- Widescreen
Open wide
“According to manufacturer NEC: "The vision of humans naturally moves horizontally rather than vertically, and ergonomics experts have recommended a broad format for a long time. In a professional setting, the use of large screens better facilitates execution of the tasks on the screen and thus contributes to increased productivity."
Couldn’t say it better. From the first 16:10 laptops to big wide screens for desk or TV, this aspect ratio is just a drug for me. I had a good CRT 4:3 19” monitor but I felt constricted. Doing sound and having a timeline in all my apps made me want to have a landscape setting and much more room which means much less scrolling. I can now stare at my 24” widescreen 12hours a day when with a 4:3 I could not (also the LCD technology is easier for the eyes). So it’s better for work, it’s better for movies, it’s better for games and everything. It took so long. Now you can buy a good 24” widescreen for less than 200 bucks.
- SSD
A mechanical fragile piece of hardware on the left, static realm on the right.
The Solid State Drive. Once again it’s a lot for work purpose that I bought one two years ago and I was blown away. The HDD has three major issues: it makes noise, it heats and the more the disk is full, the more performance is going down. I had a Fujitsu 15K SCSI HDD and it was ok but the SSD just kills it in every way.
You launch a window, it’s instantaneous. You install/uninstall an app, it’s fast as hell. You launch Photoshop in 4 seconds etc It doesn’t heat at all, it’s totally noiseless and even full at 99%, performance are exactly like if the SSD was empty. So for your system –because to stock music and medias hard drives are way cheaper and efficient- I highly recommend them. I guess with a 64bits OS, a lot of RAM and one of the last SSD available, you’re not gonna wait often in front of your computer.
- TNN
A vacuum cleaner on the left, a monolith on the right.
This is the biggest change I have encounter in all my computer life. You launch YouTube in HD, or any media player made with Flash and fans are kicking, blowing. You launch an app, fans are blowing. You launch a heavy javascript website, fans are blowing. It’s just a terrible experience but we are so used to it we don’t pay attention to it.
Until you experience a total free noise use of a computer.
Everything I do on it doesn’t make any noise at all. No low fan blowing, no water pump, not even an electrical buzz or something, just no-thing. Scary as hell at first, so used to monitor computers with sounds. I have no longer this survival aural need, I don’t have to mentally kill the noise and my ears, my focus are enjoying that so hard. The only thing is that it adds heat to the room, in a good way though (passive convection). In LA it’s not very useful but in a colder environment, this hidden heater function is pretty great.
Main problem is very few people had the opportunity to experience that but when you do, without compromise on performance ( I have a desktop dual core, and I can go quad core) you just can’t go back. When I hear the G5 of my girlfriend screaming, or my laptop vacuuming it annoys me a lot because I know the effect of noise on the brain: fatigue, irritation. IT people know that very well.
I wish I could invest into or create a company around totally noiseless computer tech. Seriously it’s just teh awesome.
- Netbook
And I wash my hands as much as possible.. We need washable keyboards.
I use and used it everywhere. Equipped with a ssd, it’s just the most reliable piece of tech I’ve ever owned. I poured a big glass of sake on it while using it, screen and sound stopped. The alcohol was dripping out of the RJ45 port. Made it dry under the sun a whole day and Windows restarted perfectly. It would be dead if I had a mechanical hard drive. I made it fall a couple of times, still here.
I like to type on it because my hands are more curved and my wrists love it. The only problem is that for the one I have, the screen is not very good (no LED backlit). Also it’s hard to switch keyboards size (from netbook to laptop to full keyboard). But like the last phones pocket computers, this piece of hardware allowing me to get the hell out of a desk without compromising my computer addiction, has changed my lifestyle. I’m currently editing this blog post laying down in bed.
I love when technology is affordable and makes the life easier.