AlanBrand.com

Only 2½ years after I posted here about the Asus Eee netbook (Ee by gum, it’s Eee by Asus, www.alanbrand.com/?p=46) I’ve bought a netbook. I was finally convinced by the promised 8½ hours life of the 9-cell battery of the MSI Wind U-123, and the very reasonable price of $309.97 at Tiger Direct. The red cover is a bonus! This is my first post using the wee beastie - and the last one using the Windows 7 Starter Edition operating system that came pre-installed - I’ll be installing Linux (Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04) tomorrow.

The MSI Wind U123-025US Netbook features:

• Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz processor and 1GB of Memory
• 10.2-inch diagonal widescreen display with 1024 x 600 maximum resolution
• Intel GMA 950 Graphics Solution
• 160GB Hard Drive, integrated media card reader, 802.11b/g/n wireless

Engadget has a post today entitled My So-Called Laptop that features pictures and memories from Engadget staffers of their first laptop computers.

I guess that most of them are just children, because my 1982 MAI Basic Four S/10 “laptop” (really, a “portable”) appears to be the oldest. Of course, I started off in the mid-sixties, programming punched card sorters with patch cables, so I have a different perspective.

The S/10 was Z80 based, running BB/M or CP/M. There were two double-sided, MFM encoded, 96 track-per-inch, 622K 5.25″ floppy drives, with 64k RAM and a terminal screen with optional display of 24 or 28 lines of 80 or 132 characters. It was bought with my first cheque as a freelancer, and I first used it to write an Equipment Maintenance & Activity Costing system for a municipality. Oh, it cost $6,000 in 1982 dollars!

Technabob reports on some very silly Mini USB memory sticks available from Vavalo in August … a 1:48 scale replica of a pukka mini with a USB drive in the boot and headlights that turn on when the drive is plugged in, what could be nicer?

I really need the police version!

This isn’t the first USB turntable I’ve seen, but this retro-suitcase styling somehow just seems right. Available from the Crosley website, $149 is a pretty good price for the pleasure of listening to those old Widespread Depression Orchestra records on the road.

Best of Friends: Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi is an exhibition at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI from November 3, 2007 until January 15, 2008 that sounds interesting … I don’t know Noguchi’s work, but I find Fuller’s ideas fascinating … as well as the Dymaxion car pictured above, they have the only remaining Dymaxion house in the world, shown below.

NOTE: this is a re-post of an earlier post … I deleted the original as it had somehow been targeted for spam comments - 15 in four days!

Finally … a truly useful portable PC … the Asus Eee is now shipping and should become a huge seller in no time. At approximately 2lbs, with a 7″ screen, Solid State Disk storage (no hot & noisy disk drive) and built in wireless connectivity, this Linux based PC has everything you need for truly portable computing. It has 40 built-in applications and some models have a built in camera and microphone. Various configurations from 512Mb to 2Gb of memory and 4Gb to 8Gb of storage, the first release has a 512Mb/4Gb configuration and goes for about $400.

Amy has trouble tying shoelaces due to low muscle-tone in her fingers … I have a problem with my lower back and prefer to keep bending to a minimum … Speed Laces are a solution for both of our shoe tying issues. Designed for runners, they are also useful to the less athletic among us. A simple installation of the eyelets, lace and cord-lock result in shoes that are almost as convenient as slip-ons, and much more comfortable. Hardware comes in three colours and laces in eight colours, so you can be as sedate or eye-catching as you want.

I’ve always been a fan of Airstream trailers … this new two berth model, the Basecamp, would be perfect for British Car Shows and, though undeniably modern, I think it would look good behind Grace.

A postcard radio based on original radios of the 1920s. It works without batteries and is tuned by moving a small metal plate, or coin, over the front of the radio.
Best of all (?) it features an image of Winston Churchill. £15.20 from mutr.co.uk