My netbook adventure (Misadventure perhaps?)

Seems like today is a fine day to blog for this is the 3rd post today. The word comes from the colloquial usage of the word modify. Very unusual if you ask me because "modifiy" is in itself a verb which embodies a certain action/act. So from the way people have used the term, modding has long become an acceptable member of our lingua franca.

Modding refers to the practice of engineering ingenious tweaks to pre-existing everyday things in our lives in such a manner that the intended manner of usage of the said thing has been permanently altered. The scope of functionality could have been altered to encompass a wider realm of possibility. So apparently, the product can now be used to achieve a purpose of which it was not intended or designed for in the first place. In most circumstances, modding comes across as being milder. It allows for limits to be pushed further. All contraceptions are meant to operate within a set of limits of which there are acceptable margins of tolerance. By modding in this context here, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are tempting fate by wreaking havoc on the product itself. We are merely trying to set the margin of error thinner, thats all. :)

So, back to my subject of focus. My netbook.

MSI Wind U100. The original Asus eee PC contender that helped to spearhead growth of the UMPC market. A search through Google will have you boogling at the sheer number of awards of which it has garnered since its unveiling in April 2008. I am proud to say that i was one of the first few to buy a U100 armed with the 6 cell :)

Here are the specifications:

MSI Wind U100243SG

2GB (1x GB soldered on motherboard, 1x GB DDR2 667Mhz)

Western Digital Sata 5400rpm 160GB Scorpio HDD

Intel 945GSE Northbridge ICH7 Southbridge

1.3 MP Bison Webcam

Ralink RT2700E b/g/n PCI-E Wireless

Bluetooth 2.0

Windows XP Home edition

6 cell 5200mAh

3x USB 2.0 compliant ports

Sentelic Touchpad

Now, while a car aficionado will have you believe that some cars are a dream to behold, car ownership is totally another matter altogether. In comes the grouses. Yes, it is the same for computers. Reviews raves and raves but it is truly the rigours of time that will truly dig up bit by bit the flaws of a computer. Only farts will tell you that something is perfect. THERE IS NOTHING PERFECT IN THIS WORLD.

Grouses 2.0:

1. I hate the speakers. They sound like WW2 Signaling speakers

2. I dislike the stiff rocker button of the touchpad.

3. I loathe the Sentelic cheapo touchpad immensely. Scrolling should always be done via dragging not tapping.

:) not alot of grouses right? okay so how the hell does this all link up with modding? Why yes but of course, i modded to blast these grouses to oblivion!

1.) The primary reason why the speakers suck is why because they aren't very far from being sucky in the first place :/ MSI has neglected to create proper enclosures for the speakers as well. Enclosures are critical to eliminate the occurrence of destructive interference in speakers especially during the process of "throw" i.e. when the cone(s) are moving back and forth. Simple, i created my own enclosures by cutting two plastic caps to shape and mounting the speakers snugly in them. Terrific? Errr no quite. You see, prior to me gaining enlightenment, i unfortunately operated the speakers beyond their bandwidth.

Bandwidth here doesn't refer to what you think of as the internet surfing speed. No no no... not that. Here, think of the speakers as a electrical transducer. It takes in electrical signals and converts them into sound waves. And as much as sound waves differ in terms of frequencies, certainly different kinds of electrical inputs will be required to elicit different kind of frequency in aural output. This is where bandwidth comes into play. A good speaker has high bandwidth, that is, it is able to accept a wide range of electrical signals and amplify the output so that you get crystal clear audio output with no distortion. A bad speaker on the other hand, can only amplify a narrow range of audio sound waves. So this mod essentially increases the bandwidth of the speakers. Well a little too late unfortunately. Every now and then, the crackling on the left speaker comes to play, making me cringe. Too bad, the internal speakers are as elusive as the Tasmanian Tiger on the net. :/

2.) I simply took out the rocker switch and saw it into two :D Done!

3.) I am contemplating ordering a proper Synaptic touchpad from well well well, Asus :/

4.) I am mulling doing a swap of the original HDD for a faster one i.e. a 7200rpm Sata HDD which should be around 320GB. Then a dual boot will be in the works. Imagine! A netbook booting up to OS X Snow Leopard. WOW.