Moose,
Sounds like quite an accomplishment. Give us an update when all of the
parts arrive.
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Moose" <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Olympus Camera Discussion" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 1:09 AM
Subject: [OM] OT Recycling, again :-)) [was Off-topic: Re: 1TB drives now
under $100]
> Brian Swale wrote:
>> I won't be buying a new computer any time soon, for a variety of reasons
>> including the many programs I have so painstakingly installed on the
>> present machine.
>>
>> The sole reason I need more GB is for image storage; not least due to
>> having bought an E-510. And if I take this to the extreme and start
>> shooting RAW, I'll need even more storage ... <snip more cool stuff about
>> recycling cars and photo equipment>
>>
>
> I wasn't going to write about this until I'd done it - but there's
> nothing to do until some parts arrive - and I want to get on with it...
>
> I'm not in the recycle camp for my primary computer. I now have 5 1/2TB
> of HD storage for it, inside and outside, active, secondary and tertiary
> back-up. Man, that sounds ridiculous.
>
> Anyway ... One of my sons brought by the new netbook his girlfriend
> bought him, an Acer Aspire One. What a cute little gadget! I started to
> think about having something small and light enough to carry around,
> capable enough to do pretty much everything I need on a trip and handy
> for writing away from the desk. My larger Sony is a fine machine, but a
> great deal bigger and heavier, so it doesn't go with me much.
>
> Then I looked more closely. These things have8.9" or 10" screens, which
> doesn't sound bad at first glance. But they are HD form factor screens,
> 1280x600. 600? That's pretty limiting for viewing web sites,
> reading/writing email, writing other things, etc.
>
> I wonder why everybody has gone on the 16:9 bandwagon? On a 22"+ size
> desktop screen, it's fine, leaving room for overlapping windows,
> bookmark lists, tool menus, and so on. I've still got 1050 vertical
> pixels. By the time you subtract all the label and menu bars on most
> apps, there's precious little actual image space in 600 pixels. I think
> 4:3 would make a lot more sense on a netbook, but I suppose it's like
> the megapixel race.
>
> Then I got to thinking about my old notebook. I upgraded to a smallish
> laptop a few years ago when the little one before stopped having enough
> horsepower for some uses I needed. But now the old one was sitting in
> the basement in the box my brother had returned it in from loan.
>
> I put a few numbers together. The old Sony 505 has a 10.4 inch screen.
> May not sound like much, but that's a 4:3 screen, 1024x768. In area,
> it's 142 sq.in., vs. 69 for the Acer and 87 for the 10" netbooks. Funny
> thing, it's also no larger than the netbooks, either, and hardly heavier:
>
> Computers Three cell battery
> ------------------------------------------------------
> W H D Wt. Vol.
> PCG-505 9.9 8.1 0.85 2.7 68
> MSI Wind 10.2 7.1 1.24 2.3 90
> Acer Aspire One 9.8 6.7 1.14 2.2 75
>
> So - I pulled it out and hooked it up - nothing - I mean nada, dead. A
> bit of research, hands on and web, led to a flat rechargeable CMOS
> battery. Leave it with charger power connected for a while and - it
> starts. But doesn't find the HD. More fussing, booting DOS utilities
> from floppy, etc. Finally, I take it out and spin it in my hand a few
> times, in case it's stuck rotationally. Whether that or simply resetting
> the socket did it, now it boots into Windows.
>
> Now, what about function and performance? I know I used this thing a lot
> back from maybe 10-4 years ago. I did a lot of traveling and used it to
> work "from the office" by dialing into my desktop that was hooked into
> the intranet and running it by remote control. If IT knew, they'da hadda
> cow!. I also did the web, email, etc. So it had to be good for
> something. How much had my standards changed?
>
> I started playing with it. For Word, Excel and such, with the size
> things I do nowadays, it's more than fine. For the web, page content has
> gone way up, and there's a lot of thrashing of the HD and delay for most
> web sites as the image content is cached. So the first usability issue
> is not 233Khz vs. 1.6Mhz processor, but memory and HD speed.
>
> After much searching, a second 64mb of memory is on its way from Europe
> for quite a bit less than from the US, $37.70 delivered. The problems
> are that the memory is mounted on proprietary boards and the max.
> capacity is 128mb. Still that's double what it has now.
>
> The HD is an interesting experiment. An 8gb SDHC card is on its way from
> Amazon and an SDHC=>44pin IDE laptop HD header adapter is on the way
> from China. I'm guessing this will probably be faster than the bus/IDE
> interface stuff in the box. Certainly it should be faster (as well as
> lighter and cooler running) than the 12 year old design 6gb, 2.5" HD in
> there.
>
> If I'm right, these two upgrades should relieve the web performance
> problem.
>
> Of course, these netbooks have built-in WiFi, three USB 2.0 ports,
> Ethernet port and flash card readers, but not CF card. But then, I
> already have PCMCIA cards for 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g WiFi and CF
> card, all of which work fine. Then there's that "17 in 1" flash card to
> CF adapter I bought for the FlashTrax. Never did work for SD or SDHC on
> the portable drive. BUT, it works fine plugged into the PCMCIA CF
> adapter on the Sony. It's flash card capability is slower than the
> netbooks, but includes CF cards, which is good for me. Speed would be
> nice, but backing up flash cards on a trip can run all night, for all I
> care.
>
> Of course, the netbooks have 120-160GB drives, and I'll have 8GB. But
> that's more than enough for anything but image backup on trips. CF loads
> directly into the FlashTrax XT. Hmmm. I find there is a WIN98SE driver
> for it. And guess what? The Sony happily copies files directly from any
> sort of flash card in the PCMCIA slot out through the USB 1 port onto
> the FlashTrax. Cool! The 40GB on the FlashTrax has been more than enough
> for any trip so far, and is user upgradable - well, this user, anyway.
>
> What about USB support for other devices? Well, my Memorex CD/DVD drive
> and Oly xD card thumb drive have a Win98SE driver too. A bit of internet
> searching finds a generic mass storage device driver. Install that and a
> generic 4GB Thumb drive works fine too. I tried a USB hub with three
> things attached, and all were recognized and worked.
>
> My battery died ages ago, but when I find it, :-) I have
> instructions for putting in new cells in. In the meantime, I've ordered
> a new one. Ignoring all the sunk cost stuff I had pretty much given up
> on, I'm in for $97.02. Not bad for what I think will be a really usable
> netbook with much better screen that the new ones. If it all goes as
> planned, I'll be in for a bit more for LiIon cells and maybe a USB
> powered hub.
>
> The netbooks come with either 3 or 6 cell batteries. All the above is
> for 3-cell. The Sony also has a 6 cell option, but it's speced at 4400
> mah from third parties, same as the old OEM part. the newer 3 cell
> batteries are 2600 mah for much less than half a 6 cell. The 6 cell is a
> cute design that lays flat or twists to form an 'ell' that raises the
> rear of the computer for typing. But too pricey.
>
> Moose
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