It was actually very cool. Having never been to a runway show I was only vaguely aware of what to expect. I thought it would be longer, but it was only 20 minutes, maybe, from start to finish. The models walked very quickly down the runways and there were about 30 pieces overall. The idea of the line had something to do with nomads and “New America” and reflecting biker culture, the midwest, trees, mountains, and deserts. I guess I saw that. The AP has some images.

What I mostly fixated on was the number of raccoon and fox tails sewn to the outfits in odd places. Like the shoulder or the hip. Also, coon-skin hats ala Daniel Boone. Yes, I am serious. There was a lot of denim, of course, and lots of leather. Lots of fur and skin as if these poor models spent their days hunting small animals for food and clothing. Except they aren’t particularly good hunters because they looked awfully hungry.

It was amazing to me the looks on the models faces. The practiced disdain and the blank eyes must take years to perfect. I kept thinking of this Daria episode where Quinn takes a modeling class and the instructor tells the girls how to look when walking down a runway.

All right, ladies, your worst enemy is at the end of the catwalk. The one who stole your boyfriend. She has fallen and broken her leg. Your job is to tell her — without words — that you’ve come to watch them cut it off!

When you stride down the runway, you’re walking towards your car. You’ve spotted a headless corpse in it… and it’s a brand new car!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anyway, back to the clothes. If you follow my Twitter feed you’re probably aware of my initial impressions. Dudes in Jack Harkness coats came down the runway first, then some dudes in Vampire Lestat fluffy shirts came down, then a dude wearing a Jack Harkness coat over a Lestat shirt showed up. The one-shoulder capes were interesting but I felt they would unnaturally imbalance me. And, of course, the raccoon tails.

If I were to guess, I’d say that if you spent a three day weekend watching all three series of Torchwood with a break for Interview With The Vampire in-between then fell asleep on AMC showing old Daniel Boone flicks, you might wake up, grab a pencil, and create this year’s William Rast line. These are not bad influences to have. I would actually buy some of those coats and jeans, but I’d remove the tails.

It was a fun night and I’d definitely go to another fashion event if invited. The Sony people were incredibly cool and treated us well. Plus, I met a new friend. What more could I ask?

Notes

1. For those of you who don’t know, William Rast is the name of the clothing line Justin started with his best friend, Trace. I kept calling him NotJustin all night, but I’m sure that fashion people know who he is and all.
2. Anna Wintour. Her hair is very…. immobile.

Thanks to all of you who answered my call (and a bunch of other techy, geeky, engineer-y women out there) Mattel was so overwhelmed with votes for Barbie as Computer Engineer that they made her alongside the historic 125th career: News Anchor. I think computer techs are far more awesome than news people, unless that newsperson is Rachel Maddow. But I digress.

Computer Engineer Barbie comes with a laptop, smartphone, Bluetooth headset and a fancy bag to carry her laptop in. Awesome, right? No pink cable, though. Boo. Her shirt has binary code on it, though!

Over at LAPTOP’s blog we’re asking folks to tell us what notebook you think Barbie is carrying. To write that post I had to research pink laptops. And I discovered that there’s such a thing as the Pink Laptop Blog. Yes.

Anyway, I will get a chance to see this doll in person soon as I’m covering ToyFair for the magazine. Usually we go there in search of tech toys but I think a profile of this Barbie is in order, don’t you? I’m actually looking forward to the fair a lot. I still love toys and I’m looking forward to seeing what crazy shapes USB drives are coming in this year.

I’m putting up the last post sometime today, but you can check out all of the others here. We hit all of the major notebook vendors from HP, Acer, and Dell on down to Samsung, MSI and Fujitsu (with a lot more in-between). If you’ve ever owned a laptop, please click on the company’s post and let us know how you’d rate your experiences with that brand.

We’re looking for both positive and negative feedback on everything from how long it lasted, how often it broke, how tech support was, how much you loved using it, anything.

Also, if you’re in the market for a laptop, you might want to check out the posts to see if the brands you’re interested in are likely to have the features you need.

However, a small minority of people I encountered didn’t understand why iPad immediately brought to mind maxipads. They pointed out that people use words like mousepad and notepad and even the phrase pad of paper every day without devolving into absorbancy jokes. So why is iPad funny? Having given this far, far too much thought, I’ve been able to identify three key reasons why I think it’s happening.

1. As the MADtv skit showed, it’s long been funny to put the little i in front of words to make fun of Apple’s naming conventions. Sure, Apple has been very successful in branding the iProducts, and that’s part of why the jokes work. iPad seems like it should be a joke even though it’s not.
2. Pad is a weak word. Just say it out loud: paaaaaad. That long a doesn’t help. Most other iProducts have pretty strong words after the little i. Pod, Mac, Work, Life. They have plosives and hard K sounds and short vowels. Pad needs words associated with it that sound strong or right in order to blend seamlessly into the vocabulary. Mousepad, Trackpad, Notepad, even CrunchPad. And though women refer to Always and etc. as just pads most of the time, that’s shorthand. The full word is Maxipad. There are just some words in English that sound somewhat weak on their own, and Pad is one of them. A weak word like this cannot support the little i, therefore the name (regardless of the jokes) just doesn’t feel strong or desirable.
3. Regardless of the many other uses of the term pad, most of the time when someone asks for a pad they’re asking for a maxipad unless in context it makes far more sense that they’re asking for a pad of paper. Other than that, how many times have you used the word pad all by itself in normal conversation in a non-specialized context^[1]? The little i is not the most important aspect of iPad, it’s so ubiquitous and familiar that, even as we say it, our minds and tongues are gliding right over it to the real word on the other side: Phone, Pod, Mac, Life, Work. That is the whole point of the little i. Therefore, the iPad is just basically Pad, and pads bring very few specific images to most American minds, and one of the prominent ones happens to be maxipads.

So there you have it. This is why I think the iPad name instantly became the butt of jokes or at least disappointment. Apple has some strong reasons for choosing iPad I am sure. I’m also sure they have some smart branding people whose job it is to think about these things. Maybe they had an off day? Maybe they’re all men. Maybe they thought that eventually people would stop tittering and just accept it, because none of the alternatives worked for whatever reason.

In the end, it doesn’t matter much. They’ve gone with iPad and have to stick with it. And we’ll have to live with it. As others have pointed out, the Wii encountered much the same reception upon release and, lo these many years later, we’ve all gotten used to it (or over it) and happily use them all the time. I’m sure the same will happen with the iPad. Still, I’m longing for a decal that I can stick on the back to turn my iPad into a maxiPad.

Notes

1. i.e. it doesn’t count if your workplace uses something called a pad for everyday workplace operations. It also doesn’t count if you roleplay Star Trek on a regular basis.

First we had the JooJoo, which inspired a rash of ethnic jokes best left unsaid. Now comes the iPad, which has already been subjected to various feminine hygiene jokes with more still to come.

Was iSlate not sexy enough? Did iTablet not occur to anyone? One thing is for sure, there probably weren’t too many women involved in the development of that tablet, as they would have pointed out the consequences long ago.

Which moniker do you think is worse, JooJoo or iPad? Vote in the poll below (you may have to click the permalink, depending on where you’re reading this). If you’re a comedian, you should probably choose which one is best for you.

On a related note, kudos to MADtv for making what is likely the very first iPad joke over two years ago:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have Firefox open now and you’re running Windows, go to your Task Manager^[1] and click on the Processes tab. Look for the process called firefox.exe and make a note of the number in the Mem Usage column^[2]. Then go to your Firefox toolbar, click Help, then About Mozilla Firefox and make a note of the current version you’re running. Then come here and post this in the comments along with the number of tabs (or tabs and windows) you currently have open. Would also help if you said which OS you’re running.

Update: Adam provides instructions for Mac: you can find the memory usage by opening Activity Monitor (in utilities), looking for Firefox in the Process Name column, and seeing what the Real Memory usage is.

Eric provides Ubuntu instructions: you can check out the memory usage under System > Administration > System Monitor, but you’ll have to convert the stats from MiB.

You don’t have to restart your computer or browser or anything like that. I just want to get a snapshot of how much memory Firefox uses for different people. The more data I can collect, the better. I’ll start:

Memory Usage: 920,200K | 11 tabs | Firefox 3.5.7 | Windows XP

Yes, that memory usage is real. Remember the days when Firefox would only use around 300,000K? Or even the long ago when 100,000 was reasonable? Ah, nostalgia.

I showed you mine, now show me yours.

Notes

1. Right click on the taskbar to find it. Or hit Ctrl Alt Delete.
2. If the number keeps changing, you can round off to the nearest hundred thousand. Like 350,000 or whatnot.

At first, this is awesome. You think: yay, now I don’t have to buy a USB drive! Then after a few events or a big one like CES, you look around and think: I will never have to buy a USB drive again in my life. Maybe even into my next life. It’s a sea of memory, all segregated into 1 and 2GB chunks.

Today I’m transferring all of the press material I need to my work computer and wiping the drives. I’ll keep a few of the larger ones, but I don’t need 27. I really don’t. If you happen to see me in the next few days, don’t be surprised if, instead of a Jelly Baby, I offer you a flash drive. The latter is inedible but will be more useful.

I made some backups before with the program that came with my hard drive, but as they’re old and not incrementally updated over time, they’re a bit obsolete at this point. I’ve installed a new program that will make a full backup and update it incrementally, which is good. However, I can’t delete the old backups and it’s driving me insane.

I tried just deleting the folder, but it’s too big, obviously. I tried deleting folders inside the backup, but some won’t delete and give me that access denied message. I finally figured out how to use the DOS prompt to delete files that are undeleteable but then, lo, those files are all still there.Even after the command prompt window ran for hours claiming it was deleting those files. I don’t get it.

I’m not sure if this is because that hard drive is connected to my router and not to my computer via USB or if something else is up. But the folder contains almost every file that was on my computer at one time simply mirrored to the HD.

I’ve thought of a few ways I could try fixing this, like connecting it via USB to a notebook and trying to DOS delete thing or even going into the drive from Linux and deleting since it’s Windows that seems to feel these files should hang around forever. Any suggestions from the more knowledgable amongst you on other ways I could go about this are appreciated.

However, this shall not deter me from backing up my files. That particular hard drive is getting somewhat crowded, but I have another 500GB one sitting around here, so maybe I’ll make my local backups there. I’m setting the program to make a full backup monthly while the online storage will make backups as I go along every day. Smart, yes? You should do the same. Most people need prodding when it comes to backups, just like they need prodding to go to the dentist. So. Go get your teeth cleaned but not before you set up some kind of automatic backup for yourself. Hurry!

Hear, hear.

According to a poll over at MacMost.com, what most people want out of the upcoming iSlate is to be able to read books. My god, you people think so small.

I must say: the puppet is right. Seriously, people? You’re going to use the tablet mainly for reading? What do you do with your computers all day, play 8-bit Tetris? Dear Gozer.

Anyway, go read Mosspuppet because he’s far funner about all this than I am. I’m too appalled at how unimaginative the people who took that poll are to be witty today.

I really hope this career wins because I cannot wait to see the accessories she’ll come with. There will probably be a laptop (I see licensing opportunities, think she’ll have a Mac or a PC? Dell or HP?), but she’s going to be an engineer, so she’ll need some tools and some cables at least. If they package her with pink cat5e spools I will die of happiness.

What accessories should come with computer engineer Barbie? Also, will her degree be from MIT or CalTech? What should she wear? Leave your answers in the comments below and I’ll pass them on to Mattel when I see them at the Toy Fair.

He even has the same netbook I do, a Samsung NC10. Yet he still feels that the portability and usability of an AlphaSmart is far, far better. He also cites battery longevity. Though I’ll agree that years of battery life is better than a few hours, ever since I got my NC10 I haven’t felt chained to an outlet. (It’s the 7+ hours of battery life, I love it, so.) And while it is great to have a machine that allows you to concentrate on just one thing, writing, the device is just a little too unitasking for me.

One of the reasons I stopped using my AlphaSmart is that it was crap for editing. Sure, it would allow you to get some words down on the screen and drive forward. However, you certainly can’t edit really well on that thing, or go back through what you’ve written and try to take stock in a meaningful way. And only seeing 4 lines of text at a time felt like far too little. You can’t edit already-existing text. And if you’ve typed a major chunk of your novel on the thing, good luck trying to get a sense of the structure.

Not that Marko claimed the Neo could do any of these things. These were just my reasons for giving the machine up. I needed a gadget that would allow me to do all of my writing tasks, from the first draft through to the editing stage, that was easy to carry, light, and had a reasonably-sized screen. Aftre I accomplished that with my Eee PC, my next goal was a netbok with long battery life so I wouldn’t have to worry about outlets. And here were are.

Having read through his whole review, though, do you think that the Neo has enough advantages over a netbook to justify putting the latter aside?

What’s a minidisc, you might ask? It was the best thing since CDs, my friends, and I believe I bought my first one in the year 2000, ten years ago. The one in the bag was my second, as the first was either lost or stolen (can’t remember which). I loved this gadget to death and eschewed all others, including MP3 players.

Minidiscs were more awesome than the MP3 players out at that time. And even after the iPod came out it was still a while before I decided that an MP3 player would suit me better. Apparently I couldn’t bear to give up my beloved player, though.

Did you know you can still buy minidisc players? Weird.

I put the bag back in the closet on top of my Alphasmart, another device I couldn’t live without for a long time. It was my proto-netbook, though I was always yearning to do more with it. Still, it was a great writing companion. You typed whatever into the Alphasmart — which could hold quite a bit of text — then transferred it to your computer via the PS/2 keyboard port. No, it wasn’t perfect, and USB connectivity would have been more useful (that was the second generation), but it allowed me to carry around a device with full-sized keys that I could write on whenever I had some time, yet didn’t kill my back with heaviness. Like I said, proto-netbook.

Next to the Alphasmart sits another bag with my N64 in it along with all of my games. I looked inside about a month ago and found my old Neuros MP3 player. Loved that thing, too…. until it broke. (After a year. It was pretty crap.) But yes, it’s still in there. Right next to my (now non-working) HP Jornada 545 PDA. Though that lasted much, much longer than a year — I believe it finally gave up the ghost in 2007.

Yes, I have trouble letting go.

I know I should get rid of all that stuff. After all, I obviously don’t use it, anymore. I have a new MP3 player, a netbook, and I don’t play console games much anymore. But every time I come across them I feel a wave of affection. At one time or another in the last decade, my digital life revolved around these devices. They were awesome, in their day, and just tossing them out (or even sending them to be recycled at Gazelle.com) doesn’t seem quite right. I’m sure I’ll feel differently if I’m ever forced to move, but for now the closet remains their home.

What about you, what gadgets do you still have around your house even though they’re no longer working or obselete? Why did you love/like them when you used them and what tech replaced them in your heart?

I wish this study came with 9 good postures for using netbooks, as it would be helpful to know.

Notes

1. Just as I did last year. I already told her this one had to last for two years…
2. did you know that all the episodes are on DVD now? I about died.

New York City is the kind of place you’d expect to find plenty of cafes and coffee shops with free wi-fi and that’s true, for the most part. Apparently it pales in comparison to Seattle — not surprising. There are plenty of issues, though. Like entire neighborhoods bereft of free wi-fi and even some places without anything resembling a cafe. There are places you’d think had free wi-fi, but no! They charge you, instead. Exorbitant prices. There’s a Starbucks every 5 feet below 135th, but is their wi-fi free? Not exactly. And the well-known spots are, of course, well-known, and thus are packed full of people who show up at 9am and don’t leave until the places closes at the ridiculously early hour of… 10pm.

Cafes that close before 1am should be banned in this city.

Anyway, this is all an extremely rambly way to get to the reason I’m making this post. Last week McDonald’s announced that in January they would be offering free wi-fi at the locations where they currently offer non-free wi-fi. This comes just a little while after Barnes & Noble started offering free wi-fi and Borders followed suit in order to keep up. Just thinking about the numbers of B&N’s plus Borders plus McDonald’s in this city my heart starts to go pitter patter because, well, there’s barely a foot of space below 125th street that isn’t covered by free wi-fi.

It’s like some kind of beautiful dream.

Except. Most of that wi-fi is from McDonald’s. And, well, I don’t really want to spend any time in McDonald’s, much less a whole day. Then again, in my neighborhood free wi-fi is sparse, and the cafe around the corner from me is wonderful but has horrendous, horrendous seating. Even more horrendous than McDonald’s. So if I want to get out of the house and get some work done, where am I better off?

This is, of course, just a gimmick to get more people into McD’s and it will most likely work. I’m not the only freelancing writer in need of outside wi-fi. Here’s the thing I wonder: how long will it be before every McDonald’s in the city looks like a Starbucks? A sea of laptops, nary a seat to be found, and obnoxious people complaining about the quality of their latte.

Oh yeah, this is a glorious new era.

And no, Photoshop was not involved. Well, except for cropping.

If you’re looking for a netbook, these are the ones I suggest:

10-inch Netbooks

Samsung N Series

I actually own a Samsung NC10^[1] — after playing with dozens of netbooks for months, this is the one I chose to take home forever. I love it. It has a great keyboard and screen and lasts a long time and weighs less than 3 pounds so I can easily carry it with me everywhere. N Series netbooks are usually good, but this is one of three that I particularly recommend.

Since Samsung released the NC10 last year they’ve put out a couple of updates. The first was the N110 — it has a slicker case, a larger touchpad, and a higher capacity battery that lasts over 7 hours (the regular NC10 lasts 6.5). Sadly, it also has a glossy screen, which is a problem for some people. Recently Samsung brought the N140 to the US^[2], which again has a slightly different case and design and is more powerful. Weirdly, it has the same battery as the NC10, so it only gets 6.5 hours. But this is plenty for most people. Plus, it has a matte screen and Windows 7.

All of these netbooks have great keyboards, which is one of the most important factors, and long battery lives, which is the other most important factor. You’re not going to get stellar performance with most netbooks, but none of these are pokey or frustrating to use.

So, which one should you get? I advise getting the N110 because it has the longest battery life. And now that the N140 is out, you’re bound to find it for less than $400, maybe even less than $350. If you’re on a tighter budget, go looking for the NC10 as it is likely to be even less. As long as you can get the NC10 or N110, I say the N140 isn’t strictly necessary. But once those are gone, the N140 isn’t a bad choice at all.

I would not rec the N130, Samsung’s “value” netbook. It is pokey and only lasts 4 hours and 44 minutes on a charge. I am also not that fond of the Samsung GO.

Toshiba mini NB205

Most people at LAPTOP really, really like this netbook. And I will say that it’s quite snazzy looking. Plus, it lasts 8.8 – 9.25 hours on a charge, depending on which model you get. The reason I am not as gung-ho on it is that I am not a huge fan of island-style keys. The keyboard on the NB205 is good, though, and if you like that type of key then go for it. It performs well, looks good, and lasts a long time.

When buying an NB205, keep a few things in mind. Toshiba put out a bunch of different model numbers for this netbook, so when you go to their site or Amazon or something, you’ll see about half a dozen different machines with names like NB205-N210 or NB205-N330BL or whatever. Sometimes I wonder if companies are out to confuse us purposefully.

The difference between the N2** models and the N3** models is the keyboard. The N3** models have the island-style keyboard and the N2** ones have a standard keyboard. I didn’t get a chance to try the standard keyboard, so I can’t say whether it’s better or worse. But all of my colleagues seem to think the island-style keyboard is superior.

Another thing to look out for when purchasing is if the model has Windows 7 or XP. The XP model should be a bit cheaper and it gets longer battery life, so I would suggest going for that.

When searching for this netbook on Amazon be careful you’re looking at the model # you want. On some pages if you change the color it will give you a completely different model, not the same model but in black or whatever. So check the specs and do a bit of hunting around. Like I said, XP is better and the model #s that start with NB205-N3** are what you’re looking for. Here’s a helpful Amazon link for you.

11.6 Inch Systems

Most people who ask are in the market for a 10-inch system. That’s my favorite size as well, so that’s usually what I recommend. But some folks like to have a bigger screen and 11.6-inch netbooks are all the rage these days. I have two recs in this category and one of them isn’t even really a netbook.

HP Mini 311

If you’re going to get an 11-inch system, you might as well get one that has some oomph. The Mini 311 has something most netbooks don’t: a discrete graphics chip. For those of you who have no clue what that even means or don’t care, this matters most when you’re doing two things: watching videos and playing games.

Netbooks can play Hulu, YouTube, etc. just fine. It isn’t the absolute best experience, but it’s also a 10-inch screen, so you’re not looking to recreate the cinema or anything. But the 311 is cool because it does smooth full screen video and HD video and, when the newest version of Flash comes out, can do full HD. You can also play games like Spore or WOW, though on the lowest quality, so you’ll have some fun in-between writing. The battery life is quite good for a system with a separate graphics card: 5 hours, 43 minutes. And the price is nice as well: starts at $399.

Acer Aspire 1410

Though this system is 11.6 inches and only $399, it’s not actually a netbook. It’s an ultraportable laptop. What’s the difference you ask? Performance. This notebook has a more powerful processor so it behaves more like a regular laptop. You won’t be able to do some major gaming or video editing or whatever on it. However, unlike a netbook, it isn’t going to slow down once five or six programs get going at once. Yet it’s still portable and light and inexpensive and lasts 6 and a half hours.

You won’t get the same graphics performance on this as on the Mini 311, but you will get good HD video playback and smooth full screen Hulu.

Those are my suggestions for anyone looking to get a netbook. There are many others out there and you can see very comprehensive reviews on LAPTOP Magazine’s website. But, after all these months, I haven’t come across a netbook that made me want to give up my Samsung NC10. The Toshiba is nice, just not my style. And I like these 11-inch systems, but the 10-inch form factor works best for me.

Hope this post helps those of you looking for a netbook. Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments, too.

Notes

1. Technically an NC10 Special Edition, which has a larger touchpad and better battery than the typical NC10
2. This is the netbook featured in that hilarious video a few months back with the model whose boyfriend dumped her before she got to Paris

Of course, I couldn’t bring the TARDIS in without some daleks showing up. You see the black one menacing my poor police box there. They’re lurking in many corners. See:

This one thinks he’s being crafty:

I also brought back my photos since they always bring a smile to my face. Cute kids will do that to you.

I’m trying to decide if my desk is geeky enough or if I need to add a Doctor action figure to round it all out.

He’s surrounded by several of the devices that I need to now plug into him. Every time I do, he emits movie-correct beep beep boop sounds, much to the delight of my co-workers.

Can you identify all that crap? A pat on the head goes to anyone who can. I’ll give you a hint on the penguin: it’s actually a USB flash drive with Ubuntu pre-loaded. R2 is also surrounded by my fancy Logitech keyboard and mouse, seen here:

The last time I worked here I had a pretty geeky cubicle with a TARDIS hub and Daleks menacing me from every corner. I think I need to get back to that. I’ll get (yet another) hub for my desk at home that’s not quite as fun then bring the Doctor Who toys back.

Any other suggestions for geeking out my cubicle?