索尼终于做了一个像是索尼的东西 - RX100口袋相机

一英寸大的传感器，28-100mm/f1.8-4.9 Zeiss T*镜头，1080p/60录像。佳能的S100和尼康的J1之类的基本上毫无意义了。如果下一版能有7x ZOOM，那么像Nex-7之类的微单也没什么意思了。前提是Sony必须把700刀的价格砍一半。

这是18年来，Sony第一次做了一个像是Sony做的东西 - 真能装进口袋里又不牺牲性能。看来连年的巨额亏损终于让索尼意识到：一味地做些不伦不类的东西，以免触犯既得利益，放不开手脚，已经走到头了。继袖珍半导体收音机、Walkman和Trinitron显示器之后，对索尼阳痿多年的我，终于再一次有了买个索尼的冲动。

不过还有一点索尼还没有意识到：它已不再是一个像苹果那样可以随意要价的偶像。如果索尼能把700的价格砍一半，或者在这个相机上加个智能手机功能，那么索尼还有可能像苹果当年靠iPod打败索尼死而复生那样打败苹果而东山再起。

充电器是70刀，而且要几个月后才能出来。不过也许这个30刀的万能充电器可以用：

CallCentric now offers free DID

We have been limited in two choices for free DID: ipkall and Sipgate. Both have problems. Ipkall cannot do SIP register, 30-day removal, no CID with GV, unreliable DTFM and call quality sucks. Sipgate does not offer SIP forwarding and, to put salt on the cut, it is not reliable when registered with SipSorcery and free SS account allows only one SIP provider. It stopped giving out DID long ago. Calls suffer from significant delay.

Now CallCentric offers free DID and it is perfect: in addition to SIP register like Sipgate, you can also, like ipkall, SIP forward to, say, username@sipsorcery.com. Of course, you can add the DID to GoogleVoice. I have made some GV calls via SS and quality is perfect without noticeable delay.

Even more exciting: it supports CID with name! If no name tighten to the DID, it'll show the city and state. This feature is disabled by default, so you need to enable it. When you register a free CC account, make sure you say "Not in USA", or your account will be forced to pay 911 fee for any DID including this free one.

The phone numbers have area codes for NY area. It does not matter, because we only use such a # for GV. If you need a local #, GV is there.

A $250 Ultrabook

It is the new Acer AO756, from your local BestBuy. It is like a Ultrabook in every way, just half the speed in a plastic unibody.

What's even better:

• Only 2lb and 15 5/8 OZ, most ultrabooks are over 3 lb (except Toshiba).
• One screw to open and upgrade the RAM and 320GB 2.5" hard drive. Two RAM slots, one empty.

 What's missing:

• Sandy Bridge Celeron 877, about half the performance of an i5 used in most ultrabooks. But, it is more than 3x faster than netbooks (Atom and E series). Simply put: netbooks cannot run Windows 7 smooth enough, this one is far more than adequate.
• No QuickSync (for HD encoding). Intel made a huge mistake again by crippling this critical feature out of the HD2000 GPU. Last time Intel removed HD decoding from GMA 3150 and thus killed netbooks. Later Intel got that back into N2600, but too late.
• Battery life is about 4 hours.

What's good:

• It is very quiet, not so warm, screen is top-notch.

What's bad:

• 19V ac adapters, why not use 12V? 
• Glossy plastic sucks, why these manufacturers never listen to customers?
• BIOS installs rpcnet service, no way to remove/disable.
• Button-less touchpad is a PIA and two-finger scrolling is practically not usable. Fortunately side scrolling works very well once you increase the sensitivity to the maximum.

What's a pity:

• I installed Windows XP successfully, all drivers were found and work, except one thing: XP is unaware of the battery and always thinks AC connected. 

This 1080p HD video was produced on this AO756. It was a fluent experience with PowerDirector 10 and the rendering took 25 minutes.

Use Remote Desktop with Any Resolution

These days 1366x768 is quite common, but when you use such a laptop to do Remote Desktop, it is quite hassle. If you use 1024x768, you cannot see the full height of the remote desktop, but there is no option for, say, 1024x600 or 1024x736.

This is the solution: open Command Prompt, type the following line:

mstsc /v:192.168.1.101 /w:1024 /h:736

Of course you may replace "192.168.1.101" with your IP or host name and you can change width and height to any numbers.

From now on, you can start RDP either this way or the normal way and the resolution will stay.

PS: another method is to edit the Default.rdp file found in your Documents folder.