Home-Built Computer

In preparation for my upcoming reviews, I thought I would take a moment and give you a simple primer on how I’ll be doing reviews.

Grading System

While most reviews used a star system (5 stars, 10 stars, 3 1/2 stars, etc.) my plan is to use a grading system of the type that was used when I was in school.  The grades will cinsist of the standard A, B, C, and D with their plus and minus variations as well as the F with no variations.  (Afterall, you’ve failed; there’s no “good fail” or “bad fail”.)

Each grade will have a point value assigned to it, with A+ being 12, A equaling 11, A- is 11, and so on right down to D- being a 1 and F equaling a 0.

Grading of Features

If something that I’m reviewing is complex enough to have different features, each of those features will be examined and graded on its own.  The grade assigned to the feature will either be done as how well the feature performs compaired to other items with similar features or as a comparison of how well the feature actually works versus my expectation on how it should work.

Overall Grade

The item being reviewed will receive an overall grade in one of two ways.  The first is if the item is simple enough that it doesn’t have any “features” then it will be graded simply on its own, using the same method for grading features.  However, if there are features that are graded then the point values for each grade will be added together, divided by the number of grades given, and rounded to the nearest whole value, giving an average score and a grade value. 

No Influences

Grades given are based on my expectations only and aren’t “bought” by the manufacturer.  While I will accept items from companies for me to review, this will not influence the end grade.  Any item up for review will receive good marks based on its own merits or bad marks based on its lack of merits.  But most items that will be reviewed will probably be items that were purchased by me.

Let me start off this blog by stating just how old I am:
• I can remember when magnetic drums were a recording medium in mainframe computers.
• I remember—and have coded in—Hollerith code.
• I remember—and have met—Commodore Grace Hopper.
• When I learned computer programming in high school, it was in COBOL.
Needless to say I’ve just proven myself to be older than dirt (or at least as old as vacuum tubes—Google it). And because of that, it’s safe to say that I was around when the personal computer hit the market, followed by the portable computer as well as the introduction of the cellular phones to the consumer market.

The portable computer and the early cell phones were not the easiest things to carry about. The early portable computers were the size of a small suit case, weighed about 20-30 pounds, ran entirely off of 5.25” floppy disks and had a monitor screen about 7-8 inches in diameter. Cell phones weren’t any better. They were large, boxy things with a rubber ducky antenna that reminded me of the walkie-talkies they used in World War II. They would later become known as “bricks” because they almost resembled a brick in size, shape, and weight. Forget about putting them in your pocket; if you didn’t have a purse or briefcase to put them in, you had to carry them.

Over the years, as electronic components became smaller and faster, the portable computer and cell phone became smaller, lighter, and more powerful. Portable computers earned the nickname “notebook computers” because they were roughly the size of a three-ring binder. An entire phone now fit into a unit about half the size of a receiver of the old-time phone sets. But no matter how much smaller and lighter the devices came, critics would always complain that they were still “too heavy”.

So, manufacturers continued to improve their designs, making them smaller, faster and lighter. And along the way, the line between what was a phone and what was computer began to blur. To this end, we got computers that could fit in the palm of your hand and phones that are small enough to clip to your ear. And still, the critics cried, “Too heavy!” The absurdity of this came about when I read a review of the BlackBerry® Storm which, coming in at all of six ounces, was described as being “a bit chunky”. (Look for my review coming in the future.)

Really? Do you actually have that much trouble lifting your six-ounce cell phone to your ear? Tell me, how do you manage to lift that twelve-ounce can of Bud to your lips?

Society has become obsessed with weight not only in themselves but also in their devices. And there seems to be no end to this downward spiral. Devices today that are praised as being of the perfect weight will become way too heavy a few years from now. And what of the devices themselves? What will happen to them? Currently, we have the MacBook® Air, the thinnest and lightest full-size notebook computer around, but this thing looks so fragile that it could be crushed just by looking as it wrong. I’ve also heard of it getting lost in a stack of papers and being accidentally picked up.

I wouldn’t be surprised if technology kept on shrinking the devices until they became implantable in the human body. Of course, I would be even less surprised if the next generation of reviews came from Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, all complaining that the devices are still “too heavy”.

I would like to take this time to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and that you have a chance to spend the day with family and friends.

Some of you who have been coming to Home-Built Computer may notice a change.  In short, site has been overhauled, giving it a new start.  The old posts have been dropped so that the site can start anew.  Why?  The site had lost its focus and was starting to wander off on tangents.  I wanted to reign it back in and put it on course and, at the same tiem, clean house.  There were an awful lot of deadbeat users who were using this site as a springboard for their spamming.  We had a slew of members, but no real “users.”

It was the same with the forum … actually, it was worse.  The kinds of messages that were being left behind were not the kind I wanted or would put up with any longer.  So, the forum has been stripped down and a new one will go back up and be strictly maintained.

We’ll also be adding a store to the site where you can purchase components to upgrade you computer or build one of your own design.

What else do we have in store?  Well, that’ll be up to you.  I think my first fault is that I tried to be too anal-rententive in the design of the site and I would like to get the community more involved.  So, if you have any input, pass them along.  I would like to hear about them.

In the meantime, keep coming back to see what new changes we make to this site.