tintedGreen

Repair Pictures

Mike Lovell — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:53:11 +0000

Just wanted to post some instagram pictures of the repairs I have been doing lately. Enjoy!

Cheap Tablets vs iPad2 – A Canadian View

Mike Lovell — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:03:51 +0000

Update2: Google themselves have released a new answer in the Nexus 7, a quad-core tablet built by Asus. At $200 and running the latest Android OS (4.1 Jellybean), there is really no other budget tablet worth buying.

Update: It looks like Samsung has answered this question. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is a $250 7″ tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich. It will be out soon and looks to be a good deal for the price. Based on the reviews so far, I think it is a great cheap alternative to the iPad.

The new Apple iPad is out! [If you are reading this in the distant future - like next year - I mean the iPad after the iPad2] This is exciting for tablet bargain hunters. The current king of tablets, the iPad2, will now see a price drop. However, there are many less expensive options in the world of tablets. How do they stack up to this cheaper iPad2 ($420cdn new or $350-400 used/refurbished)? And how does living in Canada affect this selection?

What makes the iPad2 still great?

Apps. There are so many more apps for this device it makes it difficult to consider the competition at all (for now). When your device is just a screen and the app essential becomes what the device is, this is important. There is just so much to do on this device and so many high quality games. All the current apps work great and everything will work on this device for years to come.

Apple iPad2 – New budget king?

Hardware. There is nothing out there that is significantly better, unless you couldn’t possibly live without an sd card reader or usb port built-in (but trust me, you can). The screen is not the super HD screen of the new iPad, but it’s still as good as anything else on the market at this price point. One knock to the hardware is that it is a 10” tablet, so, if you’re looking for a smaller 7” tablet, it might not be for you.

The Options

The BlackBerry Playbook

RIM BlackBerry Playbook – All bark but no apps

Let’s start with one the home team. The 7” PlayBook from RIM has been out for almost a year now and has just received a big update with its 2.0 OS software. It can be found as cheap as dirt for $199 new. It has a great screen and the build quality is high. The operating system has a slick interface and multitasks really well. The apps it has (like the new email app and the browser) are as good as anything I have seen.

Unfortunately, there is not much else in apps. There are some nice productivity and ereader apps, but games are practically non-existent. And it’s weird to have to pay $5 for Angry Birds when I can get it for free everywhere else. So, if you want to do browsing with video (flash works great on this device) then this is an option. But who is that market? The porn-on-the-go types?

Cheap Android Tablets

When it comes to hardware and build quality, you won’t find anything compelling in this market. The really cheap sub $200 tablets are all awful. These devices are built to fill in price points in the market; nothing more.

On the software side, you will notice me mostly ignoring any tablets with versions of Android less than 3.0. Tablets running Android 2.2 (codename Froyo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) are hardly worth your time. These are versions of Android designed for phones and, because of this, they don’t do a good job of simply being a tablet. These monstrosities are almost all underpowered, slow, and buggy. You should save yourself the frustration and avoid them.

Kobo Vox
I want to point out this device specifically. It is another tablet designed in Canada at a low price point. However, this machine is running a forked version of Android 2.3. This means it is not supported by Google and will not feature the Android Play Market or Google apps like Gmail or Maps. This device is slow and buggy with a horrible screen. So, it’s cheap for a reason. Even on their own materials, Kobo calls this thing a colour ereader and not a tablet. If you want a tablet, don’t get this.

Mid-ranged Android tablets

Most of the mid-ranged Android tablets have at least Google’s Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system. Honeycomb was designed with tablets in mind, so the interface works fairly well. Unfortunately, it is not quite as good as Google’s latest version of Android, 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS). It would seem that almost all the tablets released with Honeycomb are going to get an ICS update sometime soon.

Acer Iconia
The name Acer usually conjures up images of cheap-crappy computers for a large portion of the population (whether Acer deserves that distinction will not be discussed here). However, their tablets are actually not bad. They are well built and include Gorilla Glass fronts and aluminum backs. The Iconia line starts with the 7” A100 that can be found for $280cdn making it a model interesting to this discussion.

Acer Iconia A100 – Good, but could be cheaper

At this price, if you prefer a 7” screen and can deal with only having 8GB of space, this might be the tablet for you. It does not have Android 4.0 yet, but it will come very soon as the Acer Iconia A200 (a 10” tablet priced at $330) already has Ice Cream Sandwich. I still think it is pricey at $280… a price closer to $200 seems more suiting. I’m sure it will get closer to that in the coming months.

Archos
While Archos might not be a name many people will know, the most gadget-addicted of us have been seeing their cheap wares for years. They always try to give the latest tech at a reasonable price. Their current line of Android tablets are pretty nice spec-wise, but are still behind in build quality compared to the iPad and premium Android tablets. So, you might want to take a look at the 9 series (which has ICS rolling out to devices now), but the lower build quality keeps me away.

Lenovo
Lenovo recently entered the tablet market with two interesting low cost IdeaPad tablets, the A1 and the K1. The A1 is another slow Android 2.3 tablet and is not even worth its current lowly $200 price tag. Yes, it supports the Android Play Market, but you will find a lot of apps probably won’t work the best. Its screen is also pretty bad. It might become a good hacking tablet if Lenovo or the Android community get Ice Cream Sandwich on it.

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 – Almost hits the sweet spot

However, the K1 is a very interesting option at $300. It is a decent 10” Android Honeycomb tablet with good specs including 32GB of storage. However, we are still not sure when this tablet will get Ice Cream Sandwich (Lenovo has stated it is coming in the first 6 months of this year). I think it is a good buy for $300 if you don’t mind not having ICS right away. If it were to have ICS, it would hit a sweet spot at this price.

Expensive Android Tablets

I’m going to glaze over a hell of a lot here… I’m bundling all Android tablets that are over $350 into the “expensive” category. Why? Because once you get to that price point, the device is directly competing with the iPad2. None of the Android tablets at this price strike me as being significantly better than the iPad2.

Sure, there are a lot of terrific premium Android tablets. The Asus Transformer and Transformer Prime, Toshiba Thrive, Galaxy Tab, Moto Xoom, etc, etc; they are powerful and work well. I’m sure they will all find a home with the Android lovers out there. But this article is about comparing the cheaper iPad2 to other cheap tablets and most people would rather have an iPad2 over any of them.

Special rant: While I do like a lot of these premium Android tablets, one that I particularly hate is the Sony Tablet S. I don’t know what all the reviewers where smoking when they picked this up, because it is generally well reviewed. Don’t listen to them. It’s a cheap piece of plastic crap.

Hacked Android Tablets

Trying to outsmart me, huh? “What about hackable tablets?” you might be saying. “They are cheap and can run all the latest stuff.” Well, there were a lot of people that bought the HP TouchPad with WebOS intending to extend its life and usefulness by installing Android on it. While the porting of ICS to the device has been going well… there are still a lot of bugs in it.

I’ll give you the same warning with the TouchPad that I would give anyone buying a cheap Android tablet with the intentions of hacking… be prepared to be frustrated. I own a very hackable Android tablet (Viewsonic gTablet) and while I have learned a lot about Android from it, it has been far from a cakewalk. I have spent some long hours getting stuff working on this machine. There is work to it and, if you’re not the type to enjoy messing around with hardware and voiding warranties, this should be avoided.

Not an Option – Kindle Fire

Amazon Kindle Fire (Not Available in Canada)

I’m sorry if you are just finding this out here, but the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s awesome little 7” tablet, is not available in Canada. This is due to regional restrictions. Sure, you could buy one and bring it to Canada, but none of the Amazon services would work (apps, video, music, etc), defeating the whole point of buying the device. This would be my answer to almost everyone that asks me, “Which cheap tablet should I buy?” were it available here. It not being available in Canada yet is the only reason this article exists.

Conclusion

So, let’s talk only about price points. As a bargain-hunter today, I would avoid any Android tablet that is over $300 unless I was dead set on only using the Android ecosystem. Once you get to that price, just save up a little more for an iPad2. It is worth it.

The 7” Acer A100 and the 10” Lenovo K1 32GB are fair options at their respected sizes. The Playbook would be great if it had some apps, but I don’t see many developers really supporting this platform. The Android tablets are a little behind the iPad when it comes to apps, but the big name apps are there and it is getting better all the time. Like Android did with phones; it is catching up in tablets.

If you are willing to wait, some new 7” Android tablets running ICS will be available at $250 or less soon like the Asus EeePad MeMo. This looks like a great buy with these specs and price.

Asus Eee Pad Memo 370T – Future awesome budget tablet?

Having said all that, everyone is different. I would be happy to help anyone pick out the tablet that will suit them best. There are lots of deal-breaker features on these tablets that some people will require (sd card slots, hdmi ports, etc). Sure, the iPad2 is not for everyone, but at its current price in this market, it’s going to be most people’s best option.

Guide: Will my cell phone work with a carrier in Canada?

Mike Lovell — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:30:29 +0000

Please feel free to comment here or on my Google+ post if there is anything you think I should add. I simplified much of this in hopes to avoid confusion.

Step 1: Which phone do you have?

This might seem like a silly question, but a lot of people don’t know anything about the phone they are holding in their hand. I’ve heard enough people say “an android” or “iPhone 4G” to know that this is a real issue for many.

The best site I have found to assist with identifying a phone is http://www.gsmarena.com/. To find your phone, do a search on their site (top right corner) with what you know about your phone (like the model name and manufacturer).

If their search doesn’t help, try using a site search with google, like this:

site:gsmarena.com

Example:
site:gsmarena.com htc desire bravo

(Bravo is an alternative name)

Now check out the full phone specifications from the results. Does the picture look like your phone? If so, you probably have the right device. If not, try to refine your search. Going to the site of the carrier you purchased your phone from may help you identify.

Once you have found your phone, the important part to take note of is the 2G, 3G, and 4G network protocols (like GSM, CDMA, HSPDA, etc) and frequencies. This is what we will need to determine if your phone will work on a carrier.

Remember that where you bought your phone can have an impact on which frequencies it supports. European and North American versions of a phone may look exactly the same and support the same protocols, but use different and incompatible frequencies.

Step 2: Which carriers support my phone?

Here is a chart with a general overview of the three major carriers and what they support. Notice Bell and Telus practically use the same network. The 4G stuff may change a lot in the next little while. I have a special note of LTE later in this guide.

Bell

including
Virgin Mobile
PC Mobility

CDMA 850/1900
EVDO 850/1900

3G (and fake 4G)

HSDPA 850/1900
HSPA+ 850/1900
UMTS 850/1900
WCDMA 850/1900
1x EV-DO CDMA2000

LTE 1700

Telus

including
Koodo

CDMA 850/1900
EVDO 850/1900

3G (and fake 4G)

HSDPA 850/1900
HSPA+ 850/1900
UMTS 850/1900
WCDMA 850/1900
1x EV-DO CDMA2000

4G (called 4G+)

LTE 1700/2100

Rogers

including
Fido
Petro-Canada Mobility

GSM 850/1900
GPRS 850/1900
EDGE 850/1900

3G (and fake 4G)

HSDPA 850/1900
HSPA+ 850/1900
UMTS 850/1900
WCDMA 850/1900

LTE 1700

Some quick history:

During 2G adoption, Bell/Telus used CDMA while Rogers went GSM. This makes phones between the two carriers often incompatible in 2G, unless the phone is dual-band (supports both CDMA and GSM). These phones are often referred to as “world phones” and this feature can be kind of rare.

When developing their 3G networks, Bell/Telus decided to switch their protocol to GSM. So, Bell/Telus and Rogers have technically compatible 3G networks. Therefore, if you by a phone on Bell/Telus and want to use it on Rogers (or vice versa), the 3G connectivity should technically work fine. I say technically, because there is another issue you may run into…

Step 3: Is your phone unlocked?

Even if your phone is compatible with a network, that still doesn’t mean it will work. Many carriers (mostly North American carriers) will sim lock their phones. This means that the phone should only be able to use sim cards from the carrier you purchased it through. However, sometimes carrier subsidiaries can be compatible even with a sim lock (like a Bell phone working on Koodo, or a Fido phone working Rogers). Many carriers will unlock a phone for you, but often at a price. Some carriers can charge up to $50 for this privilege. Often you can find unlock codes online for much cheaper, but sites that provide these services can be sketchy at best.

Sometimes unlocking can be done purchase-free with a bit of hacking. The quickest way I have found to determine if a phone can be unlocked without buying a code is actually to search Youtube. Just search with the words “how to unlock”. If the person in the video points you to a site to buy an unlock code, it probably does not have a method to unlock without a code (yet). Otherwise, if it describes a process to root or jailbreak your device, then a free way to unlock may be possible.

The ability to unlock a phone with a free method is often determined by how “hackable” the phone is and if it has a strong hacking community behind it. iPhones and popular Android phones usually have free ways of unlocking. It will usually involve rooting, jailbreaking, flashing a ROM, installing a different baseband, and/or running weird apps. There are lots of guides for lots of phones, but it is usually not for the faint of heart. It will also often void your warranty. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, find someone that can.

Example of how to use this guide

As an example, I’m going to use a scenario that I ran into recently. It should give you a good idea of how confusing determining compatibility can be.

My friend came from Russia with her HTC Desire that she pruchased in Russia. She already knew the phone was unlocked (this is common in other parts of the world that are not North America). Let’s try to figure out if it will work for any of these Canadian carriers.

First, let’s search GSM Arena for the phone: http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_desire-3077.php

Note the 2G networks. It uses GSM 850/900/1800/1900. Since Rogers uses 850/1900, then this phone is compatible with Rogers 2G network for 2G.

But what about 3G? Well, it would seem that this phone uses HSDPA 900/2100 but HSDPA 850/1900 for the North American version. Since this phone was bought Russia, it uses the 900/2100 frequencies. Since none of these Canadian carriers support the 900 or 2100 frequencies, this phone will not work on any of these 3G networks in Canada.

Therefore, the only option for her to use this phone in Canada is on Rogers. She would also be limited to 2G only. Painful, but at least we know.

Note on HSPA+ and “4G”

I use the term “fake 4G” in the chart for a reason. All the major carriers have gotten into the bad habit of giving HSPA+ the “4G” name. While under international naming standards this is not a false statement, it certainly misleading. 4G networks where originally meant to be defined by having a service that works at over 100Mbit/s. While LTE is still not that fast yet, it is a standard that can get us to these 4G speeds. HSPA+ will not get that fast and it is rarely as fast as its advertised speeds. Most consider LTE to be a real 4G standard. However, the telecom companies do not seem too concerned about confusing customers. Telus has even started giving LTE the name “4G+”, adding even more confusion.

Note on 4G LTE

Here is where things get weirder and I hope to fill out more on this section as information becomes available. Currently, Rogers and Bell/Telus supports LTE in a few select areas on a 1700 spectrum. This should make phones that run LTE on the same frequency (like ATT LTE) technically compatible, but there doesn’t seem to be much information on this.

If you have an LTE device running on a 700MHz frequency (like Verizon in the US) then it flat out will not work in Canada on LTE at this time. The 700MHz spectrum has not been auctioned to Canadian carriers yet. You can be sure that LTE will be running on 700MHz in Canada once carriers start using this frequency. Whether 700MHz LTE phones from other countries and carriers will be compatible may be harder to figure out.

Determine compatibility using IMEI number

Bell and Telus also have a way to figure out compatibility using your phone’s unique IMEI number. This can usually be found on the phone once you remove the battery.

Bell IMEI Checker: https://www.bell.ca/shopping/jsp/pageblock_styles/ToolBox/imeitool/imeitool.jsp
Telus IMEI Checker: http://www.telusmobility.com/en/NS/phones_and_devices/devicecompatibility.shtml

Coverage:
This guide isn’t meant to help with figuring out your coverage, but compatibility. However, here are the coverage maps for the major carriers:
Rogers: http://www.rogers.com/coverage/
Bell: http://www.bell.ca/shopping/PrsShpWls_Coverage.page
Telus: http://www.telusmobility.com/en/coverage/index.shtml

Note: I see this guide as a living document that I want to try to keep updated.

Changes:
Jan12, 2012
-Removed part of intro
-Added 1x EV-DO to Bell and Telus 3G
-IMEI number check for Bell and Telus
Oct27, 2011
-Edited for grammar

Links that helped me create this guide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Mobility
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Wireless
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1090183.html
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1594910-Guide-Will-It-Work-on-the-New-Network
http://mobilesyrup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10244

Twitter, front-line employees, and Android… an idea.

Mike Lovell — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:35:02 +0000

Last January, I went to an absolutely amazing event called Podcamp. It was a grand meeting of best Halifax has to offer in social media and internet marketing. To find out more check out some of the truly inspirational talks on the website: http://www.podcamphalifax.ca/

One point I took from the event was what twitter is becoming for businesses. Not only are they using it for broadcasting information (sales, new products, etc), but they are also using it to communicate directly with customers. Just like many users, they find themselves “chatting” through the social network. Some businesses have really taken to using twitter as a real-time communications tool.

Using twitter in this manner seems to be successful for many companies. Some use it to answer questions, concerns, and some for even troubleshooting problems (@eastlink technical support is a good example of this). One of my friends recently used twitter to change a restaurant reservation.

I believe this is the start of a large shift in the way businesses communicate with their customers. For many of us in the “social network generation” (or whatever you want to call it) twitter is starting replace some of our previously established communication tools. Not just the obvious, like email, but even more prevalent real-time two-way communication tools, like the telephone.

One distinct advantage is the ability to answer concerns of many customers at once; cutting down on repetition. Another is is the ability to queue questions so that you can answer when time allows or you’ve had time to research. Maybe this is the way we get to the dream of a world without waiting on hold listening to sweet sweet muzak.

However, there are some very specific questions a business has to ask itself when deciding to use twitter in this capacity. Who will be doing the tweeting? Is this the job of the business owner? Manger? Since we’re going to be using twitter to replace functions that front-line employees do anyway, wouldn’t it make sense for them to using twitter?

How can we delegate this task to a front-line employee without causing too much of a distraction? Can this be done in a cost effective manner? Just giving an employee a laptop or an iPad seems expensive, and, frankly, overkill. Being the hardware junkie that I am, I see the potential in building a device for the task. A service for businesses new to twitter could be incorporated as well, but I want to concentrate on the device itself, for now.

Such a device should be simple. Practically anything can post to twitter (laptops, cell phones, tablets, alarm clocks, TVs, potted plants… you get the idea). The problem is that most of these devices do so much more. This could become a real distraction for front-line employees and a real headache for the business owner/manager. The real trick is acquiring a device that can ONLY post to twitter and doesn’t cost more than it is worth.

Here is what I think would work. First, you take a cheap Android tablet. This is starting to become an easy to come by commodity. High-end Android tablets are failing in the market all over the place and many budget manufactures are trying to build cheaper and cheaper tablets. It’s a race to the bottom that I plan on taking full advantage of. Many Android devices are easily hackable due to the operating system’s open source nature. Using this hackability, we could “lock down” the device to only be able to run the apps we want. This allows for control of what the user can do while still allowing for a great user experience. They could use the same great tools and apps available on regular Android phones and tablets. So creating a device that only does twitter is relatively simple for someone like me.

Having said all that, I think the real appeal here is to actually build Android devices for specialized purposes for businesses. I would really like to try the twitter device I have described as a pilot to this idea. So, if anyone has any ideas for a business (preferably in downtown Halifax) that would like to try using a “twitter only” device for their employees, I would like to know. I see it purely as a test and I will gladly provide the hardware, setup, mounting, and any other help the business needs.

I am currently experimenting with the Viewsonic gTablet. It’s a considerably powerful Android tablet with a 10” screen, Nvidia Tegra2 SoC, and it is a dream for hacking. It currently retails for less than $270. I basically have it already doing what I am proposing, but I will try to tweet and google+ about developments and things that I discover.

I call him El Cheapo.

My goal over the next year is to find ways using these cheap Android devices (maybe throw in some Arduino hardware) to make very specialized products for businesses and organizations. My hope is that I won’t have to go to them with a product, but they will eventually come to me with the specific device that is needed. I feel there is a market for such a service, but I have no idea how to tap it, yet.

Chromebooks – Student friendly?

Mike Lovell — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:33:13 +0000

You see it on many campuses every fall. Credit card companies and their booths. Smiles and free chocolate bars. Students looking forward to becoming adults and taking control of their own finances.

They sign up, burn to the limit, and pile up debt that can follow them around for years…

You can probably see where I am coming from. Therefore, you should be able to understand my skepticism when another big company swoops in with a story of helping poor students by potentially adding to their credit debt…

Let’s rewind for a second (or skip back to previous chapter as the kids would say – or slide the progress bar back and let it rebuffer as the even younger kids would say)…

Last year, Google announced (with mild fanfare) ChromeOS. Designed for consumer and enterprise desktops, it is a Linux-based operating system that basically only runs the Chrome web browser. The idea is to have all of your information stored in the cloud and everything you want to do running in a website or webapp. It gives you all the power of the Google Chrome browser on your PC without all the lame stuff like being able to install iTunes or Skype (your sarcasm detector should be firing off by now). They even gave away a few laptops running the OS. They looked pretty cool and, apparently, worked fairly well. Steve Ballmer shrugged at Google’s “linux distribution”.

As you can probably tell, I have a lot of questions with whether this device has a market at all. However, my point is not to argue the merits of the operating system. I simply believe is an idea ahead of its time and maybe a bit too much like a science project (as Gartenburg states in this article).

The new development that interested me was shown during this year’s GoogleIO conference. Google announced a “revolutionary” new computer business model for their soon-to-be-released OS. They would start selling laptops and accompanying ecosystem as a subscription-based package. For $20 a month, you would get a shiny new Chromebook. On the surface, it would seem like a great idea for the poor student (one of their target markets for this machine).

Now, I really want to figure out if a subscription-based model is as student friendly as Google is trying to make it out to be. Let’s role play…

So, I’m a poor student and I need a computer. Google is practically giving them away at $20 a month. There is no strict credit check (because I am a student and I don’t even know what that means yet) and I can get one in thin (my fav). I sign up.

Fast forward (or… oh nevermind) to the end of the semester. Like all students, I’m a master of personal finance. Ok, who am I kidding? I’m broke.

I now only have only a few dollars left. My options are between buying food, birth control, booze, and paying my monthly payment on my Chromebook. Let’s say (for argument’s sake) I decide one (or two) of these things are more important than my payment to Google. And let’s just say I miss the next month as well…

Now I’m in debt to another huge company. I will eventually pay it back (probably), but it will hurt my credit score in the meantime (if you don’t know what that is yet, kids, you better fucking learn).

There is also this weird and entirely new thought that we will have to consider. I can’t find anything that clarifies this yet (and please send me some information if you know), but what happens to you computer if you can’t pay? Does it become unable to connect to the internet? Does it become unable to connect to Google services (like gmail, docs, ghat, etc)? What’s to stop Google from making that happen?

Or are they just going to come and take it (a real treat for a student around exam time)?

Although I would see these as unlikely scenarios, it does bring forward some interesting questions about who controls (or owns) your computer in this kind of computer payment paradigm.

I’m not saying that this is how it will happen, but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered here. Therefore, until we know the details of this program, I’m going to stay skeptical. Students should probably do the same.

Ignoring all of this fear-mongering, I think it really comes down to this:

Do poor students really need another monthly payment?

Skype Fix – May 26th, 2011

Mike Lovell — Thu, 26 May 2011 12:44:55 +0000

Skype fix:

Windows 7: Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Skype\shared.xml-

Windows XP: Delete C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Skype\shared.xml

MacOSX: Delete /Library/Application Support/Skype/shared.xml

Then restart skype.

Resurrecting a Classic

Mike Lovell — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:44:02 +0000

It started a few months ago.

I was handed a 14” IBM Thinkpad T42 that had unfortunate run-in with a tall cup of coffee. It had been dead for quite some time. It was sad to see such a beautiful machine shot down in the prime of its life…

Well, it is actually about 5 years old. Not exactly a puppy in laptop-years. At the time it was released, it had a truly innovative thin and light design. It was a real luxury business machine.

Rebuilding this classic machine became a great little side project. I wondered about how much money a “hardware enthusiast”, like myself, would have to spend to get this computer up and running. I figured parts for an older Thinkpad should be cheap and easy to find. I was in absolutely no hurry to get it working, so I hit Kijiji regularly and waited for some compatible parts to pop up.

Luckily for me, someone posted a beat-up 15” T42 for next to nothing (parts from the 14” and 15” models are interchangeable). I purchased up this broken laptop from a man I can only describe as “sketchy”. Not to worry, though. After I cleaned it up, I found that it had a lot of usable parts. A couple of small ebay auctions later and I had myself a nice big Black Horse bag full of T42 parts.

All told, I spent less than $80 and I have almost enough parts to build another (including a spare battery and charger).

The only logical thing at this point was to take this pile of parts and turn them into something resembling a computer.

First Boot! Woot!

She’s a beauty.

So, how does this old laptop run?

Currently, I have Windows 7 installed and it is running great. The older pre-Core series Intel Pentium M with its 32bit single-core cpu and one gig of ram is apparently more than enough. The screen is bright and the viewing angles are great. It is actually really refreshing to use a 4:3 screen in a world full of wide-screen LCDs. I’m not saying better or worse… just nice for a change.

The keyboard, trackpad, and trackpoint are simply second-to-none. Lenovo has been smart to not change this legendary combo after buying IBM’s laptop business. It just feels perfect in your hands. And, while it does not have a back-lit keyboard like the fancy laptops nowadays, it does have a great little “Thinklight” that shines down from the top of the screen to allow for key pecking in the dark.

It is still light and portable, but the battery life I’m currently getting from the two 6 cell batteries I have sucks. Fortunately, like everything with this laptop, replacement batteries are easy to find. I might pick myself up a 9 cell soon.

That takes me back to what I love most about this laptop. It is designed to be taken apart and repaired. Exhibit A:

As you can see, the sizes of screws for the holes on the bottom of the laptop have been marked. Everything comes apart easily with a small Philips-head. It is the sign of a matured product… almost from another time. The Lenovo Thinkpad series, to this day, is a testament to terrific modular computer design. For example, as I mentioned earlier, the parts in the 14” and 15” versions are compatible. For the 15” version, special connectors are added to the motherboard to make it properly fit the chassis. That is just amazing. This machine is a far cry from the snapped-together, sealed in a box, and un-upgradeable designs of many manufacturers today.

Maybe computers should not be meant to thrown away after a few years of use. We should aim for computers that are designed to be fixed by their owners. I’m not saying everyone should need to know how to fix their own computer, but we should make it less scary for those that want to.

It has been great creating this write-up on such a quality machine. As far as I am concerned, this IBM Thinkpad T42 will run until it is dead…

and I’ll just find some more parts and resurrect it again.

(This post sent from my IBM Thinkpad)

Close enough…

Mike Lovell — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:17:46 +0000

My new site is not finished yet, but I am just sick of my old site.

I’ll be working on this more the next few weeks. I hope that the new blog-style format will encourage me to blog more.

So, UNDER CONSTRUCTION and all that jazz…

At the Atlantic Eco Expo

Mike Lovell — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:25:00 +0000

September 18th and 19th I participated in the Atlantic Eco Expo to show off my new desktop virtualization in a box prototype. It was great to actually show this to people who had never heard of anything like this before (which was pretty much everyone). People really seemed to like the idea.

I introduced a lot of people to desktop virtualization. I described how this one tiny machine built with a few hundred dollars worth of computer parts could run dozens of thinclient computers using virtualization and the Linux terminal server project.

All of the computers I used in the demo were old laptops that my friends had abandoned. They ranged from 3 to 5 years old and all ran great the whole time.

This message attracted a lot of people to the booth. This machine was connected to a Windows 7 virtual machine.

Besides resurrecting old computers, what else can this system do? Here is a video posted by Adam Hartling (@XenosNS on twitter and http://acoss.wordpress.com/ for his blog). Enjoy.

This system is very easy to deploy and manage and creates a great user experience. I will be posting more video of this system over the next few days.

Mike Lovell and the Quest for the 95W Hexacore CPU

Mike Lovell — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:57:00 +0000

Whoa, it’s been a long time since my last post.

Anyway, I’m still trying to lock down the hardware on my “desktop virtualization in-a-box” prototype lovingly codenamed greenBox. The specs so far are:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 6 Core Processor 2.8GHZ Socket AM3
Shuttle SA76G2 Black Barebones
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB x 2
OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-6400 8GB 2X4GB
Possibly a second NIC

Now, there is a snag I’ve run into. The little shuttle motherboard here has a max TDP rating on the CPU power of 105W. Unfortunately, the TDP on most Phenom II 1055Ts is 125W. Layman’s speak, this setup doesn’t have the juice to run this processor (that’s as close to layman’s speak as I can get).

Notice, I said most. There is a version of the 1055T with a TDP of 95W which should work fine in this setup. The reduction of heat would also be great in this small build. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I’m going to get one, yet.

Is the whole project in jeopardy? Not really. If I have to, I’ll use something else. I just really think this CPU would be the best for the price range I am aiming for. So, I find myself searching for a rare version of a CPU. Not exactly something new to me. I’m very picky about my computer hardware, so I’m use to bugging retailers about a particular version. I just hope I can get it in time.