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December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas
A quote borrowed from a myspace bulletin. ;-)
""Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all."
Posted by Me at 02:46 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 14, 2006
The Viewsonic Airpanel V150p
The Viewsonic Airpanel V150p
Having the need for remote connectivity and file/source/documentation viewing brought me into the world of tablet PC's. I've found it found it more productive to be sitting back relaxing the couch, seeing my favorite programs and using that wasteful commercial time for something better. This is one of the main reasons I have a small machine always available on the living room coffee table.
As much as I love me mini P1510d that I use for viewing, There is a love/hate relationship with it.
I love it because it's small... Then again, I hate it because it's so small.
Don't get me wrong it's extremely useful and given the need, I would buy it again in a heart beat.
Yet there are those times when I just want a bigger screen.
In addition, there are times when I could just access screens in my vmware system or just around the aparment.
Reading source code, eBooks or browsing message boards. All a good use of time while commercials abound.
While looking for a tablet PC stand (until I found the multidock) I kept on stumbling across something called the airpanel. What is this device, further research revealed this to be almost exactly what I needed in a pinch.
Lo and behold the Viewsonic Airpanel V150p.
Frankly this is an old and "discontinued" product. Microsoft abandon the "smart display" a couple years back. Yet this still serves a niche need. At the time of it's release this technology was just too dam expensive to be worthwhile. Now through the used markets and with the use of the dock, , it has a new life.
The basis of this product is a Windows CE environment that is a Windows remote desktop environment over a wireless network. It has a touchscreen LCD with a stylus, along with a joypad and left/right mouse buttons. Upon startup you can click to connect to a preconfigured XP machine with remote desktop sharing enabled. Thereafter all desktop/screen/sound output is wirelessly sent to this display. The particular one I bid/won was a 15" model with a resolution of 1024x768. The other models were just too dam small with 800x600.
I won't go into deep reviews or details as there are plenty of other pages on the net.
I'll just go over key points and cool features
I got this one with a docking station. The dock has a few functions, provide a resting place, charge the unit up, provide VGA & USB pass through. This is what grabbed me as to it's usefulness. While docked It displays the screen output of my P1510D on a full 15" LCD. ahhh, rest for my weary eyes.
Upon lift off the dock, it switches over to a remote desktop client. Thereafter you just click on the machine's remote login entry and zing zing zing... your remote desktop is active.
This gives me the ability to use the P1510d without strain, or detach/de-dock the montor, reconnect wirelessly and sit back in the easy chair and continue.
I have to say this is actually very cool.
The only downside is that it is a full 15" plus the width of the outside (I think that comes out to about 17").
I think it would have been better as a 14" with a 12" LCD. Then again bidders can't be choosers (or can they).
As I mentioned, the other models just did not have the resolution that I wanted.
Also, after a while this can get a bit heavy.
Another cool feature is the embedded USB ports. With this you can connect a USB keyboard and/or mouse.
This enables even more "remote" terminal capability. I have an adesso wireless keyboard/touchpad.
When I plugged in the USB RF HID transmitter it worked. I was ecstatic.
Now I can have the best of all worlds when needed.
I would not really recommend this to anyone except my pal Larry.
In a home theatre environment, the remote desktop may prove useless as it disables the base machine's output on the local monitor. As a remote terminal, it can allow you to bring along your monitoring web pages and/or email into any room. (a key reason for me). click click click and my email client is within reach without moving. ;-)
Note sure how much use I'll get out if it, but it's there when I need it and the ability to be a LCD monitor is a big plus.
The airpanel as an LCD monitor for the P1510D
Airpanel De-docked.
Login Screen for a remote desktop enabled machine.
Logged in
Viewing my favorite webpage.
Posted by Me at 08:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 11, 2006
Is it a Desktop, A Notebook or A Tablet landing on a Dock!
The Toshiba Tecra M4
After considerable work with the smaller screens of today's tablet/notebooks I found I needed something with more screen real estate / resolution. I have the need to fit a 1280x1024 vmware or remtote desktop within a screen.
I figured a used 14" convertible notebook would do fine. After all, once you get used to folding up your notebook, flapping the screen over and leaning back to browse the web, you never want to give that up.
Frankly these convertible notebook/tablets have always fascinated me. So much in fact I have 4 (All for different usage). (T4010D, P1510D, CX210X)
The latest edition is a Toshiba Tecra M4. This is a nice 14.1" Pentium M convertible notebook. I choose this particular model specifically for it's large 14" screen with a 1440x1050 resolution.
The main goal was for living room browsing, email, some games and remote control of virtual desktops from other vmware based machines.
Although the newer Tecra M7's are nice, they are only in a widescreen format which does not fit my resolution needs and space where I planned to put it. The Portege M400 has the ability for high res, yet it's 12" screen would leave me squinting.
The Toshiba MultiDock IIWhat really grabbed me was, the M4's ability to use the Toshiba Multidock II. This docking station mounts it to look like a monitor and also allows rapid repositioning/removal.
After all is said and done it works out almost exactly as I need.
The only downside of the older machine is lack of dual core. Then again I do not really need it, plus I have 2 other dual cores. One for programming and another for the video/audio processing. (and let me tell you the CX210X with duo core 2's 4MB cache is a hell of a performer).
Those who know me, know I grabbed the highest configuration possible within reason. So with a hefty 2.13Ghz single core Pentium M, 2G of ram, 80G SATA and a 128MB nvidia video card, this sucker has great performance.
The only downside with getting a used unit is the in ability to configure a machine exactly as you like. I thought I found one, but it so happened to come without the bluetooth module. This drove me crazy for a day because I knew I had purchased a specific one with bluetooth and it was not working.
For those who have seen Heros in recent times, this will ring back.
Remember the episode where the grandfather gives the kid a laptop.. the kid runs with it into his room, then 20 minutes later the grandfather finds the kid has it opened up all over his desk.. Well that was me trying to figure out what was wrong. It so happened the module itself was never there.
I called the vendor up and when he said I have no idea where this module would even be, I was able to tell him how to open up another and where to grab it from LOL!!! Fedex a day later and it was here. (I took pics of the install too).
After the purchase of a Multdock, A bluetooth module and logictech DiNuvo Bluetooth keyboard and mouse I'm computing and rollin' in style.
I've taken some pics to show off this cool configuration for those interested.
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Some Review Links.
http://www.tabletpcreview.com/?newsID=282
http://www.laptopmag.com/Review/Toshiba-Tecra-M4-S435.htm
The Tecra M4 in note book mode
The Tecra M4 in note docked mode (looks like a desktop lcd eh?
The Tecra M4 in note docked in portrait mode.
The Tecra M4 in docked, but detached in landscape mode. Allows use of stylus without a complete disconnect from the dock.
Here is where I detached the tablet from the dock entirely. Good for sitting back and browsing with the stylus.
(Note the bluetooth keyboard and mouse still work)
Posted by Me at 10:45 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack