My 3 year old iPad! Still going strong!

The Apple iPad is attracting a lot of attention. I know that there are a few VERY exclusive people who have iPad's to try. However, the ordinary consumer will have to wait 60 days before being able to get their hands on one of them. Let alone those of us who live in places like South Africa where it will probably take another year before Apple releases the iPad with 3G! Still, I love my iPhone 3G and would LOVE an iPad 3G!

If I had the money I would pre-order one! However, there are a few more pressing priorities at the moment. So, I have come to appreciate what I already own - I have a 3 year old iPad (in South Africa.... Sort of!)! And, what I own is Sony Vaio UX 180 P.

This photo was taken when I was attending the Oxford Institute at Christ Church, Oxford University in August 2007.

My little portable computer is a Sony Vaio UX 180 P. It is a Windows XP device with a touch screen, a 30 gigabyte hard drive, 512MB or ram, wifi, bluetooth and a 3 hour battery life. It is the perfect travelers computer! It is smaller than a DVD case, in fact small enough to put into a big pocket on one's 'cargo pants'!

It runs a 'normal' operating system and 'normal' versions of MS Word, MS Outlook and the google Chrome browser. This means that I can simply plug in my backup USB flash disk that has copies of all of my documents and files on it and work away! Moreover, since it has a USB port I can connect to the internet using my 3G modem wherever I am and get my email, browse the web, and even use MS Outlook to connect to corporate server.

In this picture you'll see the iPod I owned in 2007, my old Nokia phone (a great big brick!), the UX 180 is docked in its docking station (that adds a VGA port, firewire, ethernet, and 4 USB 2.0 ports). You will also see my batterygeek external battery (this battery gives me an amazing 20 hours of battery life for the UX 180! On my Macbook Pro it gives me an additional 5-6 hours). I also have a cheap foldable Bluetooth keyboard that I can use with the UX 180 P.

So, until the iPad arrives, (and of course until I get some royalties for my books and don't have a washing machine to fix, kids school activities to pay for, a car to service and a few other pressing things to pay for), I shall be using my UX 180 P as a 'road warrior' computer!

Just as a final note - if you have not yet used dropbox it is a MUST HAVE for a person who uses more than one computer. Dropbox is a free service (for 2 Gigabytes of backup, after which you can choose to upgrade your space for a fee). You install a small application (which I have on my Macbook, my iPhone and my UX 180 P), then it creates a folder in your documents folder. Any file that you drag into that folder gets updated on Dropbox (you can even log into dropbox if you don't have your computer with you, and download the file you want to work on and then update it!)

While I was working on my most recent book 'Transform your work life: Turn your ordinary day into an extraordinary calling' (Struik Christian Media, 2010 - the book is due out in May), I used this little tool (in conjunction with my Macbook and my UX 180)! If I found that I was waiting to go into a meeting and the person I was meeting was running late I simply connected did some editing and knew that when I got back to my office the most up to date version of the file would ALWAYS be on my computer! Moreover, if my computers got stolen, or my house burnt down at least I would have backups of these (and other) critical documents 'in the cloud'.

I would suggest you consider using dropbox - it is free! OK, back to work for me! And then when I've done editing the article I'm working on I'm going to hop into bed with the Amazon Kindle application for Windows on my UX 180 P and continue reading Malcom Gladwell's new book 'What the dog saw'!

Technology for travel

As some would know I am a bit of a gadget man.... I have been asked what I take with me when I travel. Well, normally I would bring along my Macbook (since it can boot both Mac OS - my primary OS - and Windows). However, on this trip I decided not to bring that since I had to bring quite a few books and papers and so weight was an issue.

So, here's a picture of my primary computing rig on this trip.

In the centre is my computer, a Sony Vaio UX 180 micro PC which dual boots Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. Attached to that is my 40 Gig ipod (for music and backup of data), in front of the PC is my 'old' Nokia 9500 smart phone... My primary phone back home is a Palm Treo 750 (blackberry style), but that would not autoconfigure here... I always travel with a Nokia - they seem to just work everywhere. My Nokia has a prepaid sim card in it. Amazingly, I bought the sim card when I was in the UK in 2005, it had a pound of credit on it, and it still worked two years later! On the right of the computer (the square silver thing) is my batterygeek external battery. That gives me about 20 hours (!) worth of juice on the Vaio.

Not pictured in the photo are my old Canon Ixus 500 digicam (an old, but small and reliable camera), my mini USB keyboard and mouse, and the USB infrared receiver I use to download my heart rate monitor data from my Polar SX625 watch. Oh, and of course the Sanyo MP3 voice recorder used to record podcasts.

The Vaio is a great little machine. It is small, functional, and inobtrusive. It can do everything a larger PC can do, yet it can fit into a coat pocket if needs be (I tend to carry the Vaio, the keyboard, external battery, and docking station in my backpack). Since the Vaio has a tiny little camera on the front of the machine I have been using it to do Skype Video calls with Megie, Courts and Liam back home.

Here's a screen shot of one such call.

All in all, it is a great rig. However, when I travel to Malaysia next week I shall take my Macbook with me simply to have the extra functionality for the larger venue's I'll be addressing, and the ability to play DVD's during my workshop.

Pen blog from Sony UX 180 and Microsoft OneNote 2007... the results of my surgery.

I'm still in

And yes, my handwriting is this bad! I think it is simply because I am part of that generation that finds it much easier to type than to write (my daughter of 7 could type long before she could write!) I have been typing and txtng for so many years that I have forgotten how to hold a quill and ink!

As to the surgery... Nothing spectacular... The operation went well. I had two cancerous growths removed (and was converted to a 'sports model' at the same time - you're next Wes!). The doctor (a real one!) was happy with the outcome of the surgery. He is confident that the cancer had not spread, and that he has removed all of the offending bits - getting older is a real bugger! I am still waiting for the results from some tests, but all seems fine. It has left me somewhat tender, as you can well imagine, with quite a few stitches in places that shouldn't have them! However, I am relieved that it all went well.

There we go... Now we say no more about it!

Gunze screen driver for the Sony Vaio U70p

For all my friends on the Sony Vaio U group, here is the link to the GUNZE screen driver for the U750 (as posted to the group).

Click HERE to download.

Let me know if it doesn't work.

Here are some other drivers I managed to find. I think they are all of the U50 and U70, so they may work on the U70p. I have never had to use them so I am not sure what they do, or even if they work! I noticed that the site from which I originally got them has pulled the drivers. So, if they don't work I'm afraid I can't offer any further help!

Click HERE for the U50 / U70 drivers.