Terminally Incoherent

If you look at all the mice and keyboards I owned over the years, you will see a trend: simplicity. All my keyboards are simple, generic 104 key devices that came with the machine. If I buy a mouse I usually get an optical, 2 button, scroll wheel, wired Logitech or Microsoft. I don’t think I ever bought a mouse that cost more than $30-35. The $20 mice I use work just fine, and they last forever.

But, there is a huge market for premium mice and keyboards so obviously some people out there buy them. Hell, some people swear by these things. But I always wonder: do I really need a $70 Sidewinder or a $90 G9? Does it really make that much difference?

I heard people claiming that accuracy, smoothness of the scroll wheel, reconfigurability and buttons are often well worth the higher price. But I’m not entirely convinced. So here is a question for you, the reader.

Do you use a fancy, expensive mouse? If you do, why? Do you feel it really makes the difference? What is your favorite mouse? Do you think that spending $100 on a mouse would change my life for the better? Same goes for the keyboard. I really want to know. Maybe I’m missing out, using low end products when I should really treat myself to something more luxurious. And I do spend most of my time in front of my computer. In fact, chances are that if I’m awake and not in the car there is either a desktop or a laptop somewhere within my reach. So if I was to invest something that would improve my everyday experience, I would be utilizing it to the fullest.

I went out and bought the shiny, sleek and sexy LG VX8700. I know, I was thinking about getting the enV - but in the end this seemed like a better choice. The enV just felt bulky and clumsy when I held it in my hand. On top of that, I don’t really text that much. Part of it is of course the fact that I can’t type on the damn phone keypad to save my life. But was it worth the extra money, and dealing with the size of that phone for added convenience?

On the other hand look at the 8700 - thin, sleek and with a hit of awesome:

This is kinda what Razr wanted to be but never was. My cousin got one some time ago, and so far she is happy with it. I also read several reviews of this phone, and they were mostly favorable. The the main complaints seem to be that the SD-card slot is hidden behind the battery (I don’t really care about that) and that it does not have any front side buttons to control music volume, and switch songs. Since I’m not really planning to use this phone for listening music, that didn’t really bother me either.

The software is a fairly standard, crappy verizon POS but it seems fairly responsive. It has a 2 megapixel camera, a loud speaker, and big and bright screen. The keyboard is very flat, so it’s not very easy to type by touch. But then again, the keys are big, and they light up very bright in the dark so it’s not such a big problem. The device is supposed to have a GPS unit, but apparently you need to purchase the GPS software via the GetItNow feature, and pay a monthly subscription fee. Meh… They can shove that fee up their ass. I don’t really need a GPS.

The best part here is that this phone is supported by BitPim. All I have to do to be able to transfer my pictures, address book and music is to buy the USB cable on ebay for around $10. Which is a bargain, considering that these fuckers charged me over $20 for a shitty plastic belt clip that goes with my phone. Total ripoff - I probably should have went for some 3rd party product, or hit up ebay for it…

So anyway, the phone looks and feels good. It’s very shiny and weighs almost nothing. I like it.

None of my readers fessed up to owning an iPhone yet. So what phones do you guys have? I have a Samsung SCH-A670 which kinda looks like this:

I had it for a while, and while it served me well, I’m getting sick of it. I need a new one. I was thinking about either the Samsung SCH-U740 or the LG enV. Both have a full qwerty keyboard which I like. The Samsung is a very thin flip phone, while the enV is a bulky brick that opens up in landscape mode to reveal a nice big screen. It also has a better camera, better keyboard layout, better speaker and generally gets better reviews. Initially I was leaning toward the Samsung because of the size, but after I held both of them in my had, and read more about them I think I like enV better. Here is how they look:

enV on the left, SCH-U740 on the right

I haven’t decided yet which one I want. Which one would you pick given a choice? Btw, I probably won’t buy the data plan - but I like to have a full keyboard for texting.

What kind of phones do you guys have?

Last week when I reviewed Jade Empire: Special Edition I mentioned that I encountered a strange bug in the side Outlander side quest. When you defeat Sir Roderic in a debate, and it’s time for combat you are taken to a different location. Then when the combat starts, the floor and wall textures in that location seem to be missing. Sir Roderic just stands there and your character keeps spinning in place. This bug seems to be relatively common and easily replicated on the PC.

I found some suggestions on possible workarounds at the official JE forums. I can confirm that the following solution proposed in the linked thread worked for me:

1. Right after you defeat Roderic in debate, tell him you need more time to prepare for combat
2. Pull up the options screen
3. Go into Audio Options
4. Turn Reverb to OFF
5. Go back to the game and talk to Roderic
6. Once you defeat him, you can turn the reverb back on

Changing resolution or other options did nothing for me. However from the mentioned thread I’m guessing this bug might be triggered by some hardware specific conditions that can be related both to the sound card or the video card.

I think I want a Koala! No, not the bear you silly people. What the hell would I do with Koala bear. Although, I have to admit it would be kinda awesome conversation piece. Chicks dig little cute fuzzy critters like that too so it possibly could get me laid or something.

“Oh, that? That’s just my Koala bear. He eats eucalyptus leafs and poops golden nuggets. Yup, that’s what they do. So…. You wanna do it?”

Yup, it would be quite awesome. Quite awesome indeed. But I digress… What I wanted to talk about is this:

Koala is a mini desktop system from System 76 that imitates the Mac Mini in shape and size. It has decent hardware specs for it’s size, comes preloaded with Ubuntu (Edgy) and sells for $600. I’m tempted to buy it because of the size. Right now, I’m strapped for space and I have no where to put another computer. But I could just plop Koala anywhere, and since it is a Linux machine it could basically run headless. It also has wifi, so all I really need is to set it up once, then just plug it into a power socket and I have a running linux server that takes virtually no space.

I would essentially use as an SSH server which would be the entry point to my network from the outside. I could probably also run several other services on it for my personal use.

Yes, I could buy a Mac Mini for the same price, but I already decided that I will most likely buy a MacBook at some point this year and I kinda really want a Linux machine running in the house. And I totally want to support a business which sells Linux based systems - there are so few of them these days.

Does anyone here have any experience with System 76? How is their hardware? Are they reliable? Do they offer decent support and warranty? Let me know.