In the last post on the sound theme, I thought I would have a look at headphones. I have looked at noise cancellation headphones before in the context of travel and getting to sleep on planes. Of course a nice pair of headphones would be a great way of listening to the output of your recently acquired computer sound card!

Apart from the filtering out the white noise found in aircraft cabins, a set of headphones are useful in a number of other scenarios. Being able to play games with the full sound experience without annoying everyone else in the house who happens to be working or revising for their GCSE’s. Being able to listen to your latest music without sending your parents completely insane (something I can relate to). I am sure that you can think of a number of other scenarios too.

Most sound cards now have software that provides the ability to give a virtual “surround sound” experience through just two speakers. Often referred to as 3D virtual this means that listening to a movie or games through earphones can be just as amazing experience as listening through a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker system. A really nice mid range pair of head phones that although are not noise cancellation do have a great sound are these Sennheiser HD 595 Headphones.

In the last few posts we have looked at sound cards for both desktops and laptops. All the sound cards and devices we looked at will enhance the quality of the sound you get from your computer, especially so if you are a gamer, a keen listener to music or are into watching movies on your computer. But one think wee didn’t talk about of course was the ability to output your sound in the best way to appreciate the increased quality. There is not much point in spending some money on a new sound card only to have to play the output through the tinny built in speakers on your laptop or monitor!

No to really appreciate the enhanced quality of the sound you are really going to need some good quality speakers. So if you haven’t already got some them, then you should be budgeting for the cost of speakers, or perhaps a decent pair of earphones, when you are looking for a sound card.

If you are looking at some new speakers then here is a huge range in terms of both what is available and cost. As an example of the sort of speakers you might look at in the lower range in terms of cost but still getting 5.1 surround sound have a look at the Logitech X-530 Speakers 5.1/70W RMS. A pretty good system at a low price! You need to shop around, work out the best quality to cost ratio that you can afford and then go for it.

What speaker system do you have to show off your sound card?

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?

Following on from the previous post about memory, I thought we would have another look at flash drives. We have had a look at them before but now there are some very large capacity flash drives available which are becoming more and more cost effective.

Convenience of a floppy disk

OK so hands up how many of you remember floppy disks? How many have still got a floppy disk drive in your computer? Floppy disks are pretty much a thing of the past, although I do have to admit to remembering a time when they were one of the newest things around, but perhaps the least said about that the better! Things moved on and the writable CD appeared which while it was less convenient, it provided a lot more storage space. The thing about a writeable CD though was that they were nowhere near as easy to use as a floppy drive. It was much more of a process compared to the stick the disk in, drag your contents across, and away you go process with the floppy disk. Unfortunately CD’s were soon not big enough either as storage requirements where also increasing as we started hoarding digital content like music and photographs

Enter the flash drive

Nowadays the flash drive or USB stick have become the standard manual way of moving data from computer to computer or for the temporary storing of data. And they are great, we are back to a nice easy of capturing any data that you want to go. But of course storage requirements keep rising and I am finding that my trusty 1GB Flash drive is at times just not big enough. The good news is that there are some huge capacity drives available that while a little more expensive will not break the bank. Take a look at the Corsair 16GB Voyager USB Flash Drive for example which is what I am considering for my next flash drive. Very useful for travel.

How do you use your flash drive?

I have recently just spent a weekend at my parents house where I was engaged as an IT consultant as I usually am when visiting friends and family. So I was presently surprised to find that they had recently invested in a nice new wireless mouse. It so happens that as part of my project to reduce the number of wires hanging around my desktop I am in the market for a wireless mouse, and I was able to get a good test drive of the Logitech MX revolution.

Easy to drive

First of all I was impressed by how nicely it fits into the hand and how easy it was to use. There is the now standard thumb wheel and just above that that are very handy forward and back buttons for browsing. Other buttons included an interesting search button which enables you to select a word or text and press the button to instantly search the Internet using Yahoo or Google.

No Batteries

One of the best things about this mouse is that it comes with a charging stand so no more running out of batteries just when you need it most, one of the things that normally really bugs me about wireless mice. The only problem with this of course is that this adds a new wire, but I think the value of the charger makes it worth it.

So if you are in the market for new wireless mouse then you could do worse than take the Logitech MX revolution for a spin!

Do you remember when you bought your first home computer? I can. Although I had used mainframe terminals, Unix workstations and PC’s for many years at work, I finally bought my first home PC in 1996. Today the specs seem to be completely laughable, it was a 75hz Pentium, with something like 8 Mb of memory and a huge 1GB hard drive! It was badged as a multimedia workstation which meant I got a CD drive, a microphone and a set of speakers bundled in. Over the years I upgraded it as much as possible and it was only finally retired a couple of years ago, so I got my moneys worth out of it. I was also still using those speakers, or least until recently.  While sorting out my cable night mare at home I realised that only one of the two speaker unit was working!

New speakers required

So now I am on the look out for a new set of speakers. My main requirement is, as always, the best possible performance for the best price. So I have been having a good look at what is out there, and a couple of speakers sets have caught my eye. First off, is this Altec Lansing VS4121 2.1 Speaker System, pictured left, which has a lot of great reviews, looks OK and comes at a very reasonable price. An alternative which I am considering is the Philips MMS321 Multimedia Stereo Speakers pictured above, which because there is no sub woofer use less real estate. These also look great, and have great reviews. Decisions, decisions!

Any recommendations for speaker systems?

What do you think the office of the near future is going to be like? Will it be much the same as present with slightly faster computers with perhaps video conferencing being used more effectively? Or do you think it will be more radically changed with more people working in virtual teams or virtual companies, requiring a greater reliance on mobile and web based technologies to get things done.

Virtual office

Well IBM have been considering this problem too, and they have predicted that the virtual office will increasingly become more important, driven by such things as globalisation and increasing concerns about the environment meaning less travel. This will mean that the work environment will be become more centred around mobile platforms with increasing reliance on social networking and instant messaging for communication, with no place for desktop PC’s, phones or email. They also predicted that the traditional meeting would change rapidly as 3D and gaming tools would become more important enabling the ability to hold quick online meetings.

But when?

What I like about this sort of thing is that no-one ever specifies a timeline in which this is all going to happen! But for me, if I look at the way my kids use instant messaging and their mobile phones for all their communications, then indeed I can see that shortly there will be future generations of workers used to working together in these ways. The desktop is on its way out already with laptops now outselling them. I do believe however the inertia and the gatekeeper role of IT in large organisations, will serve as a drag on any quick change. I also think that 3D and gaming tools will first make their mark in the area of training, where I believe there is huge potential.

In the meantime I have been looking for a web cam to support my new virtual workplace! This Philips webcam which comes with a Multimedia headset and boom microphone caught my eye.

What do you think the office of the future will be like?

As I was sitting at my desk the other day procrastinating over starting some filing that needed to be done, I was contemplating the huge morass of wires and power cables required just to power all the elements of my computer setup. I have a power cable for the printer, the monitor, the docking station for my laptop, the speakers, the docking cradle for my MP3 player, the table lamp, a shredder. Then I have wires for the mouse, keyboard, the docking cradle for my mp3 player, for the speakers, etc. Wires everywhere! The only wire I seemed to have removed the need for is a network cable, as I have a home WiFi network and all the cables for the access point are thankfully in a separate room.

So as I sat there, still avoiding doing any of the filing that I should be doing,  trying to think of ways I could at least reduce the cable spaghetti that I have under the table. To be honest there is not a lot I could do with the power cables, except perhaps I could remove the docking cradle for the MP3 player, as I normally use the USB cable for recharging anyway. So I I just untangled the mess, and bunched the cables neatly together where I could with cable ties. I have put the docking cradle away in a drawer, in case it turns out I do need it.

The next step was to look at the cables on the desktop. The obvious solution here is to get rid of the mouse and keyboard cables by going wireless. So I have researched this and have found some nice solutions. For instance how about this nice looking wireless keyboard and mouse from Microsoft. While this combination set from Targus provides a neat alternative to the feature rich Microsoft set. So what would you choose? Any advice? How do you deal with your own cable nightmare?

I am sitting here at home in the dark, with my laptop sucking on its last few minutes of battery power. Yes real excitement in the house as all the power has gone off, and with it my access to the internet, and most of my computers. The laptop was not fully charged as I was using it on battery at the office, but as I do have a few minutes left I thought I would bash out a quick post.

We are in the dark here as my local sub station burst into flames sometime this afternoon, which is sort of interesting I suppose. But what this has really brought home to me is how much I take for granted the ability to instantly connect anytime I want to the Internet. I was sitting here with the kids in bed, really wanting to get down to some surfing and perhaps even a little blogging. Well I can, because fortunately I still have a little juice left in the battery, but it won’t be for long!

Given that I have often in the past been short of battery power while traveling and how close I am right now to the “hibernating” message, I thought I would briefly talk about laptop batteries. Batteries are the thing you are always hearing about being recalled. You know what I mean the “500 people catch fire in laptop battery disaster, 4 million batteries recalled“ type of headlines. However a spare battery or power pack can be very useful in some situations. Like now for me! Only last week or so ago I was looking at the PSA 60Wh Universal External Laptop Battery, pity I didn’t get one, I think I could use it so…….

I am presently spending a lot of my time commuting, and the way I help pass the time, whether I am driving or as a passenger is to listen to either music or the podcasts to which I subscribe . I find that what really makes a big difference to the whole listening experience is having a good set of earphones. At one time I didn’t consider that this was a real necessity until at one point when I was using my standard issue earphones, I found that they where getting really uncomfortable after a few hours. So I looked around for a more comfortable pair and ended up being blown away by the improved sound performance.

Another thing that I have discovered is that when you travel as much as me, you end up spending a lot of time trying to get to sleep on airplanes. I have never been good at this, but the biggest challenge I find for this is blocking out the background white noise. I have discovered that a good comfortable pair of noise cancellation earphones is ideal for this, either with the volume turned right down or a low level of background music.

Of course everyones ears are a different shape and the sound quality will vary, with the best quality usually costing a lot more. So my advice is to look around for the best sound performance in your price bracket and the try some out for comfort. A pair that I can recommend are the Shure SE210 Black Sound Isolating Earphones, shown left, which have good performance and are reasonably priced. If you have a no limit budget then for sound quality I think you will find it very hard to beat the Shure SE530 Sound Isolating Earphones, shown above.

How do you manage to get to sleep on planes? I would be interested to hear.