Category: Fun Stuff

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New Toy, Part II

Same new toy as earlier, just a few more observations.

More pleased with this thing for web surfing, email and general office, computing tasks, etc., than I’d thought I’d be. Oh, I was sure it’d be OK for general computing, web surfing, etc., but that this lil notebook has proven so very easy to adapt to for everyday use has been a bit of a surprise. Oh, placement of some keys on this almost full-size keyboard and avoiding the touchpad while typing sometimes causes minor glitches in use, but apart from those things, it’s capable of replacing my main machine for ordinary tasks.

Nice.

The 15.6″ “widescreen” (1366X768) is nearly as good as my nice 23″ display on my desktop. Love the numeric keypad. I’m using a M$ Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000 most of the time, since that just leaves me less of a transition to my other computers and to those I work on, but it’d not be a deal breaker if I didn’t have it plugged in.

The bad? Almost all the ASUS software it came loaded with. Who really needs some Dock-like piece of crap (ASUS ControlDeck) to navigate with? People who need training wheels on their tricycles? And ASUS WebStorage? *feh* ASUS EeePC users get 500GB of online storage just for buying their midget computers. I get an ASUS WebStorage app that won’t even let me register, but even if it did, I’d qualify for a measly 1GB of storage. Useless. Even M$ SkyDrive (which works flawlessly, BTW) gives me 25GB of storage for free.

The rest of the ASUS utilities and applications are all things I can live without, though most are innocuous. Still, I’ve killed loading every one of them at Windows startup.

Killed off ALL the trialware the computer came with, as well as a lot of really stupid games. Chess and Freecell: all the games I’ll ever want on this puppy.

The only hardware quibble I really have is that all the USB ports (4 of ’em) are on the left and right sides of the computer. I’d like to have seen two on the back edge, but that’s really just a quibble. I can see some folks breaking off connectors/damaging ports just as easily there as on the left/right sides, as I’m more likely to do. OTOH, I like the media card port dead center in front. I run Thunderbird Portable off the thing, and it’s nice having all my email archived on a handily-ejected media card front and center. Since I now collect it all at Gmail as well, I’m pretty well covered in the email archiving stuff, especially if I just copy the mail folder off to other removable media every now and then.

Everything about this lil 15.6″ notebook says, “well built” and for $500? *sheesh* I walk by WallyWorld displays selling much less capable lil toys for as much or more. Still wondering if I ought to pinch myself. *heh*

Still, it does have limited uses as a platform for installing multiple VMs–only a 320GB HDD (and a max of only about 280 of that actually available for use right now because of the partitioning scheme) and just 4GB of RAM–not ideal for running several OSes simultaneously. And some of the other uses I have for computers aren’t best met by a lil notebook like this. But. It’s ideally suited as a “couch computer” when mated with this:

The rubber feet on the laptop grip the top of the lapdesk nicely, and the lil mouse “likes” the surface. The storage is just lagniappe.

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New Toy

New toy at twc central:

With a 2.2Ghz dual core and only 4GB of memory, it’s not a barn burner, but capable enough for a lappy to take into the entertainment room and use while keeping my Wonder Woman company as she’s booking it on her classes for her next degree (yeh, another one *heh*) or watching one of her fav shows while doing some light gaming or FB stuff on her lil lappy. (She multi-tasks–a lot. ;-)) This, in preparation for moving my office into the basement–when she’s around, I kinda like to be around her, and a basement office would put a cramp in that… unless I also moved the entertainment room downstairs, and that’s another project I just don’t want to add to my plate right now.

Anywho, even though it comes with Win7 Premium, I’ll likely use the 320GB hard drive to install a few VMs–Ubuntu, a couple of different Windows versions–heck, maybe even Win98 and some old Win9X software–using VirtualBox. As I said, a new toy.

BTW, I am going to do some burn-in testing during its first month of usage to determine whether I might need to take advantage of Newegg’s “first month replacement” policy, but there is one burn-in test program I think I’ll eschew:

“Keep in mind, use this program at your own risk. By using this program, you agree that neither I nor Intel shall be responsible for including, but not limited to: burned up CPU, fried motherboard, spontaneous room temperature increase, hair loss, or mental stress.”

I’ll just say no to the potential hair loss… 😉

Well, I did break down and buy a Microsoft RF/USB mini-mouse to match the one we got for my Wonder Woman. Some things are handy to do with the touch pad, others are just handier to use a mouse for. The lil lap desk is juuuuust large enough to allow a 4″ mousing space (if I hang the ‘puter 1.5″ off the lefthand side *heh*). I will probably mod the lap desk later to add a mousing deck on the right, but for now this works fine.

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Almost Annoying

I like Fun With Words, but this was a tad irritating:

Glossary of Fun Words – What word means to throw out of a window? To dance a child on one’s knees?

Couldn’t they at least choose some relatively obscure words instead of the oh-so-common “fenestrate” [see Random Yak’s correction in comments :-)] and “dandle”? Oh, well, I suppose I’ll check out the link anyway.

Now, this is more like it:

Glossary of Linguistics and Rhetoric – What do euphemism, hendiadys, cacophony, and procatalepsis mean?

I actually had to stop and think about “hendiadys” for a couple of seconds. I can’t recall the last time I used the term in conversation, either, although I am known to commit the heinous act from time to time. *heh*

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New Brew

I decided to try something a tad different in my search for a decent, low-cost hard apple cider recipe. Less than $10 for 3 gallons.

–9 “cans” of frozen apple juice (cos where am I going to get cider apples this time of year?) with water to make up only 7 of the cans, for a more “apple-y” flavor.
–3 cups plain ole cane sugar
–4 sticks cinnamon, broken up
–2 cloves
–1 packet of Red Star Premier Cuvee wine yeast (started ahead of time in about 1C of warm cider)

Bring almost to boil and let it simmer a while. Cool to about 105F. Transfer to fermenting bucket (with airlock). Toss the yeast.

I’ll let it go for about a week before I sample a bit. Then, may let it go a week or two longer, depending on how that goes. Transfer to a secondary fermentation bucket and let that sit a week or so, then bottle with a little starter. If this turns out half as well as the last batch, which had a lower apple-to-water ratio, I’ll be pleased.

Fermenting it in a (well-cleaned :-)) kitty litter plastic bucket, modified with a spout near the bottom edge and an air lock. Keeping the brew at about 75-80F.

Thinking of some of this as part of a wedding present, but only some.

“[D]rink… provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance… “–The Scottish Play, somewhere in Act II, I think.

🙂

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Walking Ears Down Memory Lane

(Yeh, if you don’t like that metaphor, I’ve got worse ones. :-))

If you only remember this from The (old) Dating Game, then you are a johnnie-come-lately, not nearly “olde pharte-ish” enough. *heh*

Gotta love the album cover, eh?

Ah, here’s another, just for the sheer brass of it:

BTW, While I appreciate a neat lil command line script that lets me download YouTube videoa in Linux, I have to say that YouTube Downloader for Windows edges it out in functionality. Download YouTube videos, convert them to another video format or even extract the audio and save as mp3. Neat lil app. Hmmm, I need to see about installing it in Ubuntu using WINE…

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Stolen Humor

I saw this at Woody’s Place and warned him I was stealing it…

Obama And The Cowboy

A cowboy from Texas attended a social function where Barack Obama was trying to gather support for his healthcare reform plan. When he discovered the cowboy was from President Bush’s town, Barack started to belittle him by talking in a southern drawl and single syllable words.

As he was doing that, he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head. The cowboy said, “Y’all havin’ some problem with them circle flies?”

Obama stopped talking and said, “Well, yes, if that’s what they’re called, but I’ve never heard of circle flies.”

“Well Sir,” the cowboy replied, “circle flies hang around ranches. They’re called circle flies because they’re almost always found circling around the back end of a horse.”

“Oh,” Obama replied as he went back to rambling. But, a moment later he stopped and bluntly asked, “Are you calling me a horse’s ass?”

“No, Sir,” the cowboy answered, “I have too much respect for the citizens of this country to call their President a horse’s ass.”

“That’s a good thing,” said Obama as he began rambling on once more.

After a long pause, the cowboy, in his best Texas drawl said, “Hard to fool them flies, though.”

Y’all be sure to head on over to Woody’s for more of his wit and wisdom, ‘K?