• camera: Honor has an extra low-res “depth” camera, while Lenovo doesn’t
• frame/body: Lenovo has a metal unibody design and performed ok in the scratch/burn/bend test, while Honor has a plastic body, easy to scratch screen, and did not perform as good as Lenovo in the test
• Lenovo has a bigger battery

For about the same price (Lenovo P2 being a bit more expensive) one can buy a 4GB/32GB Lenovo P2 or a 4GB/64GB Honor 6X.

After using both phones for a while, I feel that Honor is a much better value overall.
Here’s a brief comparison, based on my use.

Lenovo P2 vs Honor 6X: practical use impressions

Honestly, regarding cameras, I feel that LG G2 mini and Samsung S4 mini had better cameras…
Fewer megapixels, no 4K video recording – but great photos, and no problems with videos.
This is probably a single major disappointment.

Price per terabyte of WD Red HDDs

• synchronization appears to work correctly;
• total count of steps is updated, but when you click it – there are no per-hour details;
• in the older app version: after sync completes, there is no green message “Updated X items”;
• night sleep tracker does not update at all: neither total hours slept, nor per-hour details;
• the band is otherwise functional, e.g. “Find the band” works – it vibrates and flashes diodes.

Warangelo00 found a solution, which worked for me (and no, you do not need to hard reset the device):
note: the fix below will most probably not work for Mi Band 2, see comments; iPhone owners may try switching iPhone from AM/PM (12-hour clock) to 24-hour clock to fix the non-synchronization problems with MiBand2 – please write in the comments if this method works for you.

1. enable Bluetooth, if it is disabled;
2. start Mi Fit, go to Play –> Incoming call (or, in older app version, Settings – Incoming calls);
3. enable it – set to On;
4. now call your mobile phone from a different one – wait for the band to vibrate and flash lights;
5. you should now be able to refresh Mi Fit main page, and see both current day and previous night per-hour details; in the older app version, it should also show the green “Updated X items” message after syncing;
6. you can now disable incoming calls notification if you don’t need it.

According to Holly, the trick may also work for Mi Pulse.

Not sure if this fix will last, but it did help me – thanks, Warangelo00!

Casio G-Shock

Looking for a replacement, I found that:

• Casio seems to no longer make affordable models with the same functionality and a metal band – only polymer;
• a similar used model from Casio (MTG-something) costs upwards of 70 EUR.

I was quite sad about that. Any survivalist-minded person can easily see why:

• Solar-powered, with integrated rechargeable battery lasting 8 years or more. On full charge, it can operate up to 6 (or 9?) months without further exposure to light. Note: there exist non-solar watches claiming up to 8-10 years off a single battery. And yes, mechanical watch is above any electronic competition in this regard.
• Digital display (for precise time readout) and functionality: stopwatch, timer, alarms, multiple timezones. Mechanical watches cannot match this.
• Precision: +/- 15 seconds a month.
• Radio time synchronization with atomic clocks (feature currently referred to as Waveceptor, but previously also known as Atomic). Modern Casio Waveceptor watches can receive signals from China, Japan, USA, and UK/Germany/Europe. I write UK/Germany/Europe, because these radio signals (depending on weather conditions) can travel thousands of kilometers. If the watch synchronizes successfully every night, then you are guaranteed to have +/- 1 second precision for the entire following day – neat!
• And, of course, shock/vibration protection, and 200m water resistance.
• Adding to the above, metal band should last way longer than any plastic or leather or fabric band.

This is why Casio G-Shocks are awesome
And no, I am in no way affiliated with Casio, and I do not get any personal benefits from writing this post.

Fortunately, my watch was found and returned to me a few weeks after it was lost – so yes, people are good, on average. It will easily serve me many more years. I may, though, consider buying a newer Casio model (with similar functionality) if the accumulator in this one loses capacity, because battery replacement may worsen waterproof properties… But that is still some years away from now.

There is an excellent, in-depth, well-argumented article by Geoff Chappell on the issue. Highly recommended in its entirety to those who want a complete understanding (additional side-reading and facts verification might be necessary).

A single citation to get you started:

There is already on the Internet and elsewhere an awful lot of rubbish to read about this question. Hardly any of it would be worth citing even if I didn’t want to spare the authors the embarrassment. A surprising number of people who claim some sort of attention as expert commentators would have you believe that using more than 4GB of memory is mathematically impossible for any 32-bit operating system because 2 to the power of 32 is 4G and a 32-bit register can’t form an address above 4GB. If nothing else, these experts don’t know enough history: 2 to the 16 is only 64K and yet the wealth of Microsoft is founded on a 16-bit operating system that from its very first version was designed to use 640KB of RAM plus other memory in a physical address space of 1MB. Some remember this history and add seemingly plausible qualifications that exceeding 4GB is possible only at the price of nasty hacks that require everyone—well, all programmers—to jump through hoops. Fortunately, Intel’s processors are a lot more advanced than the 8086 from all those years ago.

P.S. Unfortunately, patching the kernel won’t help make Windows XP see more than 4GB RAM: even though the kernel itself does support more RAM (with PAE), starting with SP2 the HAL was modified in a way prohibiting access to any RAM beyond 4GB. Patching may only be suggested to devoted geeks with Vista’s and 7′s.

To get the essence quickly – just scan the tables and figures, and read conclusions.

You might want to read what google engineers tell about HDD failures.

First of all, sudo aptitude install mesa-utils. Then run in a Terminal/Konsole glxgears, and wait for ~15 seconds; if your FPS is ~400 or less, then you do have sluggish video performance (usually manifesting itself as slow scrolling in Firefox/Iceweasel, slow window switching/minimziing/maximizing etc).

After reading through several forums and bug reports and blog posts, I’ve ended with the following modifications to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

1. backup your current xorg.conf: sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.before-exa
2. open your /etc/X11/xorg.conf with a favourite editor; I’ve added these lines to section “module”:
   

   Load “dbe”
   Load “xtrap”
   Load “record”
   Load “GLcore”

   These are not really performance-related and could be skipped; I’m giving them here, because they were suggested as default entries by dexconf or some other xorg.conf-generator utility. Again – they are not supposed to improve performance, so you can skip these.

3. my “Device” section is now:
   

   Section “Device”
   Identifier “Intel Corporation 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller”
   BoardName “82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller”
   Vendorname “Intel Corporation”
   #Driver “i810″
   Driver “intel”
   BusID “PCI:0:2:0″
   Option “DRI” “true”
   Option “AccelMethod” “exa”
   Option “MigrationHeuristic” “greedy”
   Option “ExaNoComposite” “false”
   EndSection

   Driver i810 (xserver-xorg-video-i810 package) was about 10-20 FPS slower than Driver intel (xserver-xorg-video-intel package) for me. The most important lines here are Option AccelMethod exa (which enables EXA acceleration instead of the older XAA; if you run 2.6.28 or later kernel, you can try UXA instead of EXA) and Option MigrationHeuristic greedy. Option ExaNoComposite false doesn’t make a difference for me, and Option DRI true might be redundant (didn’t bother trying to remove it).

4. at the end of xorg.conf I have two more sections:
   

   Section “DRI”
   Mode 0666
   EndSection

   Section “Extensions”
   Option “Composite” “enable”
   Option “MIT-SHM” “Yes”
   EndSection

5. sudo nano /etc/environment, and add one line: INTEL_BATCH=1 (if you have graphics stability issues or screen corruption – try removing this change first)
6. you can test if your xorg.conf is syntactically correct by running X -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf (provided that you edited this exact file)

This is it. Before these modifications, my FPS in glxgears was around 430; after these modifications it is ~915.

As time permits, I might try the XAA configuration, suggested at foolcontrol.

Update: with compiz enabled, XAA configuration recommended at foolcontrol is definitely faster in 2D.

Improvements, suggestions, corrections are welcome.

I’m considering a move from shared hosting, and found Slicehost attractive. For 20$/mo, you get guaranteed 256MiB RAM, 10GiB disk and 100GiB traffic, which is sufficient to host several under-1k-per-day sites.

The only thing which isn’t spoken aloud is the guaranteed CPU speed. Based on the numbers provided: 16GiB total RAM per server, quad-core CPU, and CPU quotas set equivalently to RAM quotas, I came to a conclusion that 20$-plan guarantees ~125MHz of CPU (take 16 GiB, multiply by 4 20$-plans – you get 64 “slices” – virtual servers; quad core CPUs were quoted as 8+GHz – I assume that’s the sum of the core frequencies, thus 8GHz divided by 64 slices gives as little as 125MHz guaranteed per slice).

The better slice you buy – the more CPU is guaranteed, so for 1024-RAM slice you’d have a minimum of 500MHz of CPU.

However, slicehost describes their CPU-clamping system as the one allowing “bursted” performance, if others aren’t actively using their CPU shares. So it must be much better than what I’m calculating here. And even if it’s not, then for some applications it’s better to have a 125MHz-clamp on CPU, than have a 20-seconds maximal CPU time limit.

Still, I’m looking for reasonably-priced collocation services in Ukraine – e.g. those (currently unavailable) from Volia, starting at 40$/mo for the rented physical VIA C7-based server with enough traffic included.

Update: I now have my own server collocated in Ukraine. This blog still lives on a shared hosting, but I’m considering the move to own server (where I have the biomed half-dead site and resource-hungry COTRASIF tool).

However, I have just stumbled upon the news item about RepRap, which is claimed to be “self-reproducing”. Clearly, this isn’t true, but RepRap – replicating rapid prototyper – is able to produce (some?) of the components necessary to build another RepRap.

I’d like to point out that

“Think of RepRap as a China on your desktop.”

by Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc., is an offensive and unacceptable phrase, which shouldn’t have been put at the top of the quotes. I’d hack down that RepRap website for this single quotation, and would feel vende vindictive towards Chris, if I were Chinese. But that’s not a long time to wait to see China rising and this kind of jokes vanishing.

That was a side note.

Continuing on RepRap, I do find it’s uses intriguing. For the best of everybody, there’s a how-to build reprap page.

First uses which came to my mind were… a new plastic cup, and a custom notebook/PC body/case, to put standard components into and enjoy the benefits of the perfect custom design

Apart from simple things like cups and actually “fast prototyping” (which does depend on the precision of RepRap), there aren’t that much uses for the SOHO owner of RepRap. But as soon as some small-scale silicon-growing/cutting machines become available, that would definitely open up the whole new world of custom gadgeteering and home-brewed electronic wonders. Also, the level of global and local espionage activities will explode, and Big Brothers will grow like mushrooms after raining cats and dogs.

Worth reading for any IT guy, especially for people dealing with lots of HDDs.
Also might be interesting for those, who have Gmail with (now) over 6GiB storage…

It does exist – Ultimate boot CD. That CD has numerous freeware testing and diagnosing utilities which will help you – if you are up to some good old (read “small fast”) DOS utilities. And not that old, actually – modern hardware is supported.

The only modification I’ll do to the Ultimate boot CD will be adding freeware bin/hex viewer/editor. Surely, more utils to come – with original size of just 115MB, there’s plenty of room to add extensions. You can even extend the CD image with non-free software, like Partition Magic.

P.S. To diagnose and fix software problems – have a look at System Rescue CD.

I’d be completely happy with the basic e50 model

I wish VentureVehicles would just give out some vehicles for “beta testing”

The VentureOne uses hybrid propulsion:

Venture Vehicles also promises sufficient safety for this hybrid tricycle:

The pricing information is not yet officially available.

I wonder when VentureOne will be available in Ukraine

Quite quickly I figured out my list of basic requirements:

• it must have a decent sound quality
• it must have not-worse-than-average FM radio with recording and encoding directly to MP3
• it’s voice recorder must be able to record meetings, lectures etc, and – again – encode straight to MP3
• it must be convenient and intuitive in use
• it should have USB-A stick in it (for extra ease of use with no cables)
• there should be nothing more than the necessary minimum
• it should run on standard-size batteries/accumulators, like AA or AAA (no proprietary built-in accumulators)
• it should have mic-in or line-in
• the price/quality and price/features ratios should be good (do not want to pay for the name only)

(Looking for the models which would correspond to my requirements, I found that having USB-A together with AA/AAA-type battery is not possible for a good-quality mp3-player; you either have USB-A with LiPol, or mini-USB with AA/AAA. I had to decide which is more important, and decided that having AA/AAA is better: this gives usually longer play-times, and less dependence on the wall outlet or USB port nearby. The inconvenience with mini-USB-to-USB cable can be partially solved by using a short adapter dongle, which is even sometimes included with players.)

What I definitely didn’t want – the “photo and movie functions” with the tiny colour screen. I do like the Creative Zen V Plus, for example, but:

• the screen is way too small to watch movies or even view photos. I’m sure you know people who complain that 21″ home monitor with HDTV resolution is “still not like going to the movie theatre”… so what’s the talk about 2″ at most?
• you have to convert (downgrade the quality) of the movies to watch them on the devices of this type. It’s additional unnecessary time-wasting hassle. And for what?
• the better screen eats more power. Thus, even if you only use MP3, you are disadvantaged by the bundled colour screen.
• does anybody really _needs_ this kind of thing? The same can be said about MP3-only players, I agree, but in this case visual isolation is added to the aural, which is much worse (that’s a whole large but different topic about TV/digital isolation).

The list is incomplete, it was just to name some bright points.

On the other hand, complete absence of screen in my opinion severely limits the functionality and usability of the device, especially if it has not only mp3-player, but also a voice recorder and FM receiver inside. Thus, some screen is needed – but basic, even textual will do.

Enough said, below are the models I considered. They are themselves the result of some pre-selection, based on what I want. Data is taken both from official specifications and reviews (whichever value was worse ).

Cowon iAudio G3 (2 GB) (cable, line-in, EQ 5, FM 24, mic 96-128 mp3, line-in 96-128 mp3, 35 hours, 1.9 mb/sec, AA, Nov 2004)
Creative Zen Nano Plus (1 GB) (cable, line-in, EQ 5, FM 32, mic WAV ADPCM, line-in 96-160 mp3, 18 hours, 1.8 mb/sec, AAA)
Cowon iAudio U2 (2 GB) (adapter, line-in, EQ 5, FM 24, mic 96-128 mp3, line-in 96-128 mp3, 15 hours, 1.9 mb/sec, built-in LiPol, July 2004)
Cowon iAudio 5 (adapter, line-in, EQ 5, FM 24, mic 96-128 mp3, line-in 96-128 mp3, 15 hours, 1.9 mb/sec, AAA, Dec 2004)
MPIO FY500 (cable, EQ 5, FM 20, mic WAV ADPCM, 14 hours, 1.5 mb/sec, AAA, 2005)
Samsung YP-U2Z (1 GB) (USB-A, EQ 9, FM 20, mic WAV ADPCM, 14 hours, built-in LiPol, 2006)

Please ignore the capacities stated. Manufacturers often have a single model with varying capacities, and for the non-movie-enabled this range is 128 mb – 2 GB, to the best of my knowledge. Evidently, 128mb and 256mb models at the moment of writing are not easily available

For each model, the following data is shown: USB type (cable, mini-USB-to-USB-A adapter, or USB-A), line-in presence, equalizer bands, FM stations remembered, type of microphone recording, type of line-in (if any) recording, maximal time of non-stop playing, battery type, transfer speed, and year of release. Not for all models all data was collected/available.

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated, or get profit from any of the companies/trademarks mentioned. This post is not sponsored by any pay-for-posting initiatives. All the information is provided on the “as-is” basis, and I cannot be kept responsible for any type of losses resulting from actions based on this post. Read at your own risk :-).

Now I’ll try to quickly run through these choices.

The first one, Cowon iAudio G3 (2 GB), became the one I decided to take.

Among its stronger sides:

• sound quality is definitely good
• equalizer works without distortions, and there are multiple effects available
• SNR is said to be 95dB, measured – around 90dB
• up to 50 hours playback from a single AA battery, and
• the battery is replaceable,
• ability to set up to 20 bookmarks within mp3 files (good for audiobooks),
• intuitive and comfy controls,
• a number of audio formats supported (in addition to mp3 and wma also ogg vorbis, wav and asf),
• ability to write from internal microphone and line-in at 44.1 kHz 128kbps mp3,
• no special software to upload music (works as a usual flash drive, except if you need transferring DRM-protected music)
• microphone and line-in have adjustable sensitivity (volume)
• produces 13 mW output per channel (with 16Ohm earphones), which is not outstanding, but is good (and twice the 6mW a number of Europe-sold models have.

But there’s also a list of what might have been better about it:

• it could be made of aluminium, not plastic, for better durability. Larger drawback, from my point of view. I prefer really solid things :).
• the screen could be more to my liking – e.g., it could be inverse white-on-black, with the player’s body black as well. In other words, though I do like the design (which reminds me of older-times large-cassette dictating machines – especially from the look of the three buttons on the top panel – Play, Record, and Stop… i.e. Mode), it might have been much more eye-catching.
• there should have been no limit on the number of files (currently 650) and the number of folders (currently ~50) the player can handle. This is especially true for the 2GB version.

You can learn more about it from the manufacturer, russian-language review (also featuring iAudio U2), and CNET’s review (do check out the user opinions). For iAudio products, the iaudiophile.net is a good resource as well (look at the forums there as well).

Next one, Creative Zen Nano Plus (1 GB), is also a good choice. Here’s review 1 and review 2, and you can find some more. I dropped this model because it records from internal mic only into WAV ADPCM, and also based on reviews, which did not say it’s any different in SQ from others.

Cowon iAudio 5 and Cowon iAudio U2 are nearly the same as G3 (check this page). iAudio 5 and G3 differ only in: display type, body size/design, and battery type. I dropped U2 because of the internal accumulator (otherwise this is definitely a worthy gadget). Choice between G3 and iAudio 5 is hard and purely subjective. I had chosen G3 for the longer playback time (though it appears that iAudio 5 is more power-efficient, albeit it’s battery has 2.5-3 times less power capacity), more common AA batteries (I already have plenty of AA accumulators), and also based on some reports that FM radio in G3 is somewhat more sensitive than that in iAudio 5. However, iAudio 5 has less problems with built-in mic recording: there’s evidence that G3′s mic holes are slightly misplaced, “muffling” the sound (easily fixable by drilling some more mic holes ). Both G3 and iAudio 5 have good package contents (model 5 includes the handy USB adapter for no-cable use, G3 has a plastic case, and some more).

Samsung YP-U2Z (1 GB) doesn’t fit my requirements, though was found to be a worthy player as well. If not the battery requirement, I think I’d take this one. It looks good, has good overall SQ and feature set, lasts long enough.

There were other models I considered, but dropped for various reasons. I had to drop the MPIO manufacturer, which seems to be under-represented on the internet (like not too many people have and use it), though its models (MPIO FY500, MPIO FY700, MPIO FG100, MPIO ML100) were definitely interesting. For example, MPIO FG100 is on par with G3 in functions (with lesser differences), and is just a bit larger. MPIO FY500 has metal body, etc.

The person who asked me ran exactly the same Super Pi test on three more systems, but for 2M digits only:
his Dell notebook with Pentium M 740 1.73GHz: 1:49
some Pentium 4 3GHz down-clocked to 2.7GHz: 1:50
some other Pentium 4 at 2.8GHz: 1:47

That was a kind of an interesting trend here, so I ran Super Pi at work on yet another Pentium 4 3Ghz:
with HT (Hyper-Threading) enabled:

and with HT disabled (and no test for 32M digits):

As expected, disabling HT slightly improved times – Super Pi has a single calculating thread, and with no HT gets more actual CPU time.

Well… It might be possible that Pentium M is a cool CPU, or Pentium 4 is poor , at the same frequency.

Comments are welcome.

Note: no efforts were made to ensure that measuring/testing conditions, both hardware and software, are similar. Some tests were run with Super Pi at “High” process priority, some at “Normal”. Actual FSB frequencies, memory latencies etc were not checked.

Update: see this benchmarking report for more details on Pentium M vs Pentium 4.

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with LG, and I have no personal benefits from this post. Text is provided AS IS, and no liabilities are assumed based on it. Use it at your own risk – though all efforts were put into making this text accurate and non-biased.

Before going to vacations this summer (you may want to see the photos), I wanted to by a notebook, in order to be able to work a bit on my important projects while I’m away. Frankly speaking, I used my new and shiny notebook more for gaming, and not for work.

I was short of time, and had to make a fast decision on what notebook I wanted. My requirements were: lightweight (NOT 3 kg), WiFi, 15-inch display with resolution not lower than 1280×800, long battery life, discrete graphics solution, DVD-RW super-multi drive, and Centrino platform. I wanted all of this to be somewhere around 1000$.

From the very start I had to put away a number of Celeron-based notebooks, as “Celeron is not Pentium” , and to the best of my knowledge it lacks energy-saving features.

Having a couple of good choices, I bought LG Express series notebook LM70-32HR. It was the only one from those I liked weighing 2.3 kg; for me, the drawbacks of this model’s configuration are combo DVD/CD-RW drive instead of DVD-RW, and the absence of built-in Bluetooth (FIR/IrDA is also absent, but I don’t think I’ll be ever using those).

LM70-32HR is solidly built with light but sturdy casing. The design is good – the notebook looks like it’s worth the price I paid for it, but still nothing outstanding (what else would you expect from a serial model?). Due to the 15″ display, the notebook is rather large, but it’s thinner and lighter than the majority of other 15″ notebooks available, and this is a great benefit I enjoyed carrying it from home to the institute every day during my stay in Gliwice, Poland. The only trouble might be the size – with its roughly 20×30 cm size, it might not fit into your backpack, if you like smaller ones. But personally I prefer 15″ displays over any smaller…

Keyboard is fine, and LG claims they use some special “ER” technology to improve the feel. It doesn’t “click” loudly as you type, but you still know that you did press the button even not looking at the screen/keyboard. The “function” key is the leftmost in the bottom row, where the Control key is usually located (the same layout is used by ASUS, from what I’ve seen). At first this is highly inconvenient, but now I’m a bit used to it. Still, switching from notebook to desktop is uncomfortable because of this “function” key.

Touchpad is covered with a thin plastic layer, which does not impede any of its functions. There are both well-marked vertical and unmarked horizontal scrolls on the touchpad. Anyway, I’m not using it too much, as I think that a wireless mouse is still much more comfortable and precise.

The TFT screen is good. It is not mirroring light into your eyes, like the glossy “glass-like” screens do. Only in the worst-case scenario (working in dimly lit environment with a light source a little bit behind and sidewards from you) you may get visible blurred flare on the screen. The flare-protection of the screen is not the top I had ever seen, but it is really good – might be one of the best, IMO.

It’s pleasant to have native 1400×1050 resolution – you can fit lots on the screen :), however don’t use tiny fonts, unless you have eagle’s eyes. Interpolation to lower resolutions works fine in games, but not that fine for desktop; however, the problem of “good native” and “bad lower” resolutions is a well-known one for all TFT displays. As for brightness – I didn’t test it outdoors yet, but for any in-office lighting conditions the brightness range was sufficient for comfortable operation. Despite the energy mode (battery or AC power), you can set the brightness you like – of course, at the expense of the battery life, if you are on battery.

Battery life at first was very disappointing – it was around two hours on a complete charge; but that appeared to be some initial temporal effect, as after some time I could work up to three hours (no heavy load or game playing). I didn’t do the “last man standing” test for the battery in “games-only mode”, but I can estimate the time on battery under heavy load as 2+ hours. I don’t know if this battery life is specific only to my exact item (which, according to BIOS dates, was manufactured nearly a year ago), or if it’s common for other LM70 models as well. I’d say that battery life is average.

As I mentioned earlier, the drawback of my model is a combo drive, and not Super-multi DVD+RW – but this can be upgraded, what I plan to do a bit later, simultaneously with adding more RAM – my current 512MB are enough for usual tasks, but hardly sufficient even for the simplest microarrays analysis using R. Another single thing which I dislike a bit, and which cannot be changed, is the seemingly software volume control – i.e., if you did not mute sounds when shutting down the previous time, you won’t be able to mute before Windows plays its startup sound :(. I also do not know yet if volume control functions under Linux, which is going to become my optional bootable system.

LM70 has two speakers (0.8 Watt together) under the front panel. The sound is fine, with no distortion on over-amplified tracks. Headphones performance is good. There is also SPDIF combined with headphones plug. Nothing else to say here :).

As for the performance – soon I’ll post the results of running Super Pi on a number of machines, including LM70. Preliminary – it appears that Pentium M is faster than Pentium 4 with equal core frequency. Come back soon to see actual numbers.

Dedicated X600 graphics card makes LM70 a machine suitable for playing games. Such games as X2: The Threat, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic were playable (not on max settings). However, when playing either in a hot environment, or for over than an hour, the video card will heat over, and will automatically slow down, causing framerate to fall. Actually, in this setup video card looks beneficial mostly to some rendering software, which can make use of video card’s capabilities to speed up rendering – here, frame rate won’t be that much a limiting factor. As for over-night gaming, you should look for some literally “cool” places :).

Instead of the summary. I like this notebook, and do not regret buying it. I think it’s a good feature pack as for its weight and size, and probably just a little bit overpriced – due to being slim and light. Recently I noticed that more models from the portable LM70 series appeared, and with good prices. For just a bit over $1000 you will readily get DVD super-multi, 2GHz Pentium M, 80GB SATA HDD and some other nice features – and all of that in the same form-factor as my LM70-32HR, and even a bit lighter – just 2.2 kg. I might even consider buying another LG notebook next year for my wife :), especially if prices continue to drop as they did recently . Core Duo and Core 2 Duo are really pushing good old Pentium M’s to lower-price segment.

Update: see my post on the performance of Pentium M as compared to Pentium 4 using Super Pi.

Update 2: sometimes, after booting up my Windows XP Home Edition (russian, came pre-installed ), it appears impossible to type the password: instead of a new symbol in the password field, the cursors might just move left or right (for letter ‘U’ and and ‘O’, respectively). It appears as some minor keyboard drivers bug, which results in keyboard malfunctioning (mis-functioning?) after booting up. To fix: just enable the numeric keyboard (Fn + NumLk/ScrLk, the numeric light should light-up), and then disable it (same keys, numeric ligh should go off). After this you must be able to enter your password whatever symbols you have in it :).

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with LG, and I have no personal benefits from this post. Text is provided AS IS, and no liabilities are assumed based on it. Use it at your own risk – though all efforts were put into making this text accurate and non-biased.

Here I will list parameters you will most probably consider when bying a new notebook. I hope this post will help you choose what you really need.

Weight: ranges from under 2kg (1.6 for yet-fully-functional notebook) and up to 6 kg (DTR). Most of the notebooks you’ll encounter weigh around 2.5-3 kg. If you want less kilos – you’ll have to pay noticeable extra for portability.

Screen size: ranges from approx. 12″ up to 20″ (is that still a ‘notebook’ with 20″, how do you think?). The most common screen sizes are 14.1-15.4 inches. As for any other LCD display, the most important features are the reaction time (pixel on/off times), brightness and contrast. Usually you will not get those details in notebook specs; so you have to see for yourself. I just should note that cheaper notebooks (those in 600-800$ range) usually come with noticeably worse displays than more expensive laptops.

Screen resolution: usually ranges from 1024×768 up to something like 1680×1050 and 1600×1200 (WUXGA+). The higher the resolution – the more you can fit at once on the screen. But take into account also the physical display size: if you happen to buy 14″ with 1680×1050 resolution, you either have perfect eye-sight, or you do not care about the eye-strain at all. I think that for a 15″-15.4″ display a resolution of 1280×800 (very common) is acceptable. My notebook has the resolution 1400×1050 at 15.4″ in diagonal, and not everybody feels comfortable working with that :). Of course you can switch from 1400×1050 down to 1024×768 (and not vice versa), but LCDs usually work best at their maximum resolution. At lower resolutions, the quality of the picture will be worse.

CPU: Single core, Double core. Double core means that you have something like 2 CPUs; single core – just one CPU. You will need double core only if you really do edit lots of videos – video compression and decompression can be split into separate threads (processes), which gain speed by using both CPU cores. You might also consider double core if you need hardcore gaming notebook. For the majority of office tasks, and also for gaming with not-maximal graphics settings, single core should be enough (for gaming: strongly depends on the video card type, see below for this).

CPU: 32bit, 64bit. You will definitely come across some CPUs which have two numbers – ’64′ – in their name. Those CPUs support 64bit commands. Frankly speaking, 64bit CPUs do not have any advantage over usual 32bit – at least now. Don’t pay attention if you are being told that those 64bit will help your notebook gain performance.

CPU: Celeron, Pentium M. I am not quite sure, but Celerons are not only slower than Pentiums with the same clock speed, they also lack some energy-saving features. Thus, buying a Celeron-based notebook, you should be aware that it will not perfrom the same as Pentium-based, and you may also expect shorter battery life.

Memory (RAM): ranges from 256 MB up to 4 GB. DO NOT take less than 512: you will suffer from slow response and slow program loading with that amount of memory for sure. 512MB or 1GB are currently optimal. The more memory – the better. Usually you can install some more RAM later (do an upgrade), but the maximal installable memory is model-dependent. For a highly portable notebook you may be limited with 1 or 1.5 GB of upgrade RAM, and for DTR up to 4GB are usually installable.

Hard disk drive (HDD) capacity, speed, interface: capacities vary between 20GB and 200GB, with 40-80GB most frequently available. 40GB might be sufficient, especially if you work only with texts, and do not store movies and MP3s on your hard-drive. But this is already an outdated storage capacity; I would recommend taking 60 or 80 GB of storage, and more – if you need to store lots of videos. Usually, the more portable your notebook – the less storage you have with it. HDD rotation speed (also known as rpm – rotations per minute) strongly influences data transfer rates – i.e. how fast your programs and data will load, given enough other system resources. 4200rpm is most common; 5400rpm is noticeably better and also available for fair price; 7200rpm is probably the highest available, and the fastest as well. I would recommend taking either 5400 or 7200. Notebook’s hard drive can have ATA and Serial ATA (SATA) interface. SATA is more modern, but for 4200rpm or even 5400 rpm it gives no real advantage over ATA. 7200rpm on ATA is faster than 5400rpm on SATA. For future upgrades – SATA drives will be more common and generally better than outdated ATA drives.

Graphics accelerator: can be integrated or discrete; can have shared memory or own memory. Integrated is usually Intel’s GMA900 series, which uses shared memory (taken from RAM). On integrated solution you cannot expect sufficient gaming experience even with a powerful CPU. You’ll be able to play games, but only those which are at least 2-3 years old, or do not require graphics acceleration. For office use, integrated solution is sufficient. Discrete graphics accelerator (most frequently you’ll come across ATI’s X600, X700, nVidia’s Go 7300-7700) is usually much better than integrated. However, discrete accelerator may still have shared memory, which impedes performance. So the best is to take discrete graphics with something like 128MB of own memory. This will make almost all of the games playable – probably not in highest resolutions, unless you will also take the double-core CPU.

Wireless communication protocols: most commonly you’ll need WiFi b/g to stay connected. To get WiFi a/b/g you will most probably pay an extra (b and g protocols use the same frequency, but ‘a’ protocol uses a different one). Bluetooth is highly recommended as an option to upgrade or built-in; however, you can always buy a Bluetooth USB dongle starting at around 20$ and be happy :), so that is not really a factor. IrDA/FIR in my personal opinion are less usable than bluetooth, so consider this only when you already have some IrDA-enabled devices, or plan to buy those.

Ports and connectors: most of the time you will be using USB to connect various devices to your notebook, so it is good to have at least 3 of them; four is a good number of ports. You can always use USB replicator, but this is additional hassle which can be avoided with just more USBs built-in. Also note how your USBs are arranged: if stacked close together, you may find it hard to use all at once; it’s better when USB’s are spread to different locations on the notebook’s case. FireWire (IEEE 1394) is a de facto standard for transmitting high-volume data, such as videos. Highly recommended. VGA output is important if you plan to make presentations using your notebook and some large-screen projector, or just want to plug your notebook to the desktop 23″ display for more comfortable work. There is also DVI output, but it is rare in the notebook field, and as for the large-screen projectors – even more rare. Headphones out and microphone in are standard; you may want to have hardware controlled volume – this allows to turn off sounds before your OS makes any noise, if you had forgotten to ‘mute’ sounds in software. Notebooks often come with built-in microphone, which is usually sufficient for some voice-chat (but not more, of course). LPT is an old, bulky port, used to connect to older printers; I would say you don’t need it, unless your company extensively uses LPT printers. SPDIF is good if you have 5.1 sound system, and your notebook has a sound processor of the sufficient quality. Video out is a frequent option, though personally I didn’t use it a lot yet. Ethernet (RJ45) and modem plugs – the first is strongly recommended – probably that (except for WiFi) will be the most frequent option for connectin to networks and internet. Modem plug is needed if you know that you will happen to visit some pretty wild places, where only the phone will be available.

CDRW, Combo or DVD-RW: evidently, the best option is DVD-RW (double-layer, super-multi), which will allow you to read and write most of the disk formats available (except for the long-coming blueray and/or HD). Combo is worse, but might be a solution for an ultra-portable notebook – you’ll read pretty much everything, and will be able to dump backups to CDs. Simple CDRW is not a recommended option, and you will hardly find that in modern notebooks.

Card reader: a convenient feature, which saves some cable-handling time and allows to get digital content even if your camera is dead on batteries. Most commonly readers support 4 or 6 card formats. You may want to have a look at the memory solutions of your other smaller devices to know which formats you really need.

That seems to be it. Any corrections, comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. This article is valid as of date of publishing, but of course will be getting older each month; if you need my advice on your specific case – do not hesitate to contact me, for a tiny fee I will propose you 2-3 notebook models which suit you the most to choose from.