So, you wanted a cheap notebook?

[Joerg]

cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:

On May 15, 6:31 pm, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net
wrote:
That's not the kind of application this machine is intended for.
But it's needed for that. After the Compaq Aero was discontinued there
came a huge void.

There are subnotebooks with better resolution and more computing
horsepower on the market, they just cost $2k and up.

As long as they slurp up a battery in under 5hrs those ain't worth $2k+
for me.

EeePC costs $399. It's not intended to do the job of the more
expensive ultraportables. But it's great for people like me who
want a computer they can carry and can afford to carry, but don't have
the "I must have a full engineering workstation on my knee"
justification to buy one of those pricey toys from Dynamism.

However, in the early 90's we had exactly that. The Compaq Contura Aero
was ultraportable, could do the usual EE software back then, had an
incredible battery runtime and was lower in cost than a full laptop. But
3-1/2" disks were the only storage media and it needed a separate drive
for that, people like me would trust hard drive for good reason (lost
three), and that's IMHO what kept it from becoming a huge success.

Nor is it intended to do the job of a dirt-cheap 6lb notebook. I'm
actually thinking of buying one of those for the times I want
a bigger screen and an optical drive. But most of the time, what I
want is something tiny enough that I'll have it with me when
I unexpectedly need it.

It only would have to run simple CAD such as schematic entry, simple
mechanical, LTSpice or suites such as IAR or Keil. And nobody would
expect it to be a rocket there, more like a Leatherman tool.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Martin Griffith]

On Thu, 15 May 2008 10:38:18 -0700, in comp.arch.embedded Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

larwe wrote:
On May 13, 11:03 am, cs_post...@hotmail.com wrote:
On May 12, 8:21 pm, Don McKenzie <l...@mysig.com> wrote:

I don't think a new UMPC gets much cheaper than this:http://www.alibaba.com/sellinglead-gs/206540398/Sell_Super_Deal_UMPC_...
MOQ 100, Linux, and 128Mb ram, but still very useful, yes?
For the more risk-averse, the EeePC now has close to 6 months of
marketplace exposure under its belt,

What I find amusing is that the UMPC Don linked to is sold, retail,
with a brand name on it at EXACTLY THE SAME PRICE ($400) as the EEE
4G


And for $399 you can often get a real laptop at Dell when they are on
sale. The battery lifetime of those micro laptops doesn't convince me
either because it still does not even come close to what Compaq
engineers achieved in the early 90's. Over 5hrs on ordinary old-tech
NiCd was not a problem back then. Real progress isn't always happening :-(

Anyhow, I believe the EeePC or whatever will only become a success if
they show up at Walmart at a decent price, decent meaning substantially
lower than the cheapest Dell laptop. Else people will just keep buying
Dell laptops.
A bit OT, but this is funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0


martin

 

[Joerg]

Martin Griffith wrote:

On Thu, 15 May 2008 10:38:18 -0700, in comp.arch.embedded Joerg
notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

larwe wrote:
On May 13, 11:03 am, cs_post...@hotmail.com wrote:
On May 12, 8:21 pm, Don McKenzie <l...@mysig.com> wrote:

I don't think a new UMPC gets much cheaper than this:http://www.alibaba.com/sellinglead-gs/206540398/Sell_Super_Deal_UMPC_...
MOQ 100, Linux, and 128Mb ram, but still very useful, yes?
For the more risk-averse, the EeePC now has close to 6 months of
marketplace exposure under its belt,
What I find amusing is that the UMPC Don linked to is sold, retail,
with a brand name on it at EXACTLY THE SAME PRICE ($400) as the EEE
4G

And for $399 you can often get a real laptop at Dell when they are on
sale. The battery lifetime of those micro laptops doesn't convince me
either because it still does not even come close to what Compaq
engineers achieved in the early 90's. Over 5hrs on ordinary old-tech
NiCd was not a problem back then. Real progress isn't always happening :-(

Anyhow, I believe the EeePC or whatever will only become a success if
they show up at Walmart at a decent price, decent meaning substantially
lower than the cheapest Dell laptop. Else people will just keep buying
Dell laptops.
A bit OT, but this is funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0

Can't watch it. What are you guys using for viewing that is safe (no
malware etc.)? Tried VLC but that won't work with Youtube. Got to get
some speakers for this office PC, too.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

On May 15, 6:31 pm, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net>
wrote:

That's not the kind of application this machine is intended for.

But it's needed for that. After the Compaq Aero was discontinued there
came a huge void.

There are subnotebooks with better resolution and more computing
horsepower on the market, they just cost $2k and up.

EeePC costs $399. It's not intended to do the job of the more
expensive ultraportables. But it's great for people like me who
want a computer they can carry and can afford to carry, but don't have
the "I must have a full engineering workstation on my knee"
justification to buy one of those pricey toys from Dynamism.

Nor is it intended to do the job of a dirt-cheap 6lb notebook. I'm
actually thinking of buying one of those for the times I want
a bigger screen and an optical drive. But most of the time, what I
want is something tiny enough that I'll have it with me when
I unexpectedly need it.

 

[Ian]

Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:

Martin Griffith wrote:
A bit OT, but this is funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0


Can't watch it. What are you guys using for viewing that is safe (no
malware etc.)? Tried VLC but that won't work with Youtube. Got to get
some speakers for this office PC, too.

I download first with clive: http://home.gna.org/clive/
Then VLC or mplayer...


Ian

 

[Martin Griffith]

On Fri, 16 May 2008 08:55:12 -0700, in comp.arch.embedded Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Martin Griffith wrote:
On Thu, 15 May 2008 10:38:18 -0700, in comp.arch.embedded Joerg
notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

larwe wrote:
On May 13, 11:03 am, cs_post...@hotmail.com wrote:
On May 12, 8:21 pm, Don McKenzie <l...@mysig.com> wrote:

I don't think a new UMPC gets much cheaper than this:http://www.alibaba.com/sellinglead-gs/206540398/Sell_Super_Deal_UMPC_...
MOQ 100, Linux, and 128Mb ram, but still very useful, yes?
For the more risk-averse, the EeePC now has close to 6 months of
marketplace exposure under its belt,
What I find amusing is that the UMPC Don linked to is sold, retail,
with a brand name on it at EXACTLY THE SAME PRICE ($400) as the EEE
4G

And for $399 you can often get a real laptop at Dell when they are on
sale. The battery lifetime of those micro laptops doesn't convince me
either because it still does not even come close to what Compaq
engineers achieved in the early 90's. Over 5hrs on ordinary old-tech
NiCd was not a problem back then. Real progress isn't always happening :-(

Anyhow, I believe the EeePC or whatever will only become a success if
they show up at Walmart at a decent price, decent meaning substantially
lower than the cheapest Dell laptop. Else people will just keep buying
Dell laptops.
A bit OT, but this is funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0


Can't watch it. What are you guys using for viewing that is safe (no
malware etc.)? Tried VLC but that won't work with Youtube. Got to get
some speakers for this office PC, too.
I use riva flv player, or VLC. Both seem free of problems. VLC has a

nice feature of allowing you to see the decoding functions as messages
when you can't figure out what the hell is wrong with a video

1337 player is very good for avi files, very user friendly, but hogs
the system if it tries to decode a faulty file


martin

 

[Joerg]

Martin Griffith wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2008 08:55:12 -0700, in comp.arch.embedded Joerg
notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Martin Griffith wrote:
On Thu, 15 May 2008 10:38:18 -0700, in comp.arch.embedded Joerg
notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

larwe wrote:
On May 13, 11:03 am, cs_post...@hotmail.com wrote:
On May 12, 8:21 pm, Don McKenzie <l...@mysig.com> wrote:

I don't think a new UMPC gets much cheaper than this:http://www.alibaba.com/sellinglead-gs/206540398/Sell_Super_Deal_UMPC_...
MOQ 100, Linux, and 128Mb ram, but still very useful, yes?
For the more risk-averse, the EeePC now has close to 6 months of
marketplace exposure under its belt,
What I find amusing is that the UMPC Don linked to is sold, retail,
with a brand name on it at EXACTLY THE SAME PRICE ($400) as the EEE
4G
And for $399 you can often get a real laptop at Dell when they are on
sale. The battery lifetime of those micro laptops doesn't convince me
either because it still does not even come close to what Compaq
engineers achieved in the early 90's. Over 5hrs on ordinary old-tech
NiCd was not a problem back then. Real progress isn't always happening :-(

Anyhow, I believe the EeePC or whatever will only become a success if
they show up at Walmart at a decent price, decent meaning substantially
lower than the cheapest Dell laptop. Else people will just keep buying
Dell laptops.
A bit OT, but this is funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0

Can't watch it. What are you guys using for viewing that is safe (no
malware etc.)? Tried VLC but that won't work with Youtube. Got to get
some speakers for this office PC, too.
I use riva flv player, or VLC. Both seem free of problems. VLC has a
nice feature of allowing you to see the decoding functions as messages
when you can't figure out what the hell is wrong with a video

Hmm, in my case it did not work. Neither with nor without the matching
Firefox plug-in. I try to avoid Adobe products because some like the
Acrobat reader are crashing way too often and too violently.

1337 player is very good for avi files, very user friendly, but hogs
the system if it tries to decode a faulty file

That would not be so good.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Joerg]

cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:

On May 16, 11:55 am, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net
wrote:

A bit OT, but this is funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0
Can't watch it. What are you guys using for viewing that is safe (no
malware etc.)?

My EeePC?

I think it's using an mplayer plugin for firefox to do the job, but
I'm not really sure because it just worked out of the box ;-)

Most consumer grade PCs do that as well but this is a biz version and
didn't come with the usual "gizmo" software ;-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

On May 16, 11:55 am, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net>
wrote:

A bit OT, but this is funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0

Can't watch it. What are you guys using for viewing that is safe (no
malware etc.)?

My EeePC?

I think it's using an mplayer plugin for firefox to do the job, but
I'm not really sure because it just worked out of the box ;-)

 

On May 16, 10:54 am, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net>
wrote:

As long as they slurp up a battery in under 5hrs those ain't worth $2k+
for me.

However, in the early 90's we had exactly that. The Compaq Contura Aero
was ultraportable, could do the usual EE software back then, had an
incredible battery runtime and was lower in cost than a full laptop.

I bet you could run most of what ran on that using one of the dos-box
emulators on a non-x86 platform such as a GPX portable video game,
PDA, or even _phone_.

Well, you said you didn't mind CAD on a small screen ;-)

 

[Don McKenzie]

cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:

On May 16, 11:55 am, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net
wrote:

A bit OT, but this is funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0
Can't watch it. What are you guys using for viewing that is safe (no
malware etc.)?

My EeePC?

I think it's using an mplayer plugin for firefox to do the job, but
I'm not really sure because it just worked out of the box ;-)

same here, my EEE PC's run it via Firefox.

Two schools with EEE PC.
1) You love them.
2) You hate them.

Me, I got 4 initially, currently have 3.
1 x 4G, 2 x 8G.

Have run my business from the beach front with one, using a Vodafone USB
Modem.

My sales dept. PC broke down recently, and we did all sales on an EEE PC
for a week and a half, while we configured a new PC box. We have other
spares I could have used, but I wanted to see how it performed.

And if you want, you can plug in a large monitor, keyboard, and mouse,
and close the lid.

I used to travel with a back pack and notebook, now I carry a DVD player
case over my shoulder, with the EEE PC inside.

For power, I have an EDV002SA battery backup (is really a DVD player
backup), that gives me another 3 hours or so. This fits inside the
player case along with the EEE PC.


Don...


--
Don McKenzie

Site Map: http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email

Intelligent 2.83" AMOLED with touch screen for micros:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16699

 

On May 16, 3:42 pm, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net>
wrote:

Can't watch it. What are you guys using for viewing that is safe (no
malware etc.)?

My EeePC?

I think it's using an mplayer plugin for firefox to do the job, but
I'm not really sure because it just worked out of the box ;-)

Most consumer grade PCs do that as well but this is a biz version and
didn't come with the usual "gizmo" software ;-)

What's noteworthy in this case is that the "just works" is achieved
out of the box with the kinds of open-source alternatives being
proposed here - mplayer plugin to firefox. all running under linux.

As for safety, booting a live linux CD with comparable out-of-the-box
capability in a virtual machine and doing your browsing in that should
do pretty well.

 

[The Real Andy]

On Wed, 14 May 2008 07:22:29 -0700 (PDT), larwe <zwsdotcom@gmail.com>
wrote:

On May 14, 5:59 am, The Real Andy <thereala...@nospam.com> wrote:

I have seen laptops for sale recently that cost just AUD100 more than
the Eee. Acer with 2g celeron, 1g ram 80g HDD, vista home basic -
$499 AU. Shits over the Eee.

But does not fit in a large pocket, which is the point of the Eee.
They're not in the same marketplace as a basic laptop - they are
ultraportable.

If I want portable I can buy a PDA for the same cash, if not cheaper.

 

[Joerg]

cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:

On May 22, 5:37 am, The Real Andy <thereala...@nospam.com> wrote:

But does not fit in a large pocket, which is the point of the Eee.
They're not in the same marketplace as a basic laptop - they are
ultraportable.
If I want portable I can buy a PDA for the same cash, if not cheaper.

And can your PDA run standard linux or windows executables without
recompiling?

That's exactly the problem. And the reason why i do not have one.

Does you PDA have a full keyboard?

AFAIK you can buy one.

A C compiler that runs on it?

The EeePC is not the world's best laptop, but it's 90% of what a
laptop computer is supposed to be, in a the form factor of a large PDA.

So, can EeePC run stuff like DesignCAD-3D or other such Windows apps?

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

On May 22, 5:37 am, The Real Andy <thereala...@nospam.com> wrote:

But does not fit in a large pocket, which is the point of the Eee.
They're not in the same marketplace as a basic laptop - they are
ultraportable.

If I want portable I can buy a PDA for the same cash, if not cheaper.

And can your PDA run standard linux or windows executables without
recompiling?

Does you PDA have a full keyboard?

A C compiler that runs on it?

The EeePC is not the world's best laptop, but it's 90% of what a
laptop computer is supposed to be, in a the form factor of a large PDA.

 

[John Devereux]

Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:

cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:
On May 22, 5:37 am, The Real Andy <thereala...@nospam.com> wrote:

But does not fit in a large pocket, which is the point of the Eee.
They're not in the same marketplace as a basic laptop - they are
ultraportable.
If I want portable I can buy a PDA for the same cash, if not cheaper.

And can your PDA run standard linux or windows executables without
recompiling?


That's exactly the problem. And the reason why i do not have one.


Does you PDA have a full keyboard?


AFAIK you can buy one.


A C compiler that runs on it?

The EeePC is not the world's best laptop, but it's 90% of what a
laptop computer is supposed to be, in a the form factor of a large PDA.


So, can EeePC run stuff like DesignCAD-3D or other such Windows apps?

You do know that you can get Windows ones, right?

--

John Devereux

 

[Joerg]

John Devereux wrote:

Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:

cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:
On May 22, 5:37 am, The Real Andy <thereala...@nospam.com> wrote:

But does not fit in a large pocket, which is the point of the Eee.
They're not in the same marketplace as a basic laptop - they are
ultraportable.
If I want portable I can buy a PDA for the same cash, if not cheaper.
And can your PDA run standard linux or windows executables without
recompiling?

That's exactly the problem. And the reason why i do not have one.


Does you PDA have a full keyboard?

AFAIK you can buy one.


A C compiler that runs on it?

The EeePC is not the world's best laptop, but it's 90% of what a
laptop computer is supposed to be, in a the form factor of a large PDA.

So, can EeePC run stuff like DesignCAD-3D or other such Windows apps?

You do know that you can get Windows ones, right?

Yes, but cs_posting wrote that it isn't really suited to run those apps.
Well, in that case it ain't too useful for me. The other two reasons are
that the battery lifetime is not significantly better than on a Dell
laptop and that CostCo charges $549 for the Eee while I can get a basic
Dell for around $400. Which does run DesignCAD and all that.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[John Devereux]

Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:

John Devereux wrote:
Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:

cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:
On May 22, 5:37 am, The Real Andy <thereala...@nospam.com> wrote:

But does not fit in a large pocket, which is the point of the Eee.
They're not in the same marketplace as a basic laptop - they are
ultraportable.
If I want portable I can buy a PDA for the same cash, if not cheaper.
And can your PDA run standard linux or windows executables without
recompiling?

That's exactly the problem. And the reason why i do not have one.


Does you PDA have a full keyboard?

AFAIK you can buy one.


A C compiler that runs on it?

The EeePC is not the world's best laptop, but it's 90% of what a
laptop computer is supposed to be, in a the form factor of a large PDA.

So, can EeePC run stuff like DesignCAD-3D or other such Windows apps?

You do know that you can get Windows ones, right?


Yes, but cs_posting wrote that it isn't really suited to run those
apps. Well, in that case it ain't too useful for me.

I don't know anything about DesignCad 3D, but I got the impression
that you use a lot of "legacy" software? It should run all the older
stuff I would think. Apart from dongle issues perhaps.

The other two reasons are that the battery lifetime is not
significantly better than on a Dell laptop and that CostCo charges
$549 for the Eee while I can get a basic Dell for around $400. Which
does run DesignCAD and all that.

Sure, the whole point is the compact size and light weight. If this is
not important to you, no point in paying for it.

I just bought a couple of laptops for a customer. The original spec
was they had to be lightweight. Then they decided the screens were too
small - we saved $300 each by going to *larger* screen models.

--

John Devereux

 

[Joerg]

John Devereux wrote:

Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:

John Devereux wrote:
Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:

cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:
On May 22, 5:37 am, The Real Andy <thereala...@nospam.com> wrote:

But does not fit in a large pocket, which is the point of the Eee.
They're not in the same marketplace as a basic laptop - they are
ultraportable.
If I want portable I can buy a PDA for the same cash, if not cheaper.
And can your PDA run standard linux or windows executables without
recompiling?

That's exactly the problem. And the reason why i do not have one.


Does you PDA have a full keyboard?

AFAIK you can buy one.


A C compiler that runs on it?

The EeePC is not the world's best laptop, but it's 90% of what a
laptop computer is supposed to be, in a the form factor of a large PDA.
So, can EeePC run stuff like DesignCAD-3D or other such Windows apps?
You do know that you can get Windows ones, right?

Yes, but cs_posting wrote that it isn't really suited to run those
apps. Well, in that case it ain't too useful for me.

I don't know anything about DesignCad 3D, but I got the impression
that you use a lot of "legacy" software? It should run all the older
stuff I would think. Apart from dongle issues perhaps.

No dongles here. I never bought SW with those and never will. Yeah, I do
run legacy stuff, have to. Except now there are no laptops anymore that
perform as well as my old Contura did (using some of the same SW). The
EeePC is no exception, it doesn't even come close in battery runtime
despite newer battery technology.

The other two reasons are that the battery lifetime is not
significantly better than on a Dell laptop and that CostCo charges
$549 for the Eee while I can get a basic Dell for around $400. Which
does run DesignCAD and all that.

Sure, the whole point is the compact size and light weight. If this is
not important to you, no point in paying for it.

It would be, _if_ the battery runtime up to par. But it ain't.

I just bought a couple of laptops for a customer. The original spec
was they had to be lightweight. Then they decided the screens were too
small - we saved $300 each by going to *larger* screen models.

Somehow my impression is that very small laptops are usually overpriced.
Or the sales qties aren't there. Which may be because of too high
pricing. Kind of like the chicken and egg scenario.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[The Real Andy]

On Thu, 22 May 2008 08:09:08 -0700 (PDT), cs_posting@hotmail.com
wrote:

On May 22, 5:37 am, The Real Andy <thereala...@nospam.com> wrote:

But does not fit in a large pocket, which is the point of the Eee.
They're not in the same marketplace as a basic laptop - they are
ultraportable.

If I want portable I can buy a PDA for the same cash, if not cheaper.

And can your PDA run standard linux or windows executables without
recompiling?

Can the Eee run standard linux or windows executables with out
recompiling?

Does you PDA have a full keyboard?

The one I have does.

A C compiler that runs on it?

Why would I want that on a personal device. Dont you have better
things to do with your life?

The EeePC is not the world's best laptop, but it's 90% of what a
laptop computer is supposed to be, in a the form factor of a large PDA.

My point is, that if you are not a computer geek, what use does the
EeePC really have?