More Random Thoughts!

My last post, which as supposed to be about my new IS01, ended up getting more towards rambling, so I got some inspiration for another post. The main topic for this will be use of old technology, but since it is random thoughts, you can expect it to be more than just that! I haven't done one of these in a long time so here goes!

The whole point of this blog was actually for old computers, which is why it is called classical computing, versus modern computing. I have a passion for older stuff because I enjoy using it to its limit. I enjoy getting use out of the old stuff that other people just toss in a drawer to slowly rot away. So I guess you could say I rescue the unwanted and unloved electronics.

So the question a lot of people ask me is what I use the stuff for and my response is if it can save and edit a text file, and I can get the file onto a more modern device, then I will find a use for it. Pretty much I will use it as a digital memo pad at the very least. Sometimes that is the only use, but I try and find any use I possibly can.

Depending on the age of the device, as well as what it is, I enjoy using it to simply type up stuff such as recipes. That is one thing that started off as wanting to type up a few recipes from a cookie book a friend of mine had. That was when I noticed that I had an excuse to use my new toy, which at the time was a touch screen netbook. The netbook in particular is an Asus T91, which I admit was a mistake now that I look back.

It uses a 16GB SSD, but the issue with it is the speed. they used a slower, and therefore cheaper drive. That means when it is accessed, the netbook gets very leggy. It is a pain to change it, which is one of the reasons I have yet to change it. The other is that getting to it is a pain.

In fact, you cannot even get to he battery on it either. This was my fault however because I chose to ignore the reviews saying that it was slow. I had assumed that people said that it was slow because it was a netbook and they were simply tying to do too much with it. I have another netbook, one that uses a real hard drive, as well as a different Atom processor, that was far more usable. I had also upgraded it to 2GB of RAM though.

That was a lesson I learned. When someone says that it is slow, and you are ordering online, you should listen to it. I didn't want to return it since I liked the hardware, and thought that maybe using something other than Windows would help. I personally used my other netbook as a main computer for awhile after all. I was able to run a few programs at a time like Firefox and iTunes with no issues.

I still use the T91 for some stuff actually. Using old Palm handhelds, that netbook comes in handy for when I need to sync it since Palm doesn't have a proper USB driver for dual core or multi threaded processors. That was the first time I had a blue screen on Windows 7 actually.

I would use the other, and much better netbook if it didn't need a new screen cable. At certain points in the hinge, the screen will cut out or at the least flicker rather badly with lines in image. That is something I could probably fix but don't feel like spending more money. That netbook is also an Asus, in this case the 1005pe model in blue.

When I first got it, it was quite nice. I had upgraded the hard drive to a whopping 500GB even though a friend of mine told me that it was a waste for a netbook. It was also supposed to get an impressive 14 hour battery life but that was something I never truly tested. It had lasted me long enough that I had never needed to test it fully.

Personally, the way I look at it, is more about how you use what you have. I used to go after all of the newest stuff, which is nice to have, but sometimes the old stuff does something better, or something the newer stuff doesn't do at all. I still love new stuff, and I do buy new stuff like my Nexus 7, but I am not using that to type this up. For that I am using a combination of devices like the IS01 that I just last week.

The thing is, there are things that older stuff I have does that my newer stuff doesn't do. For example, my old NEC MobilePro 780 can work with multiple open files like two files in Word. That was good for school since I could work on different things.

The NEC was one of my favorite things to use in school actually, even though it was of limited use because the few applications that I could find for Windows CE often didn't work with the MIPS processor or the older version of Windows CE that it ran. In this case, it was 2.11, which was not upgradable like it is today.

My Evo runs Android 4.0.4, which is also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, but officially, it could only be upgraded to 2.3 or Ginger Bread. That is the reason why I love Android so much. Most devices have custom ROMs, like Cyanogenmod.

I think it is best that I end this here as it is already quite long. I will probably post more stuff later on.