AdamStovicek.com

Archive for March, 2008

Source… Hawty McBloggy: 1 and 2

The story revolves around a gamer named Nathaniel. He’s been a huge fan of the XBox 360 and had a special console of his own. He had it pre-ordered in advance of the rollout and still has his receipt to prove it. Taking it with him to shows and appearances, he was able to get the case signed by many of the XBox and Bungie developers and designers. He even had a custom drawn Halo character put on it by Luke McKay.

Then came the day when it encountered the “Red Ring Of Death” and failed to work. Getting it repaired meant sending it away to Redmond. After making a few calls, he was assured that he would get back the same XBox that he sent in and that it would be taken care of carefully. Since it had a lot of sentimental value, he took every step possible to ensure he would get it back intact including a letter to the technician, who would eventually work on the console, in with his XBox explaining how much he valued it.

They did return his XBox, but someone at Redmond wiped it down and removed all the artwork and autographs. BS Angel at hawtymcbloggy.com ran a few articles and word slowly got around. The first major response was from the team at Bungie who sent him a huge care package including a Halo helmet autographed by many of the staff, an autographed Halo CD, jacket, t-shirt, bag, faceplate and skins, and few more items.

Grateful to the Bungie team Nathaniel had to have been, Microsoft still had its own face to save. They had contacted Nathaniel at the start of this internet drama and said they would make good on the screw up. Since then, not much was heard until recently when a big box showed up Nathaniel’s door with a note reading “Enjoy! <3 Thegamersscroeblog Team & Everyone on the enclosed!” Inside was an XBox 360 with new artwork and autographs, including a faceplate with the ever elusive Bill Gates’ signature right across the front. On top of that was five games, bumperstickers, a XBox cd wallet and an autographed picture of Bill Gates.

Nathaniel had this to say:

“My overall mood about the packages I have received from Bungie and Microsoft is nothing short of ecstatic, but compensation was never my focus. The only thing I have specifically asked of Microsoft and the Xbox 360 team for is this particular case to be examined so that some change(s), whether small or broad, can be made to the service process to prevent the occurrence of any similar scenario. This remains my only request.”

Pictures of the new XBox 360 are present with more pictures at BS Angel’s blog linked above.

I’ve neglected the blog this past week. My new found neglect coincides with my new found toy, the Asus Eee PC 8G. I’ve been trying to use it as much as I was using my Thinkpad. Unfortunately, that means I haven’t been using my Thinkpad which has become the nerve center of my daily internet activities including RSS feeds, email, chatting, and blogging.

I would like to perform all those tasks with the Eee since they really don’t require a lot of computational power and the form factor of the Eee means I could do them virtually anywhere. However, doing so would mean carrying around an unsecured laptop with sensitive data, and that’s just not acceptable.

I’m waiting to place an order at Newegg for some upgrades which includes memory and storage. I’m hoping to attempt something radical that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere. Either no-one’s thought of it, or I haven’t been looking in the right places. Be that as it may, once I get the Eee secured enough to be happy with it, I can move my operation over to it.

As I look at the collection of computers, I never imagined that I’d be operating more than one machine. I currently have two laptops and two desktops. They all serve specific functions and enjoy a fluctuating state of powered status. I am currently planning a fifth computer to act as a central file server. That’s five. Any more and I’m going to start needing a second hand to count them all.

I finally broke down and bought an Asus Eee 8G this past week. Newegg finally had them for sale (again, I assume) for $499.99 plus $10.84 for shipping. As of this writing, it appears as a deactivated item. Apparently they sell them in spurts. Here’s some pics and other miscellaneous info.

Showing the ugly mug with the Eee’s built-in webcam with the stock Xandros OS.

Feeling constrained by the limitations of the stock Xandros OS, we begin the Ubuntu-ization.

A wah-lah! Apophis is born. Thanks to Pendrivelinux.com for the how-to guide in building a Ubuntu Live USB, and to C.K. Sample III for the rest of the procedure.

Here’s a size comparison between the Asus Eee PC and my Thinkpad T41.

Here is a comparison of the maximum screen resolutions with a common layout between the two laptops. The top is the Thinkpad with a 1440×1050 resolution, and the Eee at the bottom with a 800×480 resolution. You can see that there’s a definite lack of real estate for multiple windows on the Eee.

One of the limitations I had with the Xandros OS was having one single workspace. It is a KDE environment, albeit modified, but no discernible way of improving it. Ubuntu supplies Gnome with Nautilus which can allow multiple workspaces. KDE has the same feature but the Xandros OS doesn’t appear to allow it.

There’s plenty of guides across the internet for installing your own choice of OS on the Eee. Without a floppy or an optical drive, it presents some obstacles. Fortunately it has three USB ports making it easy to use an USB DVD drive or USB flash drive. The User Guide that comes with the Eee even has instructions for installing Windows XP. You still need your own copy of XP, but they’ve at least gone through the effort of supplying the steps for you. And in case your choice of an alternate OS doesn’t quite work out, they supply a DVD with a recovery option and instructions for the different ways to approach it.

The packaging was quite professional along with the provided documentation. The satchel, or carry pouch, is decent and the AC adapter has a wonderful length. An unexpected bonus that was boxed in with the Eee was an optical USB mouse. While I am a fan of the touchpad, Eee’s can be stubborn sometimes. Even after tweaking the sensitivity, there are times when it requires extra foreplay in order for the magic to happen. The mouse has a slight red glow to it that can either be mistaken for something ominous or feminine. I opt for the former.

It did only come in white Pearl White when I bought it. My brother, who also wants one, is hoping for a black edition. Since everything else I own is black, having something in white is a nice change of pace.

Things I want (or have already) change:

• Replaced the Xandros OS with something more configurable.
• The ‘Intel Inside’ badge that was mounted to the bottom left corner was hanging over just enough to annoy me. I replaced it with a ‘powered by: ubuntu’ badge.
• Upgrade the ram to a full 2GB.
• Install an encrypted flash drive for personal files.

All in all, it’s a wonderful little machine despite its shortlist of
cons. It has plenty of punch for a such a little, under-powered machine.