Lenovo Ideapad S10 2 GB RAM and 6-cell battery upgrade

Lenovo Ideapad S10 2 GB RAM and 6-cell battery upgrade:

"For the Lenovo S10 you need a DDR2 PC5300 SODIMM (this will not fit into a standard SDRAM SODIMM socket). A SODIMM, or small outline dual in-line memory module, is a smaller alternative to a DIMM, being roughly half the size of regular DIMMs. SODIMMS are often used in systems which have space restrictions such as notebooks and netbooks.

Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 netbook is easy to upgrade. The S10 has 512MB soldered onto the motherboard and only one SODIMM slot. If your S10 comes with more than 512MB preinstalled, than there's already a SODIMM in the slot and you will have to remove it first. The motherboard also cannot recognize more than 2GB in total, including the built-in 512 MB. A 2 GB DIMM will give you 2 GB, not 2.5 GB, because the last 512 MB will be ignored"

Click the link above to get linkies to ram, batteries.  Or just search Amazon.  Sweet.  

Now to decide 'tween Dell Mini 9 and Lenovo S10.

Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart from Boing Boing Gadgets

Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart (updated) - Boing Boing Gadgets: Got a Netbook for Christmas?  Want to make it an hackintosh?

The linked page has all the dope.  Their summary?  "get an MSI Wind or Dell Mini 9."

party! (video) - December 25, 2008, 12:01 PM

Merry Christmas from Alec and the crew!

Doh!

Doh!
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Posted without comment.

Update 6:45 PM:
Everyone is OK; Carol's car is not. Just the fender damage but I'll assume the insurance will total it out one way or another. (91 honda, 200K miles . . .)

More photos from the scene:

Signs

Took Alec and his mom to Kaleidoscope today. Alec had fun. I was a touch bored. Till I saw the sign board. Then I wasn't bored - I had a board!

signs 1 -:- signs 2 -:- signs 3 -:- signs 4

signs 5 -:- signs 6 -:- signs 7

Then leaving, I see someone else had a sign.


Update: Made a playlist (channel) page for this. View all current and future 'signs' videos from one place.

Alec and Mom at Kaleidoscope

Alec and Mom at Kaleidoscope
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com

Alec at Crayola Store

Alec at Crayola Store
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com

Nuts about Nuts?

BBC NEWS | Health | Warning of nut allergy 'hysteria':

"Measures to protect children with nut allergies are becoming increasingly absurd and hysterical, say experts.
A peanut on the floor of a US school bus recently led to evacuation and decontamination for fear it might have affected the 10-year-old passengers."

Facts: there are 2,000 hospitalizations a year (out of 30,000,000 total) for all allergic reactions.  Just 150 people a year die from food allergies.

Professor Nicolas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, notes that the hysteria about nut contamination looks more like mass psychogenic illness. (See: Salem Witch Trials, etc.)

Are we Nuts about Nuts?  Yup.  

Interesting article about The Role of the Media and Media Hypes from Johns Hopkins. 

Tree is up

Tree is up
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com

Accuracy vs Precision

Fiddling with new toys - got a $5 oven thermometer and a $40 meat thermometer.  Set the oven to 350 - nice digital display, so it *should* be accurate and precise.

Testing that theory.  The $5 oven thermometer reads precisely 10 degrees low - the oven claims it's at 350 degrees; the thermometer reads 340.  The $40 meat thermometer shows the initial warmup overshot to 375 degrees, then cooled to 365, even after opening the oven several times to check the $5 thermometer.

After about a 10 minute 'rest' -- long enough to type up this blog post - the $40 meat thermometer has dropped to 351 degrees.  I think the oven agrees - I just heard the relays kick on to re-energize the heating elements.  The $5 thermometer still shows low - 342 or thereabout.

After a 20 minute 'rest' and a full heat cycle the oven thermometer now shows 160, and the meat thermometer shows 165 degrees.

So, which is right?  I don't know.  They are all precise - same measurements every time.  But until I can find a definitive answer, I'm out of luck for accuracy.

Update: Thought of a new test. We know how hot boiling water is - 212 degrees at sea level. Well, I'm 1,000 feet above that, but I pulled a pan of hot water (less dissolved solids) and set it to a rolling boil. The meat thermometer registered 212 degrees. So it is accurate and precise.  The oven thermometer isn't submersible, so no way to test it - but comparing against the meat thermometer it appears to read within 10% or so, just slowly.

The good news is that the oven display is right on the money, at least good enough for home use.

Messy basement

Messy basement
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Took this with the panorama feature on the touch pro. Pretty dang fancy.

--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com

CNN misses, Google Hits.

Earlier today (yesterday, now) nuclear armed India invaded nuclear armed Pakistan -- quick action by Pakistani air force jets headed off the attempted invasion.  Ok, the news calls it 'airspace violations'.  At least some of the news.  CNN - not so much.  A search at 10:00 PM CST, Dec 13 shows zero hits for Pakistan Airspace on CNN:

pakistan airspace - Search results for pakistan airspace - CNN.com

The same search on Google News turns up 539 hits. 

What's CNN up to?  Or are they just bound and determined to go tango-uniform?  (toes (tits) up - Dead)

Cue pirate with tourettes.  

Good day for a ride

Good day for a ride
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com

Grandstand burgers

Grandstand burgers
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com

Kansas City Lunch Spots - great website

Kansas City Lunch Spots   advertises that "It shouldn't be this hard to find someplace to eat lunch."

Nice web blog site with reviews and info on local joints for lunch.  On my Reader list...

Alec wins Pack 3094 Pinewood Derby

Alec's had a great time building, racing and winning with Pine Car Derby and Cub Scout Pack 3094 in Overland Park, KS.

First Place!

First Place!
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Track record all day!

--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com

Alec at pinecar derby

Alec at pinecar derby
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com

Tiny PCs, Full-Size Problems

Rob Pegoraro - Tiny PCs, Full-Size Problems: "What to get instead? If you're buying a netbook as your sole computer, knowing that you'll only use it on the Web, Acer offers the best bet for now. If, however, you're buying it as a third or fourth computer and are willing to tweak it to fit your own needs, look at the MSI.

But it might be better to wait. If these manufacturers have the good sense to steal each other's best ideas, we should see significantly better choices before long."

Basic Handwriting for Kids - Manuscript - Alphabets and Numbers

Basic Handwriting for Kids - Manuscript - Alphabets and Numbers: "Basic Handwriting for Kids"