Profile for mikeg

Contact	About me
Email: michael@lewisgilbert.co.uk ICQ: AOL: Yahoo:	Username: mikeg Realname: Mike Gilbert About me: Homepage: http://www.lewisgilbert.co.uk Face/Logo: Comments posted: 100 (show all)

Recent comments

On STD defends A5 concept:

Having just opened this week's CTO, there's a full page ad in there for the EZ30D, which appears to be the beast in question. Full details are linked from [link] People will possibly be pleased to know that it has a Transmeta Cruse processor. Running that at 800MHz to emulate an Intel processor and then running VA on top seems interesting. The 2.5 hour battery life is a serious concern; I expect 4/5 hours on current generation Intel kit, so the lower powered Crusoe should run for longer, I would have thought. This figure is for the beast as supplied, rather than as running VA. mikeg on 06/08/04 10:35AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Again with the laptops:

Spriteman: as far as Apple iBooks go, I don't. A truly horrible prettified GUI locking you out of BSD is not my idea of fun computing. And I've been down the road of selling Macs because they weren't Windows. And been absolutely stitched up like a kipper and left hanging out to dry when the support suddenly disappeared. I happily sell FSC kit. It works, and is well built. If it goes wrong, a Siemens bod goes and fixes it. So it runs Windows, but that's what my customers want. I can sell a naked server for under 500 quid, though, if you want to run BSD on it. mikeg on 08/12/03 10:17PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Again with the laptops:

"Picking equipment of the highest specification" is meaningless twaddle. Big numbers don't make it quality product. Consumer laptops have higher specification than business product, when you look at the raw numbers. They also have worse warranty, lower battery life and a lower build quality. When I drop a laptop, I don't want to have to put in an insurance claim, I want to go "whoops", pick it up and keep working. In addition, MS is awfully keen on system builders, 'cos they get a lot more dosh per licence. ( mikeg on 08/12/03 07:36AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Again with the laptops:

Why is anyone of the opinion that an unbranded cheapo clone PC is a suitable platform to carry a RISC OS brand? For years, one of the main arguments in favour of Acorn product has been the low TCO, rather than a low purchase price. Now, unless weird things have happened, none of the people listed in the article actually make laptops. If there's one thing experience has taught me (and I mean experience of selling a lot of RISC OS and Windows boxes going back a very long time) it's that saving a few quid on the tin costs a packet in the long term. Further, the spec today on Mr Cheapy boxes is not going to be the spec in 2 weeks. Anyone considering the purchase of a portable device to run RISC OS would do themselves a lot of favours by actually considering VRPC as an emulator, rather than being persuaded that the various badgers have got some magic power which makes their boxes in some way special. I'd concur with RComp that Centrino makes a lot of sense. Certainly, we're selling a lot more of them than trad portables, despite a pricepoint about 35% higher. It's the ability to use them continually for 3.5/4 hours (doubled with a second battery) that is the most important feature. As far as it goes, I'll quite happily sell people VA5k or VARPC, and have. However, the current badger craze is not helping anyone in the long term. More to the point, calling an Intel CISC-powered device a "RiscBook" is sailing very close to the wind when it comes to being economical with the truth. mikeg on 07/12/03 10:52AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On AdvantageSix launches new VirtualRPC based PC :

mavhc: The Fujitsu hard discs thing is unrelated to any problem you might be having. The fault was a Cirrus chip frying, not the drive disappearing. And, from memory, Scenics have never had Fujitsu drives in 'em. mikeg on 09/10/03 10:24PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Search the archives

Today's featured article

CDs Available
Drobe Special Projects
 2 comments, latest by piemmm on 21/10/03 12:23PM. Published: 23 Jul 2003

Random article

Future ARM based processors for RISC OS?
From ARM7 to ARM11 and XScale, our stocking wishlist
 50 comments, latest by Jaco on 19/08/03 7:08PM. Published: 25 Jul 2003

Useful links