Alex Scoble's IT Notes - An Information Technology Blog

One Question Solved: Getting Dell 2005FPW Widescreen LCD Panel

Dell is selling the Ultrasharp 2005FPW at 30% off. Plus they are doing free shipping on accessory purchases of $50 or more. So total comes to about $575 after tax.

Dell's specs on the latency of the pixels is 12ms so should be a good choice for games.

Desktop Purchase Saga Continues

So I've priced out my best options - you can skip past all the parts to the prices, comparisons and conclusions if that sort of thing makes your eyes glaze over:

Dell Dimension 8400, w/3.6Ghz P4, 2GB 533Mhz DDR2 SDRAM, 250GB SATA hard drive, Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS sound card, 3 year onsite support, 2005FPW wide screen 20" flat panel, 16x DVD-ROM, 16x DVD-+RW dual layer and 256MB Radeon 850 XT graphics card after taxes, discounts and rebates, comes to about $3600.

Or, I can build a Scobleized (tm) PC with Ever Case tool-less case, Asus A8N-SLI motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 +4000 CPU, 2GB 400Mhz DDR SDRAM at 2.5-3-3-6 timings, 250GB Western Digital SATA hard drive with 8mb cache, Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS, 16x Asus DVD-ROM, 16x Plextor DVD-+RW dual layer, 256MB MSI Geforce 6800 Ultra graphics, Silenx iXtrema Pro 600W power supply, Silenx 120mm case fan, Silenx 92mm fan for CPU cooler, ThermalRight XP-90 CPU cooler and Zalman ZM-NB47J northbridge heatsink which after taxes and shipping all comes to $2222.80. So if I tack on $600 for Dell 2005FPW flat screen, comes to $2822.80.

With the Dell, I get next day on site support, very good tool-less clamshell case, slower CPU, lower wattage power supply (means no upgrade to Geforce Ultra 6800 - Nvidia recommends 550W PS or better for that card) and not quite as good graphics card.

With custom built, I get top notch motherboard, pretty much fastest CPU for games, awesome graphics card, very fast memory, heavy duty and silent power supply, more noise from the extra fan (dell has 1 case fan + PS fan, mine would have 2 fans plus PS fan), self support (only a bad thing if something fails, since I'm quite capable of fixing problems with Windows) and I get the fun (or stress as some may see it) of putting it all together.

So basically that 800 dollar difference comes down to the software you get from Dell, the labor in building it and the support. The difference in price is murkier than what it appears...the power supply in the custom built system is $200, plus those fans aren't cheap either, the graphics card on the Dell is $100 cheaper street than the Geforce 6800 Ultra, their motherboard isn't SLI, but their memory is more expensive (have no idea why, it's just standard 533Mhz DDR2 memory which can be had for as low as $200 for 2 x 1GB modules) by about $150. Factor in the $150 savings on the LCD panel and the $200 rebate and Dell is basically subsidizing the desktop and still coming out around $1000 more than what I would pay.

Given all that, the question is which system would benchmark best doing the games that I play and the other real world tasks that I do...then again the Dell better be a lot faster for that $1000.

Build A PC or Buy One?

I thought about it a bit and realized that a laptop would be a bad idea ergonomically. I've been having wrist and elbow pain and it gets worse when I use my girlfriend's laptop.

Plus, I just spent $235 for a WorkRite keyboard tray and arm, so it would be a bit of a waste to get a laptop. The last thing that killed the deal is performance. A good desktop will always be faster than a good laptop and I really want my next PC to be pretty killer and to last a while. Would be nice to have a PC for longer than a year without feeling the need to upgrade.

Anyhow, so now the question is, do I build my own or buy from someone like Dell. If I build, I get exactly what I want and know that all parts are of good quality, plus I pay less. Buy from Dell (I get a discount since we use Dells exclusively here at work) and I get onsite support plus the latest technology (they are now offering dual core Pentium D systems) but not necessarily the best parts (Radeon 850 XT instead of Geforce 6800 Ultra for instance).

So I have a bit of research to do tonight before I'm satisfied with my answer, although I'm leaning towards building the tower and buying a Dell 2001FP flat panel or perhaps the 2005FP widescreen panel.

IT Tip From Mom?

This is what happens when you help people to get into technology, they dive right in to learn how to exploit technology for their needs and along the way surprise the person that started them down this road.

What am I talking about? Today my mom (yeah, I said "my mom" and I can't believe it either) and I were talking about what she's been doing with her PC and digital camera that I helped her get (she got a good deal on an HP from Costco and not a Celeron or Duron either, thanks very much and I helped her get her camera through dell - a Canon A80 with 2 sets of NiMH batteries and a 256MB memory card).

She has been taking wedding pictures and photos of scenery among other things.

Anyhow, none of that suprised me. What surprised me was when she started talking about wanting a digital audio recorder, but the real shocker was when she suggested that I look into them for our attorneys to use.

Why is that shocking? Because it hadn't occurred to me. I had heard about pen audio recorders and of course just about everyone has digital answering machines now, but I just never really thought anything about digital dictation devices even while watching attorneys use their old style mini-casette devices.

Will we switch to digital for that right away? Probably not. Did a fairly quick look around the web and it seems like $150 or so is the minimum for a device that has USB so that the files can be downloaded to a PC and emailed. There are cheaper devices, but you have no way of getting the dictations off except for hearing and typing, which is certainly not better than our current way of doing things.

At any rate, it's something that I'm sure we will think about, or perhaps go with a different solution like Dragon voice recognition software, although the digital recorder is probably more practical for mobility purposes.

The point is, you never know what's going to happen when you start someone down the path of technology...well that and keep your ears open because your next IT idea might come from a most unexpected source. Thanks mom.

If I start blogging about ideas that my cats gave me, call the looney bin though.

Typewriters

We have some old IBM Selectric typewriters that we use for filling out court forms and such.

Been getting complaints that they are having problems, so I did some research into getting newer replacements.

Seems like there are only really 3 major players in the typewriter market at the moment. Brother, Smith Corona and Nakajima. Apparently there are a few companies that sell rebranded Nakajimas like Swintech, Royal and some others that I can't remember. Gone from the space is IBM, which is notable mainly because that's how IBM pretty much got their start and how they became so big.

Anyhow, I talked to a local shop that services typewriters and also sells new ones and was told that it's better to get our Selectrics repaired than it would be to get new models. This advice sticks in my craw of course, given that I'm of the newer is better crowd. But I'm no expert on typewriters and so will defer to who I think is an expert (this shop has been maintaining our typewriters for years).

Just kind of annoying that even in this day and age we have to rely on typewriters for some things and that no one apparently makes really good ones anymore.

Of course if anyone has any ideas on how to economically digitize the forms we use, I'm all ears. And by economically, I do of course mean that it has to be cheaper than maintaining 3 typewriters.

T-Coil Hearing Aid Compatible Hands Free Solution for Blackberry?

One of my users needs to have a handsfree solution, either induction loop or some sort of more traditional headset, that is compatible with his hearing aids and with his BB 7730.

Plantronics "says" that some of their headsets are t-coil hearing aid compatible, but there is NO documentation on their website that explains how. Supposedly, the M175, convertible headset that I have is t-coil compatible, but the user reported that it didn't seem to work. Barring some sort of documentation, it's hard to give more information to the user on how to make it work. Even went so far as to send a support request into Plantronics, but have yet to hear an answer.

Motorola makes a t-coil compatible induction loop, the SYN7875, that has a standard 2.5mm headset plug and doesn't appear to have any features that require a Motorola phone, but their support people couldn't tell me if the device works with any phone with a 2.5mm jack. They certainly couldn't tell me if it works with the BB7730.

At any rate, the user requires a headset that works with his hearing aids so that he can use the phone features of the Blackberry.

If anyone has any information about specific headsets that don't cost an arm and a leg, please let me know. Vendors, here's your chance to get some info out on your products and their compatibility with phones like the BB 7730.

From the research i've done, the information on a lot of the vendor sites in relation to this need is scant at best.

Wrong About Phone Features of Blackberry?

Thanks to Gary Slinger (wonder if he has a blog) I now know how to set up the Blackberry to display missed and placed calls.

You just click the trackwheel and select Options while in the Phone app on the Blackberry.

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A user just called me up asking if there was a method of locking the keys on the Blackberry.

There's a method of locking the Blackberry, but the keys are still active and she was wondering if having it in her purse while the keys were pressed randomly would shorten the battery life. It's a good suggestion.

** Note: This is completely wrong ** Another thing that I came across is that there is no call log for the phone portion of the unit. Nothing tells you when you've missed a call or if you have a voicemail waiting. Not sure if the 7100T is different, but that phone has horrible reception which makes it a waste of time (in my opinion) to begin with. **Completely wrong info...please ignore**

4.0 Handheld Software Available for T-Mobile 7730

Thanks to Gary Slinger I now know that T-Mobile has released version 4 of the handheld software for Blackberry 7730s and 7230s. This means that you can now get the most advanced features out of your Blackberry if you already have BES 4.0.

Click here to go to the T-Mobile Blackberry software site

Blackberry 7100Ts Have Reception Issues

So far of the Blackberry project, the BB 7100Ts have been the biggest dissappointment. For some reason, they will not pick up a GPRS signal inside of our building, yet the 7730s will.

The 7100Ts seem to have reception problems in other areas as well.

I now know that they do work, however because I took one home over the weekend on a whim. Drive like a block from our building and the 7100T got a signal and registered itself on the network.

Totally madening. At any rate, we are returning both of those and everyone is getting the 7730.

Have to say that so far the 7730 is a nice unit. Just wish it had bluetooth.

Unhappy With T-Mobile

So we signed a contract with T-Mobile to get 20 blackberries and data/voice service for each around the 20th of December. So far we have not been happy with their service at all.

We got the phones right away. The two 7100Ts that we got wouldn't connect to the network so I had to return them, but haven't received replacements yet.

We have yet to receive the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) software , which we got for free because of a mistake made by the local RIM rep to T-Mobile.

They keep telling me we will have an extension to our 30 day trial period so that it starts when we get the BES, but I have yet to receive paperwork that acknowledges this.

I've been trying to get a hold of our rep, but he doesn't return my emails (he has a Blackberry so gets them just about everywhere) and I basically feel like we are being jerked around.

I have to get the phones back to T-Mobile by the 20th as things stand now in order to get out of the contract, which as things are progressing looks like what will happen.

I'm not at all happy about it as this means switching to Cingular/AT&T and they charge more and don't have the latest Blackberry devices.