It's been a long time (at least a year and a half) since I've had a computer of my own to use. I had a few computers (including a rather pricey Toshiba laptop) that all decided to give up the ghost. So I've been making do with what I can, and using my computer at work for what I can get away with. However, this is about to change.

For the last few months I've been saving furiously to get myself a computer that will last the distance. My choice: an Alienware M17x gaming laptop.

For those of you who don't know, Alienware have been around for a number of years, producing high-end gaming systems. They started life as an independent company but were snapped up a few years ago by Dell. This has sadly brought the system quality down a bit, but the prices have followed suit so it's not all bad news.

The single biggest complaint with Alienware is the price. A desktop system will cost about 1.5 to 2 times what it would cost to build a similar system yourself. Yes, the build quality if pretty good, and yes, they're very pretty to look at. But the price is simply too much for most people.

Laptops are a different matter altogether. There are a number of companies that produce what they call "gaming" laptops, but most of these are far from serious gaming systems. They usually have a single low-to-mid-level ATI or nVidia GPU, none of which have the performance to drive new games at full screen resolution with decent detail settings. You try playing Metro 2033 on an nVidia GT330M or an ATI Mobility Radeon 5670 and you'll see just what I mean.

I did a bit of research, and there are only a handful of manufacturers that produce serious gaming laptops. Asus have the well-specced G73JH, which sports an Intel i7 CPU and ATI Mobility Radeon 5870 graphics, but the machine is ugly and it's known to have problems with build quality. You also have the likes of Eurocom and Sager, who make custom laptops. These systems can sport a pair of high-end mobile GPUs, but are also quite ugly and hard to buy in NZ. The only other obvious choice was Alienware, and when you compare pricing with the likes of Eurocom, they aren't that bad.

The M17x is the big daddy of the Alienware laptop range. It supports a high-end Intel CPU (i7 720QM, 820QM or 920XM at the time I write this), up to 8GB of DDR3-1333 RAM, dual graphics cards (Mobility Radeon 5870 with 1GB DDR5), dual hard drives (with RAID-0/1) and an amazing 17" RGB-LED 1920x1200 screen. You've got the choice of black, silver or red anodised aluminium for the case, and a number of different zones with fully customizable backlighting. And it's preeeetttttyyyyy!!!

I've got to wait a little longer before I order mine. I'm going with the i7 720QM CPU, 6GB RAM, a Blu-ray reader, and an extended warranty (after my wife's problems, I'm playing it safe). This will set me back anywhere from $NZ4250 to $NZ4550, depending on whatever hard drive configuration Dell decides is the base (2x 320GB or 2x 500GB).

I'll put up pics when the beast arrives!

It's been a while since I posted (mostly thanks to a complete lack of my own computer at home… more about that another time), but this whole iPhone antenna debacle has got me a bit peeved.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past few months, Apple's new iPhone 4 has a problem with signal reception. The issue lies with the fact that the phone uses series of metal areas around the phone as external antennae. When you close one of the gaps between these antennae (the one near the bottom of the left side of the phone), you get a marked signal decrease. It doesn’t take much to bridge this gap – a single finger will do the job nicely.

Apple denied the existence of this problem for weeks, until Consumer Reports in the US did some proper research and found that the problem did in fact exist. So Apple set up an emergency press conference to talk about the issue.

To give Apple some credit, Steve Jobs did come out and say that there was a problem, and even pointed to the problem area. He also said that all iPhone 4 customers would get a rubber "bumper" case to put around the phone, to insulate the problem area. However, things start getting a bit messy from here.

Rather than just leaving the problem at that, Jobs stated that all smart phones have a problem where you can kill reception by holding them the right way. To demonstrate this issue, he showed videos of several different phones from different manufacturers, and all of them had drops in signal strength when you cup the phone in your hand.

The big problem with this "revelation" is that it's not really an issue. It comes down to simple physics. The antennae in all of these phones are internal, so if you shield the body of the phone you'll get a drop in signal. The human hand acts nicely as a shield, so it's not exactly surprising that when you cup the phone you'll lose some of your signal.

Another problem is that while all phones showed fewer "bars" of signal, there's no defined standard of what "1 bar" of signal means. Going from 4 out of 5 bars of signal down to 2 might be a huge drop, or it might be fairly little. There's just no way to tell.

The only thing I can surmise from the press conference is that Mr. Jobs is madly trying to save face, and is not afraid to fling excrement at the other manufacturers in order to do so. As far as business tactics go, this is juvenile and hopefully the media sees it for exactly what it is. Viva la compétition!

After almost a year of use, my wife's laptop decided to die on her. The power button just wouldn't respond.

Dell sent out a tech to replace the motherboard, but the laptop died again shortly after the tech left. The computer was taken to the local repair centre, where it was finally pronounced completely and utterly dead. A replacement system was to be ordered.

It took a few days, but finally someone from Dell finally emailed me about the replacement. The new system was quite a bit better than the original (Core i3 instead of Core 2 Duo, twice as much RAM), and I happily accepted the order. That was at the very end of March.

The ETA for the new system was the 12th of April. The online tracking system showed that progress was good. The laptop was in New Zealand on the morning of the 6th, and I was checking every day to see when it was handed over to the local courier.

The 12th came, and... no change. The system was still stuck at the local Dell office. I called up customer support, and was told that it looked like the laptop had cleared customs on the 9th (a Friday). Figuring that it may take a day or so for things to happen, I decided to just wait.

There was no change by the next morning, so I hit the online contact form and sent out an order status request. There was no response by the afternoon so I called up customer support again. This time I was told that the sytem was still in manufacturing, and that I could expect it on the 30th. This didn't make sense, as the online system was showing that the laptop was in NZ. How could it be in the country, and still be in manufacturing at the same time?!?!?

I didn't sleep much that night, 4 hours if I was lucky. The wife was starting to get anxious, as she hadn't had decent computer access for 3 weeks. I was mad, and my mind wouldn't stop spinning.

An email response arrived overnight, saying the same thing. The laptop wouldn't arrive until around the 30th. Confused, I replied to the email and asked why the customer care system showed one thing and the online system another.

The 15th rolls around and I decide to check the online status system, just in case things had changed. They had. The laptop was given to a courier the previous day, and arrived in the afternoon.

Now, at this point, you might think that I should be happy that the system arrived only 3 days late. But I'm not happy. How could the laptop be in NZ for more than a week before they finally decide to send it out? Why was I told that the system wouldn't arrive until the end of the month? I was angry, and I wanted Dell to make things better.

So today, I called up Dell's customer service and explained my problems. I told the lady on the end of the phone that I expected Dell to make things better for me. She asked "Are you requesting compensation from Dell?", and I said "I would like a warranty extension for my trou..." *click*

She had hung up on me. No "sorry, we can't do that" or anything. She just ended the call.

So I was back on the online contact system, to send a nicely-worded letter to Dell. Here it is for your reading pleasure:

It'll be interesting to see what they come back with. Let's hope it's better service than I've had for the rest of the month.

Update: 20 April

I got an email reply back from Dell on the 17th, and now have even less faith that they can get anything sorted out.

I was using the wife's new laptop at the time, so I replied with this:

The response came back today.

I don't know who answered the email, but whoever it is didn't even bother to read what I had written! My order wasn't delayed - it had already been delivered.

My next step is to try other methods of getting hold of Dell. Hopefully I'll finally reach someone who will actually read the words I have written!

The latest news in the tech world is that Apple have announced a new model of iPhone, the 3G S. The “S” supposedly stands for “Speed”, a moniker which is appropriate due to its faster CPU.

What most people won’t tell you is that this new phone is already outdated before it even hits the shops.

You see, the iPhone has never really been the ground-breaking device that most people see it as. Yes, it did bring the brilliant multi-touch user interface into the world, but not really a lot else. Email, web browsing, WiFi support… all of these were available before the first iPhone was even announced.

Since then, Apple have been making half-hearted attempts to keep up with the rest of the market. The first iPhone 3G added a camera and 3G network (UMTS) support, but very few other hardware changes. The new 3G S has a faster CPU, increases the size of the camera’s sensor and allows video recording, but that’s about as far as the changes go.

Even the iPhone OS is lagging behind. With the new OS 3.0, Apple are finally adding a clipboard so you can cut-and-paste between applications. They’re also adding support for MMS messages, so you can send picture and audio messages. But these features have been found on rival phones for years. My old Nokia N80, several months old when the first iPhone came out, was able to do these with ease.

Apple still haven’t got things right. The iPhone still lacks Flash support, which means that a lot of web content is inaccessible. It also lacks Java support, meaning that you can’t run any of the thousands of Java games and applications that are out there. My old N80 is able to do both of these.

If you want to see what the 3G S should be, take a look a the Samsung i8910 (sometimes called the Omnia HD). Here’s a quick comparison of features:

Aside from the Multi-Touch, the Samsung is clearly a much better phone, with a similar size and price. I know which one I’d rather get!

Well, I’m back up and running on a computer at home. Seeing as how the wife has her nice new shiny laptop, I’ve taken over her old junker. I managed to scavenge the RAM from my old laptop, so it’s now running on 1GB. I also decided that Windows XP needed to go. In it place: the brand spanking new Windows 7 Release Candidate.

For those of you who aren’t quite up with software terminology, a release candidate is a version of the software that’s almost ready to release. Aside from any major issues that might get found, and a couple of minor tweaks, what you see is what will be sold in a few months time.

So anyway, I’m running the new Windows 7. It really is quite nice, much less of an irritation than Vista. For example, the annoying User Account Control prompts have almost completely gone. You no longer need to confirm every little thing that might make a change that affects other users on the computer.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the general public takes Windows 7. It still has a lot of the Vista look-and-feel, which is one of the more controversial changes in Vista. Another thing is that you’re stuck with the new Start menu, you know, the one that came in with Windows XP. It doesn’t sound like much, but I’ve got a workmate who will be complaining bitterly about its loss.

Anywho, it’s time for me to hit the sack. I’ll write up some more when I’ve had my beauty sleep. $DEITY knows I need it!

Well, despite the trouble I had with the ordering process, the laptop came through in just over a week. It was sitting on my desk at work yesterday morning.

I must say that I’m impressed with the laptop. It’s the new Studio 1537 model, which has 4 USB ports instead of the previous model’s 3. The screen is beautiful, and it has an amazing horizontal viewing angle. The screen is nice and bright too, much more so than the old junker we’ve been using.

I’m definitely looking forward to getting mine (a Studio 17, or perhaps a Studio XPS 16) later in the year. Until then, I’m going to wipe the junker clean and install the upcoming Windows 7 RC on it. It will be quite interesting to see how this goes, as I’ve heard good things about Windows 7 running on low-powered computers.

For a long time, the wife and I have had a little bit of trouble with home computers. We never seem to have more than 1 at a time in a decent working state. And with her working on her blog and me wanting to play with code, it's been a bit of a pain.

I bought a refurbished 17" Toshiba laptop a few years ago, and while it worked fairly well, it wasn't without problems. The DVD drive was very fussy about which media you tried to use in it, and more often than not refused to read disks. There was also quite a problem with the screen surround, which ended up causing the screen casing to crack and the video data to lose sync. Not good for something that cost me NZ$3000.

At the moment we're using an Asus laptop I bought off my brother a few years ago. At the time it seemed like a good deal, but now I'm not so sure. I've had to replace the battery, and there appears to be some sort of issue in the socket where the AC adapter plug goes. It's currently secured with a blob of Blu-tak, and you can't move the cable nor the laptop in case you cut the power.

So the plan this year is for both of us to get new laptops. I don't want to go for a Toshiba or Asus again - once bitten, twice shy, as the old saying goes. Some of my workmates have told me very good things about Dell, so I'm going to give them a try. It's just a matter of saving up our pennies so that we can buy what we want, which isn't that easy when my car has decided to eat through a set of tyres and front brake discs. Lovely.

Anyway, we finally managed to get enough money together to sort out a computer for my wife. She doesn't need anything spectacular, just a run-of-the-mill 15" laptop. This is where the Dell fun begins. When we first started getting prices in Feb, it looked like the corporate Vostro line would be the most cost-effective (i.e. cheapest) option. Get into March, and you could get something from the Inspiron range for NZ$949, in one of a range of colours. In April it changed yet again, and the choice came between the Inspiron and a Studio 15, both for NZ$1199. Not only that, but the Inspiron's colour choice dropped to blue or pink. Not exactly the nicest selections.

So we ended up ordering the base level Studio 15. My wife really wanted red, but the only free colour choice was black. There were some other basic colour options (about NZ$65 each) or some premium options (about NZ$125 each), but it'll take some convincing to make me fork out money for that, especially when the basic options were zero-cost only a month earlier. Oh well, not much that can be done about that, so I place the order on Wed after lunch.

Friday rolls around and I'm still waiting for Dell to confirm payment. I paid via credit card, which means it should only take a few seconds for them to take my money. I don't like it when companies take my money then give me the silent treatment, so I send a follow-up email. By end of business I've still heard nothing. Odd. Finally, some time around 7 when I'm at Manukau shopping mall, my cell rings. It's Dell, and they don't have the black colour option available any more. It's their basic, free option and they're out of it. Great. At least we get upgraded to another colour option (marbled grey with red sides) for free.

As I write this, the laptop is supposedly sitting in customs in some country in Asia (probably Malaysia), waiting to be sent to NZ. I've read some awful thing about Dell's shipping, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I've just come across this link from one of the various blogs I read. It's definitely for the geeks out there, as it will seriously test your knowledge of the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek Character or Erectile Dysfunction Pill?

I managed to score 60%, although that was by luck more than anything. I only knew 2 of the answers, the rest were all guesses.

Update

One of my workmates sent this one through: Christian Metal Band or Star Trek Episode?

Finally, we some good news on the Section 92A copyright saga. Following much debate over whether S92A could be made into something that actually works, the government has finally realised that all efforts will be effectively futile. S92A is to be removed from the law.

This is definitely good news for all New Zealanders with an internet connection. We can no longer be disconnected because of accusations of breaking copyright laws. Yes, this will mean that P2P sharing of "illegal" material will continue, but this is a small price to pay in order to keep due process. Besides, there's already some concern among copyright academics as to whether the copyright laws in place over the world actually help to encourage the creation of artistic works, or whether they actually make it harder for artists by setting up artificial roadblocks to the creative process.Anyway, that's a discussion for another day.

So for now at least, us Kiwis are safe. However, it sounds like the government is still looking at ways to rewrite S92A, to make something that can be used effectively. Expect this argument to rear it's ugly head in the near future.

Links:

• National Business Review (NBR) NZ

In the current financial market, retailers are doing everything they can to get customers through the doors. One thing we've seen a lot of lately are sales, especially nfor higher-priced items such as furniture and electrical goods. Here in NZ, Harvey Norman sell both, and they have been advertising their sales a lot, both in the papers and on TV.

I'm looking at upgrading my espresso machine from a cheaper (around NZ$300) unit to a more expensive, more professional machine. The one that I really want retails for NZ$800 in Briscoes, so I was looking for any way to get it sooner. Harvey Norman had interest free finance offers, and were supposedly having a sale on home electical goods, so I went to my local store to have a look.

Once I was in the store it took a whole 2 minutes to find the right model, but what I saw left me with my mouth open. Harvey Norman had the right model, but were charging a stupid $NZ1000 for it. That's 25% more expensive than the retail price at Briscoes, the store right next door. If they can blatantly inflate the price by 25% for an espresso machine, I hate to think what they're doing on other items.

One thing I do know is that you do not buy audio/video cables from them. When I bought my TV from them a couple of years ago (the reason being 3 years interest-free), they also sold me a HDMI cable. The cable was made by Pudney and cost NZ$99, and it was rubbish. I doubt it cost them more than $NZ10, and because I was a captive audience buying expensive equipment, I fell for the trap of buying an overpriced cable.

Because of all this, Harvey Norman have gone well down in my books. I may still turn to them if I need an interest-free finance deal, but only after checking out other stores and finding the best price first. If they want my business, I'm not going to pay for their bloated profit margins.