Dell Laptop Owner's Beware

If you have an Inspirion 9400/e1605 chances are you video has went on you. It's not new news anyone with an nVidia card either be Go 7800 or 7900 GS will fail. The 7900GS has a far higher failure rate with most of these cards dying from artifacts that look like lines going up and down the screen.

If Dell offers to extend your warranty DO IT! I'm already on my 4th card.

My first card was a Go 7800 by far this card lasted the longest as it worked fine in my system for the first 2 years.

Upon failing the Dell service depot did not have any of the parts in stock, so they substituted it with a Go 7900GS video card. I was happy that I got a free upgrade to a slightly faster card but unfortunately after 2 months this card failed.

The third replacement was again a 7900GS this by far was the shortest lifespan as within 1 month and 1 week it also died (you can confirm this by searching the archives).

Now I'm on my 4th card, I'm a bit disappointed that Dell replaced my last fancy Go 7900GS with the older Go 7800 which generates a lot more heat and performs weaker. That said after contacting Dell several times to get this remedied I just decided it was too much hassle and most likely this Go 7800 judging from how much heat it generates will just go up in smoke before the 1 year warranty is up anyways.

Video cards for the dell Inspiron 9400/e1705 are becoming ridiculously expensive on ebay now with prices now well into the $400 CDN range. If you were to upgrade to a 7900 GTX or a 2500M be prepared to shell out at least $500 now. That said I've heard that the 7900 GTX has much better cooling and will not go up in smoke like the Go 7800 and 7900GS.

For those that are interested I'll be sure to update the blog the next time this video card goes up in smoke, I'd also like to hear any horror stories you might have had as this is very a very common design flaw. Maybe if anyone has a solution to this it would be nice as well.

Right now I just needed to get this down for those of you wondering if you just got a lemon of a laptop. Let's just say all Inspiron 9400/e1705 are like this and you should expect to have to have your video card swapped out regularly.

Wanted: Movie Review

I'm usually not one to respond well to other mediums transfered into movie format. That's why I was so excited when I heard about the movie "Wanted". Finally a movie that's not based off a comic book or a previous movie somewhere. Well I found out later that this movie was based off a graphic novel but I realize now that it's ok. Being as obscure as it is many people will feel like this movie was made for the big screen, and not some cheesy last minute transfer tweaked to fit on the theatre format.

Wanted is a movie about assassins, not new. But the plot to wanted is so much more. I won't spoil it by giving away any details but I will say that any viewer that loves movies where your challenged to think and constantly change your perceptions of what's actually going on beneath the conspiracy will absolutely fall in love with this movie the way I did. The main cast pulls the movie off relatively well, oddly enough the smaller names do a lot better job in this movies than the big names like Anglia Jolie. From the introduction of the main character to the many scenes along the way everything to the movie felt well structured and logically thought out.

It's rare for me to rave about a movie this much but I guess I've been so dissapointed with lacklustre movies recently especially movies that challenge your mind that Wanted turned out to be a very refreshing change. Although the large scale fight sequences often felt like they were being drawn out for too long and a few parts required you to dispell disbelief for physics breaking fictional rules. The entire story felt like it was being told in such a way that it challanged the viewer to constantly get involved and think about what they were seeing taking the experience of wanted from a passive one to a more active one. This is definetly not a movie you can fall asleep in and expect to understand what's going on every step of the way. But if you like movies that force you to think a little than what you put in will pay itself back.

Wanted gets a highly recommended in my book.

Steal This Film 2

I don't normally link things I find on the internet, nor do I normally link to a torrent off site. However after watching this particular film I felt compelled to ask you people to steal it.

It's a documentary of sorts on the current state of information it's really nothing new, but I will say it's a good summary for what undoubtedly you and I have had to live through for the last few years seeing how we are the "napster" generation.

The video claims that we are the soldiers at the front lines of a new war, quite frankly, after watching it I think you'd agree with them as well.

http://www.stealthisfilm.com/Part2/

Search for a good ISP

Well so things are settled I'll be moving back to Hamilton within 2 weeks.
The internet situation still needs to be resolved however.
Here's a comparison of the 2 providers I'm looking at:

(The table is below there's some formatting glitch causing it to jump I'm to lazy to fix it now)

	Cogeco	DSL
Install	$50	$20
Monthly Charge	$47.95	$29.99
Rental fees	(covered) $0	$7
Totals (per month with install)	$52.12	$38.66
Annual Cost	$625.44	$463.92

Obviously we can see that DSL is a lot cheaper than Cogeco unfortunately cogeco comes with TV you'd be paying $13.46 / month for TV or $161.52 for the year just for standard cable!

My stance is ditch the cable cause DSL is much more reliable anyways but we'll see if I have trouble convincing the others.

Dreamfall

I've just finished the masterpiece that is Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Dreamfall is an action adventure game with the emphasis on adventure, with alot of cinematic flair. This alone isn't new, however the depth and richness of Dreamfall's multilayered story is extrordinary. In playing through the game each player litterally makes their own journey. Along the way troubling questions are presented to the player as well as real world lessons. I know this seems unrealistic and somewhat cliche but some of the in game dialogue was deeply insightful and gives another perspective to how we live through the day to day.

In the end Dreamfall is a very good novel the excellent graphics pale in comparison to the complexity and mulitfaceted nature of the story. Dreamfall reads like a book, a book that you will be dying to get to the next chapter through a sense of discovery.

And maybe if you just play Dreamfall with a open mind like me, you might just be able to find that Dreamfall has stopped being a game so much as a chance to live and learn some life lessons.

Finally A Non-Wimpy Electric Car




It took a long time but someone finally made an electric car that beat out my inital enthusiasm for the TZero from ac propulsion. It's called the Tesla and it's a serious electric car, it looks like one too however what's really impressive is that it can go 0-100km in less than 4 seconds and has a range of around 400km. I have to say that I don't care much for the first figure but the second figure is mighty impressive and if it were available I'd seriously consider it over a conventional combustion engine. What's more impressive is it runs about 2 cents / km. So let's compare with a modern econocar raitings.

The Tesla Roadster: $0.02 / km = $2.00 / 100km (Theoretical Max Range 400KM)

We'll assume the price of Gas is 100.0 / L even though it's currently 106.3
We are taking best case highway numbers as well to give the Gas cars an advantage and calculating the max ranges with an assumed 50L fill at those best case numbers.

Mazda3 GS 2.0L : 6.1L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $6.10 / 100KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 810KM
Honda Civic : 5.7L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $5.70 / 100KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 870KM
Honda Civic Hybrid: 4.3L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $4.30 / 100 KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 1160KM
Toyota Prius: 4.2L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $4.20 / 100 KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 1190KM

As we know sports cars are huge gas guzzlers so let's take a quick look at some exotic cars to compare:

Lamborghini Murcielago: 18.1L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $18.10 / 100KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 270KM
Aston Martin Vanquish: 13.1L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $13.10 / 100KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 382KM
Porche Carrera GT: 11.7L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $11.70 / 100KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 427KM
Bugatti Veyron (Highway): 14.7L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $14.70 / 100KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 340KM
Bugatti Veyron (City): 40.1L / 100KM @ $1.00 / L = $40.1 / 100KM
Estimated Max Best Case Range: 125KM

As you can see the specs look good if the Tesla delivers on what it says it'll deliver on paper it'll be the speed and range of a sports car, with the running cost of an econocar. As long as you can find a spare power plug every 400KM and can take 3 hours to charge it seems like a great deal, and a huge plus is no green house gases.

However part of the package for an exotic sports car is the looks and to me at least this one's got it.

The Tesla was designed by Lotus Elise engineers and it shows.


Low component count makes the Tesla mechanically simpler than most cars.


Notice the car only has forward and reverse, there is no gear changing since electric motors work well from 0rpm all the way to 13000+rpm.


Here's the car's powerplant, significantly smaller than a modern car engine and much less complex. The electric motor is infinitely more efficient as it is simpler than the internal combustion engine.

A few caveats though because the car uses laptop batteries after the first year the car will lose 20% of it's charge if stored at 100% charge level which is probably what everyone does if given a car like this. That means that after year one your range will go from 400KM to 320KM and after year 2 it's looking like 256KM by year 3 you will need a replacement since your now doing 204KM that's half the original range. So if you were going to own you must consider battery wear as a part of the cost, although everyone these days is a "right now" society and might just ignore this running cost.

Good service isn't dead it's just hard to find

If your like me you hate going to your car's dealer to get service for small issues after getting the car. My dealer (Dufferin Mazda) had a bad habit of having difficult open hours, inaccessable to the bus system after drop off, and sometime's I'd get the car back with a greasy steering wheel.

Well no more! Yesterday my car went to Avante Mazda for service a recommended dealer from a forum. Let me tell you the experience was night and day. Even on the phone the service dept was much nicer informing me of if they could perform the service and when they can get the parts by so they can combine services together. They even went through a list of known issues for my car to see if anything else needed to be fixed.

When I arrived and dropped off my car they had a driver send me to work. What amazed me more is that they offered to pick me up after work to pick up my car. Now that's exceptional. It didn't stop there, while at work they called to update me on what was happening with my vehicle. When done they road tested my vehichle to make sure that I would not be comming back concerning anything (my original dealer never did that).

Finally when I actually arrived to pick up my car I was surprised to find a new plastic plate protector on my license plate and that my car was washed. The service department said that wash and free plate protectors are complimentary... WOW.

So moral of the story, excellent service does exist. These days you really have to look hard for it. The difference is I no longer dread going to my dealer in fact the whole experience was actually fun, and made me happier.

Avante Mazda:

Pros:
* Excellent service staff, friendly and the kind of people you can chat with.
* They will drive you to work, and back again!
* Free plastic plate protectors if your missing them.
* Excellent communication they never will leave you in the dark about what's going on.
* Extended service hours (7:30am - 6:30pm) so you can go to work and get picked up any day of the week.
* The kind of service that puts smiles on your face, and that's a rarity.

Cons:
* They are a bit far for me but well worth the drive.

HL2 first impressions

Ok to some this is old news. Even to me it seems a bit old and dated, however I haven't had a computer capable of playing HL2 until now and let me tell you reading about the innovation and playing it is completely different.

This physics engine is nothing short of incredible. I'm frequently baffled about how well it can simulate how objects would realistically behave. So much so that even in the earily parts of the game I learned to used my new found ability to interact with the enviroment to my advantage. In fact without thinking about it I did things like knock down tables for cover. Grab a barrel for protection against fire. All of which later I sat back just to let it all sink in that this game reached a level of realism previously unheard of.

And it's not a dumb shooter either. There are frequent stops along the way where the game throws you into puzzle solving scenario. These end up being stages where they demonstrate the power of their physics engine. For example in one scene there's a titer tottler type scenario where you run around the room piling up bricks on one end until the titer toter is heavy enough to let you stand on the other end without going down. Things also have boyancy, and this is demonstrated by a scenario where you have to raise a platform by making it more boyant.

I think what's most impressive about half-life is how the game never feels flat. Frequently I find myself in the toybox scenario where every game object is like a toy because the physics engine so good at modeling realistic behavior.

For anyone that has glossed over HL2 because their computer wasn't fast enough be sure to try it when your computer is. Although I would also recommend playing HL1 to understand the storyline. Although the sad part is I don't think I'll ever run into a game that's this well thought out in terms of storyline, and gameplay. More and more games go for the all graphics approach, and like supermodels they might look beautiful, but you surely get fed up with them quickly. HL2's graphics might not be as spectacular as farcry but in every other way HL2 is a more superior game, and the level of polish is above everthing I'm used to seeing.

Dell Delayed

Today I got an email stating that my purchase of the expensive Dell laptop has been delayed but they can deliver a new one with a different (cheaper) part with the cost reflected to me.

I originally purchased my laptop with a GeForce 7800 GTX which is top of the line from nVidia only the 7800 GTX Go is a higher end model which wasn't offered in my configuration.

However my Dell sales rep told me that tell ran out of inventory of the 7800 Go and they could give me my laptop within the next few days if I agree to the ATI x1400 (with a $200 discount).

I've been reading reviews and the ATI x1400 is ATI's new series of mid-range or budget cards. And seeing how I got premium or top of the line parts for every other component I wasn't about to go budget. The ATI x1400 apparently has less number crunching power than even the older X700 so I was in no way impressed by that offering. Don't get me wrong I love ATI I mean ATI headquarters is only 5 blocks away from where I work, but if the options were x1800 or even x1900 I would place an order in a heartbeat.

So it looks like provided they allow me to take a final look at my configuration once the 7800 is back in stock, and modify CPU / RAM / HDD if need be I'll be waiting for the 7800 Go which Dell says will be back in stock by May 1st. I'm still trying to see if they can give me a GeForce 7800 GTX go as it's found in their higher end gaming laptops, and I have their highest end multimedia laptop. I'd totally be willing to pay the difference if they offered.

I feel like I'm trying to purchase a ferrari labourghini or something. In the computer industry waiting a month IS waiting a year in any other industry. My only hope is that the nVidia does get here by May 1st and Dell will offset any price hikes.

Seems even if you are buying premium products you can't expect everyone else to not do the same.

Goodbye Acrobat

Today I finally made the full conversion from Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0.5 on my work PC over to foxit reader. The reason? Well Acrobat these days has grow to be bloatware with it's multiple plugins and slow loading splash screen it's sometimes unbearably slow to use.


In comes foxit reader the less than 1 MB PDF reader. Although while using it I found some minor issues, like being unable to show PDF documents from within a browser so far I'm very satisfied with the results. Unlike Adobe Acrobat there is no attempt to install all these auxillary programs that load in the background doing various things like checking for updates. The result is a very clean program that loads as fast as notepad, and has all the features of standard Acrobat.

For users of Acrobat Pro this is no replacement since you cannot create PDF's with this program nor can you mark up existing PDF documents. However, for the millions of PDF view only users this is a definite download I'd recommend it to anyone that needs a fast lite PDF viewer.

Why We Play Games

I was just reading this ever so interresting article that analyzes the human psyche an why games are so appealing (the original article can be found here). Anyways basically some of the key thing stated was mainly intuitive but one key re-occuring theme is games satisfy a human need of accomplishment.

Now I personally find this a really interresting statement, and would go to show why some people will sit on hours doing menial tasks just to finish an objective in a game. However to that respect upon analysing my own situation I don't heavily play games to this degree, and when I think about it it might be due to the fact that I already have preset rewards set in the "brain" so the need to suppliment this is drastically reduced.

The other might be value system. I view games as a form of entertainment and anything that is accomplished in games can be accomplished by anyone without much skill. I've notice that some view games as a challenge and will talk hours about how they beat a certain level or gained a certain high score. To me doing such a thing is useless since it doesn't take a really skilled person to learn and play a game.

So games it seems after reflecting seem to be able to capture a very specific audience I guess I'm just lucky that I'm not part of the addicted audience.

(Although I waste alot more time programming, or ripping open electronic toys)

The Grocery Gateway delivery guy commented on how we were his second biggest order today, his biggest order happened to be a Hospital. If you remember last year some of us referred to this place as St. Glenmount's Mental Institution so we're pretty close.

There's the logo GroceryGateway.com 

Apparently at the end of the day we realized some of the food that we ordered wasn't around so here's Greg working hard at making sure he knows exactly where to stab them if need be.