WorldCAD Access

Finding the Ultimate Travel Keyboard

Hardware review As a roving correspondent for the CAD (computer-aided design) world, I desire the lightest device for writing and communicating with. Carrying a multi-pound laptop, power connector, and additional cables and backup devices is not pleasant. I experienced the ultimate device back in 2000, of all things. Then, I had a Palm Pilot, a clip-on modem, and a Stowaway keyboard. This keyboard was comfortable to type on, yet folded down to a size that was the same of the Palm Pilot itself, with its 4” screen. (See image at left.) During a conference, I would type my report (in... Read more →

Rethinking Power Supplies

Drawers-full You know how we have all these spare phone chargers laying around, infuriating government bodies like the EU? I now have that problem with too many spare laptop chargers. USB-C is a revolution that I think we haven't fully comprehended, much more important than ChatGPT (which, in my opinion, is a ruse). The initials in USB are short for Universal Serial Bus, and only with the third generation did it truly become universal by handling data, low levels of power, several graphics standards, networking, and now high levels of power. All portable devices in our home now use USB-C... Read more →

Using a second PC as a second display

Luna not Last year I kicked in $99 towards Luna when it launched. It is a dongle that let a Windows or MacOS computer use an iPad tablet as a second display. It works, but is $99 and does not support Android or Windows tablets as second displays, even a year later. This would be handy for me on road trips, as I usually take a Windows laptop and an Android tablet with me, anyhow. So I looked around at other possible linkages. I normally ignore "Watch My Youtube Video!" solutions, but thought I'd give one a try, as it... Read more →

Swapping SSDs in HP’s 1/4-inch-thick X2

Easier done than said The HP X2 G3 tablet computer I bought came with just a 128GB SSD (solid state drive), as described in I'm Addicted to HP's X2. The benefit of buying a used computer with a small drive is that it is cheaper to acquire, and upgrading it is cheaper than buying a higher capacity model from the vendor. Apple is especially insidious about this. My plan all along was to swap out the small-capacity drive with a 1TB drive. But the job involves using a giant suction cup. Read on. The stages of this job are: Buy... Read more →

I'm Addicted to HP's X2

No keyboard leads to better keyboard I wrote about my experience with HP's Elite X2 G2 "laptop" computer in Using a Used HP Elite X2. It is an older model, whose primary problem is that it has just two USB ports -- one USB-A and one USB-C. Since we have to plug the power supply into the USB-C, that leaves just one port. As well, there is no HDMI port for connecting a second monitor easily, something I do a lot of. The X2 series is a Windows tablet with the full guts of a laptop, but weighs nearly half... Read more →

Apple Fans Flip Out Over New M2 CPUs

M2 20% faster than M1 Apple released computers with its homegrown M2 CPUs inside, and Apple fans were flabbergasted. It’s fun to notice that when Apple compares the performance of its M2s against other, older Apple hardware that sported Intel CPUs -- not against the M1 nor against the latest CPUs from AMD and Intel. One spec suggests the M2 is only 20% faster than the M1. Here is what some tweeted about: - - - Tom Warren (@tomwarren): If you max out Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro M2 Max with 96GB of RAM and 8TB of SSD storage then... Read more →

Best Takedowns of Macs with Touchscreens

Steve Jobs called them ergonomically terrible The rumour mill this week announced that Apple will ship laptops with touchscreens -- two years from now. The twitterati had their say. (For the record, I do not buy laptops that lack touch screens. I find that some onscreen actions are better with the precision of a mouse, and some better with the speed of the finger. With a touch screen, you have the choice.) - - - Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken): If this happens, it will set some sort of record for how long it took for a shoe to drop. Mike Murphy... Read more →

PD Power On the Go

Some successes, some failures Portable chargers for things like cell phones have been available for quite a few years now. What's newer is the PD charger; well, not so new: the spec is ten years old, but only in recent years has it become widespread. PD is short for "power delivery," and these portable chargers are powerful enough to recharge laptop computers through a USB-C port -- a port that my friends who reside on the other side of the Great Wall of Apple are beginning to learn about. I was interested in PD batteries, because I now have two... Read more →

Finding the Bottlenecks in Solidworks

Between one and multi cores Alin Vargatu of TriMech researched where the single-core bottlenecks in Solidworks are, and reported it in a Webinar at trimech.com/resources/upgrade-your-hardware-and-software-for-maximum-productivity (email required). While the purpose of the Webinar is to sell upgrades to Solidworks 2023 and new Dell hardware, it contains useful information. Let’s take a look at some of what he and Dell’s Scott Hamilton had to say at the “Upgrade Your Hardware and Software for Maximum Productivity in 2023” session. The poster benchmark reduces the time to open a large assembly from 8.75 minutes to 1.75 minutes -- 5x faster. The changes being... Read more →

Rethinking Power Supplies

From one to many I began with personal computers back when they still were called "micro-computers" and cost $6,000 for a bottom-of-the-line model; triple that amount for 2022 dollars. The parallel cable alone cost $100 in 1983 dollars, required to connect my Victor 9000 desktop to the Epson MX-80 dot-matrix printer ($800). Parallel connector (left) and USB-A connector Living in North America meant that 110V-only computers weren't a problem. A good friend, moving to Israel for his higher education, had in 1985 bought a portable Compaq computer in anticipation of the move. Portable, as in "portable sewing machine size and... Read more →

Using a Used HP Elite X2

7x cheaper than new Computers come in standard form factors, such as big boxy desktops and wear-on-your wrist smart watches. One form factor that has been around since the 1990s was popularized in the late 1960s in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey -- the tablet. In the movie, however, tablets were faked by having a film projector under the desk “react” to the astronauts’ interactions. Tablets seemed to come of age in the 1990s with the unexpected success of the PalmPilot handheld organizer. But then the unexpected failure of Microsoft’s Windows for Pen Computing initiative, along with the failure... Read more →

Beat inflation, buy reconditioned

Buying a computer for 7x less HP's X2 series of expensive tablet PCs It is completely normal for us to buy a house used, a car used. That's because they are mature products. A 15-year-old house or car is as good (and sometimes better) than a brand-new one. With inflation inching closer to 10% a year, and groceries up 25% in some cases, it pays to look for ways to save money. One way is to buy reconditioned electronics. Reconditioned is better than used, because reconditioned or renewed implies there is some guarantee that the device is in pretty good... Read more →

How my Dell Inspiron is doing, 16 months later

Quirks and good stuff I'm pleased to report that for the most part, the Inspiron 7405 2n1 laptop I bought 16 months ago for $1,100 has been proving its worth. "Inspiron" is the third level of laptop, so not top-end. Dell's caste system is XPS at the top end, followed by Latitude, then Inspiron. "2n1" means it has the 360-degree hinge, so it can transform into a tablet. I got mine in the dark-brown color, which looks pretty nice and is pretty different from everyone else's. Basic specs are... 14" touch screen with narrow bezels 2.0HGz - 4.2GHz 8-core Radeon... Read more →

The State of the Smartphone

Peaked and plateaued I was thinking the other day that I should get a spare smartphone, just in case mine gets crushed, disabled, or lost. I’d want to be back in business the same day. Looking around for a spare, I came to the realization that smartphones had peaked back in 2019. That year, CPU speed plateaued at just under 3GHz. Since then the emphasis has been on non-phone functions like cameras, software that processes photographs, and screens that fold. I got the idea for a modern spare from reading about the low launch price for the newest phone from... Read more →

Scanning Old Film Slides

Slide'n scan After I bought my own 35mm SLR camera in 1976 (a Minolta XE-7), I made the fortuitous discovery that our local major pharmacy chain sold 24-exposure slide film for just $3, processing included. That was so cheap that I went on a photography binge with my new camera, and to this day I have a filing cabinet box filled with plastic boxes holding 24 and 36 slides. How to digitize them? While my kids were still young, I paid them 10 cents a slide to run them through an Epson flatbed scanner. It could hold six at a... Read more →

Benchmarking the M1 vs Pentium

Slowing, slower There was a lot of hype generated by Apple's marketing department and echo'ed by the in-love-with-Apple tech media over its new in-house CPU, the M1. The specs were so amazing that excitement ran high over what subsequent CPUs would be able to do, M2, et al. To infinity and beyond, to quote a cartoon character. I was relieved to hear it would be amazing. The first Mac mini I bought was pretty good. (See figure at left.) It still had all the accouterments that Apple, in its need for every higher profits, stripped out of subsequent models: DVD... Read more →

I don't like Bluetooth earbuds but this Soundcore model I do like

Life A2 NC My ears are not suited to earbuds. The internal shape of them causes earbuds to slowly slide out. So I look for models with earwings to fit behind my ears' antitargus, which keeps earbuds in place. But this style of headphone is rare. I don't like Bluetooth headphones. The BT spec requires added compression to the music being wirelessly transmitted over the relatively slow data link. And it's always more annoying to connect a Bluetooth headphone than just plugging in a wired one, whether to the audio or USB-C connectors. Nevertheless, going wireless is convenient in some... Read more →

Driver-less taxis isn't a problem needing solving

Dystopia through technology We used to have two young men riding the back of the garbage truck roaring down our street once a week. They threw off the lids, grabbed the cans, hurled the contents into the back of the truck, and back onto our driveways again -- in a smooth fluid motion that was a joy to watch. On special occasions, like Christmas or April Fools, they'd wear funny hats, and always give a cheery hello to onlookers. Sometime they'd stack the empty cans in artistic ways. Then the city went automatic. Garbage trucks are outfitted with claw-like devices... Read more →

When the replacement SSD won't boot

Time to panic! Over the years, I've switched all our computers and laptops to solid state drives (SSD), after discovering just how fast they are compared to regular hard disk drives (HDD). The process is simple, usually: 1. Use software or hardware to clone the content of the old drive to the new one. The cloning process makes an exact copy of everything, including the operating system. You pay for cloning software or get it free, such as Macrium Reflect Free. Cloning hardware is a device that holds two drives, and clones the content from one to the other; see... Read more →

About this 80% keyboard

Clacking is the best typing The IBM Selectric typewriter was the Bugatti of typewriters. It was heavy (so it wouldn't bounce around or be stolen easily by employees), it struck the paper with a single ball (so it couldn't jam; see figure at left), and the keyboard was lux. You just felt good typing on it, it attained 75% of the office typewriter market, and it became the standard for the clacky keyboard shipped with the original IBM PC. Most computer keyboards today, however, are mushy. And so it was with great joy that a reader a few years ago... Read more →

When your Logitech mouse won't connect

Press real hard So in an earlier post I waxed eloquent about mice from Logitech that handle two (such as the M585) or three computers (the M720). In my case, these mice are ideal as I have a Mac Mini that shares an ultrawide monitor with my Dell laptop. One mouse for two computers. However, in the last week, I've not been able to get the mice to work with either computer -- neither with the transmitter or by Bluetooth. Lots of generic advice out there that is really unhelpful ("Try turning on Bluetooth") or downright dangerous ("Erase this file...").... Read more →

Working with a multi-computer mouse

One, two, and three Logitech has several mice that work with more than one computer. To use the two-computer mouse, you plug the transmitter dongle into one computer, and set up the second computer with Bluetooth. Then, you press the 1-2 button on the mouse to switch between them. Button 1 relates to the dongle, button 2 to the computer with the Bluetooth connection. The Logitech M585 is a mouse like that. I was able to set it up for a Windows laptop and an M1 Mac Mini. Logitech M585 mouse for use with two computers Another mouse handles three... Read more →

How much does a mouse cost?

$40, or $487 (with free shipping) Of all the hardware I use in my job as a freelance writer, it's the mouse that gets worn out the most often. I thought I'd stock up on some spare ones, and came across an intriguing model from Logitech on the Best Buy Canada Web site. The M720 is both wireless (using the Logitech dongle) and Bluetooth. I liked that, because I prefer using the dongle for speed, and Bluetooth is there for when the laptop runs out of available USB ports (happens to me sometimes). In addition, it works with up to... Read more →

When Windows Update Stalls at 35%... or 100%

Replug Despite the tech media having shrieked confidently and loudly about the death of Windows 7, Microsoft continues to update it and I continue to use it. Last week, an update alert appeared in the operating system's taskbar, and so I installed it. I think the update had to do with that 20-year-old hole in the print spooler software that could let a malicious actor (bad guy) wreck your computing experience. I installed it, and after rebooting the computing, Windows Update stalled at 35%. I let it sit there for a long time before manually restarting the computer. I won't... Read more →

Laptop wars! Dell vs HP

I've been arguing for a decade now that CPU speeds slammed to a stop around 2010, and as proof my primary desktop computer, on which I get most of my paid-work done, is indeed from 2010. That just might make me a hypocrite after buying a new laptop last month, to replace one I got five years earlier. As I explained to my wife, there are three reasons to buy a new computer: Specs - there are sufficiently improved specs; the subject of this article Pricing - the laptop is on sale and so is reasonably priced; I look for... Read more →

I never bought the ZX81

$99 proved too expensive Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Sinclair ZX81, the second generation of the earliest affordable home computer -- and a distance cousin of our smartphones. The computer I never bought (image credit oldcomputer.info) Inventor Clive Sinclair specialized in small devices. I recall picking up a brochure of his diminutive calculator while in England in 1974. He also designed a tiny, unsuccessful automobile. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I watched the personal computer scene with its confusing array of standards -- S-100, CP/M -- making me hesitant to take the plunge. Part of the... Read more →

Worst hardware design ever

Oopsie hardware design While I was technical editor of CADalyst (1985-1991), I reviewed an awful lot of hardware -- graphics boards, monitors, display-list software, pen and electrostatic plotters, dot-matrix plotters, laser printers, hardware and software plot cachers, hardware and software scanners -- because at the time CADalyst was at first the only game in town. Those were remarkable years, in that I could have hands-on experience with hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment related to CAD. (The most expensive was a $70,000 E-size super-fast Vidar scanner, that in today's dollars would be closer to $200,000.) I developed testing methodologies... Read more →

Speeding up a solid-state drive

Install a cache I had been using a tiny Gigabyte computer to power my entertainment room. All it needs to do is run a Web browser, through which we watch Acorn, Britbox, YouTube, and the others. In recent years it suffered from two serious flaws, which I detailed in worldcadaccess.com/blog/2020/10/its-hard-buying-a-chromebox.html: For the last couple of years, something kept removing the working audio driver, leaving a non-working one (Solved! See worldcadaccess.com/blog/2020/12/solved-audio-driver-keeps-disappearing-in-windows.html) In recent weeks, the computer sometimes ground to a crawl, taking a long time to do anything. At first, I thought that problem 2 was due to CPU overload, but... Read more →

Solved: Audio driver keeps disappearing in Windows

The evil that lies in RAVCpl64 For the last two years, I have been baffled and bamboozled by the audio driver going bad in the tiny Gigabyte PC I use in my entertainment room. My initial fix was to reinstall the driver, repeatedly, something that took a good ten minutes each time. The fix lasted a few weeks, then a few days, and finally for only a day. The computer has two audio drivers. Intel's audio driver worked over HDMI; the one from RealTek did not. But the Intel one would disappear, leaving only the RealTek. Ergo, no sound. Naturally,... Read more →

Upgrading an old PC to the HDMI era

'Tis possible I decided to replace my wife's computer. It is a 64-bit machine that -- curiously enough -- runs 32-bit Windows 10. Even though I had upgraded it from 2GB to 6GB RAM (for free, using spare memory modules from older computers), 32-bit operating systems see only 4GB -- it's an addressing limitation inherent in 32-bit computing. As well, Microsoft really didn't want to update the Windows 10 running on it. I made a few manual attempts to update it, but Windows just wouldn't give in. Microsoft was seen as foolish when it said it would always update Windows... Read more →

How to buy a new laptop

Higher specs, higher price I despair when I see a customer returning a $400 laptop to the store, complaining that it doesn't work well. Or when an organization struggles with its slow-moving laptop that it just purchased. There was a time I was buying a laptop a year for my kids in high school. The low-priced ones just aren't worth it. For a laptop to run well, and to last for years, you need to spend $$$, typically over $1,000. That's a lot of money in an area of life where we had been conditioned to expect ever lower prices... Read more →

It's Hard Buying a Chromebox

A rare beast For nearly ten years, I've had a Gigabyte microPC in my home's entertainment room, whose job is basic: view movies from Acorn, Britbox, and so on. It runs a Web browser that does all the work streaming us movies. Initially, I had used an Internet-enabled DVD player, which showed Netflix and other services, as well as played DVDs. But these so-called "smart devices" have short lifespans when it comes to staying up to date and still being able to access Netflix and its ilk. This is something the salesman will never tell you. Anyhoo, I figured getting... Read more →

From Cassette to MP3

Limitations galore For my daughter's upcoming major birthday, her husband wanted to make a playlist of the music she used in her figure skating routines. It was my job to hunt them down. One song was on a CD, so that was easy to convert to MP3. There is lots of free software that does that, even iTunes will do it once you jump through the correct hurdles. Another song was on a cassette tape. There was a time when I had hundreds of tapes, which I listened to, to spare wear and tear on the roughly 400 vinyl records... Read more →

Updated: Lenovo announces first workstation with 64-core CPU

Lenovo ThinkStation P620 Summer used to be quiet time for user conferences, press events, and product launches. People were, after all, on vacation. Fall was the busiest time for me, but spring was busy for others who cover tech events. Then a thing called coronavirus happened, and people said that "afterwards everything would change." For these events, it has changed. Last week and this week, I received invitations for five online events -- from Graphisoft (2 events), 3D Systems, Siemens, and Lenovo. In July! That I am travelling and on vacation during summer months -- well, that's not a factor.... Read more →

ChromeOS Grows Up

Now with Android & Linux support A number of years ago, I bought one of the very first Chromebooks out of curiosity. It was pretty lame. About the only thing I found myself doing with it was periodically booting it up to update ChromeOS. Chromebooks run Google's Chrome Web browser as the operating system. This means that the only thing a Chromebook can do is run Google's Chrome Web browser, and any extensions supported by ChromeOS. Very limiting. I was limited to using apps like Google Docs and lame photo editors, which held no interest to me. Further, the Chromebook... Read more →

The Determinism Future of AI

You will be harmonious I've told my kinds, if you don't like where you're working or who you are working for, quit. (In my job, I get to fire clients who are too annoying.) And so we read that "Organizer of Google Sexual Harassment Walkout Leaves The Company." Actually, organizer Meredith Whittaker is one of four out of the six organizers who have left Google by this point. Meredith Whittaker is not the only whistleblower speaking against Google mis-culture. James Daemore did, too. For the mainstream and tech media, however, Whittaker is a martyr to be hallowed; Daemore is an... Read more →

MX Performance 2S is Logitech's expensive mouse mistake

The MX devolves As a professional technical writer who often puts into 12-to-14-hour days writing and typesetting, I rely on an excellent keyboard (currently loving AZIO's MGK 1-K backlit, aluminum-bodied brown-switch that is such a joy to use that it makes me just want to type more) and Logitech's MX Performance mouse; see figure 1. I use the MX, because it is a big, tall mouse on which I can rest my hand; has plenty of buttons; feels hefty; and it... Figure 1: Logitech's (old) MX Performance mouse with its band of steel ... switches between freewheel scrolling and clicked... Read more →

How to resurrect your old Pebble smartwatch

Users arise For 19 years, I appreciated my titanium Citizen Eco-drive with its perpetual calendar (see figure 1). Titanium, because I don't want the weight. Eco-drive, because it never needs a battery (a solar panel on the face recharges a capacitor). Perpetual calendar, because I never need to set the date, even in leap years. Figure 1: Kind of like this, but in titanium I tried a few other watches, and even some smartwatches, but always went back to the Citizen as it was reliable. Until it wasn't. One morning I noticed that its hands weren't moving. Now, this could... Read more →

This is what it's like using a $30 smartwatch

100 calories an hour After Apple taught manufacturers in China how to design and build smart watches, the market over there became flooded with sub-$100 models. During Black Friday weekend, Umidigi offered their new smartwatch for US$30, instead of US$50 -- with choice of rubber or metal mesh strap. Apple charges $100 for its metal strap alone, so this was a deal! I wanted to see what the very latest in smartwatch could offer me, albeit cheap. This would not be my first, but my fourth. My first was Sony's original one came out in 2012 and barely worked. A... Read more →

Why my mother-in-law's new laptop is a desktop

So much cheaper My mother-in-law's laptop was getting so slow that even she was complaining about it. It's a Toshiba I got for her from Staples many years ago; it still runs Vista. As I thought about how to replace it, the high cost of decent laptops put me off. Browsing black Friday sales I came across an offer for a reconditioned mini desktop. That was it! I realized that she never moves her laptop from the desk in her office, so a desktop would (1) save her lots of money and (2) be more powerful. A Dell, it had... Read more →

Fixing problems with HP's Elite laptop

Not so elite My dad bought himself a "really good" computer last year. Normally I spec them out for him, but this time he decided to get his own -- at age 93 . He ended up with a fairly impressive machine: 17" HP Elite (but with no touchscreen, oddly enough) 2.0-2.7HGz i7 CPU 12GB RAM 1TB hard drive, which was replaced by a 1TB solid state drive nVidia graphics board Backlit keyboard, CD/DVD drive, etc. And then after a year he decided he didn't like it, and gave it to me -- as per usual. I am unsure what... Read more →

A second monitor for your laptop

Sibolan S1 portable monitor I was envious of editor Roopinder Tara having a second monitor for his laptop. I believe that it was an add-on from Lenovo, who also made the laptop. When we editors are into serious writing and editing, two monitors are a must! Some guys use the LCD tv screen in their hotel rooms, but they aren't particularly portable. And so year or two ago, I looked into getting one, but they were priced like $1,500 -- shocking, given that it is basically a laptop-less screen! On a whim, I last week checked again on eBay to... Read more →

New HP Workstations and Monitor

HP Z8, Z6 and Z4 It used to be that workstation makers made their own CPUs. I suppose Oracle-owned Sun is the only one still doing so, called the SPARC. Integraph was the most interesting, as in the 1980s they designed their own CPUs to power their own workstations on which to run their own CAD software. An Apple before its time. (Intergraph benefited financially later in its post-hardware era when courts in USA and Germany found Intel stole intellectual property from Intergraph for use in the wildly-popular Pentium CPUs.) By relying on Intel and AMD, workstation makers limit the... Read more →

Benq's Brand-new PD2710QC Monitor

Reviewed by Ralph Grabowski When the public relations firm for Benq asked me if I would want to review one of their new 27" and 32" monitors aimed (in part) at CAD users, I asked for the smaller one of the two. That's because a couple of years back I reviewed the first-ever 30" monitor from Lenovo, and was unpleasantly overwhelmed by its size, but even more so with its weight. Sure, once placed on my desk, the 25-pound weight was no longer a problem, but the huge size was overwhelming for my desk and the adjacent monitors. (From what... Read more →

What I found when I bought a commercial-grade WiFi access point

Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR wifi access point I live in a "BC Box" home, a rectangular house designed to maximize the interior space. These homes put the natural gas furnace and hot water heater in the center of the house, in the basement, with sheet metal ducts and copper piping spreading tentacle-like throughout the home. My Internet service arrives via an ADSL cable in the basement, at a corner -- the worst possible location. For more than a decade, I battled to get a strong, reliable WiFi signal past all that metal in the middle of the house. A few years ago,... Read more →

PTC ceo talks about IoT, VR, and AR

James Heppelmann from last week's conference call There's been a lot of buzz about augmented reality [AR] generated recently by Facebook and Snapchat. That technology is fun for consumers, but it'll be transformational for enterprises. You may not have thought of it this way yet, but if IoT [internet of things] brings data from the physical world into the digital world where it can be analyzed and understood, then augmented reality takes the resulting information from the digital world and overlays it back on the physical world to put it in context. Because AR is not very interesting without a... Read more →

Update: My HP Spectre X360 After One Year

A reader writes: I have always enjoyed your hardware experience blog posts, and so I have been waiting to read your conclusions and experiences with your HP Spectre X360 -- especially in view of your Yoga failure. - J.L. A bit of history: I bought the HP Spectre after my Lenovo Yoga 2 failed from bad memory chips. The chips are soldered in, so I could not repair them myself. It was just out of warranty, and the local Lenovo Repair Center estimated a repair cost of $1,500 -- about $300 more than what the laptop originally cost me --... Read more →

Here's hoping my new cell phone will be really great

UMI Super My current cell phone is an LG-made Google Nexus 4, that's over 4 years old. It is showing its age. Increasingly, the screen stays black when I turn it on; the only recourse is holding down the Power button until it reboots. Its CPU is struggling with today's app load, and the default camera app sometimes crashes but more often takes a long time to be ready. A replacement, clearly, is needed. At one time, I would have got the same phone as I got for my wife and my mother-in-law, the $200 Moto G with smart cover.... Read more →

HP and the World's Smallest MCAD Workstation

HP Z2 Mini G3 HP last week gave about 70 of us media people a preview of its new Z-series workstation. "Z" means computers meant for users of high-end desktop software, like mechanical CAD design and movie editing. This one is called Z2 Mini G3 -- a riff of Apple's Mac Mini. HP product managers were pretty huffed up about the angular design (see figure 1), which is a problem for me, because I like rectangular black boxes. The more rectangular and featureless the better, and silent -- like my six-year-old Acer desktop; think monolith from 2001, but fatter. Figure... Read more →

The Cliq of Death

Zip! There was a brief interlude when the Zip disk reigned supreme. I was reminded of this when my dad plonked a box of computer cables on my floor. Amongst the tangled mess was an Iomega Zip drive (see figure 1). Figure 1: The second generation Zip drive from Iomega The Zip disk was a kind of corporate standard in the late 1990s, because it held 100MB. Not a lot by today's standards of cheap 64GB USB drives, but in the day that was 32x more than the ubiquitous 3.5" floppy disk. Now, 100MB was 6.5x less capacity than a... Read more →