Who ya gonna call?

We can start with my first impressions of the Eee PC.

Throughout the year the little computer has served me well. It’s almost always in my backpack and ready to use. Being just 2 pounds is a definite plus for something you always carry around. Lightweight is definitely a top feature. As for battery life, well… I really expected better. With wifi on, I typically see under 3 hours, which isn’t great, but again, small computer = small battery, so I can live with that. The power adapter isn’t too big, so I always carry that around as well. The battery does seem to drain more than it should in sleep mode, so I typically turn if off when not in use.

Connecting via wifi was only an issue at my own house where I had a weird setup (which I’ve since fixed) and anywhere else it worked fine. One annoying issue is disconnecting an external monitor/projector. The Eee PC thinks it’s still there and you can’t see the parts of the screen you want to because it assumes some higher rez display is there, it’s annoying, and worse case, requires a reboot to fix. (I’m used to the way the Mac dynamically deals with monitors being connected/disconnected and does the right thing.)

As I wanted a unit that “just worked” (as much as a Linux computer can) I stuck with the default Xandros OS on it. I contemplated trying Ubuntu a few times, but things like “recompile the kernel for wifi to work” or other such warnings turned me off. Besides, for the way use the thing, I didn’t think I’d see much benefit from a different OS.

So after one year how am I liking the Eee PC? There have been a few small issues, but none I couldn’t deal with. For the price, it was worth if. Of course today you can get a much better little PC for even less money. It served me well through Web414 meetings, and BarCamps, and anywhere else I needed a computer on the go. (Unless I needed Mac-specific applications, in which case, it was totally useless.) The screen is small. I’m glad to see that 1024 pixels wide is what the newer machines are using, as 800 pixels just doesn’t cut it. All in all, I’ve been pleased with the Asus Eee PC. (I’ll be following up with another post specifically about how I hosed it all up.)

A sewing kit is a handy thing to have if you need to repair something, or tie something, or poke a hole in something…

Bucketworks hosted about 30 to 40 people throughout the night, and besides such craziness as “ghost riding the whip” and “knitting” we all survived unharmed.

We had a project board that listed what people were working on (note: photo needed!) and we had food and drink and what not to keep us going. The event was sponsored by Paladin Web Services, and addition food/drink was provided by 2XL Networks, SmallSharpTools.com and Ashe Dryden.

My own personal project was not as successful as I had hoped. I did succeed in getting gPhoto working on the Eee PC with a Nikon D70, as well as a Nikon D300, but my own Nikon D40 did not work, due to it being a newer model, so I spent much of my time trying to get a newer version of gPhoto installed… to no avail.

Besides my setbacks, I had a good time, and met some cool people. It was a great atmosphere to just hang out and chill, as well as get some work done.

We’d like to do it again, and if you’d like to make it happen, get it touch with me about sponsoring the next MilwaukeeDevHouse event.

So what is a DevHouse? It’s a hackathon event that combines serious and not-so-serious productivity with a fun and exciting party atmosphere…

People show up and either have an idea of a project they want to work on, or look for ideas, or other people to work on things with… But it’s not all serious work. It’s a party atmosphere, so you can hang out and just chill with other folks, discuss whatever, do whatever…

Since it’ll be at Bucketworks, you should also be able to use the FabLab to build something (maybe a desk?) or just create some art… (I’m actually going to be working on getting the screen printing machine up and running for part of the night.)

The main project I want to work on is exploring gPhoto, which can be used to control over 1000 cameras via connecting to a Linux computer with a USB cable. I want to use my Eee PC as an intervalometer, but also see what we can do at Bucketworks using the software and digital cameras…

So come down to MilwaukeeDevHouse3 at Bucketworks. It’s a free event, put on by Web414 and sponsored by Paladin Web Services. Food and drink and hacking and geeks… what could be better?

(Update: I got gPhoto running on Mac OS X… oh, and on the Eee PC too, it was much easier than I thought it would be.)

Caleb, the author, has a web site for it which you can check out.

I had my last doctor visit for my elbow dislocation follow-up recently. I had stopped going to occupational therapy before that because I can’t afford it. Luckily the doctor says it’s looking good, and should heal up well, and I should get back my full range of motion eventually. (I’ve been trying to do my own therapy, but I skip the exercises too much.) The doctor did warn me to still take it somewhat easy and avoid any Winter sports like sledding, skiing, snowboarding, ice skating… anything where I could fall and smack my elbow, or get it pulled back and hyper extended. Sucks! And seriously, he couldn’t add shoveling to that list?

So in case you are keeping track, I got injured on August 23rd, 2008 (and again 4 days after that) and then got a crazy splint and then got that off and now I’m on the road to recovery. But the road is long, and the climb will be steep…. but we will never surrender, even in the face of Armageddon!

This is the first election I’ve really felt that things are going to change. For so many years I was convinced that voting was always the choice between the lesser of two evils, and that no matter who won, it would always be the old rich white guy.

I’ve never really been loyal to my sorrowful country, Blind patriotism always leaves me feeling ill, and after years of buying American made cars and seeing them fall apart, I got sick of it, and started to buy Japanese cars. But in the past few months, I started to turn… I’d actually like to see the U.S. build better cars, and I’d like to someday own one.

I still like to think of myself as a citizen of the world, and not some mindless flag waving fool, but maybe it’s OK to be a bit proud of this country. Sure, the U.S. has done a lot of evil things, but I like to think we’ve done some good things as well, and can do better thing in the future.

Anyway, I’m feeling very strange right now… sort of happy, sort of anxious, and sort of in a state of confusion.

I continue to hope for a better tomorrow…

I put my album "Snowbound" from the 2008 RPM Challenge up there to see what would happen. So far it’s a bargain at 27 cents! It was free until Gabe came along and recommended 3 of the songs… Still, I think 27 cents is a real bargain, but snap it up now before the prices goes up!

I like the concept of Amie Street, where you get rewarded with low prices by finding new (and unpopular artists) and the artists get rewarded proportionately to their popularity. I told a friend of mine she could fine unpopular music for cheap and she got really excited, saying “I love unpopular music!”

I managed to get 4 albums of surf music for less than $3, and 3 of them were free. One of them is actually pretty good too.

Take a look at Amie Street if you are interested in finding new music. Hey, you can even look at my artist page if you want to…

You can grab it from blip.tv, and it’s got a Creative Commons Attribution License. (If you need something else, get in touch with me.)

Also, subscribe to the feed to get all of the audio automagically downloaded podcasting style…