Ok, so I have decided to (because of various reasons) replace my desktop (at work and home) with a laptop. I have been looking around, and the one I found most impressive is the "Toshiba Satellite 5105-S607".

There are a couple of concerns though:This model comes with a variety of ports but it does'nt have a serial port (wtf!). What all Empeg 'functionality' will I lose if I go for a machine with no serial port? Dropping to a shell, and upgrading the player software? I normally use Tony's logo editor to upgrade Hijack, but I remember trying out jEmplode once and upgrading Hijack via ethernet too. So is player upgrade going to be the only problem? Or can I do that also over ethernet?

Dropping to shell: Is serial port the only way I can use HyperTerminal with? And is there any 'USB to serial port' adaptor out there?

Another concern (not related to Empeg) is that these things come without a BIOS. I still don't know how that is possible, but a friend of mine who bought another Toshiba ("Satellite 1905-S277") swears that is so (apparently the OS, in this case Windows XP Home edition, controls the BIOS). So, does this mean that I can't install Linux on my laptop (if I decide to go with the 5105-S607)? That would suck so bad..

Any comments, insights and suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks!
~Yogi.

I have a Toshiba Satellite 1005-S157 which also lacks a serial port. I use one of these for a serial port. It works for sending files back and fourth from my TiVo through Hyperterm. The FAQ states somewhere that the empeg can be flashed through an adapter such as that one.

Also, whomever told you the laptop doesn't have BIOS is smoking crack. The laptop may not tell you the keystroke to enter the BIOS, but on my Satellite you hit F2 during the POST.

If it turns out that there is some new technology that totally goes against what I believe, then I stand corrected. Just covering my ass so I don't look like a moron.

Thanks for the adaptor link, Rob.

As for the missing BIOS....OEMs make a habit of hiding such complex things from their users.
If installing linux is a likely then check with some of the linux user groups to discover what are the more linux friendly laptops in terms of drivers etc.

As for the serial port, another option might be a PCMCIA serial card - assuming one exists.

If it makes you feel any better about the BIOS, there is a flash available for this model here. It's dated April 26, 2002. I think it's pretty obvious Toshiba is simply hiding the method of getting into the BIOS setup. I would try F2.

In reply to:

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Ok, so I have decided to (because of various reasons) replace my desktop (at work and home) with a laptop. I have been looking around, and the one I found most impressive is the "Toshiba Satellite 5105-S607".

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I've just spent a lot of time looking at and evaluating laptops. The Toshiba is a good machine provided that you are always going to be near an AC outlet. The battery life is terrible and it has no option for a secondary battery. For that reason and because of cost I would choose the Dell 8200 or Compaq 2800 over the Tosh. But there are valid reasons to choose any of these and it comes down to what is important to you.

Have you seen the Tosh in person? I find 1600x1200 (UXGA) uncomfortably small on a 15" LCD. For my eyes, 1400x1050 (SXGA+) is the sweet spot for 15" laptop LCDs. LCD screens only look good at their native resolution so be sure you make the right choice up front.

I'd suggest buying directly from the manufacturer. Most of them will give you a 14-30 day return period without a restocking fee. All of the retail vendors charge a restocking fee (usually 15%).

I recently made the switch from desktop to laptop and I love it. My desktop machine is hardly used anymore. Why would I want to sit in my cramped little office when I now have wireless internet and 6 hours of battery life on my patio, couch in front of the TV, bedroom, etc.? It's great!

-Dylan

In reply to:

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I recently made the switch from desktop to laptop and I love it. My desktop machine is hardly used anymore. Why would I want to sit in my cramped little office when I now have wireless internet and 6 hours of battery life

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Seconded. Modern laptops make excellent desktop replacements; and if you intend to use it around the home, get a wireless network - it's one of those things you don't appreciate until you've used it.

Yes, battery life was the main con in most of the reviews I read.

I came back from a Fry's window shopping trip just now. Toshiba Satellite 1905-S277 was my next choice (if ever I started second guessing the S607 because of the price). This trip ruled out that option because 1600 x 1200 resolution is available only for external monitors.

At Fry's though, the Sony Vaio GRX 570 caught my attention. It's about $200 more than the Toshiba, but it has a 16" monitor. They claim a better battery life too.

Now I am confused.. Back to brooding about what model to buy. I hate making such decisions!

~Yogi.

PS: I find the Dell (atleast the ones my colleagues have) to be a bit bulky. I will check out the Compaq though.

I had the Sony 570 in my possession for a couple of weeks before I returned it. The screen is fantastic, no doubt. Battery life for me was about 100 minutes doing desktop apps. It will accept a secondary battery but Sony charges the insulting price of $250 for it.

If you are considering a Sony you should check out the posts on comp.sys.laptops. Sony's support has a terrible reputation, especially if you dare to install another OS other than what it came preloaded with. Sony won't even support you if you tell them you upgraded from XP Home to XP Pro. And when new OS's come out people bitch because Sony doesn't release drivers for their proprietary hardware or they have to hunt the support areas of other laptop makers hoping that that the modem (or whatever) uses the same driver. Sorry for the FUD but there are a lot of complaints.

But despite the support fears I still would be very, very tempted to go with the Sony for a true desktop replacement that would spend most of it's time sitting on a desk. That is about the finest computer display I've ever seen.

Yes, the Dell's are bulky but they have a lot of flexibility with a fixed optical and a modular bay that can take a second optical or second battery. They also have every I/O port you could want, internal 802.11b, long battery life...

One thing to note about the Compaq that isn't obvious from the specs: the screen doesn't use the newer LCD technology that is in the S607 and 570 you saw. If you window shop again compare those screens to just about any other LCD. You'll see that it has a much wider viewing angle, better contrast and wider color gamut. They are excellent and worth the premium, IMO. If only they offered them in 1400x1050 resolution.

-Dylan

Thanks, Dylan.

So what did you buy, Dell?

~Yogi.

Dude, I got a Dell.

Sorry. I'll have more self control next time.

I've got a UXGA Dell 8000 and I've also found that I don't use my desktop very much anymore. It is VERY heavy though with two batteries and the 8x00 series from Dell isn't light as it is

UXGA on a 15" is okay for me and I've got terrible eyesight. If you set Windows to large fonts then it is much easier on the eyes but some programs don't follow this setting properly and you get truncated text in dialog boxes.

One advantage over UXGA over SXGA+ is that you can run it at 800x600 without any interpolation of pixels. Everything else is slightly fuzzy.

- Trevor

I agree on the battery life, my Tosh (Sat Pro 4600), whilst supplied free of charge by my employer has an absolutely diabolical battery life. Even when switched to low power mode I still only get approx 2 1/2 hours, which means I barely have enough battery life to last the train journey from Manchester to London, something I seem to be doing with alarming regularity these days.
Another battery is rather expensive, and not really justifiable as it's on AC most of the time in my office, and when I'm on site I can usually find an AC outlet. Other than that it's a good laptop (although I wish they'd given me a real processor instead the Celeron).

Believe it or not, the Tosh 5105 is only good for about 90 minutes on it's battery. 2.5 hours actually isn't considered so bad with today's power hungry processors and video cards. 3+ hours from the main battery is excellent for desktop replacements. The problem is the picky bastards like me that want all the desktop replacement features and don't want to be tethered to the wall.

-Dylan

If it turns out that there is some new technology that totally goes against what I believe, then I stand corrected. Just covering my ass so I don't look like a moron.

No, not in the consumer space yet. Itanium systems have a basic ROM to get things up and going, then a "program" called EFI takes over. Think of it as a mini OS that is a cross between Unix and DOS. I was playing "ADVENTURE.EFI" on one of our lab machines, it's the old text based game. And the machine had a bios like program for setting system options and such, but thats all stored in EFI flash.

I'm sure it will be dumbed down to consumer level similar to Open Firmware that has been installed on every Mac since Steve took back over. Almost no Mac user has ever gone into it, but it can be very powerful. It's the same Open Firmware that Sun uses, and aparently it's a standard.


On the Compaq note, look into the Evo lines over the Presario. Why? Better build quality, and generally better warranties. Evo's are sold as business laptops, and are what the Armadas morphed into. Not sure how the HP merger is going to affect the name, but I do know the systems themselves are staying.

As I said at the meet though, my work provided Armada M700 is being replaced with a system that can run my preferred Unix client of choice, Mac OS X.

It works for sending files back and fourth from my TiVo through Hyperterm.

What types of files are you sending? I haven't followed the TiVo forums lately and was wondering if they've found a way to grab the recorded programs off the TiVo yet. My video capture is a slow method... 20+ Family Guy episodes to archive still...

the only files I've been sending are scripts to display Caller ID info on the TV. Most forums prohibit talk of extracting video off the Tivo. But, I do plan on doing it soon. The only software I know does this is called ExactStream. There are some outdated links on google to this software, but I have a good bookmark at home. I will PM it to you later.

There is also a package called 25Xtreme which will open a bunch of back doors on your TiVo drive and may or may not be necessary to run to get ExactStream working. This will all be done over ethernet when I get around to installing a TurboNet card. I wouldn't dream of passing a 30 minute MPEG2 over 9600bps serial.

wouldn't dream of passing a 30 minute MPEG2 over 9600bps serial

Oh heck no! I was just wondering if there's been any progress on the issue. Once I know people are doing it, I'm going with the TurboNet card as well! Thanks for getting the link to me.
Right now I'm capturing thru the ATI All-In-Wonder card and writing VCD format. I'd rather grab the file then edit and render to VCD, without having to capture.

Digging up this thread to give an update on what I did about the laptop:

My company shutdown last friday and I used up most of my PTO reimbursement to buy a PowerBook. I've been a Mac voyeur for some time now and had decided to switch (before the ads came out) when I discovered VPC. I used it at the Apple store in Palo Alto, and saw that the emulation was fast enough to use MS Office and write code.

PowerBook fits my home needs - listening to music, occasionally doing office work and surfing - which now will drop drastically since I'm moving back to Bangalore.

Oh, that reminds me - mine will just be the second Empeg installation in the Indian subcontinent - first being a friend of mine who bought the Empeg during the blowout sale, but who happened to relocate back to Bangalore couple of months back.

~Yogi.

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't you use MS Office for MacOS? It's way better than the Windows version anyway.

I have Win2K and Office2K on my home PC, so thought I'd use those till I am ready to convert fully.

Office files work interchangeably on either platform, if that's what you're worried about; And the Mac version is definitely better.

Let's not exaggerate. They work as well between PC and Mac as they do between different versions on the same platform. Which is to say that you can load them and all your data will be there, but ``minor'' things like page breaks and whatnot may be wildly different. (BTW, this is right at the top of my list why MSWord sucks.)

Actually, I'm worried about the price -:)
And since I'm buying VPC anyway, I wanted to use Office2K till I decide to uninstall VPC.

Very good point, as long as you're not worried about the Microsoft Gestapo breaking down your door for running the same program on two different computers with only one license.

That's my way of fighting the devil -:) But seriously, I am selling my PC after reformatting the drives.

I'm wondering if anyone has any progress on extracting video from your TiVo...

TivoApp is probably the easiest method.

That looks like exactly what I wanted... Thanks! I just ordered my Turbonet card. 3 days