a special docking station

what I want, and still I'm waiting from the IT industry is a docking station with extra memory and a couple more processors to boost my current configuration, some extra cooling for life support and a streamlined (in the OS kernel) support of docking/undocking operation , the real thing should have a couple of pipe conduits for air flow... or wait, even better: a multicore 8 or 16 cpu with only 4 cores enabled when in undocked mode, then at docking time fire up all processors and/or overlock them with the aid of extra refrigeration, maybe a couple of peltier modules facing up in the docking station and some design to use the extra cooling from the laptop. we should be able to 'feel' the boost in power.. not like now.

am I dreaming? is it possible? why not? c'mon .. the actual IT "state of the art" technology is kinda boring for me now. no challenges are being overcome, just more and more packing transistors in smaller spaces.. 3D models are still in the horizon.. I know.

faulty seagate barracuda 2TB drives

I'm sure you'll shout WOW! when you see this item price, well, don't buy this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate+-+Barracuda+2TB+Internal+Serial+ATA+Hard+Drive+for+Desktops/9419382.p?id=1218102739460&skuId=9419382&cmp=RMX&ky=1wUS7EE4pGHuNBZ4kBPyqLHyDuVRYOSI8 this 2 terabyte seagate barracuda SATA drive is, to say the least, a faulty design, and seagate refuses to give me my money back or another smaller or different item, even after I offered to pay the difference or absorb the difference, after three drives failed, the company refused to provide a better answer than : we can't do that, it's in the company policies, well, let me tell you this, dear Seagate, you company policy should implement some flexibility to handle very special cases like this one, I just can't trust this model anymore, the drive experiences some kind of lockdown mode for a couple of seconds at random, taking the entire system (I tried this in at least three computers) by slowing down or freezing the entire system bus, using 800 and other FSB bus speed didn't make any difference. as I don't have a lot of time to spare, and I wanted to make sure it was the drive not me, I took some extra time to run the tests, the company finally agreed to send me another NOT recertified drive, we'll see how it goes.

more on this later.

update: as of may 1 2011 there is no firmware update for this particular model, of course if you check the manufacturer's website you'll see the update, but when trying to apply the update, it just refuses saying firmware doesn't match.

DIY ultrasound.

I was with my wife today having a checkup and ultrasound and couldn't avoid thinking about how difficult can be to build a poor's man diy ultrasound machine. I wonder how specialized and hard to get may the sensor probe be. Well ... for all the other stuff and the DSP involved I think any decent computer today can handle that massive amount of data. I just can't stop thinking about the technology being overpriced or super proprietary just to keep the equipment being pricey ...or expensive. More on this later ...I'll check with papa google first.

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computer killers... this is one of many ..Beware

disable automatic restart after update

this made me loose some work last night so this morning I just googled for the solution, and bam! here it is, pretty much easy stuff, I think I'll be safe from "automatic" restart from now on: nice system modification. and a easy one.

http://www.coderetard.com/2008/12/10/how-to-disable-automatic-restart-after-windows-update/

google contacts info missing or out of sync

I use the contacts feature in gmail extensively and even in a abusing manner, (i.e taking notes) its a great tool for me to keep myself organized (sort of) and also to have all the info I need at the tip of my fingers, when this first happened I thought, well... it's just me, maybe I keep forgetting to click the "save" button , or maybe I just thought I wrote that note but I really didn't, (hello alzheimer:) now it is confirmed, I created a contact last night, and the gmail contacts feature has this "autosave" which I didn't used, I created the contact and filled the information (actually it was a couple of notes) and knowingly clicked "save" then I went to sleep, sending the laptop to sleep too, and now after a morning with no use I wake up my computer and find that the contact is there but all the notes are missing, and it's the second time in two days I lost something , fortunately , is not a big deal, I'm assuming here all my already saved contacts are in good shape, hopefully.

now, I wonder, possible causes (just let's not blame google here just as first culprit)

I have multiple machines desktop and laptops mac pc and linux windows with multiples instances of google gmail google contacts and google calendar opened at all times, all them are always in different states or the same, also I have filled my contacts with notes and random stuff to the point where my contact number surpasses 1300, also I have a nexus one phone and all the info is always in sync.

so all these computers are at a different distance from the server (in a network way) I mean they have different hops to the internet, different paths and different timing/sync settings, so what I think is happening here is that google is overwriting my contact info with outdated info from a previously blank (empty) contact, which I surely filled later.

any insights? google?

which laptop is the best?

I was asked by a neighbor today about "the best" laptop available, well, I know you know, that's a tricky question: here goes my answer (transcript almost literally from the email)

there is not a single laptop that can be qualified as the best of the best, usually what people focuses on while shopping for a laptop is a good performance/price ratio, (the best bang for your buck, if you know what I mean) there is one manufacturer which builds laptops for gaming people, and as games are usually a processor/memory eaters, you do need a great laptop to be able to run any game in a decent manner, so, even as being not a gamer, you may find some benefits from getting one from alienware, at www.alienware.com, personally, I just go for the best one I can afford at lenovo.com, which usually fits the bill, there is also a laptop for the field, if you travel a lot and have a need for a tough one, toshiba thoughbooks are for that.

you see? there is a million laptops for every need and user, what I recommend is to have it customized online at the buyer's site, like at dell.com, another seller, which some people disqualify as a good vendor but I heard some good stories too, well, being a laptop technician , I saw all of them fail and crash, so no laptop even the best in the world will ever replace a good backup policy and a disaster recovery plan, check the freebie at www.crashplan.com, where they provide offline and online backup for free and paid, depending on the kind of service and how you want your data to be secured. but don't forget, once online, forever online, no matter if they say it's encrypted, it is still there. so you may wanna do like I do, just have a offline backup policy , I backup right to my server, and I keep my stuff at a different physical place just for safety.

personally , I have an old and still reliable thinkpad T60 which I bought used and I upgraded to the maximum RAM possible (2Gb) and a 30Gb SSD hard drive which provides the muscle for speed and another 120Gb hard drive in the CD bay for storage. this one fits all my needs and I have it with windows XP service pack 3, which I got off eBay for near 40 dollars, any laptop today will come with a flavor of Windows 7, wich off the shelf is already asking you for a lot of memory, so I try to avoid going that route yet. I do have windows 7 in my desktop computer, but not in any of my laptops. I also have a mac desktop and a mac laptop, and a couple of HP laptops and a Gateway, but like I said, I it's a personal preference. being a geek I do have to have multiple computers :)

anyway, feel free to ask me any questions about the subject, I love IT consulting. oh, and my next laptop will be a lenovo w700, which runs (refurbished) close to 1200 dollars at eBay. but I will consider other options when decided.

best regards.