It’s 7.30pm just now however I’m just about to head to my friends to stay as we are up at 4.30am to fly to New York. I will be away for a week so there probably won’t be many posts until I return (if any).
I’ll try and post some pics of the trip when I return. Speak to you all soon.
Kev
I posted my first impressions of the Eee PC last week. That post was written after just a few hours of getting the Eee so I thought it would be good to do a follow up of the laptop having now owned it for about 9 days.
Having used it quite a bit in the last week my opinion has not changed. I am still pleased with the purchase and overall I think its a great device however there are a lot of things that Asus could improve upon. Most of which are from a software point of view so I guess some of the gripes are with linux and not Asus.
The Asus EEE PC
To install and remove programs you need to open a terminal and type in ‘sudo synaptic’ to bring up a user friendly box where you can decide what you want on your Eee. That isn’t exactly a hard command to remember however there is no reference to it in the user manual. Thankfully the EeeUser Wiki has the answer to everything you need to know but I don’t think that Eee customers should have to rely on non-Asus sites to find stuff out and thats the case for most problems. I know that this method is common in linux however surely they could have modified the xandros operating system to make things easier for customers who aren’t computer noobs but who are not familiar with progamming ie. Joe Average! For example, the default xandros setting is easy mode. This is the operating system with all the icons etc. You can switch to a more familar desktop background however once again you need to head to the terminal and enter some commands. If you are familiar with following basic commands etc this isn’t too much of a hassle but again, it’s little things like this which are making the Eee limited for some customers.
Later on in the year I will probably get another sub notebook, once which comes with windows installed. I think that something with an 8.9″ screen would still be as portable but would be a more all round machine. I do sometimes wish that the Eee had XP installed by default, I do sometimes wish it had a higher resolution and a bigger hard drive but for £250 the Eee remains a bargain.
If you are thinking about buying the Eee and have some questions about it please let me know
If you make money through the internet or just run a few hobby websites then no doubt you will have used quite a few hosting companies over the years. I’ve used about 10 different companies in the last 7 or 8 years and my usual thinking when staying with a hosting company was ‘if it aint broke, don’t fix it’ ie. I’ve only moved host when either when the company couldn’t do what I needed or when their support was really bad. More often or not I have moved host because of downtime or bad support.
There are a lot of things you need to look at when choosing a hosting company but for me the main ones are Price, Uptime and Quality of Support. The reason I left my last hosting company Servstra was due to a ridiculous amount of downtime, my sites were going down on a weekly basis and they couldn’t resolve it and didn’t even seemed interested in trying.
WiredTree
Since last July my server has been hosted with WiredTree. Although they do offer Virtual Private Servers, their main area of business is Managed Servers. I haven’t written many posts in my blogs raving about a company however in the 9 months of using WiredTree I am struggling to say a bad word against them. Not only has their never been any downtime, their response times are super quick. Whether my request was trivial or even if it was late or early the average response time for a support ticket is about 5-10 minutes. They really are a great company to host your websites with and I don’t see me leaving them at any point in the future.
WiredTree are not perfect though (what company is?), their biggest flaw is their price. Compared to other hosting companies which offer managed servers with similar specs they are very expensive but as with all things in life, you get what you pay for.
Here’s a breakdown of the package I ordered last summer :
Hardware
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 ** (Free Upgrade to E6420) **
2GB ECC DDR2
Primary Disk:
250GB SATA II 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
Backup Drive:
250GB SATA II 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
Additional Options
Control Panel : cPanel / WHM
Public Port Speed : 100 Mbs Public
Private Port Speed : 100 Mbs Private
Public Bandwidth : 2000 GB Transfer
Support Services
Fully Managed
24×7 Phone and Helpdesk
24×7 Proactive Monitoring
Proactive Updates
ServerShield Hardening
$299/month
$0 setup
At the time I decided to pay $199 for setup as it dropped my monthly fee down to $269 (which after 6/7 months proved to be a wise decision!).
Why I don’t mind paying a bit more
When I first starting building websites price was one of the biggest factors in choosing a host however once I get more established and started to make a living through the web my requirements changed. When your internet income is your bread and butter then you need maximimum uptime and not only that, when there is a problem you want it resolved as quickly as possible. That’s why I don’t mind paying a bit more. Of course, it’s good to have peace of mind knowing that any problem will be fixed when you need it to be.
I’m sure that there are people out there who have had problems with WiredTree however, touchwood, in the 9 months of using them support has been excellent and I have no qualms about recommending them to other webmasters.
Link : WiredTree
The other night I decided to move my blog ElectricBandits from a .co.uk domain extension to a .com. Although the blog is written from a UK point of view I think that long term the .com domain is better for branding and promotion. I have changed the domain of one of my sites a few times in the past, most notably last year when I changed BloggingTips from a .org to a .com. It’s a very easy process, all you need to do is change the domain extension of the site in your server’s WHM and then make sure the database and mod rewrite settings are ok.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
This easy process turned into a not so easy process because I decided to do this 2 nights ago at 3am when I was half asleep. So what caused this problem? Well, I sometimes snap up similar variations of sites I run. For ElectricBandits I have ElectricBandits.com, ElectricBandits.co.uk,ElectricBandit.com & ElectricBandit.co.uk. When I checked to see if ElectricBandits.com was pointing to my server I looked at ElectricBandit.com (ie. without the S) and so didn’t update the correct domain. Granted, it’s an easy mistake to make but one which is more likely to happen late at night when you’ve got one eye open!
Due to this and a problem with a redirect the blog was down for about 2 days. It just goes to show how much working when you are tired can backfire on you!!!
Thankfully, my hosting company WiredTree came to the rescue and everything was fixed once the dns changed over.
Remember kids, get a good nights sleep!
I came across an interesting concept on Digital Lifestyles today. A london based company called En-Twyn has been able to integrate two ethernet ports into a standard power socket. It’s an interesting idea and one which I think would prove popular with many companies (offices/hotels etc).
Clearly this kind of thing could be used in different ways ie. how handy would it be if all the power sockets in your house had usb connectors integrated in this way so that you could charge your phone or mp3 player.
link : En-Twyn: Powerline In A Power Socket!
This time next week I will be sitting on a plane heading towards the Big Apple. 10 of us are heading over for a week to New York (and 5 or 6 friends of friends will be over at the same time). It’s going to be a pretty wild week with so many people going not to mention the fact that it’s St Patrick’s day when we are there (which is one of the reasons we are going).
No doubt we will be drinking a lot over the week but we are trying to see as much of New York as we can when we are there so I would love to hear any suggestions of where to go and what to do when we are over.
This is my 4th time to New York. Last time I stayed at the Marriott just off of Times Square but this time we are next to Madison Square Garden. So far I have :
A few of us have been to New York before but for others it’s their first time. Thankfully, with so many people going this won’t cause any problems as some will do stuff we have done before while wel do something else.
Obviously on St Patricks day we are will not be doing anything constructive but for the other days we have suggested :
Do you have any other suggestions of where to go? A few of us are big movie fans so pubs or cafes and other locations that have been prominent in good films would give some of us a big kick. For example, when I was watching football in Little Italy we were drinking in the pub where Johhny Depp told Pacino the diamond he had was a fugazi in Donnie Brasco. Yes I know that’s sad to people who aren’t big movie fans!
Yesterday, JKOnTheRun (great site!) reported that MobiTV is trying to shut down HowardForums because of links to copyrighted material being posted on the forum.
Basically MobiTv does not protect their content and instead relies on it’s members not posting the url elsewhere…..which is clearly a very flawed assumption. Someone posted links on HowardForums and MobieTV responded by asking for the links to be removed. They replied that they cannot moderate everyones comments and it’s up yo MobiTV to protect their content. MobiTV replied by contacting the host company and telling them of the copyright violation and JK reports that there is a good chance HowardForums could get shut down.
I’m a member of HowardForums, I’m not a regular poster but I have went there for help with phones in the past and it’s very reliable. As you know, over the years I have run quite a few forums so I can appreciate HowardForums stance on this. My last forum which I recently sold (THF) had 17,000 members and required moderation on a daily basis so I can only imagine how much work it is to moderate a forum with 800,000 members.
It would be very sad if HowardForums got shut down. Let’s hope they get through this and MobiTV see the error in their ways.
You can read the full story at JKOnTheRun here
p.s. I wrote this on my eee!!!
I mentioned in my Eee pc review yesterday that even though I upgrade the ram from 512mb to 2gb, the default kernel of the Xandros linux operating system is set up as a maximum of 1gb. EeeUser.com has a fantastic guide on upgrading the kernel and made what could have been a nightmare into a simple procedure.
To edit the kernel I had to use the Vi Editor. For those who haven’t heard of it, the Vi Editor is an unfriendly text editor which was developed in the 70′s and is still used in unix and linux operating systems today (the usually reliable wikipedia has good info on Vi).
I’m not suggesting the editor is bad, it’s not. It does do what you need it to do but it’s just not very user friendly. I first used the editor in 2001 when I was doing my post grad in Software Development and I have since had to use it a few times to copy some things between my sites on my server. Just like DOS, once you know a few commands it isn’t too hard.
Why is it not user friendly?
When you open a document with Vi for the first time you will probably wonder why you can’t edit anything. The reason is you need to type ‘i’ to enter insert mode which means you can start typing. To close the document and save you need to then hit the escape button to leave insert mode and then type ‘:wq’ (w saves, q quits).
Again, I reiterate, just like any programming language, once you know a few commands it isn’t too bad. There are also dozens of other good unix and linux editors out there but I was surprised that the Eee pc which claims to be ‘Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play’ does not have a more user friendly editor. Maybe the thinking behind this is that anyone who is tampering with system files will be computer savvy.
Anyways, if you use linux or are involved in web development then you will no doubt be a time when you need to use vi so here is a list of sites which show you the basic commands and how to implement them.
This morning my brand new 4gb Eee 701 PC was delivered * (for details of my order please read my previous post)
I’ve only been playing around with it for a few hours and this post represents my initial impressions of the laptop so far ie. I haven’t used it extensively as yet so please bear this in mind when reading this review.
I have taken pictures of the unboxing, the initial configuration screens and the default xandros operating screens so that potential eee pc owners can have a preview of what they can expect. If you click on any of these pics in this article you can see the full sized image (1,000 pixels).
Unboxing the Eee PC
It will come as no surprise to most that the box for a laptop with a 7″ screen is equally as small.
The box contains :
Even though I knew the Eee would be small, I was surprised at how small and compact this device is. It really is a cool notebook and although I finally decided on getting a black Eee, I’m happy with the white one I ordered. The plastic casing does feel a bit cheaper than the casing on some more premium notebooks but that’s expected from something which only cost £249.99. Don’t get me wrong though, whilst it does feel a little cheaper, it’s still got a good build quality.
Unboxing the Eee : Pictures
One thing I was impressed about was the power adaptor. The adaptor comes with a UK 3 prong connector however if you remove this it reveals a USA 2 prong plug connection. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m taking my Eee to New York in a few weeks so this is an incredibly handy feature and it makes you wonder why more UK companies don’t offer this with their products.
Initial Setup Screen
When you power up your Eee for the first time you need to agree to Asus’s terms and conditions and enter your name and set the time etc. Theres only 5 screens and start to finish will probably take you less than a minute!
The Xandros Operating System
The Eee comes pre loaded with the Xandros operating system, a linux varient which has been modified to suit the Eee’s needs. The software has a childlike feel to it and looks like it would be more suitable in a PDA or even a childrens computer (which Asus actually market this as too!). This is not neccessarily a bad thing when you think of it as the majority of people mainly use their computers for email, messaging and browsing the web and all of these are on the first screen.
In total there are 6 tabs :
The Xandros operating tabs
It is possible to install XP on the Eee however you may want to try out the Advanced Desktop Mode which has more in common with regular desktop environments (The default xandros setup with all the graphical icons and tabs etc is known as easy mode).
So what’s my overall experience with Xandros? Well, so far so good. The Eee had trouble finding my router at first but after deleting the profile and creating it again it works perfectly so any problem was just me setting it up wrong (although I have heard some people having issues with it). It is all in all a basic interface but it works well and does what you need it to do.
Using the Eee
Browsing with the Eee is quite good. The default resolution is 800×480 pixels. Everything is clear however browsing most sites results in horizontal scroll bars but that’s kinda unavoidable with a laptop this size (although the Vye S37 has a 1024 resolution and also has a 7 inch screen).
Here’s an example of browsing on the Eee using it’s default browser Firefox (Mozilla) :
The keyboard is obviously small which results in a slower typing speed. Some of the keys (like the return and space bar) are a little too small for my liking. I don’t think I would ever use the Eee to type for a long time so it isn’t going to be a major concern for me and there is always the option of hooking up a usb keyboard or even a portable bluetooth keyboard if travelling.
I think the Eee is going to prove to be great for watching movies on and for messaging. The speakers are louder than I thought they would be and the webcam is very impressive. Perhaps my expectations were low for the Eee but I have to say I am pretty impressed with it so far.
Right out of the box you only have 1.368gb left for storage but the SD card slot allows you to back everything to that (I’ve got an 8gbSDHC). Also, there are 3 usb ports so hooking up an external usb drive will be simple too.
Upgrading the Ram to 2gb
The 4gb Eee 701 comes with 512 mb of RAM however it is upgradeable to 2gb. The upgrade was ridiculously easy, all I had to two was unscrew 2 screws and insert the 2gb RAM stick (here’s a video explaining how). Asus had put a sticker over one of the screws which usually means your warranty will be voided if it is removed but they confirmed recently this is not the case.
Although the bios recognises the ram upgrade right away, the default Xandros installation has a limit of 1gb in it’s kernal. This means you need to either change your operating system or update the kernal. Thankfully, Eeeuser has a guide explaining exactly what you need to do. I’ll do this in the next few days when I get some time
Overview
I’ve only had the Eee a few hours but my initial impressions of the laptop are very good. It’s not the most powerful notebook you can get but it’s not meant to be your main pc and does everything I bought it for and for 250 quid, how can anyone complain.
I am going to mess around with it a lot over the next week to get to know it better but I feel safe in saying that if you are looking for a budget laptop for travelling or even one for using around the house to browse the net or watch movies, the Eee should definately be on your shopping list.
If you have any questions about the Eee, please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them.
cheers,
Kev
I finally gave in and jumped on the Eee PC bandwagon. For those who don’t know, the Eee PC is a cheap sub notebook with a 7 inch screen, a solid state hard drive and a 900 Mhz celeron m processor. It comes bundled with linux (Xandros) however it’s cable of running XP quite well if you remove all the bloatware from it.
Why I am buying a portable laptop?
I bought the Sony Vaio VGN T2XP 3 years ago whilst travelling in the USA. It was a really small notebook which whilst wasn’t very powerful, was light, had great battery life and was all in all a great little machine. Infact, it was the laptop I used when I went travelling for 8 months round Asia and Australasia. Being the nice guy I am, I gave the laptop to my brother last year as I wasn’t using it much after coming back travelling
The Sony Vaio VGN T2XP
I currently own a 15.4″ Asus G1 laptop (it’s the machine I use every day). It’s a good machine with a decent spec but it’s heavy and not suitable for travelling. With an upcoming trip to New York looming I thought it was time to get a new device which I can use to take travelling and also something I can browse the net about the house (10 of us are going to New York for a week to celebrate St Paddys day – its going to be bedlam!!).
The Asus G1
My favourite portable laptop is the Sony TZ. The machine had just been released when I was in Japan last year and they were displaying it everywhere in the Sony building. Alas, at the moment I’m looking for something cheaper….I’ll maybe treat myself to one later in the year!!
Why the Eee PC?
I’m a bit of a gadget geek and read a lot of gadget and tech sites on a regular basis. I considered a lot of sub notebooks and UMPC’s and read loads of reviews. Here are some of the machines I considered (I’ve put a link to Expansys for each machine just incase your nosy!)
Belinea S Book – Released in America by Everest as the cloudbook, this is a good value laptop but it’s ugly and had a pointless and poor voip phone attached to it.
HTC Shift – Looks like a good device but way too expensive in my opinion.
Vye S37B – Great little device but it’s a tad expensive for what you get and the battery sticks out at the back way too much.
Samsung Q1 – Another cool device but I was looking for something with an inbuilt keyboard.
In the end the Eee had just about everything I was looking for and it’s really cheap too. The 8gb eee has just been released in Taiwan. PurelyGadgets are now selling them for £344.95 and I was very close to ordering it. The reason I didnt is because I couldn’t decide on the colour haha. To be honest, I’m not that superficial but i was concerned the white version would be a dirt magnet and the eee also has black speakers on the inside so the black looks better in that respect. After reading threads about it on the eeeuser forums I decided to call it a night, get some sleep and make a decision in the morning.
The Asus EEE PC
When I logged on in the morning I noticed that Ebuyer had the 4gb version for £249.99. 250 quid is actually 10 to 20 pounds more expensive than most other uk shops but (a) no one else had them in stock and (b) ebuyer is one of my favourite sites who always take returns back with no hassle or problems. At nearly £100 more for the new 8gb version I just couldn’t justify getting it. Also, the 8gb would have a US based keyboard layout and the warranty wouldn’t last as long. The funny thing is, after swaying between the black or white version for hours and finally decided on the black version, ebuyer only had the white version in stock!! Oh well 
I’ve also bought a 2gb stick of corsair ram (the device comes with 512mb) to improve performance and an 8GB high capacity CD card for storage. The eee comes with a case but it isn’t the best so I’ll probably get a better one to keep the eee clean. When it arrives in a few days I’ll post a review of it and give you more details about the device. If anyone has any questions to ask about the eee please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer it in my review.
Cheers,
Kevin
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