Asus EEE 1005HA review Pt 3

Oops, looks like this got posted to the wrong blog. This is a blog entry from Dec. 11, 2009. It is being reposted here.

So far I've had the 1005HA for about a month and I am pleased with it after the initial power supply problem. The replacement power supply is holding up very well though sometimes I find that it and the netbook get pretty warm. I've left XP on the system though I am being careful with what sites I visit. I've tossed a bunch of my tools such as Groovy, IntelliJ (I'm real happy with the 8.1 IntelliJ editor on Linux and Windows - woo-hoo, 9.0 was just announced). The primary use of the netbook has been browsing the internet, reading my books, a little multimedia and light application use. Video is choppy but that happens on all my machines so it's probably an access problem (too much latency?). Over all I am very pleased with the unit. The battery really does last a long time (6+ hours) when put into the correct mode. Hopefully I won't need to have any service done in it as that seems to be Asus's weak point.

Happy New Year, 2010!

Note: the first part of this blog entry os from Dec 11th (yeah, I've been busy). The rest is more recent.

Circuit Cellar and Elektor

I just saw the Circuit Cellar/Elector announcement on Circuit Cellar. What has surprised me most is that I've only seen comment on the issue on the PIC List. I trust Steve Ciarcia and the Circuit Cellar staff's judgment and don't expect major changes. I am nervous about the future, especially during these uncertain times. I still expect the quality of what Circuit Cellar delivers. For the moment I'll sit back and watch the future unfold. Of course I could write an article for Circuit Cellar. That would probably help. :-)

In a post to the Circuit Cellar BBS I commented that "my new solder is now software (Linux & Groovy/Java)". Well, not totally true as I still need the hardware to get the software to work. Of course once built I use software to string together new features or disparate hardware to create new features. Lately what I've found is that if I want to extend the purpose of some bit of hardware kit that by hiding it behind some software, such as a web page (HTML, CSS, Java and Javascript) I can extend the purpose of the original hardware without having to rewrite its firmware. These are the basic principles of OOPS.

... and now the rest of the news

This is the rest from this month, uh decade. :-) I went and ordered a WAP from Comcast ($10 for shipping). It arrived today and it'a a Netgear WNR100 v2. The Netgear's GPL Page has it listed and I've downloaded the package. I'd like to see if I can get OpenWRT on there. Just this week I upgraded my older WRT54G which had Alchemy on it. I now have two WAPs running OpenWRT. I also loaded vnstat and hope it can help me to keep track of the amount of data being transmitted and received. I'm also looking at adding a couple of iptable entried to do the same. The later may have the advantage of using less resources overall. I also have a Netgear WGT634u (I may be getting more). This will be my future firewall gateway (more RAM, more Flash and USB access). I just have a little more work to do on it to get everthing I want (network usage and IPV6 tunneling).

So far this month has proven to be a most productive month. I started learning to play the violin and fiddle. A non-computer related present from my wife. She's hoping it will settle my mind on something other than computers. I spent a lot of time understanding IPV6 from a systems engineer's point of view (I'm tired of reading IPV6 related RFCs). Earlier this month I picked up three suits at Joseph A. Banks. These are really nice suits (3 for 1 sale). Luckily I didn't need it for job searching. Someone else in my department got the ax (I'm glad it wasn't me but I am sorry to see the other person go). Afterwards I went and applied for NJIT Computer Science Graduate entry. I mainly want it so I can learn a few things. I also need it for work. It should help me get out of a non-technical position into a technical position in the Labs. Now that I'm a little more secure in my job (for the moment) I'll purchase a new flat screen TV. My old TV is near the end of its lifetime and a new TV should have lower energy cost. The new TV will be nothing fancy but something better to watch baseball on (Go Yankees!). I'll need to re-cable the network, power and cable access to reduce some cable loss and to make it easier to access multimedia on the TV (via my DSM-320). Let's see, I'm also the chairperson for the CJBC's Longest Day bike event, on June 12^th. This is the first time I've chaired an event but I've ridden the event for 8 out of the last 9 years. Oh, and I've also volunteered to do another home automation presentation on April 24^th at TCF (the Trenton Computer Festival, see the wiki TCF entry). The last one I did was in 2008. This time I intend to have the dollhouse finished in time. I just haven't yet figured out how to automate it in some presentable manor (pun intended :-). This is going to be a bit tough to do and I don't expect that this years presentation will be perfect. But I do expect it to be a lot better than the first presentation. It went okay but it was short on pizazz. This one should have plenty of blinken lights. :-)

Finally I managed to make new appointments for a visit to the doctor (hopefully I'll like this one), a dentist's visit (the previous dentist retired) and an eye exam (my eyes are getting worse). That's all for now (as if that wasn't enough). I'd say that was a very productive month (and I still have 15 days to go). Saddly I've got plenty to do!