:. Chris .: Global by Nature http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/ :. Chris .: Global by Nature - A weblog on my relocation to the Netherlands, thoughts, and places to go. en-us Nucleus v3.15 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog//nucleus/nucleus2.gif :. Chris .: Global by Nature http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/ <![CDATA[The wonderful innovations in the notebook market in 2005 AD]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=78
Mobility has its price(s)
In this category, all notebooks (even the bulky ones with 14" displays and bigger) have pathetic graphics chips. Power consumption? Yeah, right. My old IBM Thinkpad has a horrible NeoMagic whatever graphics chip and an almost dead battery. I certainly do not want to replace this with a graphics controller who has the same n00b performance.

In order to understand the background for this decision-making process, it's important to review where I come from technology-wise. In 2003, I purchased a used IBM Thinkpad 600X that was built in 2000. The machine was well-equipped with 512MB ram and an Intel PIII (mobile?) processor with 500MHz. As I already said, the notebook's weakest link is its onboard graphics. They are pathetic. It can't even handle dual-display support due to a lack of drivers. Why this lack of drivers? Probably because the graphics chipset has a stupid bug or something undocumented that prevents a stable use of a dual screen. Update: I recall back when I first got the notebook that under Windows 98 (!!!), it was possible to have a dual screen functionality. With the added bonus that the machine would crash after 10 minutes use of this feature.

Anyways, this is my starting base. A rock-solid notebook that's thin and light with adequate ram, cpu, and a poor graphics controller. We'll skip the discredit for the lack of USB2.0 or FireWire since these standards are too recent for the age of this notebook.

Mobility versus performance
It is now December 2005 and the only notebooks with graphics chipsets apart from the gunk Intel Extreme Graphics (see the exhibit here on extremely bad gfx performance) are ridiculously expenisve. They exceed the price ceiling of EUR 1,500 I set for myself. So, a notebook to replace the thin and light TP600x is apparently out of the range. The ONLY notebook I found on the market ( and I really was searching thoroughly) was the IBM TP R50/R60. However, only in the upscale config with at least an ATI graphics chipset. Obviously, these machines are beyond the budget.

The Schlepptop (Luggable) option
But look, Chris, there are plenty multimedia notebooks out there with ok graphics performance. Yeah, right... A 15kg brick with a 19" TFT display and a desktop processor is an insult, not a notebook. Have fun using one of these when it's weight cripples your lap, it's CPU heat emission makes you infertile, and so on. But the designers of these masterpieces were kind enough to give them only 10 minutes of battery time anyways so the only place you'll use one of these is at home, on your desk. That's what you've purchased a notebook computer for in the first place, right?

I decided to include the photo of a recent Compaq 17” notebook here to illustrate. Please note that these things are so huge and clunky that they could afford to include a numeric block on the keyboard. Never mind that this brick costs over USD1,800. Way to go, HP!

The idea with the Mac mini
After this unfruitful research in the notebook realm, I figured that I have to give up the idea that there is an affordable notebook currently on the market that meets my (modest) performance needs. In late spring 2005, one of my friends bought himself a Mac mini with a 1.25GHz PPC processor, 80GB HDD, 'Airport' (BT and WiFi connection), and a nice 1GB ram. I tested this system a bit and found it to be designed quite well. Performance, price, and quality were what impressed me with this computer. I actually was SO close to buying one myself. What stopped me? The other Mac users and the 'budget' onboard ATI Radeon 9200 graphics. While I could tolerate the Radeon 9200 (even that one is better than the Intel Extreme gunk), what annoys me are the Mac users. Ever read macrumors.com or any other 'fan' site? The only conclusion you can draw from the comments posted there is that mac users seem to be completely ignorant morons. This does NOT include my buddy with his Mac mini.

Here's some of their statements and beliefs:

  1. The mac is the first, last, best, and brightest computer ever built. Hello, reality check? The systems are good but there are actually areas e.g. in user-interface design or software availability where Windows machines are better. Therefore, such statements get on my balls.

  2. Apple was kind enough to bring the world (and those unknowing Windows users) the ipod. The best mp3 player ever built, bla blah, blah, see above for the mac. Bullshit. MP3 players are low-tech consumer electronics. With video support or not.


Sorry, but do you want to be associated in any way with freaks who harbor such beliefs? Add to these zealots those countless tech-n00bs who share their mac beliefs but are too stupid to change e.g. a system locale to support CJK fonts and you understand where I come from.

Is the Mac mini the solution to my product choice? Factually it's pretty close but it's moron users don't make this easy. I don't want to own a machine that associates me in any way with these morons.

Barebone Intel systems
I got the idea to have a look at them after checking out the Mac mini. Integrated graphics. Be they from Intel or Via, they suck. See above. In short, barebone 'design' Intel systems are high on price and low on performace. Wow, I always wanted to shell out a ridiculous amount of money for a new doorstop that looks like a computer.

Conclusion
At the moment, I am seriously considering to buy only components and build my own machine again. I've had it with compromises (pathetic notebooks), marketing hyperbole for tards (Apple), and all the other 'solutions'. We are on the verge to 2006 and this research makes me seriously envy gamers with their XBOX 360. They have a system with great performance that's affordable as well. Pity it's only for games.

Right now, it looks like my next computer is going to be a regular desktop PC again, probably with an AMD 64-bit CPU, 1GB ram, and either ATI or Nvidia graphics.

Resources to assemble your own machine:

Exhibit: Why I hate the Intel Extreme graphics so much
Where does this emotion originate? Let's see what Inte's design objectives were when they designed that graphics solution:
Low power consumption
Low price (chipset costs ~ USD 7.00)
How can they meet these objectives?
We'll strip the chipset of any useful hardware (3D) acceleration
Next we'll make sure that the CPU does not get bored so we'll let it do much more graphics work
Lastly, why does a graphics chipset need it's own memory anyways? We'll just use RAM. Never mind that it's slow and a drain on the overall system performance.
If you think I'm biased, then you're right. For a more objective review of these graphics card mutations, please see Tom's Hardware review website.
]]> General http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=78 Sun, 25 Dec 2005 14:29:44 +0100 <![CDATA[Mr. Oizo in Sales]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=77
]]> General http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=77 Sat, 16 Apr 2005 15:24:48 +0200 <![CDATA[Yahoo's 10th anniversary]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=76
Join in on their birthday website at Yahoo Netrospective for some online nostalgia and good vibes for the times still to come!

By the way, though this is not related to the above article in any way, this is a classic shockwave flash file I recently re-discovered on the web: All your base are belong to us!

Everyone: have a nice evening, folks!]]> General http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=76 Thu, 03 Mar 2005 20:57:01 +0100 <![CDATA[A practical observation of how industries adapt to innovations]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=75
Dear music industry executives: Crippling your products is not the way to encourage legal music use. It's like I buy a newspaper but can only read it while I'm at home. Or, even better, a computer program that only works between midnight and 2:00am whenever there is full moon. How brilliantly inconvenient! Listen, we live in the 21st century and what you offer is a pathetic reaction to the digitalization trend. Other industries try to promote the spread of their services digitally while you guys only try to restrict it. As a business graduate in college, I do realize that music is your asset. You want to guard it against freeriders, which is fine by itself. Other industries face the same issue and have found workable solutions most of the times. Didn't it cross your mind every once in a while (watching the stagnation in CD purchases) that you can actually try to


  • Innovate your product

  • Add value to it instead of subtracting from it

  • Create a community for your dear customers instead of treating them like pirates by default?

  • Realize that in this age, mp3 players are commonplace and only grandma uses her trusty standalone CD-Player she bought when it was on sale in 1997?



See, instead of bashing your incompetent approach to customer relationship management for hours, I decided to offer a free download (in standard Adobe PDF format) with a positioning proposal and an actual illustration. Please do note that the illustration itself is purely artistic and as a work of art created in a classroom setting subject to the Fair Use Act in the United States. For more on this topic, please see this article on the website of my alma mater.

I do believe in open dialogue and in expression opinions in a free medium. As such an individual, I expect others to treat my opinion with respect. It is an opinion, nothing less, nothing more.

Finally, I came across an initiative from the Electronics Frontier Foundation (EFF) that lobbies against prohibiting electronic devices because of the music industry's special interest groups. Check it out: EFF: Endangered Gizmos!]]> General http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=75 Fri, 28 Jan 2005 12:36:53 +0100 <![CDATA[The Dance scene in the Netherlands]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=74
See, today, I bought myself a 4 CD set titled the "Happy Hardcore Top 100". It had a prime ranking in the record shop and advertised on the music TV channels. After first listening to it, I could not believe it: There are my favorite dance and techno tracks and so much more! It really is a cross-section of the entire spectrum in dance and techno with an emphasis on later (post 1997) works. THAT would have never happened to find its ways into stores in southern Germany.

Anywayz, it's starting to get late on Saturday evening, I'd better get going for tonite!
]]> General http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=74 Sat, 22 Jan 2005 17:02:32 +0100 <![CDATA[Making Milhouse cry...]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=73 ]]> General http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=73 Tue, 18 Jan 2005 20:02:50 +0100 <![CDATA[VU-Brief - File Synchronization Briefcase (Review)]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=72 Good morning on December 31, 2004. Two days ago, I found a freeware utility that I was searching for quite some time. Do you have more than one computer? Do you find it convenient to synchronize files and directories by the mere push of a button? How about advanced synchronization options such as "backup all files from drive a to drive b but not vice versa"? It is out there and called VU-Brief. A small utility for your Windows system tray and as far as I know this program runs on every machine with Windows 98 or above.

You can find the program on http://www.vu-brief.spb.ru/eng/. Thanks to Valentin Kuprovich for programming such a great tool!

For screenshots just read on...Ok, here are some screendumps to illustrate the programs capabilities. They are taken from the programmer's website and saved here to save him bandwidth. See for yourself.



This is the main program management console. As you can see, you can generate multiple briefcases (each representing synchronization tasks on one particular computer) and have the options to choose between local, FTP, and intermediary storage (e.g. CD-ROM) file synchrnization.



Here you define the synchronization rules. You can either take one of the predefined sets or define your own. In my case, I work with the 'duplex synchronization' and 'backup' presets.



This screen shows one of my favorite options in the entire program: The possibility to select just a few specific folders per computer to synchronize rather than a full backup/synchronization cycle every time the program runs.

So, get it while it's hot!
]]> General http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=72 Fri, 31 Dec 2004 09:49:31 +0100 <![CDATA[Where did the comments go?]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=71
by the way take me of your chain letter list :-)


>
> Enjoy!
>
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scheible, Chris [mailto:Chris.Scheible@pearson.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 12:17 PM
> To: 'me@chris-scheible.net'
> Subject: FW: FW: The Best Chain Letter Ever
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: vrijdag 10 september 2004 9:24
> Subject: FW: The Best Chain Letter Ever
>
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Hello, my name is Lewis and I suffer from the guilt of not forwarding 50
> billion f*cking chain letters sent to me by people who actually believe
> that if you send them on, a poor 6-year-old girl in Arkansas with a breast
> on her forehead will be able to raise enough money to have it removed
> before her redneck parents sell her to a traveling freak show.
>
> Do you honestly believe that Bill Gates is going to give you, and everyone
> to whom you send "his" email, $1000?
>
> How stupid are we?
>
> "Ooooh, looky here! If I scroll down this page and make a wish, I'll get
> laid by a model I just happen to run into the next day!"
>
> What a bunch of bullshit.
>
> Maybe the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my house and
> sodomize
>
> me in my sleep for not continuing a chain letter that was started by
> Peter
> in 5 AD and brought to this country by midget pilgrims on the Mayflower.
>
> F*ck 'em.
>
> If you're going to forward something, at least send me something mildly
> amusing. I've seen all the "send this to 10 of your closest friends, and
> this poor, wretched excuse for a human being will somehow receive a nickel
> >from some omniscient being" forwards about 90 times.
>
> I don't f*cking care.
>
> Show a little intelligence and think about what you're actually
> contributing
>
> to by sending out these forwards. Chances are, it's your own unpopularity.
>
> The point being? If you get some chain letter that's threatening to leave
> you shagless or luckless for the rest of your life, delete it. If it's
> funny, send it on.
>
> Don't piss people off by making them feel guilty about a leper in Botswana
> with no teeth who has been tied to the ass of a dead elephant for 27 years
> and whose only salvation is the 5 cents per letter he'll receive if you
> forward this email.
>
> Now forward this to everyone you know.
>
> Otherwise, tomorrow morning your underwear will turn carnivorous and will
> consume your genitals.
>
> Have a nice day.
>
> P.S. Send me 15 bucks
>
> _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
>
>
****************************************************************************
> This email may contain confidential material.
> If you were not an intended recipient,
> Please notify the sender and delete all copies.
> We may monitor email to and from our network.
>
****************************************************************************
>
> ]]> News http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=71 Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:42:26 +0100 <![CDATA[The Olympic Games 2004]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=70
While one might argue that this spoils the spirit of the event, i.e. the quest for excellent sports performance supported by a worldwide audience of sports enthusiasts, we should not forget the significant investment necessary to hold an event such as this. The investment projects necessary for a host country to hold this event represent a major challenge to all but the richest and most industrialized countries. Greece, being a rather small country with previously not very sophisticated infrastructure had to complete a daunting project in terms of organization, construction, and preparation for this. Retrospective of the past few Olympic games, the preparation for the event was quite a challenge. In light of today's new geopolitical world order, an entirely new variable enters the field: Stringent security measures necessary to prevent terrorist attacks during the games. This additional burden again falls on the host country and diverts funds that could have been allocated to investments more directly related to the event itself.

Lastly, the big question for every host country is whether it will benefit enough to have a positive rate of return on the investments it made for the games to take place. Thinking about it makes images of now-deserted soccer stadiums come to mind that were built to host the last Soccer World Cup in Japan and Korea a few years ago. These are unavoidable sunk costs since many infrastructure investments for the games, by their very nature, cannot be dual-purpose. With no utility for them after the event is over, they represent an additional burden on the host country.

Can the benefits of the Olympic games justify their cost in the current constellation of interests between the participant countries, their companies, the IOC, and the host country? With the current distribution of the profits, the IOC and media corporations of the participating countries can certainly be deemed beneficiaries, which does not necessarily hold true for the host country. The IOC holds the broadcast rights and sells them to media companies in the participating countries, these media companies, in turn, can sell advertisement space during the broadcasting of the event. By contrast, the main sources of revenue for the host country during the games are ticket sales and local merchandising. Both are subject to factors beyond the reach of the host country. The international tourism industry remained in a fickle state with limited growth since 2001. Moreover, the recent strength of the Euro against the U.S. Dollar and pegged currencies makes it expensive for sports enthusiasts from outside Europe to personally attend the event. Lastly, the timing of the summer games in August coincides with the main vacation period in Europe, leaving Greece with a small local audience to sell tickets to.

It might be argued that Greece could have increased its slice of the pie with a more powerful locally directed marketing initiative and thus prevented the present lackluster level of ticket sales. Also, a professional and pro-active public relations effort could have nurtured goodwill towards their hosting instead of doubt that the games will succeed this year.

In total, I think this year's games will raise questions as to whether the current distribution of revenue is compelling enough for any country to host the games in the future. While the international spirit itself and intangible factors might be enough to justify the existence of the games, the interests of today's multiple layers and parties represented will ultimately decide the fate of their future.
]]> General http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=70 Sat, 21 Aug 2004 12:27:32 +0200 <![CDATA[Stille Disco at Tivoli - Part II]]> http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=69
For those not familiar with the concept of Stille or Silent Disco, here's the wrap-up: Ever seen or used wireless headphones? Imagine a regular club setup with all of the lights, smoke, DJ, and party people. Where is the sound? Did we miss anything? No. Examining the people more closely, everyone is wearing wireless headsets and enjoying the sound. As a visitor, YOU can select your preferred volume and if it is really sophisicated like at the first Stille Disco I visited, you can even switch between two channels and listen to two differen DJ sets. When you take off your headphones, you face a comfortable atmosphere with unobtrousive ambient lounge sound in the background. Ideal to have a conversation without yelling.

So, what awaited me this time? Before we go on, please note that this article represents the personal and private view of an individual who attended this particular event. It does not represent a balanced point of view but the experience of an individual, da yada yada...

After all, I had high expectations given my experiences at the last Stille Disco event. Back then, we enjoyed a superb DJ set that resembled a cross-section between everything in electronic music: Funk, house, hardhouse, trance, and hardstyle. Compared with this perfect party lineup, this Friday's performance can be described as average. Not only were there less people but the sound selection was 'different', I'll go into the details right away. Speaking of the public, I had the impression that the median age shifted a bit upwards in comparison with the first event. There were many people in their late 20s and early 30s. While I did not spot any really annoying outfits, some of their behaviors as well as the Dj sure were at times. First, they continuously performed this "let's get stupid and run around in circles doing can-can" thing that I absolutely dislike. Come on, you can expect this behavior maybe of peeps in puberty but seeing it exhibited by people in their 30s who actually think they're top notch is retarded.

The entire session was broadcast on 433fm.com which might be a good thing on its own but brought the issue with the commercial breaks with itself. Compared to a regular DJ set, you face commercial breaks like at least every hour on the radio. What can you do during these breaks to keep the crowd going? Maybe play a quick track or loop the track before and after the commercial so that it doesn't get that disctracting. What did this genius do? He played a nasty polka tune for five minutes straight and actually thought it was funny. People stopped moving, put off their headsets, went to the bar, the entire dancefloor was frozen.

You ask yourself what was going on? I asked myself as well. We didn't even go into the music selection as of now. It wasn't all bad. Otherwise, I would not have stayed until 3:30am. Good tracks suitable for such a setting that I recall were: Occasional Prodigy, some deep house, some early dance tunes. Apart from this, we were presented a mix between pop and alternative. Not spectacular at all.

So, to conclude, it was a good distraction from the work week, however, a far-cry from what it could have been. In order not to blow this out of proportion, I could say that the evening was average. Nevertheless, I believe that Stille Disco is a great concept as it showcases how to provide innovation in clubbing that can be deemed 21st century like. ]]> Location Guide http://www.chris-scheible.net/blog/index.php?itemid=69 Sun, 01 Aug 2004 10:52:46 +0200