The Sony Vaio SZ -- my new computer?

I'm replacing my old IBM T42 with something smaller. Sony's VAIO SZ series is in the lead right now, but I'm a bit concerned about the keyboard quality. Any other experiences? I've heard Sony notebooks don't stand up well over time, but you can purchase an extended warranty with "Accidental Damage from Handling" for $199 for 2 years or $299 for 3 years, which makes me feel more confident.

Other top runners are the Dell Latitude X1 and Lenovo X60, but the screen resolution on both of these is 1024x768. Plus only the X60 offers a Core Duo processor. I'd really like a 12" 1280x1024, but no one makes that. Settling on the VAIO's 1280x800 is as much of a comprimise as I'm willing to make.

Five traits of solid investments

I don't have much to add to Motley Fool's article on five traits of solid companies, other than to remind myself to follow them. (Maybe this blog will be more of a public bookmarks folder...)

Aren't you too smart to be taking creatine?

Used it before and noticed a big difference in muscle size, becuase of water retention. I also noticed a change in muscle output, but it wasn't measured, so I don't know how much.

There are three phases to a creatine regimine: loading, maintainance, and washout. The loading phase lasts no more than 5 days. During this phase, the correct dose is 20g for a 150 lb male, 24g for 175 lb, and 27g for 200. The next phase, maintancence, lasts 25-30 days. During this phase you take 1/10th of what you did during loading. Finally, they recommend a 30 day washout phase, during which time you take no creatine.

Ovearll, doses should be taken every 4 hours. Take no more than 10g at each time. Take each dose with water or a non-acidic drink, like apple juice. Drink plenty of liquids while your taking creatine, since the substance promotes water retention.

This information was cribbed from the self-proclaimed Creatine Information Center

Nokia's grand plan?

Back in December, Cingular announced a deal with HBO to deliver their content. "But, what would I do with Deadwood or The Sopranos on my phone?" you say. I agree; phones aren't the best devices for watching a TV show. Even the iPod video isn't that much better. It hurts my neck to look down in my lap for anything longer than an episode of Arrested Development. But I think Nokia has bigger plans.

The Nokia N80 will be first phone on the market which supports UPnP and Wi-Fi and WCDMA. This combination of technology means with a receiver and TV which also supported UPnP and Wi-Fi, you could stream a HBO show off Cingular's network to your TV and stereo.

And, today, Nokia's AD-42W Wireless Audio Gateway showed up in FCC filings. Maybe a cheaper way to test the waters with just audio?

Spring config file best practices

O'Reilly's ONJava.com has a short article on the Twelve Best Practices For Spring XML Configurations. It's worth the 45 seconds to skim it. For the impatient, #1 is "Don't use autowiring."

High-speed databases

Computerworld has an article about high-speed, in-memory databases. They talk about requiring < 500 ms access times and handling > 1000 messages/minue as reasons compaines switched over from RDBMes.

In addition to better performance, the in-memory solutions allowed users to use Excel to run analysises themselves. This empowerment opens up previously impossible scenarios, and reduces dependencies on other departments (ie replace custom datawarehousing with a memory db).

They also have a good summary of what's available in the marketplace. Among the list, compaines I didn't recognize were:

1. Ants Software's Ants Data Server
2. Applix's TM1
3. Db4objects' db40
   
4. Kx Systems' kdb+
5. Progress Software's ObjectStore ODBMS
6. Skyler Technology's Prime Processing
7. Solid Information Technology's EmbeddedEngine and BoostEngine
8. StreamBase Systems' StreamBase
9. Vhayu Technologies' Velocity