Lenovo IdeaPad N580 [Updated]

Introduction

I've been using the Samsung Chromebook as my primary (and only) laptop for the past few months. For most tasks it performs admirably. It boots fast, takes up very little space and sips power. However once I started seriously writing again, the limitations of the machine caused me to hit a wall.

I was surprised at how much I really missed using my printer. (Before you email me - I know you can hook up a printer to the cloud with Google, but it requires having another computer with a traditional OS in order to do it.) I also discovered that on the odd occasion I need to remote into my work computer, the tiny screen on the Chromebook just doesn't cut it.

Much as I wanted it to be, Google Docs just isn't a replacement for Word or Scrivener. I tried - I really did - but I just didn't like the way I had to work around things in Docs. Upload and convert, edit, download and convert, email, re-upload and convert. Check for errors at every step. It was a pain.

I also acquired some new equipment for my home theater and I couldn't update my Harmony remote to use it, which was icing on my frustration cake. After much deliberation, I decided I needed a "real" PC to act as my main device.

For about $40 more than I spent on the Chromebook ($289USD) I found a reasonably specced Lenovo laptop, the N580. It's not a powerhouse by any means but it's a solid machine for what I need. It has a traditional OS (Windows) which allows me to do three things that are vital to my books: use GIMP and/or Photoshop, edit my annotated manuscripts with Microsoft Word, and connect to all the disparate hardware devices I have in my house.

An Apology, Ten Years Too Late

I must admit as an author and overall conscientious online privacy advocate, I Google myself regularly. I want to know what comes back when people look up my name, and by and large it's exactly what I expect. I find links to my books (great!), old forum posts I've made (not so great) and occasionally, buried deep down in the search results, I get quotes and reactions to posts I made many years ago in an earlier incarnation of TechieMoe.com.

The hate and vitriol with which I expressed myself in my early adulthood shocks and embarasses me now. Ten years later I look at the things that fueled my rages and have to shake my head at how silly they were. It's like finding a book of angsty teenage poetry in your attic (and I have some of that too.) I could just let those search results languish in the Google queue and pretend they never happened, like a politician burying past indiscretions. However as I get older I find it useful to own my decisions - good and bad - and try instead to learn from them.

I've been a very angry, hateful person much of my life. I've said things that were uncalled-for, obscene and just downright wrong, often about the very people I espoused to support at that time in my life. Nowhere is this more true than in my past rants on Linux operating systems. I've insulted professional Linux developers, unpaid distribution volunteers, and free software visionaries in a misguided attempt to share one-sided opinions on things about which I knew very little.

I thought I was being edgy and clever, and ended up being immature and hateful. Some of these posts even got me a little attention with prominent Linux news sites at the time (OSNews, DistroWatch, and LXer to name a few). This just added fuel to my rage-fire.

I would like to humbly and sincerely apologize to anyone who I offended with those posts. There's a reason I deleted that version of TechieMoe.com - it was a dark, hateful place and I wanted a fresh start. I hope that if anyone is left out there who still holds a grudge for something I said, you can accept these sentiments. You're welcome to take a look at the more constructive posts I've made since then. I'm not nearly as angry as I used to be, honest.

There's a possibility I'm overinflating this. Maybe no one really cares anymore. It's possible the internet as a whole has forgotten my youthful indiscretions, but as they say, "Once something's up on the internet, it's there for good." I regret the things I said, and I hope that at some point in the future this post will show up in Google ahead of the hate and obscenities I spewed all those years ago.

TechieMoe out.

Beets Headphones by OrigAudio

When I saw an article on Engadget for "Beets" headphones by OrigAudio I thought it was just a poorly-timed April Fool's post. I wasn't alone - several other bloggers made similar comments. I went to the product page and read about them. They're can-style headphones with an inline volume dial and a cheeky "beet" graphic on the earpieces. For every order placed, OrigAudio will send a can of beets to a local food bank. By local, I mean local to them. Oh, and they're $25USD.

I'm not usually a fan of big cans. Er..big can headphones, that is. I'm also rather confused by the popularity of the "Beats" brand audio products marketed by Dr. Dre. I shouldn't be - they were originally developed and marketed by Monster, who made their fortune convincing people they should pay too much for cables. But that's another story. 

HTC Evo V and Virgin Mobile

Introduction

I'm a dirty, filthy backsliding addict. Okay, now that I've got that out of the way let's move on. After all my best efforts to justify to myself why it was I didn't need or want another smartphone, here I am not two months later holding one in my hand.

This time it's the HTC Evo V for Virgin Mobile. I kind of feel like I'm compensating for the little do-nothing phone I had before by getting the biggest, heaviest, most manly tank of an Android phone I could find. Maybe I am.

Final Update on ZTE Aspect - Week 4

My sort-of-month-long experiment is over, and it looks like I'm sticking to the Aspect for a while. It's not a perfect device by any means but it's pretty good in most respects. I have a new appreciation for ZTE, a company that before now I'd never thought to consider.

I like the Aspect. It works well for me. That being said, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stick with it indefinitely. Some of my frustrations over the past month had nothing to do with the phone, but rather T-Mobile's service. Their coverage isn't as good as I would have liked, and I've suffered from several dropped calls - the worst of which was at home in my favorite chair. That's probably the worst place to have a dead zone. 

Update on ZTE Aspect - Week 3

Bless me, followers, for I have sinned. I actually spent most of the last week using my iPhone again. Before you bring out the pitchforks and torches - I'm back on the Aspect as of this morning. The crappy picture quality was the initial thing that made me backslide, but like an addict getting his first fix after being clean for a while I noticed myself falling right back into my undesirable behaviors within a few days.

The first day back on the iPhone was great. Pictures sent to my phone were clear and crisp, and the zoom function worked exactly the way I wanted. Text messaging was faster, but typos abounded. I downloaded all the games from Zynga and PopCap that I hadn't played during my forced exile. So far so good.

Day 2 was the first time I caught myself checking my email and text messages while driving. Bad Techie. I also noticed that the iPhone was once again the last thing I looked at before going to bed and the first thing I checked when I woke up. Bad again. I made a trip to the grocery store and left it at my house on purpose. I found myself twitchy at the prospect of missing some terribly important call/text/email/game update. As it turned out, none of the above happened. The world went on for the half hour I was at HEB and the sky did not fall. I noticed this behavior in myself and I didn't like it.

Update on ZTE Aspect - Week 2

Every silver lining has its cloud. This week I'm going to focus on the negatives of the Aspect.

Things haven't been entirely rosy with my new phone. For all of its unexpected benefits, there have been some stumbling blocks along the way. My first real complaint is with the way it handles alerts. The speaker on the back of the phone is sufficient for when the phone rings - once I turn it up to full volume. However the tone it puts out when I have a text or email message is more annoying.