curby's Profile

@Andsetinn: you mean sparklines are not meant to exist in a vacuum, but rather give an overview of historical trends set within the context of min/max/last values? It's almost like you want statistics that DON'T lie. =P

Note that a big dollar amount on the equipment warranty doesn't mean you'll ever see money. I mean, $500k is more than my house is worth. If you've got half a million dollars of equipment, I guarantee you you're not using anything branded "Monster". Look around for companies where customers regularly report actually getting paid in a timely manner without jumping through hoops.

Also, the most common source of power fluctuations come from inside the home, not outside it. At least the article mentions it, but it shouldn't be at the end.

1) When Consumer Reports regularly places an Apple product at the top of EVERY laptop category, and you show a Dell for "Road Warriors", I worry.

When this is making the rounds on the net and you tout Wifi as a headline feature on a Windows laptop, I worry.

2) The charger is cute, but captive cables increase bulk. And regarding not charging Macs: see above.

3) If I'm traveling, I might make use of thumb drives and external 2.5" drives, but that dock is a monster that doesn't fold flat. And I'm sure it takes yet another power adapter. That said, the drives minus the cruft might not suck, but then what makes this product so special besides the dock?

4) Is Case Logic the best that a design-conscious blog can do? Look, that IS a black blob. Try Tom Bihn. Try SFbags.com. Try anything besides the everyday made in China stuff that everyone's already sick of.

I love this site, but my faith is wavering. More substance, less mindless posting and recycling of content please.

As an aside, how was it that the above post was deemed a "Hot Post", when all of the comments were expressing disappointment?

Why do so many of these assume you're sitting in the same position, and take that assumption so far that they even provide static supports for your calves? I like to move around regardless of what I'm doing, and these would be anything BUT comfortable.

If you're going to spend serious money on a workstation, get something multipurpose and comfortable. For example, I decided on an >a href="http://www.anthro.com/computer-furniture.aspx?desk=fit-console">Anthro Console unit. It'll comfortably hold 3x 24" or 2x 30" monitors, though I've got it set up with 2x24" and a laptop stand, all on floating monitor arms. It's a two-surface design for great ergonomics and has plenty of room for a full size keyboard and large mouse pad. While most gamers use headphones, the vertical supports can be extended upwards and outfitted with small shelves for surround sound speakers.

Biomorph has even sleeker designs, but I like the ability of this unit to have shelves both above and below the monitors. I've got my printer and surround sound receiver on the overhead shelf.

(I'm not affiliated with Anthro, I'm just a happy customer.)

That's certainly an idea. But I prefer to use http://powerpax.3dcartstores.com battery carriers. They:

1) protect batteries from crushing
2) protect contacts from shorting out against metal objects
3) organize and group batteries together so they don't get lost in your bag
4) distinguish full from spent batteries (insert with nipple down or up)
5) last forever, whereas tape flags' adhesive collects dust, etc. and stops sticking

Note, I'm not affiliated with the company. I'm just a satisfied customer.

"the main compartment is unable to be accessed while you're wearing the bag. This is a great feature to have when standing in large crowds, riding public transportation or for those times when you don't want to look like a tourist."

This to me, is a great failing. The need to quickly access my gear is the reason I don't use backpack style camera bags. Here we take a sling style bag and lose the accessibility that defines slings. This bag may very well be what some people are looking for, but be aware of its design!

If I were to get a sleeve, it would probably be the ultra-slim sleeves from sfbags.com.

At some point you have to come to terms with the fact that any sleeve is not going to protect a laptop from drops and similar accidents without adding a lot to the size and weight of the device. Protection and bulk are directly proportional, regardless of material.

If you have a bag for travel anyway and you just want something to protect against dust, stains, scratches, etc., then just get something with minimal (but nonzero) bulk and padding.

Or perhaps you have a bag like mine, with a completely separate laptop compartment and dedicated, external zipper. I've thought about getting a sleeve, but it wouldn't really help anything. The times when it's out of the bag are generally times when it would be also out of the sleeve.

@unplggd: why relink to the bubble mailer sleeve idea? It directly contradicts this post because it isn't made to fit, and I'd argue that its protection characteristics are poor as well. Specifically, the bubbles aren't intended to protect heavy consumer electronics items, so they pop and you end up with a false sense of security because then there's almost no cushioning. Even if price was a criterion above, I'd still look elsewhere for a recycled/upcycled solution with better protection and fit.

Wow, spammers are getting surpringly valid-looking posts nowadays.

Anyway, an unfortunate style over substance design. While I like how the original grain of the wood is carried throughout the keys, it seems to lack the bumps that let your hands find the home row.

Also, cleaning will be a nightmare. Not only will the textured and ridged surface of the wood collect and hold onto more grime and dirt, the sharp edges of the keys will be more likely to damage cloths and paper towels used to clean it.

Speaking of sharp edges, the ridges of the keys are likely to hurt after a short period of serious typing.

Without further evidence to the contrary, I'm going to call this design for art's sake, which is not a good thing when making user interface products.

2c

At first glance, Amazon's new Cloud Drive service looks like just a severely handicapped version of Dropbox. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently

... it doesn't have a native client on any desktop OS, requiring you to manually upload files or scan for a small set of file types.

... it doesn't have a native client for iOS, which happens to be a wildly popular mobile device OS.

... it doesn't sync with any computer platform, so it can't be used to keep multiple systems in line.

... it doesn't do drag and drop photo albums (or in fact any albums at all).

... it can't be used for sharing.

... it doesn't have revision control, allowing you to revert to a previous version of a file.

There are a lot of cloud storage solutions out there, but I think the comparison with Dropbox is off base.

@Salsa it'd be nicer, and give you oxygen to boot, but I'd end up throwing it away after 2 weeks ... I don't have a green thumb. =(

@Argylecardigan the original flip flap didn't have a flower. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_Flap the one I have that I thought was real is also a fake. It doesn't have the three different movement possibilities. It seems pretty much impossible to distinguish real ones from fake ones on online retailers, since reusing stock product photos and descriptions is rampant.