I got my Eeepc 8G February 28th, and immediately christened it “9″ (like “Section 9″ from Ghost in the Shell) and cranked it up to see what it could do. I’m typing this entry on it, as a matter of fact, so that’s at least some indication of how well things are going :) Please excuse any typos as I haven’t done an extensive amount of actual typing on this thing yet so I’m still kind of getting used to the keyboard.

I’m loveloveloving it so far! It’s taken some getting used to the Linux OS that it ships with (Xandros/KDE), but I’ve been spending a lot of time messing with it. With the help of the huge user community online, it’s proving to be a fairly easy ride. I’ve been spending my lunch hours since I got it messing with customization and trying out some things.

I’ve actually got LAMP up and running so I can try out a local install of Wordpress (the blog engine running Tabard’s in!). Been having some trouble getting the css/images to display correctly, so if anyone out there has messed with this stuff before and thinks they could help, lemme know :)

Eddy and I have already hit the Highlander (a local free wifi hotspot, fyi!) a couple times with our respective laptops for dinner and some geeking out. We want to try and find other new places around town, and I’m thinking of writing reviews on them and calling it the Geek’s Guide to Atlanta. It sounds like it’d be fun, anyway, and it’d give me a great reason to get out away from home on a semi-/regular basis. I’d love to get suggestions of places to try out, so share if you got ‘em!

All that said, my lunch break is just about up, so I’ll leave you with some photos of my new electronic love. (more…)

Ok, I started out writing a completely crazy “omgomgomg” entry about the EeePC 8g suddenly popping up as “in stock” on Newegg, and finally being able to get my hands one one. (If you’re interested, or looking to get one, better hurry. There’s no telling how long they’ll have them.) And as I type this, it’s nearly turning into one anyway, but I’m holding myself back, don’t worry. But my order is in, plus a 2gb SO-DIMM DDR2 upgrade for the RAM, and a 16gb SDHC memory card to for more space. The best part? Newegg’s baseline shipping is UPS 3-day, (and only slightly more expensive than ground), so even if it doesn’t get sent out til tomorrow, I should have a new toy in my grubby little hands by Friday XD

Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to let you all know how it goes :D

*esplodes from the strain of not esploding*

Thank god, now I can stop looking all over the place for them :p

I’ve got it bad, bad, bad, bad, baaaad. The craze hasn’t been this bad since I wanted an ipod more than three years ago. I suppose it’s a good thing this particular illness only strikes every few years. I wouldn’t be able to afford it otherwise.

So, ever wondered what you’d get if a PDA and a laptop had a torrid love affair? Meet the EeePC 8g. (Yay for alliteration!)

It’s small, less than 9″ at it’s widest point, and weighing in at 2 lbs, this thing would fit in my shoulder bag (it’s not a purse, dammit!). It’s wifi-enabled, with a webcam and microphone which, if all the reviews are any indication, are great for Skype and other VOIP/webchat features. While the 8g SSD and small screen size wouldn’t be good for gaming, these little machines would be great for portable computing. They ship with a Linux OS, though they’ll can handle XP, and are apparently lightning fast on boot and shutdown. There’s a huge and thriving user community, so how-to’s and hacks are readily available if you don’t mind voiding the warranty.

With a price tag at $500, the new 8G’s are affordable enough that I plan on getting an eeepc (that’s “ee-pee-cee”) even before I replace my failing ipod. Add to this the fact that it’s upgradable to 2Gb RAM from the 1Gb it comes with, and rumors that the SSD may not be soldered to the board (that thus, be upgradable if you have the know-how), and for my purposes, it’s well worth the money. Three usb ports and an SD card reader will make it easy to up the storage capacity, so the actual hard drive space doesn’t bother me.

My only complaints so far? That they’re hard to find anywhere other than Ebay right now, and the release date keeps getting pushed back.

Oh, and that I’m running out of Ghost In the Shell characters to name my toys after :)

I’ve had my ipod since May of 2005. It’s a drab little white 20Gb Gen3. It has no color, and no video. But despite being the single most heavily-used piece of electronic equipment I own (other than my computer), it gave me no real problems until November of last year. When I’d first gotten, we had the foresight to buy the three year protection plan that Best Buy offers, so when the harddrive finally decided it’d had enough, I was covered. Rather than wait the 2-3 weeks to have it — fondly referred to as Ishi, after the Ghost In the Shell character, Ishkikawa — fixed, I opted to have it replaced with a refurbished unit. Unfortunately, “refurbished” doesn’t necessarily equal “fixed,” and the new ipod (Ishi II) almost immediately began displaying quirks similar to the old one shortly before it had kicked the bucket.

I actually ended up not using it at all from Thanksgiving to New Year because local radio stations were playing Christmas music (and I loff eet! <3). But the first or second day I hooked it back up in the car, it gave me the sad little dead ipod face, and hasn't worked since. For various reasons, I haven't had a chance to go back and have it fixed/replaced again, but that's beside the point.

The actual point of this entry is that I’m trying to figure out what I want to do when my warantee expires. I’ve already checked to see if I’ll be allowed to renew it, and that’s a no-go, so I’ll pretty much be on my own if problems arise in the future. I’m halfway over the fence toward getting a newer model altogether, and donating my current one to some — shall we say, “charitable cause.”

I’m not really looking for anything fancy — just something I can fit my entire music library on (it has only breached the 20Gb mark in the last few months). Friends have an occasional chuckle over the fact that, from time to time, I’ll randomly discover music in my library that I didn’t know was there, or that I hadn’t actually listened to before. For me, though, that’s one of the best parts about having an ipod. I can set it to random and listen — literally — for days. Yeah, not all of it is fantastic, and some of it I’ve listened to until the notes ooze out my ears, but regardless of whether I’ve heard it a million times or never, it’s something different everytime I plug it in.

So what exactly does the current market have to offer me? I went in, wanting an upgrade compared what I have now, but nothing crazy. The iPhone is certainly a fine piece of hardware, but a) I’ve got a phone already (did, in fact, just recently get a new one), b) wouldn’t want to pay the fees every month just to be able to use an iphone, and c) have had enough experience with handheld electronics to know I don’t want my phone and my music player eating up the same battery. Plus, the largest capacity iphone available right now is only 8Gb. If I’m going to pay $400 for something like that, it would need a little more substantial storage space. I’m not saying it’s not an awesome bit of technology, and I’m not saying I’d never buy one. I’m just saying something like the iTouch (ipod Touch, whatever :p) is more attractive to me right now because the phone features aren’t. And even the Touch is sorely lacking in the hard drive arena. So it would appear that I’m stuck with the ipod “Classic” if I’m looking to upgrade, at least for the time being. With a minimum (these days) capacity of 80Gb, it’s hands-down teh winnar!, even if the price hasn’t come down any since the haydays of my little Ishi.

This all leaves me wondering, however, if it’s part of their marketing strategy to introduce new models of products into the market, and then phase out “older” ones so they don’t have to lower prices any. I could be perfectly happy with a 60Gb ipod. Hell, I don’t even really care all that much about the video feature that’s now standard. As far as the music is concerned — and really, wasn’t that the point of the ipod from the beginning? — my only real concern is storage space. I’ve begun my first forays into the Zune world to see what that’s all about. I’ve heard good things, but I think I’ll wait for the research to really get under way before I make any judgements of my own. I have really enjoyed Ishi while I’ve had it, but who knows? Maybe I’ll end up making the switch.

The last two weeks have been absolutely crazy. Apparently everyone in the world decided all at once that they needed to make up for lost time over the holidays, and we’ve been working almost non-stop. I don’t think we’ve been this busy in the year and a half that I’ve been here. I worked both days last weekend, more than making up for the two (unpaid) sick days I took recently, and worked til 10 Wednesday, and 7 last night. I am so ready for this week to just be over. Yay, Friday. I think our machines would probably agree.

I’ve been working on the site whenever I get a chance to sit down long enough. I’m really pleased with the way it’s coming along so far. I’ve been resisting the urge to post a million asides in lieu of actual entries. It’s so easy to just make quick little two or three line notes about interesting stuff I find or hear. I’ve got a few plans in the works, though to encourage myself to update more often.

Love-life has been full for months, and a little turbulent more recently. I can only hope it continues to settle. Life in general has been good though. Money is still a little crazy sometimes, but things finally seem to be evening out. I have no idea how taxes are going to end up this year. I’m crossing my fingers, but not holding out any great hope. I’ll probably up my witholdings this year to be on the safe side. Been getting out of the house a little more than I’ve been used to lately. Trying to find a happy medium between hanging out with people, and getting my “me” time so I don’t go nuts. (Heh, is there an opposite of “stir crazy,” where you feel like you don’t get to do nothing enough?) Even having Eddy playing video games, needing no entertainment from me whatsoever, is distracting. It’s funny to notice, though, that working out code for this place drowns out almost all outside influences though. If I could just make that happen with drawing or writing, I’d be golden :D

Speaking of drawing, I got a late Christmas present from the Hippie. He got me a Wacom Bamboo Fun, one of the line of tablets that’s replacing the Graphires. I haven’t gotten a chance to really just spend an evening messing with it, but as soon as I do, I’ll be posting about it. It’ll be so nice to have a working tablet again. And the best part? It’s Tachikoma-blue! XD See for yourself!