hooroo

Targeted Delivery

Service and Support submitted by terrymain 07/14/07

I would pay extra to have my Dell systems delivered within a specific hour of my choosing.

Missing pacakage delivery and then having to go to the local delivery center is very time consuming, tedious and delivers a less than stellar customer experience. 2 Comments »

Chuck Norris/ Walker:Texas Ranger Desktop

XPS products submitted by douchebaglark 07/14/07

Dell should make a Chuck Norris themed xps desktop with a Special Chuck Norris themed case. It would of course have to be top-of-the-line and cost a lot. 2 Comments »

Nanophosphate Batteries, the "juice" of the future

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by computer_bob 07/14/07

In today's world of instant gratification, one major slow-down is the time it takes for laptop batteries to recharge. The answer... Nanophosphate batteries!

Several companies are researching and developing this technology. In March of 2005, Toshiba announced that they had a new Lithium-Ion battery with a nanostructured lattice at the cathode and anode that allowed the battery to recharge a surprising eighty times faster than conventional batteries. Prototype models were able to charge to eighty percent capacity in one minute, and one hundred percent recharged after 10 minutes.

A123Systems has developed a commercial nanobattery. A123 Systems claims that their battery has the widest temperature range at -30C to 70C. A123 Li-Ion batteries charge to "high capacity" in five minutes.

AltairNano has also developed a nanobattery with a ONE minute recharge. The advance that Altair claims to have made is in the optimization of nano-structured lithium titanate spinel oxide (LTO).

Safety is a key feature of this new technology. In a nail drive test, in which a nail is driven through a traditional Li-Ion battery and subsequently through a nanophosphate battery, the traditional battery flames up and bubbles at one end, while the nano battery simply emits a wisp of smoke at the penetration site. Thermal conductivity is another great feature of the nano battery, with the claim that the nano battery offers 4 times higher thermal conductivity than conventional Lithium-Ion cylindrical cells. The nanotechnology they employ is a patented nanophosphate technology.

The convinience of the nanophosphate battery is stupendus. Imagine a rushed buisness man at an airport waiting for his plane. The plane arrives at the gate and he realizes that his laptop is almost dead. He needs to finish the presentation which he is to be giving in Tokyo (the whole point of the trip) on the flight. Luckely, he has a nanophosphate battery, so he simply plugs in his laptop for a minute or two before boarding his flight, and has a full battery for the trip!

This is the technology of the future. Dell needs to jump on this bandwagon and start devoting time and resources to developing this technology for their laptops.
Cheers,
Computer Bob 8 Comments »

Ruggedized (within limits) rainproof low energy low price linux laptop

Linux, Laptops submitted by steve2 02/20/07

I think of something like the olpc ("one laptop per child") xo, but of course in a commercial context and with a mainstream linux distribution (slimmed down of course) instead of the school-optimized software. Just a tiny laptop for email, office work, music, watching pictures and the likes, that can be taken anywhere, especially outdoors, without having to worry about it. Maybe with a slightly bigger harddrive, than the one of the olpc xo. Comment »

Photo cells on low end laptops

Laptop Power submitted by steve2 03/14/07

I have posted another idea of a low end outdoor laptop similar in design to the olpc xo but without the educational context. One thing, that could further enhance such a device, or any other low-end laptop, would be a battery-time-enhancing photo cell on the backside of the monitor. The olpc afaik uses 4 watts and if a commercial laptop had similar efficiency, a large photo cell would make it almost totally independent. Of course photo cells are expensive and therefore should be optional. Comment »

Physical off-switch for cameras and microphones

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) submitted by steve2 03/24/07

With advances in connection speed, compression technology and pattern recognition technology microphones and cameras may soon become security issues for private data outside the computer (and inside the computer like troians sniffing the root password from the sound of you typing it on the keyboard. this has already been demonstrated).
What i want is a physical off switch (one that cuts off power, not one that just tells the computer to put it into standby) for all microphones and cameras and other devices that gather data from the environment. 4 Comments »

Putting the flowcharts online

Dell Web Site, Service and Support submitted by steve2 03/24/07

There have been some complaints about telephone support personnel, who just walk customers through flowcharts.
So (if this is true) my suggestion is, to either put all those flowcharts online, or to save copies of them on the harddisk of every sold laptop. Then the simple support cases get solved by customers themselves and the support guys have more time to first take some training and then solve the not so simple cases. 5 Comments »

Easy remote access to desktop for ultra low end laptop

Broadband and Mobility, Desktops and Laptops submitted by steve2 03/26/07

In http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/62703 i talked about an xo like ultra-low-end outdoor laptop. I have another idea how to make this thing more attractive.
We know that with any *ix system it is possible, to run an application on one computer and have all input and output on another (the principle behind so called "thin clients")
That means especially that a linux desktop computer can be set up in a way, that it can be remotely powered on via the internet and its applications, resources and storage space can be used while one is sitting on another computer. This means as soon as one is within reach of a wlan hotspot with the low-end laptop, one has resources available far beyond the capabilities of the laptop itself.
Problem is, an expert, or at least half-expert is necessary to set this up and, more importantly, to set this up safely.
A low-end laptop could come with a script on cd to set a preexisting desktop computer up, to allow non-root access from the laptop (and ONLY from the laptop, not from any other computer, use some kind of "handshake file" on the laptop) in a safe way. It would be best if such a script would exist at least in two versions, one for Debian based systems and one for Fedora based ones.
Then a non-expert could have the full power of his desktop pc, wherever there is wlan. 1 Comment »

English keynames on non-English keyboards

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) submitted by steve2 03/27/07

With non-English beginners, who get their advice from help files or internet forums, there is often the problem, that they are told to use the "Ctrl" key and cannot find it because that key is named differently, for example "Strg". So my suggestion is, to write the English names of the keys in brackets onto the keys, so that for example on a German keyboard the Ctrl key would be labeled "Strg (Ctrl)" instead of just "Strg"
On a related note, always paint some kind of window on the "windows" key, even if the keyboard is for a pure linux machine (You can paint a penguin next to it). The reason for that is similar to the above. The name "Super key" is not widespread enough. 1 Comment »

replaceable screen cover, dirtproof keyboard and round batteries for outdoor laptop

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptop Power submitted by steve2 03/29/07

These are other ideas related to http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/62703
1) The protective cover of the screen of such a laptop could be a replaceable part held down by a frame and four screws. Then if it is scratched badly it can just be replaced by another piece of translucent plastic, unless the scratch goes through it right into the display below (which should be a rare event)
2) The keyboard could be covered by a flexible layer of plastic, that follows the form of the keys and is glued to them, so that dirt and dust cannot accumulate below the keys.
3) If it is possible to make the laptop really low energy, it could be powered by the kind of cylinder-formed batteries, that normally power torches or radios. Then, if the battery is out or defect, replacement can be bought almost anywhere. Comment »

In/Out list for third party periphery

Dell Web Site, Laptops submitted by steve2 03/31/07

For every type of laptop make a list on the internet, which third party periphery components are known to work/somewhat work/not work with the laptop and its preinstalled operating system. With hardware, that needs some manual configuration to run, also add a short description, how to make it work.
This is especially necessary for Vista and Linux systems, since there are many incompatibilities with mainstream hardware. But also with XP systems compatibility is not guaranteed, especially with very old devices. Comment »

Howto file for most common tasks

Software submitted by steve2 03/31/07

It is often astonishing what complicated solutions newbies often find to simple problems. They often find the directory where they put something only with one special program. They often pirate software to do things that freeware or even programs that came with the OS would be perfectly capable of (i know someone, who pirated photoshop only to turn his photos upright. he doesn't do anything else with it). Some times they are, for example perfectly comfortable with the directory tree of an image viewer, but cannot interpret the same directory tree in Windows Explorer.
What i think of, is an html file on the desktop, that describes:
1.) The basic basics: What is a disk, a directory, a file, how are those displayed by the file manager of the os? What is cut, copy, paste with files, what does it between other programs? etc.
2.) Point by point recipes for common tasks. There is not much variation, in what computer illiterate people want to do with their computer. It can all be easily put into one document.
For example:
Photos:
Copying photos from the camera:...
Rotating Photos:...
Changing brightness and contrast:...
Removing red eyes:...
Attaching a photo to an email:...
Printing a photo:...
(that is already about all that the computer illiterates i know want to do with photos)
Other chapters in the same manner Comment »

Raincoat for low end laptops

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by steve2 04/09/07

For laptops, that are so low power, that they are no longer dependent on ventilation (i don't know, if Dell has such laptops, but they are possible) a kind of raincoat could be developed. It would be much like a cheap raincoat for humans, made from thick translucent plastic foil , through which one can still see the screen and type on the keyboard. It might be shut and opened by a zipper on the backside. It would not support total submerging, but it would protect the laptop from splatters of water or other liquids and from dust. 2 Comments »

Battery loading laptop bag

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by steve2 04/10/07

When carried, the bag of a laptop has two energy sources available, sunlight and movement. Whereas movement will not give much energy for anything bigger than a wristwatch, sunlight could give a large portion of the energy needed. This could be loaded into the laptop via the normal 12V plug. The bag could also have the AC/DC converter built in, so no extra one is needed. Since an AC/DC converter built into a bag is not so restricted in space, it could accommodate many different sockets. 3 Comments »

(site) Tab with "random ideas" open by default

IdeaStorm submitted by steve2 04/12/07

I think, that next to the tabs "popular ideas" and "recent ideas" there should be a tab "random ideas" in which the posts are in random order. The random order should change either every time someone opens the tab, or, if that's more resource efficient, every 30 seconds or so.
I also think, that that "random ideas" tab should be the one open by default, so that every idea has a small chance of being read and voted on. 3 Comments »

(site) Undo button for votes, alert on edits

IdeaStorm submitted by steve2 04/12/07

I think it would be good, if after promoting/demoting an idea an undo button would appear next to it, so i could correct errors.
If there were such an undo button, it would also be good, if edits on articles i voted on would appear on my dashboard, so i could revisit them and see, if i am still for/against what was written there. 2 Comments »

Laptop screen, that can switch between active and passive

Monitors and Displays, Laptops submitted by steve2 04/17/07

If you are outdoors, with your laptop, the display has to be extremely bright, to compete with the sunlight. A better solution would be a passive display, like the ones on watches and calculators. Instead of competing against sunlight with a lamp, they use it itself for illumination. Downside is, it only has black and white, but that is enough colours to read and write a text.
I do not know, how it is done, but it is possible, to make an LCD switchable between active and passive (has nothing to do with active or passive matrix. I mean with lamp or with outside light). The olpc xo already does it. It would be ideal for taking your work into the garden or elsewhere. 2 Comments »

Rainproof external usb harddisk

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) submitted by steve2 04/22/07

This is an extension of http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/62703
An external usb harddisk, that can "survive" under all normal outdoor conditions would be the ideal addon for an outdoor laptop. The harddisk would not be "ruggedized" in classical sense, but it should survive rain, summer heat and fall from four feet height. 2 Comments »

More possible cpus for your notebooks

Laptops submitted by steve2 04/24/07

With Windows PCs there wasn't much choice in cpus. Windows runs on x86 and x64 systems. But when you finally sell linux laptops, you could choose the best deal among all companies, who produce any of the architectures mentioned, for example, in http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/releasenotes .
Maybe this can lead to better options regarding price, energy use or performance. Comment »

Support: Do away with destructive methods

Service and Support submitted by steve2 04/26/07

Especially the often mentioned formatting in order to bring the computer back to factory state, just in order to see, if some defect persists there. In the linux world, where Dell will hopefully soon arrive, bringing the computer into a known factory state is done without touching the harddisk by booting the operating system on the first installer cd ( that one is called the "rescue" system, some more modern distros have a "live" system instead, that is more complete and starts up by default). If the error shows up in that system, the hardware is defect. Comment »