6 posts tagged “computers”
I remember back in elementary school being envious of the kids that had the Sega Game Gear on the bus. I grew up on a strict Nintendo diet so I was restricted to the mono Game Boy screen.
Well, despite Gmail being a free product the fact remains Google needs users to generate revenue and if Google feels high and mighty enough to think they can get away with releasing a faulty product it's high time they are smacked down the reality. I personally haven't utilized my AOL e-mail account in over eight years but giving the Google's stubbornness and lack of interest in end user experience with their product I'm going to switch my account over to their competitor. AOL may be considered the ugly ducking of Internet portals but let's face it Google's 800 pound gorilla flew the coop when their software engineers lost focus on innovation and management started concentrating on their stock price and buying others innovations instead of developing their own. i.e. Youtube & Google Earth.
So it comes as no surprise that Google can't respond to the IMAP Windows Mobile issue, they're too ill-prepared to do so. I encourage angry users to look else where for IMAP service providers, AOL may not have the prestige they enjoyed in the early 90's but their engineers have provided a rock solid IMAP experience that functional across all platforms including Windows Mobile. So the choice for me is easy.
Adiós Gmail... mail@aol.com here I come.
PS AOL does provide unlimited e-mail storage also, as a another instinctive to leave.
With all the excitement of building a new workstation from the ground up comes a lot of
anxiety of weather or not various components will continue to operate and if drivers for will be accessible. The decision last year to move my primary system to Vista faced problems from both software and hardware that found itself made obsolete by manufacturers that wanted end users to addie up more cash for their newer products. Vista compatibility is no longer a issue as I've made adjustments but with a new workstation in the wing I've made a even more draughting decision to install the 64 bit version of Windows Vista.
64 bit operating systems has been been an enigma reserved for hyper high-end scientific workstations and users who need high memory allocations to crunch large amounts of data, something the typical computer user wouldn't benefit from. As shown by the vast lack of applications that take advantage of 64 bit programing architecture. However, for the video designer the choice is more simple, even though we're likely several years away from Adobe & Co. releasing 64 bit version of their creative suite applications the digital creator can still benefit from the availability of additional memory resources that a 64 bit workstation can provide with the understanding that the typical 32 bit OS can only utilize 3.75GB of RAM regardless of how much you install in your workstation.
Let's look a Adobe Photoshop for example, still a 32 bit application meaning it's memory allocation maxes out at 3GB. However, if you design a workstation with 8GB of RAM running on a 64 bit operating system the computer can then allocate to Photoshop the maximal amount of RAM the program is built to handle (3GB) and still have 5GBs of RAM available for other processes and applications. The computer will never have to write and read a page file so the system remains responsive. The same goes with all other memory intensive programs for 3D rendering, video, and sound editing. The more RAM you have available on a 64 bit system the happier the 32 bit applications are when multitasking.
I haven't touched on Frankenstein since I first announced it back in late September last year, but the project is finally moving forward now with a little budget being allocated for it. The project Frankenstein workstation was given a yesterday in tradition with our all our previous systems. The name "Neptune" was chosen as it's network ID... and yes the stats remain the pretty much the same. Intel Quad Core Q6600, 4GB DDR2-800 ram (expandable to 8GB), GeForce 6800 GTS 256MB. I'm moving away from ATA hard-drives in this build and moving into SATA for the first time. Everything should constructed by February and which time the old workstation Everness will be reconstructed in a MicroATX form factor and christen as a media server for our house.
Victor also ha plans to build a workstation to replaced this aging laptop
"Airiness" he's being using for the last two years, that machine is past its prime and is due for retirement. His computing needs aren't as intense so he's building a more contemporary ATA mid-tower. He's given it the name "Emi" which consisit of a Intel Dual Core 2 1.8Ghz, 1 GB DD2-800 ram, and a Geforce 6600GT or GTS video processor. He'll also be usint the SATA formfactor since let's face it ATA IDE drives are heading out the window.
We received a pamphlet in the mail today from Comcast cable notifying us of their exciting new products for 2008? New products like Payment Conveniences surcharges ($2 to $4 dollars) and an nearly across the board price increase of $2.00 for all their services expect for High-Speed Internet and Digital Voice services. Interesting how only in the markets where Comcast meets completion they aren't raising rates. We might be switching to DSL services from AT&T and acquire television from Direct TV just to send Comcast a message.
Working with Vista again has me in a situation where it's necessary to upgrade the home studio workstation. I've been sitting on a new Intel motherboard for the last few months waiting for prices for new duel-core processors to settle down and it turns out waiting was the correct thing to do... Intel announced last month a 60% reduction in the price of their quad-core processors. With my current workstation approaching five years of service it's time to make a generation transition. 2.4Ghz running on four cores is the equivalent of having nearly a 10Ghz processor for applications written to take advantage of the technology. Giving video editing, 3D animation applications, even computer games if I wish will experience a major power boast. Vista slowdowns will go the way of platform shoes and become a distant memory. "Project Frankenstein" isn't going to be fast tracked since Everness still has enough power to eloquently perform the task currently running in the studio but I'd like to have it completed by years end if all possable.
Old Specs... Everness Workstation
Processor: Intel Pentium IV 2.54 GHz 800 MHz, Ram: 2Gb DDR-333 SDRAM, Video Processor GeForce 5600FX 256mb
Proposed new specs... Project Frankenstein
Processor: Intel Pentium Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad Core Processor 2.4GHz 1066 MHz, Ram: 4Gb DDR-800 SDRAM, Video Processor GeForce 6800 GTS 256mb
