Tag Archives: hardware
General

New Trackpoint Cap

By on Tuesday, April 25, 2006

A week ago, my friend Drawde finally delivered the Trackpoint caps I asked him to get me a few months ago during one of his not-too-infrequent trips to Japan. Unfortunately, he had misplaced it and only found it last week. He gave me the tiny plastic bag and there they are: three perfectly-shaped Trackpoint caps. These are the textured flat-headed caps, not the easily worn down eraser-head caps that I have been using (there is a third type: rimmed flat-headed caps). I immediately replaced my current cap which I had just installed not too long ago. The new cap fit snugly in place and definitely improves control by providing a bigger point of contact and better traction. And although it looks pretty durable, the insurance provided by two spare caps is very comforting.

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General

Creative SBS 350

By on Saturday, April 15, 2006

The subwoofer of my old Logitech 4.1 speaker system had given up the ghost a few month back. I haven’t found a reason to replace it then. But lately I’ve been listening to music. And with the holy week then coming up, there’s the inevitable marathon of TV show episodes. Listening to limited-bass sound for a lengthy duration, though quite feasible, is not entirely palatable. So I decided to get an SBS 350. It’s a 2.1 system. I decided on 2.1 because I hadn’t been using the 2 speakers from my old Logitech system. The speaker units are black, elegant-looking and well-made. They matched my Thinkpad quite well. Installation was a snap. There was sufficient length of wiring to position the satellites and the subwoofer anywhere within reason. At a total of 20W power, it’s more than sufficient for solo listening or even for a small room. Just don’t expect surround. The bass can be overwhelming at times but you can tone it down with the graphic equalizer available in any media player software. It’s not the best speaker system there is but for most bang for your buck, it can’t be beat.

Rating: 4/5

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Uncategorized

Lefty Logitech Mouse

By on Saturday, March 11, 2006

Lefties of the world rejoice! Logitech will soon release a left-handed version of their leading-edge MX610 laser mouse. It seems Logitech’s CEO is a southpaw and he may have pushed for the design and development of a left-handed version. He would know that lefties would be bleeding-edge early adopter kind of people ;) Now if only they have it in Thinkpad Black.

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General

IBM Thinkpad X20 Series Battery

By on Monday, January 2, 2006

It’s a new year and Selene, my Thinkpad X22, has a new battery!

The battery that came with Selene is already 3 years old and it is showing: It only holds about an hour’s worth of charge. They say Li-Ion batteries only have 3 years life so I guess it will be downhill from 3 years on. I therefore decided to get a new battery.

After quite some time searching through Froggle, PriceGrabber, etc, I finally ordered it online from KeyBattery.com. They don’t ship international so I had it shipped to my friend Billie who was in the US and she eventually got it to me through various means. Thanks Bill! ;)

The battery is your normal IBM spec Li-Ion battery with 10.8V and 4000mAH charge for an effective usage time of roughly 3 hours. There are batteries that have 4400mAH (notably from BatteryRefill.com) but unfortunately the online shops that carry those do not accept my credit card. Too bad since you could do quite a lot with an extra 10% charge. But then again, 3 hrs vs the old battery’s 1 hr is already quite a lot too so I shouldn’t be complaining.

Rating: 4/5

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General

New Trackpoint Cap

By on Thursday, December 1, 2005

Selene has a new trackpoint cap. And it came from a rather unexpected source. There’s this really old busted Thinkpad lying around. It’s been lying in a corner, wrapped in newspaper to absorb the acid from its leaking batteries, and gathering dust for around five years now. There were times when I considered throwing it away but for some reason I did not.

A few days ago, I took a look at Selene’s trackpoint cap and decided it needed replacement. Then, out of the blue, I remembered the old Thinkpad. I picked it up from its corner, peeled away the newspaper wrapping, and lifted open the lid. Lo and behold! An almost unused trackpoint cap! I swapped trackpoint caps and closed the lid, carefully re-wrapped it, and placed it back in its little corner. After all, who knows when it might be able to provide a usable part? I certainly didn’t.

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