So I bought a new notebook today because I felt that my old machine from 2006 doesn’t deliver what I need for some applications. Mind you, I am a PC guy, running WinXP and Ubuntu only, where the performance of my old machine was sufficient for most tasks.

My setup consisted of an HP nx8220 notebook on a docking station with an external mouse + keyboard and a 22″ LG W2242T TFT. The computer is in a local network with an HP OfficeJet 7210 printer, a 500GB NAS and a VoIP phone + her notebook as well as both our netbooks.

The nx8220 proved to be a loyal workhorse, surviving dusty rural Kenya as well as running 24h/d. The docking station really is a huge advantage over to conventional consumer notebooks as it provides a) much more ports (e.g. DVI-D for the 22″ TFT) and b) makes it easier to use only one machine for both home office and mobile needs. This is also why I could never go for a MacBook as they afaik do not provide connectivity to a docking station.

Most users are better off buying a conventional consumer notebook and not a business machine like mine. It’s similar to cars: extras on a Mercedes or Volkswagen cost extra, while you’d get all of that for a much lower price on a SE Asian car. So you’ll equally have to pay extra for an LED screen or UMTS modem which you’ll also already find on cheaper Acer or Asus notebooks. Most of these consumer notebooks do not have a docking connector though and are usually designed for a 3years usage pattern (5years on business notebooks).

Since this docking station already existed (eBay is a great resource for used business hardware in mint condition), the idea was to get another HP as I would then just have to swap notebooks.

On the other hand, Dell offers a very nice Latitude E6400 (with an illuminated keyboard & LED screen – similar to MacBooks!) that comes close to my current choice – and the (IBM) Lenovo T400 with an LED screen and internal UMTS modem is one of those *i want! i want!* machines.

I’ve tested the T400 in a shop and was surprised how great it actually looks. I think I’ll have to buy an older T42(p) one day to satisfy my IBM-needs. Built quality wasn’t that good though – most reviews on YouTube where customers are comparing this IBM-successor are somehow true, at least when it comes to the material used on these machines. But still, I’d love to test the Lenovo T400 for a longer period one day.

Comparing these to cars, I’d say that IBM ThinkPads are like Volvos.

Back to my choice: I eventually settled for an HP 6930p which comes with a 14,1″ screen size (old notebook was 15,4″) and weighs “only” 2.4kg. Compared to my old notebook (2.85kg), it’s much lighter. It still seems to be heavier than other 14,1″ notebooks – but honestly: 200gr more doesn’t matter to me. What matters, though, is the power supply on HP notebooks which is really really shitty. Too big, too heavy, to bulky. Apple has the best power supplies, imho. And I of course also like those small ones that came shipped with the netbooks (Kensington also produces light-weight power supplies – may have to look into those one day).

power supplies: HP nx8220 vs. Asus eee 901

So my notebook is on a docking station most of the time and needs to deliver 24/7, which is why I went for a machine with an ATI graphics card even though it itsn’t that much better than the internal Intel graphics core and even though the ATI card drains the battery faster. Took me some time to decide on this though, as well as the screen resolution which is at 1440×900 (unfortunately no LED screen, just CCFL ) and I was afraid that it may be too small. But it isn’t.

Funny thing is: I bought this machine for a really good price on eBay (hey…!) and the offer said “Screen resolution: 1280 x 800″. Picked it up in the store (in Hanau, outside of Frankfurt) and realized it’s 1440×900. Thought they made a mistake and asked them a few times but it seemed to be correct. So now I am the proud owner of a notebook with the follow specifications:

HP “EliteBook” 6930p (p/n GW683AV)

• Intel Core 2 Duo P8400
• 1x 4GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM (32bit OS like WinXP = max. 3 GB)
• 320GB Western Digital 5400 SATA II HDD (initially 120GB Seagate)
• WXGA+ 1440×900 matte display
• Intergrated 2 megapixels webcam
• Keyboard light
• Intel 5100 ABGN wireless
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Dual pointing devices
• Intergrated Fingerprint reader (crap..)
• DVD+/-RW with LightScribe
• Firewire 1394a, 3x USB, LAN, Modem, SD/MMC reader, SC card reader, ExpressCard
• internal UMTS modem (ordered, hasn’t arrived yet. Again, used spare part from eBay)
• 2.400kg with battery
• 6-cell battery (55 Wh)
• 3 years Warranty

No PCMCIA II card slot, so my PCMCIA / PC-Card UMTS modem (eBay, EUR 2,- :-)) can go into early retirement.

For a list of professional reviews on the 6930p, pls check out this page by notebookcheck.com (best site on this subject, imho).

As mentioned, the 6930p I got was really cheap as it is a used machine. Used ….as in: brand-new without any scratches or other damages but isn’t originally sealed. Which is why HP sells them for a lower price to wholesalers who are then reselling them on eBay (check for HP Renew or similar). That’s one sweet way of buying hardware and also how I got our printer, btw. You’re still given 3 years Warranty (checked the serial number via HP’s website) and get a proper receipt so basically it’s a new machine. Besides, I am geek enough to fix problems on my own and I do not have the resources to send in my machine for three weeks, anxiously waiting for a repair.

The machine came shipped with Windows Vista Business which is….well, I don’t know. I deleted it. You also get a downgrade option from M$ to exchange your Vista installation for XP (which I did).

Already tested Ubuntu 9.04 running as a live version from a USB key and: Heeeeyyyyy…. I may be a bit behind when it comes to modern hardware from 2009, but this Dual Core CPU and the RAM really kick ass on Ubuntu. Plugged it in, booted it up in less than 30 seconds and ..*baaam* , ready to go. Nice.

I also did a Geekbench benchmark on all four machines:

• HP nx8220 GB score: 1.312 (@WinXP)
• HP 6930p GB score: 3.060 (@Ubuntu 9.04)
• Asus eee 1000HG netbook GB score: 935 (@WinXP)
• Asus eee 901 netbook GB score: 924 (@WinXP)

Meaning: you can really feel the performance increase. It was a good idea to invest some money on a new machine.

Based on my first impressions so far, here’s a list of things I noticed on this HP “EliteBook”:

1. Pictograms, indicating the position and function of ports on each side are just next to the port, not on top (like on my old nx8220). Would be better to have them on top to see where the USB ports are.

old: nx 8220

new: 6930p

2. Comparing the nx8220 with the 6930p is a bit unfair as it should rather be a comparison between the nx8220 and the 8530p.
I am used to the 15,4″ notebook with the headphone socket on the right side instead of the positioning of these ports on the left side on the 6930p. This really unimportant detail actually means a lot to me.

3. The touchpad and the pointing stick on the 6930p are a bit too cheap. There’s almost no pressure point on both touchpad buttons. Why not? You won’t notice the weakness of the touchstick unless you’ve compared it to an IBM laptop so this really isn’t a serious issue.

4. Webcam is 2mpx and is ok. Also comes with a special OCR software that reads business cards and adds them to your address book. Seriously, who comes up with such ideas? It’s funny. Tested it once, didn’t work for me, gave up. My business card is different anyways as it comes as a QR-code (see right sidebar on my blog). I am sure there’s QR-Code software out there that will enable this webcam to read barcodes (like the one on my phone).

5. Next to the webcam is a keyboard light which may not be that strong but is one of the reasons why IBM ThinkPads have in the past ruled the business world. Ok, not really, but their keyboard light has always been the little extra gimmick that made you me long for a ThinkPad instead of a Dell or HP (not knowing that the keyboard light on an IBM isn’t really that great). Good move, HP! The light elegantly pops out by pressing the button with the bulb icon and comes with a little diffusor in front of the integrated LED (no diffusor on IBM = problem!).

6. Keyboard is nice and firm, similar to my old one. Keyboards and displays are THE MOST IMPORTANT parts of a notebok. Which is probably also why Acer notebooks are so popular.

(a nice example which shows that some cameras just aren’t capable of getting straight lines – this Sanyo cam from 2003 has a splendid macro mode but is really bad on horizontal lines due to the internal prism lens)

7. The scratch-resistant external aluminium panels and the casing made of aluminium, plastic and magnesium really kick ass. Almost solid as a rock. Good quality. I actually only miss the clamshell design known from ThinkPads on this HP.

I am also mentioning this as you can easíly test the overall stability yourself by pushing the display back and forth and seeing where there’s tension on the body. My old nx8220 has a slight crack on that part due to its age and usage but this is normal with most other notebooks I’ve tested and seen so far.

8. Hinges: remember the Dellicious story? Broken hinges are soooo Dell and Acer. The hinges on my nx8220 are still fine (even though I’ve already tightened them a bit, using a simple screwdriver).

9. The 1440×900 (WXGA+) screen resolution produces slightly better colours than the normal 1280×800 (WXGA) screen (both CCFL technology). Relatively low contrast, brightness is ok, viewing angels are average. Not good for serious photographers and I am afraid to admit that but I think that you’ll either have to go for a Sony notebook or MacBook if you can’t edit photos on an external screen (and mine is just a cheaper, low-end TFT from LG but still better than both notebook screens). I actually don’t know why HP uses such bad displays on business machines and the better LED screens on their cheaper consumer notebooks. Well, I knew that and skipped this point in the end because of the external monitor I am using for editing pictures. And who knew that I’d be blessed with a better screen resolution & picture quality for the same price? I paid for WXGA screen and got a WXGA+ … how cool is that? :-)

Display also comes with a light-sensor to automatically adjust brightness. Deactivated it – like on my old nx8220.

LED displays are available from HP for this series, albeit at WXGA (1280×800) only and very hard to obtain and/or expensive (at least in Germany).

10. LEDs to indicate Wireless/Power/HDD acitivities are much better on the 6930p than on the nx8220 (and other, similar machines from that era in 2006). I once had to glue a little piece of plastic back between those LEDs on the nx8220 as it had broken away.

old: nx8220

new: 6930p

11. Weight: 2.4kg are a good weight. My Asus 1000HG netbook weighs 1.5kg and comes with a 10″ screen at 1024×600px screen resolution. There are those moments where you wish to have a bigger (!) machine (not neccessarily on the screen, but to elegantly balance it on your lap = laptop!) and forget about the weight issue. A 12″ notebook would also be nice, but these machines often only come with a crippled CPU, an expensive 1.8″ HDD and/or are ridiculously expensive. So the 14,1″ notebook is a perfect alternative. And yes, 13,3″ MacBooks are even better, at least size-wise.

12. The display latch: many customers on user forums actually complained about the latch/lock on the display, arguing that it would require them to use both hands to close it (true) and some force (true). I like it this way, even though it easily pops open even if you only slightly touch the button. So it may accidentally open inside a bag. Not good. Too much tension.

13. Design: I think it’s rather ugly. This mixture of silver and black colours..is this the influence of peculiar Asian taste?

There’s a row of touch-sensitive buttons on top of the keyboard which is a bit too bright & has too many different LED colors which may be a bit irritating, but else it is working fine for me. This touch-sensitive panel replaces conventional buttons (that would provide more tactile feedback), and a lot of users actually complained about the volume “slider”. The problem is: it isn’t really a slider, it just looks like a slider. Because if you don’t try to “slide down volume” but instead keep your finger on the “Volume (-)” area, it will quickly reduce volume. So users got irritated, thinking it works like a slider and consequently complained about it.
Why touch-sensitive controls instead of conventional buttons? Me thinks there are three posssible reasons for this: a) the SEAsian geek influence & an affection for iPhone-alike features, b) costs and c) less trouble with designing the PCB / more space.

14. Fan design still sucks. Maybe I am too much of an engineer, but I’d prefer if the intake could be on the back side of the notebook, not below the machine. IBM/Lenovo is a bit better on this. Proper heat dissipation is an important issue. Fortunately, the machine comes with an otherwise good cooling system and isn’t too loud.
I’ve also set the BIOS to “fan always on” as I’ve had good experience with this on my nx8220. Keeps the machine colder right from the start.

open fan on the nx8220 (without aluminium cover & removed keyboard)

6930p: heatpipe may remain on all chips even when the fan is being cleaned

Also interesting to see that there’s no extra cover for the pcb as compared to the nx8220 which had an aluminum cover betweeen the keyboard and the pcb (which also had the heat dissipitation pipes connected to it). Would be interesting to know what this looks like on the 8530p. On the other hand, it always irritated me having to remove the heat pipes from the graphics & northbridge processor just to clean the fan and I am glad it is different on the new machine. There usually is a lot of dust in between the fan and the cooler (= what you see as copper-coloured grill from the outside) which is only accessible once you open it up and use tweezers to remove the dust. Also helps using a vacuum cleaner and/or a camera lens blower to clean it

14. Users can exchange the HDD, the battery (now try that with a MacBook), add a UMTS modem or add more RAM – all without voiding the warranty. Nothing great, but still important as the Apple example shows that not all gadgets come with similar warranty conditions.
To know what’s “possible”, HP uses two different screw types. A Torx for service and conventional cross slot screws for upgrades from customers. Pls also note the sleeve for a business card which I also already know from my nx8220. HP was smart enough to hide both the licence key and service tag stickers underneath this protective cover. Simple, but effective.

15. This 6930p is a custom made model, hence the 120GB HDD it came shipped with as well as 4GB of RAM on a single board. Knowing that 32bit operating systems can only address a maximum of 3GB, I am wondering why it comes with 4GB and Windows Vista Business 32bit? (and don’t even get me started on the 800MHz vs. 1066MHz discussion the RAM is running on – these 4GB are at 798 MHz instead of 1066 // DDR2 vs DDR3).
Oh, and Vista ist just crap. This is MS Windows Vista Business and it instantly failed to reboot (endless loop of booting up and down) after an initial update. And needless to mention that I actually failed getting the HP Backup tool to do a copy of the installation. Vista alone used 20GB on the HDD. Incredible.
Now I am left with an XP downgrade & drivers DVD and will probably (& hopefully) never need a Vista backup. I’ve tested Windows7 on my Asus eee 1000HG the other day which is a bit better.

16. The battery is a bit too loose which is partly also due to the hook on the battery. I am used to this from the nx8220 though and these guys found the same fault on their test notebook. So I am not the only one who pulls out the sliding calliper to measure the play between the battery and the notebook body (I hope :-).

17. CPU Whining (CPU generates a high frequency sound): yes, it is there, but only slightly audible. Good.

18. The docking station I am using is an HP PA286A (used, cheap, eBay…) which *officially* doesn’t work with an EliteBook notebook but actually it does. It just doesn’t match the silver cover as it comes with the old grey colour tone as used on the nx8220. If you’ve come here searching for an answer on this: yes, it works. The PA286A 120W HP docking station is compatible with the HP 6930p. HP used to mention it on their website but have since removed this remark, probably due to marketing reasons.

The socket for the docking station on the notebook itself also isn’t secured by any protective cover which may seem to be a potential problem. If in doubt, just use adhesive tape to cover it up. As mentioned earlier, the nx8220 also didn’t have this cover and it has never really been a problem.

19. Internal 2G/3G modem: this 6930p didn’t come with an integrated 2G/3G (GSM, UMTS) modem but with the internal 3G antennas already set up and a SIM card slot behind the battery cover. You actually just buy the additional UMTS modem card, plug it in, install drivers and start surfing. I must however admit that – based on my experience with this same procedure on the Asus 1000HG netbook – the internal antenna setup on top of the display usually isn’t that much better than a conventional, external USB 3G modem. Still have to double-check this though.

———————————–

Soooo…is the 6930p any good? Yes of course! It’s a good notebook for most tasks and it comes with a good mixture of usability and performance. It may not be the best notebook for serious photo editing (due to HP’s shitty displays), but it already is a best seller in all other categories and just delivers what it was made for. I’d recommend it to anyone who has previously worked with HP notebooks, likes them and wants to use a stable machine for the home office.

Comparing it to my old nx8220 and seeing the performance increase, I am really happy that I eventually upgraded my computer hardware. I especially like the Dual Core thing which will ease up a lot of tasks on my notebook.

I am also happy that I didn’t have to spend too much money on a new machine. I think that it doesn’t actually come from HP’s Renew Program and that it had only been previously opened which is why the price was so low.

If you’re more into power saving laptops and value battery runtime, it may be better to get the Intel graphics card version coupled with an LED screen which should provide another 0,5 – 1h of battery runtime. And you may also think about getting a lighter power supply. HP really needs to continue working on the displays and on the power supplies. Improve contrast on the displays (a lot of customers will appreciate this), extend their vertical viewing angles and construct lighter and smaller power supplies. This is 2009 where notebook computers have to compete with netbooks, at least when it comes to portability issues.

Pls note that I am reviewing this machine from my German perspective where the market situation is slightly different from e.g. the US where DELL and Apple seem to dominate the market. Spare parts on Dells are still relatively expensive in Germany and not as available as in the US or even UK & Ireland.

For a sound reasoning on what to look for in a new notebook, pls check out this comment from 2006 by Steve , thx.

Would you try that with your MacBookPro? ….eh?

Alleine: das E+ Netz ist so dermaßen beschissen, dass ich mit meinem Telefon manchmal keinen Empfang habe. Ist das Handy (ein Nokia N95, letzte FW) im Dualmodus eingestellt (GSM oder UMTS, je nach Verfügbarkeit), bucht es sich als UMTS-Gerät ein , im Display wird 3G und ein deutlicher Antennenempfang angezeigt – aber Telefonate kommen einfach nicht durch. SMS kommen dann entsprechend auch mit Verzögerung an. Abhilfe schafft hier nur die Rückstellung auf GSM-only (und das ist auch nicht 100% verlässlich).

Ich habe auch noch eine Fonic SIM-Karte, die ich in Verbindung mit der Tagesflatrate für 2,50€/d und einem 3G Modem (im Netbook und als PCMICA Version fürs Notebook) verwende. Fonic bietet fast gleiche Konditionen wie Blau.de, allerdings im O2-Netz und ohne Kreditkarten-basierter automatischer Aufladung.

Das eigentliche Problem scheint also im Netz zu liegen – oder aber Prepaid-Kunden haben eine andere, geringere Priorität im Netz (kann das sein?). Beide Netze (E+ & O2) sind nicht so rosig, und das obwohl wir hier mitten in FFM in fast direkter Sichtweite zur nächsten Basisstation wohnen.

Im März 2007 schrieb ich schon mal über meine Erfahrungen mit Vodafone (DE), deren Arroganz bis heute anzuhalten scheint. Vodafone hat eine (vergleichsweise) super Netzabdeckung bzw. -verfügbarkeit, vermag mit dem Rest aber nicht zu überzeugen.

Ab dem 3. Quartal kommt das Nokia E72 auf den Markt, welches eine gute Mischung aus den beiden favorisierten Handytypen Nokia N95 und Nokia E71 darstellt (QWERTZ-Tastatur, Monoblock, 5mpx Kamera). Selbstverständlich liegt da die Überlegung nahe, dieses Gerät im Herbst über einen subventionierten Handyvertrag anzuschaffen und dabei einen modernen 24-Monatsvertrag abzuschließen, der preislich mit den Prepaidtarifen konkurrieren kannn.

Bisweilen verwende ich hauptsächlich die günstigen Internettarife der Prepaidanbieter sowie deren 9cent Einheitstarif(e). Bei T-Mobile muss man sogar teilweise noch eine Tagesnutzungsgebühr iHv 0,19 € bezahlen, dass man überhaupt surfen darf. Solche hohen Kosten sind natürlich auch ein Grund dafür, wieso mobile activism in Deutschland immer noch nicht richtig ernstgenommen wird. DSL ist vorherrschend und mobile Internet”flatrates” zumeist bis 5GB Inklusivvolumen gedeckelt (oder aber ab 1, 5 oder 10 GB in der Geschwindigkeit drastisch reduziert). Im E+ Netz (= Blau.de, Simyo, AldiTalk, etc.) ist sogar nur eine UMTS Geschwindigkeit bis 384kb/s möglich, was mich aber nicht wirklich stört.

Manche Entwicklungsländer sind hier bedeutend fortschrittlicher und günstiger! Und ja, dies hängt sicherlich von vielen Kostenfaktoren ab und lässt sich nicht 1:1 von Land zu Land übertragen. Fakt ist aber unbestreitbar, dass die Mobilfunknutzer in Deutschland unverhältnismäßig mehr zahlen als eigentlich nötig. Bestes Beispiel neben dem überteuerten mobilen Internetzugang sind die immer noch hohen SMS-Gebühren. Lese ich dann ein Angebot (z.B. T-Mobile iPhone Tarife), in dem mit 40 InklusivSMS geworben wird, kann ich nur traurig lächeln. Sind subventionierte Handys ein Grund für diese Mischkalkulation? Oder sind die deutschen Verbraucher einfach nur zu träge für eine Revolution?

Zurück zu meinem Empfangsproblem: gibt es einen Anbieter, der preislich mit den o.g. Angebot konkurrieren kann und dabei eine gute Netzverfügbarkeit anbietet? Welche Angebote / Verträge habt Ihr und könnt Ihr etwas empfehlen? Vielen Dank!

What’s this?

A happy dog! :-)

That’s right. Metal detectors that enable the search for metallic objects hidden some inches below the surface. Contrary to other places, the geographical middle of Europe seems to be blessed with archaelogical treasures.

Which leads me to the actual dilemma:

1. I actually don’t have any time to waste on another hobby.

2. There are so many other interesting hobbies I have.

3. I’ve always thought it may be better to limit myself to a few leisure activities (due to 1. & 2.) and focus on them only.

4. Most of my friends are academics or intellectuals who aren’t as geeky as I am and/or won’t have an interest in …strange….hobbies such as using a metal detector to search the nearby forest for Roman coins.

So I did a quick test and asked the freakiest freak-friend of mine who usually rumbles around in military clothes all day long and looks like a potential metal detector freak (he actually looks a lot like Al Yankovic in UHF) if he would be interested in joining me on such a hobby.

“Naa…”, he said, “…not really”.

See? This is the same reaction I received from most of my friends in 1994 when I started being interested in amateur radio. Or fishing. Or guitar playing. Or shooting. Or blogging. Or while repairing my old ‘89 VW Golf. Or repairing electronics with a jua kali approach. Or my recently aquired toy helicopter. Or other handicrafts….

I’ve always been interested in geeky stuff – which isn’t that bad – but I’ve so often been alone on this. And then I’ve chosen those activities although there are other things I would really like to spend more time on. Like improving my guitar playing. Or learning more foreign languages. Reading the pile of books that’s next to my table – not fiction but books related to water & sanitation or political issues.

Well I am not complaining – for I am still free at this (advanced) age to do whatever I want to (uhuru!) and actually created this space in order to enjoy this variety. It’s only that I am wondering why I’ve always chosen such rather geeky hobbies instead of playing soccer with my mates or clubbing with the fiancée*.

What a luxurious dilemma this is! Get a life…

I know. I’m just sayin, u know…?

Oh, and btw, would you join me on a walk to the forest? Hey this is really cool, we can find great stuff!

*fiancée isn’t into clubbing and also says that metal detectors are for Spanish grandmothers who are combing the beaches, improving their pension.

[Disclaimer: I am yet to decide whether my I can afford to cough up USD 200 on such a metal detector if in the end I'll only use it about 20x and then sell it on eBay...]

Original. Yeah, right.

What you see here:

A) original battery that came shipped with my Nokia 6230i

B) fake “original” battery from eBay @ 6,39 EUR

C) most-likely “original” battery from eBay @ 4,99 EUR

Battery B really pissed us off as it was drained within a few hours (!). The hologram is just very simple yet it looks like an original battery (except for the hologram and the deeper golden contacts). There are no hints on Nokia’s website other than the hologram (they used to have a form to double-check that number on the holo but imho even those numbers were faked).

Battery B was bulk-ware, meaning that it came shipped in a plastic bag while battery C was in an original Nokia packaging with a proper invoice. A bit irritating that there are two different mAh readings – a sticker that says 850 mAh on the front and a printed 970 mAh on the back. On Nokia’s website it says 900 mAh for the BL-5C, but hey – Nokia’s website has never been that accurate on phone details. Nokia also published a product advisory on the BL-5C type some time ago – a successful battery type has been produced over 300 million times and is built by five different manufacturers.

There are many, many dealers on eBay that sell BL-5C batteries for Nokia phones and I’d say that most of them are just fake ones. On the other hand, candidate number C was the cheapest, came in an original packaging and seems to perform like candidate A. Simbaya!

eBay as an online marketplace of course isn’t the best platform to purchase such electronics, but it is the one with the most competitive, or let’s say: comparable prices. Any other online-shop or even physical store will be more expensive (due to shipping rates & other general expenses). And it ain’t about the costs alone – I’d be willing to cough up more on a battery (but not too much!) if the dealer can assure that it is indeed original. I know this is a huge issue with product piracy and so on but – other than with cars where a non-original spare part may just as well be performing as required – most fake batteries also don’t last as long.  There may be exeptions to this general rule, but from my experience with this and other phones, most copies aren’t good enough, not even close. Probably also because they are commodities and their Chinese manufacturers just don’t give a damn…

The facts:

• Fellow blogger Mzeecedric inspired told me in 2005 to start my own blog. Thx, bro!
• The initial motivation arose out of frustration – a very popular German social network had rejected a few of my texts for publication so I’d told myself: “F… them. I’ll come up with my own site.”
• SEO kitu gani? I am still using the same WordPress template when I switched from using (the standard WordPress) Kubrick template. Am btw still searching for a suitable & modern alternative but people keep on telling me they like the Kikoi banner. And I couldn’t even take another shot of the said Kikoi as I’ve meanwhile used it on another project. Recommendations for an alternative WordPress template with lots of whitespace are highly appreciated!
• Renamed this blog only once – from “Kikuyumoja’s Realm” to just “Kikuyumoja”. From http://blog.uhuru.de to http://kikuyumoja.com.
• 916 posts, 46 categories, 363 tags, 3.107 comments. Still need to improve that tags thingy for older posts. Categories? Blogroll? That’s so 2005. But I still use them.
• 4 years of using WordPress – an experience that has landed me at least two decent jobs related to the creation of blogs as well as some other unpaid WordPress blogs. Those new to WordPress and the taxonomy still prefer categories over tag clouds btw.
• I am still blogging despite the invention of microblogging services such as Twitter.
• I still haven’t lost my blogging mojo.
• I’ve always tried to keep it personal instead of blogging on one specific subject range, e.g. fellow blogger Erik blogging mostly on Africa & technology (and rugby), Sokari on gender violence, racism, sexuality, HIV/AIDS and cancer, Daudi on sports and politics, and so on. It’s a balancing act for me not to blog everything that crosses my mind, but at the same time I am not too selective and try to keep a healthy mixture. I don’t know if I am that succesful with such an approach, but the truth is: I wouldn’t know how to classify this blog other than “private” or “personal”. At least, that’s how I’ve tagged my blog (and those like mine) on my Google Reader. How do you classify or categorize this blog on your linklist (if at all)?
  Also, I wouldn’t want to limit myself to one specific range of subjects. I know that it’s better to be a “theme blog” by covering only a few things (e.g. “this is a chocoloate blog where I only write about chocolate products”), but I chose not to be that. I do participate on other, theme-related blogs where I contribute to water, sanitation, health, environment, climate, technology, etc. subjects so this need for a categorized view of the world (Weinberger’s second order of order, I presume) is already covered by those sites.
• Other than the commentators, I don’t know much about the many lurkers out here. Who are you? And why are you reading my blog? Please comment! Thank you.
• This blog has been part of the Kenyan Blogosphere almost right from the start. And this although I am based in Germany (ok, been working and blogging from Kena in between) and will always remain being a German to an extent where I will require a work permit for jobs in Kenya. My Kenyan side probably is that I know more about Kenyan politics & history than the average Blueband Generation kid out there that grew up with [name of US-American sitcom] on KTN and then quickly left the country for the US or the UK for studies only to develope a need to rediscover their cultural heritage aborad because they’re also being asked about that, e.g. during marathons or once Kenya is back in the media with a negative story (hunger, poverty, AIDS, slums, scandals, natural disaster, tribal clashes, etc.) Don’t want to insult anyone here – guess it’s just a matter of interests. It’s like those immigrants in Germany who are much more German than I am (which isn’t that difficult).

Blogging is easy. Go to WordPress.com (or any other blogging platform), choose a username, register a blog and start writing. And publish it.

Do it anonymously, put your name under it -just do as you feel. But make sure your voice is out there.

My mother once asked me “JKE, who’s supposed to read all this stuff??”. – “Well”, I replied, “…I don’t know. But some apparently do.”.

That would be you, dear readers. Without you and your comments, I would probably never have taken it to this level. I owe you big times!

—

Four other things I’ve also learned during the last 4 years:

1. A blog post without a photo is like chicken soup without chicken. You feel that something is missing. So here’s the mandatory and totally random picture:

2. The world is changing faster than expected. And we will need much more visionaries out there who are able to think out-of-the-box and and are willing to take a risk. Even if it means that everyone will start laughing about them.
I wouldn’t say I am a visionary, but I’ve followed my own path during the last 4 years and am happily working freelance now on projects I really like. I like my work and what I do. Do you?

3. Things I value the most: time, inspiration, freedom.

4. Everyone likes a good story. Had this colleague at work who kept on sending me links to “potentially interesting news” for our newsletter: “Here, this link is interesting”. – “Yeah, thx…”, I replied, “but where’s the connection and where’s the story to it?”. Silence.

Twitter taught us that news may be limited to 140 characters only. 140 characters that will either be read or ignored.

Now, scientists can sometimes be very complicated. Blogging really helped me shrinking news to a necessary length – and I am still only at the beginning. I wish that colleague would twitter.

Epilogue
SEO is a horrible buzzword, suitable for bullshit bingo. Thinking about this blog post, I keep on adding new stuff to the list of facts. 4 years are an interesting timeframe to draw a line and look back. Alas, this aim to categorize the blog with something else other than “personal” still remains the hardest part for me.

This snapshot of digitalis purpurea was today taken in a forest next to a Roman fort near Frankfurt – with the 5mpx CMOS camera on my 2y old Nokia N95 mobile phone.

It may not be the best photo, but it clearly shows what’s already possible with a decent camera phone.

An dieser Stelle auch gleich das große ABER! – denn bei diesem ultraleichten Spielzeug aus Hartschaum und nur popeliger IR-Fernbedienung kann natürlich keine große Freude aufkommen. Jedoch, als Einsteigerset ideal und richtig interessant wird es dann wohl erst ab 99,- EUR mit dem E-Sky Lama V4 oder vergleichbarem.

Das abgebildete Set gab es günstig im Laden und nachdem ich den Kauf bisher immer verschoben hatte (”ach, brauch ich nicht wirklich”, “einmal gespielt und liegt dann in der Ecke”, “kostet nur Geld und bringt nix”, “hmm, nen HeliSimu fürn PC wäre auch fein…was kostn nen USB-Controller?”, etc.), hab ich mir dann heute gedacht: WTH? Nich lang schnacken…einfach mal kaufen und wenn scheisse dann halt Pech gehabt.

Dass wir uns nicht falsch verstehen: so ein Billighubschrauber mit 2 (3-) Kanalsteuerung kann natürlich nur hoch- und runterfliegen, sich schön im Kreis drehen bzw. gegenlenken und mit etwas Glück und bißchen Einstellungsgeschick zum Geradeausflug bewegt werden. Der Flug nach vorne interessiert mich aber gar nicht so – vielmehr das Schweben auf einer Stelle. Und das kann auch dieses Gerät (mit etwas Übung und Ausrichtung des Heckrotors).

Für dieses Kombiset aus Hubschrauber und Flieger hatte ich mich eigentlich entschieden, weil der Flieger im Gegensatz zum Heli mit einer Funkfernsteuerung ausgestattet ist und ich diese noch für ein weiteres Projekt verwenden kann.

Als Kind wollte ich immer ein ferngesteuertes Flugzeug haben, aber damals waren diese Bausätze noch ziemlich teuer. Erst seitdem es diese günstigen Fertigmodelle gibt (an denen man auch relativ wenig einstellen kann – was gut und zugleich auch schlecht ist), ist das Ganze erschwinglicher da populärer geworden.

Trotz des schlechten Gewissens, mit dem Kauf dieses Spielzeugs wieder Sondermüll Made in China gefördert zu haben, ist so ein Gerät die perfekte Entspannung für Zwischendurch.

Not a question of the location, but rather: from which movie is this?