Hello everyone. It's been a slow and relaxing weekend. This is a good thing since my sleeping seems to be out of whack again. I got up at around five o'clock yesterday and had a very disjointed sleep last night. Somehow, I seem to be getting enough sleep to still enjoy the days despite feeling like they're longer than they ought to be. We went to Hamilton to see my brother Dan and his family. Ava was out doing gymnastics so we mostly saw Dan and Amia. Mom and dad got some good time in with her while she was awake and happy. She constantly moves around to different things. In contrast, Dan actually got to sit and chat rather than chase his daughter every which way. It was good to talk with him about various things. Our conversation ranged from computers to how things were going to future plans. Dan feels very good about where he is in life at the moment with good reason. The economic troubles the world is experiencing shouldn't effect the restaurant business too much. People, he opines, will still go out and celebrate life. His employers seem very happy with his work. His computer is being very well-behaved and hasn't given them any trouble for quite some time now. He's got a Mac and an Iphone which he also seems most pleased with. Apparently, they have the game Rogue for the Iphone or Ipod now. I can't quite remember which. He remembers playing that game with me on the Eureka A4 back in my high school days. I have very fond memories of Rogue. It was infinitely random and loads of fun. If he gets it, I'll be interested to hear his observations on a game he originally could only hear me play. Now there's a nifty turnabout for you. When Ava and Alli got home, Amia became markedly less content. We think she feels left out but she's just too young to do gymnastics with her big sister. It won't be long though. She's certainly getting bigger and smarter.
The netbook kept me very well occupied during the trip. An update for the bios came out and it fixed that damned non-reversible mute button problem. I don't have to worry about accidentally rendering my little machine speechless and neither do other blind users if they get the latest bios update. The update utility is inaccessible with screen readers so sighted help is required. They've also improved the software controlling the fan. The 900HA still gets warm particularly while in super performance mode but it's definitely better than before. Still no solution or explanation for the problem I have running Winfrotztts. For some reason, the netbook just doesn't like that piece of software. Some kind of initialization error. At least I can play the classic interactive fiction games using Dosfrotz and NVDA. A very minor annoyance in an otherwise completely positive experience. The battery I ordered has arrived so I now have around eight to ten hours of battery life if I need it. Thankfully, unlike the rest of the Asus web site, their online store is very accessible and easy to use. If you need to buy batteries, chargers, or other items, go to:
http://estore.asus.com
There's been some very interesting listening on the Internet lately. A show called Thinking Aloud presented by the BBC looks at sociological subjects. The last show was about a professor who put computers into the sides of buildings in slum areas to see what the children there would do with the digital world when presented with it. They proved to be very resourceful indeed. Unfortunately, the email link to contact this professor failed to work for me. I wanted to express my appreciation for an experiment which will have very positive and far-reaching effects for these children. Computers and the Internet have certainly had a profound impact on my life. I can only imagine what effect such exposure will have on these young and very capable minds. Today, I listened to a show on Soundprint about a man who will soon be completely blind. Mr. Stuart went back to his home town in Ohio to see if this would alter his childhood memories of it. A fascinating exploration of how we can cherish and change our memories over the years. Also, the latest Serotalk podcast gave me the promise of some interesting listening over the next week. It seems the Atia convention, a major access technology event, is happening from the 28th to the 31st. The folks at Serotek are launching a new internet radio station and will be broadcasting live from there. If they even have half the fun they have with the podcasts, it'll be a very fun ride indeed. I keenly look forward to tuning in. If you'd also like to have a listen, go to:
http://radio.samobile.net/
Robert J. Sawyer is hosting a couple of new shows on Vision TV which start this week. I believe they're on Tuesday evening. I very much look forward to hearing those. If they pan out, it'll be good to finally have a couple of things to watch regularly on TV. To get all the details, check out the blog of this terrific author at:
www.sfwriter.com
Janene is coming over for dinner with us in a little while. Mom always does an excellent turkey dinner. A nice way to round out the weekend. We'll hang out afterwards and take in some TV with mom and dad which will hopefully be more interesting than the football we watched last time. The netbook certainly came in handy there as did mom's laptop and crossword book. It must have been strange for Janene to find that everyone including her was doing their own thing in the same room. It certainly felt strange to me. Next week looks pretty good. There ought to be lots of tech news of interest. I'll have another go with the Trekker Breeze and see how the landmarks I set last week behave. Perhaps, I'll go to the corner store for a chocolate bar or two. It's good not to have any more packages in transit to listen out for. The doorbell is pretty much impossible to hear from my room up here even with no other sound happening. Good to have everything here safe and sound. My review of all the travel gear I've assembled was just posted to Blindcooltech today. I hope people find it useful. I was interested to listen to a review of the 904HA from a guy who clearly likes to put machines through their paces. He was recording while playing a game while doing some pretty processor-intensive audio editing and it didn't even slow the netbook down. Amazing. Well, I guess that pretty much covers life currently. We'll see what happens with these crazy politicians of ours this week after a needlessly long cooling off period. I wouldn't be surprised if we have to go and vote *again*! I hope we get some kind of majority so that at least a fraction of these damned idiots will be able to get things done in stable fashion over the next while. It would have been better had they been able to just get along and do stuff instead of fighting like a pack of kids over the last while. Now, the best I can reasonably hope for is that one fraction of them gets enough power not to be on the brink of defeat. The Americans seem to have all the political luck. Admittedly, they've been sorely lacking in good leadership over the last eight years but they didn't need to grab all the political karma. I'll certainly follow President Obama's adventures closely. An actual idealist with a good dose of common sense and perspective. What will Washington actually let him accomplish? It'll be interesting times. That's for certain.
Showing posts with label netbooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label netbooks. Show all posts
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
recent activities
Hello everyone. Yesterday, I noticed that Blind Planet, where I have published my guide and some other writing was having trouble again. This happens every so often. I have therefore taken the step of publishing my writing to this blog to make certain people can find it fairly easily should they want to. They may also comment upon it directly. Additionally, I posted a review of the new netbook I have obtained recently. This review has been sent to a couple of different magazines and I'm hopeful of getting it published. These netbooks could have some very welcome implications for cash-strapped blind people who want to take the plunge into the digital age but can't spend a fortune to do it. I hope my review will help to alert them to the existence of these nifty cheep machines. I also did another podcast for Blindcooltech where I reviewed all the new gear I've gotten focussing mainly on the netbook.
Finally, I worked up the resolve and fortitude to take another crack at ripping my BBC Sherlock Holmes collection to mp3 format so that I can take it with me on my netbook and play it on my pc rather than always digging into the box with sixteen volumes to find one out of the sixty-four cds I might want at any given moment. It was an absolute chore. I must have spent something like ten hours over the afternoon, evening and well into the next morning ripping cd after cd. This was my third major attempt to get this done. I ended up using Goldwave, my sound effects editor. Both Premier Accessible CD/DVD Creator and Windowsmedia Player failed miserably at the task. I can't for the life of me understand why pirates would go to such utter pains and then post the results up for other people to grab. Had I done this for anybody else but myself, I would have expected a good day's wages for my efforts. It's absolutely mind-bogglingly boring but you can never just assume that a cd has been done completely. It took three or four actions to get some of the cds completely. You always had to check the status report so you could get tracks which weren't saved due to errors. I hope I never have to do this again and will take great pains to make certain I have a backup. I'll also hang onto the CDs just in case. The collection is absolutely brilliantly dramatised and I have no doubt it'll come in handy on my travels. I'm not a big detective fan in general but Sherlock Holmes has always hit the spot very nicely for me. It's that victorian sense of companionship and adventure.
I guess the big TV switch will happen pretty soon now when everything's supposed to go over to digital. That could very well render my $65 TV completely useless. I'd certainly miss having a TV in my room should that turn out to be the case. However, I'm at the same time very curious to see how the switch goes, how qquickly everyone switches over, any backlash, etc. This change is going to effect so many households. I guess that fully accessible channel will be on the air by now. I can't get it with my basic cable but perhaps I'll be able to if there's a cheep way of switching to digital. I'll at least be able to check it out on my parents' TV assuming Rogers carries it. I'm pretty certain they're going to. I know Cogeco does so perhaps, there'll be something on of interest to both Janene and I assuming she has any time for TV now that school is starting up again. It always starts off lightly but that certainly doesn't last.
Finally, I worked up the resolve and fortitude to take another crack at ripping my BBC Sherlock Holmes collection to mp3 format so that I can take it with me on my netbook and play it on my pc rather than always digging into the box with sixteen volumes to find one out of the sixty-four cds I might want at any given moment. It was an absolute chore. I must have spent something like ten hours over the afternoon, evening and well into the next morning ripping cd after cd. This was my third major attempt to get this done. I ended up using Goldwave, my sound effects editor. Both Premier Accessible CD/DVD Creator and Windowsmedia Player failed miserably at the task. I can't for the life of me understand why pirates would go to such utter pains and then post the results up for other people to grab. Had I done this for anybody else but myself, I would have expected a good day's wages for my efforts. It's absolutely mind-bogglingly boring but you can never just assume that a cd has been done completely. It took three or four actions to get some of the cds completely. You always had to check the status report so you could get tracks which weren't saved due to errors. I hope I never have to do this again and will take great pains to make certain I have a backup. I'll also hang onto the CDs just in case. The collection is absolutely brilliantly dramatised and I have no doubt it'll come in handy on my travels. I'm not a big detective fan in general but Sherlock Holmes has always hit the spot very nicely for me. It's that victorian sense of companionship and adventure.
I guess the big TV switch will happen pretty soon now when everything's supposed to go over to digital. That could very well render my $65 TV completely useless. I'd certainly miss having a TV in my room should that turn out to be the case. However, I'm at the same time very curious to see how the switch goes, how qquickly everyone switches over, any backlash, etc. This change is going to effect so many households. I guess that fully accessible channel will be on the air by now. I can't get it with my basic cable but perhaps I'll be able to if there's a cheep way of switching to digital. I'll at least be able to check it out on my parents' TV assuming Rogers carries it. I'm pretty certain they're going to. I know Cogeco does so perhaps, there'll be something on of interest to both Janene and I assuming she has any time for TV now that school is starting up again. It always starts off lightly but that certainly doesn't last.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Asus Eee PC 900HA review
The Asus Eee PC 900HA Netbook
Reviewed From a Blindness Perspective
By Michael Feir
Score: 9/10
*** Introduction:
Over the holidays, I've invested a considerable amount of my savings in making travelling around with portable computing ready to hand a lot more feasible. Formerly, I had a full-sized laptop with the requisite large carrying case stuffed with other things I deem to be essential. It wasn't super--heavy but weighed enough to pull me somewhat off course when I wore it over my shoulder. Combine that with a bag to carry clothing for a weekend away and I'm a fairly bulky traveller even more prone to bump things than my total blindness makes me. Now that I'm contemplating doing more travel on busses and with my fiance, I needed to become more ready to move while still packing some computing punch.
Netbooks, those ultra-small laptops taking the sighted world by storm, seemed the perfect answer to my problem. I had originally hoped that prices of ten-inch models would fall within my range. However this didn't pan out quite as expected. I ended up being able to take a trip to Futureshop where they sell the Acer Aspire 1. Checking out its keyboard, I was quite surprised at how comfortable it was to use. That was my major reason for not contemplating 9-inch netbooks originally. My laptop is used for work as well as entertainment while I'm away and a comfortable keyboard is an absolute must. Speaking in a forum frequented by blind users, I ran into a trio of netbook owners who had opted for the 9-inch netbooks. One of them used the Acer Aspire 1 while the other two had Asus 900HA models. Obviously, given the title of this review, I opted for the latter choice. It was two to one for the 900HA. Another key consideration was that I had done enough research to know that Asus netbooks come with shortcut keys and system tray utilities which allow easy control of various power-saving features. I would have hated to get one of these things only to find I was unable to take full control of power-saving performance mode, disabling wifi and web cam, etc. The 900HA also came with a 160 gb hard drive. I ordered mine online for around $420 Canadian when you factor in shipping and such.
***Initial Impressions and Setup:
Opening the box, I was astonished to feel just how small and light the 900HA was without its battery. It's absurdly light. The battery comes separate from the computer and you have to insert it. This was literally a snap. It clicks into place and is then locked securely via a couple of sliding round locks on the bottom rear of the unit. Replacing the battery is absolutely child's play and requires no sight at all. The best comparison I can make to give you some idea of the size of the 900HA is to compare it to a fair-sized relatively thick paperback print book. It weighs 2.5 pounds including the battery. You can easily fit it into a purse or small carrying bag. I bought a great small carry all bag at Mountain Equipment Co-op:
www.mec.ca
The 900HA comes with its own soft zippered protective sleeve as well as an additional case feeling like velvet with a leather Velcro closing flap. These cases serve to cushion the netbook but have no handles or anything and no room for other items besides the netbook. I prefer the zippered soft sleeve.
On the bottom of the netbook, there are four little rubber-bottomed stubs which keep it slightly off the surface you place it upon. This is essential since the vents are located along the bottom along with the speakers. The screen lifts up as if you were lifting the cover of a book whose spine faced directly away from you. Well-built hinges keep the screen at the angle you choose to open it to. The keyboard is very small and you may well have some initial trepidation when you feel it for the first time. There are small bumps on the F and J keys to help you get your bearings. I'll come back to the keyboard later on.
Exploring the rest of the netbook, I had no trouble finding the socket for connecting the cord from the power brick. Three USB ports were easy to locate. Two on the right side and one on the left. Also on the left side are an Ethernet port near the very rear of the unit, a small vent near the middle and two audio jacks for headphone and microphone right near the front. Besides the two USB ports, the right side also sports an SD card reader near the front and a Kensington security lock port plus a SVGA port for hooking up an external monitor. The power button for turning on the 900HA is along the inside of the spine which runs along where the screen and main body of the netbook come together. Feel near the right end of that spine and you'll find a small indentation. Other than the battery, there isn't anything on the back of the netbook. For that matter, there are no ports or other things on the front of it either.
Turning the computer on for the first time, I was blown away by how quietly this little machine runs. You can hardly hear it at all even when the fan goes. Sound began to play soon after my father and I had started the machine. However, to my disappointment, I couldn't get NVDA to run until after my father helped me choose the initial options for language and other settings. You'll need sighted help in order to get up and running. However, within ten to fifteen minutes, we had progressed to the point where I could plug in my flash drive with the portable version of NVDA on it and I was the eager owner of a talking computer. In short order, I had gotten Jaws version 9 installed by copying the installation file over from the flash drive. Once it was going, the next order of business was to disable the damned built-in mouse. Those things are incredibly annoying to blind people until you can put them out of action. Fortunately, this is quite easy to do via the system tray. Go into the Elantech TouchPad item and into the Elantech tab and use the "stop device" option. After that, the TouchPad will be safely dormant but easy to turn back on should you need sighted assistance. From this point onward, customizing things to your liking is pretty standard stuff.
***The Keyboard:
And now, we come to the crux of things. Make no mistake about it. The keyboard is where the rubber hits the road. Purchasing a netbook of this small size means by definition that you're willing to make some sacrifices in the name of portability. The keyboard is about as small as you can get while still being reasonable to type on. It'll take a couple of weeks of regular use before the adjustments become second nature to you. I've had this computer around five days at the time of this writing and still have to pause and think in a few instances. The letters, punctuation and numbers are where they ought to be. However, the right shift key is a small key right above the right arrow beside the up-arrow. Slowly, this is becoming less annoying as I get used to positioning my hand being careful not to hit an arrow key while trying to shift a character on the left side of the keyboard. That's my only major gripe. Other than the right shift key, the other major change is the elimination of the six-pack of keys. Don't you just love it when a six-pack goes missing? The delete key is in the very top-right corner and the insert key is just to its left. The left and right arrow keys double as home and end when you simultaneously hold down the fn key. This is found to the right of the left control key and is to the left of the windows key. The up and down arrows double as page up and page down keys with the fn key held in. There's no number-pad but a group of keys can function as that either via holding the fn key while hitting them or once numlock is enabled.
That fn key is also your gateway to a method of easily controlling your netbook's power-saving functions among other things. For everyone's convenience, I've listed all of the defined functions making use of the fn key below:
fn+f1: places netbook in suspend mode.
fn+f2: toggles internal wireless lan on/off.
fn+f3: decreases screen brightness.
fn+f4: increases screen brightness.
fn+f5: lcd/monitor toggle.
fn+f6: task manager.
fn+f7: mute speakers. [DON'T!]
fn+f8: volume down.
fn+f9: volume up.
fn+f11: numlock on/off.
fn+f12: scroll lock.
fn+insert: print screen.
Using the fn+f3 key, I turned my display right off so that it isn't wasting power. Thankfully, the functions don't wrap around. You can hit fn+f3 a bunch of times and know that your screen will be off and then just hit fn+f4 should you need to increase brightness for sighted people. You'll likely have to hit the key more than once before it becomes bright enough for their comfort. Whatever you do, don't hit the fn+f7 key to mute speakers. It doesn't un mute them when you hit it a second time and there's no un mute key. I had to rescue myself by going into the volume settings via the start menu under programs/accessories/entertainment and then tab twice finally hitting the spacebar to uncheck the "mute all" checkbox. Fun city!
You'll get used to the keyboard eventually. It just takes a little practice. Actually, I'm far more comfortable typing with it than I thought I would be for quite a while. Your speed will certainly take a hit but not nearly as big a blow as I initially would have expected. I've spent a whole afternoon typing this review. I'm making the odd typing mistake but feel no finger fatigue at all. I had fears of what would happen when I switched between a full desktop keyboard and this one but that doesn't seem to be an issue. To test this, I had my email come in on my desktop so I would switch to that computer's keyboard to check that and then back again to keep writing the review. The keyboards are different enough that separate unconscious habits seem to be developing for the netbook. I'm by no means up to full speed but I'm clattering along at a pretty good clip. Actually, clicking along very quietly would be more accurate. You could type near a sleeping person and be in very little danger of rousing him or her. The only occasion where the keyboard gave me any real grief had to do with setting up global hotkeys for Winamp. I ended up finding it far more simple to track down the winamp.ini file and just copy it over. Instantly, I had my familiar global hotkeys which I set up on my desktop's full keyboard. Go Me!
***System Tray Power Control
There are a couple of utilities in the system tray which give blind people a good deal more flexibility than we're used to having with laptops. Using the super hybrid engine, you can switch between super performance, high performance, power-saving and auto modes. You just right-click on the super hybrid engine icon and then go down with the arrow key until you reach the desired mode. Hit the enter key or left-click on that and the new mode will take effect. Super performance mode runs everything at full power. I noticed the effect of this most of all when using SAPPI voices. They get particularly broken up in power-saving mode but behave well in high performance and super performance modes. If you're playing games, you'll want to use high performance mode at a minimum. Basic tasks like word processing and even listening to music work well even in power-saving mode. The more intense a task or tasks you do, the less constrictive you want the mode set for.
The other utility is the Eee PC tray utility. This works similar to the super hybrid engine but instead gives you control over screen resolution settings. It also lets you enable or disable your wifi and webcam. The webcam is built into the bezel on top of the monitor. Not bad at all.
For everything else, just use the standard Windows tools for controlling things. No other special features are present which I've yet been made aware of. People who are familiar with Windows XP Home Edition as well as whatever screen-reader they plan to use with their 900HA should be quite comfortable fairly quickly despite the keyboard.
***Performance:
Having initial expectations of possible sluggishness, I was very pleasantly surprised even before I introduced a memory upgrade which gave me two gigs of RAM instead of the included one gig. Booting up takes around forty seconds even with AVG version 8 and Jaws version 9 included. I haven't taken a look at optimizing that yet. The extra gig truly comes into its own when you're doing numerous things at once while AVG scans for viruses. I noticed a distinct reduction in the computer's tendency to freeze up when hard-pressed. An extra gig of RAM is a very good investment of around $30 or so. You have to undo four screws to access the memory slot. I wouldn't recommend upgrading without sighted help. It's not hard for even a relatively non-technical person to perform a memory upgrade as long as instructions are followed. They can be found on the Internet even including videos of an upgrade being performed. My father didn't find the diagram in the manual to be of much help at all. However, the process didn't take more than five minutes despite that hindrance.
The hard drive is quite good and things get done in speedy timely fashion. It runs very silently. You can feel a slight vibration if you rest your hand on the computer but I challenge anybody to actually hear the hard drive while sitting in front of the netbook. Holding it right up to your ear is cheating but you'll have a hard time even then. The fan is also very quiet. You can just hear a motor running assuming you're in a quiet room. Fortunately, there's enough of a vibration that you should be able to feel when the computer is on and busy. It would be quite easy to leave the computer on by mistake if you didn't take the time to feel it. If you close the lid, it will go into standby mode. I've set my power options such that you don't need a password to bring the machine out of standby. Until you set a password, hitting the enter key will do the trick for you.
The built-in wireless Internet connection works very well. I get a good connection to my router here at home even when I'm two floors down. I also detect several other networks in my vicinity. This is certainly an excellent machine for connecting to the Internet with. Listening to Internet Radio while checking email is trouble-free and smooth. I have absolutely no complaints on that score. It's too bad they didn't include N wifi connectivity and/or blue tooth. However, given the low cost of the 900HA, that's a very small quibble.
***Audio:
What would a blink be if he wasn't interested in audio performance? "Dead" would be my ready answer. The built-in speakers of the 900HA
don't win any awards from me. The descriptive audio track of Terminator II: Judgement Day sounded like an embarrassing cartoon farce. You won't be doing your favourite artist any favours playing songs through them for your friends. There's just no base whatsoever. The speakers are tiny little things you'll find on the bottom of the netbook. It'll do in a pinch when you want to do something quickly and don't feel like using headphones. I purchased a pair of Logitech V20 USB speakers from Ebay which work splendidly provided you have some hard space like a table to work on. The Logitech V20s have built-in foldable stands and are far less likely to be knocked over than the Altech Lancing XT1 speakers I used before. They're a bit heavier and wider but definitely make up for it with good performance and stability. Should you use these speakers, check out the "advanced" options in your normal Windows volume control. You'll find the standard base and treble sliders but will also discover automatic gain control and base boost options. Nice eh?
Headphones work very well. The sound comes through full and rich even on lower-end sets. According to Winamp, the Realtech HD Audio chip gives us 34 channels of sound assuming that Jaws takes up one channel. That's a tremendous improvement over the 12 free channels my older laptop had built-in. Even after adding my Altech Lancing XT1 speakers, I only had 17 free channels until I added in my Creative sound card. The audio hardware in the 900HA will certainly be more than adequate for the majority of users. Unless your a musician or have other special heavy-duty audio requirements, you ought to have plenty for what you need with 34 channels available. Plugging in headphones or a microphone brings up the audio manager which asks you what you just plugged in. Tabbing once gets you to a combo box where you can select whatever you connected. After that, go over to the "ok" button, hit the enter key and you're done.
Accessible games work quite well with the 900HA keeping in mind the keyboard changes. I was frankly expecting more trouble on that score. However, it turns out that the 900HA is a pretty nifty portable accessible gaming machine. Alien Outback played without any problems at all. So did Superdeakout, one of my personal favourites. Should you need to, you have three USB ports for connecting external speakers, keyboard or gamepad/joystick. Not too shabby at all. The Atom processor does a fine job and the audio has certainly proved more than a match for anything developed for the blind community so far.
***Conclusions:
Overall, I'm very pleased indeed with this little machine. Who would have thought that I could so affordably take care of my portable computing needs for the foreseeable future? I likely would have appreciated a larger keyboard. However, I think the Asus Eee PC 900HA is an excellent balance between extreme portability and comfortable usability. The keyboard is just different enough to let a clean separation exist in one's mind between its keyboard and a normal desktop keyboard. Given time, using the 900HA won't require a moment's pause for thought. It's a nice sturdy solidly built netbook. I wouldn't wack it with a hammer but won't cringe in mortal terror should I bump it against something while travelling with it. They aren't the delicate flimsy things people who have never felt one might expect. On the outside, all the needed features are present and accounted for. You can connect pretty much anything you'd want to via the USB ports and audio jacks. There's no external drive but you can certainly use SD cards or flash drives for that sort of thing. The 900HA has a nice smooth feel and heft. It can easily be carried like a book in hand or under the arm.
Under the hood, the 900HA certainly has it where it counts. The wireless connectivity is more than satisfactory. The Intel Atom processor keeps things running and saves energy. Throwing in two gigs of RAM up front wouldn't have hurt Asus's bottom line too much and certainly improves overall performance. In the audio department, the 900HA loses ground due to poor internal speakers but redeems itself by offering more built-in audio processing power than many full-size laptops. If you want good audio, use headphones or buy external USB speakers. You shouldn't need an external sound card.
Finally, in every way, the 900HA is very unobtrusive. It's small enough so people won't think you're moving in for a week when you're travelling with it. The battery it ships with is a four-cell which doesn't give as long life as the six-cell variety. However, particularly for blind people who don't make use of the screen, it should offer enough juice so that you won't always have to ask where a plug is. I haven't done a battery test yet but anticipate at least four hours and likely over five. You also won't have to worry about disturbing others around you with noise. This thing is impressively quiet. It can get warm after extended use but not uncomfortably so. All this adds up to a very positive user experience for blind people who already have screen-readers or who can make use of the free ones like NVDA and SA TO GO. Market forces have finally put truly portable computing within financial reach of many blind people including a very appreciative me. This netbook would be a tremendous asset to students already familiar with the Windows operating system. They would very quickly become proficient with the keyboard for use in class and could attach a normal USB keyboard plus USB speakers for use at home. For both work and play, the Asus Eee PC 900HA makes an excellent travelling companion. Overall, I give this netbook a 9 out of 10.
Reviewed From a Blindness Perspective
By Michael Feir
Score: 9/10
*** Introduction:
Over the holidays, I've invested a considerable amount of my savings in making travelling around with portable computing ready to hand a lot more feasible. Formerly, I had a full-sized laptop with the requisite large carrying case stuffed with other things I deem to be essential. It wasn't super--heavy but weighed enough to pull me somewhat off course when I wore it over my shoulder. Combine that with a bag to carry clothing for a weekend away and I'm a fairly bulky traveller even more prone to bump things than my total blindness makes me. Now that I'm contemplating doing more travel on busses and with my fiance, I needed to become more ready to move while still packing some computing punch.
Netbooks, those ultra-small laptops taking the sighted world by storm, seemed the perfect answer to my problem. I had originally hoped that prices of ten-inch models would fall within my range. However this didn't pan out quite as expected. I ended up being able to take a trip to Futureshop where they sell the Acer Aspire 1. Checking out its keyboard, I was quite surprised at how comfortable it was to use. That was my major reason for not contemplating 9-inch netbooks originally. My laptop is used for work as well as entertainment while I'm away and a comfortable keyboard is an absolute must. Speaking in a forum frequented by blind users, I ran into a trio of netbook owners who had opted for the 9-inch netbooks. One of them used the Acer Aspire 1 while the other two had Asus 900HA models. Obviously, given the title of this review, I opted for the latter choice. It was two to one for the 900HA. Another key consideration was that I had done enough research to know that Asus netbooks come with shortcut keys and system tray utilities which allow easy control of various power-saving features. I would have hated to get one of these things only to find I was unable to take full control of power-saving performance mode, disabling wifi and web cam, etc. The 900HA also came with a 160 gb hard drive. I ordered mine online for around $420 Canadian when you factor in shipping and such.
***Initial Impressions and Setup:
Opening the box, I was astonished to feel just how small and light the 900HA was without its battery. It's absurdly light. The battery comes separate from the computer and you have to insert it. This was literally a snap. It clicks into place and is then locked securely via a couple of sliding round locks on the bottom rear of the unit. Replacing the battery is absolutely child's play and requires no sight at all. The best comparison I can make to give you some idea of the size of the 900HA is to compare it to a fair-sized relatively thick paperback print book. It weighs 2.5 pounds including the battery. You can easily fit it into a purse or small carrying bag. I bought a great small carry all bag at Mountain Equipment Co-op:
www.mec.ca
The 900HA comes with its own soft zippered protective sleeve as well as an additional case feeling like velvet with a leather Velcro closing flap. These cases serve to cushion the netbook but have no handles or anything and no room for other items besides the netbook. I prefer the zippered soft sleeve.
On the bottom of the netbook, there are four little rubber-bottomed stubs which keep it slightly off the surface you place it upon. This is essential since the vents are located along the bottom along with the speakers. The screen lifts up as if you were lifting the cover of a book whose spine faced directly away from you. Well-built hinges keep the screen at the angle you choose to open it to. The keyboard is very small and you may well have some initial trepidation when you feel it for the first time. There are small bumps on the F and J keys to help you get your bearings. I'll come back to the keyboard later on.
Exploring the rest of the netbook, I had no trouble finding the socket for connecting the cord from the power brick. Three USB ports were easy to locate. Two on the right side and one on the left. Also on the left side are an Ethernet port near the very rear of the unit, a small vent near the middle and two audio jacks for headphone and microphone right near the front. Besides the two USB ports, the right side also sports an SD card reader near the front and a Kensington security lock port plus a SVGA port for hooking up an external monitor. The power button for turning on the 900HA is along the inside of the spine which runs along where the screen and main body of the netbook come together. Feel near the right end of that spine and you'll find a small indentation. Other than the battery, there isn't anything on the back of the netbook. For that matter, there are no ports or other things on the front of it either.
Turning the computer on for the first time, I was blown away by how quietly this little machine runs. You can hardly hear it at all even when the fan goes. Sound began to play soon after my father and I had started the machine. However, to my disappointment, I couldn't get NVDA to run until after my father helped me choose the initial options for language and other settings. You'll need sighted help in order to get up and running. However, within ten to fifteen minutes, we had progressed to the point where I could plug in my flash drive with the portable version of NVDA on it and I was the eager owner of a talking computer. In short order, I had gotten Jaws version 9 installed by copying the installation file over from the flash drive. Once it was going, the next order of business was to disable the damned built-in mouse. Those things are incredibly annoying to blind people until you can put them out of action. Fortunately, this is quite easy to do via the system tray. Go into the Elantech TouchPad item and into the Elantech tab and use the "stop device" option. After that, the TouchPad will be safely dormant but easy to turn back on should you need sighted assistance. From this point onward, customizing things to your liking is pretty standard stuff.
***The Keyboard:
And now, we come to the crux of things. Make no mistake about it. The keyboard is where the rubber hits the road. Purchasing a netbook of this small size means by definition that you're willing to make some sacrifices in the name of portability. The keyboard is about as small as you can get while still being reasonable to type on. It'll take a couple of weeks of regular use before the adjustments become second nature to you. I've had this computer around five days at the time of this writing and still have to pause and think in a few instances. The letters, punctuation and numbers are where they ought to be. However, the right shift key is a small key right above the right arrow beside the up-arrow. Slowly, this is becoming less annoying as I get used to positioning my hand being careful not to hit an arrow key while trying to shift a character on the left side of the keyboard. That's my only major gripe. Other than the right shift key, the other major change is the elimination of the six-pack of keys. Don't you just love it when a six-pack goes missing? The delete key is in the very top-right corner and the insert key is just to its left. The left and right arrow keys double as home and end when you simultaneously hold down the fn key. This is found to the right of the left control key and is to the left of the windows key. The up and down arrows double as page up and page down keys with the fn key held in. There's no number-pad but a group of keys can function as that either via holding the fn key while hitting them or once numlock is enabled.
That fn key is also your gateway to a method of easily controlling your netbook's power-saving functions among other things. For everyone's convenience, I've listed all of the defined functions making use of the fn key below:
fn+f1: places netbook in suspend mode.
fn+f2: toggles internal wireless lan on/off.
fn+f3: decreases screen brightness.
fn+f4: increases screen brightness.
fn+f5: lcd/monitor toggle.
fn+f6: task manager.
fn+f7: mute speakers. [DON'T!]
fn+f8: volume down.
fn+f9: volume up.
fn+f11: numlock on/off.
fn+f12: scroll lock.
fn+insert: print screen.
Using the fn+f3 key, I turned my display right off so that it isn't wasting power. Thankfully, the functions don't wrap around. You can hit fn+f3 a bunch of times and know that your screen will be off and then just hit fn+f4 should you need to increase brightness for sighted people. You'll likely have to hit the key more than once before it becomes bright enough for their comfort. Whatever you do, don't hit the fn+f7 key to mute speakers. It doesn't un mute them when you hit it a second time and there's no un mute key. I had to rescue myself by going into the volume settings via the start menu under programs/accessories/entertainment and then tab twice finally hitting the spacebar to uncheck the "mute all" checkbox. Fun city!
You'll get used to the keyboard eventually. It just takes a little practice. Actually, I'm far more comfortable typing with it than I thought I would be for quite a while. Your speed will certainly take a hit but not nearly as big a blow as I initially would have expected. I've spent a whole afternoon typing this review. I'm making the odd typing mistake but feel no finger fatigue at all. I had fears of what would happen when I switched between a full desktop keyboard and this one but that doesn't seem to be an issue. To test this, I had my email come in on my desktop so I would switch to that computer's keyboard to check that and then back again to keep writing the review. The keyboards are different enough that separate unconscious habits seem to be developing for the netbook. I'm by no means up to full speed but I'm clattering along at a pretty good clip. Actually, clicking along very quietly would be more accurate. You could type near a sleeping person and be in very little danger of rousing him or her. The only occasion where the keyboard gave me any real grief had to do with setting up global hotkeys for Winamp. I ended up finding it far more simple to track down the winamp.ini file and just copy it over. Instantly, I had my familiar global hotkeys which I set up on my desktop's full keyboard. Go Me!
***System Tray Power Control
There are a couple of utilities in the system tray which give blind people a good deal more flexibility than we're used to having with laptops. Using the super hybrid engine, you can switch between super performance, high performance, power-saving and auto modes. You just right-click on the super hybrid engine icon and then go down with the arrow key until you reach the desired mode. Hit the enter key or left-click on that and the new mode will take effect. Super performance mode runs everything at full power. I noticed the effect of this most of all when using SAPPI voices. They get particularly broken up in power-saving mode but behave well in high performance and super performance modes. If you're playing games, you'll want to use high performance mode at a minimum. Basic tasks like word processing and even listening to music work well even in power-saving mode. The more intense a task or tasks you do, the less constrictive you want the mode set for.
The other utility is the Eee PC tray utility. This works similar to the super hybrid engine but instead gives you control over screen resolution settings. It also lets you enable or disable your wifi and webcam. The webcam is built into the bezel on top of the monitor. Not bad at all.
For everything else, just use the standard Windows tools for controlling things. No other special features are present which I've yet been made aware of. People who are familiar with Windows XP Home Edition as well as whatever screen-reader they plan to use with their 900HA should be quite comfortable fairly quickly despite the keyboard.
***Performance:
Having initial expectations of possible sluggishness, I was very pleasantly surprised even before I introduced a memory upgrade which gave me two gigs of RAM instead of the included one gig. Booting up takes around forty seconds even with AVG version 8 and Jaws version 9 included. I haven't taken a look at optimizing that yet. The extra gig truly comes into its own when you're doing numerous things at once while AVG scans for viruses. I noticed a distinct reduction in the computer's tendency to freeze up when hard-pressed. An extra gig of RAM is a very good investment of around $30 or so. You have to undo four screws to access the memory slot. I wouldn't recommend upgrading without sighted help. It's not hard for even a relatively non-technical person to perform a memory upgrade as long as instructions are followed. They can be found on the Internet even including videos of an upgrade being performed. My father didn't find the diagram in the manual to be of much help at all. However, the process didn't take more than five minutes despite that hindrance.
The hard drive is quite good and things get done in speedy timely fashion. It runs very silently. You can feel a slight vibration if you rest your hand on the computer but I challenge anybody to actually hear the hard drive while sitting in front of the netbook. Holding it right up to your ear is cheating but you'll have a hard time even then. The fan is also very quiet. You can just hear a motor running assuming you're in a quiet room. Fortunately, there's enough of a vibration that you should be able to feel when the computer is on and busy. It would be quite easy to leave the computer on by mistake if you didn't take the time to feel it. If you close the lid, it will go into standby mode. I've set my power options such that you don't need a password to bring the machine out of standby. Until you set a password, hitting the enter key will do the trick for you.
The built-in wireless Internet connection works very well. I get a good connection to my router here at home even when I'm two floors down. I also detect several other networks in my vicinity. This is certainly an excellent machine for connecting to the Internet with. Listening to Internet Radio while checking email is trouble-free and smooth. I have absolutely no complaints on that score. It's too bad they didn't include N wifi connectivity and/or blue tooth. However, given the low cost of the 900HA, that's a very small quibble.
***Audio:
What would a blink be if he wasn't interested in audio performance? "Dead" would be my ready answer. The built-in speakers of the 900HA
don't win any awards from me. The descriptive audio track of Terminator II: Judgement Day sounded like an embarrassing cartoon farce. You won't be doing your favourite artist any favours playing songs through them for your friends. There's just no base whatsoever. The speakers are tiny little things you'll find on the bottom of the netbook. It'll do in a pinch when you want to do something quickly and don't feel like using headphones. I purchased a pair of Logitech V20 USB speakers from Ebay which work splendidly provided you have some hard space like a table to work on. The Logitech V20s have built-in foldable stands and are far less likely to be knocked over than the Altech Lancing XT1 speakers I used before. They're a bit heavier and wider but definitely make up for it with good performance and stability. Should you use these speakers, check out the "advanced" options in your normal Windows volume control. You'll find the standard base and treble sliders but will also discover automatic gain control and base boost options. Nice eh?
Headphones work very well. The sound comes through full and rich even on lower-end sets. According to Winamp, the Realtech HD Audio chip gives us 34 channels of sound assuming that Jaws takes up one channel. That's a tremendous improvement over the 12 free channels my older laptop had built-in. Even after adding my Altech Lancing XT1 speakers, I only had 17 free channels until I added in my Creative sound card. The audio hardware in the 900HA will certainly be more than adequate for the majority of users. Unless your a musician or have other special heavy-duty audio requirements, you ought to have plenty for what you need with 34 channels available. Plugging in headphones or a microphone brings up the audio manager which asks you what you just plugged in. Tabbing once gets you to a combo box where you can select whatever you connected. After that, go over to the "ok" button, hit the enter key and you're done.
Accessible games work quite well with the 900HA keeping in mind the keyboard changes. I was frankly expecting more trouble on that score. However, it turns out that the 900HA is a pretty nifty portable accessible gaming machine. Alien Outback played without any problems at all. So did Superdeakout, one of my personal favourites. Should you need to, you have three USB ports for connecting external speakers, keyboard or gamepad/joystick. Not too shabby at all. The Atom processor does a fine job and the audio has certainly proved more than a match for anything developed for the blind community so far.
***Conclusions:
Overall, I'm very pleased indeed with this little machine. Who would have thought that I could so affordably take care of my portable computing needs for the foreseeable future? I likely would have appreciated a larger keyboard. However, I think the Asus Eee PC 900HA is an excellent balance between extreme portability and comfortable usability. The keyboard is just different enough to let a clean separation exist in one's mind between its keyboard and a normal desktop keyboard. Given time, using the 900HA won't require a moment's pause for thought. It's a nice sturdy solidly built netbook. I wouldn't wack it with a hammer but won't cringe in mortal terror should I bump it against something while travelling with it. They aren't the delicate flimsy things people who have never felt one might expect. On the outside, all the needed features are present and accounted for. You can connect pretty much anything you'd want to via the USB ports and audio jacks. There's no external drive but you can certainly use SD cards or flash drives for that sort of thing. The 900HA has a nice smooth feel and heft. It can easily be carried like a book in hand or under the arm.
Under the hood, the 900HA certainly has it where it counts. The wireless connectivity is more than satisfactory. The Intel Atom processor keeps things running and saves energy. Throwing in two gigs of RAM up front wouldn't have hurt Asus's bottom line too much and certainly improves overall performance. In the audio department, the 900HA loses ground due to poor internal speakers but redeems itself by offering more built-in audio processing power than many full-size laptops. If you want good audio, use headphones or buy external USB speakers. You shouldn't need an external sound card.
Finally, in every way, the 900HA is very unobtrusive. It's small enough so people won't think you're moving in for a week when you're travelling with it. The battery it ships with is a four-cell which doesn't give as long life as the six-cell variety. However, particularly for blind people who don't make use of the screen, it should offer enough juice so that you won't always have to ask where a plug is. I haven't done a battery test yet but anticipate at least four hours and likely over five. You also won't have to worry about disturbing others around you with noise. This thing is impressively quiet. It can get warm after extended use but not uncomfortably so. All this adds up to a very positive user experience for blind people who already have screen-readers or who can make use of the free ones like NVDA and SA TO GO. Market forces have finally put truly portable computing within financial reach of many blind people including a very appreciative me. This netbook would be a tremendous asset to students already familiar with the Windows operating system. They would very quickly become proficient with the keyboard for use in class and could attach a normal USB keyboard plus USB speakers for use at home. For both work and play, the Asus Eee PC 900HA makes an excellent travelling companion. Overall, I give this netbook a 9 out of 10.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
fantastic holidays and new beginnings
Hello everyone. A brand new year has arrived in fine style. I hosted the New year's party here at my parents' house and it went quite well for those of us who showed up. Sadly, three of my friends couldn't make it due to illness. Janene came back from visiting her parents in time to attend. Everyone got along quite well with each other and it hopefully won't be another year before we all get together again. Having good friends around to start the new year with has always meant a lot to me. I'm very glad Janene also enjoys that. I guess the next New Year's Eve I experience is going to be somewhat different. We'll be married and living either in Janene's apartment or possibly somewhere else by that point. I very much look forward to the changes this year will bring to my life.
For the past little while, I've been making some purchases which will make me a lot more able to travel easily. The Trekker Breeze will help prevent my getting hopelessly lost in my local area. I still expect to travel mainly with other people. However, I'll hopefully be able to be a little more adventurous knowing that I won't necessarily have to ask people to get me back home if I've turned down one street too many. The other thing I wanted to do was make travel with others a lot easier. I tended to bump into folks when I had my fully loaded laptop bag over my shoulder. Now, I believe I've managed to outfit myself a lot better. I purchased a combination backpack and suitcase from Mountain Equipment Co-op. I also bought a smaller bag from Mountain Equipment Co-op which was recommended in a review I read for carrying netbooks. A new and much better set of Logitech USB speakers will provide good sound from the netbook. They aren't nearly as liable to fall off my portable table at the slightest bump. They have stands which fold out and the cables are actually in the stands. I only have to attach two cables now. The memory upgrade I purchased for the 900HA was as easy as people said it was going to be. Dad didn't have any trouble at all. The extra gig makes a big difference when you've got AVG and Jaws going all the time. Everything is working quite well. The only thing which has yet to show up is a USB wifi adaptor.
The netbook I ended up deciding to go with is the Asus Eee PC 900HA. How's that for skilled marketing gone amuck? Fortunately, Asus seems to be far more adept at producing extremely portable computers than it is at naming them attractively. I'm having to adjust to the smaller keyboard. It's not too much of an issue but having all the keys closer together throws me off my stride a little. The right shift key is giving me the only serious trouble. I find I have to pause and think carefully before typing a shifted character on the left side. I also occasionally hit a left bracket when I mean to hit a letter p. I expect I'll be up to speed on it in fairly short order though. I can also attach the flexible full keyboard via USB port assuming I'm somewhere with some desk space. Some of the keys are double-mapped. The left right, up and down arrows double as home, end, pageup and pagedown when combined with the fn key. I tried playing Superdeakout on it yesterday and had no difficulty at all. Having 160 GB of hard drive space is absolutely splendid. I can bring all my audio drama, movies, books, music, and games along wherever I go. While I could have been happier with a ten-inch keyboard, I believe I've made a very good choice given my economics. All three blind people I spoke with who owned netbooks went with the 8.9-inch ones. Two of them owned the 900HA. Because I went with a smaller model, I saved close to two hundred dollars. The prices of the ten-inch ones just weren't dropping like I figured on. It's good to still have a little spare cash after such a major upgrade.
Christmas was a terrific time. Ava and Amia combined cute with hyper energy in equal measure. They're inn undated with new toys. Mom and dad got a new web cam which they've just started using yesterday with my old laptop. I've turned it over to mom so that she has a computer and doesn't have to use dad's work laptop. They got onto Skype and had fun talking to Janene this morning. It's a whole new world for them. They'll have lots of fun talking to Dan and seeing Ava and Amia.
This weekend will wrap up the holidays for Janene. We'll be having brunch with some friends of hers tomorrow. It's a place called the Hothouse Cafe. I had never heard of it before. It ought to be an interesting trip. I'll be picking up work on the design document for Enchantment's Twilight on Monday. There's still a whole lot to learn about the netbook. Also, I've got loads of stuff to get installed before it truly feels like my new digital home away from home. There's such a difference between desktop and netbook that it'll add a different dynamic to my work while travelling. Perhaps, like others have, I'll just get used to the different keyboard and hardly have to consciously think about it. I hope that happens. Either way though, it's a tremendous step up from the older laptop. I can put everything I need for a weekend in one backpack and just go. It'll be a lot less awkward in more crowded areas. Well, I guess that pretty much does it for my first blog entry of 2009. I hope all my readers had as restorative and fun holidays as I have. I'm a truly lucky man.
For the past little while, I've been making some purchases which will make me a lot more able to travel easily. The Trekker Breeze will help prevent my getting hopelessly lost in my local area. I still expect to travel mainly with other people. However, I'll hopefully be able to be a little more adventurous knowing that I won't necessarily have to ask people to get me back home if I've turned down one street too many. The other thing I wanted to do was make travel with others a lot easier. I tended to bump into folks when I had my fully loaded laptop bag over my shoulder. Now, I believe I've managed to outfit myself a lot better. I purchased a combination backpack and suitcase from Mountain Equipment Co-op. I also bought a smaller bag from Mountain Equipment Co-op which was recommended in a review I read for carrying netbooks. A new and much better set of Logitech USB speakers will provide good sound from the netbook. They aren't nearly as liable to fall off my portable table at the slightest bump. They have stands which fold out and the cables are actually in the stands. I only have to attach two cables now. The memory upgrade I purchased for the 900HA was as easy as people said it was going to be. Dad didn't have any trouble at all. The extra gig makes a big difference when you've got AVG and Jaws going all the time. Everything is working quite well. The only thing which has yet to show up is a USB wifi adaptor.
The netbook I ended up deciding to go with is the Asus Eee PC 900HA. How's that for skilled marketing gone amuck? Fortunately, Asus seems to be far more adept at producing extremely portable computers than it is at naming them attractively. I'm having to adjust to the smaller keyboard. It's not too much of an issue but having all the keys closer together throws me off my stride a little. The right shift key is giving me the only serious trouble. I find I have to pause and think carefully before typing a shifted character on the left side. I also occasionally hit a left bracket when I mean to hit a letter p. I expect I'll be up to speed on it in fairly short order though. I can also attach the flexible full keyboard via USB port assuming I'm somewhere with some desk space. Some of the keys are double-mapped. The left right, up and down arrows double as home, end, pageup and pagedown when combined with the fn key. I tried playing Superdeakout on it yesterday and had no difficulty at all. Having 160 GB of hard drive space is absolutely splendid. I can bring all my audio drama, movies, books, music, and games along wherever I go. While I could have been happier with a ten-inch keyboard, I believe I've made a very good choice given my economics. All three blind people I spoke with who owned netbooks went with the 8.9-inch ones. Two of them owned the 900HA. Because I went with a smaller model, I saved close to two hundred dollars. The prices of the ten-inch ones just weren't dropping like I figured on. It's good to still have a little spare cash after such a major upgrade.
Christmas was a terrific time. Ava and Amia combined cute with hyper energy in equal measure. They're inn undated with new toys. Mom and dad got a new web cam which they've just started using yesterday with my old laptop. I've turned it over to mom so that she has a computer and doesn't have to use dad's work laptop. They got onto Skype and had fun talking to Janene this morning. It's a whole new world for them. They'll have lots of fun talking to Dan and seeing Ava and Amia.
This weekend will wrap up the holidays for Janene. We'll be having brunch with some friends of hers tomorrow. It's a place called the Hothouse Cafe. I had never heard of it before. It ought to be an interesting trip. I'll be picking up work on the design document for Enchantment's Twilight on Monday. There's still a whole lot to learn about the netbook. Also, I've got loads of stuff to get installed before it truly feels like my new digital home away from home. There's such a difference between desktop and netbook that it'll add a different dynamic to my work while travelling. Perhaps, like others have, I'll just get used to the different keyboard and hardly have to consciously think about it. I hope that happens. Either way though, it's a tremendous step up from the older laptop. I can put everything I need for a weekend in one backpack and just go. It'll be a lot less awkward in more crowded areas. Well, I guess that pretty much does it for my first blog entry of 2009. I hope all my readers had as restorative and fun holidays as I have. I'm a truly lucky man.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
riding the technology wave
Hello everyone. A couple of very interesting things have happened this week. My Trekker Breeze arrived and is now charged up for use. Unfortunately, the weather and GPS gods haven't been all that kind right off the bat. I haven't yet gotten the high GPS coverage which would let me feel confident making important landmarks such as the location of home. Once the landmarks are set accurately, I think lower GPS coverage will still give me enough confidence to explore knowing that the Breeze at least knows precisely where I actually want to go. I think the snow in the air might have screwed it up over the past couple of days when I've tried it. Even under that limitation, it still was able to figure out which street I was on eventually. Clearly, I have a lot of experimentation ahead of me with the Breeze.
Dad and I took a brief trip to Futureshop one morning. It's been quite a while since we've done that sort of thing and it was fun. I finally got to feel a few of these netbooks and get a tangible idea of what they're all about. Even the 8.9-inch keyboards feel a lot more comfortable than I initially expected. Given that I'll be using my netbook more extensively and for longer stretches than most average people, I think a ten-inch model is a good investment. In particular, I'm going to try and get an Asus EEEPC 1000H. It seems to be the best option from my purspective. The power management will be completely accessible, it has the new N wifi capability built in, the keyboard is roomy, the battery life is excellent and it even has good built-in speakers. For gaming, I expect I'll still need to carry my XT1 speakers due to the distance between the built-in ones unless they've somehow dealt with that problem as well. That's worth a little extra cash considering I'll be using it over at least the next four years or so barring catastrophy. It's also one of the easiest units to upgrade or replace batteries, hard drive, etc. I'm counting on getting a good deal after Christmas online. The EEEPC 1000H isn't sold anywhere we could reasonably drive to unfortunately.
I'm all ready to enjoy some nifty holidays this year. Janene's going to be with her parents. I would certainly have enjoyed having her here with us on Christmas but she very much wants to spend some time with her parents. We'll be alternating between families when it comes to Christmas after we're married so when you look at it, this is probably the most fair way to spend our last Christmas before that starts. She'll be back to join me for New Year's Eve which I'm going to host here at my parents' house. I keenly look forward to that. Meanwhile, I have a lot more to look forward to. Unless fate is unusually cruel, this should include talking with Janene via telephone hearing her fully rested and healthy this time. She needs time off that she doesn't have to spend recovering from illness like what happened last year. She works so hard and deserves the kind of restorative enjoyment which comes with having time and the energy to put it to good use. Things are winding down much better this year for her.
Dad and I took a brief trip to Futureshop one morning. It's been quite a while since we've done that sort of thing and it was fun. I finally got to feel a few of these netbooks and get a tangible idea of what they're all about. Even the 8.9-inch keyboards feel a lot more comfortable than I initially expected. Given that I'll be using my netbook more extensively and for longer stretches than most average people, I think a ten-inch model is a good investment. In particular, I'm going to try and get an Asus EEEPC 1000H. It seems to be the best option from my purspective. The power management will be completely accessible, it has the new N wifi capability built in, the keyboard is roomy, the battery life is excellent and it even has good built-in speakers. For gaming, I expect I'll still need to carry my XT1 speakers due to the distance between the built-in ones unless they've somehow dealt with that problem as well. That's worth a little extra cash considering I'll be using it over at least the next four years or so barring catastrophy. It's also one of the easiest units to upgrade or replace batteries, hard drive, etc. I'm counting on getting a good deal after Christmas online. The EEEPC 1000H isn't sold anywhere we could reasonably drive to unfortunately.
I'm all ready to enjoy some nifty holidays this year. Janene's going to be with her parents. I would certainly have enjoyed having her here with us on Christmas but she very much wants to spend some time with her parents. We'll be alternating between families when it comes to Christmas after we're married so when you look at it, this is probably the most fair way to spend our last Christmas before that starts. She'll be back to join me for New Year's Eve which I'm going to host here at my parents' house. I keenly look forward to that. Meanwhile, I have a lot more to look forward to. Unless fate is unusually cruel, this should include talking with Janene via telephone hearing her fully rested and healthy this time. She needs time off that she doesn't have to spend recovering from illness like what happened last year. She works so hard and deserves the kind of restorative enjoyment which comes with having time and the energy to put it to good use. Things are winding down much better this year for her.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
living in interesting times
Hello everyone. It's been interesting over the past while. Certainly, the political stupidity our esteemed leaders have displayed lately has been nothing short of stunning. Let's all go for a power grab right when the economy is tanking and people actually need good government the most, shal we? They should all be held acountable and summarrally replaced with more sensible and civil people. It's been a while since being Canadian has had any real embarrassment attached to it for me but the past while will keep all of us from getting too smug for some time to come. I'd love to use my cane to knock some sense into the lot of them when they go back, dare I hope, to actually get some god damned work done?
Janene and I got together yesterday night after she finished writing her last paper for this semester. We had a nice dinner at East Side Mario's. Their Hell's Kitchen Chicken absolutely rocks. Thankfully, Janene can do a lot more relaxing over the next while. She keeps everything together quite nicely but it can certainly ware her down when the major stuff comes due. She's definitely in the Christmas spirit now. If anybody deserves to be so, it's certainly she. While she's been chasing high marks, I've been after a little high technology. For the past while, I've been fascinated by the rapid emergence and development of these netbooks.
A lot of people are complaining that they aren't powerful enough to run Windows Vista on. There are already a couple of exceptions to that though. For me, a netbook represents quite a welcome upgrade where I actually want it. They're a heaping lot lighter and smaller. They have far longer battery life. I can get one with a minimum of twice and quite likely four times the hard drive space for much less than my current laptop cost. Also, they use Windows XP Home edition. It's probably my last real crack at getting a new system using that operating system. I'll be able to run my current version of Jaws on it. It'll take care of my portable computing needs for the next number of years . Janene wants my old laptop for those relatively rare occasions when she could use one. I just need the prices of the current crop of netbooks to come down a chunk or to find a good deal on one as stores shift to the newer netbooks starting to come out. The conditions are all present for such a price drop to take place.
I saw a terrific deal on Ebay where I could have had an EEE PC1000H for less than $300. It was the first Ebay auction I entered for myself. Right up until damned near the end, I was the highest bidder. However, at least a couple of people got into heavy bidding action near the end and the winner ended up paying something like $400 US for it. It was a fun experience despite that though and I may try again if another such opportunity presents itself. Despite being far above what I would pay for a netbook which doesn't come directly from a store, he still got it for a bit less than normal current prices for it. I don't think that will hold true for much longer though. Given the desperation of retailers in this economy and the appearance of the next generation of competing netbooks, I feel confident that I'll be able to get one at a reasonable price by the middle of next month. Of course, I hope not to have to wait that long. I am, after all, a gadget freak. Also, I don't mind not having the absolute latest and greatest. Even 80 gigs is plenty of space for my travelling needs. It'll be nice to have something that much more portable.
My training cession went very well with Linda today. We went through installing Calendar Magic. She hasn't done a lot of installing different programs like that and I think it was a good overall experience for her even if she doesn't use the software. We also did some downloading of electronic Braille volumes from the CNIB digital library and I showed her how easy it was to load them into Kurzweil 1000 where they're instantly translated into ordinary text. In the process, we also got her profile set up so she can actually find more such books. I'll never be caught dead using Norton security software though. That stuff causes some serious accessibility grief. She's going to stick with it for the next two hundred plus days until her current subscription expires which shows far more patience for it than I'd have. My AVG Internet Security software is purring along quite contentedly and fully under my control.
The only thing that hasn't been so under my control is my sleeping lately. I seem to get enough to manage but I'm always waking up at five thirty or possibly even earlier these days. It's not that comfortable gentle sort of "I could lie here and mentally drift for a few hours" kind of wakefulness either. It's that "Gotta get up, get going, get that brain in proper gear and do something fun with it!" kind of wakefulness. Thankfully, there's plenty to keep me busy. Plenty of podcasts and sites to keep an ear on as my quest for a good quality but inexpensive netbook continues. I've also been playing more games lately. Smugglers3 and Nethack are the two most common. I also play the odd game of Superdeakout and Alien Outback. One of these days, it would be terrific fun to get a few friends together for an afternoon game of Talisman. I've had fun fiddling with it but you need other players to truly enjoy the game. Perhaps, someday, I can arrange that circumstance. The next order of business in that department is to start working on New Year's Eve.
Janene and I got together yesterday night after she finished writing her last paper for this semester. We had a nice dinner at East Side Mario's. Their Hell's Kitchen Chicken absolutely rocks. Thankfully, Janene can do a lot more relaxing over the next while. She keeps everything together quite nicely but it can certainly ware her down when the major stuff comes due. She's definitely in the Christmas spirit now. If anybody deserves to be so, it's certainly she. While she's been chasing high marks, I've been after a little high technology. For the past while, I've been fascinated by the rapid emergence and development of these netbooks.
A lot of people are complaining that they aren't powerful enough to run Windows Vista on. There are already a couple of exceptions to that though. For me, a netbook represents quite a welcome upgrade where I actually want it. They're a heaping lot lighter and smaller. They have far longer battery life. I can get one with a minimum of twice and quite likely four times the hard drive space for much less than my current laptop cost. Also, they use Windows XP Home edition. It's probably my last real crack at getting a new system using that operating system. I'll be able to run my current version of Jaws on it. It'll take care of my portable computing needs for the next number of years . Janene wants my old laptop for those relatively rare occasions when she could use one. I just need the prices of the current crop of netbooks to come down a chunk or to find a good deal on one as stores shift to the newer netbooks starting to come out. The conditions are all present for such a price drop to take place.
I saw a terrific deal on Ebay where I could have had an EEE PC1000H for less than $300. It was the first Ebay auction I entered for myself. Right up until damned near the end, I was the highest bidder. However, at least a couple of people got into heavy bidding action near the end and the winner ended up paying something like $400 US for it. It was a fun experience despite that though and I may try again if another such opportunity presents itself. Despite being far above what I would pay for a netbook which doesn't come directly from a store, he still got it for a bit less than normal current prices for it. I don't think that will hold true for much longer though. Given the desperation of retailers in this economy and the appearance of the next generation of competing netbooks, I feel confident that I'll be able to get one at a reasonable price by the middle of next month. Of course, I hope not to have to wait that long. I am, after all, a gadget freak. Also, I don't mind not having the absolute latest and greatest. Even 80 gigs is plenty of space for my travelling needs. It'll be nice to have something that much more portable.
My training cession went very well with Linda today. We went through installing Calendar Magic. She hasn't done a lot of installing different programs like that and I think it was a good overall experience for her even if she doesn't use the software. We also did some downloading of electronic Braille volumes from the CNIB digital library and I showed her how easy it was to load them into Kurzweil 1000 where they're instantly translated into ordinary text. In the process, we also got her profile set up so she can actually find more such books. I'll never be caught dead using Norton security software though. That stuff causes some serious accessibility grief. She's going to stick with it for the next two hundred plus days until her current subscription expires which shows far more patience for it than I'd have. My AVG Internet Security software is purring along quite contentedly and fully under my control.
The only thing that hasn't been so under my control is my sleeping lately. I seem to get enough to manage but I'm always waking up at five thirty or possibly even earlier these days. It's not that comfortable gentle sort of "I could lie here and mentally drift for a few hours" kind of wakefulness either. It's that "Gotta get up, get going, get that brain in proper gear and do something fun with it!" kind of wakefulness. Thankfully, there's plenty to keep me busy. Plenty of podcasts and sites to keep an ear on as my quest for a good quality but inexpensive netbook continues. I've also been playing more games lately. Smugglers3 and Nethack are the two most common. I also play the odd game of Superdeakout and Alien Outback. One of these days, it would be terrific fun to get a few friends together for an afternoon game of Talisman. I've had fun fiddling with it but you need other players to truly enjoy the game. Perhaps, someday, I can arrange that circumstance. The next order of business in that department is to start working on New Year's Eve.
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