Thursday, January 15, 2009

Blue Ray - the next data format

The film studios and home entertainment equipment manufacturers are all supporting the development of the new blu-ray format. The implication is that if you are intending to buy any equipment you might want to pay a premium for a blu-ray compatible product, or defer such an expenditure. For more details to help you answer such questions, I will refer you to the following website that discusses the blu-ray technology.
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - now available in NZ

Dell has recently started selling a new mini-laptop in NZ which is not a bad offering. The basic unit is just $NZ699 - though with Dell's pricing plan the costs quickly add up with extras, so if its your first computer, and you need those extras, then the price quickly increases. This is of course Dell's bait advertising. Its like buying a beat up Holden and needing to fix it up. But these plans do offer flexibility.
The basic version suits people travelling around the world or touring around NZ. The reason its a great travel computer because it is lightweight - it weights just over one kilogram, it has a solid state memory, so there is no spinning drive which has moving parts, which means its more robust for outdoor use. i.e. Its the type of drive they use in your PDA.
I do have some problems with this unit. The battery life is just 3-4 hours, which means in practice its probably just 2 hours. Its a 4-cell battery. Of course you could always buy another. It has a 1.6GHz processor, but given the slow 1Gb RAM, its not going to optimise on processing speed. The solid state drive has a memory of just 16Gb - which is not very much for anything. If memory sticks were offering better capacity, this would not be an obstacle, but you might just be carrying around a portable HDD as well, which are heavy and not very robust. Wifi is optional, but it should be a standard feature. It does have a web-cam which might come in handy.
This is a pretty decent computer for a reasonable price if you don't need a lot of memory or battery life. I would however like a 2nd battery option, or longer battery life before I buy. They do offer finance, which might be important to some people.
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Free anti-virus software

There is no reason why you need to pay for anti-virus software. This is a choice you make if you are not discerning about the money you spend. You might think that software vendors deserve the fee you pay, but rest assured they are doing very well given that a great many people are paying $50 to $90 a year for software.
There are a number of vendors. Most offer a free intro period after which they invite you to pay for an upgrade. My advice is - uninstall the free version and then download it again. Failing that you can find another vendor. The intent of course is for them to find a new revenue model that charges others rather than you. My intent is not to rip you off, but for the cost to reflect value and competitive pressures. Free product is a way of avoiding advertising expenses. Having got you, their intent is to entrap you, by making you think you need to download a 'paid' version with a few extra features. You really only need the basic software.
Some of the 'paid' anti-virus software around is actually more trouble than its worth. I started out paying for Norton, but it was so resource hungry. Then I used MicroTrend's product, then Avast, and more recently AVG. Sometimes it can be hard to find a free version, so we have provided some links for you. Try searching Google for 'free anti-virus software':
1. AVG - free version
2. Avast - 60 day free version
3. Micro Trend - 30 day free trial
4. Norton - 15 day free trial

I dare say these companies sell your registration details to advertising companies, though I am not sure about their policy. The best strategy is to download AVG since it offers the best terms, and thereafter if you seem to have any problem you can download the others to remove a virus that AVG has a trouble removing, or pay for a premium version. This strategy worked for me.
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com
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