Alienware have been busy and Girlygeekdom had the privilege of being invited to the European launch of their new magical box, the X51. Upon first look, it reminds me of the XBox 360 S console with the almost monolithic yet sleek lines. However, this does not mean the insides are meager. On the contrary, it can pack an Intel i7-2600 CPU with an NVIDIA GTX 555 graphics card. Because of the compact size and the mini-ITX motherboard, you can’t have a SLi combination but it is highly unlikely that you will need this for every day gaming.

Several games were showcased on the X51, including the much awaited Mass Effect 3. I played the demo which includes the intro and the events that unfold during the beginning of the game. There was also an additional mission to play which involves saving a Krogan female. Without spoiling the plot for players who have avoided all contact with this, all I can say is that we’re in for a game of epic proportions. It is arguably the best of the three in the trilogy and I am pleased to report that it runs smoothly on the X51. Taking a peek at the graphics settings, there wasn’t much to change apart from the resolution which was set at 1920 x 1200. Perhaps additional graphic tweaking for the game could be made in the NVIDIA control panel.

Being an Alienware product, you will get the obligatory colour panel where you can change the colour of the X51′s case lights.There is a reason why people buy Alienware products; they want the bling and they certainly do stand out from the crowd.

Connectivity wise, there are eight USB ports, HDMI, coaxial and optical port for audio which is most welcome. I own a set of Logitech Z5500 speakers pumping out sound for multiple devices and optical has always been my preferred choice. For a small box, the Alienware team still managed to cram as much as possible at the back.

There are customisable options for the X51 depending on your budget; the main specs you can change are your CPU, RAM and graphics card options. The prices start from £699 but if you go on the Dell US site it is priced at $699. Yup, they have gone and flipped the currency symbol on us again and they expect this to go unnoticed. Unfortunately not and this does mean we are paying more than our American cousins.

As part of the fun, we were all invited to take part in a Street Fighter IV tournament, where I lost miserably in the first round. Now if a proper PC game was hosted such as StarCraft 2 then I may have had a chance but alas.

More fun was had with a talented caricature artist who expertly drew me as Cat Woman, meow. NVIDIA was also on hand to create 3D models of us via a face scanner, which I should later receive through the post once the models are created using a 3D printer. Let us not forget the greatness that was Team Dignitas who was casting the tournament for us; I follow some of their pro gamers very frequently, especially the StarCraft 2 tournaments, and it was a privilege to meet and talk to them in person.

So a special thanks to DignitasODEE and his TeamDignitas guys for being great on the night (especially Apollo who came all the way to perhaps cast an SC2 game but couldn’t) and Asim for once again hosting another fantastic Alienware event. Dell have done a great job in understanding the Alienware brand and it is good to see that they are developing the gaming community as a whole. Now all I ask is this, Intel Ivy Bridge in the X51 please?

I actually thought Mat Smith from Engadget had the tournament in the bag but alas...

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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I’ve not been in this consultancy business for long, but I have been a technical architect for some time. The difference with consultancy is that it seems even more cut throat in a highly competitive environment. Why? Because there are even more egos floating around that is desperate for attention. Before I begin, being a woman means nothing in a constantly male dominated arena. Suffice it to say, there is no need to male bash at all because your gender is irrelevant if you know your line of work. However, that is not to say there aren’t stigmas and obstacles along the way.

Not long ago, I previously worked for a top tier global consultancy firm. They were big, they were very big indeed. At first it seemed all roses; a supportive sphere of people with more fluffiness than a Persian cat. But as soon as I started on my first project, it became apparent that working as a team was proving to be a difficult prospect. The problem was that the stereotype of women in I.T was actually proving true.

The guys I worked with were very talented but because of how the career laddering system worked it proved to be a stumbling block to agree a way forward. This was where the male egos came in. Meanwhile, the other girl on the team acted as though she had no idea about I.T and instead spent most of her time getting into as many powerful cliques as humanly possible (possibly to avoid the male ego problem). I have worked with many women on I.T projects in the past that were nothing like this, but seeing this made me cringe every day. I could only hope this was not a common occurrence, but from discussions with others this happens very often… including men too but the majority were women. Perhaps her knowledge was lacking somewhat, but she had no impetus to learn or become involved.

The work was a datacenter transformation and virtualisation project, an area I am quite familiar with. For the first few days, the assumption was that my knowledge was limited and my male colleague who also started at the same time was the first port of call. It was more of an annoyance than a hindrance, but this colleague and I worked very well together; in hindsight we were the only ones that were collaborating the most effectively. Ultimately, it became apparent that my knowledge was more than the team envisaged and within a couple of weeks I was given more responsibility and was consulted on the best approach to problems.

As the project came to a close, the difference between me and the other girl became apparent. I garnered mutual respect in the team while she was secretively despised. I later discovered that she received a promotion during her review while another guy on the team did not. I can tell you now that this guy worked insane hours and he was pivotal in the overall success of the project. It was obvious during our conversations in the datacenter (because of course you can have secret discussions from so much server noise) that she “cliqued” her way to the top. The scary part was that she became a datacenter transformation consultant, and as far as I was aware she did nothing of the sort. I have no idea how she even got onto our project; adequate resourcing was also another problem, but I digress.

It occurred to me that the reason why there is this male/female divide in I.T was because there are the odd occasions where the actions of one create the perceptions of many. I still get the question ‘So how do you cope with being a female I.T consultant?”. Well the answer is simple; know your stuff, work with others and show what you can do. It really is that simple.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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With only two days left till Christmas, you may still be thinking of what to get for that special someone in your life. Well fear not, as I have compiled a list of gadgety ideas for that last minute shopping spree.

Western Digital Live  - Streaming Media Player. I have reviewed one of these before, but this latest iteration includes a network port at the back to hook up to your home network. All the usual things are here, such as DLNA support which is greatly appreciated and playback for a myriad of file formats such as MKV and MPEG 1/2/4. The price has gone up a notch to just over £100, but it’s still a nice little player.

WOWee One Portable Speaker. I was quite impressed with this pocket speaker. The ingenuity lies in how it can turn everyday surfaces into boom boxes; you can play music anywhere without having to carry large speakers with you. This MTV branded device comes with a gel pad on one side which can be used to stick onto glass I.E a window. I was quite impressed with how good this was, considering how portable it is. I plan to do a real test with this in a later review. As advertised on their website, you can pick this up for £49.99 which is a real bargain.

Bedphones Earphones. This is certainly an interesting concept; a pair of earphones that you can sleep with. I know a few friends who need some soft music or ambient noise before they can drift off into dreamland, this would be just the thing for those sleepless nights. I had a quick nap with them and they took awhile to get used to, but they were reasonably comfortable. The alternative is to buy a pillow with speakers built-in, but these would be much more portable. At £19.99 they won’t break the bank.

Cresyn Pastel Headphones C300H. Another set from iHeadphones, this time these are headphones that come in a variety of pastel colours. It’s certainly different and less boring than the usual black or silver you see in most headphones. I was surprised by the sound quality, however it does not handle bass as well as I would have liked especially at high volume. But at £17.99 you really can’t complain and in comparison they sound better than some other ones I have tried in the past, from the likes of Sony et al.

Lightspeed i-Helicopter. A word of warning, make sure that no precious ornaments are nearby because you will destroy them with this helicopter. Having said that, this is a lot of fun to mess around with. You control the helicopter by downloading an app for your iPhone or Android and use the phone’s gyro for control. It’s not exactly the most accurate control mechanism but you aren’t controlling a real life Apache Longbow so this is not bad all things considered. I will have to try this more thoroughly when I’m not nosediving headlong into surrounding furniture. It’s on sale right now on Amazon for £32.99, go buy it now!

Last but not least… the Canon 7D DSLR Camera which I reviewed recently. Yes it is over a grand for the body plus stock lens but my goodness I love it to death. I love it more than I love Pocky, that’s how much I love this camera.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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First of all, I’m not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do appreciate a fine camera when I see one. I used to have a Sony DSC-R1 for many years; in fact at every event or spectacle it rarely left my side. I felt that it was lacking somewhat in certain areas and it was time to step up with something a bit more beefy. Believe me when I tell you that the Canon EOS 7D is beefy.

Solid build
With a magnesium body it feels weighty; it seems slightly heavier than my R1 but it was roughly the same so it did not seem too heavy for me. For some it may, but with most professionals cameras once you start using it, it becomes second nature to hold. I felt that holding a Canon seems more comfortable than say a Nikon; I’m not sure whether it’s the type of grip or the shape but in comparison, my significant other prefers the Nikon for this reason. The grip is very important and you need to feel comfortable, especially if you plan to shoot continuously throughout the day.

The Canon 7D comes with kit lens packs and I decided upon the body plus the 135mm lens. A nice all rounder and not a bad lens to start with; I took a picture of the moon with this lens and I was quite impressed. I will eventually upgrade to a higher zoom lens (perhaps a Sigma) but this will suffice for many situations. The only downside to this type of lens is the aperture does not go low enough for dark environments, so I bought a separate Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens on top. This lens is amazing in the dark if you need it for events where lighting isn’t fantastic, but the autofocus needs a little fine tuning during use compared to Canon lenses.

Features
Without going into immense detail because there are a lot of features here, the one that stands out for me is the continuous shooting mode. Built into the 7D are Dual “DIGIC 4” processors, and you see this in action instantly when taking pictures non-stop. It can take pictures at 8 FPS which is great for moving objects. I left the button pressed for mere seconds and the speed of which pictures were captured was insane. It is worthy to note that you should invest in a good memory card with large capacity; I decided on a SanDisk Extreme 60 MB/s 16GB CompactFlash card. The images taken are amazing and the autofocus does not disappoint. The camera is best used in full manual mode; I felt that if you let the camera work out the aperture and shutter on its own, you tend to not get the results you want. But trial and error when you have manual control is what makes it fun to use.

Other features that are useful include three custom camera settings for different conditions, a RAW JPEG button, spot/multi metering, plus video recording. The one thing that drew me to the 7D is the ability to record video in HD. I don’t particular want to carry a DSLR and a camcorder so this would be the perfect solution. The quality of video is impressive, using the zoom lens for zooming into objects if necessary. The only downside is that if the distance from the object changes, it will lose autofocus. From my experience, it cannot autofocus by itself without forcing it.

On top of all this, the ISO can go up to a staggering 6400 and an even more crazy 12800 when expanded. I have cranked up the ISO to 6400 on a few occastions and that was in pitch black conditions. You do lose some picture quality of course, but to be able to take a picture at all in complete darkness is something to appreciate.

User experience
The UI is very easy to navigate on the LCD screen, which they have enlarged slightly in comparison to other models. Button placement does not get in the way of using the camera which is also another plus; with a little practice I can flick through the buttons to change aperture or shutter speed without having to leave the viewfinder. Most of the functions will come from the multi-purpose dial and the buttons on the top to change ISO or aperture etc. Going back to the three custom settings, if you have settings for day, night, and indoors then it makes your life much easier. It comes with the usual modes such as shutter priority and aperture priority. You will find these two will be your best friend.

Overall
I love this camera, there is so much power under the hood and yet it feels effortless to tap into. Although perhaps pricey compared to the 60D which is very good as well, I would not want to swap the 7D for any other. My other consideration was the 5D which is a full frame camera, but the video capture with the 7D trumped this without breaking the bank. Of course, a decent investment in lenses will be the next step to fully take advantage at what this camera has to offer. If you buy this as a Christmas present for someone, they will love you forever.

If you are interested, my first foray with this camera was when I used it in L.A. Here’s some links to my flickr gallery. The real test was in Disneyland and BlizzCon where adequate lighting was limited in certain areas.

BlizzCon 2011 flickr set

Disneyland California flickr set

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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I had the pleasure of trying out the Neato XV-15, a helping hand to the busy modern lifestyle. I’ve always wanted a robotic vacuum cleaner, but I had reservations on whether such a device so small can carry out the functions of my Dyson. Suffice it to say, I was quite surprised and rather amused.

First impressions

With the Neato, you get a base station for recharging the unit and a roll of black strip. There may be places you don’t want the Neato to go and it will avoid these areas if it encounters the black strip with its sensors. I left it parked at the base station for an afternoon and then it was ready to go!

The house gets vacuumed regularly every week so it was interesting to see if it performs any better. The initial test was the living room, which comprises of various obstacles such as tables and chairs, sofas and the TV stand. To help it along, I put the chairs on top of the dining table. It is quite thorough and will go over the same spot several times. It may seem slow when you are watching it work, but you’ll most likely let it do its thing while you are out.

Always learning

As it trundles along, it remembers the layout of the rooms it visits. Sensors on top of the Neato will detect walls and such like; sometimes it may bump into a few things but it will most likely not do it a second time. It is quite remarkable how it remembers where things are, this was self evident when I placed a cardboard box in an area where it thought it was clear. But if I left the box there, it will remember it and try to avoid.

After the living room, it entered the hallway and then the kitchen. The great thing the Neato does is because it is so low on the ground; it can hug the skirting board quite happily to pick up as much as possible. There are times when my Dyson can’t do this because it just can’t vacuum that closely. Additionally, it transitioned to the kitchen very well and did not crash into any of the doors or furniture on the way in or out.

Laser technology

Even though the base station is downstairs, you can carry it upstairs to vacuum there as well. It will not traverse down a set of stairs of course to park back to the base station, but it will stop at the point where it started once it is finished. It will even politely tell you to pick it up and put it back on charge. In a way it is rather cute and unobtrusive.

I was apprehensive about how it detects stairs; I waiting at the top ready to catch it but I needn’t had bothered. On the verge of suicide, it stopped abruptly to turn around and veer back to safety. The sensors use laser rangefinder technology and triangulation, developed by Neato Robotics. The laser-mapping system or SLAM (Systematic Localisation and Mapping) is impressive to watch when I saw it in action; if you have antique furniture you don’t want to have the Neato ploughing into them!

However… it did have problems with my IKEA Poäng chair. Because the base of the chair is only half an inch high, the Neato couldn’t detect the obstruction and tried to climb over it. After several minutes, it was becoming more and more amusing as it tried to hump its way over to the other side. In the end I had to help it out of its predicament, but it decided to go back to the same place again. I can only assume it felt it had not vacuumed the last 10 square inches of carpet and was determined to finish the job.

Look at that dust!

Upstairs and downstairs took about an hour to do, 5 rooms in total. I decided to check the contents of the dirt bin and I was amazed at how much it had collected. Considering the house was vacuumed only 2 days ago, it did a good job. The only thing it may struggle with is long hair which wasn’t picked up 100% of the time, but one cannot complain too much considering how small it is. The suction on this for such a small unit did surprise me.

You can update your Neato via the USB port, just like any other gadget you may have in your house that require firmware updates and the like. I got rather attached to it at the end of my review and will be sad to see it go. An added bonus is that if you add a cup holder on top of it, it can also serve as a robotic waiter while it cleans the house

The XV-15 is priced at £399.99; although it is a large chunk of cash to invest in a vacuum cleaner, if you have a hectic lifestyle then this will be ideal and will save you a lot of time.

A snippet from Neato Robotics

NEATO ROBOTICS LAUNCHES NEW ROBOTIC VACUUM CLEANER TO KEEP BRITISH HOMES NEAT AND CLEAN

Some of the other innovative features and benefits of the Neato XV-15 multi-floor robotic vacuum cleaner include:

• Scuff-free navigation: The robot’s laser-mapping technology constantly updates its internal map so it can accurately detect objects greater than four inches in height and carefully clean around them without damaging furniture and walls.

• Low-profile access: The robotic vacuum cleaner’s low profile (less than four inches high) allows it to clean under beds, sofas, and kick boards in the kitchen.

• Smart design and large dirt bin: The Neato XV-15’s D-shape is equipped with a forward-positioned wide brush allows it to better clean the corners and edges of a room compared to other circular-shaped robots with short, centrally-positioned brushes. This industrial design also allows for a larger dirt bin (660cc or .65 litres) 

• Self-docking to re-power: After completing its cleaning, the robot returns automatically to its base to re-charge itself. By utilising the charging base, the Neato XV-15 is charged and ready to go when it’s needed most.

• Cleaning scheduler: With its easy-to-use interface, consumers can schedule the robot to clean every day, keeping homes spic and span.

EDIT: I reviewed the XV-11 which is the same as the XV-15 in the UK. The article has been amended with the UK model number to reflect the UK market.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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The latest “The Manga Guide To..” series brings us the universe. This is the second book from the series I have reviewed and I was looking forward to how this will encompass the vastness of the universe as a topic. As always, the story unfolds in manga form while teaching the reader all the questions raised. It starts with the Japanese story of Kaguya-hime, and her wish to go back to the Moon where she came from. This setting opens up the universe, with the book guiding you on your journey.

The history and discovery

What I love about this book is how it goes right back to the roots. Before modern technology, civilisations from ancient times only had their perception of the universe based from what they saw with the naked eye. The ancient Greeks for example adopted the geocentric theory (the Earth being the center of the universe) by Ptolemy for nearly 1,400 years until Copernicus arrived on the scene in 1543. These facts and many more make for an interesting read, with explanations on why each theory was adopted.

This then leads onto the development of telescopes and how great discoveries by Galileo et al changed the way we viewed the universe completely. There are some elements within the book that explain such things and calculations in detail, but the information is not overwhelming to the point where it is hard to understand. Diagrams coupled with analogies reinforces the explanations throughout. This reminds me of The Manga Guide To Relativity which was also laid out in the same vein. I am glad they kept this format as it works quite well.

Manga story with science

The manga story weaves seamlessly with the science; the manga is quite amusing and the fusion between the two works well. The enthusiasm for the topics discussed from the author is noticeable throughout, and you can tell that the passion is there. It is great to see this passion come alive in each of the pages, which makes it a joy to read. I am still amazed by what has been covered in those pages; even though there are so many unanswered questions about the universe it covers so much of what we know and what we want to know. From our solar system, to the universe and multiverses, the book itself seems to expand with knowledge just like the universe expanding as described.

In the end, the story of Kaguya-hime takes an interesting turn as the students play out what they have learned. Even Proessor Sanuki that help them on their cosmic journey plays a part in the end. Overall, I highly recommend this book; as a teaching tool for school kids and for anyone that has a love for manga with science thrown in.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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I’m sure that a lot of you have been following the HP saga for some time now. The result as of yesterday comes as no surprise; Leo Apotheker, the CEO and director of HP finally had to step down. The board was not happy and with good reason. A quick recap; Apotheker announced to the world that the HP Touchpad is dead and development will cease on the WebOS platform. That was blow number one, but on the same announcement he decides to also drop the bombshell that HP will spin off its PC business as it was no longer profitable. There are a few glaring issues with this.

First of all, contracts were already in place with hardware manufacturers to churn out thousands of HP Touchpads, with the Touchpad discontinued what exactly do you do with all those parts sitting in a warehouse doing absolutely nothing? You make more Touchpads and sell them cheaply to get a third of your money back, which is an improvement from zero return. They made one final production run after the Touchpads already out on shelves disappeared rapidly.

One thing you can learn from this costly exercise; consumers will buy anything if the price is right. The Touchpad is not the massively popular iPad, but at less than £100 you get A LOT of hardware for your money. The initial price point was not competitive; it may even have to be priced at a loss but you need traction and the Touchpad wheels barely touched the ground before it was labeled defunct and unsupported.

Trust and reliability

The second problem was the PC business spin off. This in itself is not an issue if they had executed this correctly, but because the announcement was so sudden this unnerved channel partners that had tons of HP PCs stockpiled. As a consumer, why would you buy a piece of hardware that had its warranty in doubt? In a year or two, will there be HP support for your broken workstation?

This leads me onto how I and many others in my field feel about their transformation. As an infrastructure engineer and architect, I know how many HP servers are out there being used by companies. My initial reaction is, if they can so easily do this to their PC business what of their server business? It would be financial suicide if they decide to axe this revenue stream. But then again their PC business was worth a big slice of their total revenue and they had no qualms about potentially wiping that off their books.

Companies and corporations need a hardware vendor they can trust and rely on to deliver; and there is doubt they can achieve this with their indecision and lack of direction. The vultures are already swooping overhead sensing a bleeding animal waiting to die. Dell have been quick to react; they have a strong PC and hardware business. To them, this is the perfect opportunity to take what HP discarded.

Bring back the old HP

I’ve had huge respect to HP as a company for a long time. I remember when I first got my hands on a DL385 server. It literally came in pieces; the fans, CPU, heatsinks, hard drives, power supplies… and yet I was able to build it from scratch in 25 minutes flat. That included unpacking it all as it came in so many boxes; I had to build 5 of these that afternoon and I was swimming in cardboard by the end of it. But the build design is genius, each part is modular. The same with attaching server rails, everything required zero tools to assemble. It was a pleasure to work with and I still feel the same about it now.

This is the kind of ingenuity I miss from HP, and by the way their printer business was booming back in the day too. Now, I’m not really sure what HP’s focus actually is or how they intend to get back to that pinnacle once more. The purchase of EDS a few years ago goes some way to indicate they want to be an I.T services company, ala IBM. But IBM took baby steps, planned their strategy early on over several years. Apotheker seemed to think he can do the same thing overnight by axing their hardware divisions. The Palm WebOS acquisition was wasted; I am secretly hoping that HTC or a similar company will take it off their hands to unlock the potential and make some great devices.

I wish the new appointment of Meg Whitman as CEO every success and also a great deal of luck. She is inheriting a PR disaster and needs to re-evaluate their overall strategy. Their mission still seems unclear, and some focus will go a long way to bring them back on track. But I am on the fence about how well she can turn HP around. Around 50% of HP’s share price got wiped off the stock market, this will be a mountain to climb.

P.S: As a side note, this made me chuckle. Here’s a snippet from The Register about the Meg Whitman’s appointment: “On the conference call, Lane said that Whitman was prepared to handle a large hardware operation because, as the CEO of eBay, she was required to purchase large amounts of hardware.” So buying a bunch of servers makes her eligible for the role of CEO?!

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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