Blog of a Long Distance Worker Tech

The blog about mobile tech

Monthly Archives: October 2009

Netbooks and Performance

ASUS1005HA Almost all netbooks (apart from some of the early Acer and Asus devices running Linux) are supplied with 1GB of RAM. Microsoft has further cemented this by defining lower license fees for Windows XP for computers with small screens and only 1GB of RAM, which means that this is the most popular memory configuration for netbooks.

advent-4211-msi-wind-mini-laptop-small At the same time, many people rule out netbooks as low power, sluggish computers that cannot replace a main machine. After my experience of the last month and a half, I would agree. This is when I purchased a new netbook after a problem occurred with my first one … the venerable Advent 4211C, an MSI Wind U100 rebrand. Amazing how I can call a computer that is less than 15 months old as venerable!

The netbook I purchased was the Asus EeePC 1008HA, a very nice and thin machine which I did not originally desire, but my options were limited. The machine I wanted was the Asus EeePC 1005HA but that was not in stock in the timeframe I needed. The problem with the 1008HA is the shorter battery life and the higher price, but I was desperate that evening for a machine. The other problem is that it came with 1GB of RAM compared to my upgraded Advent machine that had 2GB.

The other problem I quickly discovered was that it is closed up harder than a coconut. The machine is basically not upgradeable by anyone but the brave. Needless to say I proved braver than most, particularly after I managed to pierce the keyboard ribbon connector and cut two wires whilst trying to get at the memory. This is because you have to crack the case open after removing the keyboard, disconnecting multiple connectors and making sure that you use the dip switch to disable the battery feed to the machine (thus avoiding blowing the whole thing).  Who needs the left CTRL, Alt, Windows, Fn, function, delete and backspace keys anyway!  After all the fun with doing that I found I had the wrong 2GB memory stick. Putting my slightly crippled machine back together, I had to focus on my day job and with it using the still 1GB Asus.

What I noticed quite quickly is that the machine perpetually struggled with the lack of RAM at a scale that virtual memory could not help. The machine has had a minimum physical memory used of between 700MB and 930MB, and I now know what happens when the physical memory starts to run out… a machine that goes into coma for 30 seconds plus as it struggles to unload a program, to load another one. This has not been a good experience. If this was all the experience I had ever had with a netbook, I could understand saying that netbooks are useless.

Let us be honest, the sweet spot for Windows XP is 2GB ( just like the sweet spot for Vista I have found is 3GB ). This means that all netbooks are not as performant as they could be, and it will stay this way as long as manufacturers keep with supplying them with 1GB. I have started to see however netbooks and their like coming through with 2GB and this seems to be tied to supplying the machine with Windows 7… At least, Windows 7 Home Premium. I hope this continues.

So my best advice out there for the netbook owner? Get yourself upgraded to 2GB… you will then have a very functional, low cost, very portable machine that will perform every duty you throw at it except really heavy duty graphics/video or gaming. The other advice? Make sure that your netbook is user upgradeable. Me? I now have the machine I need but no warranty.

iPhone Battery Life… improvements

10-15-07-iphone The iPhone has (like many 3G smartphones) always had poor battery life when using connectivity for email sync etc. As new firmwares have become available, this life has improved generally, so that I have only had to recharge twice a day sometimes. However with the release of the 3.1 firmware, my battery life took a tumble so that I was in fact charging four times a day. This has been documented elsewhere on the Internet, and as a travelling man this had become almost impossible to keep going through the whole business day. Even with going to the 3.1.2 firmware, there was no improvement.

Then I accidentally left the WiFi on after leaving one office with WiFi and went to another office without WiFi. I did not really notice but suddenly my phone was back to and exceeded my previous battery life. WTF! Further tests with both my iPhones (yes I have two, one for each country) concluded further that this is a real affect and is not proven explainable although I have a theory that I would love checking. Technically turning WiFi should cause a REDUCTION in battery life.

The theory that I have is that Apple have boosted the transmission power on the iPhone 3G radio to allow it to better operate on the US ATT network which is notoriously poor in many US states. This causes the battery to drain further, and also explains why it was not ‘fixed’ in the 3.1.2 release – as it is not something they want to fix as it is solving a US issue that they are getting a lot of flack for. However, the moment you turn the WiFi on I believe that drops the 3G transmission power back to previous levels, which when WiFi is only beacon’ing (trying to find another WiFi network) means a reduced power draw and better battery life. The other evidence is that I note that the iPhones are noticeably warmer when only on 3G.

Not sure if this is really true, but all I know is that my phones now last a lot longer. Try it, it can only improve things.

Portable Storage on the Road

I use a variety of different storage mechanisms on the road, what with online backup, file synchronisation and online storage locations… as well as the huge amount of storage that even the most basic laptop provides these days. My old netbook went through the upgrade from 80GB to 250GB which effectively meant unlimited amounts of normal storage as I have not come close to using that up even when loading up on music (for the road) and every photo I have ever taken (I have owned a digital camera since 1998). My current netbook has a 160GB which is still pretty meaty (particularly once I had done the partition shuffle to convert the dual partition to a single one… I am not a fan of data stored in its own partition, as I lose flexibility to make use of all my storage and I use sync to ensure my data is always recoverable). However sometimes you need that separate storage, separate from the main partition for on the road backup (for extra safety) or for dealing with the transfer of some of the big super media files (>50GB) that occasionally I have to deal with.

Freecomxxs320 This is where I come to my latest favourite, the Freecom XXS 320GB. This is a tiny 2.5” device that is as simple as simple can be. It is essentially a rubber cased bare harddrive with an attached USB2 Interface. It has a good low cost/size of storage ratio (less than €100 for 320GB) and is speedy enough, and the cost aspect is very important. This is because when travelling, the failure rate for HDs is very high even when they are supposed to be robust. This unit is replaceable… an effective property. The rubber casing makes it reasonably robust still though, so I do not expect this to fail too quickly, and this so easily gets dropped into my flight bag. The other thing is, the sleek black rubber just looks cool. You really do want something like this when you are away from home, particularly for taking that extra addition of media for long evenings stuck in hotel rooms with CNN for company.

WiFi on Aircraft

800px-Air_travel_as_it_was_-_Heathrow_1960 Recently I had time to ruminate on the availability of WiFi on aircraft. There is much written and said about this in the US, and on the face of it, it seems that this would be a Nirvana of tech. However there is a big issue with it in the short haul flights of Europe, compared to the US.. at least the little hops that are popular say between London and Paris, and London and Amsterdam. The big issue is that out of a 1 hour flight that is common within Europe, you probably only have 20 minutes to actually get your laptop up and running, and then browsing the Internet. In fact, I have seen reports via Twitter of people who have paid for the WiFi literally only to be able to send one or two tweets before the messages comes to shut the electronics down.

advent-4211-msi-wind-mini-laptop-small The big blocker here is that generally your electronics have to be off from the time you enter the departure gate and move to the plane, through to that magic ‘SeatBelts’ light goes out. Then it has to be off from the beginning of the landing procedure to the time you are into the arrival gate. This is by far the longest time of the flight.

This is even true of the slightly longer flight, not quite a real benefit to the commuter traveller. In fact the real benefit is about NOT having technology.

One thing though, the real saver is the smartphone which does not have the start up and shutdown time… for the snatched email and web browse on the ground, but then WiFi is not required for that.