I was out looking for computer bags with my son over the weekend. We have just bought him his first laptop for him to use both at home and school and to stop the endless fights with his brothers over access to a computer! So we needed a bag that could take not only his new computer but also all the school books that he has to carry around with him during the day.

He actually seems to carry around a huge amount of stuff on a daily basis, which can be quite heavy and once we add a laptop to all that, it’s going to be heavier still. I actually can’t remember having to carry that much stuff around with me when I was a school, but it was a long time ago and perhaps my memory has dimmed. One result of all this is that any bag we buy will have to have very durable straps and have significant reinforcing where the straps are attached to the bag.

I starting my search by doing a bit of online research, looking for ideas and potential backups in case we didn’t find anything worth buying while walking around the huge Dubai Malls. After checking out a few of the more specialised websites and hitting Pricegrabber I decided that something like this highly rated Targus Metro Notebook Backpack would do just fine. This bag looks good has a good number of compartments and pockets and according to reviews has a very good strong construction.

So off we went and we actually found an almost identical Targus backpack, which seemed to be very well built, had the right number of separate compartments and most important of all was acceptable to the lad in question!

Have you seen any expectational or outstanding examples of a computer bag recently?

Quite a lot of people these days are running home servers, or at least a central computer that has a large amount of storage. This can be used as central storage for the large amount of digital content that we are now beginning to collect in the average family, or at the very least used as a backup facility for all the family’s laptops and iPods. One of the main reasons for doing backups of your data, is that we now often have an emotional attachment to a lot of this data. Would you be happy about losing all your digital photographs for instance, or the whole of your music collection? I thought not. So if you are not backing this data up already you really should be !

However if you are backing your data up to a central server, you really need to protect that computer with an UPS device. UPS - stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply. By the way a Server is just a fancy name for a piece of software or hardware that performs some service for other software or computers on a network, if it is hardware it may be doing other things as well.

An Uninterruptible Power Supply is one which continues to supply power during a loss or drop of input power, but will also act as a surge suppressor, filter noise and provide protection against power spikes. All these things are potentially dangerous for a computer system and potentially damaging your hard drive. You may think that in the UK we have a very stable power supply which is largely true, but we still get power cuts once or twice a year as a result of storms, lightening etc. There also drops in current which are also an issue, and which may be caused by everyone in the UK switching the kettle on at half time in the FA cup final, for instance!

So I would recommend anyone with a important computer that holds important data, that they look into a UPS system. They are many available at in a huge range of costs, so do your homework, but something like the APC BACK-UPS CS 350 would be a good place to start for a home user.

So just to recap the benefits of an UPS are;

1. It gives you time to shut down your computer properly.
2. Will take the hit from any lightening strike. much cheaper to replace the UPS.
3. Will maintain the proper voltage, even during power spikes and sags.
4. Gives you “peace of mind”.

Do you use an UPS?

In the last post we looked at the Sony Vaio TP2 Home Theatre PC a very stylish Media PC that would always look good in the living room. However there are a number of alternatives which may offer a better alternative in terms of system features that while perhaps not quite so stylish as the Sony, still have a set top box look that would fit right in beside the living room TV.

A very good example of this type of media PC is the Acer Aspire iDea 510 Home Theatre PC which sports a DVD player like look, but is able to give all the benefits of a normal PC . One important thing is that this device with the exception of the disk storage has been built using laptop technology rather than standard desktop components, this is means that it is very quiet which is an important factor when looking for a media PC. You don’t want to be turning up the volume just so you can hear the TV over the PC fans!

Like the Sony this device provides 500GB of storage, 1 GB of Ram and a Duel Core processor but it also provides dual TV - tuners allowing you to record two channels at once or record one channel while watching another. One other feature of this device is the vast array of input and output options meaning you would have little difficultly in connecting up to any input or output device. If there was one thing that was missing it would be probably be the lack of a Blu-Ray disc drive but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that in newer devices soon.

All in all a nice complete package that because of the PC capabilities will give you additional value than you would get with something like a Sky +, like the ability to manage music and photos, act as a DVD player & recorder etc. The included wireless keyboard would also allow you to browse the Internet etc.

There also seems to be some good deals around on this particular device at the moment.

Are you looking for a media PC?

The big tech news news this week is the joint launch by the BBC and ITV of Freesat a free satellite television service. Freesat is available to 98% of UK homes, including all those like myself when in the UK, that are unable to receive Freeview through a TV aerial. New users will have to make a single initial payment for a dish, set-top box and installation, but will not pay an ongoing monthly subscription.

So what with a free satellite service and the iPlayer from the BBC and the equivalents from ITV all giving the ability to download content, people are going to need something on which to save that content. For a long time I have looked at buying a media PC that was quiet enough to sit in the living room. Things like the Tivo have been available in the US, and we have the Sky + but media PC’s have yet to really take off in the UK. Things might be about to change however and I thought it might be worth looking at a few examples.

First here is one that would not be out of place in the most stylish living room, the Sony Vaio TP2 Home Theatre PC. Great looks, with a Blu-Ray disc player, a digital TV tuner, 2GB of Ram and 500 GB for all that digital content. The Sony is definately trying to redefine the PC for the living room.

In the next post I will look at another option with perhaps more substance than style. Do you have a Media PC? Is it a device whose time has come?

I have talked a number of times in the past about the highly successful and revolutionary Asus Eee ultra sub notebook. This has a very small form factor (7”), a functional keyboard despite its small size, a reasonably good screen, and runs a customized version of Linux rather than windows and all for a nice small price to match its size. If you’re were looking to find faults or at least things to improve you would probably come up with some of the following;

Increase the size of the screen - the screen really wasn’t that great to use, hampered as it was with an 800 pixel resolution.

Increased Memory - Even on a machine this size 512 Mb of RAM is really not enough these days, more memory would allow you to better use the multiple process ability of Linux.

Increased Storage - The 4 GB of storage was not really enough, especially if you wanted to store a fair amount of digital content, and lets face it, these days who doesn’t.

Well obvious Asus have listened to some of these wishes and have just released the Asus Eee PC 900 which does provide good improvements in all these areas.

Screen - The screen resolution has been improved to a very nice 1,024 x 600, which also means you’ve got a modern type wide screen aspect ratio. The news screen also takes up more of the lid improving the Eee’s overall looks.

Memory - Memory has been increased to 1 GB

Storage - The storage has also had a significant increase with the Linux version having a respectable 20GB of storage. There will also be a Windows XP version with 12GB of storage. Asus decreasing the storage to pay for the XP operating system!

There are a number of other small changes also, such the on-board cam which has been improved to a 1.3 Megapixel unit, while the touchpad features multi-touch capability ala the MacBook Air. All in all the new Asus Eee 900 has improved the capability of the Eee brand, all for a small increase in price. I for one think that price is worth paying! How about you?