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Tuesday proved to be a very wet evening but that didn’t stop me from heading out to Camden’s Electric Ballroom to watch American Indie band, Spoon. They’ve got plenty of albums and although they never really hit the mainstream, they certainly had enough fans to fill out the Electric Ballroom. When listening to some of their albums, I recognised a few of their songs, although by far probably the most popular is, The Way We Get By off their Kill The Moonlight album.

They were supported by New York band, White Rabbits who also put on a really amazing set. I noticed that they had their own gig at the ICA next week, so I’d definitely recommend checking them out if you happen to be free.

Spoon were here promoting their new album, Transference, which definitely takes a much more experimental take on their style of music, full of songs lacking choruses. Still pretty decent performance. A great night out and a perfect way to beat the poor weather.

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It’s been at least two weeks since I’ve had the Samsung N210, so I thought I’d continue with the review that I previously wrote. I’ve been using this as my primary commuting device – as it’s both lighter and smaller. On the upside, the weight has relieved the strain on my back, particularly useful if you’re wearing a courier-like side satchel. The smaller size has a number of advantages as well, such as being able to comfortably use in in a commuter train without being in the more spacious four person seat. I can comfortably prop this up on the bag and then type away whilst sitting on one of the smaller two-person seats on an East Coast Rail Train, and still be able to see the screen at a comfortable distance without craning my neck.

I’ve continued to tweak with most of the system settings, expunging as much of the start up services as I think I can get away with. The biggest contributor (it seems) so far was to disable the microsoft indexing/searching service as it seemed to cause typing to be jittery whenever running. I also managed to play some other video formats using VLC player (MP4) and the machine seems to be able to handle it fine.

I also did my first backup of the system, using the in built Samsung Recovery Manager. I figured this would be quite important seeing as I don’t have a reinstaller CD for it. Using a little portable hard drive, it took about an hour to backup the 20GB of installed programs so far.

I haven’t had any problems browsing the internet or using it for normal writing use, however I want to see what it’s like with upgraded RAM, so I’ve ordered a 2GB stick off crucial. I’m hoping programs load a bit faster if I have other things running. I think installers will probably run faster but seeing as they are a once-off affair, it’s not really going to bother me in the long term. I can’t really complain about the startup/shutdown speed. It’s plenty faster than I remember on my last PC box.

The keyboard has been the biggest win so far. I’m a touch typist, absolutely hate using the mouse if I don’t have to, and the chiclet keyboard has been a lifesaver as I don’t feel like I am modifying the way that I type to type normally. When I do use the mouse, I do appreciate the gestures they’ve built in – something that my work laptop (a Mac) has been training me in use and would be frustrating to return to without it working. I’m pleased that it continues to work although I’m happy for that right click button.

Not everything has been perfectly plain sailing though. In use, I’ve found the opening latch, that plays dual role of power switch) a bit fiddly. As a right hander, I want to use my right hand to flick the switch, but the “stickiness” of the lid means that I have to use both hands to carefully open the laptop. I can’t honestly say I’ve gotten used to it but definitely not a show stopper.

I’ve also noticed that the default setting lets you switch resolution modes (from its default 1028 x 600 to a pixelated/stretched 1028 x 768) that I triggered by pressing SHIFT+FN+LEFT or SHIFT+FN+RIGHT keys. Being a touch typist, it took me a while to work out which combination of keys triggered this (you can use their Easy Resolution Manager application to change this just as you can use their Easy Resolution Manager Options application to disable this shortcut).

The only other thing that has been slightly annoying is the mouse buttons that you have to depress slightly forcefully – something that isn’t really a problem if you prefer the keyboard, but I could see potentially affecting those who like the mouse. On the flipside, you would probably bring a travel mouse or something like that.

Given that the issues I’ve had are very minor, everything else has been true to form. The screen is lovely and bright, and the battery life seems to work very well.

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This weekend saw the return of Kinetica Art Fair, an exhibition dedicated to Kinetic Art. Put simply, it is art involving some sort of motion or movement. It moved to a different location this year, to P3 a cool, underground exhibition space, although very inaccessible due to the number of staircases involved.

The art fair really surprised me with amazing interpretations of kinetic art. The idea of movement can be the art itself, or through the person watching it, or through a combination of both makes for a wide variety of visually stunning art. Combined with simple mechanics, modern lighting technology and sometimes more complex computing displays, much of the art ended up being interactive, and therefore, much more exciting to be around.

This display above was a simple spinning loop, yet combined with mixtures of lights ends up as a fascinating display looking for repeating patterns and occurrences. They even had performance art scheduled throughout the day, although you need to pay additional for that and I didn’t hang around long enough to see any of them.

The great thing about something like this is that the exhibit puts the creators completely accessible to you at each of the display. This means if you’re interested to know more about what they do, or how they put the exhibit together and what inspired them and what message they’re trying to convey you get a first hand view – something you don’t tend to get in any of the museum around London. It was definitely worth the £8 entrance fee and I can’t wait to see what they have for next year.

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One of my favourite beers whilst in Chicago were the Goose Island brewskies, particularly the Summertime beers. I’ve been searching for a place that sold them for sometime in London, with my first encounter at Fulham’s White Horse pub.

Fortunately Borough Market helped me find another source of these wonderful beers. I stopped by the beer stall nearest to Brindisa and The Ginger Pig, which had a huge selection of beers from around the world. As I walked up to the counter to ask the assistant about Goose Island beers, the wide assortment of six packs sitting under the counter caught my eyes. Success! They only sell it here on weekends although it’s always available in their pub, The Rake just minutes away. The six packs vary between £10-£12.

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