After a lurking interest for the past year I finally broke down and purchased a Netbook. It was one of those right time right price type of situations and now a few weeks later, I’m confident I made the right decision. One thing that has surprised me as I have been setting it up has been the lack of resources out there. These aren’t your normal laptops and there are some things that should be considered. So I figured I’d document my experiences to help those that may be in the same boat I was in.
First off, we really need to think about what the netbook is. I wont get into technical details and history, there are plenty of resources out there and you can start at the
wikipedia entry But I do want to point out a few things. Repeat after me: “A netbook is not built for running processor intensive applications.” I have heard from so many who purchased one only to complain about how slow it is. It’s very efficient and can be a speedy little workhorse but don’t expect it to run Photoshop or outlook like your quadcore desktop does. A netbook, is great for surfing the web, checking email, sending instant messages,
lifecasting, creating a quick audio podcast and listening to music.
The netbook I purchased was an
Asus Eee PC 901. It came with the following:
- Processor - Intel Atom Processor - Now a standard in most netbooks. If shopping, make sure it has the Atom processor.
- Memory – 1gb DDR2. I wouldn’t go less than 1gb especially if you have Windows XP though I’ve read that 2gb isn’t necessary. I can’t vouch for all netbooks but adding memory to the Asus is a very easy process.
- Operating System – Windows XP. I have years of experience with XP so this is very comfortable for me. Many netbooks come with a verson of Linux optimized for the netbook/web experience. Linux does run a bit faster and I would have been okay with it. Some manufacturers such as Dell also give you the option of having it installed with Microsoft Vista. This is a BAD IDEA and will slow down your computer considerably!!
- Storage – 12gb Solid State Drive (SSD) – This is different than a traditional hard drive. They involve less moving parts which means the potential for less failure and can be accessed much faster meaning better performance. Currently netbooks can be purchased with SSD or with traditional hard drives. The traditional drives will be much larger in capacity. Unless you plan on storing your entire music collection and every photo you ever took, I’d advise on the smaller but faster SSD.
- SD Card Slot – This is a great feature and is found on most netbooks. You can use this to move items from other devices that take an SD card such as a digital camera or pick yourself up a 32gb SD card and double your computers storage.
- Battery – 6 cell = 6 – 8 hrs life. 4 cell batteries are common and lighter but they will give you 3hrs maybe 4. With my 6cell the computer still only clocks in at a feathery 2.4lbs! Most of these netbooks will allow for battery upgrades.
- Webcam – Integrated 1.3 mega-pixel webcam. I love this feature for video chat, quick snapshots etc. I wouldn’t have bought it if there were no webcam.
- Screen - 8.9-inch wide TFT LCD with a 1024 x 600-pixel resolution – this is the average sceensize fro most netbooks. I wouldn’t go smaller.
- Bluetooth – this is a great feature for tethering your mobile phone for Internet and transferring data. It wouldn’t have bothered me if the computer didn’t have it.
I had a pretty good idea of what software I was going to install when I got my Netbook. I had done the research and found apps that would optimize my experience without taxing my processor or hogging a bunch of storage space. I also set up many web based apps that eliminate the need for any installation on your computer. I utilize these “cloud” based apps when I can. They allow your data to be stored on their sites with your account as opposed to your computer. This is great because not only are you not using up storage space but your info can be accessed on any other computer. Below is a list of the top 5 installed and cloud based applications that I am using.
- Anti Virus – AVG Free Edition - This is the perfect free Anti Virus software for netbooks. Lightweight, completely proficient and free! There is a good chance that if your netbook came with antivirus software, it will be a trial edition and will expire within a few months requiring payment to continue. I would suggest uninstalling it and install AVG free Edition.
- Web Browser – The fist thing I did when I brought home my Netbook was to install Google Chrome. When you purchase a netbook, it will come installed with Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Both are sufficient for web browsing. But the fast running, processor saving Chrome was made for these machines. With the idea that people are going to the web more for thier productivity, Google optimized the web experience.
- Office Suite – There’s a good chance that your newly purchased netbook is going to have some sort of office suite. My Asus Eee 901 came preinstalled with Microsoft Works and Star Office. Either of those will be sufficient for most document, spreadsheet and presentation editing though I prefer to use Google’s Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentation. This service is 100% webbased and free. It allows me to do the same the other applications do with out using up storage space on my netbook for the application install. Instead I go to the website login and create or edit my work. I can then edit these documents fom any browser on any computer. If you’d rather have something on your machine, Open Office is also great free option.
- Instant Messaging – Instead of installing Yahoo messenger, Msn Live Messenger, AIM and so on. Download Pidgin. it’s a lightweight free application that will connect to all of your instant messenging services. With 16+ services available through the opensource application, I’m sure your chat addiction will be covered.
- Media – Audio and Video files can take up a lot of space. iTunes is a resource hog so I would think twice before installing it. Make sure you plan well for your media management. Personally I don’t have much of a desire to use my netbook for stored media consumption so the default media player that came with the machine is fine. I will be watching video and listening to music via the web with sites like Pandora, Finetune, YouTube, Vimeo and Hulu. I can even watch movies from my Netflix account using Internet Explorer!
Accessories – You could accesorize your new Netbook till the day you die. These are my top 3.
- SD card – For an affordable price you can quickly double your storage space.
- Netbook bag – My netbook came with a comfy sleeve and along with my daily messenger bag it’s a cakewalk to haul around. But there are some days I want a smaller bag when I’m carrying just my netbook. At the time of writing this bags specifically for notebooks were scarce though case logic has a nice one. I found a cool daybag called the PR by Mountain Hardwear. It fits my Asus perfectly and has some extra space for any other items I may tag along.
- Mini Mouse. The touchpad is usable but im so much moore accustomed to a mouse. Most times when I’m accese sing my netbook, i have no problem navigating with the pad but on those extended excursions it is nice to have a mouse. You can easily find a mini optical mouse for under ten bucks. Pick one up and throw it in your bag. You’ll be glad you did.
So there you have it. I’ve been flying high for a good month with this setup and am loving it. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be many resources out there yet so please let me know of things you have done to optimize your netbook. I hop your find this info beneficial.
After years of knowledge absorption and months of development, our team at RawVoice launched PodcastFAQ.com today. Finally one site that has everything you need to know about podcasting. At least that’s the plan. We know that we couldn’t think of everything, that’s why we left the site open for community/user contribution. Simply click the “submit content” button and let us know what’s missing or inaccurate. Two weeks ago we opened the site up to our community at Blubrry, Podcasternews and TechPodcasts and they have helped us a ton getting it ready for today. So… if your looking to learn a bit about podcasting, get refreshed or just want to see what its all about. Check out PodcastFAQ.com. [http://www.podcastfaq.com/]
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The ELI Annual 2008 was an amazing 4 days of collaboration and learning. I managed to pull all the bits of info from my head as well as transcribe my scribblings onto a legible publication. Feel free to enjoy them here. I still need to Yelp Taco Taco and Beto’s.
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Finally had the chance to post The Video from the Spring Symposium. It’s a pretty high quality wmv so load and buffering may take a little time. I’ve also heard there are some audio issues on the Mac end but I hope to get this up on YouTube soon. Otherwise enjoy!
[Going to 11 - This is Mick Beckam]
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Wrapped another Spring Symposium yesterday. We had a great crowd, intuitive sessions, an Awesome video (Should be posted soon) and a very keen keynote. I pretty much passed out when I got home but found myself back in the office bright and early today setting up for a couple web and video conferences. Will there be time to relax this weekend…?
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I mean, it’s cool and all but….
[obsessed with twitter]
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Going into it, I knew this week was going to be a rough one. I had a bunch of stuff planned at work back to back followed by fairly eventful evenings each day. The unpredictable Wet Tuesday and the incidents that followed didn’t make it any better. Needless to say the end of the work week is finally in view. I have the Research and Creative Activities Symposium to shoot this afternoon and then only a warm and sunny weekend to look forward to. Finally Friday!
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q. What happens when a maintinence crew at your building working on the “chillers” on the roof forget to unplug a valve?
a. You get thousands of gallons of water rushing into your building from the ceiling.
Now I’m sitting in my 90 degree office crammed with blowers and dehumidifiers. Oh and it stinks like building rot!
Adobe announced their line of CS3 products yesterday and I must admit I’m a bit shocked. As usual all the names changed etc etc but most importantly Fireworks is still alive! Not only is it alive, they added improvements and made it part of a CS3 bundle. Does that mean it will be staying? It looks that way at least for the time being. As much as I hate Adobe their pricing structures and their software, I had no choice but to concede when they bought Macromedia. I have been counting down the days till Adobe finally kills Fireworks, but it looks like there might be some life left. Maybe Adobe has realized that Fireworks has a few on Photoshop and Illustrator 
Possible Second Life Killer? Who knows. The proof will be in the pudding when it is launched in the near future. They are claiming better performance and more content control. Like most applications Second Life has its issues. That tends to be the perfect time for a competitor to capitalize. They will just need to do things right. We’ll see…
New virtual world coming from Australia « Scobleizer – Tech Geek Blogger
Blogged with Flock
Flock seems to be the perfect Web Browser for Web 2.0 Junkies. Based on mozilla, flock gives you instant access to your Flickr, Blog and Delicious accounts. I can upload photos right to flickr and then blog about a web page all from the browser. No need to download a bunch of firefox plugins its all right here. In fact I am posting this via Flock. let’s hope it get’s through.
Flock — the social web browser
Blogged with Flock
I have been asked to contribute to the Geek New Central Blog found at http://www.geeknewscentral.com/ Most of the stuff I post will be general tech and edu Tech related material. I’m pretty excited about this. So If my technical posts tend to slim out on this site hop on over to The Geek News Central. Don’t worry, I will still regularly post non tech related stuff here at 131j.
Many of you may have been aware that Aileen and I were in the process of buying a house in Denver. As of roughly 4:00pm yesterday we wrapped up closing and officially took possession of a small bungalow on the north side of the city. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m excited and I guess I really am but seemed more overwhelmed with anxiety, wanting to move out of apt asap. Most of the stuff is packed and the place is a maze of boxes. It’s not a fun place to live in right because of that. Saturday is the big move and thats what I’m excited for, getting out of our tiny cubby hole we call an apt. Unfortunately at this point taking stuff from a small apt to a larger house is going to leave much of the place empty. The next step will to save up some cash to get some furniture. Yikes homeowner stuff 
A startup in California that deals with Wikis was purchased by none other than our friend Mr Moneybags Himself, Google.
Full Story Here
Is Adobe out to kill me? First Macromedia, now Serious Magic! Well I guess all I can hope for is integration of ultra (that sweet green screen app we have) into premiere. Who knows what will happen to visual communicator.
Adobe aquires Serious MagicÂ
It’s Been a Busy Busy week here in Orlando. I’m here at the Educause 2005 Conference partly as a podcast coorespondant for Educause. We will be posting several podcasts a day showcasing various sessions, members and presentations.
This has already become a very exciting and promising week, though I will be anxious to get home and rest. The last few weeks have had me running a million mph. One of these days i may get a chance to talk about the blazin wing contest! But i must save that for another night…Time for bed.
Looks like EBay will be paying up to $4 bln for Skype The Online auction giant said this will allow users to call sellers and get last minute questions answers on items in the closing miutes. I wonder what else they have up their sleeve with this aquisistion.
Google Talk.. It works, its all minimal and Googlely as expected. Fore me right now I don’t like or dislike it. Google Talk is just there. I’m more curious about its future.
Obvioulsy one of the big things all over the Blogosphere (yikes I actually used that word) today has been the new Google Talk. Infact I even mentioned it Anyway, I saw two interesting articles and I’m sure there are about 1 million more but I’ll link to them that will be enough Google Talk for the day.
Article One (Google IM (almost) gets the message, users say)
Article Two (Why Google’s Instant Message Service is Not about Jabber but about Skype)
Well here it is? Do we need another IM Client? Who knows, I’ll mess with it anyway and find out all the cool features, I’m sure there are plenty
If you install email me and let me know what your username is.
Google Talk Link
Update Well, I installed it. It’s got a clean interface as expected, It integrates with Gmail (as expected) The VOIP is crystal clear. It even has cool Internet signal srength Bars like that you might find on a cell phone. One thing that is interesting to me is thatthere in no mac or linux version but.. according to the google site it is already integrated into thirdparty clients such as Trillian Pro, Apple iTalk, GAIM and “any other service that supports the Jabber/XMPP protocol.” I’m interested to see how well that works.
It doesnt look like the VOIP side of it doesnt offer a conference call function quite yet so skype looks to have a few days of air left….
Two weeks ago David Thomas and I presented at the CU System’s annual Teaching with Technology Conference in Boulder Colorado. I threw together a little “landing page” where we are housing the Video of the presentation. Complete with descriptions and a link to the video.
enjoy!
Link to Landing Page