Mon, 20 Feb 2012
A Brief Review: Motorola Droid 4
After trying to raise my OG Droid 1 Motorola Droid A855 from the dead using the Bugless Beast ROM, having initial success and then watching my Droid degrade yet again to an unusable state where I'd wait many seconds for any activity of a button press to transpire, I pulled the trigger on a Droid 4.
So far, it's been disappointing, from a purely UI point of view. The hardware is fast. Buttons work properly when you press them. But Motorola/Verizon bung it up yet again by releasing an Android version chock full of annoying bloatware and unnecessary modifications. Where they won me over with the release of the OG Droid 1 by keeping the Android OS clean and simple, they ruin it here with the Droid 4. The text messaging and email apps are very noisy - tons of font and emoticon options clutter the screen. There's tons of misused space. Text messages display 3 messages at a time when there's space for 9. The UI feels like a comic book. It feels like text and UI options are splayed all over the screen in seemingly random fashion.
But these aren't even the deal breakers for me; those come along with the keyboard and button layout. After spending years with the Droid 1, I came to expect a certain feel from the keyboard. I loved the tight, small buttons. This keyboard (and device) is bigger, and not for any gain, save for video. It's harder to type by feel. The buttons give a lot, making it harder to type fast. It's moderately nice to have a number key row and proper locations for !@#$%^&*(). However, by putting the Caps Lock button where the Shift button would normally be on a keyboard, I am constantly having to edit my messages to repair having pressed Caps Lock. The Shift button is a far reach from where it would normally be in a QWERTY layout. It's something I haven't yet been able to get over, since my automatic touch typing response kicks in whenever I am using it and it is very hard for me to correct. Moreover, some genius decided that they would move the Back botton from the bottom left corner so somewhere in the middle of the layout, forcing you to look down to find it's location. This phone forces you to look at it, while the Droid 1 could be driven blindly and feel like an extension of one's hand. The back button is an integral part of the Android experience and moving it to a spot where you can't feel for it completely ruins the UI.
I reinitialized Bugless Beast on my Droid 1 following a great tutorial on Reddit here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/k9lbd/og_droid_owners_ive_dumped_dozens_hundreds_of/Last time I had trouble installing V6 SuperCharger and KickAssKernelizer and it seems these two scripts are essential to avoid Droid Degredation. So far, it's been running smooth. I think I am going to get my cell service reinstalled and send the Droid 4 back to Verizon. LTE is faster, but it's not that much better of an experience.
Sat, 13 Aug 2011
I broke down and purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad W701ds. I had two goals:
- Replace my constantly overheating Thinkpad T61p, my main machine upon which I engage in both business and pleasure.
- Finally overcome my demons and create a portable system I can actually make electronic music on without crying.
I am a technology curmugeon in that I really don't care very much about operating systems anymore and when I have to think about upgrading to the latest version of Office, it really makes me ill and I'll resist doing so until it becomes necessary. So it was with trepedation that I upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit, which you gratefully can configure to work exactly like Windows XP. Here's how you do that...
- Control Panel >> System and Security >> Change User Account Control settings >> the lowest setting
- Control Panel >> Hardware and Sound >> Mouse >> Pointer Options >> Take pointer speed down a couple of notches
- Personalize Desktop >> Windows Classic Theme
- Screen Resolution >> Make text and other items larger or smaller >> Smaller - 100% (I love how the default of Windows 7 is not the native resolution of the screen?)
- Uninstall 'Bing Bar' (for God's sake)
- Download and install Firefox
- Set homepage to https://encrypted.google.com/
- Unlock Taskbar >> Toolbars >> New toolbar... >> %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch >> Select Folder >> Drag Quick Launch all the way to the left >> Uncheck 'Show Text' and 'Show Title'
- Taskbar >> Properties >> Check 'Use small icons' and 'Lock the taskbar'
- Control Panel >> Easy of Access > Change how your mouse works >> Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen
- Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Local Security Policy >> Local Policies >> Security Options >> Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication Level >> Send LM & NTLM, use NTLMv2 session security is negotiated
Ok, anyone reading this interested in this laptop needs to know a few things:
- This sucker is about 2 inches thick and weights enough that you are concerned about it when you are carrying it around.
- The main screen is the prettiest screen I have ever seen in my life. The secondary screen is nowhere near the quality and is by no means essential.
- The speakers are loud! (HOORAY!)
For low latency audio applications, so far the only thing I've had to do is disable my wireless network adapter in order to avoid any large spikes. That makes me happy.
Thu, 26 Apr 2007
Why Do I Need Always On Broadband?
Lately I'm starting to see that I've lost sight about why people use computers, particularly networked computers. As much as the Internet is supposed to be an active medium, one by which we pull content to us instead of getting pushed upon as passive observers, I find that half the time I'm reacting to websites or emails rather than thinking about what it is I am even doing on the computer. Sites like reddit.com used to provide both an active and passive Internet experience whereby I could connect with highly intelligent people and what they value and comb between all their recommendations. Over time, as the site became more popular, the quality of the content diminished substantially. Yet I still found myself checking for new information to consume day after day, regardless of quality. So now I want to step back and start asking myself what it is that I want out of a relationship with computer technology.
In recent months, MySpace has viciously cracked down on any form of 'automated use of their systems'. This would include automated messaging and commenting, but it also unfortunately includes trolling through one's own "Friends" and adding calendar entries. Nothing is more annoying than having to enter identical data into two separate databases. If MySpace lightened their hardline stance and let the user community decide was is spam rather than outright banning automation, the tasks that do need to be automated could be automated.
When I switched from Cingular to Verizon, I lost the ability to use GSM phones. Therefore I almost lost the ability to use the fine Nokia 2630, the personification of candybar perfection. My only other legitimate Nokia option on Verizon was the 6256i.
Pros
- Infrared for syncing with Palm
- Surf the web using minutes over USB
- Decent battery life
Cons
- Flip Phone
- No QWERTY keyboard
What does the ultimate cell phone need to have?
- QWERTY Keyboard
- Always On Broadband
- Linux
- Keyboard Backlight
- Flash Drive Capability
- Plug it into a computer and use it as a hard disc.
- Pocket Sized
- FLAC playback
I like the 2007 RAV4. Inside, it is a very clean design with no frills. Minor objections:
- Power for MP3 player connected to car battery, which introduces high pitches whirling noises into the audio. Not sure if that is a function of the MP3 player's electronics or the car. Wherever the solution lies it would probably be an excellent business.
- The seat belt alarms are facist, especially the passenger side alarm. If I put a heavy backpack on that seat, after about 20 seconds it is bound to continuously alert me to the fact that my backpack is ostentatiously refusing to buckle itself up. Feh.
I went car shopping this weekend, determined to cast off my old SUV ways and head into the bright future of hybrid technology. Without question, I was going to buy a Prius. The dealership had my color, had my package. Everything was set. I had test driven it once, loved it. Tried it again, loved it again. So I bought it. After I left the dealership in my new Prius, I went to pick up my wife. She was a little hesitant about the car at first, for good reason: it didn't seem to fit our physical bodies very well. And after a few hours in the car, we found that her feelings were correct. The car was just too small for my long-legged frame. And then the back pain set it. There was absolutely no lumbar support whatsoever in the seating. The chairs were angled so as to drop the hips well below the knees: very bad ergonomics. The base of the seat had hip supports that were way too angled that actually put direct and uncomfortable pressure on the hips. Needless to say, soon we found ourselves in debilitating pain. We couldn't even drive the car after a while!
So we ended up making the painful decision to go back to the dealer and trade in a day old Prius with 40 miles on it for a 30 MPG (not bad) RAV 4 in red.
The tragedy of it all is that we were ready for a Prius. We were ready to support our world as an environmentally conscious voice. It's very upsetting that the world would not support us back.
