The 2007 Marauderz Gear Round Up Post!

Monday, December 31, 2007

Well.. this is it, last day of 2007 and here I am stuck in my little room at home pounding away at work. Let me just take a quick timeout and look back at some of the gear I have acquired this year and see how well they've been serving me.

The Yes My Work Notebook Only Has 1GB Of RAM Award

Technically I didn't buy the Fujitsu P1610, but since I use it on a day to day basis I have to talk about it. Most people are surprised at the fact that my main programming notebook has a mere 1GB of RAM and a puny 1.2Ghz Processor. But the thing is as long as I understand that I shouldn't expect everything to be instantenous and that page file swaps can be controlled, it's really not too bad. Cause it beats having to lug a around a multi kg notebook everywhere all the time. The other reason I choose the P1610 was that bloody Toshiba wasn't selling the higher spec Toshiba M400 units here. I could have gotten a high end sub notebook instead but I already told myself after using my first Tablet PC and also Microsoft Onenote that I MUST ALWAYS have a Tablet PC with me during meetings.

The Most Likely To Make Me Go Blind Award

It's always a gadget freak's dream to have a tiny notebook to take around almost everywhere they go, and I found this in the Fujitsu U1010 Convertible Tablet PC. The small size, Microsoft OneNote's great multiple PC sync capabilities and the fact that it is also a Tablet PC makes this my prefered notebook when going for meetings. I still hate the monitor dongle though! The 1024x600 screen is bound to make me go blind some day.

The Yes I Bought This Because Of The Price Award

The Asus eeePC wasn't initially on my ToBuy list after I got the U1010 as a companion notebook, but the fact that for RM1299 I get a 4GB solid state, 900Mhz (running at 600Mhz) x86 processor, 512MB of RAM, 7" 800x480 screen was too alluring to this gear freak. Nothing much more to say about it apart from what I mentioned before. Except for the choice quote that my wife just said recently when she was fondling it.

This thing isn't that small a notebook.

I reminded her that all the other notebooks that are around her are all sub 11" affairs that's probably why a 7" screen doesn't seem all too small.

The Proof Of Gadget Lust Award

Do I really need to say anything other than linking to the original post? Surprisingly this has come in very handy in various situations already ever since I got it. It's sinful how easy it is to answer "Yes I do have a thumbdrive!" and pass the person the watch to move files with. I still need to get use to the fact that it's not water resistant though.

The Yes I Only Bought One Phone This Year Award

The Dopod C730 Windows Mobile 6 Standard phone, it's a nice phone if you don't mind the slightly cramped keyboard. But it makes for a great smartphone and the fact that it's so easy to use the phone as a HSDPA modem for my notebook makes it indispensable!

The Great Value For Money Award

I still can't believe I got this speaker for only RM35. It works GREAT! And I think the sellers know this is good shit too, cause... the price has INCREASED since I got it and now costs about RM50 for one.

The Waste Of My Money Award

What every gadget head fears the most, getting something that just doesn't work as advertised. And for me this year, the thing that earns this title has to be the Creative Bluetooth Transmitters, it's not that they don't work. But the fact that these Bluetooth transmitters in general seem to introduce a half a second delay in the audio makes it absolutely useless for video and since that's what I usually use this makes the thing totally unusable for me.

The I'll Find A Use For It... Eventually.