ASUS eeePC 901
The EeePC 901 from ASUS looks very impressive based on the specs. I’ve been using the original eeePC for several months and my two main concerns have been keyboard size (which I’ve become used to) and screen size (still a bit small for quality browsing). Otherwise I’ve been impressed with the light weight, small size, and fairly error-free operation with the one exception of an early flash memory failure that required a reconfiguration and lost me 100+ Hong Kong photos. Still, for $400 this unit was an amazing bargain compared to the 1500 or so I would have spent for a full blown Ultra mobile laptop in this weight class.
The new eeePC unit probably solves the screen size issue with a 9.1 incher vs the 7 inches and I assume a slightly larger keyboard. The 3.75G access could really be a boon for those in areas where that will be supported, assuming a reasonable cost by providers.
I’m anxious to hear from folks who get this unit. The mini Dell looks good as well, but if ASUS has created a comparable machine I’d be inclined to go with them over Dell based on my experiences with each company.
Google Dance at the GooglePlex. Search Engine Strategies Event
Google Dance at the GooglePlex
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Last year they had “Candy Bars” where you could fill a bag with all sorts of great candy. I brought one home for my daughter who now dreams of going to a Google party.
The Google Dance has been going on for several years as part of the SES Conference series. Held at the Googleplex the party features a huge buffet, food, wine, and beer stations all over the Google commons. For those who can’t separate work from leisure (which would be most tech folks), there are demonstrations of new technologies from Google and a “meet the engineers” face to face talk that is always very enjoyable.
Google: A Trillion URLs and counting
The Google blog notes how huge the web is now, with Google indexing over a trillion unique URLs. As they note in the article the actual number of indexable URLs is, in one sense, infinite. For example calendar pages will automatically appear as you scroll through many applications, continuing through the years until..the singularity and beyond. Of course Google does not index many of these “empty” URLs or even a lot of junk or redundant content, so the true number of real, unique URLs is actually well above a Trillion.
I think a fun question is this: What will the information landscape look like in, say, 20 years when we should have the ability to pour *everything* from the past and the present online? Questions might take a different form if we had access to every reference on a topic that has ever been produced. Algorithms will be used to sort through the oceans of content much as Google does now, but with far more precision and better comprehension of the whole mess.
Where are you?
Location awareness has been available in GPS gadgetry for some time, but now it is moving into devices like the iPhone and Instinct and that is going to open up a new relationship between people and places. There are obviously some potential ominous aspects of this but I am confident that we’ll find location awareness will bring a lot more good than bad. Some of the neat stuff will be the ability to track friends and associates. For example at a large conference it is often difficult to find all the people you need to talk to even after emails and calls - a system that breaks down when everybody is overwhelmed and there is a flurry of intense activity in a short time span.
More interesting to everybody will be the ability to automatically tag photos and videos with their location. Flickr already lets you enter the location of a photo but it’s too time consuming for most. We’ll start to see millions and soon billions of photos tagged with location, and mapping the world photo by photo will soon be a reality. Imagine an online map that contains a montage of pictures such that you can click on any point on the map and pull up thousands of images from that location.
O’Reilly Reportst on the iPhone’s location applications
Free Google blog at your own website? Priceless.
Google has a great feature where you can add a free blogger blog to your website. I use that for some other blogs though JoeDuck is hosted at WordPress, which offers more powerful content management features than blogger blogs.
Here are the directions for a free blogger blog. This is for domains hosted at Godaddy but similar will work at most registrars except for Verio where you’ll need to use the IP and not ghs.google.com
Setting up a free blog that will be hosted at blog.example.com involves TWO basic steps. First setting up the blog at blogger.com, then configuring the DNS at Godaddy to direct people to the blog as if it was at your website. The existing pages at your *website* will be unaffected by these change though be sure you have pages backed up for good measure.
1) Set up account or log in to existing Google account at blogger.com
2) Create new blog with blog address (URL) “example.blogspot.com”
3) Under “advanced settings” choose “custom domain” and enter in box: blog.example.net
1) Next, head to your Godaddy account and “manage domains”. Select example.net
2) Click on “Total DNS Control….”
3) Create create CNAME record
4) Enter Alias name: blog.example.net
5) Points to Host name: ghs.google.com
The blogger.com blog will have a small default blog toolbar at the top of the blog that can be deleted as well. As far as I know Google is OK with this modification to delete the obnoxious toolbar though I’m not positive it’s OK. I don’t have time to look up that little coding hack now but will try to post later …
PDF won’t print on Lexmark
Wow, I just spent an hour troubleshooting only to realize the problem was not printer ink or settings so much as the IRS PDF file which was not printing for me.
I got it to work by printing in standard and in a smaller screen view. So…if you have this problem I recommend first try to print a text file - if that fails you may have ink or other problems, but if it’s a PDF try messing with the printer quality settings (use standard first) and the view settings.
Yahoo Microsoft: Is the fat lady almost singing at $34?
Henry Blodget is whining that the Yahoo Microsoft deal is back to where it started, but I think Henry’s wrong … again!
I’m glad Henry was wrong about the rumor that Yahoo’s Q4 would beat expectations because it was part of the reason I bought YHOO then, and even though the stock dipped due to a bad Q4, it surged on Microsoft’s offer of $31 per share so I’m well in the black. But now he’s wrong to say the deal is not almost done. I think this Yahoo Microsoft merger is coming very soon to an internet near you.
Citibank Analyst Maheney upgraded Yahoo this morning, anticipating a boost in the MS bid to $34. Hey, maybe he read my blog post of about 6 weeks ago where I suggested Microsoft raise their bid to $34?
Unlike Henry, I think this is not back to where it all started at all!
Yang didn’t want to merge, now he sees it as almost inevitable. Yahoo board wanted more, now they know anything past initial offer is gravy. Part of the show was probably the board protecting itself against lawsuits from the unlucky minions who bought their Yahoo at $35+, some at over $100.
Barring a Q1 miracle that would recalibrate Yahoo prices without help of MS bids, I think the fat lady is now almost done singing on this deal.
Disclosure: long on YHOO
PCs - Cheap is the new Expensive
Maybe it is too early to tell, but it sure seems like the low end PC market is taking over, and maybe that is a good thing.
I´m typing this on my new and impressive eee PC, which for $399 offers me everything I need except a robust keyboard, but I am even getting used to this one. At 2 pounds this is the ticket for a good traveling device.
Here is another cheap miniPC, though this is more computer but no screen or keyboard:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9895699-7.html
Eee PC Review
Here´s my first blog post using the new Eee PC from ASUS. My first impressions:
Excellent, easy setup with little configuration. Navigation UI for the Linux is excellent.
Smaller than I had expected and seems like a feather compared to my 8 pound Dell.
Keyboard is very tiny. Hard to type and easy to hit wr0ng keys.
Connectivity excellent
Phew…back on a real keyboard now. The Eee PC really shines as a good surfing tool with a bright 7″ screen that should be fine for most tasks including mail, but the tiny keyboard concerns me. Still, much better than having to lug a big laptop all over the place in China and small enough that I can carry it with me everywhere. After too much time looking at the similarly named options I chose the ASUS Eee PC 4G at $399. The basic model is $299 with 2G of the flash memory, but mine has 4G memory (there is no hard drive or disk drive on these!). Also a camera and what appears to be longer battery life - 3.5 vs 2.8 hours for the “surf” models.
Before you buy review the chart at ASUS which covers the different models. This is the current chart but I’m sure this will change, especially because the larger model should be out soon. Unless the keyboard is larger - in which case that is probably the one to get - I’d think that the larger model would not necessarily be a better idea since it will be heavier.
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Ramona and Jenn
At least her grammer stays intact, and she’s pretty too!
You Asked: hello jenn
User: Joe
User: how old are you?
Ramona: Do you want me to tell you about it? I don’t want to ruin the ending for you.
Ramona: I thought it was great. It is about this computer that helps the colonists on the moon win their freedom from the authority on earth.
Ramona: You should read it.
Ramona: To you Joe?
User: yes
User: Yes
Ramona: I understand it very well.
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