Jamie Oliver's Blog » Reviews http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk Jamie Oliver's corner of the web Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:53:51 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Internet Explorer 8 Released http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk/general/internet-explorer-8-released/ http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk/general/internet-explorer-8-released/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:25:29 +0000 Jamie Oliver http://alpha-lite.co.uk/?p=224 The new version of Internet Explorer has been released today. It now finally fully supports CSS 2.1 and some elements of CSS3 (how many years late?), meaning that web developers should have less trouble and less workarounds will be needed. Plus, I can now use :hover on all elements, woo. The GUI is much similar to IE7, with a slightly more polished design; but I find that it is somewhat all over the place by default. I have never been a large fan of the GUI in IE7, it is almost they are trying too hard. I haven’t noticed any improvements in page loading to be honest, and I found that opening new tabs to be somewhat slow (having to wait a few seconds before they became ready). I also encountered a problem with ‘squashed’ fonts in Explorer and other applications after installing IE8, which I managed to fix by disabling ‘Use ClearType for HTML’ and restarting my computer – a pain.

In summary, I don’t see a large improvement over the previous versions, and most of their ‘claim to fame’ features have been around in Firefox, Opera and Chrome for some time. The increase support for CSS is most helpful however, it is about time that they caught up instead of being stubborn about it.

Anyway, I am still sticking with Firefox, and will be doing for some time. What do you think of it?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. ]]> http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk/general/internet-explorer-8-released/feed/ 0 NSD Powerball http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk/review/nsd-powerball/ http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk/review/nsd-powerball/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:11:46 +0000 Jamie Oliver http://alpha-lite.co.uk/?p=112 I bought a NSD 250mhz Amber Powerball a few days ago and I have been using it since. I have been suffering from pain in my left wrist for the past week or so, and I decided to get one to see if it would help. If you don’t know what they are, it is basically a gyroscope inside of a plastic shell which you rotate around your wrist and it helps to build up muscles and rehabilitate pains. They have been known to help get rid of RSI and other joint pains, and it has been helping so far; after you use it, it really does make you arms and wrists feel rejuvenated. I sometimes suffer from RSI due to the fact I spend so much time on my computer, and is often noticeable after I have been gaming – so I am hoping this should eliminate the problem in the future. And I know you can buy Powerballs with counters too, but with this being my first one, I just want to use it to strengthen my arms/wrists – I can always add a counter in the future if I like.

I got mine for £9.99 from Play.com, which is a good price compared to some places (free postage too). If you do think about getting one, make sure that you get a NSD Powerball, and not the cheaper copies that are around (as they wont work as well and may even cause more pain than good).

]]> http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk/review/nsd-powerball/feed/ 0 HP Mini-Note 2133 Review http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk/review/hp-mini-note/ http://blog.alpha-lite.co.uk/review/hp-mini-note/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:53:03 +0000 Jamie Oliver http://alpha-lite.co.uk/?p=80 I have been trying out a HP Mini-Note 2133 ultra-portable notebook, and I can safely say that I like it. It had been criticized due to its under-powered processor – but do you really need an ‘all singing and all dancing’ processor in such a small notebook (such as an Intel Atom)? Yeah, it would be nice, but isn’t particular necessary. When I have a desktop PC than handle everything I throw at it, I can just save heavy work and such until I get home. When I was trying it, it was able to cope with Vista fine (suprisingly), and it is plently powerful enough to run basic office based programs, for surfing the Internet and to even watch a film on it.

It has a great sized keyboard (92% sized apparently) which feels great to type on, and also includes a special coating to stop spillages doing any damage. The touch pad is different than normal ones, as the ‘click’ keys are situated on either side apposed to underneath, to eliminate extra space taken up – it is also slightly smaller than normal. It does take some getting used to, but it is fine to use – you may want to end up using a mouse after a while though (and with its built in Bluetooth, all you need is a Bluetooth mouse). It comes with either a 3-cell or a 6-cell battery (I tried the 6-cell version, which worked out at about 4.5 hours battery time). The 6-cell battery however does add extra height to the back of the laptop, but this does raise the keyboard up to make it easier to type on. The laptop does get slightly hot when it is on for a while, but it isn’t too bad. The screen is a decent size and has a nice resolution, but you will have to make sure you set it up so that the text DPI/size is easier readable, but it depends on your eye-sight.

A quick run down of the specifications of the one I tried (out of the 5 different versions they offer):

  • Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista Business
  • Processor: VIA C7-M ULV – 1.2 GHz, 128 KB L2 cache
  • Memory: DDR2 SDRAM, 667MHz 2048MB
  • Internal Storage: 120GB 5400 rpm SATA
  • Display: 8.9-inch diagonal WXGA (1280 x 768)
  • Graphics: VIA Chrome 9
  • Wireless support: Broadcom 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0
  • Ports and connectors: (2) USB 2.0 ports, VGA, power connector, RJ-45/Ethernet, stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in, optional VGA webcam
  • Input device: 92% full-sized keyboard, touchpad with scroll zone
  • Dimensions (H x W x D): 1.05 (at front) x 10.04 x 6.5 in
  • Power: 6-cell (55 WHr) Lithium-Ion battery

    • All in all, I think it is a great little notebook – just as long as you don’t intend to do any extensive work on it (like video editing or other heavy resourced based programs). Hopefully I should be able to get one for a decent price some time in the not so distance future, and if and when I can, I am defiantly going to buy one.

    External links: HP 2133 Mini-Note PC

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