Factors to consider when buying a laptop/pc for college

Buying a laptop/PC for college

There are a number of factors you need to take into account when buying a laptop or pc for your college course:

·         Laptop or PC

Firstly there the question is “laptop or PC?” and the answer is simple: a laptop can be used anywhere; at home on the couch, on the train or in college, while a pc is not easily moved from place to place, requires more room and needs a constant power supply. Therefore, a pc would impractical for a college student so a laptop is obviously the better option.

·         Purpose

You should take into consideration the main use of the laptop, for example a student dealing with computer graphics, may need a high end graphics card and high resolution screen. If your course involves mostly reading and writing, you may get away with a cheaper laptop, which basically does word processing and web browsing for you. Mac computers are better for design work, however are usually more expensive, but if all you need are the basic functions (word processing, internet, email, etc.) most models are more than capable of handling those basic operations.

·         Size & Weight

The Size of the laptop is also important. If you plan to take your laptop to every class in your bag, you are probably looking at a 12" or a 13" notebook. This will be lighter, making it easy to carry around and will also be easier to fit on small desks in classrooms. Another option is buying a Netbook. A Netbook is very light-weight, has a small screen (7" to 10" ), and has a relatively small keyboard. The pros of buying a netbook are low-cost, light weight, and good battery life. The drawbacks are the netbook’s small keyboard, and usually they do not have a disk drive meaning you can’t use DVD’s or CD’s.

·         Software

Laptops do not come with much software on them, so make sure you get what you need. A trial of Microsoft office will probably be installed on the laptop but you will need to buy it when this expires to continue using the software so make sure you keep this in your budget. However, there are versions of this available to download such as “open office”. Security software is important to protect your laptop from viruses, and can also be bought or downloaded.

·         Price

Price is an important factor to take into account when buying a laptop for college. As most students have a limited budget it’s important to shop around for the best deal. Some shops may have deals when buying a laptop and software, such as Microsoft office, together which may save you money. Also make sure the salesman isn’t selling you something that you don’t need which will cost you more, for example you won’t need a 320GB hard-drive if you are only using your laptop for college work.

Electric Sportscar

Whether it’s the recession, pressure from society or a combination of both, people are starting to make an effort to reduce carbon emissions, and prevent global warming. From using solar powered energy to cycling to work, everyone is contributing to help prevent this destructive cycle. Our biggest pollutant is car emissions, and scientists and engineers have been working on alternative means of fuel which will not produce emissions, such as solar and hydro powered cars.

Recently a group of students from London completed an epic journey by driving an electric sports car from Alaska to Argentina. The 16,000-mile journey took five months, although they had planned to complete it in three months. The vehicles’s 2 engines are powered by Lithium iron phosphate batteries, and can reach 60mph in seven seconds, with a top speed of 124mhp. The trip was also kind to the environment, with no carbon dioxide emitted. The project to build and drive the “SRZero car” took two years.

The team were engineering students from London’s Imperial College, and although they did experience some minor issues along the way, all were resolved.

"There's a huge interest all over the world at the moment in ideas that will help to reduce carbon emissions and this certainly drew attention wherever we went," - Dr Howey from Imperial college.
Up to now, most electric, hydro and solar powered cars produced have been impractical, with speeds too slow for our roads and regular charges. The prospect of an adequate electric powered car being produced in the near future seemed impossible, however this breakthrough may prove it closer then we think. Although it might look like a toy car, I think the SrZero car looks quite cool. With speeds up to 124mph its certainly has more than enough speed for modern roads.


If this car can be driven 16,000 miles across the world without any major mechanical problems, then surely they cannot be too far off being ready for production. And although it may have some practically issues such as size and possibly price, I think we will see electric cars in production in the near future.


Link: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Electric-Car-Completes-Its-Epic-Journey-From-Alaska-To-Argentina-Without-Carbon-Dioxide-Emissions/Article/201011315814644?lpos=World_News_Second_Technology_Article_Teaser_Region__5&lid=ARTICLE_15814644_Electric_Car_Completes_Its_Epic_Journey_From_Alaska_To_Argentina_Without_Carbon_Dioxide_Emissions

New Garda Safety Cameras

An area of technology which interests me is how Police forces use modern technology to prevent and solve crimes. They use a range of different technologies in many different areas to do this. From fingerprinting to breath-testing, technology is vital in the fight against crime in today’s world. An example of this is in the Garda “Traffic Corps” division, whose “responsibility it is to significantly reduce the incidence of fatal and serious injuries and improve road safety”. They prevent traffic offences such as speeding and drink-driving and use technology to do this. An example of this is the recent launch of a Garda initiative called the “Go Slow Initiative”, which was introduced in an attempt to reduce speeding on our roads.

The “Go Slow Initiative” introduced mobile speed cameras or “mobile safety cameras” around the country. The initiative is in partnership with a company called GoSafe who will operate the cameras on behalf of the Gardai. The cameras will be installed in vans, which will be placed on the road-side in different locations around the country. Surveys have been carried out and these sections of road “were identified as having a significant proportion of collisions whereby, in the opinion of the investigating Garda, a safe speed was exceeded”. Ongoing surveys will be conducted to ensure that these sections of roads continue to represent locations where speeding is happening, and the cameras can be easily moved to a different location if required.

The sections or road where the cameras will be located are available on the Garda website, however their exact location is not. The vans will also be clearly marked as having a safety camera on-board as “the aim is to change driver behaviour, reduce speed and as a result improve road safety. It is not to generate revenue either for the State or the service provider.”

The cameras will operate day and night, and can monitor both sides of the road simultaneously. GoSafe will provide 6,000 enforcement hours and 1,475 survey hours per month across the country.

The Gardai hope that the safety cameras will:

•           Increase compliance with speed limits across the entire road network.

•           Reduce speed at locations that have a speed related collision history.

•           Act as a deterrent to driving at excessive speeds.

This new initiative is a typical example of how the police use technology to prevent road collisions and save lives as “The use of safety cameras will have a significant effect in decreasing speeding levels which will directly reduce the rate of fatalities and serious injuries from collisions on the roads in Ireland”

Link: http://garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=5590&Lang=1

Magic seaweed surf forecasts

Check out http://www.magicseaweed.com/ for the latest surf forecasts in Ireland and all over the world. They also have cool pics, videos and surfing news, and an on-line store. The forecasts not the most reliable, but will give you a rough idea if theres waves on the way.

Big wave

A new wave was found off the west coast recently by Irish and English big-wave surfers. It featured on the RTE news and on the front page of the Irish Times. Heres the link to videos and pics on the RTE website: ">http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1109/surfing.html">

Blog design link

Found a good site for the multimedia/Ict CA to design a blog : http://www.blogdesignblog.com/blog-design/how-to-blog-design-style-guide/">

Change of plan

So after setting up this blog, the already existing IADT surfing soc decided to appear. There was a sign-up day in the chapel and there was a lot of interest. I joined up but have yet to hear back from them. There will hopefully be surf weekends away to surf spots in Donegal and Clare.

Anyway since my blog is now irrelevant i am re-converting it (if thats even a word) to a blog focusing on surfing in Ireland!