Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/01/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Quoth the Tina Manley : > At 12:42 PM 1/8/2009, R. Clayton McKee wrote: > > >I just ordered an Aspire One "netbook" from Amazon, which I'll be > >coupling with various portable HD's and readers. > > Did FedEx get there? What do you think? Any regrets so far? > in order: yes, but. I'm seriously impressed. Wish I'd bought it sooner and with a lot less dithering about it. Expanding: Why is it that if you clear almost everything off your calendar for the FedEx guy, 8 hours worth, but there's this one fifteen minute gig you CAN'T miss... yeah. So anyway, at least the local FedEx depot is only about 3 miles away. (UPS is 18.) http://shrunk.net/96a14f6f-www.amazon.com This is the one I got; I paid the extra twenty bucks to get the 6- cell battery and 160 gb HD. The bigger HD was lagniappe, but I definitely wanted longer battery life. (There's a 9-cell available but it's not being bundled and might be too big to handle. I'll want to see one before ordering.) My immediate impression is that this is one tiny computer, but it's going to be pretty much perfect for what I got it for. I'm still getting the battery tuned up (standard LiON up-down-up breakin stuff) but the 5 1/2 hour spec on this battery doesn't seem unreasonable (though of course the external HD pulls it down somewhat). The "battery meter" shows not only percentage charge but also approximate working time remaining. Nice.... I had no problems at all getting it configured, and getting the McAfee and MS Office/Works software uninstalled. There's no CD/DVD drive, so I had to load some of the software from the drive on the desktop computer, across the network. That worked well. All of the downloaded archives I loaded from the little Seagate Go portable, and everything seems to be running fine so far. It's obviously not a power-user machine. Bootup (XP) is about what you'd expect -- about the same as my 1200mhz Athlon machine (faster HD's in the desktop balance the faster proc in the Acer). WiFi range seems quite good for the size, and I had no problems logging in at a Starbucks, a couple of independent coffee shops, or the Houston municipal wifi network. Getting it into the home wifi network was a bear, but that was pure operator error - I'd given the network the MAC address for the internal NIC, not the WiFi transceiver (!). When I found and fixed that, everything slipped right into place. For all normal operations not involving high-powered computing, it runs about on a par with the 1200, which is more than fast enough for "business" class operations. OpenOffice 3 runs nicely, as does Firefox3. Transferring files from card reader to HD, or HD to HD, runs about as expected, at or close to the USB transfer limits. Typing is not difficult, though of course the key "throw" is very shallow - not really distracting if you're not inclined to bang on the KB anyway. I haven't really noticed that the smaller keyboard is an issue. The touch pad sensitivity is set very high in the defaults, needs slowing down. I'm still getting it tuned. I'll probably get a laptop mouse at some point for use when circumstances permit.... though for working on lap or when there's not a convenient flat surface, the touch pad is fine. It's not terribly fast with serious number-crunching. Running a couple hundred .CR2 files off ExtremeIII CF cards through latest DNG converter took about fifteen minutes. Not terrific but since it doesn't require tending, it wasn't painfully slow. (I got it running, then put it on the seat and drove on to my next appointment, maybe 12 miles away. It was through before I got there, but I'm not sure how long before.) I can see it being something to do in the evening while on location. I probably wouldn't do it in the field while there's shooting light. I have BreezeBrowser Pro and the latest XN View loaded for image- work, and conversions from CR2 to 16-bit TIFF are reasonably quick, maybe 20 seconds. It'll work wonderfully for wandering, blogging, controlling and browsing multiple HD's when in the back of nowhere, etc. It's not suited to be a newspaper pj's working machine, but in a pinch it would get there. Obviously that's the tradeoff for the two-pound "type on your lap" package - if I need serious production power I'll take the bigger HP.. It'll fit nicely in the back pocket of my BR-clone vest, but it's going to live in a neoprene 'second skin' inside an old army-surplus canvas map bag. (13 bucks at the Surplus store, has a rigid back, looks not worth stealing) It's light, runs cool and quiet, feels solid, but VERY light.. It doesn't want to be banged around. Quirks: Screen is VERY high-gloss, and it loves to show off its collection of fingerprints. Mind where you put your paws, and keep the kittens' noses off the screens. The user's guide is not only a joke, it's a very very BAD joke. Do not expect it to help you. Recharge isn't fast - it's a very small brick, takes about 4 hours from 3% auto-shutdown to full charge. This thing is VERY small, and the 1024x600 screen is a nonstandard size, so there will be a bit of key-and-mouse-fu required in finding the "go" buttons on some apps. Some of the 'defined screen sizes' (the RAW conversion on Breeze Browser, for example) wind up with the "execute" button just off the bottom of the screen unless you squeeze the screen WAY up to the top... gets there but not easy. That being said, it's a very sharp and contrasty screen, with adjustments available. Speakers are nothing to write home about; if you want to listen while you work, get earphones. (No surprise, but not important to me.) There's no hardware-level mute or volume-control that I can find, which is a bit annoying. All told we're going to be good friends. -- R. Clayton McKee http://www.rcmckee.com Photojournalist rcmckee@rcmckee.com P O Box 571900 voice/fax 713/783-3502 Houston, TX 77257-1900 cell phone # on request