R(eee)view

It's been a month since I first unpacked my ASUS Eee laptop computer, and folks are clamoring for my review. I did promise you a breakdown of my experiences.

If you are thinking of buying an Eee, I would recommend NewEgg.com. They now have several models in addition to the white 4G model I purchased. Either they or UPS screwed up my shipping, but they were quick to admit their error and refunded my shipping costs. Here's me on the airplane last month writing my epic entry about evolution and creationism in Kentucky.

I'll spare you (and me) the specifications. If you are serious about buying one, you probably already know these details. I'm not in the business of sales.

• Size Matters: I love that it is less than 2 pounds! It can go anywhere. The keyboard is small, but my size 9 1/2 hands do just fine. I do have trouble using the touchpad, so I bought a mini-USB mouse with a retractable cord (no RF devices on airplanes) that does the trick.

• Battery Life: Don't expect the batt to last more than your other laptop. The longest I had it run was 4 hours, but the wireless card was disabled. The mini-mouse drains the power faster, too. On average, I'd say the battery lasts 3 hours between charges.

• Screen: For espn.com, the narrow screen makes navigation tough. But for authoring and reading blogs, word processing, and general web use, it's just fine.

• Start-Up: It's more like 25 seconds to start. And if you connect to wireless networks, it will be about 90 seconds.

• Connectivity: I've had some frustration with connecting to my current wireless network, but have had trouble with my PC on the same network. I use the hardwire cord to avoid that problem. I've been able to connect to every (other) wireless access point I've encountered in the hospital, the local library and the pub.
  

• Social Aspects: I get soooo many comments about how cute my computer is. The Eee has serious potential as a nerd/chick magnet. Seriously. No, really. I mean, I don't (ab)use the Eee that way, but maybe you could...

• Disk Space: It's pretty amazing to use a compy that has the operating system, all the needed programs and space for your files in 4 GB. I keep everything on an 8 GB thumb anyway, and have interfaced with my 1 TB mother drive. Anything I do on this little guy is small potatoes anyway.

• Operating System: I can hardly tell it's LINUX. Except that it's faster, doesn't have stupid update messages and has yet to crash. There are some things I wish I could customize, but I am a little afraid of that. Now that medicine is beating the engineer out of me.

• Name: Eee is hard to explain to people. The name is pretty lame.

• Role: For my life, this little machine can do almost everything I need in a computer. Honestly, this is not much. I have yet to try and print from it (no printer at my current residence). When my HP PC crashes for good, I will probably buy a desktop and use the Eee as my mobile terminal. Whether that terminal runs LINUX or not, I am not sure. I guess it depends how much of a geek I will need to be to install & maintain it. Because I am getting less geeky by the month.

• Applications: All OpenOffice applications are installed along with other programs like LTris, pdf Reader, Firefox and a sundry of others I haven't yet used.

Here I am a month later. These pics were taken using the built in webcam. (The direct connect via Skype might come in handy sometime.) For now, it simply offers evidence that I really like this hoody sweater. FYI, the words out of frame say "the unthinkable."