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mcgillianaireMy baby has arrived! For now I have temporarily nicknamed it The Dreamliner, but I will eventually replace it with a better Sanskrit name. The nickname is not important. What matters is that I have bought a mean machine and am ready to take on the world!
Click on Picture to see in Full Size
My Current Desktop Background
If you click on this picture you can see a bigger version of the desktop by then clicking on "All Sizes". Windows Vista in action!
SPECIFICATIONS:
I'm diggin' the new Windows Sidebar and the Gadgets that can be placed within it. For now I have chosen to use a Weather gadget, a Headlines (incl. Blog entry) gadget, Stock price gadget, Calculator gadget and a Sticky Note Pad gadget. This is one feature of Windows I have been waiting for all this time! I remember the pains of using the old Active Desktop on dial-up connections. Not pretty!
The integrated search features designed to minimize the time it takes to search for files, folders and programs is awesome. They have replaced the space where RUN used to be (in the Start Menu) with a Search box that can be used to find not only programs but even files and folders. Thankfully, Microsoft finally decided to get rid of the START button and they've added a new Sleep feature to replace Standby and Hibernate. The older options remain, but Sleep is better because it loads up very quickly.
I was also able to get cracked versions of Office 2007 and Adobe CS2 installed for free. Office 2007 has a completely different layout and will take some getting used to. Rather annoyingly, they have changed the default extension of Word, Excel and Powerpoint files by adding an extra "x" at the end of "doc", "xls" and "ppt". The change reflects the use of XML in Office applications now but it's only a minor issue. Consider yourself warned! Unfortunately I had to experience the change the hard way after taking a file to work only to feel enraged at a campus in Seattle!
The HP has a neat feature in which the notebook doesn't 'click' into place when you close it, it just closes. Might be some magnetic thing doing the trick instead. The media buttons are smooth but the sound it makes every time I click on it annoys me. I want to turn it off! Also, I would have preferred if the media center buttons, particularly the volume control, were in front of the laptop, not near the monitor. The Toshiba laptops have it designed that way, and it's more convenient.
The PC should've come loaded with Norton AntiVirus but the guy in the shop used a crack and installed Nod instead. This means I don't need to pay for subsequent updates, yay! Let's just hope it works and downloads updates on its own. So far it seems to be working fine but if you have any experience with it, do let me know!
On the downside, the max. resolution is a pathetic 1280x800. That annoys me but given all the other features, I think I can put up with for a few years. In any case, I intend on buying a desktop by the end of the year so the laptop will not always be my primary workstation.
I'm yet to figure out how to use the webcam, but the integrated microphones work well. In Vista, Audio Recorder now saves files only as WMA's rather than WAV's; another long-awaited feature! The new Windows Explorer layout pisses me off but I might eventually get used to it. Maybe it wouldn't bug me as much if I had better a higher resolution.
The Ultimate Premium edition, which I don't have, contains a downloadable feature that enables video desktop backgrounds. I wish my version could allow such a cool feature. Nevertheless, I will experiment with animated GIFS for now. Perhaps others have tried before me? Do let me know.
And the list goes on. Overall, I'm impressed with the machine, though it has already frozen a couple times. Considering I often push computers to the limit, it isn't surprising; though as a new system it is a slight cause for concern. I've had the PC for about a week now and it hasn't crashed in the last few days so that's a good sign.
All in all, this is an awesome system for anybody who's looking for something to act as a home workstation and a media center. If I only wanted a good machine, I would've opted for Toshiba, but as it turned out, the model I wanted from them wasn't immediately available, was more expensive and most importantly, we had wasta at HP (not Toshiba).
The Dreamliner Saga begins...
Click on Picture to see in Full Size
My Current Desktop Background
If you click on this picture you can see a bigger version of the desktop by then clicking on "All Sizes". Windows Vista in action!
SPECIFICATIONS:
- 15.4" WXGA High Definition BrightView Widescreen
- Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo Processor T7200, 2GHz, Level 2 cache 4MB
- 160 GB HDD @ 5400 RPM
- 1024 MB DDR2 RAM
- Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
- NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 w/ 256 MB TurboCache, incl. 128 MB dedicated video memory
- 3D Sound Blaster Pro sound, 16-bit integrated and Altec Lansing speakers
- HP Mobile Remote Control to play DVDs without booting Windows!
- 2 Headphones-out incl. 1 x SPDIF Digital Audio
- HP Pavilion Webcam with stereo integrated microphones
- 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader; 3 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x FireWire port, 1 x ExpressCard/54 slot
- Super Multi DVD Writer (+/-R +/iRW) w/ Double Layer support
- Intel Pro/Wireless 3945BG, 802.11b/g Integrated Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 2.0
- Ethernet 10/100BT integrated network interface
- Touch Pad w/ On-Off button & dedicated vertical Scroll Up/Down pad
- 35.7cm (L) x 25.7cm (W) x 3.9cm (H)
- 3.3KG (6.6 lbs)
I'm diggin' the new Windows Sidebar and the Gadgets that can be placed within it. For now I have chosen to use a Weather gadget, a Headlines (incl. Blog entry) gadget, Stock price gadget, Calculator gadget and a Sticky Note Pad gadget. This is one feature of Windows I have been waiting for all this time! I remember the pains of using the old Active Desktop on dial-up connections. Not pretty!
The integrated search features designed to minimize the time it takes to search for files, folders and programs is awesome. They have replaced the space where RUN used to be (in the Start Menu) with a Search box that can be used to find not only programs but even files and folders. Thankfully, Microsoft finally decided to get rid of the START button and they've added a new Sleep feature to replace Standby and Hibernate. The older options remain, but Sleep is better because it loads up very quickly.
I was also able to get cracked versions of Office 2007 and Adobe CS2 installed for free. Office 2007 has a completely different layout and will take some getting used to. Rather annoyingly, they have changed the default extension of Word, Excel and Powerpoint files by adding an extra "x" at the end of "doc", "xls" and "ppt". The change reflects the use of XML in Office applications now but it's only a minor issue. Consider yourself warned! Unfortunately I had to experience the change the hard way after taking a file to work only to feel enraged at a campus in Seattle!
The HP has a neat feature in which the notebook doesn't 'click' into place when you close it, it just closes. Might be some magnetic thing doing the trick instead. The media buttons are smooth but the sound it makes every time I click on it annoys me. I want to turn it off! Also, I would have preferred if the media center buttons, particularly the volume control, were in front of the laptop, not near the monitor. The Toshiba laptops have it designed that way, and it's more convenient.
The PC should've come loaded with Norton AntiVirus but the guy in the shop used a crack and installed Nod instead. This means I don't need to pay for subsequent updates, yay! Let's just hope it works and downloads updates on its own. So far it seems to be working fine but if you have any experience with it, do let me know!
On the downside, the max. resolution is a pathetic 1280x800. That annoys me but given all the other features, I think I can put up with for a few years. In any case, I intend on buying a desktop by the end of the year so the laptop will not always be my primary workstation.
I'm yet to figure out how to use the webcam, but the integrated microphones work well. In Vista, Audio Recorder now saves files only as WMA's rather than WAV's; another long-awaited feature! The new Windows Explorer layout pisses me off but I might eventually get used to it. Maybe it wouldn't bug me as much if I had better a higher resolution.
The Ultimate Premium edition, which I don't have, contains a downloadable feature that enables video desktop backgrounds. I wish my version could allow such a cool feature. Nevertheless, I will experiment with animated GIFS for now. Perhaps others have tried before me? Do let me know.
And the list goes on. Overall, I'm impressed with the machine, though it has already frozen a couple times. Considering I often push computers to the limit, it isn't surprising; though as a new system it is a slight cause for concern. I've had the PC for about a week now and it hasn't crashed in the last few days so that's a good sign.
All in all, this is an awesome system for anybody who's looking for something to act as a home workstation and a media center. If I only wanted a good machine, I would've opted for Toshiba, but as it turned out, the model I wanted from them wasn't immediately available, was more expensive and most importantly, we had wasta at HP (not Toshiba).
The Dreamliner Saga begins...
