Those Little $30 Chinese Tablet/Netbook Computers: Are They Worth It?

Photo: eBay

You've probably seen these little 7" inch Android tablets with sleek keyboard cases that resemble '80s/'90s day planners on eBay or Amazon. You can also buy these tablets on their own without keyboards for around $30 and they come in different colors. But we're going to try out the keyboard case and to really put this to the test, write this entire post on it.

Screenshots are real easy. Just press the Print Screen button, no extra apps needed.

First, this does have functioning apps and does work. It is the right size for your backpack or large handbag and setting/booting it up takes about the same time. This handles YouTube playback respectably well. There's no touchpad or mouse, so most selecting is done onscreen with your fingers. If your demands are very basic, Google oriented and simple, this does work on that level.
But I ran a few more performance tests on it with a screen recorder app to test speed and multimedia performance.

In spite of it's Q88 quad-core chipset, at 512 MB of RAM, this is not very fast at multitasking. It can stream internet radio through VLC while working with the most of the non-video apps. It also handles TuneIn reliably through it's app while surfing the Firefox, Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs and Gmail apps. The screen recorder app's audio input comes from the built in condenser mic, so whatever sounds are around you as you record from the display will be caught on the resulting video (in my case, the bedroom fan.) The volume on the video was set at max (as your ringing ears can tell you.) The sound comes from a tiny monaural button speaker on the rear of the tablet, so it isn't very loud from an average listening perspective.

Second, the screen at 7'' wide is an issue for me as my ability to read fine print requires me to carry a magnifying glass. You could stretch out the display with your fingers, but finding the sweet spot between readability and screen size can be a challenge on some web versions of news sites.

The keyboard case was of particular interest to me as my big clumsy fingers are especially problematic with touch-screen keyboards and while a larger size, some keys (such as the " ') key is located at the bottom of the keyboard. The keys also require a firm press each to enter, so I still end up peck-typing, but the keyboard real estate area is larger.

You can buy these with keyboards or without. And the other good thing is when these tablets die (usually in about three years), you can replace them while keeping the case. If you enable Google Drive for backups, your work can be saved when you change tablets.

Compared to my standard desktop, I probably would not write another post directly on this thing again. But it is good for making middle of the night drafts with Google Docs. But it's too slow for serious school and office work.

As a serious student/office computer, you'd be better off with a real netbook/laptop. But if you just need a simple electronic day planner (the Google Calendar app does a great job) that does a little more, this may fit the bill. 

Back To School: Vintage School Supplies

Some Photos of Mid-Century Antiques

Taken in Las Vegas today by reader/contributor Jeffery Lee Hammond.

 

Sean Prince and his Sunny 107.9

I was going through the latest comments on my blog and I was intrigued to find a commercial pop radio station trying to spam me.

The spam reads like this:

"Being an ardent fan of Pop and Adult Contemporary music, Sunny 107.9 is always my first choice for non-stop entertainment. Whether in my car or at home I’m always tuned in and kept entertained by the stations great music....."

"Adult Contemporary music" Three words that strike instant terror into most active, fun loving people.

The person who sent this was someone by the name of Sean Prince. And from his copy (and it is copy....)

....this radio station was enough to completely change his, Sean Prince's very own life around. So much so, he has to tell every pop culture blog on Blogspot about it.

Forget sobriety, religion, marriage, kids or any other life changing things that happen to the rest of us. Forget the dizzying selection of entertainment options at our fingertips here in 2014. In his car or at home, for Sean Prince, it was an Adult Contemporary radio station that finally completed him.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for Sean Prince and we all wish him all the best for whatever makes him happy.

We just feel sorry for his girlfriend ("Honey, PLEASE turn off the radio....It's ruining The Moment.....") Or his boss ("Hey Sean....We notice you've been looking pale and unproductive lately. We also notice you've been coming in late out of your car during breaks. And we wish you wouldn't mess with the radio in the office and turning it off the thrash metal station we normally listen to here at work.....So if you'll kindly pee in this cup and give it to our lady from HR with the latex gloves ....")

But regardless, I'm a sport about these things. And if Sunny 107.9's better mix of Sara Bareilles/Katy Perry/Lorde hits is even better than that other radio station's crummy mix of Sara Bareilles/Katy Perry/Lorde hits, I'll take the challenge.

So I listened for a few hours.

Sunny 107.9 is pretty much your typical Adult Contemporary radio station of today, with a carefully researched playlist and programmed for your typical suburban soccer mom who grew up with '80s and '90s pop hits. But doesn't want to appear like some throwback to her kids or their friends (until she reminisces about Milli Vanilli. Or New Kids On The Block.)

There is an "'80s At 8" hour on weekday nights. Oh goodie! Every burnt-to-a- crisp '80s song millions of us already have on our iPods, in our CD collections or branded permanently into our brains being played back to us! Ahhh....Memories!

But this of course isn't your AVERAGE '80s music hour. What? No Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, S.O.D. or Sigue Sigue Sputnik....WHAT kind of '80s hour is THIS? Even Seattle's Star 101.5 gave in and played the ULTIMATE '80s song, "Eighties" Killing Joke? Where's the Dead Kennedys?

And then it's back to Bruno Mars, Jewel, Faith Hill, Uncle Kracker, etc. on 107.9 MHz somewhere.

Sunny 107.9 is in my opinion, actually a good station. It tries it's best, as a independent, locally owned commercial FM radio station. But by playing the same songs and the format as all the corporate conglomerate Four C's stations do (Clear Channel/CBS/Cumulus stations), how does this station actually STAND OUT?

Please Sean, if you want to thrill us (and I know you're trying.) DO NOT DO IT WITH A FUCKING RADIO STATION CALLED "SUNNY (Insert FM Frequency Here)" Because THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME.

Thank you......  

Trapper Keeper

Let's face it. In high school back in the '80s, a Trapper Keeper was MANDATORY. No kid would be caught dead without one. 

In 1980, Mead invented the Trapper Keeper. The folders were three sided, preventing papers from falling out. The metal rings in typical binders were replaced by easy slide-open plastic rings in the Trapper Keeper, eliminating painful binder pinches. The original Trapper Keepers had brass metal snap-close buttons. These were later replaced by velcro.

Until the Trapper Keeper, you carried Pee-Chees. While iconic, Pee-Chees had one major flaw; papers often fell out of them, leaving a nightmarish mess on the hallway floor in front of your locker (often with just seconds to your next class.)  

And woe to the kid who got picked on - the bullies would just walk all over his/her papers.

They originally came in three plain colours, blue, red and green.  

In 1984, new designs were added, making Trapper Keepers even more cooler than ever. But most kids liked to cut through the clear plastic outer covering and slip in their own illustrations.

And even today, I STILL use a Trapper Keeper. I find they're PERFECT for keeping important papers. The look has changed with the times and velcro close has been replaced by strong magnets, but fundamentally, they're as trusty as ever.

The Ediphone

 Whilst on a visit to my friend's house, he had something in his yard he (and no one else) could identify. Only that it looked like a "typewriter with no keyboard" But what was it?

It was an Ediphone (or what remained of it.)

The Ediphone was an early dictation machine like the Dictaphone that used wax cylinders (cylinder records were considered obsolete by 1912. But Edison made commercial music cylinder records up until 1929.) But beyond that into the '30s and even as far as the early '50s. The wax cylinder was used for office dictation before it was replaced by belt machines and a few years later, tape - even The Edison Company eventually got into tape.

 ..........until the 2000s when digital took over.

The Ediphone was electrically powered, but strangely recorded acoustically.

Nudie Pens

The gift for men that always says "I know you're a sex crazed pervert and I was too cheap to hire you a freaky escort. So here you are. Your secret's safe with me ;) "

Need A Typewriter?

Sometimes, there's a part of me that still misses using a typewriter.

I just like how it looks, each letter embossed into the paper rather than just photocopied from the office program on my computer.

And it's a delicious thrill for me to have my most formal paper correspondence look like crazed manifestos or ransom letters.....

And yes, typewriters are STILL being made. And you'll never guess for whom.

Eccentric old people?

Conspiracy nuts?

Nope.

They're made for prisoners.

So you're likely getting something SUPER rugged. And they come in clear cases (never underestimate those hardcore criminal minds.) And very few solid metal parts to get "creative" with.

And apparently, they are sold to the public as well.

http://www.swintec.com/clear-typewriters/10-2410cc.html

You Think YOU Have A Lousy Boss?

Meet George Pullman.



Well, you really wouldn't want to. He's been dead since 1897 and even if you were given the chance, good luck getting past the eight tons of solid concrete and lead over his grave.

You heard me.

There's a reason why they put all that concrete over his grave, and by the time you're done reading this you'll understand why this man was as toxic as anything they bury in at the Hanford Nuclear Waste Dump.

Let's get into the Wayback Machine (could get crowded, so wear deodourant) and time warp back to Chicago in the 1880s.....

Chicago was a booming town. It just got over a massive fire and things were on a roll. it was one of the few major cities in America at that time where you could be black or an immigrant and still find a way to make it.

George Pullman seemed like a visionary and on paper, you'd think he was.

Pullman ran a company that made luxury railroad cars. There were few automobiles in those days and they moved with the speed of the mail. Airplanes were still science fiction. So horse and buggy was the way for people to get around the city. If you wanted to go see your Aunt Sadie in Peoria, well....you'd be going through a lot of horses too. So passenger trains were invented for that purpose and like Greyhound buses these days, they were uncomfortable, cramped, smelly and (did I mention uncomfortable?)

Anyway, enter the Pullman railroad car. This thing was to change all that. It had seats big enough for the American butt of the time (or at least larger than the butt of an average praying mantis.) It was made of the finest materials. It was the first railroad passenger car with a design and function not resembling a maximum security prison. It was even considered stylish (a word a designer of a maximum security prison would hear and grunt at.) Railroad travel really didn't have to resemble a week in the hole anymore.

This was the Gilded Age, and it was luxury over sanity, flamboyant style over basic safety features. It was a brave new world and George Pullman was going to milk every drop of it.

He constructed a company town for his employees called (what else?) Pullman in Chicago. Pullman had everything you could ever want in 1880. It was totally off the grid from the rest of Chicago, it had it's own sewer and water towers, it's own electricity plant, phone system The very first shopping mall in history called "The Arcade". It had a theater, several shops, a public library and a post office. A public school, a grand hotel, several parks, it's own newspaper and a church. Several streets lined with nice little rowhouses for his employees. There was no litter in the strrets, lawns were well manicured. Everything was as neat and tidy as Martha Stewart on speed. There was NO crime, NOTHING could go wrong, right?

Something did go wrong. Like any travel brochure to paradise, you have to read between the lines. You see, when you work for, rent from, get all your stuff from, you kids educated by and live under the same rules by the same guy, there's gonna be a problem.

First, everything was basically on loan. You were not allowed to own your own little rowhouse. Second, FORGET starting any "alternative" to Pullman's status-quo businesses. Your kids were educated in the Pullman way, all books in the public library were carefully selected by Pullman himself, what you saw in that theater - yep, he picked that too. And the church? Well.....NOBODY used the church, as one church and a zillion denominations of Christianity (we haven't even begun to talk about the non-Christian religions) are just too much for one building.

And everybody's house was so spotlessly clean in these rowhouses that looked perfectly alike. That happens when you can be evicted with only 10 days notice for so much as a dirty dish in the sink. Pullman sent goons out to inspect every house to make sure everything conformed....or else.

Now, if you thought things really fell apart right there, just remember his employees were paid not in solid American cash, but in Pullman's own currency. Meaning once you got outside of Pullman and into Chicago itself - SURPRISE! You're worthless. And when in Pullman, watch out for company spies. They were all over the place. They could be your next door neighbour, the nice guy at the grocery store. And if everyone could settle on a religion, the priest would probably be forced to report back to company headquarters with your juiciest confessions. There was no independent press, no town meetings, no public discussion. Nothing.

Naturally, people began having a problem with all that. But you kept your big mouth shut tight....if you knew what was good for you......

In 1894, Pullman began losing business. Things were rough all over as the American economy was in a mini-depression. But Pullman thought he knew which side his bread was buttered on. So jobs and wages were cut. But rent, utilities and everything else in Pullman stayed at the same prices. And things REALLY went to hell. People went on strike - 90% of Pullman's workforce went on strike. And then it really got ugly. Pullman got in touch with a political buddy, one President Grover Cleveland to send in federal troops to squash all dissent. 

However, once the smoke cleared, it was revealed Pullman had too much control over everything and he was forced to relinquish his control over Pullman. Chicago quickly annexed it.

He died in 1897. And just to make sure nobody dug up his grave and beat the crap out of his corpse (like anyone would), he asked for all that cement and a lead lined coffin to be buried in, per his burial arrangements. Actually, it was a good thing. At least he'll never rise again with another STUPID idea.

That's why right wing company towns and gated communities work as badly as the most liberal hippie communes. Social engineering is a public matter, not a private one.

And that's how we should leave it.

PeeChees

The Classic PeeChee

The PeeChee folder: For almost 70 years, PeeChees had remained virtually unchanged until the last few years when they changed the design and added colours.

The Dymo Label Maker

The Dymo Label Maker was around for a long time before the '70s, mostly for office and industrial use. But it was the mid '70s when the cheaper new handheld label makers and tape were widely available to the public. And it began a mini-craze......

The plastic handheld devices were addicting. People were labeling everything with them......

The Dymo Label Makers are still being made, but mostly with a handheld computer printer. You can still buy the embossing tape for the old label makers.......