Now Asus is jumping into the sub-$150 tablet range too, but with a device that’s much more subdued than what Polaroid and Archos are offering. It appears to me that Asus is trying to remain mid-tier, and hope that name recognition and reliability advantages (whether perceived or real) keep their tablet in the game. Their [...]
All posts tagged reliability
SSD pricing gets media attention
It’s not news to my regular readers that SSD pricing continues to drop, but Computerworld noticed that this week. Everyday pricing is well around 90 cents per gigabyte now, and with some shopping around, it’s possible to do better than that.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 24, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/12/ssd-pricing-gets-media-attention/
A shortcut for wiring your house with Ethernet
As convenient as wireless is, wireless will never match the security, speed, and reliability of wired Ethernet. I ran some wired Ethernet jacks in mid-2009 and have no regrets, but on my last trip to Lowe’s, I spied a nifty shortcut for wiring: an Ethernet coupler that plugs into a standard keystone jack. They were [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 16, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/12/a-shortcut-for-wiring-your-house-with-ethernet/
The trouble with Dell
Note: I wrote this in mid-2010 and, for whatever reason, never posted it. I found it this week. Although the information in it is no longer fresh and new, it’s still useful, so for that reason, I’m posting it now. Dell is standing on some shaky ground right now. Bill Snyder has a good summary [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 6, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/12/the-trouble-with-dell/
I hope BYOD 2.0 goes better than BYOD 1.0 did
BYOD is “bring your own device.” It’s the hot new trend in IT, except it’s nothing new. But it was bound to happen, I guess. Companies are tired of buying computer equipment, so they want employees to provide it. And counterculture, nonconformist workers are (I guess) tired of using boring corporate computer equipment. (And here [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on June 26, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/06/i-hope-byod-2-0-goes-better-than-byod-1-0-did/
RIP, Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore
Commodore founder Jack Tramiel, the orchestrator of the first line of affordable personal computers, died this weekend at the age of 83. I don’t know exactly what to think about it, and I’m probably not alone.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 9, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/04/rip-jack-tramiel-founder-of-commodore/
The future of flash memory might not be so bleak after all, either
PC Perspective’s Allyn Malventano stopped in earlier this week and sent me a link to his take on the bleak future of SSDs and flash memory: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/NAND-Flash-Memory-Future-Not-So-Bleak-After-All He didn’t agree with me entirely–he argued that the problems outlined in the study in question are solvable.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 24, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/02/the-future-of-flash-memory-might-not-be-so-bleak-after-all-either/
HP has a brilliant idea
After last year’s flip-flopping on getting rid of its not-quite-as-profitable-as-they’d-like PC business, and the resulting self sabotage, HP needed a good idea to try to undo the damage. Their idea is completely unoriginal, but it’s tried and true and more likely to work than anything else they could possibly do: Bundle their premium PCs with [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 16, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/02/hp-has-a-brilliant-idea/
I may have a cure for the slow web browser
John C Dvorak lamented last week about slow web browsers. I’m working on a cure.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on January 18, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/01/i-may-have-a-cure-for-the-slow-web-browser/
SSD write endurance (aka longevity) vindicated
I found this chart earlier this week regarding SSD write endurance. Basically, it plots out how long an SSD would last if you set out to deliberately destroy it by writing to it continuously. You could expect a mainstream 128-GB drive to last 4.7 years under those conditions, which is longer than a platter hard [...]
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/ssd-write-endurance-aka-longevity-vindicated/