Greetings from The Technicist

the tech"ni*cist\, n. He who is overconfident in technology as a benefactor of society.

 

Technicism, by the Wikipedia definition, is an over reliance or overconfidence in technology as a benefactor of society. Thus, we can say that a technicist is someone who is over-reliant on technology in daily life. Certainly, this is an apt description for a computer nerd such as myself.

 

So, who am I? I am an ordinary college student with an extraordinary passion for technology, along with an obsession with automobiles that borders on unhealthy and a deep love for the game of tennis. While I enjoy technology in general, I am specifically interested in computing and mobile devices, such as notebook PCs, UMPCs, netbooks, smartphones, etc, and how these devices can be used together to enrich ones life. As such, the main focus of this blog will be the mobile computing space.

 

Now, down to business. Possibly the most important question for a tech to answer: “What gear do you use?” Here’s my list, and a bit of explanation to go with it.

 

MSI GX600 (from notebookreview.com)

Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz (overclockable to 2.4GHz), Nvidia 8600M GT 512MB, 2048MB DDR2 667, 250GB 5400RPM SATA, 15.4” WSXGA+, Vista Home Premium

Won in a giveaway at NotebookReview.com in January 2008, the MSI has become my primary computer after the recent death of my Asus (more on that shortly). Possibly the most obscenely extroverted object I have ever owned, with bright red flame graphics spanning the palmrests and lid, plus red accents throughout the computer (speaker grilles, F keys, etc). Very fast, a rather gimmicky but awesome Turbo button that provides a 20% overclock on command (the GX600 was the first overclocking notebook on the market), a dedicated number pad (a rarity on a 15.4” notebook) and a matte screen (a dying breed) make this a pretty quirky, but very cool computer to have.

 

Asus W7S - A1B

Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8400M GS 128MB, 1536MB DDR2 667, 120GB 5400RPM SATA, 13.3” WXGA, Vista Business

This is still my favorite computer of all the ones I’ve had, regardless of being dead at the moment. The graphics card died a couple of months back, and I am sending it in to Asus repair this week, as I have not had time to do so until just now. Anyhow, coming back to the notebook itself – it packs a lot of power into its small 4.2 pound frame, especially with the dedicated graphics card. However, all this combines to torpedo battery life into the oblivion, but I can live with the rather poor runtime. The W7S also has excellent build quality, a great screen, elegant styling, and a superb keyboard.

 

Apple iMac

Specs: Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz, ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 128MB, 1024MB DDR2 533, 160GB SATA, 17.1” WXGA+, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and XP Professional SP2

I purchased the iMac at CompUSA’s going out of business sale in early 2007. It was an excellent deal, $550 for a fully equipped Apple computer that originally sold for upwards of $1200. It not only gave me a reliable system during a time when my Sony VAIO spent a majority of its time in the repair depot, but was also an opportunity to play around with the Mac OS. While I found that OS X was better than Windows, it was not as great as it was rated to be, and I quickly installed XP in order to make use of the iMac’s dedicated graphics for gaming. However, after getting an Xbox and the GX600, I had no need to use the iMac for gaming and have since been using Leopard on it.

RIM BlackBerry Pearl (from jkontherun.com)

Given to me by James Kendrick and Kevin Tofel at JKOnTheRun last month, for which I am immensely grateful, since my RAZR died the day before I recieved the Pearl. I am not really an enterprise user, but I find the keyboard quite nice for text messaging and data entry, and the multimedia capabilities are quite nice - I put in a 2GB microSD card for music and have since dumped my iPod altogether.

Accessories: Sony HS95 19” SXGA external monitor, Logitech VX Revolution mouse, Wacom Bamboo Fun drawing tablet, Western Digital Passport 120GB external hard drive, Targus CityGear Chicago backpack, Shure E2g headphones.

 

Previously owned notebooks: Dell Vostro 1500, Sony VAIO FJ270

 

Software and websites I support:

Mozilla Firefox 3 – best web browser out there, bar none.

Digsby IM client – supports a ton of IM clients, including Facebook Chat and Google Talk; is free, has a nice interface.

VLC Media Player – has every media codec known to man.

uTorrent – a light BitTorrent client with no frills.

 

NotebookReview – the best place for anything related to notebook PCs

JKOnTheRun – a blog about the mobile computing space with interesting insights on the daily use of these technologies

GraphXService – an excellent site offering free graphics work

Engadget – one of the most complete tech news blogs

AnandTech – a top hardware review website

 

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoy my collection of random musings about the tech world at large.

 

--The Technicist