Random Tech Thoughts to close out 2010...

[Flitterkill]

1) Getting two sticks of 1 gig DDR2 ram for a 3 year old laptop for $11.50 on eBay is a good thing.

 

2) The HP notebooks with the aluminum shells (not the Envy line though) are all very nice machines.

 

3) The Staples $100 back for recycling an old XP box/notebook if you buy a new HP box/notebook is pretty sweet (still active for another week btw). The other half picked up one of the aforementioned aluminum HP notebooks and traded in a 2003 XP Compaq notebook. Marvel at the 2003 tech of a Celeron CPU and 192k (!) of ram (after the video nabs the rest of the 256...), although it did have the now non-existent matte screen finish. Naturally when you get the $100 back it also includes any additional tax you had originally paid.

 

4) The move to LED back lighting over the CFL stuff for notebook screens has shaved a minimum of a half pound off all notebooks.

 

5) Our staples had HP, Dell, Acer and other brands of notebooks all out in the open and easily accessible for playtime. Very nice to get some hands-on for machines you may consider getting. Although the Acer notebooks have received really good reviews, those keys on their keyboards are horrendous.

 

6) They also had a Viewsonic 10" Android tablet to play around with. I was fairly impressed. I'll have a tablet and/or an eReader within a year to year and a half in all likelihood. The leaps in technology and what you get for the price should be entertaining as hell to watch over the next year.

 

7) Over the Black Friday time period HP had their HP-branded gaming surface pads for $6 shipped. They are quite excellent, especially with my still happy Logitech G500. Very smooth and effortless glide. Some of you will find this out first hand in the somewhat near future...

 

8) I still have too many hard drives laying around from old computers. A bunch of 120 gig IDEs... I think there is a 60 laying around somewhere... I also have two 4 gig IDE Western Digital drives. I have no idea why...

 

9) Still love my Zune HD; still miffed the Kindle DX Graphite has not come down into the mid-200s for price.

 

10) Best buys for me this year were the Zune HD, Logitech G500 mouse and the WD MyBook Elite 2tb External hard drive. All through CowBoom (or one of their eBay joints) oddly enough, all at prices that were awesome. All for all intents and purposes new.

 

11) How much longer can my Nvidia 8800gts 640k video card hold the line? 3DMark06 in the 12,000-13,000 range. Do i need to start looking at a new MB, Memory, and i5 cpu as well to replace my C2D E6750?

 

12) Everyone should have one or two of these.

[Unclean]

About the G500, what kind of arch does it have? Is it standard like the razr one, or more like the Microsoft ones with a high arch?

 

I need a mouse with 'arch support', but having to charge the MX1000 is kind of a pain sometimes. I actually bought a second one, but the sensitivity switches on them, so that's no bueno in the middle of a firefight.

[boiler]

About the G500, what kind of arch does it have? Is it standard like the razr one, or more like the Microsoft ones with a high arch?

 

I need a mouse with 'arch support', but having to charge the MX1000 is kind of a pain sometimes. I actually bought a second one, but the sensitivity switches on them, so that's no bueno in the middle of a firefight.

I have the G500 as well and it is exceedingly comfortable. Arch support better than my old MX518.

[[LaW]Maverick]

I still love my Zune HD too . . .

[Flitterkill]

Yes, plenty of arch support with the G500. I did *stop* using the weights however. Not sure why but I was actually getting some pain along my forearm when I first started using this mouse. Perhaps I was just getting used to the slight differences between it and the G5. The mouse *is* superior to the G5 but I'd love to have the old big button style of side buttons found on the G5 rather than the pointy ones on the G5. My retired G5 now is on notebook duty so I flip between these mice quite often.

[VooDooPC]

Yes, plenty of arch support with the G500. I did *stop* using the weights however. Not sure why but I was actually getting some pain along my forearm when I first started using this mouse. Perhaps I was just getting used to the slight differences between it and the G5. The mouse *is* superior to the G5 but I'd love to have the old big button style of side buttons found on the G5 rather than the pointy ones on the G5. My retired G5 now is on notebook duty so I flip between these mice quite often.

In my G5 I used the heavy weights because I liked the way it felt, but since I bought the G500 I haven't used any weights in it and my hand and arm feels much better. It doesn't get sore, even playing games hours on end or browsing the web.

 

Side note: I really like my ZuneHD. I know when people say you have a Zune they are like, "Pfft, Zune", but I'll never give it up.

[samurai nightling]

I also use the G500 i recently got, and i love it. Great mouse and i use a mix of the heavy and light weights, not sure if i would like how light it feels with no weights at all.