MADMAN'S CURRENT COMPUTERS & RELATED

Last updated mid 2008. If you are reading this after Dec 2008- it is guaranteed out of date! Sorry.

OFFICE

I currently use Office 2003 and I'm looking forward to upgrading to the new office - but I probably won't until I get my next laptop. First let me say, I am a big Fan of Microsoft software, and I have been happy with every upgrade of MS-Office except XP. But, with Office 2007 - I don't have an opinion yet.:

One other comment (and yes this and the comment before have been given to Microsoft): If you have relative hyperlinks in your document, the Microsoft file recovery completely destroys every single one. For techies: A relative hyperlink starts with ./ - now. So, for instance, consider a file c:\mydocuments\abc.doc with a hyperlink .\def.doc. This refers to c:\mydocuments\def.doc. When the file is "recovered" the link is left character for character at .\def.doc, so it is now trying to refer to some document c:recoverydirectory\def.doc. When you say "yup, I want that file" Word's recovery moves it into c:\mydocuments, but "fixes" the hyperlink so it now reads ..\recoverydirectory\def.doc. The result is that every relative hyperlink is destroyed and you manually have to fix every single one.

CONCLUSION: DO NOT USE OFFICE RECOVERY if you have hyperlinks. (And I heavily use hyperlinks.)

Is it impossible to fix? No. Microsoft is already storing tons of recovery details. All they would have to add is the directory it started out in. This would be an easy fix if they ever decided it was worth fixing. And no, I don't know if Office 2007 has fixed it.

OPERATING SYSTEM

Well, I said I'd upgrade to Vista as soon as it came out. I haven't gotten around to that yet. Still working on Windows XP. Vista is being used on a couple of our other computers and the biggest problem is software and hardward compatibility. It is at SP1 but I'm not rushing to upgrade just yet.

My main computer: Dell INSPIRON 9400

Dual cor Centrino (almost as good as dual processor)
2 Gig RAM
80 Gig HD ()
DVD Writer (But I'm looking forward to Blu-Ray - for 25 and 50Gig backups on a single 'tough' CD. Blu-Ray disks are scratch resistant unlike DVD's and CD's and HD-DVD's) Update: Blu-Ray costs more per gigabyte than hard drives, so I'm using hard drives for backups.
17" screen with only 1920x1200 resolution. (OK, yes it's big, but i hear a 21" is coming with even higher resoution!)

Some of the following is out of date (Mid 2008) ... maybe someday I'll update the whole document again.

DESKTOPS (A quad pack of computers)

Madman Special/32&33 - My secondary computers. These are actually a pair of computers with a switch box that switches my screen/kb/mouse between them

Intel Pentium 2.3GHz, AMD K7 1GHz, Athalon 1.4GHz
1 ot 2Gig in each. See, when I tell people memory is more important that CPU speed, I follow my own advice
Over 1.3 Terrabyte of HD between them
no modem (I connect to the internet through another computer on the LAN)
DVD writers
A couple of the worst cases you ever saw with a Gate handle bolted to the top of the one I carry with me travelling.
It's my "notepad". You see, the sides are made of cardboard for easy access. I write important numbers on the cardboard sides - a notepad. Goes everywhere with me except to Church.
Win2K (Not necessarily a smart idea - much software & hardware is not compatible, but they work for me.)

A fifth old computer is dedicated to scanning, true photo quality printing & photo editing.

Backup LAPTOP, actually my wife uses this one almost exclusively now.

Dell Laptop, 1.4Mhz, 512Meg, 40GigHD, 17.1" screen, high resolution, very bright, very wide reading range. Dual screen capability. Wireless connection. CD Writer. Runs fairly smooth, but Office XP doesn't do well when the network is "lost" and regained a few seconds later. Frequently I have to reboot to get the laptop computer back on the wireless LAN. Oh well, it is still a lot better than having a wire everywhere.

PALM SIZED

2004: Palm type: I decided against a PowerPC because the main things I need in my pocket are notes, contacts, tasks and spreadsheet. I bought my Palm type a year before I got the laptop, so that logic applied back then too. Anything much more significant and I am going to want a full laptop not a underachiever-smallscreen- poorkeyboard PC. BUT! to be fair it wasn't an easy decision. The deciding factor: My Handera, with rechargable NiMH batteries goes 3 weeks between battery recharge. The PowerPC I reallly wanted (biggest, fastest, most memory) went only 6 to 18 hours between charges. I carry my "palm" with me everywhere - I don't know how I lived without it!

Handera 330 (with Excel compatibility, weak Word compatibility, great integration with Outlook contacts, tasks & notes) I have upgraded to software that works well with Word and threw away the free stuff that came with the Handera.

To be honest, now that I finally have a laptop, I really don't use the palm type that much anymore.

2005: OK. I'm converted. I use a PPC Phone now instead of my Palm. Deciding factor: It is 100x's easier to write custom programs for the PPC using Dot NET in Visual Studio. And yes, I've done a lot of programming with both. My first app, which still has features I'd like to add some day, is a calculator with multiple regisers and other goodies. See the business section for more. The PPC is much better syncing with Outlook than the Palm was (the palm has limits of 15 all over the place, and in several of them, I have 16 to 20 categories in Outlook.) As for the battery. While I'd love it to last longer, they now come with memory-less lithium Ion batteries, much better than even NiMH and if I need to, i can charge it through the USB port on my laptop. So... I no longer use or like the Palm.

Here are the things I most use it for:

Phoning with bluetooth headset so I can interact with the PPC while talking on the phone.
Schedule
Great calculator (OK so I wrote it, but really - it is great.)
Phone numbers
Internet access, WiFi or through the phone features. (even won a contest in a dinner theatre by connecting to the internet and finding the answers to a quiz. They did say we could use any method we want to find the answers, I don't think they though of people using the internet though! Some other teams thought it was cheating when they found out, but when I pointed to the 'any method', they reluctantly agreed it wasn't technically cheating.)

2006: It looks like I'll be upgrading in July or August to a PPC with a slide out (sideways) keyboard.

Desires:

Blu-Ray
Quad core CPU- The photographic editing work I do still makes very good use of any extra speed I can give it.
A faster hard drive cluster - I always want more speed.
A high speed link at home (2 ways) - I'm unfortunately to far out of the city to get this economically however. And 2 way high speed satellite doesn't seem to work well from reports I've had.

Are those all the your computers?

No, of course not. I have more that are in active use, primarily for testing different browsers/versions and I plan more! One in the Kitchen, One on another desk, and I "borrow" the kids computers for testing Actually truth be known, I let the kids use my other computers when I don't need them. Work needs override even homework, but that conflict doesn't happen more than once every couple years.