Burnerblog

I’ve been busy. So busy, in fact, that I’ve neglected ol’ Burnerblog once again.

Here is the kind of post I hate to read on other people’s’s’s’s’s blogs.

I’ve been playing bass in two bands, playing Age of Conan online with friends, racing in NCNASCAR (and winning some races!), having friends over from out of town, reading neat websites with cool ideas, and many other things.

Next up for me is making a compost pile, organizing one corner of the garage, and waxing my car.

And maybe keeping this place a little more up-to-date than I have been.

I finally found a fast OS that is perfect for our kitchen computer: gOS. I downloaded the DVD iso today and after some testing, decided to go ahead and install it onto the kitchen computer. The verdict from the wife and daughter so far: they both like it. It’s fast, responsive, and does exactly what it’s supposed to do there: run the browser and do light media work.

gOS is available for free, and the DVD image (like nearly all Linux distros these days) offer the ability to run from CD/DVD first to see if all the drivers work, how you like it, etc. The install was SUPER-EASY. Considering all the Linux distros I’ve tried, this one was by far the easiest to install and get running. No Linux knowledge is necessary. The menu system is very OSX-ish in that it’s a menu bar on the bottom of the screen, but I’ll forgive it since it seems useful the way it was implemented. The main feature I like: speed. And lots of it.

If you’re looking to flip the Linux switch, or are just Li-Curious (I made that up just now… lol), then give gOS a try. It’s great for that older machine laying around, and makes for a great browser system in your kitchen, living room, hallway, bathroom, etc.

This is my next phone.

I didn’t jump on the iPhone bandwagon for a few reasons:

1. I didn’t want to have to go to AT&T.
2. I didn’t want to purchase another Apple product.
3. I didn’t want to pay out the nose for a non-3G phone with dubious text-input ability.

Well, it seems my patience (and the patience of others like me) is being rewarded by Sprint who is releasing the Instinct. It’s similar to the iPhone in that it has a touchscreen face, but otherwise seems to have a lot of nice features and good performance.

June 20th is the drop-date for this phone, and the first person in our house to get one will be my wife, Sherry. She’s over-due for a new phone, and she’ll get this one before I do. Then, I’ll get mine, and eventually, my daughter Gelli says she wants to save up for one as well. My son? He doesn’t care so much about flashy phones; he just wants one that will do voice and text messaging. He loves simplicity.

Anyway, I have been reading a lot about these phones, and once again, it’s funny how threatened certain people feel about this device (as they did with any other device that posed serious competition to whatever beloved product they paid lots of money for, as if the presence of the newer product somehow invalidates them and their purchase). May iPhone fanboys have been posting about how “all Samsung and/or Spring can do is copy the iPhone,” blah blah blah. It makes me laugh.

Word is that the phone will cost less, have fewer restrictions, faster service, and lower rates than an iPhone. And the best part: it won’t be an Apple.

What’s my beef with Apple? Well, let’s say that after owning four iPods, I will never purposely purchase another Apple product again. The fact that Apple won’t release new features for iPods when the hardware can handle them is a big sticking point for me, indicative of a company that cares only about profits and not at all about the consumer. The Zune, the Zen, and many other DAPs add features and enhancements to their firmware, and allow users to upgrade their mp3 players. This is very cool. Apple, on the other hand, will only update firmware for bug-fixes and to update their DRM. Bleh.

The fact that Apple is so against third-party app development for the iPod, iPhone, and only grudgingly supports development for anything else on their products also shows that they’re a company that can care less about innovation and cares more about their own bottom line. Ironic considering how they portray themselves to be such a forward-thinking company.

As-if.

So, back to the original point; I’m going to be getting a new phone because I love gadgets and I love me some new phone hotness. I can’t wait!

That’s not a bad thing. Since I use this computer for work and for play, mirroring the two 300GB drives wasn’t a bad idea… but I did lose a save game that was being stored on the “other” 300GB drive. Yeah, the only thing installed on the other drive was my game-du-jour, and I didn’t back it up or get my save game before pressing “go” on the migration to RAID 1. OOPS.

Oh well… it’s a fun game (UFO: Extraterrestrials) that I’ll just have to start over with.

Vista is the first MS OS that I didn’t have installed and running the day it was released. I did some beta testing (even submitted feedback/bugs) and generally thought it was cool, but the fact of the matter was that none of the computers in the house would really benefit from it. Since XP was working fine and running everything, and I had a bunch of legal licenses for all the computers in the house, it didn’t make sense to go upgrading everything just for the sake of having the newest and shiniest OS.

Then I bought Sherry a new notebook computer and it came with Vista. And it was cool. Bad-ass is I think the word we both used to describe it. It was nothing short of stunning, and everything she installed on it or had to run on it worked. That got me thinking that maybe when it’s time for me to get a new computer, Vista wouldn’t be so bad. I was right.

When I got this new computer, it came with Vista Home Premium on it. Being as “in the know” as I can be about computers/gadgets/OS’s, I knew that there was a tidal wave of hatred for Microsoft’s latest OS. On an older system, I can see where that hatred comes from. Without any solid knowledge of how to turn off some of the most annoying security aspects of Vista, I can completely understand it. But once you turn off the security that makes you supply a password every time you run an .exe file, it really just turns back into a XP-like experience with more eye candy and better performance. Yeah, better performance. the 64-bit Vista I’m running runs like a charm. Every piece of software I’ve installed runs great, and the 64-bit versions run even better! I couldn’t be happier with Vista, and I really like it.

I gave it a chance, and with a system worthy of it, it’s really quite amazing. Now, what about the other 7 systems in the house? They’ll run XP forever. Or if that becomes impossible, then some may go Linux. But for the most part, I see no reason to change out the other computers in the house but any new computers will be welcomed with Vista on them. It’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be; to the contrary, it’s really quite nice.

For those interested in how my tiny eeePC has been doing, here’s the update. I’m still very much in awe of this little machine. I find that it’s very handy and useful for so many things. The latest “job” my eeePC has taken on: drum machine. I downloaded a freeware drum machine called Hydrogen and I run it out the 3.5mm jack into a small amp. This now gives our band some accompaniment in the absence of a real drummer. A band sounds so empty without a drummer, regardless of the talent (or lack thereof?).

Also, when my wife goes on her vacation abroad with her mom, there is a possibility that she will be taking my eeePC with her for image culling, email connectivity in the hotels (if they have wifi, which I’m told most do there), and whatever else she wants/needs a computer for. The cost of the computer makes it less of a loss if it disappears or gets damaged, and the size makes it truly portable (it can even fit in her purse!).

I keep mine with me quite often, carrying it like some people carry a day planner or a newspaper. It’s nice to set it down, and just “go.” I sat in a shopping mall a few weeks ago while my daughter and her friends roamed about, and with my bluetooth tethering, I was online and having a great time just doing my regular browsing. I had quite a few people ask me questions about it, and lots of people would come around and watch me “work” with such a small “REAL” computer.

So, the consensus is that this is one of the best gadget purchases I’ve ever made. I really do adore this little thing!

So, the desktop computer has been acting wonky of late. Namely, the network interface device (USB wireless), but all around sloppiness has ensued on my beloved computer.

I know that Windows of any flavor (the desktop is the “XP” variant) typically requires occasional reinstalls to ensure a smooth and quick user experience, but I guess I’ve been one of the lucky ones in that past, being able to use an XP install for about four years before reinstalling to see if I could get any performance increase (oddly, it ran just as “fast”). So it comes as a bit of a surprise to me that I’m having performance issues

Then, I remembered; I haven’t done any maintenance on my computer in a long time. Sure, the anti-virus is up and running (and up-to-date), and adaware and those types of checks are done daily, but I hadn’t performed a defrag in a very long time; perhaps as long as nine months. I analyzed my c drive and found it horribly red.

As we speak, I sit here typing on my eeePC while the main computer is defragging itself. It’s going to take some time, but in the end, it should go a long way towards making the system perform and behave better. I’m not kidding when I say that at least 90% of the drive is fragmented. It’s quite sad.

Sounds kind of exotic and weird, but as I just received my bluetooth USB transceiver, I took the time to get it installed and working with my Smartphone, the Moto Q9c. Getting the two devices to discover each other was a chore, but once working, it was awesome. I can now tether my computer (eeePC) and my Q9c so that I can use the Internet no matter where I go without having to use a connecting cable. Therefore, I can just put my phone down onto the table, set my computer next to it, get the tethering software to work, and I’m on the Internet, baby!

The benefit of the cable is that the cable keeps the phone charged while tethering, but if I’m tethering without AC power, it’s better to use the Bluetooth. Besides, it works just as well (and without having to connect wires, etc)!

I’ve been doing lots with and to my eeePC, so I figured I’d write an update about it.

First of all, I did something I said I wasn’t going to do: I installed Windows XP Pro onto it. I have a few licenses I’m not using at the moment, so I went ahead and used one of those on my eeePC. What I didn’t expect was how usable and fast XP runs on the eeePC. Wow! It works every bit as good as my older (and much larger) 1.6Ghz system, and I’m not kidding. Here’s a screenshot of my desktop:

Yes, that’s Photoshop CS2 running on my eeePC! It runs a little slower (obviously) than it does on my dual-core desktop system, but it’s still quite usable!

I also installed 2GB of RAM which goes a long way in making the eeePC more usable with WinXP. The extra memory definitely helps with memory-intensive apps like PS CS2. I also installed Open Office (smaller and just as good as MS Office), Firefox, AVG Anti-Virus, and Foxit Reader for PDF’s as well as Pidgin for IM. All told, I still have over 1.5 GB left on the 4 GB solid state drive, just as much as when it had the default Xandros Linux on it.

The added bonus of XP is that now I can use PDANet on my Moto Q9c to tether it to my broadband data network without any hassles, and I can also use my eeePC for work (all our VPN and remote desktop software is Windows-based). Yay!

Here’s a picture of my eeePC and my Moto 9Qc:

And btw, that phone isn’t that big. It’s just that the eeePC is that small!

Yes, it’s a silly name. Yes, it’s tiny. Yes, it’s only $400 for a full-featured truly portable notebook with 802.11b/g networking, a webcam, full audio, 512MB RAM, and a 4GB Flash drive (all solid state; boots in 12 seconds). It runs Xandros Linux, and comes with drivers for WinXP. I’m leaving mine as a Linux machine, however, since it works so well, and the OS was optimized for the hardware anyway. Why fix something that aint broke?

Here are some pictures of my eeePC. This first picture shows it on my desk.

This next photo shows it on top of one of the many Dell Latitude notebooks we have laying around the house (so many of them, in fact, that I’m going to turn one or more of them into digital photo frames). You can get a decent appreciation for the small size of these little eeePC’s. The Latitude is the normal 15″ screen version.

Finally, this image shows it as compared to my wife’s HP 17″ widescreen notebook computer. It truly dwarfs the eeePC.

Typing on it is surprisingly easy once you take a minute or two to get used to the diminutive size of the keyboard. The reaction I had to going to a regular sized notebook was more noticeable than typing on the eeePC. I thought to myself, “Wow, this keyboard is HUGE” when I typed on the Dell after working with the eeePC for a while.

It’s been a great little notebook so far, and I plan on using it in meetings and at coffee shops soon!