The right tool for the job: Laptop/tablets hit the sweet spot as information management machines

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I am writing this post on a laptop/tablet. I’m also writing about this same device and the decision process that led to its purchase.

laptop-tablet

The device is a Hewlett-Packard Spectre X2. While this is not a product review, it’s worthwhile looking at some its features. It is based on the latest generation Skylake CPU, which has lower power requirements but is still fast enough to give a snappy user experience.

A laptop/tablet 2-in-one, like the one on which I am writing this post.

A laptop/tablet 2-in-one, like the one on which I am writing this post.

The keyboard is connected to the monitor by some strong magnets. To detach them, just pull. Re-attaching them is simple too – just align the two components and they snap together. This means I can use it like a normal laptop, but I can also use the screen as a tablet. This is especially useful on planes, where there is not much space. I can read e-books quite comfortably. This is the first portable device for which this is so.

It has 4GB of Ram and a 128 GB SSD for storage. Both of these are more than enough for my purposes. I chose the cheapest model available and I have not been disappointed.

I really wanted Linux, not Windows 10

Before I settled on this device, I was thinking of just buying the cheapest laptop I could find, to strip windows and replace it with Linux. This is quite feasible, but there are inevitable driver problems and fiddling to make sure the device sleeps when the lid is shut and so on. When I started looking at mid-range devices like this one, the thought of trying to get the touchscreen and automatic sensing of orientation (portrait or landscape) to work. I was also intrigued by the prospect of Windows 10, which I had not used.

That’s how I hit upon the plan to leave the Windows 10 OS alone and set up a virtual machine to run Linux. I am using VirtualBox to host an Arch Linux guest system.

Screenshot of 'arc', my Arch Linux guest, showing a popular terminal display script that shows a range of settings and hardware values.

Screenshot of ‘arc’, my Arch Linux guest, showing a popular terminal display script that shows a range of settings and hardware values.

The linux guest is pretty basic. I allocate 1 GB of RAM (out of 4GB) to it, which is more than enough. As you can see from the screenshot above, the OS and desktop environment use just 170 MB of the available 1000.

One reason for running Linux is because it is the natural choice for any kind of programming and system automation. Linux runs on my (almost) embedded devices that record sensor readings. It also runs my web server, so I can use the same shell scripts, service configurations, and editing tools across the spectrum of devices. I can’t imagine using Windows in the same fashion: the cost of the OS, its resource requirements and the zealous licencing system are bad enough, but the lack of the unix-like ecosystem of tools relegates Windows to the fluffy-consumer focused host system.

If you want to see a bit of Linux in action, head over to my n3rdy experimental site, F3RR3T.com.

Add identity to a website with a favicon – but are my colours too “Optussy”?

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Until today I didn’t know what the little icons next to the names of web tabs were called. I just knew they looked cool. They add a professional touch to a site by introducing branding and colour to the most basic part of the page – the tab. After a little searching I found their name: favicons. They are a great way to add identity to your website.

A browser tab bar with favicons

A browser tab bar with favicons. Even when the name is obscured you can see which is which.

 

wordpress site identity

The ‘site identity’ pane in wordpress.

This site runs on WordPress, which is a flexible content management system. This makes it easy to add a fasvicon. Login with a user that has administrative rights and click on ‘Appearance > Customize > Site identity”.

This allows you to add a file. Note that the minimum size is 512 x 512 pixels, which is quite a bit larger than the traditional favicon size of 16 x 16 pixels. So all I needed was an image that says, “St33v.com”. Perhaps a capital S would suit for the time being.

Afterall, it worked alright for Superman.

 

A super logo made from a capital S.

A super logo made from a capital S.

 

 

 

 

So I took the plunge and learnt how to create my own favicons. I knew this would be a good opportunity to use GIMP, but because I find its interface daunting, I followed a video guide by Mr Fixit.

 

Capital S for St33v

Capital S

I made a few adjustments to the recipe, such as:

  • I made the image 512 x 512 pixels, since this a WordPress site.
  • Before flattening the image I saved it in native GIMP format. This means I can edit it if – or should I say ‘when’ – I decide on a colour scheme that it not too close to one that has already been taken.

You can see the result of my efforts on the left. Not too bad.

However, my teenage style advisor walked past and remarked that it looked, “a bit Optussy”. She might have a point. Here is the yellow ‘ollie’ icon:

A more saturated yellow and more-teal than blue.

A more saturated yellow and more-teal than blue.

Comparing the colours side by side shows that they are slightly different. I like my pastel-like tints.

What’s in a name? a nerdy science pun

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One of my sources for electronic components is element 14 (au.element14.com). They changed their name from ‘Farnell‘ in 2010, but I have only just now realised it’s significance. It is named after silicon, the 14th element in the periodic table and the main ingredient of semiconductors (i.e. computer brains).

Silicon, like carbon, can make four bonds per atom, placing it in the zone where it can lose, share or gain electrons to satisfy its desire for complete orbital shells.

Silicon, like carbon, can make four bonds per atom, placing it in the zone where it can lose, share or gain electrons to satisfy its desire for complete orbital shells.

I tried to access their website just now by typing the URL element14.com.au but I reached a business site for Australian IT developers, who also make their living from silicon, but at a slightly higher level of abstraction. This made me wonder why ‘element’ and ’14’ should be such a popular combination.

If you compare the two URLs, you’ll see that the ‘Farnell’ element 14 uses ‘au’ as a subdomain of their main dot-com site, whereas the Aussie developers’ site lies within the ‘au’ top-level domain (TLD). A small rearrangement of letters leads to quite different results.