Computers　in the past have tended to be….*ahem*…. behemoths. Take a look at this early, sexy “portable computer”:

Even Apple’s early models weren’t sleek and sexy like they are now:

And how much would one of these old, attractive machines cost you? Oh, a paltry $6,000 or so. *scoff* I throw that money in the tip jar at Starbucks. </sarcasm>. But not today. Laptops have gotten extraordinarily sleek, fast, slick and other words you can think of to evoke an image of a James Bond-esque figure on a beach in the pristine Carribbean, sipping on a pretentious alcoholic drink, seducing passersby at an alarming rate with its posh British accent (Excuse me, my dear, but have you seen my GUI? Would you mind helping me with my glossy 15″ LCD? Oh yes, it really is 15″, and I’ve got more than 4 million pixels to display…would you care to see them?) Check out the new VAIOs:

But they can all step aside now… Apple has announced and unveiled its incredibly streamlined, lightweight and surprisingly powerful Macbook Air. We had all been hearing the rumours about an ultra-portable in development, and we all wanted something to replace our old 12″ Powerbooks and iBooks, but even the 13.3″ Macbooks just felt too klunky. This is a solution. The only downside in terms of portability is that it is still 13.3″, but it is more than made up for in its thickness, or lack thereof. Feast your eyes on this puppy:

So what’s the big deal?  Let’s take a brief look at the geography of this little wonder.  At its thinnest point it’s 0.12″ (3mm) and at its thickest point, its 0.76″ (9.2mm) and weighs a measley 3lbs.  Yes, this computer does exist.  But is it useable?  In a word, yes.  Depending on what you do, of course, since this computer is ultra-portable, it’s not intended to replace your day-to-day computer or be a powerhouse.  But even so, it does pack a punch.  With a 1.6ghz Intel Core2 Duo on the low end and a 1.8ghz on the high end, it is one of the faster processors available today.  Not to mention Intel designed this processor specifically for Apple, making it 60% smaller than the standard Core2 Duo.  So it’s fast.  Real fast.  How about memory, O skeptics?  Yes, all models ship with 2 GB of RAM.  That’s pretty good, but it’s not expandable (at least in this first model), so you’re stuck with it for as long as you have the computer.  This isn’t necessarily bad, considering the $1,799 price tag.

A few notes to the tech-savvy: there is no optical drive, no ethernet port and no firewire.  You’re stuck with one USB 2.0 port, a micro DVI port and the usual headphone jack.  This isn’t necessarily going to be a problem, but keep in mind that doing anything low-level on this machine is going to be a little bit of a pain.  However, with USB jump/flash drives being so huge and so cheap, the lack of an optical drive isn’t necessarily going to be a problem, but opponents will sure make a huge deal of it.  But for the innovation, the addition of muti-touch to the trackpad, and the same backlit keyboard of love from the Macbook Pro, this is truly an amazing little wonder.

Should you get one?  Well, all new things will have some issues, till the first generation of users help work the kinks out.  But if you like living on the cutting edge, or want to try some great new technology, it is most certainly worth it.  Especially at the price of a normal laptop.  By all means, don’t replace your current everyday computer with it (yet), but for students, researchers, maybe even some field workers, and schools, this is the laptop to have.

<break>

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echo(“

      Ok, peoples, take a little pause (German for “a short break”) and consider there is a light (no, not lite) at the end of the tunnel, as I discovered just a short bit ago.  Oh yes, I indeed saw the little glimpse, a flare of photons towards the end of the 17,324th line of code (no, that’s not really an exaggeration, it’s pretty accurate).  I can rest much easier knowing the hard part is nearly there.  But alas, I must repast and fuel the tiny, shrivelled bean that was my brain.  Ahoy! “);

?>

</break>

I was totally going to write something all nifty and inspiring, or at least gritty and witty, but naught has come to my little head. The day shall begin, and dozens upon dozens of ounces of coffee will begin their flow directly into my bloodstream, in my daily transfusion of blood for coffee.

I promise, O readers who do not exist, when I think of something you will not want to read…I will post it.

Mahalo.

return(false);

}

A while ago, I was saddened to hear of the CompUSA store in my family’s area closing, but was not surprised. I knew that that particular store never really netted any amazing sales, nor drew many customers, but what can you expect from a South Orange County suburb electronics store? You can hardly expect it to be any busier than the Radio Shack or Gamestop in the same shopping center–and it wasn’t. But I thought nothing of it, after all, companies often shut their doors on failed retail expansions to keep the company itself from hurting (The Greater Good syndrome). Then something strange happened: the CompUSA here announced a closing clearance sale!

I was extremely disheartened; I mean, this brand I had grown up with, a legend in the hall of retail computer fame, was going to be decimated and obliterated in the wake of Prada, Coach, Nordstrom’s and Luis Vuitton’s repetitive-yet-chic products. I remember when CompUSA was big, a great deal, and your neighbourhood superstore: back when Fry’s wasn’t huge, and when it used to be Incredible Universe (I remember playing with the Nintendo 64 display they had set up for launch day! That was exciting!), when Best Buy was just an idea, and when Radio Shack actually sold more components than cell phones. I did a small, very small, amount of digging and found out that the beloved behemoth was not dying, but worse: it was bought.

According to this, some company no one has ever heard of (the really rich ones are under the public radar) essentially bought out CompUSA, and they are beginning to “convert assets”, which is a fancy way of saying “getting rid of CompUSA’s crap”. Loaded with the usual “better service”, “enhanced opportunities”, “loyal customers” and other fancy-schmancy keywords, the press release reads like a thinly-veiled “Haha suckers! We got the company and the customers, and you’re feeding our wallets now!” slightly mocking the stagnant retail operations that CompUSA had become. It plans on “using” the “CompUSA brand name,” another way of saying, “We aren’t stupid enough to try and change what’s there entirely, because we want to fool people into thinking it really is CompUSA.” It’s a really nifty trick that many companies have used, leaving the illusion there are more companies than there really are, or that a customer’s old favourite really hasn’t gone away, just…shifted, slightly. A few million dollars slightly.

*Sigh* </emote>. That was a little ranty, but what do you expect from a Tech blog from a programmer who does nothing other than read thousands of lines of code a day? You should be happy I can still form sentences!

日本語が読めば、こちらをクリックして、もっと詳しく読んだり写真を見たり出来ます。

Even if you can’t read Japanese, click on it anyways for a few photos. :p

echo ‘Peace out, ppl.’;

end();

}

The week, and dare I say Year of 2008, starts off at full tilt, leaving some of us in the dust, blogically speaking (and yes, Hilo, I did just coin a blog word myself, you blobber). Hmmm, where do we go from here? (and no, the popular song reference was not intentional) Only I can know, and you can find out…^_~…(I think…)