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Review: ThinkGeek Glowing Keyboard Stickers

// May 11th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // toys

In an attempt to make myself hate my 1000HE less (and make my current toys last longer), I ordered the Glowing Keyboard Stickers from ThinkGeek recently. One of the requirements for my next netbook is that it has a backlit keyboard, so I figured a set of stickers would be the next best thing.

1oooHE Keyboard Before

I ordered the stickers last week and received them today – normal shipping time for me (I always choose the cheapest shipping option). Total cost: $15.48.

For starters, the name is misleading. As pointed out in the first sentence of the second paragraph of the product description, ‘The Glowing Keyboard Stickers do not glow in the dark.’ Rather, they are highly reflective, supposedly easily taking in any amount of ambient light – such as that from your monitor – and reflecting that brightly. Unfortunately, I was really looking for something that glows in the dark – I should have read the description more carefully.

The stickers arrive on a single sheet, laid out similar to how a keyboard is. They have a matte finish, which is nice, and the blue lettering is easily read, even on the tiny labels on buttons such as the ‘Insert’ button. Each is carefully cut, and I was able to use a pair of tweezers to remove them from the backing and apply them to my keys.

On two buttons, I ended up putting the sticker on a bit crooked and was pleased to find that I could easily lift the sticker off with the tweezers without leaving any residue. The sticker was then easily re-applied to the button – great. Because I was using these on a netbook and not a full-size keyboard, I did have to trim several of the stickers. Using a pair of regular craft scissors, this was quite easily done, and kept everything looking nice.

1000HE Keyboard After

Unfortunately, $15.48 and about 2 hours later, I still can’t completely see the keys on my 1000HE while laying in bed in the dark at night. Normally, I literally *lay* in bed, so that my eyes are roughly level with the keyboard. If I sit up a bit (which I should probably be doing anyways) and tilt the screen to more of a 90-degree angle, the keys are, indeed, more easily read.

Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend the ThinkGeek Glowing Keyboard Stickers. They don’t really glow, and they were a pain in the butt to install. If you’re looking to simulate a backlit keyboard on your laptop or netbook, look somewhere else.

That being said, after wasting 2 hours of my Tuesday evening applying these things, I’ll be keeping them for at least a few months. If nothing else, the blue matches my 3ACP skin much better than the original labels did.

Exploring Ubuntu Blogging Solutions

// December 17th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // blogging

Since I don’t have a valid Windows 7 license for my Asus 1000HE, I’ve decided to use Ubuntu Netbook Remix on this netbook, and I’m starting to really enjoy it. Of course, there are a few applications that I’m sorely missing, especially Windows Live Writer, but overall it’s been an enjoyable little experiment.

As such, I’m checking out different Ubuntu blogging clients for offline blogging. Of course I could just use my browser, but I find that offline clients are often a much better approach, specifically for a netbook. I previously gave Bilbo a shot, but unfortunately, it doesn’t completely fill the gap. For starters, Bilbo has formatting issues that cause lists and other special spacing to get all messed up when you transfer from it to WordPress, and that’s not going to work for me.

Today I’m trying out a new one – Lekhonee for Gnome. Thus far, it seems decent, though I have already noticed that I can only be logged into a single blog at a time. I normally manage 3 different WordPress blogs, so that will take a bit of getting-used-to. Aside from that, this seems to be a nice client, with category and tag support, as well as images and other niceties.

What other blogging clients do you recommend for Ubuntu systems?

The post is brought to you by lekhonee v0.7

Best Buy Carrying The Nokia Booklet 3G Is Brilliant

// October 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // toys

Today we found out that Best Buy will be the exclusive carrier for the Nokia Booklet 3G in the U.S., offering it with an AT&T contract ($60/month for 5GB of data transfer, unless Nokia somehow convinced AT&T to give a discount with it, which I doubt). There’s no official word on the pricing as of yet, but even so, getting Best Buy to be the exclusive carrier is *HUGE* for Nokia.

Of course, you’re immediately wondering why, given that it’s going to come with an AT&T contract. Why wouldn’t Nokia want the Booklet 3G to be sold in AT&T stores, as there’s surely more of those than there are Best Buy stores, right? Sure, but people go to Best Buy for electronics – such as laptops. In fact, the last 3 laptops I’ve purchased have come from Best Buy. People go to AT&T stores to complain and to buy phones.

Also, Best Buy is quickly becoming *the* destination for netbook shoppers. The last time I was in there, they had over 10 different netbooks, lined up at the ready for users to check out. I’ve seen the Nokia Booklet 3G, and I’ve seen it side-by-side with my beloved Asus 1000HE EeePC. If you have them both lined up next to each other, the Booklet 3G will win every time in the looks department. Throw in the impressive specs (such as the 12-hour battery life) and high resolution display and it quickly becomes a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, we don’t know how much they’re going to want for the Booklet 3G. The announced pricing puts it roughly $800+ without a subsidy, but Nokia is going to have to get it down to around $200-300 with that AT&T contract in order for it to really be a competitor. Time will tell. In any case, I would imagine that this holiday season will be a stellar time for the carriers to hawk their connected netbook offers, and I’m glad to see that Nokia intends to get its piece of that pie in the U.S. I know I’m anxiously awaiting the opportunity to pit the Booklet 3G against my 1000HE to see which one dominates the other.

I’ve Been Distro-Surfing

// September 20th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // toys

Over the course of the last 3 days, I’ve checked out plain-jane Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Jolicloud Alpha2, and EasyPeasy v1.5 on my Asus 1000HE EeePC. This is, apparently, also referred to as ‘distro-surfing’. At the end, I’m left with EasyPeasy, for a few reasons.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix

For starters, all three of these versions of Linux are essentially the same thing. Ubuntu Netbook Remix is the ‘core’, and then the other two build on that, with a few tweaks here and there. They all three have the same basic ‘netbook friendly’ homescreen, which is basically an organized list of icons to the various applications. Windows users, it’s essentially your ‘Start’ menu, but it’s there all the time. While this seems silly at first, it’s actually really logical, since a blank desktop is rather useless to most people (and you’re not supposed to have hundreds of icons all over your desktop anyways).

Jolicloud

Jolicloud Alpha2

When I first installed it, I really thought Jolicloud was going to be ‘it’. It has a great application setup, with applications that you would actually recognize and use, such as Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter, etc. It’s quite brilliant until you realize that the majority of these are little more than ‘visual bookmarks’ – clicking on one basically opens the site in a browser window. It also comes with Adobe AIR and WINE installers, though neither of those worked well for me. Jolicloud is, without question, the friendliest Linux version I’ve ever used. Unfortunately, it was slow as molasses on my Asus 1000HE, though it *was* the only one to show my processor performance by default in the taskbar, which I liked.

EasyPeasy

EasyPeasy v1.5

EasyPeasy v1.5 is the latest release, and it makes far less changes to the Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface than Jolicloud did. I like EasyPeasy over vanilla Ubuntu Netbook Remix for several reasons. For starters, it includes more up-to-date applications, like the latest version of Skype, Firefox, and others. While I realize I could just as easily install those on UNR, the fact that I don’t have to is important, to me. Also, I like that EasyPeasy is green instead of that ghastly orange/brown nonsense. I’d definitely prefer a calming blue look, but for the time being, green is far better. Also, EasyPeasy used to be called Ubuntu-Eee, because it was originally designed for the EeePCs. Since that’s what I’m using, it works out awesome, and all of my hardware was instantly supported.

For the time being, I’m dual-booting with Windows 7 and EasyPeasy v1.5. If you don’t know, ‘dual-booting’ means that when I turn my computer on, it gives me the option to either use Windows 7 or EasyPeasy v1.5. I have 2 operating systems installed, and I can choose either or quite easily. (NOTE: EasyPeasy v1.5 currently sets the bootloader timeout to ’0 seconds’. You need to install StartupManager to change this so you can have time to choose. I have mine set to 20 seconds, currently).

Booting back into Windows 7, I’ve noticed several rather important differences:

1. WiFi strength – using the built-in wireless managers on both Windows 7 and EasyPeasy, Windows shows that I have 5 out of 5 bars. Booting into EasyPeasy v1.5 with the computer in the exact same place, I only show 3 out of 5 bars. While I realize that ‘bars’ is a completely non-scientific or exact measurement tool, it is, currently, the one that I have, and thus, it concerns me.

2. Touchpad sensitivity – when using EasyPeasy, my touchpad is noticeably less responsive than it is in Windows 7. I have tinkered with the mouse settings, but still have trouble using the touchpad. Perhaps there’s a better driver I could download?

3. Overall system speed – switching back and forth, I’ve noticed that EasyPeasy *feels* much more sluggish than Windows 7 does. I haven’t really investigated this much yet, but it’s definitely noticeable, particularly when multitasking.

I’ll continue dual-booting as much as I can tolerate, and have my bootloader currently set to default to EasyPeasy, which should help me try to transition. I can, currently, fully work in either OS, so it’s just a matter of personal preference at this point. I *am* getting frustrated that I can’t find good applications in EasyPeasy to duplicate those in Windows, such as Windows Live Writer, Digsby, and a few others. I also have not tinkered with tethering in EasyPeasy, which could potentially be a complete dealbreaker if I can’t do so over Bluetooth (or USB).

Why I Don’t Use Linux On My Netbooks

// September 17th, 2009 // 12 Comments » // technology, toys

One thing that I’m asked about all the time is why I run Windows on my netbooks. Given how much I work in the browser (and Firefox is available for all platforms) it would seem that Linux would be a no-brainer on a netbook. Unfortunately, it’s not, and here’s why: there are too many options.

While choice is obviously a good thing, specifically for the consumer, there is factual data that proves that too much choice leads to indecision. When looking at Linux for my netbook (an Asus 1000HE), I first went to the ultimate EeePC forum, to see what they had to say. Unfortunately, in their ‘Linux’ section, there are 10 different subforums, each for a different netbook Linux variant. I also know of another one, Jolicloud, that’s not even listed in these subforums. That makes 11 different ‘flavors’ of Linux that I could possibly use on my netbook. Contrast that with 3 ‘flavors’ of Windows (XP, Vista, and 7), and you can see why I’m running Windows.

It’s not that desktop Linux is no good. On the contrary, the dabbling that I have done with it proves that desktop Linux has come a long way in terms of the user interface, support, and applications. It’s really brilliant, and I can instantly see the benefits that it has over Windows. The problem is, I don’t know which one to choose.

Given the headache involved with installing a new operating system to a computer, even a netbook, it’s easy to see why more consumers – even folks like myself with a bit of extra knowledge, simply default to Windows. It’s not because Windows is better, nor is it because Windows is cheaper or easier. It is simply because the Windows options are easier to navigate. As mentioned previously, there are only 3 Windows options, as opposed to 10+ Linux options.

So, how to solve this? It would be nice to have a single table that compared each ‘flavor’ of Linux against the others. However, that’s not really a good solution, either, since often these various flavors are simply different user interfaces, with the same guts underneath. Yesterday I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my Asus 1000HE, and ‘out of the box’, it actually works a bit better than Windows 7 did, in terms of hardware support and the like. While that works fine, I can’t help but wonder what the other various distros offer that UNR doesn’t.