Summaries
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Quick Guide to Buying a Netbook
I’ve had my eye on a netbook for a while. I have no intentions of buying one, not until I am out of debt. It’s a luxury to me, and even though the little gadgets are about as inexpensive as a nice cell phone or PDA, I am forcing myself to wait. Prices are the lowest ever– I saw an Asus Eee Linux model for $249 at Best Buy. But NO NO NO! I cannot afford one right now, not when the kids need new North Face jackets and boots, and when I have an escalating energy bill! I’ll wait, and watch, like I usually do. When the time comes for a great deal, I’ll be ready.
But perhaps you have been looking at some, and are wondering about them. I’ve done a little research, so I’ll share what I’ve found here. One quick clarification: there are many different kinds of netbooks– some have 8.9″ screens, others have 7′; some have flash drives, others have hard disk drives with moveable parts; some have Windows XP, others have Linux Xandros or Ubuntu; etc. I’m going to keep this post simple by discussing the original and most popular netbook– the Asus Eee with Linux installed. Most models have only 4 to 8 GB of disk space, on a flash drive with no moveable parts. These are the most portable and, to me, the real definition of a true netbook.
1.) A netbook is a cross between a laptop and a PDA. It is NOT a tiny laptop. This is a mistake many people make when buying their netbook. They get home to see that these little things have very little hard drive space, tiny keyboards, and a small screen that doesn’t display large websites in the browser. The fonts are small, the keys on the keyboard are small, etc. A netbook is designed for being able to connect to the web and email while being extremely portable. If you are looking for a computer that will enable you to use your Photoshop program, run video-editing programs, and other heavy-usage– a netbook is not for you. Just get a smaller laptop for that.
2.) Most netbooks are under 3 pounds. This makes them extremely portable- you can tuck it in your bookbag or purse. The solid state hard drive, (flash drive, just like those USB flash drives, also known as thumb drives or jump drives) have no moving parts, so the netbook can rattle a little and the hard drive information remains intact. Note that on the Specs sheet for netbooks, a lot of them will list the weight as “2.2 pounds” or something like that. This is the weight WITHOUT the battery inside. If weight is extremely important to you, know that the battery will add a good pound or a little less to the weight of the netbook.
3.) Most netbooks have the Linux operating system installed. This is to preserve the speed and reliability of the netbook. It takes a lot of space to contain and run Microsoft Windows. Some netbooks do have Windows installed, but this adds more weight to the netbook and decreases its portability. Windows OS must have a larger hard drive, so the netbook may have a hard drive disk with moving parts– which makes the netbook less durable and less portable.
As to Linux– I’ve tried Xandros (a few years ago) and liked it enough. But for a Linux OS, it’s still pretty big. Most geeks seem to be dumping the Xandros and installing the Linux Ubuntu, which is smaller and more reliable than Xandros. If I get my netbook, I’m going to install Ubuntu. But that’s a story for another post.
4.) The screen is very small. The 7″ monitor size of the Asus supports 800 x 600 resolution, although some can handle a larger resolution. Either way, everything is miniature– the font, the images, the screen, everything. Be sure to test out the netbook at the computer stores before buying, to ensure that you can handle the diminuitive size.
5.) RAM size is often smaller for the netbook. The highest I’ve seen is 1GB RAM for the Asus Eee. This is enough to run the Linux operating system well, but a Windows installation may make it choke.
6.) Hard drive space is very limited. I’ve read complaints that out-of-the box, the netbook only has about 350MB hard drive space available. An Ubuntu OS installation may increase that space to 1GB or so, but that is still not a lot of space for your stuff. The NICE thing about the netbook is that it has an SD reader. There is a slot on the side of the netbook where you can slip in a 4GB or 8GB SD memory card, esssentially doubling or tripling your space. You can store all your photos and documents on this SD card, adding to the portability. All you have to do is eject the SD card and slide it into your desktop PC, and there are your documents and photos.
7.) Most netbooks come with a webcam. I’m not too fond of webcams (I hate them, actually). I’ve heard that most netbooks have the webcam disabled by default. I like that, but most people don’t. You have to get into the BIOS of the computer and enable it manually.
8.) Most Asus netbooks have the Intel Atom processor. From what I have heard so far, this is the best quality processor, designed specifically for the small needs of the netbook. Avoid Celeron processors (for netbooks as well as any PC). Celeron is like the thrift-store version of a processor. Computers are so cheap these days that $40-$50 will get you a much better processor than the budget brand. Cheapo processors are responsible for a good deal of the computer crashes and problems, and newer software programs (especially games and image-editing) won’t work with them at all.
So that’s my research and thoughts about the netbook, in a very small nutshell. I’ll be posting more about the netbook in the future, as I look into it more and as they become more widely available in varying models. As always, if you have questions, feel free to leave a comment.
This is from Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook and is copyrighted material.
I found a VERY cool online tool– Is That Site Down. I love it! I have a handful of blogs on various web hosts, and sometimes my sites do not load. I am always wondering if it’s my computer, my connection, my software, or the web host site is down. So now I can check! It’s simple and easy to use. Just punch in the web adddress and click “Down?” You get your answer in a few seconds! I’m going to be visiting this site a lot.
This is from Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook and is copyrighted material.
A Very Cool Search Engine Site!
Well, I wasn’t too impressed with Cuil or the other new-fangled kinds of search engines with big image doo-dads and the like. I do tend to prefer the good old-fashioned text links for search results.
With that said, WOW!
I happened across this new search engine– SearchMe. It’s another visual search engine (it shows screenshots of the websites), so it’s a tad graphic heavy. But it’s really nice, and I found it more accurate than anything else I’ve seen out there yet.
Here’s a screenshot of a search I did for “New York traveler.” My travel blogs showed up right away, as they should.
I also found some very cool other New York travel sites, too.
I like SearchMe. It’s fun. Will it replace the regular text link search engine? I’m not sure. Old habits are hard to change. But this idea may catch on, as long as a visual search engine is fast, accurate, and gives good results. This is one to watch.
This is from Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook and is copyrighted material.
Use the ‘Net to Find Great Stuff
I am REALLY becoming quite the online shopper. I am just NUTS about it! I buy almost everything online now. I still get groceries and personal items at my local stores, but I am leaning more and more toward getting that stuff from the Internet, too. Take watches. All my kids have and use watches regularly. Which means I have to buy new watches for somebody, sometime!
The Internet is a magnificent choice for finding great deals. Take, for example, the Kenmar watches. website. This is a superb site for finding the perfect watch– they have a searchable database, and stock one of the largest varities of watches on the Internet. The site is extremely organized– search my search engine, by name brand, by style, by price, by popularity, and even by color! And if that doesn’t help you enough, there’s an easy Live Chat function available by the Kenmar Watches customer service reps. Kenmar Watches takes customer satisfaction very seriously- they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It’s a nice site, with a huge selection, including the popular Orient watches and more. Local stores just don’t cut it anymore with stuff like this. We’re lucky if we find a salesperson, let alone a sale or being able to see the entire selection so easily.
So if you’re looking for something special- check the Internet. And if you’re looking for a huge selection of affordable watches with great service- check out Kenmar Watches.com.
This is from Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook and is copyrighted material.
ROFL!!
more animals
I am totally, totally hooked on this website. What took me so long to discover it? I’d heard other bloggers talk about it for the longest time before I went to take a peek. ROFL! When I am in a discouraged mood or feeling low, I sometimes go here. Nothing like an hour-long belly laugh to chase the frowns away. LOL!
This is from Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook and is copyrighted material.
Internet advertising is HOT. Advertising is hot, actually, despite a slowing economy. If anything, advertising increases during a slow economy, because hesitant consumers need a little more coaching (tempting) to get out there and shop, shop, shop. This is a great time to have an online presence and to be an advertiser. Deals are everywhere. However, customer service and quality companies are not. This is where it pays to do a little homework. This is where Acrux Ads can help.
Acrux Ads is a company devoted– nay, thrilled– to help get the word out about products and services, and also to connect sellers and buyers of ads. Here’s the scoop with Acrux Ads:
- It’s free to register!
- Their commission rate is incredibly low– keep 95% of your revenue sold on your site.
- Keep 80% of your revenus sold on their site.
- Manage and give away promo codes to generate traffic and interest (and income).
- Acrux Ads has a new marketplace, and buying ads is so easy, at the click of a button. You can opt to pay per view or per day.
- You can target your audience to get the best for your buck.
- You can track your campaign stats easily.
Acrux Ads will adeptly manage your advertising or publishing scheme, at low cost and with a lot to offer. It’s no secret that the Internet is becoming the next generation in buzz and product awareness. Get your product or service out there with savvy Acrux Ads.
This is from Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook and is copyrighted material.
What is going on with the Alexa rating? For, what, two weeks now, the buttons in my sidebar have stated “No Data.” Huh? The Alexa.com site seems to be up and running. Anyone know what’s up? This is a problem on all my blogs. It’s hard to tell if the actual rating system is working properly, since it takes so long for the number to alter. If anyone has any news, let me know.
In other ranking news, this blog still ranks as 0 with Google’s PageRank. It has NEVER had a rank above 0, and the blog is well over a year old. I don’t know why Google keeps hitting me with 0s across the board. They really stink.
This is from Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook and is copyrighted material.
Lots of virus- and trojan-creators have become quite shifty and sneaky: they are naming their malware after genuine, important software already on our computers. For example, do you have lsass.exe or Isass.exe in your process files list? It’s very difficult to see the difference between the two, but one is a virus and one is not. I used to scour my process list to check for scoundrels (in the Task Manager and also in msconfig), but these days, who knows what is what?
I have used quite a few online process libraries, some good and user-friendly, and some not. Here;s a good one: ProcessLibrary.com. There’s a searchable database AND it also has some good educational articles to help you understand your computer files a little better.
AND it has a free downloadable scanner, see here. This program will scan all your process files and tell you what’s running. Cool! Once you have a clean, trojan-free computer, you order those nice Votive candle holders online without the threat of hackers or spyware.
This is from Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook and is copyrighted material.
Creeepy. As much as I like demographics, this still creeps me out: Google is using web searches to track the spread of the flu. In other words, spying. On people, who use Google, for web searches. And then making it into a huge spreadsheet, in a way.
Turns out a lot of ailing Americans enter phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors.
That simple act, multiplied across millions of keyboards in homes around the country, has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks, called Google Flu Trends.
Tests of the new Web tool from Google.org, the company’s philanthropic unit, suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In early February, for example, the C.D.C. reported that the flu cases had recently spiked in the mid-Atlantic states. But Google says its search data show a spike in queries about flu symptoms two weeks before that report was released. Its new service at google.org/flutrends analyzes those searches as they come in, creating graphs and maps of the country that, ideally, will show where the flu is spreading.
The C.D.C. reports are slower because they rely on data collected and compiled from thousands of health care providers, labs and other sources. Some public health experts say the Google data could help accelerate the response of doctors, hospitals and public health officials to a nasty flu season, reducing the spread of the disease and, potentially, saving lives.
But does this leave room for error? I mean, what if Americans watched a television show about the flu? And then they went on the Internet and searched for more information. It’s very easy to make an assumption that people have the flu. Who can tell?
I don’t like the unreliability of these things. There are too many variables and there’s too much to lose (like freedom, if there is a quarantine) if things go wrong, which they usually do.
Still, some public health officials note that many health departments already use other approaches, like gathering data from visits to emergency rooms, to keeping daily tabs on disease trends in their communities.
“We don’t have any evidence that this is more timely than our emergency room data,” said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, assistant commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in New York City.
Hmmm.
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CEIVA Advances Photo Frame Technology
My boys and I were strolling through Toys R Us yesterday (they had gift cards that were burning holes in their pockets). I dragged them away from thre Star Wars and Lego area so I could look at the electronics department (I’m a techno-geek). I saw some outstanding digitial photo frames on display. I was surprised to see how decorative and stylish they’ve become. Digital photo frames are kind of cool (I don’t have one). Most digital photo frames have some internal memory or require a memory stick (like a USB flash drive) to load photos into the photo frame memory. The photo frame displays the photos on the memory onto an LCD monitor. It’s pretty neat. But you do need to obtain a memory card in some way to transfer the photo data from your photo source to the frame itself. Sometimes you have to wait until Uncle Billy Bob is done with his camera photos in Bermuda, for him to load them onto his computer, to email them to you, for you to load them onto your USB flash drive, and load everything into your digital photo frame for display. Lots of steps.
The Ceiva Digital Photo Frame is a little different. This frame connects onto an existing phone line (or W-Fi connection). It will receive photos directly from a camera or cell phone, from anywhere in the world at any time. And there is no need to edit the photos to prevent squished images– the photo frame sets the photo up perfectly in the frame, automatically. I find this absolutely fascinating– such technology! I think all digitial photo frames are going to go this route, because it is so convenient. You essentially get Uncle Billy Bob’s snapshot of his sand castle in Bermuda at the moment he took the photo through his cell phone. The technology is AMAZING.
Ceiva has made it very easy for anyone to enjoy photos, even people who actually (*gasp*) don’t have computers!
Here’s the process:
- Choose the perfect Ceiva frame.
- Register your CEIVA frame and activate your PicturePlan® membership ($129 a year, includes service and frame).
- Send photos from your computer via email or cell phone directly to the frame.
- Receive photos from your existing phone line or Wi-Fi.
There are other ways to get your photos into the frame– the traditional USB drive, etc. See the site for more information. It’s pretty neat!
