Ikea Lival Worklamp

I have a Ikea Lival Desklamp that has been with me for the longest time. It is not often that Ikea produces items which has lasted for so long.

There are several versions of this Lival desklamp. There is one version where the lamp is clamped to the table. I have the one with the heavy base. I like the design as it reminds me of a combination between an Anglepoise lamp and an Artemide Tolomeo 

Recently, I had to change the bulb and I decide to document the process so that I would not forget.

That is the tube which I have to change.

Its not exactly an Anglepoise as it is held together with wing-nuts.
Nor is it an Artemide.

The mentioned wing-nut.

I worry about the neck as it is quite thin and it is made from plastic.

Another view of the neck.

The bulb that needs to be changed.

The base cover needs to be removed by 3 screws.

Removal is easy enough.

The base without the cover. The lighting tube is 

pulled out gently.

The housing without the lighting tube.

The original lighting tube, Osram and its made in Italy.

The length.

The replacement lighting tube.

The old with the new.




Length is almost similar.




Putting in the socket.





Putting it back to the housing and screw back

the back cover.

 Reverse back the steps. Screw back the cover.

Finished. The tube is slightly longer than the original.




But you cant see the tube sticking out. So it is ok.

I believe the Lival lamp has been discontinued as I cannot find it on any of Ikea's website. It is quite a pity because it is one Ikea's products that is quite resilient. I think Ikea has a couple of iconic in-house designed pieces, like its Klippan sofa. Ikea should put a section on its catalogue and website, to highlight these iconic pieces. To keep it fresh, they can change the colour, materials can be rotated but the the basic design is still there, such that people can recognise that its a Klippan sofa or Billy bookcase, for example. They should keep this Lival lamp as one of those pieces, but they have to tweak its design. Move it away from the Anglepoise influence and re-introduce it again.

Going through the work lamp section on Ikea, I noticed that it has moved away from this fluorescent tube to a white/yellow bulb. There must be a reason for that. 

In the meantime, I am glad to have this lamp.


I had an enquiry with regards to the voltage of the plug for this lamp. The photo is as follows:

Voltage details for the lamp

Asus Ultrabook Laptop S400CA

The Wife is going to be based in Jakarta for 3 months for work. She needs a decent laptop for her non-work related stuff. She had a Acer Aspire 5584 WXMI. Its harddisk gave up and gave the click of death. Which means we have to look for a replacement laptop.

Her requirements are quite straightforward:

1) she likes the new touchscreen feature of Windows 8. 

2) has to have MS Office. This has to bought separately.

3) internet connectivity.

4) screen size of 14" or less

5) not to heavy

It was up to me to look for such a laptop, based on her requirements. I scouted at the recent March IT Show 2013, read numerous reviews, asked around shops and friends. Finally, we decided on the Asus S400CA CA041P Ultrabook, which meets her needs.

According to Asus website, the specs are as follows:

Specifications

Processor	Intel® Core™ i7 3517U Processor
Operating System	Windows 8
Chipset	Intel® Chief River Chipset HM76
Memory	DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM, OnBoard Memory 4 GB , 1x DIMM socket *1
Display	14.0" 16:9 HD (1366x768) LED Backlight Glare panel
Graphic	Integrated Intel® HD Graphics 4000 *2
Storage	2.5" SATA 500GB 5400 RPM
Card Reader	card reader ( SD )
Camera	HD Web Camera
Networking	Integrated 802.11 b/g/n Built-in Bluetooth™ V4.0 10/100/1000 Base T
Interface	1 x COMBO audio jack 1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor 1 x USB 3.0 port(s) 2 x USB 2.0 port(s) 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert 1 x HDMI
Audio	Built-in Speakers And Microphone
Battery	44 Whrs Polymer Battery
Power Adapter	Output : 19 V DC, 3.42 A, 65 W Input : 100 -240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal
Dimensions	33.9 x 23.9 x 2.1 cm (WxDxH)
Weight	1.8 kg (with Polymer Battery)
Warranty	2-years international warranty 1-year battery pack warranty On-line problem resolution through web interface (BIOS, Driver update) OS (Windows® 8 ) install/uninstall consultation Bundled software install/uninstall consultation ASUS software supporting
Note	*1:OnBoard Memory 4GB+ 1x DIMM socket up to 12G *2:Integrated Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (i5-3317/i7-3517)

The place that we bought this laptop, Harvey Norman, upgraded the memory to 8GB and gave a portable harddisk drive of another 500GB. It uses a solid state drive and that is why it boots up very fast.

The unboxing photos:

The laptop.

The manual.

The paraphernalia. 

Dust cover removed.

The keyboard.

First start-up.

According to one of the marketing sticker, the Ultrabook is inspired by Intel.

Apparently, there are certain specs that has to be met by Intel before

a laptop can be an Ultrabook. Intel has a website for this here.

To me, its an excuse to copy Apple Macbook Air.

The Windows 8 desktop needs getting used to. The touchscreen

feature is very cool.

The sleek clean lines on the left hand side and...

..the right. Again, I smell Apple here.

It even tries to taper off. Another Apple rip-off is the laptop does

not have any DVD drive. So we bought one from Samsung which 

was quite affordable.

Despite the similarities with Apple Macbook, I have to say that the Asus laptop is quite good. I like the keyboard and I can see myself typing documents on it.

The booting up is quite fast. It is light. Has credible sound coming from a laptop. 

It was a good buy.

Most importantly, The Wife loves it.