Digital Life

Shamelessly stealing this idea from Scalzi. Because I think it will be interesting to observe how my technology benchmark changes over time. So, this is the current tech in my lair, er, apartment.

Desktop: Gateway Model GT5692 I bought this when my last computer died about four years ago now. It runs on an AMD Phenom 8450 triple-core processor with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HD. It may be old but it's far from slow. I get a better response from this machine than my mom's year old quad-core HP, though in all fairness this system is heavily modified to keep the amount of unnecessary shit running to a minimum. Originally it ran on Vista, which was then the only OS that supported multicore processing. Yes, my OS is 64-bit. These days I run on Windows 7, though I haven't tweaked it much yet from the original settings. This model is quite upgrade friendly and I do plan on some hardware upgrades eventually.

Netbook: HP Mini This actually isn't mine, it's on loan from a friend. Originally it was so I could separate my schoolwork from my desktop, where all the distractions are. Unfortunately it is an older model and doesn't have quite the responsiveness I need from it, so these days it functions mainly as a digital cookbook/strategy guide for gaming. It's a shame, I want to like this machine but it just doesn't do it for me.

Phone: HTC Rezound First off, I don't care about the beats audio thing, which is the gimmick they marketed this on. When I upgraded my phone in January from my old Samsung Glyde, I did the research and the Rezound was the model in my price range and generally viewed as a solid piece of hardware. So far I have virtually no complaints and true to the reviews, it performs well. I actually do like the HTC Sense interface, which most people seem to trash. Maybe I'm just amused by the fact that my phone's GUI can do a barrel roll. I do have some issues with apps screwing with unrelated settings, but this seems to be a common Android issue, not a phone-specific problem.

eReader: Barnes & Noble nook Most people here probably know I have this, lol. I was an early adopter and as such, mine is an original launch model. It does what I want it to do, though I do have minor complaints about the user interface and the way it performs certain operations. But all in all it is a little workhorse and I'm betting newer models have (hopefully) fixed some of the issues I have with this one.

Video Game Consoles: Playstation 3, Playstation 2, PSP-3000, Nintendo DS, PC I guess you could say I'm a Playstation fangirl. I'm not OMG Sony is the best company EVAR, I just happen to like the Playstation consoles. And I've never had any interest in the XBOX. Yes, my PSP is the one from the Dissidia bundle, so it's a shiny silver.

Media Services: Netflix, Steam, Gamefly Yep, the trifecta. Mostly I use Netflix. Gamefly I use because I'm a poor college student who can't afford to buy every game I'm interested in. So I rent first, if I really like it I buy it. Obviously this only applies to games I'm interested in but wouldn't normally play. I don't use my PC much for gaming so Steam doesn't see much use. I may not be totally obsolete yet but the one failing of this system is its graphics card, which is in dire need of upgrade.

Notes: You will notice that I don't have a tablet. I am actually considering whether one would have enough utility to use instead of the Netbook, or to use in conjunction with my PC for things like research or whatever. Don't worry, I'm no iPad hipster. I think Apple products are vastly overrated and overpriced. And like anything else, I would do the research first.

If you have any questions about anything else I'm running or if there's a specific program I use for something, feel free to ask. In case I derped and left something out, which is entirely possible.