The totally off-topic thread

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Alright then, here's a diversion, which I don't think quite warrants a new thread.

As some of you probably know, I currently own an Asus eeePC 701, which at the time I purchased it was one of the first netbooks to be sold in Australian stores (this was before the term "netbook" even came to be). Although I've lived with it for a while, there are a few things I find annoying with it and I am strongly tempted to get a new netbook or something quite portable to carry with me when I go travelling.

The problem is which netbook to get...... the main things that I'm looking for are size and weight, but I am also looking for something that can display 1024x600 or better. My eeePC is just over 1kg with the battery; that's a good weight. Also OS kicks me around - my eeePC runs a netbook remix of Ubuntu, which I don't mind much at all. Windows is sometimes a real pain to deal with and how fast it could run on most netbooks is something to really consider (and don't get me started with Windows 7 Starter - just forget it!).

For the PC types, there are the new line of eeePC (e.g. 1000 series), Dell mini or HP mini note. There's also the MSI Wind. I'm trying not to think about a Sony (overpriced just for style) or Acer (read: the computer industry's equivalent of Jetstar). I could easily reformat these and install Linux, hoping of course that 'nix will be able to use most or all of the devices on the system (especially the Wifi; having had to install or hunt down device drivers on Linux systems before, this is a real PITA - don't get me started on having to recompile/build drivers...)

Then there is another consideration - the Apple Macbook Air (the standard Macbook is a bit too heavy at over 2 kg). At merely over 1 kg in weight and as thin as the profit margins of a US-based airline, the only thing against Apple and its holistic reliability is (a) higher capital cost (about 1.5-2 times more than a PC) and (b) larger physical footprint with a 13.3" screen. Also, my eeePC is pretty sturdy (I wouldn't drop it), whereas the very thin Macbook Air seems very fragile to most damage. I'd always need a USB hub with me as one USB port won't cut some situations. Macbook air defo isn't a netbook, but they are a temptingly light option.

So I'm throwing the floor open to suggestions.........

Things I'd like from my portable system:
  • Wifi (du'h! OK what system doesn't have one of these these days?)
  • Ability to view web pages greater than 800x600 comfortably
  • Enough memory to run a multi-tab Firefox session (at least 15 tabs)
  • Able to run Flash and Java comfortably
  • Ability to interact with most USB devices (hence why Linux or Apple has an up on this)
  • Ease of recovery on the road (e.g. USB based recovery tool)
  • Ease of compatibility with other systems
  • Robustness (physically as well as w.r.t. the software system)
  • RAM - must be at least 1GB
  • Multi-tasking possible - so no iTampons please!
  • Must be able to read and write NTFS and FAT - the latter I assume will be no problem, but the former might be. Most *nix distros can read and write NTFS with no problems (cf. some earlier attempts which snafu'd the MFT and journals). I have no idea of the file system, capabilities and compatibilities of Mac OS.

Not so important stuff but could be deal breakers:
  • Decent battery life
  • Ability to view and create Office documents (i.e. I'd like to install MS Office, Open Office or another type)
  • Ability to view videos (youtube included)
  • Futureproofing. This is why Linux/Mac tends to score extra points (you can run most current *nix distros and Mac OSes on older hardware much more successfully than you can new versions of Windows)
  • SSD vs HDD, but price can't be too prohibitive - this is defo low on the list
  • Ability to set up a software development environment (pref Java or C). Does anyone know if you can use POSIX system calls with Mac?
  • Card reader - SD preferable
  • Powered USB ports, at least USB 2.0 standard

Non-essentials:
  • Playing games, except small games or flash games
  • Editing videos
  • High storage capacity - my 701's 4GB is admittedly quite small, but I don't need a huge HDD on the system - this is not intended to be my primary use computer. Enough storage to hold OS, an Office system and still have sufficient swap space would be the go. On a quick back-of-envelope calculation, this might require at least 12GB.
  • Looks. I am not a style junkie. A light netbook/subnotebook is used to keep me connected whilst travelling, not as a fashion accessory.
  • Weight to some degree, but defo not more than 2kg with the battery (accessories is a whole different thing, but I'll worry about that)
  • Ability to install a high capacity battery
 
anat0l said:
Ability to set up a software development environment (pref Java or C). Does anyone know if you can use POSIX system calls with Mac?
Click to expand...

Answer to that question is yes (OS X is POSIX compliant), however I couldn't in good conscience recommend a MacBook Air - they're awesome looking machines but horrendously expensive and the performance of Flash would probably upset you :p

Have you considered a HP Mini 210?
HP Mini 210-1000 PC series Home & Home Office

Naturally you'd format and install a real O/S...
 
notzac said:
Answer to that question is yes (OS X is POSIX compliant), however I couldn't in good conscience recommend a MacBook Air - they're awesome looking machines but horrendously expensive and the performance of Flash would probably upset you :p
Click to expand...

Which Apple recently blamed on Adobe and said it was one of the reasons they hadn’t yet approved it for the iPhone:

As for Adobe, Jobs said they are lazy and Jobs blames Adobe for a buggy implementation of Flash on the Mac as one of the reasons they won't support it.

Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.
Click to expand...

And I’d agree with that, it’s awful, always making my processors go mad, and eating a fair chunk of my RAM. I’m not sure why they can’t optimise their code.
 
I must +1 about Adobe Flash; it's a PITA for supported systems as well, unless you have a lot of memory headroom and even then, it's pretty buggy technology at times. I'm sure there must be some memory leakage at times as well.

HTML 5 will be a godsend, but how will they implement the video tag technology?
 
anat0l said:
HTML 5 will be a godsend, but how will they implement the video tag technology?
Click to expand...

It’s a toss-up between H.264 and another format? The main authors are Google and Apple aren’t they, so hopefully they come together to use a standard and hope MSFT follows suit.

Found this CSS3 shadow tech on Twitter this morning, simply amazing if your browser supports it.
 
I recently purchased an Acer Aspire one to replace my ageing 6220 (which was chucking a wobbly with the touch pad).

It's on XP home, but it's good enough to watch movies and do work. It was a bit of a culture shock to not have a disk drive. But I was able to load LOTR I, II & II with a trusty 8GB USB drive.

3 hours + battery life; apparently one can get a 6 cell battery for 5+ hours.

Cost? $368 with $37 cash back coming.
 
Is it too soon, or wrong, to start thinking about another trip to Thailand in October even though I have ones scheduled for June and Decembr/January? I don't have the money anyway, so will need to get further in debt, but can't help myself researching as I am bored at work. Unfortunately I did not do very much work concentrating on the research for the trip.

Cannot use airfares ex-SIN so it will have to be airfares ex-Australia which do not look too bad at this stage. Hopefully some specials come along soon and I can finally decide. I also have some QF vouchers I need to use which expire soon and I can't think of anything to spend them on. God, I am useless....
 
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Re: Humour or reality?

I didn't know where to plonk this one, but I think we've all had days a bit like this:

ga100203.gif
 
anat0l said:
Alright then, here's a diversion, which I don't think quite warrants a new thread.

As some of you probably know, I currently own an Asus eeePC 701, which at the time I purchased it was one of the first netbooks to be sold in Australian stores (this was before the term "netbook" even came to be). Although I've lived with it for a while, there are a few things I find annoying with it and I am strongly tempted to get a new netbook or something quite portable to carry with me when I go travelling.

The problem is which netbook to get...... the main things that I'm looking for are size and weight, but I am also looking for something that can display 1024x600 or better. My eeePC is just over 1kg with the battery; that's a good weight. Also OS kicks me around - my eeePC runs a netbook remix of Ubuntu, which I don't mind much at all. Windows is sometimes a real pain to deal with and how fast it could run on most netbooks is something to really consider (and don't get me started with Windows 7 Starter - just forget it!).

For the PC types, there are the new line of eeePC (e.g. 1000 series), Dell mini or HP mini note. There's also the MSI Wind. I'm trying not to think about a Sony (overpriced just for style) or Acer (read: the computer industry's equivalent of Jetstar). I could easily reformat these and install Linux, hoping of course that 'nix will be able to use most or all of the devices on the system (especially the Wifi; having had to install or hunt down device drivers on Linux systems before, this is a real PITA - don't get me started on having to recompile/build drivers...)

Then there is another consideration - the Apple Macbook Air (the standard Macbook is a bit too heavy at over 2 kg). At merely over 1 kg in weight and as thin as the profit margins of a US-based airline, the only thing against Apple and its holistic reliability is (a) higher capital cost (about 1.5-2 times more than a PC) and (b) larger physical footprint with a 13.3" screen. Also, my eeePC is pretty sturdy (I wouldn't drop it), whereas the very thin Macbook Air seems very fragile to most damage. I'd always need a USB hub with me as one USB port won't cut some situations. Macbook air defo isn't a netbook, but they are a temptingly light option.

So I'm throwing the floor open to suggestions.........

Things I'd like from my portable system:
  • Wifi (du'h! OK what system doesn't have one of these these days?)
  • Ability to view web pages greater than 800x600 comfortably
  • Enough memory to run a multi-tab Firefox session (at least 15 tabs)
  • Able to run Flash and Java comfortably
  • Ability to interact with most USB devices (hence why Linux or Apple has an up on this)
  • Ease of recovery on the road (e.g. USB based recovery tool)
  • Ease of compatibility with other systems
  • Robustness (physically as well as w.r.t. the software system)
  • RAM - must be at least 1GB
  • Multi-tasking possible - so no iTampons please!
  • Must be able to read and write NTFS and FAT - the latter I assume will be no problem, but the former might be. Most *nix distros can read and write NTFS with no problems (cf. some earlier attempts which snafu'd the MFT and journals). I have no idea of the file system, capabilities and compatibilities of Mac OS.

Not so important stuff but could be deal breakers:
  • Decent battery life
  • Ability to view and create Office documents (i.e. I'd like to install MS Office, Open Office or another type)
  • Ability to view videos (youtube included)
  • Futureproofing. This is why Linux/Mac tends to score extra points (you can run most current *nix distros and Mac OSes on older hardware much more successfully than you can new versions of Windows)
  • SSD vs HDD, but price can't be too prohibitive - this is defo low on the list
  • Ability to set up a software development environment (pref Java or C). Does anyone know if you can use POSIX system calls with Mac?
  • Card reader - SD preferable
  • Powered USB ports, at least USB 2.0 standard

Non-essentials:
  • Playing games, except small games or flash games
  • Editing videos
  • High storage capacity - my 701's 4GB is admittedly quite small, but I don't need a huge HDD on the system - this is not intended to be my primary use computer. Enough storage to hold OS, an Office system and still have sufficient swap space would be the go. On a quick back-of-envelope calculation, this might require at least 12GB.
  • Looks. I am not a style junkie. A light netbook/subnotebook is used to keep me connected whilst travelling, not as a fashion accessory.
  • Weight to some degree, but defo not more than 2kg with the battery (accessories is a whole different thing, but I'll worry about that)
  • Ability to install a high capacity battery
Click to expand...

I just purchased a Lenovo X200 - so I'm selling my Netbook. You know the one. MSI Wind U100+. 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 1024x600 resolution, Atom N280 (1.66GHz).

PM me for the price, I think you'll find it quite enticing :)

The machine is just over 6 months old, and has a spare battery with it also.
 
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