It never ceases to amaze me on the challenges of replacing ones personal computer. Assessing this over my 20+ years in the technology business, the process has not gotten any better at all, especially for the consumer. Now be prepared… I’m about to date myself. Thinking back a bit to the effort and complexity of upgrading my first 286 to a 386 – that was an absolute cakewalk compared to what we go through today (alright, my first major PC upgrade was an 8088 to 286… I just couldn’t break down and admit it).
It’s pretty obvious that on the business end of things, IMAC (Inventory, Moves, Add, a Changes) has evolved into a billion dollar industry. With products like MOM, SUS, SMS plus a few other acronyms that I spare the details on, the business computing upgrades, although it has it challenges, there are rich tools to assist in the process. But for the consumer, this process of replacing one computer remains somewhat daunting. Sure migration tools come with your system, but they make quite a few assumptions that if not considered could leave a consumer with quite a few problems to deal with if they aren’t careful. One of the biggest problems that the migration tools don’t mange for you very well is when you have chosen (more like been forced) to move to the next operating system level. The whole game changes then and if you think you’re going to be able to just click a few buttons to accomplish the task – think again…. One thing that has always bother me about software movers is that they don’t account for one o the reasons your probably upgrading in the first place. That’s, your current is slow probably do to a configuration issue or incompatibility with the current software loaded. Why would I use a tool to automatically port that stuff over to my new system and take the chance of my old computer ghosts following me into my new system?
Getting comfortable with a new PC isn’t an easy task. This is especially true if you’re making a major OS jump like moving to Vista. What remains a constant is that you will be left with the basic process of reinstalling all of your software and device drivers. It’s a mundane necessary evil that part of the new technology process. If you want to make a bundle of money in this industry, here’s an area prime for some help.. Anyhow, in my situation, I fully expected for this lengthy process and planned for it by putting literally one full day aside to complete the transition to a new PC. Although I basically accomplished the task of getting the “personal” back into my computer, it took week’s afterword to get back up to what I consider to be a reasonable productivity level. My recommendation for the consumer that isn’t the most tech savvy individual on the planet? Spend the extra bucks for a tech support group like FireDog or Geek Squad at Circuit City or BestBuy to handle the conversion for you. Trust me, it wont be without its problems, but at least you have some recourse when the bugs start coming out later on…
Regardless of what type of computer you buy, Notebook, desktop, or tablet PC, when considering the purchase of a new system, make sure you set aside enough time to get the new computer up and running. As I stated - it took a full day of fiddling with it for me. I’m sure the supertechies out there can do it faster. Regardless don’t plan on taking the new system straight to an important presentation with a client. Rest assured you will experience Murphy’s Law if you take that route.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Identifying your computing environment
If you’re considering adding to your technology inventory, or retiring a well deserved work horse (See The Vistas of expansion in a Personal Computing Environment) its best to step back and take a look at how things are working today. I my conversations with folks over the years, I get the sense that the majority of us buy personal computing equipment almost as an impulse buy. Let’s get the cheapest or the fastest or the latest fad device into our hands. In most cases the best approach is to do a little diligence and assess the entire situation including the hardware options (See Guidelines for selecting the right Tablet PC ).
Since a personal computing environment varies from individual to individual, let me set the stage about my objectives. Since I have a small network in my home office, I have found that by default I have started to move (not purposely mind you, more like natural selection) to a utility based environment, that is each computer I own has begun to take form as a primary tool and less of a general purpose tool. My music and entertainment stays on one system (two if you count my Tivo) and my business needs on another and my home based apps (like Quicken) on a third; with all of them connected to a small NAS device. Over the years this has evolved to a fairly comfortable layout. It’s like a comfortable pair of shoes that you have owned, you put them on in the morning and forget the fact that they are there… And like shoes when it’s time to replace them, it takes awhile to get things back to the way they were.
It’s almost comical to admit that I too have a bit of resistance to change in me - something I often comment about as unfavorable trait in other individuals. I guess, the older we get the more we resist change. This isn’t due to being stubborn and I certainly can claim to be a technologist while showing technophobic tendencies. No - this is more of experience talking. I unfortunately know that the claims of the golden egg that the technology companies like Microsoft or HP declare often aren’t delivered as they would like you to believe they will be.
Since a personal computing environment varies from individual to individual, let me set the stage about my objectives. Since I have a small network in my home office, I have found that by default I have started to move (not purposely mind you, more like natural selection) to a utility based environment, that is each computer I own has begun to take form as a primary tool and less of a general purpose tool. My music and entertainment stays on one system (two if you count my Tivo) and my business needs on another and my home based apps (like Quicken) on a third; with all of them connected to a small NAS device. Over the years this has evolved to a fairly comfortable layout. It’s like a comfortable pair of shoes that you have owned, you put them on in the morning and forget the fact that they are there… And like shoes when it’s time to replace them, it takes awhile to get things back to the way they were.
It’s almost comical to admit that I too have a bit of resistance to change in me - something I often comment about as unfavorable trait in other individuals. I guess, the older we get the more we resist change. This isn’t due to being stubborn and I certainly can claim to be a technologist while showing technophobic tendencies. No - this is more of experience talking. I unfortunately know that the claims of the golden egg that the technology companies like Microsoft or HP declare often aren’t delivered as they would like you to believe they will be.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Guidelines for selecting the right Tablet PC
When picking a tablet computer (regardless of the manufacturer), user reviews commonly agreed that the more memory and CPU power you can give a tablet PC, the better off you will be. The theory of this is that the digitizing capabilities of the tablet has a tendency to be a bit of a resource hog and if you intend to have a positive experience your electronic pen, give it enough horsepower to breathe right or you won’t be satisfied with the results. I think this is single best advice one should take heed on when it comes to purchasing a tablet. There is more hardware specific advice coming, but let know forgot so of the other items that need consideration such as the Ergonomic Challenges of Tablet Computing (See The Personal Integration Factor).
Because of the horsepower requirements I was having a difficult time sourcing my new equipment from one of the on-line resellers. There are good ones out there (such as http://www.pcconnection.com) that stock a preconfigured systems and if you can find one that fits in one of their inventories - good for you. Because I my requirement for high processor speed and memory, it was difficult to find a model on the shelf that was within my budget. Sure, if money wasn’t an issue, most resellers stock the fully loaded Cadillac’s of most of the major brands. But some of them required a second mortgage on your home in order to get into one. After researching the more reputable resellers, I unfortunately decided to purchase the notebook from Toshiba Direct (http://www.toshibadirect.com). I say unfortunately because of the delivery experience I went through with Toshiba was less than stellar (If you are interested in what exactly occurred, drop me a note and I’ll expand on the events – it was actually an amazing first for knucklehead company policies). Nevertheless, Toshiba’s site let me customize my system with higher processor and more memory at a price that worked. About two weeks later, my notebook arrived straight from Shanghai China and I began the daunting process of the consumers personal computer upgrade (See The consumer’s personal computer upgrade Also see Can you see the Vista / With Web Based Apps You Can?).
Because of the horsepower requirements I was having a difficult time sourcing my new equipment from one of the on-line resellers. There are good ones out there (such as http://www.pcconnection.com) that stock a preconfigured systems and if you can find one that fits in one of their inventories - good for you. Because I my requirement for high processor speed and memory, it was difficult to find a model on the shelf that was within my budget. Sure, if money wasn’t an issue, most resellers stock the fully loaded Cadillac’s of most of the major brands. But some of them required a second mortgage on your home in order to get into one. After researching the more reputable resellers, I unfortunately decided to purchase the notebook from Toshiba Direct (http://www.toshibadirect.com). I say unfortunately because of the delivery experience I went through with Toshiba was less than stellar (If you are interested in what exactly occurred, drop me a note and I’ll expand on the events – it was actually an amazing first for knucklehead company policies). Nevertheless, Toshiba’s site let me customize my system with higher processor and more memory at a price that worked. About two weeks later, my notebook arrived straight from Shanghai China and I began the daunting process of the consumers personal computer upgrade (See The consumer’s personal computer upgrade Also see Can you see the Vista / With Web Based Apps You Can?).
Monday, August 13, 2007
The Personal Integration Factor
With the development of products like Microsoft OneNote, as well as considering Moore’s law, I would fully expect the Notebook and Tablet markets to converge; surely within our lifetime, if not sooner. As a matter of fact I think it’s safe to say we are fairly close to that convergence at least in the portable computing side of things. However, there are some ergonomic challenges that portable computing environments bring to the consumer that manufacturers often underestimate especially with Tablet PC’s.
The evolution of tablet computing has had its technological challenges over the years (See The Evolution of Tablet Computing ). As advances in technologies such as enhances LCD and battery chemistry have helped to overcome some of these earlier challenges, the key to continued success and healthier adoption of tablet environments into mainstream computing lies in how manufacturer’s design products to help us to integrate the technology into our current life. I call this the “personal integration factor” which I explain in more detail lower in this post.
As I researched the options available in the tablet arena today, manufacturers still seem to present the tablet based computing as an “either / or” scenario. That is, either you’re going to use your tablet in hand writing mode –OR- you’re going to use it in keyboard mode. At first this seems to be a fairly brainless statement. I mean after all – isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with a tablet PC? Either you write on it or you use the keyboard… But wouldn’t it make better sense to embrace the fact that our mainstream human interface (i.e. the good old keyboard) is an integral part to our computing environment? I mean you can’t just put it away for awhile and still be productive – can you? The comfort and productivity level individuals have with the keyboard is just as important as the pen is to paper so limiting our interface to using just one or just the other with a fairly cumbersome way to switch between the two doesn’t seem to make much sense. Here’s a case and point.
If you haven’t followed the previous posts on this blog I had the opportunity to get closer to one of my long objectives of going completely paperless. I finally purchased a Tablet based computer. This in its self was quite an experience (See The Vistas of expansion in a Personal Computing Environment). After what I thought was a fair amount of diligence of combing over product specifications and user reviews I decided to go with a Toshiba Portégé M400. In my opinion, the M400 seemed to be the best mix of functionality versus cost that I could find on the market today (See Guidelines for selecting the right Tablet PC ).
On a side note, I was seriously eyeing up the Toshiba’s new LED version of their notebook (See Toshiba Portégé R500). I am a huge fan on LED technology and was excited to see Toshiba’s entry into the market with this product. You want to talk about something that is dramatically changing our computing environment let’s talk about LEDs! (I will add a draft hyperlink here for now since I really want to cover this topic later on - so I’ll save my further comments for another post).
In any case, I settled with the Portégé M400 and was fairly pleased with myself on the diligence I thought I performed while making my selection. However, there was one thing that I overlooked when choosing and relates back to the term I used earlier called the personal integration factor. What I mean by that is; how will you integrate a new technology into your day to day computing activities so that you become more productive? After all isn’t that why we buy all of these gadgets? Well maybe some of them we buy because they are just plain fun… However, when you’re making an investment on something you are going to live with for many years, you need to think through how you will use it. This should be just as important as how much memory and hard drive space your considering. In my case, I was certainly infatuated with the possibility of retiring my pen and yellow note pad (see Section 3 - Microsoft OneNote - Is it the death of the pen and yellow notepad?). Because of this I underestimated one of the most important accessories that should come with the new tablet PC, that is, the docking station. This may actually be a common oversight for people considering tablets. After all, what the heck do I care about docking for – I’m going to be writing everything digitally from now on! This is why the personal integration factor needs to be considered.
As I transitioned to the new tablet PC from my trusty (but very aged) ThinkPad configuration, I began to realize that I was thinking linearly (just like manufacturer’s were) on how to use it; either in tablet mode or keyboard mode. Perhaps their advertising banter caught the best of me. The reality is when working, the simultaneous use of the tablet along with the keyboard and external monitor is very important. By having the configuration setup in such a manner that you can be using the keyboard, pick up the digital pen and quickly jot some notes down on the tablet and then immediately swing back over to your keyboard is really the key of expanding ones productivity using a tablet PC. Using both human interfaces simultaneously expands on the way one leverages a computing environment while maintaining a comfortable and established process pen and paper as well as the keyboard. For example, typically while on a conference call, I will take hard copy notes on the conversations key points and actions required using pen and paper while using the PC to immediately research information pertaining to the topic at hand as well perhaps attending a Web based presentation. So I just assumed that upgrading to a tablet PC would provide similar functionality in the manner in which I am used to. Although it does to certain extent, here lies one of the limitations you need to consider when purchasing a tablet PC. Many of the docking stations on the market today do not accommodate one’s ability to achieve what was just outlined. They do what every good docking station does. That’s is, they link you quickly to your externally attached devices, but their orientation does not allow you use the pen and tablet without converting (flipping the monitor). What’s worse is the configurations of most docking station certainly do not make it practical to write on the tablet. That is unless you’re a teacher and you are proficient at writing freehand on a chalk board.
The interesting part here is that this is not a huge technology barrier to overcome for the manufacturers. Unfortunately, tablet PC’s aside for one minute, my experiences is that they (the manufacturers) have consistently done a poor job engineering the docking station often making them more complicated and less practical to use. This problem seems to be exaggerated in the tablet PC arena and is certainly true with my new Toshiba Portégé. In fact, some of posts I have read specifically regarding Toshiba claim that the M200 (Toshiba’s earlier tablet model) docking station design was great and actually addressed some concerns raised in this post. For some reason Toshiba redesigned the new dock and took out some of the features that made it work well for a tablet. Interesting progress… I guess the accountants won that battle over the engineers for sure.
As for the manufacturer’s, I would hope that we see some strong improvements in area of tablet computing especially in the docking systems. The personal integration factor would seem to be a major key on how people will adopt tablet computing into their existing environments.
As to the consumer considering a jump into the tablet market; take some advice from one who loves electronic gadgets. Although it may be easier said than done, try to curb your enthusiasm about getting into a new technology and really think about how you will use the product in your day to day computing activities. The lesson learned is that it is okay to be patient on emerging technology if it’s not going to help your productivity level. As chess players already know, thinking a few steps ahead can make all the difference. And if you have ironed out your personal integration factor, consider the importance of the docking station and finally, load up on processor power and memory (See Guidelines for selecting the right Tablet PC). You’ll be happy that you did.
The evolution of tablet computing has had its technological challenges over the years (See The Evolution of Tablet Computing ). As advances in technologies such as enhances LCD and battery chemistry have helped to overcome some of these earlier challenges, the key to continued success and healthier adoption of tablet environments into mainstream computing lies in how manufacturer’s design products to help us to integrate the technology into our current life. I call this the “personal integration factor” which I explain in more detail lower in this post.
As I researched the options available in the tablet arena today, manufacturers still seem to present the tablet based computing as an “either / or” scenario. That is, either you’re going to use your tablet in hand writing mode –OR- you’re going to use it in keyboard mode. At first this seems to be a fairly brainless statement. I mean after all – isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with a tablet PC? Either you write on it or you use the keyboard… But wouldn’t it make better sense to embrace the fact that our mainstream human interface (i.e. the good old keyboard) is an integral part to our computing environment? I mean you can’t just put it away for awhile and still be productive – can you? The comfort and productivity level individuals have with the keyboard is just as important as the pen is to paper so limiting our interface to using just one or just the other with a fairly cumbersome way to switch between the two doesn’t seem to make much sense. Here’s a case and point.
If you haven’t followed the previous posts on this blog I had the opportunity to get closer to one of my long objectives of going completely paperless. I finally purchased a Tablet based computer. This in its self was quite an experience (See The Vistas of expansion in a Personal Computing Environment). After what I thought was a fair amount of diligence of combing over product specifications and user reviews I decided to go with a Toshiba Portégé M400. In my opinion, the M400 seemed to be the best mix of functionality versus cost that I could find on the market today (See Guidelines for selecting the right Tablet PC ).
On a side note, I was seriously eyeing up the Toshiba’s new LED version of their notebook (See Toshiba Portégé R500). I am a huge fan on LED technology and was excited to see Toshiba’s entry into the market with this product. You want to talk about something that is dramatically changing our computing environment let’s talk about LEDs! (I will add a draft hyperlink here for now since I really want to cover this topic later on - so I’ll save my further comments for another post).
In any case, I settled with the Portégé M400 and was fairly pleased with myself on the diligence I thought I performed while making my selection. However, there was one thing that I overlooked when choosing and relates back to the term I used earlier called the personal integration factor. What I mean by that is; how will you integrate a new technology into your day to day computing activities so that you become more productive? After all isn’t that why we buy all of these gadgets? Well maybe some of them we buy because they are just plain fun… However, when you’re making an investment on something you are going to live with for many years, you need to think through how you will use it. This should be just as important as how much memory and hard drive space your considering. In my case, I was certainly infatuated with the possibility of retiring my pen and yellow note pad (see Section 3 - Microsoft OneNote - Is it the death of the pen and yellow notepad?). Because of this I underestimated one of the most important accessories that should come with the new tablet PC, that is, the docking station. This may actually be a common oversight for people considering tablets. After all, what the heck do I care about docking for – I’m going to be writing everything digitally from now on! This is why the personal integration factor needs to be considered.
As I transitioned to the new tablet PC from my trusty (but very aged) ThinkPad configuration, I began to realize that I was thinking linearly (just like manufacturer’s were) on how to use it; either in tablet mode or keyboard mode. Perhaps their advertising banter caught the best of me. The reality is when working, the simultaneous use of the tablet along with the keyboard and external monitor is very important. By having the configuration setup in such a manner that you can be using the keyboard, pick up the digital pen and quickly jot some notes down on the tablet and then immediately swing back over to your keyboard is really the key of expanding ones productivity using a tablet PC. Using both human interfaces simultaneously expands on the way one leverages a computing environment while maintaining a comfortable and established process pen and paper as well as the keyboard. For example, typically while on a conference call, I will take hard copy notes on the conversations key points and actions required using pen and paper while using the PC to immediately research information pertaining to the topic at hand as well perhaps attending a Web based presentation. So I just assumed that upgrading to a tablet PC would provide similar functionality in the manner in which I am used to. Although it does to certain extent, here lies one of the limitations you need to consider when purchasing a tablet PC. Many of the docking stations on the market today do not accommodate one’s ability to achieve what was just outlined. They do what every good docking station does. That’s is, they link you quickly to your externally attached devices, but their orientation does not allow you use the pen and tablet without converting (flipping the monitor). What’s worse is the configurations of most docking station certainly do not make it practical to write on the tablet. That is unless you’re a teacher and you are proficient at writing freehand on a chalk board.
The interesting part here is that this is not a huge technology barrier to overcome for the manufacturers. Unfortunately, tablet PC’s aside for one minute, my experiences is that they (the manufacturers) have consistently done a poor job engineering the docking station often making them more complicated and less practical to use. This problem seems to be exaggerated in the tablet PC arena and is certainly true with my new Toshiba Portégé. In fact, some of posts I have read specifically regarding Toshiba claim that the M200 (Toshiba’s earlier tablet model) docking station design was great and actually addressed some concerns raised in this post. For some reason Toshiba redesigned the new dock and took out some of the features that made it work well for a tablet. Interesting progress… I guess the accountants won that battle over the engineers for sure.
As for the manufacturer’s, I would hope that we see some strong improvements in area of tablet computing especially in the docking systems. The personal integration factor would seem to be a major key on how people will adopt tablet computing into their existing environments.
As to the consumer considering a jump into the tablet market; take some advice from one who loves electronic gadgets. Although it may be easier said than done, try to curb your enthusiasm about getting into a new technology and really think about how you will use the product in your day to day computing activities. The lesson learned is that it is okay to be patient on emerging technology if it’s not going to help your productivity level. As chess players already know, thinking a few steps ahead can make all the difference. And if you have ironed out your personal integration factor, consider the importance of the docking station and finally, load up on processor power and memory (See Guidelines for selecting the right Tablet PC). You’ll be happy that you did.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
