’s so cool about the agreement is that I don’t have to shed some money or buy shares in order to have a seat with company owners. As I’ve said in one of my posts, my share or initial capital would be the software for the company. Me and some other programmers would be working on this and hopefully come up with cool stuffs in a few months time.

Our first project would be some sort of a poll monitoring application that would be used by some candidates in the upcoming National Election. Oh well, it’s a very simple app, but the deadline is quite tight. I just hope we can pull this first project off so that our first company income would start pouring in.

The most awaited Lenten Break (at least for most people) has just ended, and sad to say I wasn’t really able to take a break during the said season. I had to finish a couple of things at work and I needed to complete the required 35 hours/week of work.

Well, it’s not really all the bad since I was still able to do some of my religious obligations such as attending some special masses. As if I can do anything, so as not to attend such events, definitely it would anger Aphilo if I tried to make up excuses for it. I’m not the religious type, but as the saying goes, “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

Moreover, I’m one of those people that believes in spending the Lenten season with God rather than having fun at the beach or some cool vacation spots. For me, God only asks us a few days per year for Him, and it’s just too selfish for us not to give Him this time. I don’t know about other people, but for me, Lent is not all about having fun, but more of renewing our faith and stopping for a while from our busy world to get closer to Him.

It was only today, that I decided to take a break and give my brain some rest. I stopped coding for a while and tried to stay away from my PC (as if I can completely do that, just like right now while writing this post). At least I was able to get some decent sleep, and watch some movies. Of course, the ever reliable coffee break during sunrise and sunset definitely made my day. I’m not really sure about tonight, but if I feel like it, I might spend some time working on a bit of programming. That is, if I feel like it.
[tags]God, Lenten Season, Lenten Break, Religious Obligations, Religion, Roman Catholic, Catholic, Vacation[/tags]