Disqus - Latest Comments for angryearthling

Re: Always Innovating Touch Book has a detachable display

Nick — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:00:13 -0000

no it will not. Windows 7 will probably have an ARM port though. then we just would have to work on getting it to work off a MicroSD card.

Re: Palm could revive the Foleo as a netbook

angryearthling — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:51:29 -0000

i was really keen when they announced the foleo. palmos and a very long battery life. i have good memories of the palmos and it was a good solid system. the only drawback was the hardware. 2 of the palms i owned had flaky hardware. the m125 withs its dodgy touchscreen (fixed by a software patch, a week after palm sent me an email saying there were no hardware issues with devices made in mexico) and a palm e which had a few problems from flaky sound, dodgy todo button and 1-2 others. i had 4-5 palm (iiix, iiic, m125, handspring visor neo, palm e) devices and all gave me good service, even the flaky ones. one of the big switchoffs for me was the grafitti2 on the palm e. eeeew!

so if they released the foleo i'd seriously think about buying. might even look at pré if it ever makes it to this side of the pond.

Re: Will netbooks die off as the economy recovers?

angryearthling — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:17:03 -0000

netbooks are growing as they are filling a till now unserviced market. there were small machies but they were often twice the price of a standard system and had small niche markets. now there are cheap alternatives people are jumping all over them.

for some it is the small choice but for me and many other commuters like me we value the small compactness as well as the cheapness.

at the mo i carry 2 netbooks. an aspire one for use at work (must add ubuntu 9.04 to it soon) and an olpc for when i need something that will last all day which it does. no one laptop would match the versatility that both give me for the price i paid for both. i would like to ditch the aspire one and get an arm based netbook with a touch screen.

the laptop manufacturers i suspect would like to eliminate the netbooks as they are destroying the market for their more expensive devices.

Re: Would you pay $250 for an underpowered Google Android netbook?

angryearthling — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:14:23 -0000

the price is ok if the the underpowered system has a better battery life. remember the palmos was run on an underclocked cpu that gave a fantastic battery life. 7" screen is fine for web browsing and light usage. i like them small. i liked the nokia tablets. the real problem with them was that when it came to displaying pdfs the 64mb wasn't able to render the pages properly. 7" might be a little small for that but it would depend on the reolution on that 7" screen. it would be border line. it would definitely need a sd card slot so that it could have a large card put in it. 8 or 16gb.

but yeah i could see myself buying one. but then i've bought pretty much every other device out there. :-)

psion, palm, zaurus, visor, nokia, iphone, eeepc, olpc, aspire one.

Re: Is the netbook market oversaturated?

angryearthling — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:53:41 -0000

i'm on no.4

1) asus eee 701 4g. still have it. trying to find somebody who will appreciate it and give it a good home.
2) asus eee 904. just too big for my carrying case. an ok machine. gave it to my brother who uses it on the road for sending emails to customers.
3) acer aspire one. near perfect machine. bar the keyboard. no blue tooth
4) olpc. wanted one the day i first heard of them and a very good friend arranged for one to be trekked to ireland as amazon wouldn't ship. it's slow and has limited software but of all them i think i prefer it the most as it is the one that makes other nerds stop and go wow! battery life is insane. the build quality is excellent. i don't have it in a laptop bag, just a plastic bag to keep it dry in my back pack. probably had more fun with vim and python on the olpc than any other netbook. yes i'm sad :-)

there is no perfect machine. i'll always want something better. if the olpc 1.5 has a better battery life i might get one. if a good arm net book appears with a tablet mode with touchscreen. i could very easily be tempted.

but i suspect i will hang on to the olpc as a tribute to the machine that created this whole market.

Re: Microsoft: 96% of netbooks use Windows

angryearthling — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:53:00 -0000

you are correct as to the cause but it still left linux as less efficient till recently. now they are on par in the power stakes. with arm been a linux only playform (winmobile just doesn't qualify) they can/will surpass windows by a fair margin. a laptop that can last all day might be the killer app especially for students who can use it all day.

on saturday i was using my olpc at a gaming session. i take notes that in a year or twos time will be the only record of characters and place names as the story progresses. with wifi off and in bw mode and using it 10-15 minutes per hour leaving it on the remainder reading text of the screen. at the end of a 7 hour session it was reporting 42% battery left. i was gobsmacked. till now i had to use mobile phones for keeping notes but i prefer the larger olpc keyboard so now i have a device that is power independent for long periods of time. having standard vi editor is better than even the best editor on mobile phone.

Re: Microsoft: 96% of netbooks use Windows

matt — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:53:42 -0000

>some laptops get better battery life under windows
> as linux power management was fairly weak

Au contraire. Linux ACPI is on par with Windows XP, perhaps better if you count the extensive configurability with the various apps (kpowersave, gnome-power-management).

Battery life under Vista is worse than XP or Linux.

What you might be talking about is, some vendors put out BIOS with uncommented, broken DSDT tables which work with Windows but not Linux. But that's getting rarer and certainly no netbook that I'm aware of has this problem. Also this issue was somewhat mitigated as of I think kernel 2.6.23 and later.

Re: Microsoft: 96% of netbooks use Windows

angryearthling — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:05:45 -0000

it's a nice idea but here in ireland there are no apple stores. strange as there is a apple european hq in cork.

apple penetration is pretty high (and getting higher). i've gotten most of my family/friends of ms and onto apple. my brother wants a macbook but he really needs a netbook for portability. i gave him one of mine but the 3g modem refused despite my best efforts to work with anything but windows. so he's stuck at the side of the road cursing windows when he has to send email.

me, i get netbooks windows only for legacy software (these days that's mostly itunes for updating firmware on ipods). linux is usually the prime os on mine. finally got an olpc and used it for 7 hours yesterday with no mains power at a gaming session taking notes. brilliant! little bugger was reporting that there was still 42% battery life left when i was finished.

can't wait to see the arm netbooks. no windows on those babies! hopefully a much better battery life. that may help swing people to linux. when i was at a software convention last week it was funny to see people chosing there seating arrangements as close to power outlets to feed their hungry laptops. when they can see a small amount of people going all day without resorting to external power then that may help convince them of the benefits.

up to now linux on a laptop has been second best as many specific hardware features of laptops are poorly supported. some laptops get better battery life under windows as linux power management was fairly weak. when that changes people will see the advantage.

when i get the inevitable 'i can't find word' i offer them open office. almost all are put of by the price of word v free open office. and open office is getting much better. have had a few people trying open office as they hate office 2007s new ribbon.

Re: Dell Mini roadmap shows upgrades, 11 inch model

angryearthling — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:21:20 -0000

at 11" its not a netbook in my opinion. just a small laptop. i'd rather they were bringing out more 8" models.

Re: Asus Eee PC T91 convertible tablet press shots appear

angryearthling — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:40:14 -0000

what os options are there? is there a linux distro that handles tablet mode ie touchscreen and on screen keyboard or handwriting recognition. wouldn't want it as windows only.

have to say i love the tablet mode on my olpc even though it doesn't have a touch screen. i might have to make tablet mode one of my must have requirements for all new netbooks i purchase. but tablet mode needs a fantastic battery life if it is to be useful for reading.

Re: Microsoft not throwing weight behind Windows CE for netbooks

angryearthling — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:36:52 -0000

my psion 5 was doing that in 97 bar the wireless but then in 97 there was no wireless (excluding connecting using irda or cable to a mobile phone and accessing the web that way). for about 5 years psions were my only computer outside work. small powerful, they were designed to do anything your desktop computer could do. spreadsheet, word processing, flat file databases. the pim functionality beats every device i have used since including the current crop of nokias. whenever i meet an expsion user i ask them if they have found anything since that is as good and the answer is always no. but with the lack of modern features such as wifi/bluetooth/cameras we all had to move on.

however i don't really need web on my netbooks. i get along fine with the web on my mobile phone when out and about. not to everybodies taste but adequate for me.

if as the original poster wants something like the trs-80 then try the palm clone alphasmart dana. have been tempted by them myself.

Re: Is Apple working on a touchscreen netbook for 2009?

wayne — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:46:21 -0000

"... but i hate the touchpad no button combo ..."

you could always just plug in a small USB mouse :)

most laptops having shocking control surfaces for serious graphics work. I always find a small mouse much easier to use. doens't take up that much space to take on with you given the productivity push.

i actually think Sony got their device right (if not the price!!!). use the nipple device to casually navigate with and then plug in a mouse for times you need something better. makes for a smaller device when you don't have to whack in a trackpad.

Re: Is Apple working on a touchscreen netbook for 2009?

angryearthling — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:37:15 -0000

if i had to guess i'd reckon they would make a device maybe $100 either side of thier cheapest macbook. you'd lose features but gain portability.

if i could get a macbook with a proper touchpad and not the new multitouch i'd seriously thing about buying it.

if i could get a macbook with a trackpoint (ibm thinkpad mouse dohickey) i'd buy one without a moments hesitation.

just not a fan of multitouch. i like buttons.

disclaimer. i have drunk deeply of the koolaid and have a ipod classic, iphone and my main home pc is a mac mini. keep thinking of buying a macbook but i hate the touchpad no button combo on the new ones. most likely this will put me off the netbook that mac releases.

Re: Microsoft working on netbook specific version of Office?

PrincessNybor — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:03:33 -0000

Even though I spend my day training people how to use Microsoft stuff, I own a Mac myself, and I also run Linux. I like to stay up-to-date on what's happening out in the "real world", since it's easy to stay in the Microsoft bubble.

I will say this: Microsoft has the most seamless office productivity software from a workflow standpoint, especially with the integration between Exchange, Sharepoint, Groove, and the other Office 2007 programs. While others have attempted to replicate pieces of this functionality, I haven't seen anyone match it. Microsoft is huge, so it understands huge. [=^)

However, only large organizations really NEED that kind of integration. But any of the smaller shops who want to do business with them will often need to be familiar with the same tools. Or, at least pretend to be. And that's why Microsoft makes so much money.

Re: Microsoft working on netbook specific version of Office?

angryearthling — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:56:29 -0000

accounts are the oddballs of the universe? don't know many who would disagree :-) but there sure are a lot of them. i work as techsupport/programmer/joat so i see the oddest of the odd.

organisations assuming people know how to use software? bane of my life but have you tried to convince them otherwise? they will always skimp on training. when you buy hardware or software you have a shiny phusical box somewhere but when you buy training there is no visible tangible thing and some are worried that if they train staff the staff may leave taking their training with them. i thought it was best summed up with the comment. 'what if we train people and they leave? to which the response is what if you don't train them and they stay?'

i do think ms has a problem. office 2007 isn't much different than office 95. some new features but not many, it's mostly cosmetic changes. but they have to be seen to show added value to justify the cost of upgrades. so it's a whizz bang new interface and brand new incompatible file layouts. in the various upgrades from 95 to 2003 most accepted the file layout differences. 2007 is the first time i've heard so many complaints from average non technical people about file layout changes _and_ ui changes.

thinking of it as similar to the vista revolt were people are going out of their way to avoid vista. with office 2007 they will upgrade but quite a few are now looking towards alternatives.

not a fan of ms. have most family and friends on mac linux now as it drastically reducees the amount of time i spend supporting tech outside work.

Re: Microsoft working on netbook specific version of Office?

PrincessNybor — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:20:54 -0000

Actually, this might be helpful for more people, so here are links to the Interactive Command Reference for each "ribbonized" product.

Word:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744...

Excel:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA10149...

PowerPoint:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA...

Access:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA1023...

I hope that helps!

Re: Microsoft working on netbook specific version of Office?

PrincessNybor — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:17:00 -0000

Office 2007 has an inverted learning curve, due to the layout differences. I train people in how to use this software FOR A LIVING, and more than half the people walking through the door are convinced they'll hate it forever. And so far, EVERY SINGLE ONE likes the ribbon better than the old menu/toolbar, once they've been trained how to use it.

Perhaps your accountants are the oddballs of the universe, but I'm willing to bet it's the standard attitude I face every day. It's the same kind of people who hated the transition from DOS to Windows. Give me three hours with 'em, and see what they say. [=^D

Unfortunately, a lot of organizations assume people "just know" how to use software, or they can "just figure it out" on their own. This isn't true for most people.

One thing that might be VERY helpful for your accountants is this interactive command reference guide. It's kind of a 2003 -> 2007 dictionary, of sorts.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA10149...

I hope that helps!

Re: Microsoft working on netbook specific version of Office?

angryearthling — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:07:55 -0000

at work we've had dozens of requests from accountants and other folks who spend a long time looking at office begging us to get them a copy of ver 2003. anything but 2007. they hate it. they've tried it and now they realise just how much they hate it. some will even hint towards pirated versions (as 2003 is no longer available to us from our suppliers) which we won't provide or support. some have started playing with open office.

i avoid office like the plague myself. i stick with vim for all my documentation/notes. it has a fantastic outliner. bit of a learning curve though.

Re: Gigabyte unveils new convertible tablet-style netbook

thequinox — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:34:11 -0000

It's just the placement of the keys. They use the big "L" shaped enter keys, move the slash keys around and clutter the look with a bunch of second function text. I don't like the way they look or the layout.

Re: The Asus products of CeBIT

angryearthling — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:09:40 -0000

eeenas looks very nice with 2tb storage and a dvd burner. very useful for netbooks with their limited storage and no optical drive.

the super thin asus 1008ha does nothing for me. the thickness of a device has never been an issue in its overall size. more interested in the eee keyboard to be honest. a reminder of the good old computers of the 80s. sinclair, commodore, amstrad. :sniff:

Re: Always Innovating Touch Book has a detachable display

angryearthling — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:03:29 -0000

looks very interesting. long battery life, tablet mode, arm processor. definitely will be following how this one turns out. does winxp even run on an arm? would prefer it with linux myself but a lot of folks want their winxp.

Re: Gigabyte unveils new convertible tablet-style netbook

angryearthling — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:52:39 -0000

keyboards are always a pain with portable devices as there is a lot of compromise. but what is the problem with multilingual keyboards? do they map keys incorrectly? or just move them. on my mac minis keyboard there is no # so i have to edit/insert special character and select the little bugger. pretty annoying.

Re: Gigabyte unveils new convertible tablet-style netbook

angryearthling — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:47:41 -0000

having just taken delivery of my olpc last friday i have to say having the option to fold over the screen and just read is very very useful. it could well be the netbooks killer app. laptops are too big for it. the olpc is slightly large but so far acceptable. will see how it behaves tomorrow on public transport.

no mention of battery life other than capacity in the above text so hope it's a lot.

Re: Conrad Mini-Notebook pad adds cooling, optical disc drive

angryearthling — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:55:53 -0000

it'd be more interesting if it extended the battery life of the netbook. too difficult to do as it would most likely be netbook specific.

still nice piece of kit though. currently use iso files on my ipod and mount them as cds on my acer aspire one. doesn't work for all but covers 90% of my installation needs.

Re: Asus shows dual screen notebook prototype

angryearthling — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:48:36 -0000

at work we use touch screens for a pizzza system we sell. the biggest draw back and i don't see this been fixed is that you rest your hand on the keyboards. on the keys. how does it distinguish between a touch and a resting hand? would hate trying to suspecnd my hands above the keyboard as that would be asking for rsi.

had a nokia 770 hated the onscreen keyboard on that. got an ipod. think the keyboard is worse on that as it's in portrait mode rather than landscape.

i've typed on a lot of wacky non standard keyboards. sinclair zx spectrum, psion 3a, now an olpc plus a multitude of nokia phones. nothing is better than a keyboard with buttons. when the palms came out it was hailed as the future of inputting information. last time i looked most of the palm alikes have keyboards. touch interfaces work but they are a lot slower than a keyboard.