Sunday, January 18, 2009

Delicious

How would you start to teach someone about Web 2.0?
I would use delicious.com
Everyone has a favorite website, most know how to save a bookmark on their computer. Why not share it worth the world? Or at least keep your bookmarks online for you to find from anywhere.
Still not big on Diigo. Delicious is simple and works great for me.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Netbook trial with HPMini 2133

Trying out my first Netbook: HPMini 2133

HP Mini 2133 I was using.

First off, I'll state that I am not an expert at evaluating computers....by any means! However, I did want to write down some of my thoughts about the HP Mini 2133 that I've used lately from a friend. I will also state that I'm writing this blog post and the previous one on the HP Mini.

This HP Mini came with Vista as the operating system, Microsoft Office 2007, 1GB of RAM and VIA C7-M processor (1.2 ghz).

My original thoughts revolved around the difficulty of the smaller keyboard and just trying to acquire a wireless signal and move to my normal websites. It did take some time to get both under control. Just like anything, the keyboard takes a little getting used to, and to date, I've only erased one e-mail because of pudgy fingers. Actually, I think my biggest problem is the base of my thumb hitting the front of the keyboard = "I have chubby hands"

Once I got connected to my wireless, I noticed that is seemed very slow, I mean Dialup slow! It took quite a long time to get Lotus Notes to load. Then, as I tried to open up six tabs (not out of the ordinary for me), it definately ran slower. As I continued to use it with a wireless connection, the more I realized it did run slow (see Dialup comment above). And forget about YouTube or on-line videos. However, for now, I can deal with it because of the nice travel size. But, I couldn't use it for everyday unless that drastically improves.

After playing with this HP Mini, my other three biggest concerns are: the memory, the durability (I'm not dropping this to to find out), and why buy Vista now? It appears Windows7 will be replacing Vista in the near future, and there is always a Linux option that would keep the price down. Personally, I think the next few months will see a huge boom in netbooks and prices getting back to $200 with OpenSource components. As I was trying it out, I sent a tweet out to Twitter and got this response from @tomgrissom about a $200 netbook in development.

I think this is nice to use, but I'm not 100% sold. I've never used an Asus Eee PC used in the OLPC project, but I do think these netbooks will continue to improve: memory/speed as technology changes. Someday, you'll see a picture of me with my glasses and big HP laptop and laugh.....kind of like how I laugh at pictures of the first walkietalkies....I mean cellphones!

Photo courtesy of: http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/recycle/Cellphones.html

Thoughts and corrections, always welcome.