Tech Review Hardware: Monday, April 9, 2012

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Refurbished-Steel-Gray-15.6-Pavilion-DV6-6153CL-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Core-i7-2630QM-Processor-and-Windows-7-Home-Premium/19793191

• 15.6 "
• refurbished
• $698
• 8 GB memory 
• expandable to 16 GB
• 750 GB drive
• DVD Burner
• 1000 Ethernet
• HD webcam
• Win 7 Home Premium (sic.) 64-Bit Edition
• 90-day parts/labor

Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM Processor 
(6M Cache, up to 2.90 GHz)

http://ark.intel.com/products/52219/Intel-Core-i7-2630QM-Processor-(6M-Cache-2_00-GHz)

• # of cores
• 4
• # of threads
• 8
• clock speed
• 2.0 GHz
• Max 2.0 GHz
• memory
• Max 16 GB
• Type DDR3-1066/1333

Tech Review: Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Western Digital 4TB My Book Studio Edition II - Quadruple Interface (USB 2.0, eSATA & FireWire 400/800) External Hard Drive - WDH2Q40000N

http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-4tb-my-book-studio-edition-ii-quadruple-interface-usb/211190835.html?listingid=45553526

• $331
• Guessing that it has 2 TB drives in it

Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 3.0/2.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Midnight Black)

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-Portable/dp/B0041OSAZS

• bought for $65
• hope to install linux on it

DISA OKs secure Android mobile system for DOD

http://gcn.com/articles/2012/01/05/disa-okays-secure-andriod-mobile-system-for-dod.aspx?s=gcndaily_060112

ZAGGkeys Flex Bluetooth keyboard for iOS and Android (review)

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/zaggkeys-flex-bluetooth-keyboard-for-ios-and-android-review/5384?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE

• $80
• Nice blue tooth key board for both android and iOS

Kingston 16GB microSDHC Card w/Full Size SD Adapter - SDC4/16GB

http://www.buy.com/prod/kingston-16gb-microsdhc-card-w-full-size-sd-adapter/216757949.html

• $15
• Need the extra space for my Android
• Looks like the good deals are about $1 per GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313195&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL010512&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL010512-_-EMC-010512-Index-_-FlashMemory-_-20313195-L09B

Boss Electric 2802 8" Android Tablet

http://www.jr.com/boss-electric/pe/BOE_2802/

• $110
• I have been very disappointed with the bargain Androids.  I wonder if it is even worth buying them at all.
• runs Android 2.2
• gives access to a large segment of apps
• 1.1 GHz CPU
• should run most apps
• really 
• 800 mhz CPU
• 300 mhz DSP
• this could be a problem
• Which way is the camera facing?
• Can it run Skype?
• Another China Android

Why Ice Cream Sandwich won't be able to save Android tablets

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/why-ice-cream-sandwich-wont-be-able-to-save-android-tablets/19584?tag=nl.e539

• kind of a dumb article
• I didn't know that Android tablets needed saving
• His complain about interface in comparison to Apple might be correct, but I don't think his conclusions are

Should Amazon, Google & Wikipedia "nuke" the Web to stop SOPA?

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/should-amazon-google-wikipedia-8220nuke-8221-the-web-to-stop-sopa/1848?tag=nl.e539

• How big of a threat is the SOPA?
• does it hurt us competing internationally?
• is there danger of it law being used inappropriately 
• strong arm for political reasons
• ?
• blocking Web sites that share media
• what are the ramifications?
• would be use to kill personal use
• like iPad
• Article simply says it it bad and everyone hates it without saying why is bad and why everyone hates it

Get a 1.5TB external hard drive for $99.99 shipped

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-57355056-58/get-a-1.5tb-external-hard-drive-for-$99.99-shipped/?tag=nl.e796

• I missed the good old days when I could find a 2TB drive for $80.
• USB2
• eSATA

Dell Precision M4600 Mobile Workstation

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bwmd33a&m_2=IX72960&m_3=4G2D3&m_6=M5950&m_8=750G72&m_10=HD&m_11=W7PN61E&m_16=8XDVRTN&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&model_id=precision-m4600

• $3009
• Extreme Quad Core 2.70GHz
• Win7 Pro 64 bit
• 16 GB memory
• 32 GB 
• $5,000 more
• slower memory
• DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM
• AMD FrePro M5950 Pro Graphics
• 750 GB 7200 rmp Drive
• Blue tooth
• Camera/mic
• Can add Mobile Broadband for $125

Tech Review: Laptops, Monday, December 5, 2011

HP Pavilion dv6-6135dx Refurbished Notebook PC - AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M 2.4GHz, 6GB DDR3, 640GB HDD, Blu-ray, 15.6" Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1306296&sku=M975-156305

• $500
• 15.6"
• AMD Quad-core at 2.4GHz
• 6 GB memory (max 16 GB)
• 640 GB disk space
• Win 7 Home Premium(sic.) 64 Bit
• Blue Ray 
• Refurbished
• AMD Radeon HD 6750M
• 2 USB 3.0
• 2 USB 2.0
• 6.01 lbs
• Webacam/Mic

Tech Review: Thursday, July 21, 2011

How to build your own 135TB RAID6 storage pod for $7,384

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/90634-how-to-build-your-own-135tb-raid6-storage-pod-for-7384

• About $54 per TB
• With Raid 6, that is really $63 per TB
• This is a single unit.  
• Speed within it is good
• Raid 6:  1-2/15= 85%
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
• 85% of 135TB is about 117 TB
• $7384/117 = $63 per TB
• Redundant
• 45 3TB drive
• groups of 15 drives grouped together using RAID6 to create 39TB partition
• ext4 has a 16TB limit
• used logical volume manage (LVM) to access the full 39TB as a unit

IBM's Watson charts new frontiers for computer science

http://gcn.com/articles/2011/07/20/watson-opens-new-horizons-for-computer-science.aspx?s=gcndaily_210711

• David McQueeney, VP of software
• keynote speech at FOSE
• "a long-standing challenge in artificial intelligence to emulate a slice of human behavior"
• Understanding unfiltered language hard for computers
• Jeopardy
•  statistical analysis approach
• did not work
• uses structured data only 15% of the time
• built-in temporal reasoning
• find data through time and geospatial calculations
• weight evidence
• pre-loaded data
• not connected to internet
• Watson in 2007 could only answer Jeopardy questions 50% of the time
• DeepQA
• massively parallel probabilistic evidence-based architecture
• made of off-the-shelf components
• not technically a supercomputer
• 80 teraflops of processing power
• Won 71 percent of the time in 55 sparring matches

Mono, open-source .NET for Android, Linux and iOS, lives on

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/mono-open-source-net-for-android-linux-and-ios-lives-on/9265?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE

http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page

• support for SUSE-Attachmates' Linux Branch
• given mono new life

Technical Survey: Monday, June 13, 2011

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=7212231&sku=V18-0020

Viewsonic gTablet - 10.1" Android for $300

• Froyo - (Android 2.2)
• Can install Android 3.0 Honeycomb ROM (http://www.intomobile.com/2011/05/16/viewsonic-gtablet-gets-first-taste-android-3-0-honeycomb/)
• Camera not working right now
• Smoke in mirrors 
• 16 GB memory
• Forward facing camera
• Dual ARM 1 GHz Cortex-A9 processor
• Perhaps not a really good price.  Woot has had it for $279 (http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-g-tablet-dual-core-android-tab-is-279-at-woot-com-today-only-20110323/)

Fantom GreenDrive 2TB USB 2.0 & eSATA 32MB External Hard Drive - 2 Year Warranty! - GD2000EUS - w/ NTI Shadow Backup Software

2TB for $85 + $5.49 shipping

• USB 2.0
• $45.25 per TB

BlackBerry PlayBook $500

http://www.staples.com/BlackBerry-PlayBook-Tablet-7-in-with-WiFi-(16GB)/product_927826

Cruz eReader

http://www.staples.com/Velocity-Micro-Cruz-eReader/product_913150

Android 2.0 (Eclair)

mal

Erricson Giga Bit Board Band Router ($50)

EMCKGJJ27 promo code

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833129184&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL031111&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL031111-_-EMC-031111-Index-_-WirelessRouters-_-33129184-L02D

Nice looking device.  I would like to have one to put wireless in my home.

Archos 5 Internet Tablet for $269.99

Android 1.6

Almost 5" screen.

Being sold by NewEgg.  Nice company.  Have bought stuff from them in the past.

Looks like a nice Android tablet.  However, there does seem to be some problems:

• Have to purchase HD plugin for 720P H264.
• Trouble streaming with UStream.
• Android market place is not installed but can be.
• Must update to latest firmware.
• Can it be updated to Android 2.2?
• 3g tethering doesn't work for all Android phones.
• Poor GPS reception.

Seems like a lot of the complaints were from back in March.  Maybe things have gotten a little better.