Therapeutic Fish for Humidifiers

Pets are great, aren’t they? You can have a playful dog, a sneaky cat, a bat that may have attachment issues, and even a peaceful fish. There’s a whole world of choices out there for you! But, say you want a fish, but don’t feel confident in taking care of it. No problem, a fish is rather easy to take care of. Now, say that you already have the space that a fish tank would live occupied with something else… a humidifier, for instance. You’re still alright on the front of wanting a fish! You may have to change your definition a little because little Goldie would be living in a humidifier, and I’m sure none of us would like to breathe the air off of fish water. With that being established, let’s move on.

Fish and humidifiers share a few things with each other. They both rely on water, they both have the potential to make you healthy, and they’re good to have around. Fish, though, have a therapeutic effect on some, especially individuals with some form of anxiety disorder. How, I’m not entirely sure, apart from the possibility that its because some fish in a tank aren’t exactly capable of posing a threat to you or your life… unless you do something that’s just crazy off of the deep end, like try to jump in and swim with them. That likely could’ve gone without saying, but I’m hoping I at least brought a smile to someone’s face with the mental picture of a six-foot-tall person trying to swim in a five-gallon aquarium. Anyway, just because you need a humidifier and don’t have room for an aquarium proper, doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy some of the therapeutic benefits that fish often times bring with them.

Now, back to humidifiers!

As for what I’m getting at, for the sake of argument, I keep an evaporative humidifier in my bedroom. Nothing fancy, just an Equate-branded one from Walmart that I got on the cheap in a somewhat-successful attempt at keeping my hands from cracking after I get home from work, as well as mildly sterilizing the air. Now, with a humidifier, it’s important to make sure the water’s clean, that way you aren’t going through filters absurdly fast or putting all of that gross stuff directly into the air. Minerals too, if you’re in an area with hard water and you opt for a filterless humidifier. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking, Jimmy.

“Sasha,” you say, “You have a filter in your humidifier!”

And you, Jimmy, would be right! See, using a filter-based humidifier (Evaporative, for instance) doesn’t make you immune from having issues from filthy/hard water being the source of your humidification. The minerals and chemicals in water, as well as oils from occasionally-curious fingers, can cause the filter to turn color, develop a crust, and other gross-looking things. Now, from my experience, these aren’t severe, as during a four-week life of each filter I use, the last week is spent with it flipped upside down to alleviate this. I’ve never noticed anything negative as far as my own personal health is concerned, but it is annoying that I have to do this to keep effective humidification from the device. Where do fish play into this? Great question!

You see, there are products on Amazon, as well as in some stores (probably), where you put them in any container of water and they clean it. How effective this is is up for debate. At the time of writing this, I only clicked the purchase button an hour ago, so I’ll have to wait until Tuesday before they get here. Still, with cleaner water should come longer lasting life from the filter. Another positive to this is that they even look like cute fishes! Sure, they’re not the kind you’d get from the pet store, but they’re fish nonetheless, and can have the same therapeutic and calming effect as an aquarium could provide you with, and at only a fraction of the cost! Thanks to the idea of this, I can have both clean moist air and have a cute fish that I don’t have to worry about what would happen, should I happen to neglect it.

What's Your Perception?

Note the screw holder in this article’s picture. The reason it looks like a pill organizer was because it came from the pharmacy aisle of Walmart, but that’s just a side affect of being broad-minded is you have a perception that asks “What can object XYZ do?” instead of the traditional “Where can I find object ABC?”. More on that below.

Just from looking at the variables, it’s obvious that object XYZ (a pill organizer in this example) can easily stand in place for object ABC (a screw holder). In fact, the only reason it’s a pill organizer in the first place is because it came from the pharmacy section of the store, much the same way that a 97¢ pencil case from the Back to School section (or even a shoebox, if you’re into that kind of thing) can be a computer case (if you have a board small enough, of course). The thing I’m getting at today is perception and how it affects our daily lives.

I can already feel the thoughts I may be getting from the query I’m about to present, but I’ll do it anyway to make a point, if nothing else. We have smartphones that can play music, surf the internet, take pictures, among other things. Apple even (to my knowledge as of writing this) has an iPhone without the phone called, eloquently, the iPod. But say you don’t have so many hundred dollars to spend on a phone without the phone, or you don’t wanna get into Apple’s ecosystem. I can relate, kinda. Anyway, it’s 2021, and smartphones as we generally think of them have been a thing since around 2007 or thereabouts, so there’s no doubt you have one lying around in a drawer, collecting dust or something. It’s probably running Android 2 to Android 5 and likely doesn’t have ultrafast 4G/LTE, maybe only having the older and slower 3G, which is acceptable for what I’m about to present. Say you’re like a certain writer we all know who doesn’t always prefer to take the easy way to do things. You’d rather not use the same device that you make calls on as your primary camera/dictaphone/music player/etc. Now is when you’ll wanna see if that old thing still works. I’ll wait if you want to go look for it.

Found it? Good! Let’s continue!

Being a smartphone, it likely has a camera app on it, a music app on it, and a voice recorder app. There’s also the possibility of it taking a microSD card (likely maxing out at 32 or 64 GB, suiting our needs quite nicely) and plugging into your computer via a micro USB cable. Chances are, it’ll still work with your modern computer, especially if it’s one of those really old ones that show up as an SD card reader. From here, it’s all a matter of what you want. Need a device that has all of your library of several thousand songs for those long days when you just don’t wanna be bothered? Just dump all of your music into the “MUSIC” folder and plug a pair of headphones in. Now you’re jamming to your favorite songs by Neil Diamond, Air Supply, and Guns ‘n Roses! The device, miraculously, doesn’t need to connect to YouTube, and thus, the Internet, to buffer the songs to your device, alongside those pesky ads that mess up your train of thought. The reason? Your old phone’s music app is pulling the music straight from the files you just copied onto it, so all you need is to charge your battery! Or, say you’re waiting on that little voice recorder from China that still has a few months left in shipping? No problem, your old phone has that covered as well! Just pop in a micro SD card and use the voice recorder app. You can even download one from the app store and use it offline if your phone didn’t come with one preinstalled… It’ll work just as well for recording speech and notes. Miraculous, isn’t it? And, while that old camera may not be high-enough-quality to discern every single hair on your face from a mile away, I’m sure that if you keep the lens clean and be steady, you can get just as great of a picture from the ancient device. Or, you could be a company that doesn’t want to go through the trouble of installing a switchboard. You can download an app called “Talkie” from Google Play, connect the aging phone to a wireless network with other devices using the same app, and have, in theory, something even better than the standard. With this method, individuals can exchange files in the app just as easy as if they were texting each other. You can’t lose this way, not to mention it’s a whole lot cheaper.

Sure, you may have to wait a bit longer for it to start, and the screen may not be big enough to use comfortably for every little thing, but an old phone or other handheld can still serve a multitude of purposes, so long as it’s in working order and has the right software.

But away from technology, the bigger issue that I’m trying to get at is that our perception shapes the decisions we make, whether ill-informed or otherwise. A pill organizer is a pill organizer, a pencil box is a pencil box, and an old phone is an old phone, but these items can be so much more with a little bit of creative thinking. Sure, there could be better alternatives, and there probably are, but often times, we regard things as useless, old, worn out, obsolete, and they probably are, but they’re still incredibly versatile and useful, given that they had a chance to prove themselves and their worth. By saying that, I may have just made the market for old phones in peoples’ sock drawers soar, but there’s a potential for everything. I should know this, I drive a Scion from 2008 that still starts and use a PC from that same year as a server and main desktop at the moment. Sure, they can’t do everything a modern equivalent can, but they can still fulfill a purpose, even if it takes a bit of thought.

So, the next time you go to upgrade or replace something, before you go to chuck it in the trash box, just think, “What can this thing still do?”.

A Little Light or A Lada Light?

No, the title isn’t misspelled (if any of my readers are from the Russian Federation or the former-USSR, you’ll probably get the pun). It’ll play in later. What I’m getting at, though, is that we’re now officially in the age of LED lighting for our houses, and you can go and buy LED bulbs of all styles on the cheap! No matter what you decide to run them in, you don’t have to worry about the fixture not being able to safely accommodate the wattage of the bulb, even for the new 75-Watt bulbs! Okay, they’re only about nine watts, but they’re labeled as 75-Watt Equivalent (meaning that they give off the same amount of light that a traditional bulb would take 75 watts to produce in only a fraction of that energy), so that’s the term I’ll be using. Besides, the only bulbs I’m gonna be talking about are LEDs. Yes, the little one is an LED too. When I said you can get them in any style, I meant it.

The two pictures that fail to do the scene justice paired with this paragraph are (in the respective order from top to bottom): the white, 75-We bulb and the not-an-incandescent 25-We bulb. Neither uses more than nine actual watts, so I don’t have to worry about ruining my desk lamp or burning my house by getting a bulb rated for too many watts, but what I do have to worry about is whether or not I’m actually able to see what I’m doing. I’ll admit, I had originally bought the 75-We bulb for my lamp when I got it, but quickly found that it was more useful for… keeping me awake rather than providing a soft illumination over my laptop table. Cue a few months later when my father asks me if I want a two-pack of LED bulbs (one was missing, but that’ll come up later). He said that he didn’t like them because of the glare (I haven’t noticed any yet, but these are two different scenarios) and asked if I wanted the pack. Me being me and not wanting to make a trip to Walmart for just one thing, I decided to take the pack, especially after seeing it was a 25-We bulb (the incandescent theme of the bulb was an added bonus for me) and immediately swap it out with the too-bright LED from my lamp. Well, now I had an extra bulb that was too bright for something that wasn’t a whole room.

My bathroom has, very clearly, four light sockets in this fixture. Bulb №3 was missing for quite a while, assuming it was ever put in, so I used the spare bulb (picture №2 in this paragraph) for that and voila! I can finally stop getting bothered by that one empty socket! Of course, weeks later when I would eventually come to write this article, I’d swap it out for the 25-We bulb (picture №1 in the paragraph) for the sole purpose of making another point… it’s possible to have a room inadequately lighted for a task. I’m sure the older generation is well-aware of eyestrain caused by dimly-lit rooms. Regardless, I did it anyway and swapped the bright bulb out for the desk lamp bulb (if only for a few moments). Already, it was obvious that I made the right move by matching up the bulbs. Neither fixture or socket was at risk of damage, and I was not at risk of becoming a me-shaped lump of charcoal. Anyway, because I tend to want to keep things matched (Every LED bulb I put in my Maw Maw’s house, I always

, apart from the chandelier, used the same 75-We bulbs for consistency’s sake), I had two options: the first was to leave the 25-We bulb in my desk lamp and the four 75-We bulbs in the bathroom or I could go to Walmart for three more 25-We bulbs for the bathroom and end up with a bathroom that’s nearly too dim to use and a desk lamp too bright to be productive.

Much like in other situations, the simplest answer is often times the correct or best answer. If you're looking for a humidifier, the best type is evaporative! If you're looking to light an area, larger areas need more watts of light! If you're looking for a television, you can probably do with a traditional flat screen instead of a Smart TV. Generally, adding details to things only complicates the entire situation, often times to a needless degree.

A few of the current projects I am working on (Cherokee Post Herald Original)

This article was originally published in the 07 April 2021 edition of the Cherokee Post Herald.

I started cleaning out a few things the other day to rearrange a room:- I’ll save you the anticipation because I can’t arrange anything for anything. What I did find, though, was a number of things that I have, for one reason or another, just stopped using. Old laptops, flash drives, a floppy drive and floppy disks, the list goes on.

The design of the room, and you’ll see how this plays in here if you follow along, the design of the room called for some technology to use. Now, the nicest computer that I pulled out of the room was an old Lenovo laptop that, quite frankly, overheats and didn’t seem to have the resources that it should have for use as a daily-driver. Among the technology in said room was also an old Dell that used to belong to my grandfather that had such a small amount of processing power that was... comical... to say the least. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it crashed when I tried opening a small document. Anyway, I started thinking: Most of what I use on a daily basis is starting to age, some things better than others, so what if I could squeeze some extra life out of these old clunkers?

So, after cleaning out that room, my what-I-call-madness kicked in, and I did just that.

It took a little bit of digging to figure out exactly what I needed to do, but eventually I was able to find something that worked for me and whatever it was I was working with.

The first thing I did after I had room was work with the Dell; the weakest system I have that can still connect to a network. Knowing that there’s no real way I could use this for any real amount of work directly, and thinking how I use an old and crappy netbook for a backup internet connection, I figured that it would happily live as a file server, and I could have a bit of fun with it too. To make a long story short, I have a file server running what is functionally equivalent to Windows 95.

The hard part in that whole scenario was tracking down the libraries I needed to get the thing to work, but now that it’s rebuilt with a new SSD, I can happily say that it runs 24/7 with the exception of power outages and a monthly upgrade.

My second major project was actually the laptop I’m typing this article on right now, the aforementioned Lenovo. Because it has a considerably higher amount of power and resources in general, this was a much easier project in both time and ideas. Sure, I could set it on a table and have it collecting dust while it gets treated like a server, but it still has a lot of potential, assuming I’m willing to cut a few corners. Some of my closest friends know that I’m a Linux junkie, and that I often can get the same performance and usability out of a decade-or-more-old piece of technology, so I simply threw a copy of my software of choice (Arch Linux, better known as “Not for the faint-of-heart”), used a lightweight desktop and gave it a bit of a paint job so it feels much like a copy of the all-too-familiar Windows XP. I could go on and on with the things I’ve been able to repurpose or scrap for parts, but we don’t have time for that in this article, sadly. The room ended up being a success (so far, as I haven’t finished it), and so far, along with being a bit of a throwback stylistically, it’s provided a number of things a great place to not only call home, but also a way to show that, no matter how old and apparently useless, they can always serve a purpose someway, somehow.

Morning Coffee & WiFi: Anti-Burnout Fresh Brewed-Daily

For many of you, this isn't an unusual picture. You go into a fast food joint with your laptop, order a coffee, and drink said coffee while you might sit there for hours using the free wireless access that the restaurant provides. What it is you're doing, I'm not entirely sure, but there's just... something about it that keeps you from being able to do it at your house, whether it's writing that new article or you just can't seem to get your weekend plans straight. Let's take a look into why, shall we?

Part of the reason has to do with your environment changing. Going to the same place for the same tasks over and over can (and usually does) become repetitive, eventually leading to burnout... as unlikely as it may seem. Establishments like the one in the picture above can help us break free of a cycle we're in because, well, most minds think by analogy. When the only thoughts you have are repeating ones, you can quickly become stuck and unable to truly be productive at what you do. Taking a change of scenery every now-and-then isn't too far different from taking a vacation from a mental standpoint (to me, at least), and that's often enough to get over hurdles in general. For example, I've been trying to write a novel on the same laptop at the same spot in my bedroom for quite a few months now, but sometimes, I'll feel myself not really writing anything. Often times, the solution to this problem is the simplest one: Go somewhere else, and it doesn't have to be far; just shake things up a bit. Sometimes, even going to the kitchen table with my laptop and making a drink can jump off enough good ideas to get me through the day. The general rule of thumb I go by can, ironically, be explained in the way that some young people will understand (something that is quite a rare occurrence for me): When all of the good ideas in a room are used up, I go to another room until that first place has some good ideas again.

Stupid-sounding, I know, but bear with me here.

What happens, essentially, is you begin to fall into a mental rut that, while not noticeable when you're writing Chapter 2 and explaining (with subtlety) that a character is incapable of cooking without involving the fire department, by Chapter 22, your thought process could likely have derailed entirely. Multiple times. And that isn't a pretty feeling. While in transit, you may decide to scrap the idea of a nightmare exposing trauma in an explosive manner for some of the cast sitting down at the table over drinks and talking about their experiences that led them to where they are today. I'm unsure if it's the change of scenery that brings this on or if it's the fact that you're allowing yourself a break before you become completely burnt out and just decide to drop the idea altogether, no matter what potential it could hold. To put it in short, no idea you have will be likely to grow into the original outcome you wanted at or before starting because, well, things change. People will go in and out of your life, just like they'll go in and out of the McDonald's you're sitting in. Nothing can be held onto forever, but what you do grasp onto is enough to make a potentially wonderful idea flourish.

The above might even happen to you in some ways. You get in your car to go somewhere and turn on some music to keep the feeling of being by yourself at bay. You might start listening to Neil Diamond, but by the time you arrive, you're listening to Guns 'n Roses... two very different types of music. If you've ever caught yourself feeling stuck or in something repetitive, the general solution is to break the cycle, but sometimes as people, we don't know how to do this, or we don't realize we need to in the first place. Granted, I don't think that anything is immune from this cycle because we as people need change on occasion. As long as we're focusing on  a single part of ourselves, we may think we're bettering it, but in the long run, we're just wearing ourselves down because we're giving too much attention to one aspect and not enough to the others that may be in desperate need.

So, with that being said, I leave my readers to go out and try something different if they feel they're in a rut of some kind. Take a vacation or see a movie and give yourself the mental break from routine that you've been so desperately craving all this time. You'll find that it can do wonders for you, both in the short- and long-term.

Form vs Function: Which One Takes Precedence?

There's a bit of a conundrum that I deal with occasionally whenever I do things... Do I make it look pretty and sacrifice some of what it's capable of? Or do I make it work, but have something that others would label, at best, looking rough or, at worst, an eyesore? Today, I'll be giving my two cents on the idea.

Before I continue, I should mention that I'll be using content I don't really intend to release into the wild to drive home a point, but if you follow along closely, you shouldn't get too far lost in it.

I believe that form and function have their places, but at the end of the day, I'd prefer function over form, assuming space wasn't at a premium because, simply put, it does more, and it's, in theory at least, more versatile. In my last post, I mentioned that I've been writing stories for a while (though very few have ever seen the light of day due to my general thoughts on them), and one two common places that I generally use are the main character's house/apartment (obviously) and a garage with a loft. To mind, both are designed vastly differently. The house (I'll use that term as that's what I generally use anyway) normally has a minimal/modern furniture set that hides some functionality out of sight until it's needed... assuming it's used, of course. The garage, though, it's a garage. It's function only, despite it being a workplace/short-term housing. The nicest part about it is the loft, and I only say that because there's a couch and TV in its upstairs. The kitchenette actually is mentioned to have an outdoor metal porch table with no two chairs matching each other.

Needless to say, the amount of eyesore only goes up from there, but it's functional, and that's all that really matters in that environment. Now to come out of a story-world that I cobbled together in Grade 7 and kept building on to this day and into the real world.

We're often presented with a form/function compromise that we have to decide which to prioritize more... Do we want it to look good or do we want it to work well? That's the ultimate question whether it be a table or a vehicle. You might be thinking "Well a table is gonna hold stuff and I can go anywhere in my trusty Ford F150." That may be true, but there's still the question of what you're prioritizing. I know that, for me, a Toyota Matrix would be more than adequate for anything I'd have to haul with very few exceptions, but I'm never hauling anything generally, so I could easily do with a Mitsubishi G4 (or a Geo Metro, God forbid). No matter what table I get, it's probably going to hold my small laptop and make a passable excuse for a desk, but form comes into play here as well. The table has to sit tall enough that I can sit at it and get some work done without having to do anything absolutely crazy, but not so tall that I have to stand to use it. Next comes the issue of foot room... sure, I could turn to the side and do that, but at that point, why not just stack a few milk crates and ziptie them, right? Not only would that eat up my foot room altogether, but it would also make moving the contraption rather tedious, if I do say so. Besides, I have to be able to clip or otherwise attach the cables to it (laptop charger, speaker, network), as well as my lamp. Granted, if I put enough thought into it, I could come up with something to alleviate the cable and lighting issues, but at that point, it's more work than necessary... I only need a place where I can sit my laptop down and let it charge while I get some things done, not enter a "Milk Crate Furniture" contest. Be sensible. Anyway, back to the question. To the people who say that form is the priority, they're likely to have a more artistic eye about them.

To sum up this post, I normally find myself on the "Functionality" side of the spectrum. Exactly were I sit, though, that can change depending on the situation. Getting a new car? Well, I don't ever have a lot to carry, so a cutesy little sedan with good fuel economy would be functional enough for me, even though it leans heavily on the "Form" side of the spectrum in most respects. Getting a new laptop or replacing a television? I know what I need it to do and I generally like it to be user-serviceable, so form... pretty much goes out of the picture entirely. Anyone who's seen me go to McDonald's to use their WiFi can attest to this.

At the end of the day, though, your criteria for form and function is probably completely different than mine is, so it's your decision to make. This article was basically some self-analysis and some advice that you can use to aid your own decision-making.

"奇异恩典" is Just as Beautiful as "Amazing Grace"

There's a beautiful song, a rather short one, called Amazing Grace to the English-speaking world. To the Chinese-speaking world (Specifically Mandarin), it's known as 奇异恩典 (Qíyì ēndiǎn). Both are linked below as MP3 files.

Amazing Grace - English

奇异恩典 (Qíyì ēndiǎn) - 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà)

They both tell the same story, the same message. The only difference is how they're conveying it. One is conveying it to a language spoken by about 1.35 billion people worldwide, whereas the other is conveying to a language spoken by about 1.12 billion people worldwide, though I like to think of music as a universal language... one that can be understood by all. Let's examine the songs I linked above, shall we?

Firstly, their melody: It's flowing, smooth, and (somewhat) graceful, peaceful even. They both create the environment that one could be at rest in, very much contempt with the world, and not a care around. They're slow and at a calm pace, one that puts you at ease, whether it be for a joyous occasion or a more somber and serious one, but they both convey the same message: Something has happened, and everything will be okay. Now, I'd like to move on to the lyrics:

English Lyrics

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wrench like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found,
Was blind, but now I see.

 Chinese (Mandarin) Lyrics (With Hanyu Pinyin)

奇异恩典何等甘甜
我罪已得赦免
前我失丧今被寻回
瞎眼今得看见  

Qí yì ēn diǎn hé děng gān tián
Wǒ zuì yǐ dé shè miǎn
Qián wǒ shī sàng jīn bèi xún huí
Xiā yǎn jīn dé kàn jiàn

Both tell a story about being saved from an ailment that severely impaired them, and expressing joy or some other happy emotion in that they overcame what they did, much as if you would feel after overcoming a major obstacle in your life.

Now, to discuss a broader topic that this piece refers to in the third line, separation. So many people think that we're separated by linguistics... that simply not knowing each others' language separates you. While this may be true to some degree, ultimately, it's not to the degree that you might think. While we have amazing tools such as Google Translate, the two of you already have ways of communicating. You'd more-than-likely gesture the same (or similar) things for most ideas, you might enjoy the same or similar activities, but music is universal. My first time experiencing this was when I found a song called Brother Louie, and it was played, hilariously enough, by the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble of the DPRK (North Korea). Being in High School and not caring too much for pop music at the time (I still don't prefer the genre over my record-era favorites), I didn't think much of it. The lyrics sounded vaguely English when I listened hard enough, but it had a somewhat catchy tune. Mix that with the satisfaction of finding such a piece (along with forty-four other tracks from what I presume to be the same album) on YouTube, and I had some music that I could put on my headphones and listen to as I developed a fictional world of all kinds of creatures to exist in and make some interesting plotlines from.

Yeah, I've always had some rather... strange... tastes in music, but to each his own.

Anyway, a few months later, I wanted to see how much music from the Hermit Kingdom (as it's so eloquently called) on YouTube during a stint of boredom. Much to my surprise, I find the song Brother Louie was originally written by a (West) German pop duo who called themselves Modern Talking in 1985/1986.

Maybe someone thought that would be a good thing to bring into the country several years later, I don't know.

The point I'm getting at is, while two people may be different in every conceivable way, they will almost always have a similar reaction to a track, regardless if they can understand the lyrics because music, like different languages, is complex in its creation and what it says. The words you hear are only a part of the picture, and a tiny one at that. We experience similar emotions to music because music is one of the things that nearly everyone on the face of the Earth is exposed to from a very young age.

The Best Portability Option: Laptop or Hybrid Tablet? Part 2/2

I've been introduced to the prospect of mobile computing in several different forms over my life: notebook PCs, tablets, phones, hybrid devices, even the dreaded Chromebook. While I may not be able to make a single selection, I can at least narrow it down to two: Traditional Notebook PCs and Hybrid Tablets. In this blogpost, I'll be exploring the somewhat-to-very competent Hybrid Tablet (Also called a 2-in-1).

The Hybrid Tablet was a concept I was introduced to upon receiving my first (and, to date, only) Surface product. It was a Microsoft Surface RT running Windows RT 8.1. I was in eleventh grade when I received it, so it was already about five years old, if memory serves. Now, with any Hybrid Tablet, I make the distinction based on software capability: If it can run true desktop software and has the form factor of a Tablet PC with a detachable keyboard and trackpad, it's a 2-in-1. If it can't run true desktop software, then it's a Hybrid Tablet. I'll be exploring the latter in this blogpost.

First thing's first: what are the major things to adapt to? For one, they're small (the Surface RT and Onn Android Tablet, pictured above) and generally don't exceed a screensize of 10.6 inches (about 27 cm), so they have a rather cramped keyboard, trackpad, and workspace. Also, they generally can't run full desktop software, so for all of you Firefox fans out there on a Surface RT or Surface 2, good luck! Granted, in some cases, such as the Windows RT-based tablets, this is usually taken into account by providing some tools that would otherwise be installed by you, the end user. Microsoft bundled all Windows RT devices with Microsoft Office 2013 RT. Another downside is the general lack of ports (The surface had a single USB port and some form of Micro HDMI out, whereas the Onn only has a single USB-C port), though in the average use case scenario now, this can generally be forgiven, as we store everything in the cloud. Multitasking, even on Windows RT, on these devices is often times an excercise in frustration, with Android users even having to install a small program from the Play Store (I guess you iPad folk are out of luck), and even then, while you technically have a traditional desktop metaphor, it's still abundantly clear that the only thing that's actually alive in the desktop is you and the clock basically, though this isn't without its upsides.

For starters, their small size allows them to be stored in more areas, as well as having a smaller footprint on a workspace that would, otherwise, be rather cramped. Add to the fact that, being a tablet, it's equipped with a touchscreen, WiFi, and Bluetooth, so you can forego the trackpad and keyboard altogether for a Bluetooth combo, or just touch the screen for mouse input. A microfiber screenwipe would be helpful in some cases here. The lack of ports is a problem for some, yes, but when you're on a tablet, it's more likely you'll be doing any productivity work on a remote server (Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, etc) than saving it to a USB key, which brings me to my next point: their extremely competent wireless capabilities! With a tablet, the chances of it having all of the following (NFC, WiFi, Bluetooth, Cellular, GPS, and even more sometimes) is much better than with a Notebook PC, so you're more likely to always be one button press away from an internet connection! No fiddling with NetworkManager to get your laptop connected to your phone's bluetooth signal when you resume from suspend mode... As long as it has an active SIM card with an active Data Plan, you have access to whatever cell towers it can connect to! Earlier, I mentioned that you can't download true desktop software. While that may be the case, think about this: How many times have you downloaded something, only to have your computer become Malware Central a short time following? Well, since third-party code can't generally be ran with ease, the only thing that could slow down your device is usage over time. The device is, inherently, protected by the layer of incompatibility that stands between your device and malware from the web, so there's generally little-to-no need to go out and buy an extravagant antimalware suite. Even Windows Defender worked wonderfully on my Surface RT, even if there was virtually zero reason to use it or have it installed (apart from the "Your PC isn't protected" notification that would otherwise show up). In fact, it was so secure that, had it not decided to kick the bucket from my usage, I'd likely still be using it today for my writing when I'm not at my house.

Hybrid Tablets (unlike Notebook PCs and 2-in-1s), generally use an architecture that is either shared with or more compatible with existing smartphones. That means the Qualcom in your tablet and the processor in your smartphone may even be the exact same thing, so the only difference would be that one has a bigger screen and detachable keyboard.

At the end of the day, Hybrid Tablets are still a relatively-new concept to me, even in 2021, and there's a bit of an adjustment that I have to make after using a Notebook PC since Elementary School. Where does my analysis stand on these nifty little devices? From a computing standpoint, they're the anti-Notebook PC. They don't have a particularly high amount of power and software compatibility, but they're well suited for doing light tasks for days at a time without ever having to worry about charging the device. To sum up this two-post-series, if you're looking for more power for more intensive tasks, a Notebook PC would easily suit your needs, so long as you can keep it charged (less of an issue now, as I'm aware the battery in my Lenovo is certainly not the original one). If you're looking for something to write documents on in a coffee shop, as a tool to help you through school before college (and even in college, if you're confident enough), and a device that can go from quick on-the-go reports to bingewatching that new Netflix series in a matter of seconds, then the Hybrid Tablet is for you.

As a part of the post focusing on Hybrid Tablets, I feel it somewhat necessary to add a statement on why I chose not to do a 2-in-1 tablet, and that's simply because I have never really owned one, as well as feeling that having such a device would be redundant and a compromise between a Hybrid Tablet and a full Notebook PC.

The Best Portability Option: Laptop or Hybrid Tablet? Part 1/2

I've been introduced to the prospect of mobile computing in several different forms over my life: notebook PCs, tablets, phones, hybrid devices, even the dreaded Chromebook. While I may not be able to make a single selection, I can at least narrow it down to two: Traditional Notebook PCs and Hybrid Tablets. In this blogpost, I'll be exploring the standard Notebook PC (Not anything that tries to be an SBC or ARM-based).

Introduced a number of decades ago as a way to make computers more portable, the Notebook PC has underwent many forms and subforms, if you will. My general choice of laptop is a 2010 Lenovo ThinkPad X201 with some upgrades and a good install of Arch Linux. I feel it only right to tackle the elephant in the room brought up simply by mentioning that the computer is from 2010: It's still a decent computer, if on the lower performance end now. Notebook PCs, being Notebook PCs, generally don't have all-day battery life, are not always going to be instant-boot, and can sometimes run hot under the simplest of tasks in a poor-enough environment (Ask me how often that happens in the hot season where I live if the A/C goes out, I dare ya). Despite their drawbacks, they are, first and foremost, a full-blown PC in a portable package. They're easily docked, have a good port selection (generally), and can even be user-upgradeable or user-servicable... two big plusses for me over the Hybrid Tablet option. Plus, I can wipe the original OS off and replace it with whatever I feel like (generally Linux so it runs faster and is more secure). Any piece of software I could need (or want) will generally run on it and, even when I'm having to charge the battery every 2-4 hours, I can still get a respectable amount of work done on the go with one, despite the bulk I may incur by going with this route. Sadly, though, this opens the way for malware of all flavors, generally speaking (Again, my preference for using Linux mitigates this to a respectable degree), to infect the system if you're not careful. Hybrid Tablets can succumb to this as well, though it's MUCH harder. With the notebook, multitasking is easier acomplished out-of-box, and the useable area isn't so... claustrophobic. Plus, you can generally get notebooks more tailored to a specific task or category than you can with a Hybrid Tablet. Granted, getting online may be a tedious task, but is quickly alleviated with how commonplace smartphones with unlimited data plans are, as well as nearly every device released now including WiFi and Bluetooth as standard, so this isn't a problem today like it would have been five or ten years ago. Granted, it's still a mild inconvenience to have to manually connect to Verizon's network via my notebook's bluetooth after resuming from sleep mode, though I'm also working at a much more capable system than the Hybrid Tablet.

With physical media becoming more and more obsolete by the day, I don't feel the need to include the lack of an optical drive in either option, but I have found myself in quite a few situations where the lack of a CD/DVD drive is... rather infuriating. No matter, you can always pick one up at your local Walmart for a slight premium, but it works. I can vouch for this being a viable solution with the Notebook PC, especially if you dock it to a table or desk and you're trying to recreate a Desktop PC environment.

Another benefit of the Notebook PC before I finish this post is the general professionalism that comes along with using something more akin to what one would traditionally think of when they think of a computer, even with the slight bulk. You can run full office suites, get real photo editing software, even compile your own software, if you so desire.

The possibilities go much further than this blog post could ever give, so with that, I leave you with my analysis of using a Notebook PC for portable computing. In sort, it's more power on the go.

Adventures in Retro Computing... Somewhat

Lately, I've found myself using a (recently-undeveloped) program called PCem once again to emulate older systems, most notably a Cyrix Cx486 to run Windows 3.1 on with the Calmira shell, but also to play with some other ancient software too, and I've been thinking, "Why keep this to myself when I know good and well that there are other retro computer enthusiasts out there too?".

Put simply, that's why I'm sharing my opinions here in my first blog.

It all starts when I stick my USB Key in my computer (very ironic when you consider I'm effectively going back to 1992 from a technological perspective) and mount the drive. From there, I'm only a few clicks and a keystroke away from my desktop being transformed into a computer of old (sort of, but bear with me).

My general preference (systemwise) is a 486/compatible (AMI WinBIOS 486) with two floppy drives, Adlib/Soundblaster 1.0, Tseng ET4000AX (I think it's pronounced approximately as "chang" as in "Changbai" or "tseng", but correct me if I'm wrong) at 640×480×8, a 1X CD-ROM drive, and powered by a Cyrix Cx486S/25 with 16 MB of RAM.

I never understood what it was about wanting to be different, but it suits me, so I roll with it.

 Anyway, the configuration runs MS-DOS 6.22 (or thereabouts) with Windows 3.1 on a (generally) 150ish megabyte hard drive image.

I know it's not exactly a sensible configuration by any means whatsoever, but I do say that there is a certain charm I get from that, though the true recursion comes from the fact that I have the Calmira shell installed, which essentially (had it been around in stores in 1995 when Windows '95 was released) would have been the perfect reason for most people to justify not getting the new OS and going with what could have been called the first "budget build", another thought that has an odd charm to it.

My general software suite consists of Microsoft Works/Microsoft Office 6, Netscape Communicator, and Microsoft Encarta '94, as well as a few other things that I'm not sure of at the current moment. Still, though, it's a good thing to play around in, even if I'll never get any real networking stack within the VM (I attribute that to my own unwillingness and possible incompetence to get that configuration set up more than any incompatibilities in the program). At least I'll be able to code some webpages and maybe run them in an "intranet" type setting (Basically a bunch of HTM files on a secondary image) so it doesn't feel so cut off, and so I can see what anything I could come up with would have looked like in the early-to-mid '90s.

Another thing that I've realized when I do this is just how little I use out of a modern system's capabilities and potential some (or most) days, assuming I satisfy my internet needs with either a different system or a phone/tablet. Granted, while using an emulator to run a Windows 3.1 system is fun and can give me a pretty good idea of the experience (at least from a software perspective), no matter what you do, you can't ever get the feeling of slotting a 5¼" or 3½" diskette into its drive and wait for everything to spin up, although you can definitely try.

Going back a page, I would like to bring into perspective that, apart from some of the modern conveniences in word processors now (LibreOffice Writer for one), everything I do when making documents and spreadsheets can generally be accomplished in 20-30 year old software, despite how different it may end up being, or the fact that it's at a crummy resolution on my 16:10 desktop or laptop. Granted, basic internet surfing more than makes up for the excess power on some of my machines as they're generally several years old themselves. Regardless, it's surprising when you put into perspective how little some tasks change over time, even if we try to convince ourselves otherwise.