OBSERVATIONS FROM SCOTLAND 28 May 2008 GM1SXX
More on the Eee PC.......
In a previous Observation, I made mention of the ASUS Eee PC as a candidate for /P amateur radio use.
http://www.observations.biz/Observations_from_Scotland/observations_13_12_2007.htm
I have the base model, with 2 Gigabytes of solid-state storage and without an onboard webcam. It was the only one I could get my hands on at the time, such is the sheer demand for these little machines.
Now 2 Gigabytes is not a lot of storage space. If you run XP, most of that space will be grabbed by the operating system leaving little space for applications and data storage. Fortunately there is a simple and cheap solution to this.... fit an SD memory card in the slot on the front right-hand side of the machine. I'd advise using the new faster cards (category6?) because the machine fully supports them. SD memory cards are now fairly cheap and so I decided to place XP on the main solid-state drive and all my applications and data on the SDRAM card. In practice, this has worked out very well indeed.
If you like hacking stuff, it's also possible to add a touch screen and extra internal memory. The hackers have truly 'gone to town' on the Eee, I suspect in large part because it is so inexpensive. I confidently expect to see a new variant of the Eee soon (from Asus) with a 9 inch diagonal screen, more storage capacity and probably also a touch-screen, in the fairly near future. The hackers are showing the way!
Just a few Eee Hack links..
http://beta.ivancover.com/wiki/index.php/Eee_PC_Internal_Upgrades
http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2007/12/asus-eee-pc-with-touch-screen.html
http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-add-internal-3g-hsdpa-to-asus.html
The Eee PC comes as standard with three USB2.0 ports. This is not ideal for many amateur radio uses where serial port connections still predominate. Fortunately, this is easily solved by using a USB-to-SERIAL converter to provide a useful serial port for radio use. Mine came from EBay.
In fact, it's child's play to add a USB keyboard and mouse plus an external LCD monitor to transform the Eee into a desktop PC. I have just such a dedicated setup on my desk at work for my Eee. Just plug in a few cables and voila... a networked desktop Eee... either cabled or wireless.
After quite a bit of use, I have to say that I still greatly like the Eee PC. The portability factor and the fact that it will run a 'real' version of Windows makes it a very useful little machine. At first I was very dubious about the keyboard and small screen, but they are actually quite easy to get used to.
At work, where I provide IT support, I was asked to demonstrate the Eee to some interested members of staff. I sat them in front of it, just the basic machine, and let them loose.. I wandered off and had a coffee and a donut from the canteen (as you do) and came back to see how they were getting along. Hell, they liked it so much that we later that day tried to place an order for 25 of the things! The Eee 'sold' itself!
In the event, they didn't actually order Eee's. The Eee and it's 'educational' counterpart, the RM Notebook are in very short supply. Eee make one PC every six seconds, but can't keep up with world demand. They must be doing something that people like!
'Our lot' decided to buy a similar notebook PC with an 80GB hard disk instead. These machines cost more than twice as much as an Eee but none of our IT team like them. All of us tried the new PC's but the vibes were all negative. The LCD is inferior to that used on the Eee and the keyboard seems more cramped. Most people thought the keyboard layout was 'weird'. Caveat Emptor! If you plan to buy a notebook PC, PLEASE make sure you actually TRY IT OUT, before you part with your money. These things are not all born equal and more money does not necessarily buy better ergonomics.
The Eee is a 'niche PC'. Of that there is no doubt. It uses a fairly puny Celeron CPU that's deliberately under-clocked in order to save power and reduce the CPU's cooling demands. It's a wee bit expensive for what it actually is.... a portable notebook. having said that, it fills a market need and how! I think it's one of my better buys.
When it's not 'commuting' between home and work, it often sits perched on the arm of my chair in the living-room so I can watch NASA TV live from the ISS.
It sees quite a bit of use at work too, thanks to the fact that it's so portable. It's not a very powerful machine, but it certainly is hugely versatile. It's just made for field use. Battery life is respectable at over two hours and it's possible of course to drive it from a Gel battery via the charger input. I like this machine a great deal.
73 AL.
GM1SXX