The Computer’s Gender

28 January 2011

One day a Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
“House,” she declared, is feminine: la casa.
“Pencil,” however, is masculine: el lapiz.
A student then asked, “What gender is ‘computer’?”

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether “computer” should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

The men’s group decided that “computer” should definitely be of the feminine gender (la computadora), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is impossible to understand for everyone else.

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval.

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women’s group concluded that computers should be masculine (el computador), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on.

2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves.

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they are the problem.

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer you could have gotten a better model.

Of course, the Spanish knew what they were doing when they made ‘computer’ a feminine noun, la computadora!


Tin can flying

9 January 2011

Like many folks this past holiday season, I found myself traveling the sky-lanes of America in the cattle car that we like to call the modern airliner. When it comes to heights, I tend to demonstrate a standard fare of caution that has kept me alive at least this long. Sure I enjoy the occasional Florida tourist-trap bungee jump or Appalachian mountain climb, and I even plan on skydiving sometime this year, but there’s  just something about flying in an airliner that never allows me to be fully comfortable.

I do understand the basic physics behind the process that allows a huge aircraft loaded with people and luggage to stay in the air for hours at a time at rapid speeds. Technology is my profession in a sense, and I have learned to trust in many a man-made device. This experience, however, has also taught me that things do fail. In a way it’s amazing that we put so much trust in those two (or more) massive jet engines common to most commercial aircraft. They go through so much abuse on a daily basis.  Every time I board an aircraft I only hope that the mechanics did their job, because if those jet monsters stop humming for any reason, there really isn’t much hope to live another day. Gravity doesn’t care that I paid $500+ for a quick trip and a bag of pretzels.

I suppose I should take comfort in the fact that the companies that own the things have a vested economic interest in keeping them running well, if only to save their reputation and not lose an expensive piece of equipment!

Don’t even get me started on how cram-packed most airplanes are on any given flight. With so many people sardined into a tiny space, I really wonder if any set of emergency procedures could possibly unload an aircraft in an orderly fashion during some sort of emergency (that is assuming anyone survives the impact, of course). Recently I flew on a little commuter jet that really had no headroom or aisle to speak of, even for me, and I’m less than average height! Yeah I know, gas is expensive and the economy is bad. But come on, it is pretty apparent that airliner seating arrangements are a real hazard!

And no, the smile on the shining face of the kind TSA agent (yeah, right) during the super-convenient security screening process does not make up for any of this. Ah well, I guess it beats driving 2,000 miles by myself.


Sager NP8690 Personal Review

28 November 2010

Sager NP8690At last, I have a real computer again! After months of research, I finally retired my borrowed netbook for a high-performance computer. I decided on the Sager NP8690 laptop because of its awesome hardware and warranty for a reasonable price.

Weighing at 7.38 pounds and nearly 2 inches at its thickest point when closed, the 15.6″ screen 8690 isn’t exactly netbook-portable, but it certainly gets more than the job done. Sager sells laptops from Clevo, a base manufacturer who has designed barebones units for companies like Alienware. They are not very well-known to the general public, but have garnered a respectable amount of admiration from those in the performance computing camp. In this post I’ll give my general opinions on its build and performance. 

The following are the specifications I chose:

15.6″ 1920×1080 Full HD WLED screen
Intel Core i7 840QM
8GB DDR3/1333 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 460M (1.5GB GDDR5/DX11)
500GB Seagate XT Hybrid HDD/SSD
Blu-Ray/DVD Writer, 2MP camera/mic
USB 3.0, HDMI, Card Reader, e-SATA, ExpressCard & other I/O ports

 Build quality is solid and heavy in a good way. The chiclet keyboard feels and types nicely, very little keyboard flex is present when pressed hard. The chassis is easy to open to access the user-upgradeable parts. The synaptic touchpad works well, though like most laptop users I prefer a separate mouse. A pop-out optical drive means no worries about getting discs stuck inside a picky slot-load drive. The screen hinge is strong and does not wobble easily. Most of the body is non-glossy so fingerprints are not a constant nuisance. The CPU/GPU fans make noticeable noise under heavy performance load, but this is to be expected; temperatures are acceptably low and the heat dissipation is designed not to bother the user.

The visual quality of the screen on this laptop is something to behold. Blu-rays are a pleasure even on the 15.6″ LED screen, and brightness can be adjusted to many levels. Black levels are very deep and true, though the glossiness makes the surface become a mirror when the display is dark (this can be mitigated by lowering the amount of light in the room, but it really doesn’t bother me much). Performance-wise this thing can handle any major software thrown at it to date and is bound to be future proof. On games like StarCraft 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 I can easily max out the settings and still achieve enjoyable frame rates.

I purchased this particular laptop from PowerNotebooks.com, a Sager reseller who offers better prices than the manufacturer’s site along with great service and warranty to boot! It was refreshing to make an important from a small business that cares. Every purchase has a 30-day return policy and is afterwards protected by a 1-year parts/3-year service warranty (upgradeable). The actual shipment was well packaged and came with a free laptop bag, small cleaning cloth, driver/utilities discs, and a DVI-to-VGA display adapter.

Overall this is an excellent notebook for the power user or gamer on the go, especially those who want comparable power to a desktop in a more mobile package.


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