Coming in with 1.4 GHz Intel Core Duo U9400 CPU and 3 GB of RAM, this ultra portable laptop is a bit more mediocre than excellent.  The speed is OK, but I can’t talk about the integrated graphics card without resorting to profanity.  Don’t play games on this machine.  Don’t think about games on this machine.  Don’t even LOOK at them if this computer is anywhere around you.  At least the setup comes with a 128 gig solid state drive – which is reliable and light.  It comes to about 3.7 lbs with the adapter included – which I consider to be really good.

The battery is one area which impressed me though – I managed to use to for a whole seven hours.  That’s a major plus for portability – I can’t think of many places besides an airplane or a jungle where you’d be away from a plug for that time (and shame on you if you’re by a pool for seven hours at a time!).  The screen size seems a little odd to me (12.2×9.1×1.3″), but it could just be me.  Thankfully the screen is extremely bright, meaning you can use it almost anywhere (even poolside, in direct sunlight)!  This size means that there’s not a lot of space for everything though, leading to some crowding.  This is of course to be expected in an ultra-portable laptop.

The mouse is placed well on this one, and the buttons are spaced and placed so that they aren’t awkward to use.  The keyboard is pushed up through the chassis, giving it a solid feel and plenty of touch feedback.  It doesn’t have much in the way of shortcut buttons – one to a quick-fix utility, and the other to toggle speed settings for the laptop.  I personally like more buttons so I can launch certain apps rapidly, but it’s really more up to your preference.

I do have to say, this ultra portable laptop does come with lots of plugs (which means more versatility, which I really like).  It has VGA and HDMI, Bluetooth, 3 USB ports, a 5-in-1 card reader, a PC Express Card slot, webcam, and fingerprint reader in addition to the basic package like Wifi and Ethernet.  The speakers are surprisingly strong too – but of course it lacks any real base.  At least this is one ultra-portable laptop that doesn’t require headphones.

Also unlike many laptops, this one comes almost free of bloatware.  Believe me, this is a great plus.  I loathe having to spend time uninstalling crap programs and replacing them with the ones I like.  It does come with useful diagnostic and system recovery software, which is a plus.  Overall, the system is solid, but a little lacking in my opinion.  It also comes at a price point of 2500 USD.  My feelings are that you can probably find much better options.  But if this sounds like the ultra portable laptop for you, don’t let my opinion stop you!

So if you remember a little but ago, I mentioned that my computer failed.  Well, when this happened I really wasn’t worried, since I had both an external hard disk and MozyHome to back my files up.  Well, I very recently got my laptop back from HP after my second hard disk failure of the year.  Obviously the new hard disk had no data, so I assumed I could simply connect to Mozy to back up my files.

WRONG.  When I connected my new computer, I followed the instructions, and picked the option which promised to let be recover all of my lost files.  Unfortunately, instead of restoring the files, it wiped them all out.  Now, I have to note, while I’m no hacker, I’m more than competent at using a computer.  I’ve never done anything critically stupid like wiping my hard disk accidentally.  I consider myself a reasonably intelligent guy, but no super-genius.  So if I manage to wipe all of my files, what about all of the people who are less tech-savvy than me?  I’m sure they could manage to use the Mozy, but definitely wouldn’t be able to recover their files.  So I’m going to have to change my initial review of Mozy.  It’s still usable – it helped me out in a pinch before.

But Mozy is nothing compared to an external hard disk.  An external hard disk gives you much more space, and usually a much faster backup and restoration speed.  Mozy does have unlimited space for a fixed monthly price, but at a certain point speed constraints on backups make “unlimited” far from feasible.  If you want to back up all your files daily but the backup takes 25 hours, things aren’t exactly working out.  On the other hand with a USB 2.0 connection you can backup to a terabyte drive overnight.  Filling a terabyte drive to the brim takes a good bit more time, but I don’t think most users would be doing that.

The bottom line to me is an issue of price and space.  If you can afford a little bit of money a month, Mozy is probably better.  Just don’t let your hard disk fail, and remember that you will be spending more money overall.  If you can afford a larger price point, go for the hard disk.  With regards to space, if you only deal with bookmarks and word files, Mozy may work well for you.  If you want to back up more than one video file though, go for an external hard disk.  You can mix and match these at your pleasure, but for a user like me an external hard disk is essential.  And that’s why I own two and use both of them regularly!

If you remember, a while back I posted regarding using Mozy as an internet backup service.  The impetus behind that post was a hard disk failure my laptop underwent last year around Thanksgiving.  Now, based on what I’ve heard from sources both biased and non-biased, a singular hard disc failure is supposed to be a statistical improbability.  Last week, my hard disc failed for the second time in a year – something which is considered to border on statistical impossibility.

Now I want you to understand right now that the use of the word “statistical” in that last sentence is intentionally misleading, though everything I have said is true.  It merely means that in a certain amount of time (I believe the time frame of reference in one year) the chance of failure is extremely low.  But the interesting facet of statistical theory is that given a large enough time frame, the chance for an event to happen (in this case hard disc failure) approaches certainty.

In layman’s terms, eventually your hard disc will fail, and all of your data will be lost.  This is especially true for portable laptops – in many cases protection is sacrificed for portability, and therefore the chance of damage is much higher.  Also note how often you pick up and put down your portable laptop as opposed to your desktop laptop or desktop computer (if you have them).  Moving them around means there are much more opportunities for them to be damaged through accident or environment.

So what is the best way to protect your data?  Back it all up.  With the increasing technology, you can get larger and larger hard discs for less and less money.  Terabyte external hard discs are becoming increasingly commonplace when just a few years back a hundred gigabytes used to cost a small fortune.  And any store that sells computer parts should have a few external hard drives for your purchasing pleasure.  And these external drives are much less susceptible to damage compared to portable laptops – they stay in one place and are generally on for less time, and therefore suffer much less wear and tear, meaning their lifespan is much greater (though they will also eventually fail – the only surefire way to protect your data indefinitely is a RAID array).

So I highly recommend to you that you go out and get an external hard disc, preferably one at least as large as the hard disk in your portable laptop.  If you’ve ever had a hard disc failure, you know how convenient and sometimes vital this is.  If you haven’t, I sincerely hope that you will back up your data.  I would never wish upon anyone the experience of losing all their data – it is a monumentally frustrating and disappointing event which will leave you pulling your hair and gnashing your teeth for weeks and sometimes months to come.

I hope many of you have at least heard of Hamachi, even if you haven’t been using it.  When it comes to VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), it is in my opinion the way to go.  For most VPNs, you have to go through large amounts of software configuration, and sometimes even hardware (router) configuration.  You have to set up port forwarding, sometimes SSH tunnels, and sometimes even more.  I have to be honest, I’ve never successfully managed to set up a VPN myself.  That’s why I turn to Hamachi!

SO what makes Hamachi my favorite tool for VPN?  First, it’s free!  That’s right, you can set up your own VPN with hamachi free fo charge.  There’s also an upgrade option, which allows for a faster network speed and more computers on your network.  If you’re considering networked gaming, you might want to consider an upgrade.  For most other VPN functions, it should be more than adequate.  What’s even better?  All you have to do is install, and Hamachi takes care of all the configuration for you.  This configuration is usually the hardest part, but Hamachi has boiled it down to nothing!

That’s all there is to it – Hamachi eliminates all the hard parts of the configuration.  So now that it’s set up, how can you use it?  Really, the possibilities are almost endless.  Nowadays, lots of applications have networking features, and of course having multiple computers gives you more to work with.  So how do I use Hamachi?  Mostly, I use one computer as a backup, and store important files there.  I also use it to store my music collection – I have a setup so I can play my music portably!  And it also lets me play some networked games like Demigod too.  It’s an essential tool for your portable laptop!

Have you been to the movies lately?  Or even turned on your TV?  If so, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the new Star Trek movie!  Amazingly, a few of my friends (including one I saw the movie with) had never heard of the Star Trek franchise before.  And admittedly I didn’t know much beyond the fact that there are Klingons, William Shatner, and a starship called the Enterprise.

Because of my ignorance, I can guarantee you that whether you are a Trekkie or not, you will enjoy this movie.  You’ll enjoy this movie even more if you’re an action buff – when I say it is non-stop action, I really mean it!

I really don’t want to give too much away about the plot, but I’ll tell you this much.  One of the principal elements of the plot is time travel and the idea that history branches if you traveled back in time.  The crux is that people from the future of the classic Star Trek franchise go back in time and change events, leading to a slightly different universe, slightly different events, and a different Captain Kirk.  I don’t want to say any more than that – art of the greatness of the movie is how it unfolds!

I have to say that I really enjoy the re-envisioning of Captain Kirk in the movie.  In the original series, William Shatner embodied a Kirk that was less an action hero and more of a somewhat comical figure.  It’s not bad, but I know that at least I have trouble taking him seriously.  I think this has contributed a little to how Star Trek has been a little inaccessible to most viewers.  The new Kirk (and the new stylization) definitely takes the franchise in a new direction, which I think will make it more popular to potentially everyone, not just isolated science fiction fans.

I’m really hoping that this leads to a revitalization of the genre.  I don’t know what the plans are from here, but judging from what I’ve heard of the box offices, there will probably be a sequel eventually.  What I’m really hoping for is the start of a new Star Trek TV show, starring the cast shown in the movie.  And given that Zachary Quinto (Sylar in Heroes, and Spock in Star Trek) might just leave the Heroes cast, I think it’s a definite possibility!

What do you enjoy doing most on your portable laptop?  The main reason I ask is because the size and strength of the laptop directly affect what you can do on your laptop, and how quality it is.  Trying to emulate a Playstation 2 on an ultra-portable laptop, for example, is going to be met with little more than tears.  Conversely, the same computer might be just right for blogging poolside with a margarita in hand – a much more rewarding experience.  So what do you use it for?

Do you use it mainly as a web browser/ e-mail client combo?  Or is your system optimized to the point where you can game effectively on it?  Is it a tablet, so you can take down notes on it?  Or is your laptop one of those hulking giants – the ones which require cooling stands and which way several pounds (as I sometimes call them, portable desktops)?  Do you use it for business like stock quotes or for watching hulu during work?

For me, one laptop is devoted mainly as a media machine – it has my music and videos, and is also usually hooked to a printer.  I have it primarily as my library – but it’s also been a great backup when my other laptop has crashed.  The other laptop has a touchscreen, so I use it as a note taking machine.  It’s also got all my bookmarks and email accounts, and as such I use it for my daily web surfing needs.  It’s a little weak for computer games, but still useful so long as I dumb down the graphics settings.  And of course I use it for word processing and blogging – it works well, but I’m still considering getting an even smaller machine for blogging alone.

So how do you do it?

Well, knowing Stephen Wolfram, the genius behind Mathematica and A New Kind of Science, it just might.  Wolfram Alpha is being pitched as a computational knowledge engine – unfortunately that’s not a very descriptive name.  It’s hard to say exactly what it will be – the impression I’m getting is that it’s user interface will strongly resemble a search engine.  Its functionality though is supposed to be above and beyond a simple search engine though.  It’s supposed to take a simple question in common language and return an answer based on your perceived needs from a database of curated knowledge.  So if you’re searching for dice rolls, it might give you some data on statistics, or even do a calculation (or set of calculations) for you.  The curated knowledge part is also very important – all of the info in the system will be verified by experts.  This of course eliminates the uncertainty of validity of information inherent in services like Wikipedia and many random sites provided by Google.

So surely there can’t be all good news though, right?  It looks like the biggest shortcoming will be in popular culture information.  So many artist, album, and track names conflict with each other and other pieces of information that it would be extremely difficult to index.  Based on what I’ve read, the creators are still working on an intelligent way of dealing with this information.  We also don’t know how it will turn out, since it’s still being developed.  With all hope though, it will be a groundbreaking change, which will benefit everyone using the internet.  So to you and your team Mr. Wolfram, I wish you the best of luck in changing the internet forever!

Wolfram Alpha is located at www.wolframalpha.com, so check it out when it goes live later this May!

(P.S.  Please don’t make Skynet.  Thanks!)

Do you like computer games?  I know I do.  There’s a ton of great titles out there, but there is also a large volume of chaff – and there’s even virtually identical games released under different names by different companies.  And this is especially true of the MMO genre (and even more so true of the i-rpg games on the iPhone – they’re all identical!) – Most games are repackaging of the same old concepts and enemies.  And since World of Warcraft is so insanely popular, most games are knockoffs of this general mold – hunting quests, the camera controls, just the general feel pervades so many games.  Blizzard’s success has effectively killed a lot of the innovation in the MMORPG genre.

Then I played Atlantica.  In a lot of respects it admittedly does resemble the World of Warcraft model, but in a lot of respects it doesn’t.  One major difference is that you start the game with a party of three, and you consistently control more than one character.  The big, big difference though is that combat is turn based.  It takes an interesting approach to this – you’re given a time limit for your turn, dependant on how many people are in your party.  There’s a variety of mercenaries that you can hire, and via quests you can expand you main party size.  Each type of mercenary has a unique attack pattern and at least one unique skill.  Another feature I like is the auto move function – instead of wandering looking for a quest objective, you can click a button and be taken to it.  It’s incredibly convenient.

The potential diversification of your group is something I definitely like about this game.  Even the typical elemental attacks are divided among several characters, so you are forced to make a choice between versatility and strength (choices are always good – more choices means each player has more opportunities to play their way.  Sometimes the choices are tough though).  Usually the weaker classes have the ability to hit multiple enemies, while stronger ones are confined to attacking only the enemies in the front.  The magic classes also have three special abilities as opposed to melee classes’ one skill (though the melee skills often have tactical advantages – for example the archer has the ability to silence enemy spell casters).

Admittedly I’ve only played a little of this game due to my busy schedule.  It has, however, been a refreshing change from the usual repetition inherent to most MMORPGs.  I’ll be continuing playing it, and if I find anything else that impresses or disappoints me I’ll let you know.  Definitely give it a try if you like RPGs!