Well to be in tune with the times I thought a back to school type of post might be in order.  I don’t know about your kids but mine seem to go through school bags on an almost monthly basis.  I don’t know how they do it. It may have something to do with always carrying a seemingly massive amount of books around and having the straps as loose as possible so that the bag is very low on their backs.  The bags invariably seem to rip where the carrying straps meet the bag itself.

There would seem to be two approaches to replacing the bags. Firstly to buy a bag (that the kids are willing to wear) as cheaply as possible  on the grounds that the bag is not going to last long anyway. Or secondly to look for a bag which may cost more, but is built to a high enough level of quality that it will survive a lot longer. Having tried both approaches in the recent past we seem to have had fairly inconclusive results, so we lean towards the cheaper bags but look for strength where it matters.

As my two older children are now regularly taking their laptops to school, this means extra weight and a need for padding while still having room for school books. We have started to look around for bags that meet our requirements. One that caught my eye was the HP Sport Backpack which has good reviews and seems to big enough for school books as well.

Do you have the same problems with the longevity of your computer bags?

A lot of the postings on this blog recently have been a little technical, and this is likely to continue as we complete the series of posts looking at buying components to build your own PC. However it is definitely time for a bit of lighter relief.

The other day my wife showed me a short article in a magazine that she was reading that was all about a WiFi rabbit which goes by the name of a Nabaztag! A WiFi rabbit I kid you not! After investigating further I found that the name Nabaztag is apparently Armenian for rabbit, and that yes this is a WiFi enabled rabbit!  In fact it has been around for a while but this was the first I had heard of it. The Nabaztag is not a WiFi access point but a desktop gadget that uses WiFi to gather information from the Internet and then provide it back to you in various ways.  So you will have to have an already existing WiFi network.

The rabbit complete with revolving ears and mood lighting is able to do an impressive list of things, such as telling you the time, waking you up, reading the news, reading you messages from friends, reading RSS feeds, alerting you about new email, playing internet radio stations and telling you the local weather forecast.  It can be voice activated and is capable of detecting a persons presence in the room through an analysis of ambient noise levels and providing a suitable message, potentially scaring the wits out of any unsuspecting people.

My wife thought it would be a good way to enjoy the internet while ironing! I am not completely convinced interest would get past the initial novelty factor, but it is definitely different and as functionality is growing all the time perhaps the future is bright for this rabbit!

Have you got a Nabaztag? What do you think of it?

There have been a number of recent reports in the UK press about a potentially huge number of unsafe chargers, for all sorts of consumer devices, presently available both online and on the high street. The concern is that these devices are prone to overheating potentially leading to fires or are badly wired leading to a risk of electrocution. Another concern is that they are often sold without standard UK plug fittings which means that they do not fit well in UK wall sockets or require a dodgy set up with some sort of adapter.

Buying safe chargers online

So what are some of the ways that you can mitigate the risk of buying a low quality and potential dangerous charger online?

• Firstly I think that where possible you should only buy a charger that comes with a standard UK 3 pin plug if you are go to plug it into the mains (obviously different if you are buying a car charger). This will at least ensure that they fit properly in the plug socket.
• Secondly buy your charger from a trusted manufacturer or retailer. Either from the original manufacturer of the device you want to use the charger with, or if that is not available a well known specialist manufacturer or retailer. The quality processes of these companies will be better and this will significantly reduce the risk. An example might be the Griffin Tech AC adapter/charger for the iPod.
• Thirdly be prepared to spend a little bit more money. We are only talking about something like a tenner here, you won’t miss it once it is spent and you don’t want to end up regretting making a cheap purchase.
• Lastly it is probably a good idea to also make sure you buy a good quality travel adapter for when traveling overseas.

Following these rules should help but you actually might find it is harder than you think! Anyway if ever find your charger appears to be getting much too hot, or it rattles when you shake it, indicating something is broken. Then throw it away and get another one, it is not worth the risk.

Have you any ideas on how to safely buy chargers online?

There has been a lot of noise in the news this past few days about the release of Apple’s new 3G iPhone (unfortunately still not available here in Dubai).  While the second generation iPhone improves nicely on the previous version with its cheaper price and 3G capability, from a computing point of view I find the launch of Apple’s new App Store is a lot more interesting.

App Store

Why? Well I believe that the iPhone and the iPod Touch provide a newer, more advanced mobile computing platform than anything that had been available previously. But perhaps more importantly,  what is it that gives any computing platform its power? The applications!  By providing the software development kit (SDK) to attract developers and leveraging the App Store and iTunes to distribute the applications means that there will be many more applications available than Apple could ever manage alone, which is only going to strengthen the platform further. Some of the presently available applications may seem a waste of time,  but others will definitely enhance an already impressive platform. The iPhone is more than a phone and iPod Touch is now way beyond just being a MP3 player with a bit of a nifty interface.

iPod Touch

Now if you still think that iPhone is too expensive , it is not available where you live, or you are happy with your existing phone then my recommended way to move to this platform is with an iPod Touch. All the benefits and hey you where going to upgrade that iPod anyway!

Rivals

Now of course Apple isn’t the only game  in town and Nokia for instance has provided a mobile applications store for its Symbian platform for a while already, but I think that Apple have taken everything to a new level.  The good thing for all of us consumers is that Microsoft, Nokia, Google and the like are not going to just take all this lying down. So expect some great things in mobile computing in the near future.

Have you tried the Apps Store?

I have talked before about how useful a mini mouse can be for using with a laptop. especially so when working while traveling. I find that using a mouse rather than the trackpad of a laptop is a much better way of maintaining a good position when working on a laptop for long periods of time.  In other words the sort of thing you often end up doing when working in some faceless hotel in some city or country around the world.

Unfortunately my previous mini mouse suddenly stopped working for reasons unknown. But what I do know is that my younger kids could not help themselves from endlessly playing with the retractable cable holder that is designed to hold the connecting USB cable neatly while the mouse is not in use. They just loved pulling the cable out and back on an almost continuous basis. Now I can not confirm that this caused or even contributed to the demise of my mouse but I thought I would look around for a replacement with out the cable.

After searching around and even trying out various models of wireless mice, I finally settled on the Logitech V450 Laser Cordless Mouse which after using for a couple of days I am really happy with.  I like the design which although slightly bigger than my previous mouse seems to be even more comfortable to hold. I have had absolutely no connection problems with the wireless and even better, the mouse seems to be able to cope with a lot more different surfaces than my old one.  If you are look for a wireless mouse for your laptop than I can certainly recommend this one.

Do you use a mouse with your laptop?

Our last post looked at a gaming keyboard and today I thought I would look at another peripheral for the gaming enthusiast.  When I was quite a bit younger than I am today I was quite keen on the flight sim games, or more specifically space flights sims like the classic Wing Commander. Unfortunately they don’t really make many of these games anymore!

Something that one really had to have to play these games was of course a joystick as playing these games with a mouse was never easy or particularly convenient.  A joystick was perhaps the first accessory that I ever bought for my computer. Joysticks have come a long way since the one I first purchased which just about had the directional control and a couple of firing buttons. They now often come with separate throttle controls, multiple buttons and switches.

A good example of what is available of the market these days is the highly rated Saitek X52 Flight Control System. This beauty comes with a separate throttle control which includes its own set of buttons and can act as a mouse for easy in game control.  The joystick unit has plenty of programmable buttons and two “hat” controls for point of view control.

Do you use a joystick for gaming? Which joystick do you prefer?

Webcams are now standard on a significant proportion of the laptops available on the market. But what do you do if you have an older laptop or have just purchased one without a Webcam? The answer of course is to invest in a standalone webcam.

We have had two new recent additions to the growing family of laptops that cohabit our house. Both of these came equipped with a webcam. Sadly we also had one of the older generation pass away, but I guess that is the circle of laptop life. OK, so now I am at risk of sounding like I’ve escaped from a Disney cartoon, but it has been quite interesting to look at the evolution of this family over the last few years. The old laptop that finally passed on, had a CD drive, two PCMCIA card sockets and only a solitary USB socket. The latest addition has a DVD RW drive, four USB drives, a media card reader, a webcam and significantly more processing power and memory. I would guess there is about 7 year age gap between them and USB has become the connection interface of choice.

But I digress, as a family we have never really used webcams. VoIP applications like Skype might have pushed us that way, but the use of Skype in the U.A.E is not really that reliable. However having them available on the new laptops have prompted a surge in use, so much so that we are now looking at equipping our older laptops with one. I have investigated whats available and have found a few that interest me, the pick of the bunch is probably Microsoft’s LifeCam NX-6000 which is small, light and has a good image resolution for a webcam.

Do you have a webcam to recommend?

I thought I would return to the theme of hot laptops which we discussed in a recent post. Most modern laptops will run hot, and will become uncomfortably so if actually used on your lap! But why do laptops heat up and is there anything we can do to minimise this effect?

So why do laptops heat up?
All the major components of a computer will generate, to varying degrees, some heat during their operation. So the power supply, the battery, the motherboard circuits, the disk drive, the CPU and graphic cards chips all will, when running, generate some heat. Some components generate more heat than others though, with the worse offenders probably being the chips. So if these components are fully used, for instance if you’re playing a game or have a lot of different applications running, then things are going to get hot quickly. Also although the processors used in laptops are designed to run cooler that those designed for desktops, the fact that everything is packed in tightly close together means that there is little air space and flow to provide cooling. A fan or fans are provided inside the laptop to cool things down, and this will come on if things start getting hot. You will hear this going if your computer is working hard.

How to keep cool

On most laptops the internal fan exhaust output to expel the hot air is on the underside of the computer. If this is blocked in anyway the internal temperature will rise quickly. This is one potential issue for those using a laptop on their lap, where clothes etc. can easily block these vents. A flat board on which the laptop can rest will help significantly. If using on a desk then there are a number of useful cooling pads for laptops which often provide additional fans to help cool things down. A good example of this is the Belkin laptop cooling stand which gives plenty of room for air flow and provides an additional fan that runs from the USB port of the laptop, reducing wires and meaning that it is potentially portable to some degree.

How do you keep your laptop cool?

Laptops are …… well they are notebook computers that you can use on your lap, hence laptop, easy Huh! Of course, but there is a bit of trouble with this simple logic, have you ever tried using a modern notebook computer on your lap?(I’ll use notebook rather than laptop for the purpose of this post) They can get pretty hot along with just about everything around them! I can vaguely remember reading a news story a few years back about someone you had burnt a rather sensitive part of their anatomy by using a notebook computer on their lap for too long! I don’t know if that is true or not but I can quite believe that it might happen.

In fact I can’t believe anyone could work with a notebook on their laps for any length of time without some sort of protection, especially if there is a lot CPU activity. I am always looking for a magazine or something like that to use as protection and this evening I thought I would look around and see what is available in the market.

Well the answer is not a lot apparently, perhaps a small gap in the market for someone! I did manage to find the Belkin Notebook Cushtop which has a nice and simple design, with nothing to break and all at a reasonable cost.

What do you use to protect you lap from your fiery notebook computer?

When browsing through the PriceGrabber website the other day I came across this Belkin Mini Computer Vacuum which seemed like quite an interesting idea. Presumably it could be used to try and get at all those crumbs of chocolate and biscuit that have been lost between the keys of your keyboard!

It also brought back memories of my early days working with computers and at the risk of giving away how ancient I am, I thought I would share one story. In my first job overseas I worked in the Libyan capital Tripoli. I was involved in the computer processing of seismic data collected in the desert during the search for oil. This was quite compute intensive, (indeed it still is today), and the office worked round the clock 364 days a year (we had Christmas day off). We had two computers which each had 64 Mb memory, a CPU with a separate array processor for number crunching, 3 large tape decks and a 80 Mb hard disk drive the size of a washing machine! We communicated with them via punch cards and a teletype machine, while all the data was kept on tapes.

The room where the computers where housed however would often, especially during dust storms, get a lot of sand and dust coming in through the holes in the wall in which the air condition units were housed. I have vivid memories of our computer engineers pulling the circuit boards out of the back of the machines, blowing the dust and sand off each board and resetting individual chips and other components in the board with a very firm tap! It was a long way from todays environmentally controlled computer rooms but seemed to work.

Anyway back to the mini computer vacuum. Computer components do get quite a build up of dust and (food) overtime, and it can be well worth doing a spring clean from time to time. So a vacuum could well be a useful purchase, however an alternative is just to buy an air dusting can, which is just what our engineers used to use!