Category: Tech

A few weeks ago I decided that I could really use a laptop for work purposes. After searching around for good deals, I decided on a Vostro 1500. If you have never heard of Vostro, it is Dell’s new line of small businesses computers. Anyway, I got the laptop a few days ago. I must say, Dell is extremely slow shipping out PCs and laptops. Every single thing I have ordered from them has always taken a pretty long time to arrive. However, they were offering a pretty good deal on this laptop so I decided to go with them anyway. I had my 1500 configured as follows for $599:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
• Genuine Windows XP Home Edition, SP2
• 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife
• 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
• 120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability, w/o Roxio Creator
• 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
• Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
• High Definition Audio 2.0
• 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
• MS Works 8.5-Eng: Basic Spreadsheet, Word Processing & Calendar Program
• Norton Internet Security 2006 90 Day Subscription
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.08
• 1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty with Mail-in Service
• 10GB for 1yr Online Backup by Dell Datasafe
• 1 Year Dell Automated PC Tuneup

I have only been using it for about a week, but I am pretty pleased with it so far. I ended up benchmarking it just to see how it would do, and it actually did better then I was expecting. While it is no longer on sale, I would still suggest checking out Dell’s Vostro line if you are looking for a well priced business laptop.

Well, I have been saying it for a long time, but now it looks like I am in good company. In an interview with Boot Daily for a piece on Intel’s Core 2 QX6850 chip, John Carmack said, “I am not a believer in dedicated PPUs. Multiple CPU cores will be much more useful in general, but when GPUs finally get reasonably fine grained context switching and scheduling, some tasks will work well there.” Well said John, there is really no reason that GPUs and multi-core CPUs won’t be able to do all the work needed for physics in future games.

From DailyTech:

In a recent battle of press releases, the Blu-ray Association announced that sales of Blu-ray Disc titles have surpassed one million units in less than a year since the format’s introduction. In a statement from the HD DVD Promotional Group received by DailyTech, it appears that sales of HD DVD movies are not far behind those of Blu-ray Disc.

According to stats cited by the HD DVD Group, which are based on recent data from Nielsen Videoscan, Universal, Warner and Toshiba, HD DVD titles are now at 998,059 units sold, representing less-than 2,000 units shy of Blu-ray’s announced figures. Of course, while the next-generation formats fight over claims of collective sales of one million, a single DVD title could easily sell over one million units on its own.

“Yes, these are still small numbers compared to DVD sales, but point being – HD DVD is still very much in the game,” read the HD DVD Group statement. “As more HD DVD titles hit the market (take a look at pre-order rankings for Planet Earth and The Matrix Trilogy) and as prices for HD DVD hardware continue to drop below the $400 mark, we’re seeing more equal week to week movie sales ratios between the formats.”

The HD DVD Promotional Group announced last week that it has sold more than 100,000 standalone players in the U.S. since introduction, and claims to be currently outselling dedicated Blu-ray players by a four-to-one margin.

“Why are we just focusing on dedicated players? So we can compare stats on similar hardware with similar attach rates,” explained the HD DVD Group. “That’s a key driver of software sales and shows that price is clearly a factor for consumers in deciding to buy dedicated high definition hardware.”

“Bottom line is that HD DVD is staying focused across the board on creating great products at great prices,” the Group added.

– Source

It looks like HD-DVD still has a pretty good chance of winning the format war. But I am willing to bet that we will be stuck with two formats for a few years to come.