Monthly Archives: August 2009

Laptop Search Nearing Conclusion?

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

I'm leaning currently to biting the bullet and ordering a new Samsung X360 34P (see The Hunt for A New Laptop Continues).

It's slightly cheaper than the comparable new Lenovos, but a little more expensive than some versions of their referbs. I have faith in the Lenovo referb, but not the third parties offering referbed Samsungs, so it would have to be a new one.

The reasoning behind this decision is that the Samsung wins on weight and battery life, has a 128G SSD, and at least ties on almost everything else I care about, except processing power where it lags a bit but still seems adequate. The reviews suggest the build is good; not as good as the tank-like Lenovos, but good enough.

There are just three things I need to get over:

1. The Samsung isn't as Ubuntu-friendly as the Lenovos (which are champs in this department) and won't have anywhere near the installed base if issues come up. (I'm thinking of dual-booting.)

2. The Samsung doesn't offer an XP downgrade, and the do-it-yourself version sounds like real work. So I may be using Vista Business pending Windows 7, which itself sounds like no great prize for a laptop. I have not used Vista yet and had hoped to avoid it.

3. This latest trip made it clear to me how crippled my Dell 300m has become; it's barely usable. I really can't afford to wait much longer to do something. Trouble is, it seems that Samsung was dumping the X360s with huge rebates a few months ago, so that they ended costing about half the current stratospheric price. Not only does it gall me to pay so much more than the old price, but I can't help thinking that maybe if I wait a bit the price will come down again?

Update: Then again J&R has the Lenovo 301 on sale for less than the Samsung. Good config except for the battery. Light weight — almost as light as the Samsung with the 301's three-cell battery. Solid. Three year warranty of some sort. Horrible battery life, especially with the tiny 3-cell battery, but even with the six cell (which I'd have to buy extra).

Posted in Shopping | Comments Off on Laptop Search Nearing Conclusion?

Meaningless Personality Quiz (pt. 16)

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

This has to be may all time favorite quiz since I started this series if only because there were so many daffy choices: Slate's “Choose Your Own Apocalypse.”

You get to pick up to five. It was not an easy choice, as none really captured the combination of kleptocracy and resistance to certain types of change that I think describes the ills to which our government tends. But, hey, it's just meaningless, so I picked somewhat seriously, “Peak Water” and “Peak Oil” and “Rising Sea Levels” and somewhat facetiously “Pax Sinica” and “Patriot Act” (based on the attached definition; I don't think the bill, while negative in important ways, is apocalyptically bad).

The verdict:

You are an anthropocentric pragmatist. You think the American citizenry controls its fate, and we won't screw up enough to destroy the human race. You'll know you're right when: Vigilantes along the Mexican border start a war over immigration; the United States has a socialist revolution.

Yah, right.

Feel free to post your choices and outcomes below.

Posted in Meaningless Personality Quizzes | 3 Comments

CNN Refuses to Air Ad Attacking Lou Dobbs

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Here's the ad that CNN refuses to air: CNN's Lou Dobbs Problem:

In the past this sort of corporate use of its control over a press or an outlet made some sense: it stifled the message. Nowadays, with so many channels on TV and the Internet besides, all it does is add fuel to the fire. If I were CNN I'd take Media Matters's money and laugh all the way to the bank.

Posted in The Media | 2 Comments

Off to SEALS 2009

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

I'm off to the South Eastern Associations of Law Schools (SEALS) 2009 conference today, but it's only a short visit as I'm back tomorrow. The conference is held in a swanky hotel in Palm Beach Florida, just up the road, so it's nice not to have to fly for a change.

I'll be speaking on a panel this afternoon entitled “Why to Visit Blog Sites? Which Ones?” (I did NOT pick the title!). I'm going to talk about a big blog-related project I'm planning, and which I'll write about here very soon, when I have more time.

When I was first invited we thought we'd make a family holiday out of it, as Caroline is speaking there later in the week. But then we decided to be away much more than usual this summer, so we shelved that, and we're going in shifts.

Interestingly, my panel is much transformed from its original group: several speakers had to bail because their schools cut their travel budgets.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | 2 Comments

7/10

Posted on August 2, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Lifehacker lists its Top 10 Computer Hardware Fixes and Upgrades – Hardware.

I give myself seven out of ten. In my defense, I don't want a Hackintosh, by the time my laptop screen died (2 laptops ago), it was a computational relic in every other way, and it's not that I don't ever solder, I'm just not that good at it.

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | Comments Off on 7/10

Journalism Ethics MIA

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Yet again, Glenn Greenwald not only anticipates what I was going to say, he does it better: GE's silencing of Olbermann and MSNBC's sleazy use of Richard Wolffe – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com deconstructs today's NYT article reporting that GE & Murdoch News got together and agreed to clamp down on blowhards O'Reilly and Olbermann.

It's especially amazing that nowhere in Brian Stelter's article reporting that a pair of owner/publishers of news/opinion TV shows agreed secretly to muzzle them is there any hint that there might be an journalism ethics issue. No one from a J-school is quoted.

Who muzzled the New York Times? And is the most depressing answer that it muzzled itself.

(Bonus amazement: Charlie Rose either lied about the events he witnessed or didn't understand their significance any more than did Brian Stelter.)

Posted in The Media | 3 Comments