This one is going to be the startup event of the season. Some great speakers (and more surprises to come, just you wait) and a great deal for a two day conference (thanks to some generous sponsors) . Very impressed by the job David, Jevon and Michele have done in putting this event together. There will be many cool founders and startups, there will be funders looking to make deals (seriously on that). Hope I’ll see you there!
Early bird tickets run out this Sunday. Get yours.
“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”
And you could have thought I was the only tech/design blogger somehow also talking up both puppies and hadron colliders. Well I am but a rank amateur. Matt Webb weaves together both, in the most moving post on sub-atomic physics you are likely ever to read. Meant to post this link a while back.
Suddenly he would leap to his feet and trot, tail wagging, a few paces before hurling himself at the carpet, twisting as he did so to roll and throw himself around and generally have a good old time right there in the hall. What was it Indigo, hey? What did you see, did you see a ghost who said -Come play? Why that moment, hey boy? Just as quickly he would stand and shake himself down, and come back to his spot near the kitchen where I could see him and he could see me, and I’d be laughing. Where did it come from, that abrupt desire for play? How come that exact second for decanting some of the internal flywheel into rolling about with his belly in the air and legs waving? It reassured me that I couldn’t see any cause, that it was something inside. It meant Indigo had his own internal life, and so I could love him more.
…
I was 10 years, 9 months, 3 weeks and 3 days old the day they activated the Large Hadron Collider. I was at college in a lecture the day I found out they’d found the Higgs boson, which gives particles mass. Mass gives momentum, and momentum is what keeps you moving. The Higgs is where it comes from:
the universe is a house, and you’re a particle – let’s say a proton – and the house is packed full of ghosts, from wall to wall like a carpet…”
I last met Matt (one half of Schulze and Webb) at Reboot9 (pictured).
To bring the story full circle with the most recent news: Silver is turning out a wonderfully precocious pup, only 12 weeks old now already fetching her first Frisbees, and though among the youngest, miles ahead of her puppy school class. Brains, energy and it looks like we’ll have our hands full with this frisky dingo. The LHC, unfortunately, had a problem and is down for maintenance for several months. We hope to see it up and chasing subatomic frisbees again soon.
“Well, the good news sir” so the Dell phone rep tells me “I see here you have 364 days remaining on your 1 year warranty”. 24hrs after delivery, my brand new micro mini subnotebook is cold and refusing to boot. This after blue screening of death on me 5 min in to an important client presentation. Ah well, these things happen. In which we learn, the importance power point in every meeting is often overstated.
My little Dell Inspiron Mini, your candle burned too bright. You gave me about 45 combined minutes of Windows XP before intermittently, then completely dying out. I blame the solid state drive (these early days of SSDs, not so solid) the tech thought it was the network card, but whatever. The unit is winging it’s way home to Dell for a new one. Apparently I am not the first to have problems. Could also explain why the backorder on inpiron 9’s is at least two weeks (One theory: Intel Atom shortages, another: a lot of the units don’t work right).
Anyway, since a lot of folks have asked, here’s my abbreviated review of an abbreviated mini…
First up, it really is small. It arrives in a box that seems impossible to have a whole computer in it. It’s beautifully portable, it fits in the most unlikely compartments of your bag. It’s really light as well, and even the charger is barely bulkier than a cell phone charger. Cool. Half the size of a macbook (and half the price too!)
The downside to it’s size is the keyboard. Typing will take some practice. My hands actually hang off the sides of the keyboard if I hold them normally.
Subnotes are designed to be cheap and cheerful. NOT a replacement for your main computer or laptop. But a handy and inobtrusive “net top” device for your webapps, gmail and document access on the go. In terms of utility, think of it as halfway (three quarters) between a blackberry and macbook.
Cheap it certainly is, throwing every upgrade at it Dell would offer, it was hard to get the pricetag above about $550. Mine has 1GB of RAM (really the bare minimum these days) in what I believe is one DIMM slot. I am somewhat optimistic I could one day upgrade to a 2GB stick, but I didn’t want to take any screws out and check before sending the machine back.
Items to keep in mind: The 1.6GHz atom is just fast enough for typical light usage, I think. It didn’t feel overly slow in the brief time I had to play with the machine. Thank god the things don’t attempt to run Vista.
The screen is crisp and bright. Pixel density is tight which I like, but those with older eyes may find it squinty. The viewing agle of the lcd is not great, but not worse than expected for inexpensive components. The narrow vertical resolution (1024×600) is less an issue than I feared. 1024 is wide enough for the web, and there are a collection of ways to crunch down the chrome and toolbars on firefox to free-up screen space if you google it.
Aesthetically, the machine is nice enough looking. I do hate the Dell logo (Attn Dell, the 90s are gone pls rebrand) but what can you do. Note the black version is a ridiculous fingerprint collector. Nonetheless, the unit is fun to carry around. Mini notes are still new and novel enough that everyone wants to take a look at it.
The mini’s biggest weakness (same goes all micronotes in Canada actually as of this writing) is that neither Dell nor any of the carriers have their brains screwed on tight enough yet to realize that every one of these should be sold with a built-in mobile broadband. At present, you’ll have to make due with wifi or a usb 3G stick.
Would I recommend the thing? Maybe? Would be nice to try one that works. If you’re buying, warranty upgrades.
This one is going to be the startup event of the season. Some great speakers (and more surprises to come, just you wait) and a great deal for a two day conference (thanks to some generous sponsors) . Very impressed by the job David, Jevon and Michele have done in putting this event together. There will be many cool founders and startups, there will be funders looking to make deals (seriously on that). Hope I’ll see you there!