Libronix

Having been disappointed by the performance of my new netbook after importing all my Libronix 3 data into Logos 4, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new primary laptop. (My previous primary laptop was a bit slugish with Logos 4, plus it could not play many of the newer games I wanted to get...)

I wanted to get a system that had a good video card with dedicated memory, Bluetooth, a 64-bit multi-core processor, an extended battery, and support for at least 8 gig of RAM. I generally prefer the major name brands for my primary systems, but could not find what I wanted at a price I was willing to pay. I ended up compromising by getting a standard battery and a shared memory graphics card and picking the HP Pavilion dv6-2150us. (Click on the link for specs and details on Amazon)

[amazon B00318CG9G full]

At the time I bought it, they were running $770 at Micro Center, but I picked up a open box unit for a $70 discount. In addition, I got a $50 rebate from HP about 45 days later. I have been very satified. I don't think I have blue screened even once. This is probably more to do with using Windows 7 Home Premium 64 than the hardware.

Logos 4 works great! Very impressed! As for the rest of my configuration, I use AVAST for my anti-virus, Zone Alarm for my firewall, MS Office 2007 for my productivity work, and Liberkey for most everything else. (Liberkey collects the best in freeware in a portable format designed for a USB key, but I install it directly on the hard drive as it does a great job keeping all its apps up to date. Portable Apps is another tool that does simular stuff, but its focus is on open source software, and it only just started updating its apps automatically.)

I used Logos4 during a class for taking Notes for the first time since importing all my old Libronix notes... I was not happy... It worked, but was sluggish... Time to do more research...

Turns out importing was the problem again... I removed all the notes I imported and performance picked up again... On looking on the Logos forums, other users can confirm my experience...

This data is also stored as SQLite database files like the highlighting data. This database is better with indexes than the highlighting one is, (I was able to do manual queries with decent times for returns of data) but it still needs work. SQLite is a good piece of software, so there must be something odd with the way Logos 4 is using it.

It looks like what happens when you let programmers design the database. This is not meant as a slam nor am I looking for a job. ;) I do database administrator (DBA) work and manage programmers for a living and see this all the time. Programmers generally don't make good DBAs. They know enough to make things work, but their database work just doesn't scale well, just like what we are seeing here with highlighting and notes. A database specialist is need to craft efficient queries and design an effective database structure. In the case of notes, I think queries are being executed using features such as "LIKE" or "GLOB" that may force full table scans because they can't use indexes, but can't know for sure without access to the Logos source code.

These issues should be simple enough to fix, but will probably require rebuilding the databases from scratch, which will be another multi-hour process for most of us having problems. That is if and when Logos addresses them...

You should now be able to watch the Highlighting tutorial live below:

Thanks to Pastor Black for his help!