Tech I Use
Most people love a cool gadget and I’m among them. Over the years I’ve bought plenty, probably way too many and way too soon. Therefore, I’ve changed my buying habits a bit and lately have been keeping my impulse buying in check, waiting for the item(s) to get some reviews under their belt and then deciding to pull the trigger (or not).
I’m limiting this list to those items I like and use fairly regularly – in other words, items that I feel I’m getting my money out of and would recommend to others…
This list will change, but not every day. Take a look for yourself and see if you agree with my reasoning.
First off, my cell phone: For work I was finally issued a Blackberry Curve. Overall I like the phone better than my old Treo and the BB 8830. I think that the Curve is the best business phone I’ve had to use. I can use the small keyboard better than I could the 8830 and the combination of features (keyboard, camera, Outlook e-mail sync) make it a good overall phone. However…
I absolutely LOVE my G1! Prior to the G1 I used a Moto RIZR which I found surprisingly capable as a pay-as-you-go phone. The RiZR worked well as a basic cell phone, but was limited primarily by the horrible Motorola menus and the lousy contact management. The G1 is, of course, meant to be the rival to the iPhone and I am very happy with what Google/Android/HTC have created. Like the iPhone, the app store (Android Market) is what pushes this “phone” into another dimension of usefullness.
While I’m not overjoyed by the physical design and I do envy the sexiness of the iPhone form factor there are a few reasons why I chose the G1. First, a physical keyboard – I’m just one of those guys that like to push real buttons and they’re large enough for my fat fingers. Second, I don’t have to use ‘syncing software’ (e.g. iTunes) I don’t use iTunes, I don’t want iTunes and I feel that using a piece of software that tethers my phone to a PC is an obsolete concept – The G1 is in constant sync with my Gmail account and I find that extremely useful. Third, the G1 app store/Android Market is an open forum whereas the Apple App Store is a walled garden. Fourth, the Android software is open source and, as we all know, nothing in the Apple microverse is open.
The most used piece of tech I use daily is my computer. The brand I buy is TORBETTECH – in other words, I build my own. Right now I have three primary computers, one modest PC running WinXP for daily chores, one fairly speedy gaming rig running WinXP (of course) and one Linux PC that I’m using to learn more about the Ubuntu fork in Linux distros. I also have an ASUS eeePC 1000HA that came with Windows XP and was so crash-prone that I stripped it off and installed Eeebuntu.
For my WinXP rigs I have them in what I consider the best tower case made to date – the SilverStone Wind Tunnel Temjin Tower case. They are large, easy to open, have a clear side panel, plenty of room to accommodate multiple hard drives (RAID 0 for gaming and RAID 1 for work), optical drives and the Thermaltake Big Water liquid cooling systems I have installed in each. I regularly upgrade and update components as I see fit, so I won’t bother with the specs – they’ll just change next week.
For the Linux rig I am trying something off the beaten path (as if using Linux wasn’t far off the path enough). I am using a pile of spare parts I have on hand as well as a low-power, modest CPU/MoBo package from VIA, the VIA PC-1 which uses a VIA PC2500 CPU and has on-board everything – video, audio, Ethernet, serial, USB, PATA IDE and SATA IDE. All for $60!!! It even ships with a copy of gOS, but I am running Ubuntu. My plan, when I’m finished, is to have this running as my “home server” and NAS so I can retire my Dlink DNS-323. I will also get more than just a few additional services out of it as well.
Software is tech. It is the magical code that brings our electronic bricks to life. Therefore, I feel it’s only appropriate to share several useful programs and bits of software that I find useful and effective to performing any number of tasks:
First of all, I have to give serious props to the guys that make my new site look and work so well, WordPress. For those that don’t know, WordPress is essentially the core software that manages a mySQL database on a hosted site and is primarily written to accommodate weblog posts and arrange them in a coherent manner. I have “skinned” the WordPress software with the Daleri Dark theme, just one theme out of thousands written for the WordPress platform, to give my site that special look and feel (which I’ve tweaked a bit) that I like. Some people absolutely hate dark themes, but I like this one and believe it to have a high degree of readability. I’m a poor coder, but using WordPress, a little patience, and no small amount of trial and error, it’s possible to build a simple good looking or amazing site.
My second mention isn’t software per se, but 1AND1 used to be my site hosting provider for years and I was being regularly frustrated by both their quality of service as well as their poor reliability. I recently changed to LunarPages hosting and I have noticed a more robust package of services that allow me to micromanage my sites better. It was a pain migrating from 1AND1 to LunarPages and I wound up having to change Worpress themes because the new version wouldn’t support the old theme, however I believe I’m better shape now than before.
Next has to be Ubuntu Linux. This is a fork in the Debian Linux distro that has really gone a long way to making what used to be a geek’s-only venture into an alternate operating system to a very viable alternative to the various flavors of M$ Windows or the Mac OS. The beauty of Ubuntu is that they commit to a fixed release schedule of a major release every six months. In between those releases there are regular software package and security updates that the system can download automatically, very similar to the WinXP Update service. Other pluses are that there are almost no viruses written for Linux, the system is extremely stable with up-times measured in months or years and it is free for anyone who wants it! Free as in beer! Get some!
