A Vision of Students Today is a video created by Professor Michael Wesch and the 200 students enrolled in ANTH 200: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Spring 2007. It began as a brainstorming exercise, thinking about how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in.
It’s pretty interesting to watch, plus you can also get a transcript of the A Vision of Students Today video here.
Sarah Blow has been offered two free conference tickets to the Web 2.0 Expo in Germany. However due to other commitments she is unable to use them and as such is offering the opportunity to two female university students in the UK via a very short competition. And just in case you’re wondering why a short competicion… it’s because the event is on from the 5th - 8th November 2007 which isn’t far off!
So female university students, all you have to do is the following:
In no more than 50 words explain how you would use this opportunity and what you would like to learn from the event. Post your responses to this post and include your university e-mail address in your submission. (otherwise I can’t possibly send you the prize!)
This competition will finish on Tuesday 23rd October 2007 at 6pm. The ticket does not cover travel expenses or accommodation however Sarah is trying to find a sponsor to cover this. In the eventuality that she can’t find one for some reason, then she is willing to talk to your head of department and help you to sway them into covering your costs 
(Apparently she did something similar whilst at uni to get to the World 3GSM Congress and it worked well.)
Of course if a company would like to sponsor the expenses for travel and accommodation for a student then do get in touch with Sarah as she would be more than happy to include that in the package!
The lucky winner will also be invited to the launch party for Girl Geek Dinners in Germany! 
The Kent IT Clinic (KITC) at the University of Kent has been awarded Technology Enterprise Kent’s ‘Enterprise and Training Award for excellence’ under the category of IT Support.
The award, which was presented to David Soud, Co-ordinator of KITC, on 4 October, is in recognition of ‘the considerable achievement of KITC consultants in delivering the intensive assists on behalf of Medway Authority in 2006 and 2007′.
Launched in October 2005 and with branches at the University’s Canterbury and Medway campuses, KITC provides high quality, low cost IT support, services and consultancy to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises in the Canterbury, East Kent and Medway area. The Clinic is unique in that its consultants are undergraduate computing students, many with industrial and consulting experience gained through placements at major organisations such as Sun Microsystems, IBM and Microsoft.
The relationships between KITC and its clients are managed by full-time IT professionals, monitored by KITC management and mentored by academic and technical members of the University’s Computing Laboratory.
David Soud said: ‘I am very pleased that Technology Enterprise Kent has recognised the achievements of the IT Clinic and the excellent work carried out by KITC consultants during 2006 and 2007. This confirms the position of the IT Clinic as a training provider of excellence and affirms its status as Medway Authorities IT provider of choice to small and micro enterprises in the Medway area. I look forward to further distinctions for the IT Clinic in the coming year.’
Professor Simon Thompson, Director and Head of the Computing Laboratory at the University of Kent, said: ‘I am delighted that the Clinic has received this recognition. Student consultants in the Clinic are giving real benefits to the local community as well as equipping themselves with invaluable experience for a career in computing and IT. Until this year, Clinic consultants have been undergraduates, but this autumn we began teaching a new MSc in IT Consultancy, based in the KITC.’
Carole Barron, Director of Enterprise at the University, said: ‘The University is understandably proud of KITC and its achievements. This award closely follows its success in receiving national recognition in 2006 when they were shortlisted for the Computing Award for Excellence. It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the students and their supervisors in supporting businesses across the South East.’
I Myself as a Student was an IT Consultant last year for The Kent IT Clinic, so I know just what it’s like working within the KITC - At times it can be hard trying to work for both The Kent IT Clinic while also attending the other university modules you are taking, but I think it’s all about balance - you need to try and balance the two.
The great thing is I can say I’ve worked at The Kent IT Clinic and be proud of it. It was a great experience and it’s great knowing that I was in the first group of consultants to be at Medway and that my work done there (Server Configuration, Laptop Training Guides etc) as helped the KITC get to where it is now!
Well it’s been a busy and crazy week but I’ve finally got some time to tell you all about my 3 Days in London attending The mashup* demo event and of course the awesome Future of Web Apps Conference and Expo which included the Live Filming of Episode 118 of Diggnation and the Carsonified Relaunch Party! 
Unfortunately I didn’t have a laptop to do any Live Blog coverage 
like I would have liked to so instead I took what notes I could on paper and took plenty of photos along with a couple of videos.
Mashup* Demo Event - Day Before FOWA
First up let me tell you about the Mashup* Demo event, In running order the following companies demoed, yes they only had 5 minutes to demo, this made sure they got to the point of why we should try out their site/service/product etc and why investors should invest in them:
3.30pm - Serena Software
3.35pm - Mobestar
3.40pm - 15 Second TV
3.45pm - BabelTV
3.50pm - WeLoveLocal.com
3.55pm - Rummble
4.00pm - Magpie
4.05pm - Inspire
4.10pm - Bondaii
4.15pm - Meecard
4.20pm - Serena Software
4.25pm - Rollsense
4.30pm - Fav.or.it
4.35pm - Kwiqq
4.40pm - Tipped
4.45pm - testcard.tv
I have yet to test fully every site/service/product on this list; however I hope to do very soon. The venue it’s self was great and I had some interesting talks with people such as James Dyer (TestCard.Tv) and Dominik Grolimund, Co-Founder and CEO of Caleido who has created Wuala, which is a new way of storing, sharing, and publishing files on the internet.
I would however like to make some suggestions for improvements, mainly on the after party hosted by Blognation, as part of their UK Launch of Blognation. Me and a few others agreed that some music would have been nice to go along with that disco ball they Club had, along with some food/nibbles as it was dinner time by then…
Other than that it was pretty good, I’ll be sure to be checking out each and every site/service/product in more detail. By the way Richard Brooks (Managing Director of The 100 Year Website) where were you - someone said they talked to you but we couldn’t find you again - hope you had a good time and that my invite for you to come was worthwhile!
The Future of Web Apps Conference and Expo (FOWA) - Day 1
Ok now let me tell you a little lot about The FOWA Conference and Expo.
Welcome from Brian Oberkirch & Simon Willison, the FOWA Conference Chairs
We were first welcomed by Brian Oberkirch & Simon Willison, the FOWA Conference Chairs, along with Ryan Carson, co-founder of Carsonified (Carson Systems), they gave us a quick talk on what we could expect over the next 2 to 3 days at FOWA.
What is the Future of Web Apps? We Discuss! - Om Malik, (GigaOM) & Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
After this brief welcome to FOWA there was a discussion between Ryan Carson, Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, Inc and Michael Arrington, serial entrepreneur and operator of TechCrunch. In this talk they talked a about how web apps are changing the web and how we can benefit from them.
10 Real-world Apps That Represent The Future of Web Apps - Ben Forsaith (Adobe)
10 Real-world Apps That Represent The Future of Web Apps was a fast pace session presented by Ben Forsaith (Andrew Shorten), product specialist with Adobe UK, in which he demoed 10 Web Apps that were using Adobe technology such as Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime)
High Performance Websites - Steve Souders (Yahoo!)
High Performance Websites was the first developer track session of the day, and was presented by Steve Souders, who works at Yahoo! as the Chief Performance Yahoo!, where he has developed a set of best practices for making web sites faster.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
The Future of Search - Tony Conrad (Sphere)
The Future of Search was the second business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by Tony Conrad, who is a Venture capitalist turned entrepreneur who co-founded Sphere (previously Yodel Search).
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
The Art of Attractive Yet Useable Sites - Robin Christopherson (AbilityNet)
The Art of Attractive Yet Useable Sites was the second business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by Robin Christopherson, who despite being blind, uses a computer very effectively by relying on speech output to access the full range of mainstream software including email and the internet. So he has a first-hand appreciation of the importance of good web design practice to accessibility, which is great for AbilityNet’s Web Consultancy services which he manages.
In his talk he talked about how over 90% of sites are still illegal because they do not meet the required accessibility standards and how sites which are accessibility friendly are really easy to use for people who are vision impaired.
*Lunch Break*
It’s Lunch Time, so I took a walk around the ExCeL Building and the FOWA Expo Hall.
How User Feedback can Influences Design - Daniel Burka (digg / Pownce)
How User Feedback can Influences Design was the third developer session of the day, and was presented by Daniel Burka, who is the creative director at Digg and is one of the cofounders of Pownce.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
The Architecture Behind WordPress.com - Matt Mullenweg (WordPress)
The Architecture Behind WordPress.com was the fourth developer session of the day, and was presented by Matt Mullenweg, who is best known as the founding developer of WordPress, the blogging software tool.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Building a Community (Creating and Running Communites) - Matthew Haughey (MetaFilter)
Building a Community was the fifth developer session of the day, and was presented by Matthew Haughey, who is best known as the founder of the community weblog MetaFilter, where he is known as mathowie.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Taking Your Application Mobile - Heidi Pollock (BluePulse)
Taking Your Application Mobile was the sixth developer session of the day, and was presented by Heidi Pollock, who having left Yahoo! Mobile, started to work as a contractor for Twitter and then more recently started work for the Australian start-up, Bluepulse, fulltime.
In her talk, she talked about some of the following points:
The Future of Firefox and JavaScript - John Resig (Mozilla Corporation)
The Future of Firefox and JavaScript was the seventh developer session of the day, and was presented by John Resig, who is a programmer working for the Mozilla Corporation. As well as being a programmer for Mozilla, he is also the creator and lead developer of the jQuery JavaScript library. He is also the author of the book ‘Pro Javascript Techniques.’ And is currently located in Cambridge, MA.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About That You Can Use in Your Future Web Apps - Mark Quirk & Jon Harris (Microsoft)
This session was presented by Mark Quirk who joined Microsoft UK in 1992 as a senior support engineer for Microsoft development tools and is now the product manager responsible for Visual Studio and web development at Microsoft UK. And also by Jon Harris who used to work for Macromedia but is now a Microsoft User Experience Evangelist.
Lessons Learned From Launching Digg & Pownce - Kevin Rose (digg / Pownce)
Kevin Rose was up next for this last session of the day
In his talk he talked about some of the following points:
Live Filming of Diggnation @ FOWA London
What can I say about it - The Live Filming of Diggnation with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht was more than awesome! The place was packed out with people wanting to watch the show - The Crowd went wild - And I had a front row side seat!
Watch Diggnation Episode 118 London Here.
Carsonified Relaunch Party @ FOX@ExCeL
Yet more fun, a big thanks goes to both Kevin and Alex for allowing people to take photos with them!
Me and Kevin Rose!
Me, Kevin Bing (uni student) and Alex Albrecht
The Future of Web Apps Conference and Expo (FOWA) - Day 2
The Future of Web Apps (FOWA) continues on Day 2…
Developer Stage: Welcome from Brian Oberkirch & Simon Willison, the FOWA conference chairs
The Future of Web Startups - Paul Graham (Y Combinator)
The Future of Web Startups was presented by Paul Graham, who is the author of On Lisp (1993), ANSI Common Lisp (1995), and Hackers & Painters (2004).
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Predicting The Future of Web Apps - Edwin Aoki (AOL)
Predicting The Future of Web Apps was presented by Edwin Aoki, Chief Architect AOL.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Web app do’s and don’ts - Practical lessons we learned - Leah Culver (Pownce)
Web app do’s and don’ts - Practical lessons we learned Predicting was the first developer session of the day, and was presented by Leah Culver who is currently best known for founding Pownce with her friends Kevin Rose and Daniel Burka as a way of sending messages, links, files and events to each other.
In her talk, she talked about some of the following points:
Thanks goes to Jenifer Hanen for the gap filling - check out her post here!
The Story Behind The Facebook Platform - Dave Morin (Facebook)
The Story Behind The Facebook Platform was the second developer session of the day, and was presented by Dave Morin who is the Senior Platform Manager at Facebook where he leads platform strategy and community
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Preparing for Enterprise Adoption (The Future Of Blogging) - Suw Charman (suw.org.uk)
Preparing for Enterprise Adoption was the third business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by who Suw Charman, a social software consultant and writer who specialises in the use of blogs and wikis behind the firewall. Suw is also founder and board member of the Open Rights Group, a digital rights advocacy group which aims to raise awareness of digital rights issues, to campaign against bad legislation in Britain and the EU, and to support grass roots activism.
In her talk, she talked about some of the following points:
*Lunch Break*
It’s Lunch Time on Day 2, so I thought id go outside down by the water to take some photos.
On the ExCeL Victoria Dock Bridge I witnessed the filming of a film/movie/soap/drama/documentary… ehhh… no idea what it was but we were not aloud to cross the bridge until they were finished and as we were approaching we were told to be quite! 
I heard one of the actors say “Dial 999″ quite loud….
Click on this photo and Zoom in and you’ll notice they are still up there
Putting Users First - Thomas Vander Wal (InfoCloud Solutions)
Putting Users First was the fourth business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by Thomas Vander Wal, who is the The Principal and Senior Consultant at InfoCloud Solutions, Vander Wal is an information architect best known for coining the term “folksonomy.” He’s also known for initiating the term “infocloud”. His works has been with the Web and with information design and structure.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Next Generation Visualisations - Eric Rodenbeck (Stamen Design)
Next Generation Visualisations was the fith business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by Eric Rodenbeck, Stamen’s founder and creative director. He is a 10-year veteran of the interactive design field, and has spent this time working to extend the boundaries of online media and live information visualization.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Comet: Making the Web a 2-Way Medium - Joe Walker (DWR)
Comet: Making the Web a 2-Way Medium was the sixth developer session of the day, and was presented by Joe Walker, a developer and consultant working on advanced web development techniques like AJAX. He recently developed Direct Web Remoting, (DWR) which has become one of the most popular Ajax toolkits for Java by making browser/server interaction intuitive for web developers. See www.drectwebremoting.com. He currently works through his consultancy, Getahead (http://getahead.org/), which is supplying a growing number of customers with AJAX and advanced web solutions.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
An Insight to FireEagle - Tom Coates (Yahoo!)
An Insight to FireEagle was the seventh developer session of the day, and was presented by Tom Coates, who works for Yahoo Brickhouse where he develops new concepts in social software, future media and the web of data. He focuses on the shape of the web to come and how to make things that thrive as part of it. He’s worked for many of the UK’s most prominent web companies including Time Out, UpMyStreet and the BBC where he ran a small near-term R&D team for the BBC exploring media navigation, annotation and distribution. A regular speaker at conferences including ETech, XTech, IASummit and The Future of Web Apps, Tom also writes extensively at plasticbag.org as well as running the experimental online community barbelith.com.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Air - Next Generation Development - Ben Forsaith (Adobe)
Air - Next Generation Development was the eighth developer session of the day, and was presented by Ben Forsaith, product specialist with Adobe UK.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:
Best Tips & Screw Ups - Panel of FOWA speakers
This last session of the day was a discussion talk between Ryan Carson, Kevin Lawver, Lane Becker, Rashmi , Dick , Ted Rheingold, Simon Willison and Brian Oberkirch.
You can cook with it. You can stack it. And now you can hack it…
What’s a “hack” you say? Well, it’s a way of solving an everyday problem (like, what to do when you get hungry behind the wheel?) with an ingenious solution (fry an egg on your car’s motor!).
Tefal want you to think of new ways to use the Jamie Oliver Survival Kit and come up with crazy, fun or useful hacks.
All ideas will be considered. No hack too bizarre. Just make sure it uses the Jamie Oliver Survival Kit, submit your hack idea here and you’ll go into the draw. But make sure you get your submission in by 12th October 2007 - only days away!!!
The 20 selected winners will not only get a Jamie Oliver Survival Kit, but their hack ideas will be made into films like the ones you see on this site. The best overall hack will also win its creator our grand prize of a fantastic electric scooter.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s start hacking!
Head over to http://www.hackthekit.co.uk/suggestion.aspx
And hey a little tip - don’t post you’re suggestion yet - wait a day or so until my Blog appears in the Source Drop Down Menu Box on the suggestion form and you’ll stand a greater chance of getting a Jamie Oliver Survival Kit, and trust me it’s a pretty cool piece of kit - I’ve tested it myself!
Well it’s lunch time and so far The Future of Web Apps Conference and Expo here in London has been pretty cool. Yesterdays mashup* demo event was also quite interesting, though I do have some things that I would like to see next time…
I shall be posting a full review along with photos of both todays Future of Web Apps Conference and yesterday’s mashup* demo event once I get home.
Don’t forget that if you fancy meeting up while I’m here today and tomorrow at The FOWA Expo that you can give me a call or text on 07944160953.
Going to see Daniel Burka’s “Design for web apps vs the web” developer session next, then I’ll see Matt Mullenweg (founding developer of WordPress) and his session titled “The Architecture Behind Wordpress.com”.
Imagine having your own online time capsule in which you could store treasured photographs, audio, video footage, copies of web pages and text, then have them saved for 100 years! You could virtually bury your capsule until your child’s eighteenth birthday as the most thoughtful of birthday gifts, or keep your capsule open for a century so that generations after you can have a glimpse into life as it is today.
The launch of The100YearWebsite brings the opportunity to do just that. For a small one off fee of £20.00 customers can purchase a capsule for themselves or as a gift for a loved one.
The concept of an online time capsule was dreamt up by entrepreneur Richard Brooks who recognised the appeal of having a method of keeping memories alive for a life-time, by taking a “high Resolution” master copy of all documents and media added to every capsule The100YearWebsite ensures that all documentation will be automatically updated to the very latest technology as it arrives. This means there is no risk that just as the traditional tape cassette is now near extinct any media saved in a capsule will ever be lost through technical advancement.
In an age where voyeurism has become common place via reality television, such as Big Brother and our obsession with celebrities, The100YearWebsite offers users the opportunity to view the contents of other people’s capsules offering a fascinating glimpse into the lives of others. Celebrities including PR guru Max Clifford and Kerry Katona have been amongst the first to purchase a capsule ensuring their treasured moments will be kept alive and visible to family and fans for the next century.
Managing Director Richard Brooks from Windsor, Berkshire said at the launch;
“The very nature of society today has become disposable. Looking through old photos I realised how little I had access to and thought how wonderful it would be to have a repository which kept many decades of memories alive. The100YearWebsite allows you to do this via a time capsule which can be viewed by friends and descendents for the next 100 years. We are proud and excited to be breaking new ground.”
It is not just individuals who can purchase their own capsule, charities such as Oxfam GB and Amnesty International UK will be releasing their own capsules in the near future. 5% of all revenue from The100Year Website will be split between both charities.
Kerry Moscogiuri, Director of Marketing at Amnesty International UK said;
“What we’d really like to see in 100 years time is a world where human rights are truly respected around the world. Certainly our capsule will highlight all the work that Amnesty and our members are doing to help make this a reality - from hard-hitting campaigns to stop violence against women, to massive awareness-raising events like the Secret Policeman’s Ball.”
The factoriser section of the website offers a wealth of historic and present day facts and figures, making it the perfect tool for schools wanting a fun yet informative method of enlightening pupils about life in the year 2007. St Hughes School (Ware) and St Thomas Moore school (Letchworth) are amongst the first schools to have started their very own school capsule.
To Check out The 100 Year Website head over to www.the100yearwebsite.com
You can find my online time capsule at: http://capsule.the100yearwebsite.com/viewcapsule/darren-straight
The Chuckle Brothers (Barry and Paul Elliot) are today celebrating the 20th Anniversary of ChuckleVision and wow I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since they first started ChuckleVision on BBC Television, it’s been great watching ChuckleVision through the years!
For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a bit about it:
The Chuckle Brothers, Barry Elliot (born 24 December 1944) and Paul Elliot (born 18 October 1947) are British comedians. They are best known for their BBC childrens’ TV show, ChuckleVision which is a popular British children’s television series, shown on CBBC, first shown in 1987. It follows the adventures of the two Chuckle Brothers, who find themselves in all sorts of situations that they must cope with.
They are prominent figures in British children’s television. The comedy of the Chuckle Brothers usually derives from slapstick and other visual gags, and their catchphrases are “To me, to you” and “Oh dear, oh dear”.
The ninteenth series started on Monday 5 February on BBC One.
For the past week I’ve had in my possession a Toshiba Tecra A8 Notebook which I have thanks to Talk Toshiba and it’s Tecra A8 triallist programme in which they give bloggers, journalists and community leaders the chance to test out their laptops for a week (more if you request) in exchange for writing an honest, objective review on your blog, forum and community site etc.
So as my week of tetsing the laptop is now coming to an end, I thought I’d better give you my review of it.
First of all the hardware specifications for the Toshiba Tecra A8 Notebook are as follows (this was gatherd using SiSoft Sandra):
| Processor | ||||
| Model | Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz | |||
| Speed | 2.00GHz | |||
| Cores per Processor | 2 Unit(s) | |||
| Threads per Core | 1 Unit(s) | |||
| Type | Mobile, Dual-Core | |||
| Internal Data Cache | 2x 32kB Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way set, 64 byte line size | |||
| L2 On-board Cache | 4MB ECC Synchronous, ATC, 16-way set, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing | |||
| L3 On-board Cache | 2x 4MB Synchronous, Write-Back, 16-way set, 64 byte line size | |||
| Mainboard | ||||
| Bus(es) | ISA VL-VESA PCI PCIe PCMCIA CardBus USB FireWire/1394 | |||
| MP Support | No | |||
| MP APIC | No | |||
| System BIOS | TOSHIBA 1.60 | |||
| System | TOSHIBA TECRA A8 | |||
| Mainboard | TOSHIBA Portable PC | |||
| Total Memory | 1016MB DDR2-SDRAM | |||
| Chipset 1 | ||||
| Model | Toshiba America Information Systems Mobile Memory Controller Hub | |||
| Front Side Bus Speed | 4x 166MHz (664MHz data rate) | |||
| Total Memory | 1GB DDR2-SDRAM | |||
| Shared Memory | 8MB | |||
| Memory Bus Speed | 4x 132MHz (528MHz data rate) | |||
| Video System | ||||
| Monitor/Panel | Default Monitor | |||
| Monitor/Panel | Default Monitor | |||
| Monitor/Panel | Default Monitor | |||
| Monitor/Panel | Generic Television | |||
| Monitor/Panel | Generic Television | |||
| Monitor/Panel | Plug and Play Monitor | |||
| Monitor/Panel | Plug and Play Monitor | |||
| Adapter | Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family | |||
| Adapter | Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family | |||
| Physical Storage Devices | ||||
| Hard Disk | FUJITSU MHV2100BH PL (93GB) | |||
| Hard Disk | Easy Disk USB Device | |||
| CD-ROM/DVD | MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-841S (CD 24X Rd, 24X Wr) (DVD 3X Rd, 3X Wr) | |||
| Logical Storage Devices | ||||
| Hard Disk (C:) | 93GB (85GB, 91% Free Space) (NTFS) | |||
| CD-ROM/DVD (D:) | N/A | |||
| Removable Drive (E:) | 1.9GB (497MB, 26% Free Space) (FAT) | |||
| Peripherals | ||||
| Serial/Parallel Port(s) | 2 COM / 1 LPT | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8 | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C9 | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CA | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CB | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 27CC | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | USB Root Hub | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | USB Root Hub | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | USB Root Hub | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | USB Root Hub | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | USB Root Hub | |||
| USB Controller/Hub | USB Mass Storage Device | |||
| FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub | Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller | |||
| PCMCIA/CardBus Controller | Generic CardBus Controller | |||
| Keyboard | Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard | |||
| Mouse | Alps Pointing-device | |||
| Communication Device(s) | ||||
| Device | TOSHIBA Software Modem | |||
| Power Management | ||||
| AC Line Status | On-Line | |||
| Battery No 1 | 100% | |||
| Operating System(s) | ||||
| Windows System | Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2) | |||
| Network Services | ||||
| Network Drivers Enabled | No | |||
| Performance Tips | ||||
| Notice 5901 | CD 1x= 150kB/s; Exercise caution when comparing measured versus published ratings. | |||
| Notice 5902 | DVD 1x= 11.08Mbps Exercise caution when comparing measured versus published ratings. | |||
| Tip 2 | Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip. | |||
Not only did I test laptop by using automatic testing software such as SiSoft Sandra, PCMark06 and 3DMark06 but I also took the laptop out on the streets to get a better feel what it was like to use on the open road, as that’s the whole idea of laptops, portability so you can take it out with you.
Here’s what I think some of the Pros and Cons are of the laptop:
The Pros (The Good)
The overall look and feel
Hardware specifications
The Cons (The Bad)
Keyboard Layout
Operating System
Conclusion
Other than the keyboard layout problem and the fact that I would have preferred Windows Vista to be preinstalled instead of Windows XP, I think the Toshiba Tecra A8 Notebook is a pretty good laptop for personal/work use, especially as it as a nice screen size and is quite lightweight. If of course Windows Vista was going to be preinstalled some more RAM than the current 1GB wouldn’t go a miss though.
Just over 2 weeks to go now until The Future of Web Apps conference and Expo starts in London on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of October and do I have news for you students! That is if you can get away from you’re studies!
The Future of Web Apps Expo (not conference) is now free for all academic students who use the following promotion code “student_expo” when registering for a FOWA Expo Pass. Off course even if you’re not a student you can still get into the FOWA Expo Area for £5 which is pretty cool in its self!
Here’s what you’ll get with a FOWA Expo Student Pass:
I myself as you probably know am going to both The Future of Web Apps conference and Expo as I managed to buy a Student Conference Pass while they were still available (sold out now) and can’t wait - so if you’re thinking of going and want to meetup why not give me a call on +44 07944160953
It’s just a shame that next year when I’m no longer a student, I won’t be able to buy Student Passes for conferences and Expos like this and that instead I’ll have to pay the full conference/expo fee. Maybe conferences and expos should offer a recently graduated pass for students who have graduated within 1 year or so but which are a little more expensive than the student passes but still cheaper than the full pass, as recently graduated students still want to go to all this events and conferences but at the same time still have to pay for all their debts in tuition fees…
Or what about a blogger/journalist pass which is still cheaper than the full fee but you have to blog or write an article about the event. If of course you don’t then you’ll have to pay the full fee, maybe this could be done so you pay the full fee but after the event the organisers check your coverage and depending on it they give you a partial refund.
I have so many ideas yet until I see them in use, they are just that - ideas!
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