It all started with a Dell E248WFP being dropped on our desks and the sad realization that my BigLap just couldn’t drive it no matter how hard I coaxed it. My bosses very graciously offered to replace my notebook and a couple of quick emails with Earl set me on the path to the MegaLap.
ZaReason was great about setting up a test environment to make sure that the notebook could easily drive a similar monitor. As always, they were fast and friendly with awesome tips on how to get things rolling once my MegaLap landed on my desk.
All that real estate leaves me feeling like a robber baron not to mention that the MegaLap is blazing fast and the screen is gorgeous.
So this is my second notebook from ZaReason (my BigLap is still a champ!) and I have to say I am so pleased with the service and support. they aren’t kidding when they say, “Building Linux hardware so you don’t have to.” Everything I have bought from them has worked right out of the box, no fuss and no bloat. Just an elegant OS making use of all the hardware it is given.
Thanks to everyone at Zareason for making my computing life fun!
MegaLap Specs
- Intel Core2 Duo T7200
- 2GB RAM
- 512MB NVidia GeForce Go 7700
- 200GB SATA
This is one of those posts that has been tickling the back of my head for sometime and I have essentially avoided it up until now–mostly at the prodding of Tyler. Since I am epically lazy–notice how the bulk of my posts in the past year have been photos? Yeah, I’m to lazy to string letters into words and then into sentences. Complete thoughts? Pffffft–I’ll be presenting this as a list.
Love It
- Voice is a service–unlike my past phones voice on this one is just another part of the service mix.
- Internet scaled for your hand–best mobile browsing experience I have ever had.
- Email whenever, where ever–be it the mail application (which could use some feature love) or the sublimely designed Gmail for iPhones I can quickly retrieve and respond to messages
- No keypad–I love the touch pad and how it learns alternate spellings and will offer them up as you type making the process fast and efficient.
- Wi-Fi–Sure other phones have it but the stumble feature works great.
Hate It
- Crippled bluetooth–Great, I can hook up a headset but no file transfers or even laptop tethering. That sucks, Apple.
- iTunes–Yeah, I know. I bought a something from Captain Product Lockdown and I am bitching about having to use proprietary software but seriously, if Amazon can offer a DLM for their music store why the hell can’t Apple port iTunes to Linux? It is a real cramp in my ass to have my phone decoupled from the rest of my computing existence. As for jail breaking, it is not an option because I cannot afford the remote chance of bricking it as this is my primary tether to my job.
- Rebooting–Like a Windows box, Management and I are finding we need to reboot our phones on a regular basis to keep the touch pad and Safari gremlins at bay. Methinks they need to take a look at memory leaks on the device.
- No multimedia SMS–Seriously. WTF. Almost as stupid as breaking the legs off Bluetooth.
Bottom Line
The shine has worn off and my infatuation has mellowed into affectionate ambivalence. The iPhone has changed how I view cellphones and voice services in general. The device truly is a hand sized computer, allowing you to do many of the things you would on a laptop and it represents a paradigm shift: data is data is data. That said, it doesn’t blend well with a computing life off of either Apple or Windows. The inability to backup the device and sync content to it from my laptop handicaps the device enough that I will be seriously looking at what the Android based handsets will be offering this fall.
Read some great news over on The Debian User last night:
Why not offer computers, pre-built with Linux, to the people I like, or to their friends and families? I’m not a great coder, but as a former sysadmin I know my way around hard- and software enough to set up solid systems. So if these people (Debian Developers and such) provide all that great software, I could at least offer them some hardware, right?
Going that way with ZaReason was only the next logical step. Why re-invent the wheel, or try to set up competition, when there could be co-operation?
After months of hard work Wolfgang has launched a EU branch of ZaReason something that makes this happy ZaReason user just plain giddy. Congratulations and best of luck!
Management and I were in Borders yesterday to pick up a book on Nagios when I quite literally stumbled into the Sony Reader display. I stood enraptured with the device for several minutes flipping through pages, marveling at its non-existent weight, drooling over how thin it is as well as the sturdy aluminum enclosure. Priced at $299 it is quite within reach and given how much wear and tear I gave my eBookman I could see this as a solid replacement for much of the paper I tote around with me. Also, with the libprs500 project looking so mature it eliminates many of the worries I might have had about easily re-formating and loading content.
Add it to my short list of gadgets I’m lusting for this holiday/birthday season.
In my personal life I am incredibly lazy and often don’t et around to things unless need is so pressing that it should have been done yesterday. Case and point being recording support on my BigLap and the continuing mockery that I suffer for it not working and the fact that I lost my Bluetooth headset thus rendering Skype useless to me. So after some quick research I found the solution on the Ubuntu forms thanks to dejitarob.
james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl names
james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl store
james@elwoodicious:~$ alsamixer
The catch here was that the input sources needed to be pointed at Front Mic and Mic.
james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl store
That’s it. Skype works, Sound Recording works, Ekiga…Doesn’t. Not sure why Ekiga doesn’t but that’s a puzzle for another day. Well, it does after a reboot. Go figure.
It has been about three months since I purchased my BigLap and started a new job that sees me working like a gypsy floating from place to place as long as it has wireless Internet. My laptop goes everywhere slung on my back and has worked perched on a knee at conferences, sticky tables at cafes, late nights in hotel rooms, and at my parent’s dining room table while my daughter tugs at my sleeve. It feels as necessary as my wallet and keys and I feel a little naked if it isn’t on me.
So how has it performed? Unbelievably. I’ve owned a number of laptops from Toshiba, Dell, and Sony and out of all of them this has been the best build quality and features for the price.
- Battery life is solid
- Light for being a 17″
- Screen hinges are stiff
- Keyboard responsive and quiet
- Rugged design
Tech support from ZaReason has been equally great with quick response times with a genuinely conversational and friendly tone. They have worked hard to make sure that as much of the hardware is operational with the shipping version of Ubuntu. The built in webcam is the only piece that has given me problems in that the image displayed is upside down and cannot seem to be flipped but that is more a problem with the device and the driver.
segue/
After actually putting five minutes of work into researching the solution it is now fixed…
Gratefully cribbed from 0graham0’s post over at Ubuntu forums…
sudo mkdir /etc/camdriver
Download the driver from Sourceforge extract it and run the following…
sudo make
sudo modprobe videodev
sudo modprobe v4l1-compat
sudo insmod stk11xx.ko vflip=1
Add the following to /etc/modules
videodev
v4l1-compat
and to /etc/rc.local
insmod /etc/camdriver/stk11xx.ko vflip=1
Viola!
/segue
The great thing about ZaReason though is that they never dropped the issue and had emailed me possible solutions and are very receptive if you happen to stumble on one of your own and that level of service is what makes the company so great.
Bottom line: I love this laptop and I really love this company.
