After the weekend

We had a good weekend. I had Friday off as time-in-lieu for travel 2 weeks ago, and got some stuff sorted out (one bank hadn't closed out my loan account, another hadn't closed the credit card as requested...), then had dinner out, after getting this new toy...

So this is the ASUS EeePC 1000. I really do love it. very cute, nice keyboard, easy internet, good screen.

We also went out for dinner on Friday night - excellent Indian food at Everest in Fairfield.

Saturday was infrastructure stuff - lots to do with this computer - then a roast dinner for the troops, and afterwards I went to Linda's.

We went to bed fairly early and stayed there pretty much until this morning (Monday) when we got up for work. We have both been pretty wornout and tired, and a day of reading, chatting, snuggling, was just wonderful. We won't get to do that again for a very long time, I think. Next time we may even have to go to a hotel for a retreat day (the new house won't be big enough ...).

I'm hoping to have coffee with Ema this evening - she is enjoying her new job in Parkville, and she has great gossip about our last mutual employer... then I have outrageous amounts of housework to do tonight - tomorrow evening I'll be going to Castlemaine for a dog club meeting, and Mother will be staying over on Wednesday and Thursday, so it's got to be cleaned up by the time I get home on Wednesday. Which means tonight.

And I've still got lots to do at work this afternoon. So I'd better be getting back, I guess...

I did it...

Can't decide if I'm cross with myself or not... I went back and got the EeePC 1000. I gave the 701 to my daughter. That's $380 I won't see again.. still, she will use it, and it will suit her requirements better than mine. Even now, when I've only been typing on this one for a minute or two I'm forgetting that I'm typing... so it was the right thing to do. Having said that, the small shift key on the right of the keyboard is irritating. the larger keyboard is much easier on the hands. I think I can use this one for work.

and I like the broadband connection. this one was so very much easier to get up, and I've got my eBooks on it too. It's kinda cute - turn the screen sideways (ctrl-alt-left arrow) and hold it like a book, use the touch pad with the left thumb to turn the page...

The mistake cost me a few hundred dollars, but I'm very happy with this one.

Trying out a new toy

I can't help it. I'm a tech-geek. Not a very high quality one, but I have to admit it. I bought myself the new Asus netbook (the little 4gig one - runs on linux) 2 weeks ago, and I 'm only just getting a feel for it. This is the first thing I've actually typed on it, ... I'm trying to see if I've made a mistake and should go and get myself the next sized one. It's a full inch wider and longer, and weighs another couple of hundred grams ... but it runs XP, and the keyboard is slightly larger.

The question is whether or not I can work on this size keyboard. I don't mind the small screen, but would my hands cramp on the little keyboard... I also have a 3G mobile broadband modem (which I had to exchange - the original huawei e169 was beyond my linux skills to get going) which doesn't seem to want to work on my Vista full-size laptop... but ... If I go up to the next eeePC I would almost never take the full laptop from home, so that wouldn't matter. But, if I stay with this one, is it big enough for me to work on??? Memory's not an issue - files I need can be put on SD cards etc, it's all about usability of this keyboard. And I just can't make up my mind. I love the size. It does everything (except eBooks - but that's another story) my old Dell PDA did (some things better), is small enough to go in my handbag and seems to be able to handle the work documents that I need to use/work on when I'm out of the office. But is the keyboard large enough to actually work on for a couple of hours? And it's not a trivial changeover. they may not exchange it 'cos I've been using it for 2 weeks, and the XP eeePC is about $650, so I want to be clear on this.

The eBook thing is a bit annoying - I can't get Adobe digital edition to work on this, so my eBooks are unreadable on a machine that is the perfect size to use as a reader. That's the only thing I really have against it. Except the size of the keyboard. I keep typing trying to see if this gets irritating, or starts to get uncomfortable. My fingers accidently hitting the up-arrow instead of shift ... that is starting to get to me. But keep trying.

So I'm in a new job. I took a paycut for this one - I've wanted to work here for a very long time (I started applying for jobs with this group in about 2004), and now I'm in. they seem very happy with me. there's alot of work out of the office, on site where late in the working day I have to produce an Interim Report on a computer. We can take our work laptop - but it is heavy, so I'd rather take my own. If I have to do that I'd rather take the smallest, lightest one I can ... hence the eeePc I'm typing on. I'm trying to type enough to see if I can forget that I'm on such a small keyboard. Almost, I think. I'm going to sign this off and work on a report for half an hour and see how it's looking.
There goes that up-arrow/shift thing again...

BTW the battery life is fantastic.