SPACEMANTIS - Requiescat In Pace

Thanks to the folks who offered advice on my last entry! Honestly, I still can't believe that a remote-control operated PC is THAT hard to find; I guess I just overestimated the laziness of your average computer user. Anyway, the advice was appreciated; unfortunately, it's a moot point, because...



POWERBOOK G4
2006-2009

Y'all may or may not remember my first laptop- an Apple PowerBook G4. Used to belong to a good friend of mine, and on Christmas of 2006, it became MINE. Initially, I just wanted a nice, simple machine I could use to look at Internets and chat with people from the comfort of my living room instead of having to camp out in front of my desktop system, and for two eventful years, that's exactly what it gave me. I took it on the road a few times, used it for hours on a daily basis, and for what I understand my parents paid for it, I've gotten easily twice that much use and enjoyment out of it.

We went through a lot together, and though ruggedly built, there's only so much a laptop can take. The case sustained a couple good bumps, I went through three separate power supplies (those USB ports are 1.0, too- just can't stop obsolescence), but worst of all, the bottom got so worn that the battery wouldn't seat properly. This basically led to the laptop shutting down pretty much immediately if I so much as flipped the screen up.

After two weeks of that nonsense getting steadily more frequent (and therefore worse), I decided I'd had enough of that shit. So I went shopping for a new laptop.

Having used an Apple laptop for over two years, I basically had around 21 months more experience than was necessary to decide that I HATE OS/X. Well, maybe that's too strong a term, but given the choice between that and a Windows platform, I'll go with the one that'll actually let me screw with settings. It's okay; I know enough about computers to NOT totally screw everything up- I don't need my operating system to babysit me.

More to the point, OS/X seemed to hate my network. The wireless card would jump right on my parents' and friends' networks, but whenever I'd get back home, I'd have to manually reconnect to my OWN network. It could take upwards of a half-hour before the laptop would find the shared drives on my network. I'm sure I have everything on the network's side of things configured properly, so I have to think the problem lies either in the laptop's hardware or in OS/X itself.

So yeah, basically, I decided to Think More Different- decided to go with a Windows system. If nothing else, just because that's what all my other equipment runs on, so at least the PLATFORM would be the same. Considering I was originally planning to come up with an entertainment solution for my bedroom, I started looking at systems with the guts to run some videos should I decide to transfer 'em to the laptop's hard drive (interesting story about that comin' up in just a bit). Considering the larger role the PowerBook was starting to play in my pic-making setup- essentially replacing the pages and pages of reference material I'd print out whenever starting a new project- I also wanted something that'd handle Photoshop decently.

And I wanted all that for under $1,000.

I drafted nunuu to help me- woman loves lookin' at her some technology- and after about a week of research the MSI GX630-028US emerged as the early favorite. On the one hand, lol gaeman laptop CAN IT RUN CRYSIS W/HI SETTIGSN, but on the other, it has a dedicated video card for my Photoshoppin'/video watchin' needs, plenty of CPU power to do either of those (with the potential to get more through the "one-touch overclock" feature), and plenty of RAM to boot.

That RAM started to bug me a bit, though. Comes with 4GB installed, but the operating system is Windows Vista Home Premium- 32 bit edition. As I understand it, 3GB's pretty much the maximum you can actually UTILIZE with a 32-bit OS? Then there's the matter of the keyboard, which incorporates a numeric keypad ('cause, as mentioned, lol gaeman laptop), but at the cost of squishing all the keys into a weird narrow rectangular shape. The keyboard seemed to be a frequent sore point with most of the reviews I read- for the shape of the keys, certainly, but also for feeling "mushy" and "cheap," and most damning of all, for shifting the left control key over to make room for a Function-shift key. Left-CTRL is my FAVORITE CTRL; it's the one I use to copy, paste, CTRL-click in Mozilla to open a new tab- ALL my CTRL needs!

After reading the words "cheap" and "flimsy" applied to the feel of the laptop's case more often than I'd like to, I decided to check out a more traditional name. The Toshiba Satellite A355-S6925 was the next system on my list. The features were comparable to the MSI- lacked the dedicated video memory, but considering it also came with 4GB memory AND a 64-bit OS to make use of all of it, I'd consider that a fair trade. There weren't nearly as many reviews around for it as there were for the MSI, but from the few I read, the most damning thing anyone had to say about it was that it lacked an S-Video or HDMI port. Since I don't anticipate having to export video anytime in the foreseeable future, I think I can live with that.

UPS man delivered it to me on Friday :D.



TOSHIBA SATELLITE
2009-????

Ever since, it's been like... It's hard to describe, really. Spent most of the evening getting all my programs set up. Several of them run better on the laptop than they do on the desktop. Just for the hell of it, I opened one of my most recent .PSDs in Photoshop, and despite having upwards of twenty-five layers and a resolution around 3500x5000, it didn't break a sweat. It came with Vista, which was a sore point initially, but honestly? After turning of User Access Control so it'd quit asking if I ACTUALLY wanna make a new directory, and whether I REALLY think it's a good idea to move this picture from the laptop TO that new folder, and if I'm ABSOLUTELY SURE I wanna rename it "princess alena futa self-paizuri.jpg", I haven't had a single problem or unkind thought about it. It just works!

The BIGGEST surprise, however, is how easy streaming stuff to this thing is. Through my experience with the PowerBook, I'd always understood "wireless" to be the networking equivalent of RC Cola. It's what you use when you just can't do any better. Sometimes you just don't have a network cable, or there's not a port on the switch for you to plug into. Wireless is fine for checking your email, writing a forum post or doing some instant messaging, but if you so much as wanna look at a low-quality YouTube video, you'd better find SOMETHING that's hooked to a hole in the wall with a wire. Any kind of video WILL run like a slideshow when streamed through a wireless network connection.

Since the Toshiba came, though, I've been streamin' like CRAZY. Stuff comes through just as smoothly as it does through my Xbox's wired connection. After discovering last night that Slayers' new season is back and subsequently downloading the last seven episodes, I decided to see how it'd handle streaming that most loathed of file formats- the .mkv.

Now, MUCH more often than not, when watching a high-definition .mkv encode on the Xbox, I'll get a few seconds in before the video starts chopping up and desynching horribly. They run a BIT smoother on the desktop system, though desynch still happens fairly frequently. Episode 1 of Slayers Evolution-R played for the duration of its 24:02 running time, streamed through my laptop's wireless connection, with nary a hiccup or desynch in sight. It was a thing of beauty. I can watch relatively new anime again!
...Until encoders discover ANOTHER batshit ultra-hi-def format to encode their cut-rate animation at. BUT STILL!

Honestly, the potential for smooth streaming is the only reason why I was looking for a more traditional system to set up in the bedroom- figured I needed that wired connection to be able to watch anything. Guess that PowerBook was a lot more outdated than I initially thought.

SO THAT'S HOW I SPENT ABOUT A THIRD OF MY TAX RETURN. Put a bit more towards:

• A bag to carry this thing around in- figured it was time to step up from my old high-school Eastpak.
  
  Incidentally, it's REALLY hard to find a good laptop messenger bag that a) fits a 16" laptop, b) is reasonably priced and c) doesn't make you look like an asshole. Seriously, unless you're interested in some black nylon horror with fifty pockets, tactical weave shoulderstrap and carbon-fiber webbing pockets all over- including one for easy, convenient storage of your bottle of mocha biotein-infused chai tea vitamin water, your choices are somewhat limited. I don't want something that makes it look like I"m ready for a weekend full of BASE jumping- I just want something I can shove my laptop in that'll keep it protected, but not necessarily call attention to the fact that I'm carrying around a laptop.
  
  The whole bag-shopping experience has made me realize that I have a TRULY RIDICULOUS number of hang-ups about my accessories.
  
  
• Dragon Quest V- I hear it's pretty good! Determined to finish Retro Game Challenge first, though- still have to beat Guadia Quest and Haggleman 3. So I should be ready for DQ5...oh, right around the time DQ6's localization comes out.


• Couple years of Otaku USA magazine. I figure since some of my favorite podcasters and at least one Internet Chum contribute to this magazine, buying a subscription would be the easiest and laziest way to support 'em. I'm assuming Mr. Macias pays you guys to write for the magazine, Zero?
  
  Apparently, my first issue will have Dragonball GT all over the cover. Not sure whether that's ironically fitting, or whether I should request it be mailed in a brown paper envelope like a porn mag.

And the rest will most likely go towards a trip back up to Toronto later this year.