Notes from a small computer

Normal service will be resumed shortly....

2008-03-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

OK I know its been a while since I made an entry into my blog, but between getting setup, and trying to get some reliable wifi sorted its meant that the blogs had to have some downtime...

But now I'm setup, I should be ready to fire out a new entry or two some time soon(ish), so untill then, be patient, I haven't abandoned my little blog from the little laptop.

Also the poll is in its last few days for voting, unless we get a sudden flood of fashion victims, err I mean white Eee owners it looks like Stealth Black is the cool colour to own. New poll will be posted soon.

Soon to come will be a spot of extreme environment Eee testing!

So the EeePC 900 has been announced, its the second generation Eee

2008-03-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

Read all about it....

Its been announced that the next Eee will add to the current by offering:

8.9″ screen
1024 x 600 resolution
12GB of data
1GB of ram
A package a bit larger than the Eee PC 701

Will I be getting one? Not yet, I'll be waiting till I've read a few user reviews. I'm not ruling the possibility of getting one out, but I'm quite happy with my current Eee.

Also I'd like to know some more, for example Asustek have recently purchased a large volume of low end AMD semperon chips. Will the next Eee's be AMD powered? Will there be an option to get bluetooth included? Bigger battery? A range of accessories that will actually be available? Will they be making any extra stuff available to tempt existing users.

For a bigger screen and a bit of extra storage I don't see the immediate need for my owning the next gen Eee. After all I'm doing fine with 4Gb at the moment, and even with the extra software I've installed I've still got 1Gb spare.

So at the moment I'm waiting expectantly for Asus to deliver...

Another use for my Eee

2008-03-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

The Eee is a wonderful laptop, its small, its light, its easy to take with you.

So say I was looking to make a trip into the countryside, and wanted to take a computer along to make notes on the way. Do you really need to ask what I'll be taking with me?

And why should this become something I've been pondering of late? Well I've started Geocaching recently. Basicly you go on a treasure hunt to a location somewhere, and use a GPS (not to be confused with sat-nav) to find a small cache of items left by someone else. You then sign the log book, in the cache, and see what's been left in the cache. These things are all over the place, possibly a lot closer than you think. To find out more about geocaching, go to geocaching.com.

But why would I be taking my Eee to go geocaching?

Easy, I can use Open office to make notes on the way. Online maps can be saved and pulled up in the field for referring to, as well as webpages with details of cache locations. Any photo's I take can be edited there and then, meaning I have a full set of notes, and pictures ready to post online when I return home at geocaching.com.

Essentially I have an outdoors office I can take with me. McDonalds have a pert to play in all this. I can travel to places, find a McD's and upload any info out and about.

Finally theres the business of getting to a cache, using the online mapping I can find likely local parking spots, and convert the location of these parking spots to something I can use with my TomTom.

All in all it seems that the Eee could be usefull in a whole range of things outdoors. The only thing I need now is a car charger.

I'll be back

2008-03-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

Over 2000 visits, I'm a bit shocked that the blog's being read so much.

However, I'm away next week for a few days staff training, in case you start to wonder when your next fix of 'Notes from a small computer' is on the way.

I'll be writing a bit while I'm away, but it'll depend on if I can find some spare wifi to upload something here.

Shortly after this I'll be working abroad for a couple of months, however I've been informed that there will be wifi there to use, so I should be able to keep this going. This trip was the reason I got the Eee, and my selection of accessories have all been selected with this in mind.

I've had nearly six weeks so far to get used to my Eee, and my journey should prove or disprove weather traveling light, and using the Eee as a main computer was a wise strategy (as opposed to taking my 15.4" Acer laptop).

Either way I should have something to write about

Anyway

Toodles.

pimpmyeee.sh updated, go check it out

2008-03-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie...

Its been kindly pointed out by a reader (Alexandru Dobrinescu) that pimpmyeee.sh has been updated.

The link's still the same, as is the install instructions. However you'll need to re-name it to pimpmyeee.sh before using it.

Destkop tweaks II, revenge of the shutdown menu

2008-03-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

OK, so this is really a follow on from an earlier post about tweaking the desktop background. Have a quick scan through there to get the basics of editing the backgrounds, if you didn't read that one.

So after having a look further I found all the shutdown menu icons and backgrounds, so you can change it, they were hiding away in /opt/xandros/share/AsusShutdownDialog, Go edit them to your taste.

Have a look at the picture for the idea:

OK so for mine, I took the business set and inverted them to give the above results.

More coming soon.

Making Thunderbird better.

2008-02-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Outlook, its a good piece of software, it manages emails, it has a calendar to allow you to manage your time, tasks to be done and other things. Its no surprise that a lot of businesses use Outlook.

Now in the Eee we have PIM which is trying to do a similar job, but to be honest I don't like it, its a bit crap. I like Thunderbird for my emails, but its can't do the calendar, to do lists and other outlook type stuff....

Or can it?

Well if you read about the add-ons for Firefox, then you'll have seen me mention that one of the add-ons (firesizer) also worked in Thunderbird, which it does. The reason for this is Mozilla make both Thunderbird and Firefox. They are designed to work in a similar unified manor, so its no surprise that Thunderbird can accept some of the Firefox add-ons. But Thunderbird also has some tricks of its own when it comes to add-ons.

Lets start with the biggest feature missing. The calender, this can be replicated by using an add-on called lightning, its made by Mozilla, so you can be sure it'll work well with Thunderbird. It offers most of the calendar functionality of Outlook, without paying Bill Gates a small fortune.

On installing you'll get a calendar dropdown at the top, and below the folders you'll get two icons, one for email, one for the calendar for easy switching.

So there you have it, a calendar, that allows tasks in Thunderbird. Now go play, as I find more stuff I'll post it here.

OK so I feel that all I can acheive in Easy mode is starting to reach its limits, so I'll be looking a bit more into the advanced desktop soon, beginning with a quick walkthrough of the advanced desktop.

Keep checking back for more.

Adding more to your Eee...

2008-02-28T12:26:00.000-08:00

So the Eee comes with a whole heap of pre-installed software, most of its useful, some less so. But inevitably there will be other things you want, more games? specialised software for electronics use? a flowcharter? graphics editing? something better than the pre-installed messenger so you can use MSN? Well theres a whole heap of free software you can use, that can do all these things and more.

Please note I'm showing you how I did things on my Eee, and this is for information only. Should you copy my actions, and screw things then it your fault, I do however reserve the right to point and laugh. However if you do copy what I did, you may well end up with a more useable system.

So how do you get them? Well the first thing to do (if you haven't done this already) is make a backup of simpleui.rc, I did this in the first of a four part tutorial on tweaking the desktop, have a read of the first part, its explained in there. Adding and removing things can result in missing icons from your desktop, so please do this first.

Next if you haven't done it use pimpmyeee to add repositories. I did a how to here. The repositories are collections of extra software, and the ones that pimpmyee adds are all compatible with the Eee.

There are a few methods of getting more stuff, for example:

The Add / Remove programmes. This is a good place to start, but it just seems to add updates for existing software. However you can get the later version of skype, so you can use video chat if you're a 4G/8G owner.
Some of the threads on eeeuser.com will refer to using the apt-get command in the console, this can be useful if you know what youre looking for, but to browse whats available, theres a package just to do this, which leads us on to...
Synaptic, its an installer / uninstaller that you can browse for other programmes.

So simpleui.rc is backed up, and we've added the repositories, so lets begin. We need to run synaptic, so to the console:

Type: Ctrl Alt T
Press: Enter
You'll now be in the console so type: sudo synaptic
Press: Enter

Synaptic will now fire up, it looks like this:

So what can we do with it? There is a help file which is a little long, so a quick tour for familiarization seems to be the way ahead....

The left hand pane lists the relevant categories.

The four buttons below this are:

Sections: divides software up by category (for example Games, Email, Networking etc.
Status: allows you to find updates, things you have yet to install etc.
Search results: used in conjunction with the search icon at the top, this will allow you to find specific packages, if you know what you are looking for.
Custom filters: to be honest I've never used this so far, so I cant tell you much about it!

The right hand two panes are about the actual packages. The top pane is a list of the packages available, this list will depend on the settings selected in the left pane. For example if you select the selections button, and Games and Amusements, you'll get a list of games in the right top pane. Scrolling through the list in the top pane, you'll see all the programmes available. If the radio button next to the package is filled in green, it means this is installed on your Eee already, if its empty, you can install this. Highlighting a programme will bring up a description of the programme, you just clicked on, in the bottom right pane.

Now the icons at the top:

Reload: reloads the list of packages.
Mark all upgrades: If you have anything that can be updated it will be selected to be upgraded.
Apply: makes the changes you select happen, for example clicking 'mark all upgrades' then 'apply' will update everything on your computer.
Properties: gives you the properties of anything highlited in the top right pane.
Search: allows you to find specific packages and programmes, used in conjunction with the search results button.

Now all thats left is the top dropdown most of its straight foreward, but worthy of note is the Settings > Repositories option. Here you can select or de-select which repositories you use. For example some users like to just have the two standard repositories selected all the time, and select the repositories they want when they need them. Personally I prefer to leave them on all the time, so I have full access when I want to use synaptic.

Now that concludes our tour, time to get on with the installing. 2G owners please note you only have 360 Mb of space for this, 4G owners are more lucky you get 1.4Gb, most of the files are relatively small, but be aware of the space constraints for your machine.

OK, have a look through, maybe you want something specific, in which case, the basic principals I'll demonstrate will apply. But lets add a new game, for some fun in those quieter moments.

Select the 'sections' button.
Scroll down to 'Games and amusements', there are 3 to choose from, lets pick the first.
In the right top pane scroll down the list of games.
Have a look at some of the game descriptions, in the lower right pane, and see whats available.
Find something you like the look of, that you want to download.
Right click the item that you want, in the top right pane, and you'll get a list of options.
Select the 'Mark for instalation' option.
If you want more programmes then select those as well.
Then finally click the Apply icon at the top of the screen.
Synaptic will start downloading, and installing.
A quick restart and youre ready to use the programme.

Lets say you installed 3dchess. Now you can either type the name of the file "3dchess" into the console and press enter, this will start the programme. Or edit the simpleui.rc to make an icon in the games tab (plod through the 4 part 'tweaking the desktop' post to find out how to do this).

Its worth noting that some files need to be installed together, usually synaptic will give you a warning, and then add them. Sometimes you need a library file which it wont auto select (don't know why), you can either add these files manually, or cancel, and try something else. As a side note if you know a solution to this, pleas leave a comment, I'd be interested in this myself. Thanks.

Finally if you have software on your Eee that you never use, you can select it like above, but check the 'mark for complete removal' option, this will remove it and free some precious space on your Eee. If at a later date you want it back, you can always add it for instalation.

BTW: If you are looking for that MSN messenger alternative to pidgin, try searching for aMSN

Firefox Add-ons, what I use....

2008-02-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

OK, I've covered making Firefox full screen, and I've found an improvement which I'll tell you more about later.

So first a little bit about Firefox, its truly amazing, as far as web browsers go. If you're used to firefox, then you'll know all of the information in this post already, but if you've moved over from windows, and are actually still using IE on your windows machines then some of this post may well be usefull to you. One of the wonderfull things about firefox is that its very customisable, by adding add-ons.

If you are running windows machines, and still using IE to get on the internet, then I'd highly recommend you download Firefox, and use it. Your system will be a lot more secure. Most hackers look to exploit easy ways in to your system, and IE is full of them. So if you don't use IE, those easy ways into your system won't be available to any hackers. This is not to say that Firefox will cure all problems you should still be using a good anti-virus and security suite (not norton, this will just make things worse, and has been known to damage systems completely).

These fall into 3 categories: Themes, Add-ons and Languages. Themes are just a set of skins to alter the look of Firefox. Languages, I don't think I need to explain this one. Finally of interest to us here are Add-ons, these can make Firefox do all kinds of usefull things (and a few that aren't so useful). So how do you find out about what you have, and what you can get?

In the top toolbar, click Tools > Add-ons, this will open up the Add-ons window. Here you can see whats installed already, and remove anything you don't use. Don't worry adding or removing things here, won't stop Firefox working, but any extra functions the add-ons give you will be removed, if you un-install them. At the bottom is a link for "Get Extensions". Click this and work through the website its straight foreward. However I'll let you know the few I use on my Eee.

All the Add-ons I use on my Eee will work on the windows version of Firefox. So lets have a look at what I use. I'm not trying to make any stupid over exaggerated claims here like its 'essential' or 'I couldn't live without this add-on' that. To be honest firefox is great on its own (and I'd rather have Firefox with no add-ons, than have IE with them any day). These add-ons just add the final polish to your web experience. To install any add-on, click the appropriate download button, follow the install window that will pop up, and then finally after you've downloaded it, and installed, you will be prompted to restart Firefox. when Firefox restarts. Each time you start Firefox, it will check automatically for any updates to the Add-ons for you.

OK so have a look for Tabbrowser preferences. Click on the download link, and restart firefoxThis allows you to control the way your tabs work for example when you open a new tab you can set which web page it will open, for example your home page, or another copy of the web page you are currently using.

To set all this click Edit > Preferences to get the Firefox settings up (this will be Tools > Settings in the windows version of Firefox). Click the 'Tabbed Browsing' section and you'll now get instead of just one window, five new sub-tabs. If you click the user 'interface' sub-tab you can select here what new tabs will do. Its all fairly obvious, but makes Firefox work with tabs the way I like, and thats good enough for me.

OK the next Add-on I use on my Eee is Firesizer. This will make your Eee use a lot easier, as it'll make Firefox rescale to the available window size, so if your launch bar's showing, Firesizer will make it all fit. This also works with Thunderbird as well. At the bottom of the screen you'll see a small figure telling you what size the windows currently running in. So this is great for maximising the screen use on the 7" display.

OK this next one is only of use if you're in the UK, but the principal applies elsewhere in the world. Firefox has a spell checker, but its set up for 'American English', not English, which isn't the best option on a UK Eee. So I've installed the British English dictionary, to make everything work right for a UK Eee. Its not perfect, but at least words like 'colour' get spelled correctly. Seems strange to me Asus didn't install the correct dictionary for the intended region.

Now I said earlier that I've found a way to improve the full screen mode in Firefox. Download Tiny Menu, and you can minimise things further. All the drop down headings in the top toolbar get reduced into a single menu. So your navigation buttons, and such can be shifted up onto the top toolbar, (see the last post for how to do this) and now firefox fits fully on one bar.

Now if youre running XP on your Eee, or have installed firefox on your windows box, there are a couple of add-ons you may well find useful.

IE Tab is an add-on that emulates IE. Why would this be useful, well a few websites don't fully test their pages on different browsers, so sometimes you get the odd glitch that means things look odd in firefox. Switching the tab to IE emulation will correct everything. Unfortunately this add-on dosen't work under Linux.

Finally Foxy tunes will control your media player while you surf, so you can play some music while you surf. Its not a player in itself, more like a remote control with play buttons at the bottom of your firefox window.

Hopefully some of this has given you food for thought.

Firefox Tweaks: The truely full screen Firefox.

2008-02-23T17:28:00.000-08:00

OK, youre using firefox, and you tap f11 for a full screen, but at the top is the toolbar. On a full desktop, thats fine, but when screen space is at a premium you need to make the most. of things......

Thats a screenshot of my Eee using screen capture, showing firefox running in Full, Fullscreen mode, I've not edited it in any way, and I'll show you how I did it to have a web page filling the full screen area...

This is easy to do, though its quicker with a mouse! Which is how I'll describe it, although it can be done with the touch pad, as we all know mouse is king.

OK, go to the top of firefox, hover your mouse over the tool bar, and click the view tab. Then open up the toolbars part of the drop down, check both the toolbar options are selected. Then select customize in the same part of the dropdown. You'll get a new popup window full of icons that can be dragged and dropped into the toolbars. To drag just move the pointer over an icon and use right click held down to move things.

You can also do the same with the navigation, and search bars. So to begin with, move all your icons from the navigation bar to the bookmarks toolbar, leaving your bookmarks to the right. Get rid of the search bar completely into to the popup window, to remove it completely. Now shift the navigation bar, to the right of the "help" drop down on the top toolbar.

Finally going back to the view drop down, in the toolbars section, uncheck the navigation toolbar. The results should look like this:

If you like the theme, its called: Cylence theme 2: Black Edition.

So now if you arrange things using the picture as a guide, you'll get a true full screen.

Pimp your Eee!

2008-02-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

Well thanks to anyone who's been reading, over 1000 hits now and counting!

Anyway the title isn't by mistake, pimpmyee.sh is a handy little script that will help you unlock the full potential of your Eee!

The first thing to do is download pimpmyeee.sh
Save this file in your user directory (the one with lots of folders, including My Documents, and .AsusLauncher we made for desktop editing)
Open up console by pressing Ctrl Alt T
Type sh pimpmyeee.sh
Press Enter

Nows when the fun begins, you'll get a menu pop up in console with the following options:

Enable Full Desktop (KDE)
Enable all codec support
Disable SCIM (Chinese keyboard input option / on by default)
Enable extra repositories (overrides custom repositories)
Install cool Black theme (ThinBlack)
Install cool Mac theme (SmoothyFeelings)
Remove the SOS and Eee PC Tips icons from the Easy Mode toolbar
Add camera on and off scripts

OK, so where to begin? I'll give you a brief rundown on each option, and then offer the order I'd do them (although they can be done in any order!).

Enable Full Desktop (KDE): OK this is one of the really usefull things we can do, this will make your desktop experience a lot closer to windows, by offering a taskbar, a few more packages, and some other neat stuff.
Enable all codec support: Adds extra codecs to allow more media types to be played on your Eee.
Disable SCIM (chinese keyboard input option / on by default): Err, pretty obvious, it takes out the chinese keyboard settings.
Enable extra repositories (overrides custom repositories): Very useful this, it adds the things you need to get more software easily.
Install cool Black theme (ThinBlack): Its a black theme for easy mode, looks really good.
Install cool Mac theme (SmoothyFeelings): Its a mac inspired theme for easy mode.
Remove the SOS and Eee PC Tips icons from the Easy Mode toolbar: In the bottom right corner theres a green and yellow icon, they are help files. This will get rid of them.
Add camera on and off scripts: Allows the camera to be turned on and off with skype (no longer needed with the latest skype updates, and useless if you have a Surf model.)

So my suggestions as to what order to do these menu options? If it asks you questions, like "are you sure you want to do this?" then accept it and let it get on with it.

Number 4 first. This will add repositories, and pin them, so you'll have a wealth of extra software you can download, including more games, and other gizmo's that'll make your Eee run better. This won't add any extra software in itself, you'll just be telling the Eee where to look if you do want something extra.

Next numbers 3 and (optionally) 7 You don't need Chinese keyboard settings (unless you have a Chinese Eee), and unless you feel dependent on the help/SOS stuff, then they're not really all that usefull to you. And I'd suggest if you still need the help files, that following this how-to is probably a bit advanced for you at the moment.

If you want a theme, then pick 5 or 6, otherwise skip this step. Personally I think the Black theme is very smart, and a big improvement over the standard settings.

Now run through option 2 to install the codecs, if you want them, otherwise skip this step. This one looks a little odd in operation as it wants to downgrade Mplayer, but an earlier version of the player allows DVD playback with an external DVD as well as playback of a few extra media formats. So when it asks if you want to do this then accept it, and let it get on with things.

Finally choose option 1 to get the full desktop. This is not irreversible as a change, instead its something that you swap between by selecting the shutdown window (press the power button), where you will get an extra icon tom make the switch. There is a lot more you can change in full desktop mode (also refered to as the advanced desktop)

OK, so now save and restart to give things a try, particularly that nice new desktop layout, if youre used to windows, you may well feel at more home here:

OK next time there will be a "short" tutorial on adding stuff!

Fixing my network

2008-02-23T14:55:00.000-08:00

Since I got my Eee over a month ago I've been able to get things the way I want, but I haven't been able to get updates to work properly. When I tried using apt-get to find updates or using synaptic to get updates, it didn't work properly, I was just getting a selection of error messages.

This wasn't good because to unlock the full functionality of the Eee, you need to get certain updates.

Eventually I'd tracked the issue down to a DNS issue. Its not as much of a problem as it sounds, but it did need sorting out.

So heres the work round if you have similar problems....

Open the network tab
Open Network
Open properties
Open the DNS tab
Click 'override server provided DNS'
Enter the following DNS figures in the two boxes:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Click OK
It'll ask you to restart the connection, click OK

This will allow the DNS settings to connect to a third party DNS called OpenDNS. This allows connections to be resolved, and consequently updates can now be got.

Hope this helps someone!

Because of this, look foreward to some upcomming posts on unlocking the full desktop, getting updates and installing new software!

The futures bright!

This blogger needs your feedback....

2008-02-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

OK I've been doing this blog for over a month now. The hit counter keeps increasing day by day (I'm well on the way to 1000 hits). Yet I really don't know what readers think of this blog.

Tell me what you like about it.
Tell me what you don't like about it.
Have you any suggestions about how to improve it?
Do you think the entries are too long, or are they OK?

Don't be afraid to be brutaly honest, I've got a thick skin.

Tweaking the desktop.... (part 4)

2008-02-22T04:34:00.000-08:00

OK the final installment of this guide on desktop editing, the previous parts 1 2 & 3 I've covered the basics, theres only a few things left to cover

So whats left?

We can edit the desktop, to our own needs effectively now, but its quite large, so how can it be pruned back?

Yes! Those extra {name} lines refer to what the icons will be called in other languages. Asus place these in so when they ship the Eee to other countries the icons will be re-named in the correct language and spelling. The lang="en" part refers to English, so all the other lang="xx" lines can be removed. If you updated your Eee you will find about a dozen different languages, which makes the simpleui.rc quite a long file to sift through. The same goes for any {desc} that aren't in English.

Next look at the way you use your Eee. Do you really need an AOL email link? Do you only use Thunderbird and never touch PIM? If there is junk that you simply never use, then pull its entry, no need to go crazy, but AOL is junk to me, so I pulled it, yet I left potato guy in place. Tailer the simpleui.rc to your needs, and you're Eee will become much more intuitive to the way you work.

Now as the last step I'm going to propose a small project for you, editing the simpleui.rc that will:

Make a folder under the settings tab, called Desktop Maint.
Move the 'Menu Edit' icon we made in part to this new folder.
Make a new entry in this folder to allow us to edit the icons and backgrounds.
Move the existing 'Desktop settings' and 'Personalisation' icons from the settings tab to the new folder.

This will give you all the elements you need to modify your desktop in one folder under the settings tab. Its entirely up to you if you do this, but it'll give you everything you need in one place.

Have a try doing it yourself first, this should be quite easy for you now.

Firstly copy a folder entry and paste it in as the last folder entry, so it can be edited. Pick a _norm and _hi Icon you want, change the name and ID to "Desktop Maint". Save and restart. You should have a usable folder in the settings now.

Next find the entries for: 'Menu edit', 'Desktop managment', and 'Personalisation'. Change the {simplecat} entries to Settings/Desktop Maint for each. Save and re-start. There will now be three icons in your new folder.

Finaly we are going make one more icon, to use MTPaint under root permissions so we can easily edit backgrounds or icons. Start by copying and pasting the 'Menu Edit' {packet} so you have the 2 entries next to each other. The {simplecat} entry will already be correct, so the first thing to modify is the {extraarg} section.

extraargs="/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/kwrite home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc"

The "/usr/bin/sudo" part is the same as typing "sudo" in the console to give us root permissions.
The "/usr/bin/kwrite" tells the OS to open KWrite
And "home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc" tells KWrite what to open.

So in essence the {extraargs} tells the OS to open the simpleui.rc in KWrite with root user privileges.

This means modifying this line to something like:

extraargs="/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/mtpaint"

Will get MTPaint to open with root user privileges. Root user privileges means we can save the file, if you don't sue root user, you will not be able to save. Now change the icon of one of your liking, and rename it to something like "Icon Edit". Save and restart.

Now if you want to modify your desktop, you'll have everything you need in one place.

There is one final thing you may want to add, and thats weblinks dierct from the desktop. Lets look at the Gmail {extraargs}:

extraargs="/opt/firefox/firefox http://gmail.google.com"

It must be obvious that cutting and pasting a new weblink in here will give us a icon that links straight into a specific webpage.

And thats it, you should now know everything you need to know about changing the simpleui.rc, to modify your desktop. But if you take away one thing from these entries, its remember to backup the simpleui.rc file each time you make a change.

Tweaking the desktop.... (part 3)

2008-02-20T18:10:00.000-08:00

So the basics of editing the desktop are there, from part 1 and part 2 of this tutorial. Now lets look at a few more slightly advanced things that can be done. I wont be describing too much code input here, as thats covered in the previous two entries on this subject. And besides if you own an Eee, you will be super intelligent, so you should be able to figure it out!.

Firstly the favorites tab is designed to be customisable to your needs, so why does this not come up as the default tab?

Want to make it so?

Open up simpleui.rc, you'll see that after the {backgroundimage} script that comes first, you find the six {simplecat} scripts, these are the tabs at the top of the screen. Find the favorites {simplecat} and highlight the lot, cut it and paste it as the first {simplecat}, between the {backgroundimage} script and the internet {simplecat} script.

Save and restart and you'll find your Eee opening up straight into favorites, along with your most commonly used icons. This also follows on the {packets}, meaning that you can change the order of things by moving the applicable section of script to where you want it.

Again the "name" part will change the {simplecat} name on the screen. To see what I mean, if you look at my post on altering the backgrounds you'll see I've renamed the "Internet" tab to "Net", as well as the repositioned Favorites tab. This is a personal choice, but shows that the desktop is very customisable to personal tastes.

So we can see that there is a hierarchy in these script entries which is:

{backgroundimage} this is the basics of the desktop layout, when I get that far, I'll describe altering this in a later thread. For the moment I'll leave this alone.
{simplecat} these are the tabs at the top of the desktop.
{folder} these are the popup extra menus, for example the games are all held in a folder. I'll talk more about these later.
{packet} these are the individual programmes, or weblinks that each have their own icon.

The position of each individual packet folder or tab in simpleui.rc will determine the position on the screen, as demonstrated above when I moved the favorites tab.

It can also bee seen that there are certain common elements to each level of entry, each being editable to make your desktop your own custom layout:

Icon: the icon that is seen on the screen (see previous post for more details).
Name: what the item is labeled as on the screen.
Simplecat: which tab an item is found in.
Shortcut: where a file is located, used in packets.
Extraarg: these should be looked at as entries in the console, they can open programmes in sudo mode, or they can make things happen like make Firefox open specific pages.
ID: used in folders to name them, (see below).
Desc: seems to be a brief description of what the packet does, If you know better, please leave a comment.

{extraargs} the following is a quote from the Eeeuser.com WIKI it seems to explain it well enough:

Note that here 'extraargs=”.. ..” ' is used. This seems to process what follows it as if typed into a command line. All references must be from root, as above, i.e. /usr/bin/sudo instead of just sudo. In contrast, some entries use 'shortcut=”.. ..” ', this is for when the application in question has an entry in /usr/share/applications/ . If this is the case the the command to use is 'shortcut=“appname.desktop”'.

The next thing to cover is folders, instead of a {shortcut} or {extraargs}, they have an {ID}, this is the name of the folder and should usually be the same as the {name}. Copying an existing folder, it should be relatively easy by now to edit this to produce a new folder.

When you wish to move a {packet} to show up in a {folder}, change its {simplecat} entry to the format: {simplecat/folder} for example play/games if you want a {packet} to show up in the games tab.

Finally I need to cover missing icons. Certain updates from Asus will rewrite simpleui.rc meaning icons can simply dissapear. Yes its bad, but not difficult to repair. Simply open up one of those backup simpleui.rc's you made, and copy the entire {packet} from the missing icon, straight into the working simpleui.rc file, replacing the altered script.

If you made your backups after the Icons went missing, then Eeeuser.com has a copy of the origional simpleui.rc HERE! You can use this to cut and paste known good scrips into your working simpleui.rc file. This will restore each icon back to its origional settings, which are known to work.

A good example of this happening is when you update Skype to 2.0, suddenly the ebook reader, web learning and wiki icons disappear after a restart. This happened to me, and eventually I restored them; which in turn lead to me starting these series of posts, as I learned more about editing simpleui.rc

This in turn lead to me learning about customisation of the desktop, which is much more fun.

By now you'll have a good idea of how to modify the simpleui.rc, but in the final part of this tutorial, I'll be covering pruning back the simpleui.rc to make it shorter, and how to add extra files/icons to the desktop.

Tweaking the desktop.... (part 2)

2008-02-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

This follows on from a previous post on my blog, so if you missed it, please read it if you actually want to go ahead an implement some of the stuff I'll be discussing in this entry (it wont work unless you do!).

OK, so you'll need to refer to 2 sections of the Eeeuser wiki before going any further:

The first link is a copy of the original simpleui.rc file, this is important if like me you updated your Eee, and lost some of the icons. Sections of this can be cut and pasted into the working simpleui.rc file to get functionality restored. Have a good look at this in conjunction with the next link to get a feel for how simpleui.rc is constructed, its all easy to work out how to modify.
The second link is a brief rundown on the make up of the simpleui.rc file, basic modification etc. Read this a couple of times, although the first part on backing up the simpleui.rc has been covered in the first part of this entry (see linky in the first line)

OK now you have the links, you've read them both a few times, lets look at your options for editing the simpleui.rc file.

So, get your sleeves rolled up, and get cracking.

Lets look at how to recover from any problems you may cause from editing simpleui.rc just in case!

Open the console press: Ctrl Alt T
Type: sudo kwrite
Press Enter.

Now you'll be able to get the text editor open, and load the simpleui.rc.backup file, save this as simple.ui, overwriting the existing file that we made in the previous part of this post, and restart your Eee.

Its that easy, so now you can have some confidence to get up and editing, without causing any damage to your lovely Xandros OS.

Its that easy, so have no fear.

So now for our first alteration, this will place a nice little icon in the favorites tab to allow you to modify the simpleui.rc file when you want instead of keep going through various packages to modify the same file. While it may look similar to the script in the second wiki entry, I've slightly modified it to open the file we want to modify.

Open the console press: Ctrl Alt T
Type: sudo kwrite
Press Enter. (regognise this?)

Now open the simpleui.rc file we created in the /home/user/.AsusLauncher/ folder.

(Please note that blogger will not allow me to use this type of parenthesis: <, so I've had to use these type of parenthesis: { please re substitute the >'s where appropriate in any scripts, if youre not sure, refer to the rest of the simpleui.rc and it should all become clear)

Scroll all the way to the bottom of simpleui.rc, and add the following lines by cutting and pasting just before the very last line, leaving a line gap for clarity:

{parcel simplecat="Favorites" extraargs="/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/kwrite 	/home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc"

	icon="asus_norm.png"

	selected_icon="asus_hi.png" }

	{name lang="en"}Menu Edit{/name}

{/parcel}

Now, save the file and re-start your Eee. Miss out the save and your changes won't happen. Any changes made will not happen untill you restart your machine.

When your Eee fires up, go to the Favorites tab, and there will be a new icon called Menu Edit. Click this and you'll find you go straight into simpleui.rc.

Now lets look at the lines of script we just added:

{parcel simplecat="Favorites" extraargs="/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/kwrite 	/home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc"

Change the "Favorites" (leave the rest alone in this line) to the name of any of the tabs eg. "Settings" or "Work" and the tab that your new icon is in will change wherever you want it.

```
icon="asus_norm.png"
```

```
selected_icon="asus_hi.png" }
```

If you read my last entry on changing backgrounds, and have a root round the folder with the wallpapers, you'll find a lot of .png files using the preview function, you will see there are a lot of icons from the desktop. Change the asus_norm.png in this line of script to any of those other .png files that you like will change the Icon to one you prefer.

The second line is another icon that can be changed, but the _hi part refers to which icon pops up when the mouse hovers over it, prior to clicking on it. Its a subtle difference, but if you change the background you may well wish to edit the _hi version to suit your new theme.

```
{name lang="en"}Menu Edit{/name}
```

Easy this one, change "Menu Edit" and you've changed the title under the Icon.

Make your changes, and save, now restart and admire your handywork. Test your handywork, did it work as you wanted?

Hopefully it did, and if it did, re-save the simpleui.rc as simpleui.rc.backup. The backup part can be changed for whatever you like, for example backup1. So you have a copy of your latest changes to put back in place if Asus make any changes without asking you, or you make a new edit, and mess things up. Remember if this happens you can follow my previous instructions to get back to the way things were.

Did things go wrong? Just follow my previous instructions, and re-instate your backup, and try again, after having a re-read of all the available info.

So now you can move icons round between tabs, change their names, for example I renamed the web browser to "Firefox", and "Mail" to "Thunderbird"

Thats it for part 2, more will follow in the next part, like moving the tabs round, re-instating lost icons after updates and more......

Desktop background tweaks

2008-02-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

Having a black Eee, I wanted complimentary backgrounds in my efforts to customise the menus.

OK so after a bit of searching I've found the wall papers hide in the following folder: /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher

Now there are 2 things we need to look at, namely:

What desktop theme you're using, will determine what file name you need:

Silver becomes 'Business'
Green becomes 'Student'
Sunset becomes 'Home'
Blue becomes 'Accessibility'

The tab background you wish to change:

The Favorites and Internet tabs are called internet_wallpaper.jpg
The Work tab is called work_wallpaper.jpg
The Learn tab is called learn_wallpaper.jpg
The Play tab is called play_wallpaper.jpg
The Settings tab is called settings_wallpaper.jpg

We put these together to make the full file name, so for example to change:

A silver themed Eee's Play tab, the file name will be: buisness_play_wallpaper.jpg
A sunset themed Eee's Work tab, the file name will be: home_work_wallpaper.jpg
A blue themed Eee's Learn tab, the file name will be: accessibility_learn_wallpaper.jpg

Hopefully you get the idea how the files are named now, so lets move on to play with them. I wanted to keep my silver theme, but invert the desktop backgrounds to make them compliment the stealth black chassis of my Eee. So heres how I did it......

Open the console by pressing Ctrl Alt T
Type: sudo mtpaint

MTpaint will now open, with full access rights (if you open it through the tabs, you will not be able to save your work). I then clicked at the top to open a file, moved to the folder: /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher

Next I opened the file: business_learn_wallpaper.jpg this you will recognize as the Learn tab background.

At the top click the Effects tab, and then invert on the drop down, then click Save.

Repeat the last two steps to invert the Internet, Play, Settings and Work tabs.

Obviously if you've chosen an Eee, you'll be highly intelligent, and no fashion victim, so unlike the average Mac or PC owner so you'll realise that you could create your own backgrounds, and save them for a truly one off desktop. Personally I like the stock look, thats a complimentary match to my Eee.

If you want your own custom backgrounds, just make sure they're scaled to 800 pixels wide, and 448 pixels high before you save it.

So how do you like my handywork?

Note the Favorites tab has moved location, and the Internet tab has had its name shortened (which I'll be explaining how to do in my next post on Desktop Tweaks).

Also from a previous posting, the new Digital TV icon in there.

Tweaking the desktop.... (part 1)

2008-02-19T15:47:00.000-08:00

OK, so the stock desktop is good, but it could be better.

For example, there is more than one email client, yet I only use Thunderbird. Most of the programmes I use day to day are now happily located in the favorites tab, yet the Eee always goes to Internet first. The wallpapers are not to my personal taste.

So how is it possible to change any of this, and more to enable you to get the desktop you like?

The first thing you'll need to do is make a backup of the file called simpleui.rc that holds all the wonderful editable stuff that allows you to make your Eee a bit more personal.

To the console....

Press: Ctrl, Alt, T to open up the console.

Type (as one line): mkdir /home/user/.AsusLauncher

Press: Enter, this this will make a folder that is will run simpleui.rc, yet leave it editable, which is what we want. If you get a message telling you this folder exists already, then dont worry, its OK! it means the folder's there already, just carry on.

sudo cp /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc /home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc

Press: Enter, this means you now have a copy of the file in a usable location, where you can edit it, without causing any major problems with your OS.

Type (as one line): sudo cp /home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc /home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc.backup

Press: Enter, you now have a backup of simpleui.rc the stuff is now in place to

Here ends lesson 1, in the next few parts of this thread, I'll be showing some basic editing of simpleui.rc to get things how you like them. Plus if you've updated, and lost the ebook reader, web learning or other icons, how to restore them.

So keep looking back here for more updates...

Tweaking thunderbirds date settings

2008-02-19T05:29:00.001-08:00

Thunderbird, one of the more genuinely useful applications in the Eee's suite of pre-loaded aplications.

Afterall the whole point of such a small light laptop with wifi included is to use the net on the move. Checking email on the move is a really usefull capability in any small device, but PDA's and 'smart phones' cant really handle emails with pictures very well, which is where the Eee comes in.

But theres a problem.....

I live in the UK, which means we do things the right way, we build our houses out of brick or stone, we drive on the left, we call sports shoes 'trainers', we call football 'football' and not 'soccer', and we write our dates correctly.

Now as far as dates go, the UK Eee comes setup for one of our old colonies, which means dates are laid out as follows : MM/DD/YYYY.

But I live in the UK, which means Dates should be laid out in the proper format: DD/MM/YYYY.

Its a conundrum, that i was wanting solved, and i've found out how to do it, so I'll let you all know how to sort your dates out into the correct format.....

Press Ctrl Alt T, to open the console.
Type : sudo kwrite /etc/locale.gen
Press enter
this will open up Kwrite to edit a file called locale.gen
At the bottom you'll find three lines:

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

zh_CN.UTF-8 UTF-8

zh_TW.UTF-8 UTF-8

Before en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 add a new line:

en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8

So now you get:

en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

zh_CN.UTF-8 UTF-8

zh_TW.UTF-8 UTF-8

Click the file tab, then click save, then close Kwrite
Back in the console type: "sudo update-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF8" (all one line)
Press Enter
Close console, and do a re-start

The Eee will now be setup with UK localised settings, so thunderbird, and any other packages that show the date, will now show the date correctly.

Wasn't that easy?

Now you can go and make a cup of tea and toast some crumpets, or and go play some cricket on the village green, Huzzah!

Nintendo advertising.....

2008-02-17T09:10:00.000-08:00

Time for quick rant....

I have to be honest; I'm something of a closet geek.

Of this I'm not embarrassed, I don't care that some people will see it as excessive that I have in my house 4 different working computers each with a different primary OS (and 2 non working computers!). I like using sat-nav (my third system) when I go out, even if it means taking the odd detour. I've installed several 'useful' gadgets in my car, merely because I can. And for full control of my media setup at home I have 7 different remotes, plus a universal one that works everything (when i can find it).

The truth is I'm a true believer when it comes to the bright new world of tomorrow, when robots will do everything for us, cars will glide round on autopilot, taking us where ever we need to go, and life will be easier, more serene and happier for everyone. After all when I watched 'I Robot,' I found the whole murder mystery plot got in the way of what for me was the really interesting story; what the world of tomorrow will hold for us, those shiny androids with their laws of robotics hardwired into their basic programming.

And in keeping with many geeks, I own a console for recreational use; my own console is a Nintendo Wii. The Wii isn’t really all that geeky in itself, being based on a re-packaged game cube, which wasn’t too ground breaking itself. But I love the motion control handsets, which still feel quite futuristic in my head. The Wii does have big problem though...

There has still to be a true killer game released, the BBC-B had Elite (ask your dad if you are puzzled) the SNES had Street fighter II, the Sega mega drive had Sonic, and the Playstation had a barrage of games each of these titles helped sell the machine they were running on. As times moved on Halo sold the X Box, and now we get to today. The Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 have all yet to have a genuinely new title, so good that help will push up the sales up on the consoles. To my mind (and not because I own one) the Wii has the best potential to achieve this, because of its method of control.

Sony dropped a clanger by using easily scratched blu-ray discs on the PS3 and expecting people to pay vast sums of cash for what’s just basically a games console, they have effectively admitted this by releasing the new 40 Gb cut down model. Now some software developers admit they are now easing off on writing for PS3, because of the flagging console sales. This has left Microsoft to clear up on the hard core couch potato (gamers) market , for software developers its easier to develop for Xbox 360 and PC because they’re very similar in the way they’re written, but the big titles have been sequals to Halo, so nothing new there.

But for all of us that would prefer to play games as a family, and have fun; the Wii was a stroke of genius. From 8 to 80 most people can be up and playing in minutes with a Wii. The much criticised low spec graphics have been dealt with very effectively, by simply making all the graphics cartoon like. And one of my favourite games that doesn’t go by the cartoon graphics route: Resident Evil 4, it may well be a game cube game re-hashed to take advantage of the Wiimote; but for someone like me who grew up playing Frak, Mr.Eee and Elite on the BBC B, the graphics are great.

My feeling is that people have become a bit spoiled these days, and magazines suggesting that no real PC has just one graphics card and ‘only’ 2 processors aren’t helping things.

So let’s assume that you subscribe to my theory that the Wii is still waiting for that killer game, which will help sell the Wii (personally I’d love it if Lego Indiana Jones was that game!) You’ll probably be keeping an eye on the releases Nintendo and others are pushing out; they have after all pushed out some dull games for the Wii and DS, like Wii play (only worthwhile because it came with a Wiimote) Big Catch Bass fishing (a fishing video game, sounds like fun?) and Cooking Mama. Cooking Mama was a poorly executed game, that after a couple of goes, you realise it’s just repetition of the same thing; even small kids find it boring (check the reviews on Amazon!).

Why is Cooking Mama on my mind at the moment? Because Cooking Mama 2 is coming out. Nintendo are selling it (here in the UK at least) as the follow on to the number one, best selling cooking game of all time....

Now let’s think about this, how many other cooking games can you name.....?

I know it’s a small thing, but last summer Nintendo were selling Pippa Funnel 2 (kind of a weird hybrid of a tamogotchi and horse ownership all rolled into a DS game, which was about as exciting as it sounds) as the follow on to the number one, best selling horse game of all time.

Once again, name me another ‘best selling horse game’.

I don’t know if Nintendo are running out of ideas, but they need to get to grips with shifting some quality titles, instead of re-hashing old titles and selling Big catch bass fishing 2 as the sequel to the ‘best selling number one fishing game’ Nintendo's advertisment company need sacking, and spend the advertising budget on game development.

Currently the uniqueness of the Wii and the almost visionary control methods, to me seem to be hampered by the backup of the games. Given the right titles the Wii could be made into so much more.

XP running from an external HDD...

2008-02-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

I haven't given up on the idea on getting XP running from my external HDD, and finally managed it. The following info, while not difficult is not aimed at beginners, some familiarty with using computers and Nero will be needed. Heres roughly how i did it (if you're actually attempting this, then its up to you to figure any problems out on the way). My install disc was XP home (this will work with XPpro), pre-service packs, so it was time to get it all running.

Its worth explaining at this point that when XP was released in 2002, that it was inconceivable that devices like USB flash drives offering 32Gb, or even 64Gb would be readily available, and a whole Terra Byte being available on a USB external HDD was science fiction! These days however, such devices are very real, and a laptop of the spec of the Eee for under £1000 would be crazy talk. So with all this cheap, readily available technology, we have to make XP work in a way thats usable to us by making it possible to install onto those cheap USB devices.

Firstly I needed to get SP2 in there (if you have a SP2 disc, then just do the part about pulling it from your CD and sticking it onto your hard disc, then skip the rest of this paragraph!), so I started by downloading the full XP SP2 from Microsoft. Its 266Mb in size, so if youre on dial up, then this may take some time! Then precede to follow this article on slipstreaming SP2 into your older XP install disc. As soon as it starts to talk about re-burning the files back to disc, then stop there for the moment.

The next stage is to get the install disc to allow installation onto a USB device. Have a look here, its the original and best set of instructions for doing this type of file manipulation. The procedure is relatively simple, basicly opening up a couple of cab files, cutting and pasting lines of instruction sets in several files in those cabs, and then remaking the Cab files with your newly manipulated files.

Now you have a set of files from the install CD that will now offer SP2, and the ability to install onto a USB device. Its time to get all those files back onto a CD. So we go back to the first article, and start from step 4 to allow us to rebuild the files into a usable bootable CD.

If you've managed to get it all repackaged, its time to prep your external HDD. A quick tweak of the BIOS and it was time to try again!

I chose to make a 10Gb active partition for booting into. I then went ahead and started a fresh install from my new external DVD writer to the external HDD. After a short while it all went in ok. If I boot from the external HDD each time, it installs straight away, with no problems. If I don't connect it goes straight into Xandros from the SSD. If i want to boot back to XP i merely have to swap boot disc priority in the BIOS and off I go. The final step was to install the XP drivers from the supplied DVD that comes with the Eee.

I'd reccomend using google to read as much as possible to get as much background info as possible prior to commencing. Hopefully what i've explained here, plus the excellent 'how-tos' will enable you to get everything running ok.

TV on the Eee...

2008-02-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

I've been away on some 'staff training' for a few days, (this being the reason for the time gap since my last entry.) However I've passed 500 views on the site, so everyone that comes back to read from time to time, thanks for visiting my blog.

So, for traveling with work, I've got hold of a DVB-T tuner made by Asus (hereafter to be known as 'the stick').

The reason for choosing this tuner wasn't to match the Eee (although if you had a white one, It'd certainly look like its supposed to go with it).

No there were 2 reasons:

In this thread, a lot of people rate this stick for working with Xandros (the drivers are written specificly for the Eee)
Its cheap!

So after ordering it from Ebuyer (which apparently they've just reduced by £3.54) I waited for D-Day (delivery day!).

Firstly after arrival, I installed it into my main laptop (runs vista), just to check it'd run ok under windows. No problems with this in itself, however the aerial supplied, is another matter. To be blunt its crap! The stick and areial uses a connector thats specific , and also included is a short patch lead that connects to a standard aerial connector.

No picture signal so far on the supplied aerial. So I hooked up to my roof aerial, and re-scanned for channels. Bingo, more selection than my regular decoder gets, and better picture!

So far so good, on vista, with a good aerial, now to try with the Eee. Following the instructions on the thread I mentioned above, and a wee spot of downloading, with some tinkering, I got the Xandros drivers installed. Following a reboot up pops a 'Digital TV' icon under the play tab.

RESULT! Now opening up the DigiTV icon, It jumped straight to a channel scan. Once again finding a good selection of channels, with a clear picture. Still the supplied aerial was useless, however its a start, now to look for a better aerial!

I'm sure in a stronger signal area the supplied aerial will work better, but a lot of people who think they should post a customer review on the likes of amazon, mark these units down for having poor reception, on the supplied aerial. These people must be a bit simple thinking a 12" omnidirectional rod will get as good a signal, as plugging in to a roof mounted aerial.

In general I'm happy with this stick, but I'll be looking for a better aerial, and maybe a remote as an option would be nice.

Lets accessorise....

2008-01-31T07:47:00.000-08:00

OK I've come to a stand still with the XP install. So why am I so interested in an XP install?

The stock Xandros Linux OS is really good if you want to use the packages that come with it, this is where it excels, write a small document, keep your spreadsheet up to date, play a few simple games, and with WiFi you can use the internet, check email, and generally dick about online. And I do love all this about the Eee.

BUT, Linux is not user friendly if you want to do other things, such as install software to tailor the system to your own needs, and a lot of USB devices don't readily run under Linux (TV tuner stick?).

However windows XP is fairly universal for compatibility, and getting extra software is just a question of clicking and downloading. On top of all this I'm already fairly proficient with windows, so to get the most out of of the Eee, I'd like to get XP to install, hopefully on to an SD card.

Time to accessorise my Eee, and buy some stuff to attempt installing XP again. So what did I buy?

Well I'd already got hold of a Case Logic case to keep it all together, Its meant for keeping those enormous external hard drives in, but the Eee fits in a treat, along with room to fit plenty of accessories, such as my small external HDD fits in an internal pocket.

Next on the list was a Samsung SE-204N external DVD writer from Aria. Its got lightscribe, does multiformat, and dual layer burning. This will enable me to play DVD's and CD's on the Eee, turning it into a mobile media centre. I'm hoping it will fit in the case I've already got, I'll let you know when it arrives, plus a few photos to show what its all like.

Also, a powered USB 2.0 hub, with 4 powered sockets, Ideal for keeping everything running smoothly.

Finally a few extra storage sloutions. A 4Gb Kingston class 4 SDHC card, the class 4 relates to transfer speed (class 6 being quicker), however as a spot of extra storage it should be fine. I'm now thinking this could be used as a XP boot media.

It must be noted that not all SDHC cards are compatible with the Eee, so its worth checking the Eeeuser wiki for which devices are known to be working devices (particularly if you are running the Xandros Linux that runs on stock Eee's).

Next, just as an alternative, and to allow me to swap and test things, I've also ordered a 4Gb USB flash drive.

I have read a few comments from non Eee users questioning the suitability of using the Eee with windows XP. Its worth noting that Microsoft state that the bare minimum system requirements for XP are:

233 Mhz processor (300 Mhz recommended)
64 Mb Ram (128 Mb recommended)
800x600 display
1.5 Gb storage
CD or DVD drive

So if I were able to get XP booting from the SDHC card, then my Eee would have the following specs:

900 Mhz Intel Celeron
2 Gb of DDR2 memory
1024x768 Click the link for further details!
168 Gb storage (with my portable Hdd plugged in.
DVD +/- RW dual layer lightscribe drive.

So it becomes obvious that the Eee is idealy suited to running XP on the move. All the bits and pieces i have on order, will mean I should have a usefull system thats ultra portable, and adaptable to my needs and available space on the move.

XP on its way!

2008-01-28T16:45:00.000-08:00

This is only a short update to let anyone that reads this blog, that I haven't abandoned it, I'm trying to arrange a copy of Windows XP that will boot from a partition of my WD Passport HDD.

This would allow me to run a complete version of XP with page file and all the other things that Asus advise are removed, on an Eee install.

To acheive this I've had to learn several new techniques, such as slipstreaming SP2 into my XP install, modifying some of the cab files to allow XP to install into a USB drive. Each of these techniques I've had to research on the internet and ended up combining several 'how to' guides to make a custom install, some of this has been successful, some has not.

So at the moment, I've been a bit busy in my off time trying to figure this all out. As a test rig I've removed the hard drive from my windows laptop; partly so XP's install doesn't get confused and try formating my vista install, also partly to ensure things are simplified for the BIOS on boot.

So far I'm having problems with NTLDR, meaning that I need a USB key with a seperate bootloader setup, to force the Passport drive to boot...

Yes it sounds a bit geeky, and it probably is, but if i ever get it working, then rest assured that the write up on how I did it will follow shortly after.

Site updates

2008-01-24T12:18:00.001-08:00

20/01/08 Started the blog, initial layout established
24/01/08 Added a hit counter....
20/02/08 Added news feed from Eeeuser.com

Mod #2 More memory (and a how to)

2008-01-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

Time for my first entry thats slightly more technical, and it may be a longish one!

Ok so the standard 512Mb is ok for day to day running, the OS has been tweaked to be perfect for the standard hardware. Everything runs smoothly, and if it were not upgradeable, then I'd be perfectly happy using the Eee the way those clever folks at Asus intended.

But it is upgradeable (depending on which Eee you own)....

So I got onto play.com and ordered 2Gb of memory (they had some half price with free delivery), as my first full upgrade. The memory is standard laptop memory, but if you need to know what type to order, then you want to look for memory with the following spec:

1Gb or 2Gb depending on what you want to upgrade to, and your budget
DDR2 667MHz (PC5300)
200 pin SODIMM.

OK, so before I tell you how I did it, I need explain upgrade options depending on what model Eee you have.

2G surf: Sorry you cant upgrade, although there is 512Mb of memory, its soldered directly on to the motherboard, and is not replaceable, plus there is no access cover underneath.

4G surf: The memory is socketed, and its replaceable. However there may not be the memory access panel detailed in my how to (some models have the 2G lower casing). If the cover is not there, then you'll have to strip your Eee down to do the upgrade. If you have the cover, then its easy to do.

4G & 8G: Easy peasy, these will be the same as mine, so just follow the guide. Remember though that 8G machines already have 1Gb of memory, so it only makes sense to upgrade the 8G to 2Gb.

QUICK DISCLAIMER:
All I'm showing here, is how I did mine, and I'm presenting it purely as an interest piece. Should you choose to follow the steps that I show here, and you screw things up, then tough titty for you fish face. I accept no responsibility for your screw up, and subsequent costs incurred. However I do reserve the right to laugh and point at you in an amused fashion.

Of course if you decided to ignore this advice, and follow the way i did things, and nothing went wrong, then have fun with your uprated Eee.

OK I used a small cross point screwdriver, that was the only tool I needed.

Firstly, I turned off my Eee
I removed the Battery, and disconected the charger.
Then I flipped the Eee over, and rested it on something that wont scratch the surface such as a sheet of paper or a tea towel.
Now the access door is apparent (its the only door on the base, and is secured with 2 small screws.If there is a small yellow sticker stating warranty will be voided, ignore it. Asus have stated that breaking this seal will not void your warranty (read this).

I undid those 2 screws, removed the access door, and there was the memory module. look at each side of the memory module, and you'll see 2 white arms with metal ends. these are the retaining clips. What I did was gently prize these apart, and the memory module raises up slightly.

Next I gentaly lifted up and out of its socket the memory module.
My new module can be placed into the socket where the old one came out of. Note that there is a notch in the contacts of the module, so it can only be fitted one way round.
I made sure that the contacts are properly seated in the socket and pressed gentaly down to engage the two retaining clips.

Time to replace the cover, replace the 2 screws.
I stuck the battery back in, and fired her up, pressing f2 to go into the BIOS. Here I was able to confirm that my Eee was seeing the new memory, then I pressed Esc to quit without altering anything. I am quite happy to go into the BIOS and adjust things; I personally would never recommend anyone go in the BIOS unless they are familiar with using BIOSes.
My pressing Esc in the BIOS will make the Eee boot up, going into the "settings" Tab, and opening "Diagnostic Tools" allowed me to confirm the upgrade had worked:

OK so what differences have I personally noticed?

A slight decrease in time to boot
Slightly quicker to find my WiFi, and get on the net.
Opening 3 or 4 programs at once is definitely quicker.
Firefox downloads pages quicker.

Ok so none of these are major things, but the memory cost £28, which isn't really much at all for a quicker system. It should be noted that Xandros can only access the first 1Gb of the memory. If I decide to install XP as a second OS, then that will definitely be able to make full use of it, (which is at the back of my mind as a future project).

Thats enough typing for now, although I'm getting used to this smaller keyboard finally, and my regular Windows laptop's keyboard feels massive now.

Second generation Eee, What I'd like.

2008-01-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

OK, after trying and evaluating the Eee for a while now, I know what changes I'd like to see in the next version of the Eee. Its already announced the new model will have a 9" screen which is no bad thing, but what else would I like to see?

What should stay the same as the current model?

Keep the OS and menu system as well as the supplied software the same. Its good, it works, Its stable. Although, maybe some form of easy installer for the noob to add software they want.

The speakers and the mic are great, don't go messing with them.

The size and weight should stay about the same, taking into account any styling changes that may come in, even the keyboard can stay the same, although its small, its still useable, and the keyboards small size is one of the reasons the Eee is so small.

What should be improved? (purely on the 4G and 8G model replacements)

Up the standard memory to 1Gb, but keep it socketed so it can be upgraded to

Bluetooth should be built in.

Increase the webcam to something better than the current 0.3Mpixel model

Extra storage sizes available in the solid state drives (16G, 32G or even 64G models?) and make them socketed, so you can upgrade them.

Get a faster CPU in there.

More battery life please.

Larger touch pad.

Anything else?

Offer a proper car battery charger, for charging on the move.

How about an optional docking station that powers from the standard charger, has a built in slimline DVD writer, room for a laptop HDD.

Maybe an extra USB socket

802.11n wireless

Optional touch screen, or how about ditching the keyboard altogether and making an Eee tablet PC?

An SDHC card reader that works with all makes of card.

Wireless USB

Optional death ray?

Mod #1 Scooby dooby doo!

2008-01-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

A wee spot of personalization was needed for the Eee,

and so I went a hunting for something I like,

something that would make a statement,

something that will show my individuality,

something that would display a side of my inner character, wit and charm.

So I went seeking on the internet for the perfect item, and found this:

The therapeutic power of blogs

2008-01-22T11:55:00.000-08:00

I received an email the today, this in itself is nothing unusual. My inbox bristles with unopened emails from Amazon telling me of special offers, eBay telling me that I've just bid on an item, or paypal telling me I've just made a payment. All those old emails sit, ignored and abandoned for eternity. Fortunately Googlemail gives me 2Gb of storage for all this dross, so I tend to save them up till I'm really bored before having a clear out.

Occasionally I do get something interesting, or usefull. I decided do get to grips with the email package 'Thunderbird' on my Eee. I had tried thunderbird on Windows, and was never happy with it. Either thunderbirds completely different on the Eee, or I've suddenly found the knack of getting it to work. But sure enough Its working on the Eee, and getting my email ok.

63 emails were available to collect, which it downloaded, no problems. Having a scan over the subjects, one did catch my eye, simply titled “hi -blogspot stuff” and the sender wasn't a company trying to sell something, but an actual person, so I opened it. It was someone telling me that they too had a new Eee, and they too had started a blog about it, and they were wondering if we could swap links on our blogs. Great minds thinking alike?

In theory I had no problems, and it made sense to pair up with someone else, if only to borrow a few ideas!. The only problem was I didn't really know much about blogs. My understanding of them went a bit like this:

”Blogs are like a diary, in as much as you put your thoughts and ideas down in a written form, however they differ from a diary because you actually want complete strangers to read what you have written.” This was largely peiced together from things I'd heard (another similarity to diaries was that I'd never really had enough curiosity to actually read any blogs)

So I decided to click on the link, and see what else there was to the world of blogging. I was pleasently surprised, it was like I imagined, but so much more, like a small website in minature.

Being previously ignorant of blogs I had wondered about my own, for example were my entries too long, were they in the right format, were they the right style, were they, were they, were they.

So after looking through a few other random unconnected blogs, one thing became the unifying hallmark of the blog: there is no set length, no correct format, no right style. It is literaly a blank sheet of paper, what gets put on there is up to the author. To you the reader this will probably be no great revelation. But In my ignorance of blogs this new information helped me come to a realisation, and the answer to questions that had been at the back of my mind since starting blogging for the first time a few days ago.

Why am I giving up my personal time to write these blog entries?

Why do I like the writing?

Why do I take the time editing, and re-editing what I write, to get it to read in a way that pleases me?

Why do I then place what I write online?

WHY?

The answer was there, I just needed to look at my motives.

I like to write because I enjoy it,

I like the way I can channel my thoughts onto a page,

I like the way I can get a feeling for whats really on my mind.

In short, I find it theraputic.

So does this mean my blog is private like a diary?

I'll admit first and foremost that I'm writing for myself, about the things in life that interest me, like my Eee whats going on in my life and other things of relevance. Sticking it all in a blog is just a convenient way of placing it together. If someone finds it worthy of reading, and maybe leaving a comment, then that too should help me get a perspective on all this.

Oh and the person who e-mailed me today is a nice young lady who is also an Eee user, but she's also a talented photographer. Her blog is listed in my links, and its called “Me and my Eee”, check it out, itw well worth a look.

Why i hate ribbons!

2008-01-21T08:29:00.001-08:00

I'm currently sat in an airport arrivals lounge, I'm waiting to pick someone up. The flights nearly 3 hours late. I've got a coffee from the coffee shop, and I'm forced to wait. BBC News 24 is on a TV in the background, and I'm bored. To get around this I've got my Eee out, after checking for free wifi (theres none) so I decide to explore a bit beyond using the web. This leaves me with 2 thoughts.

Firstly i need to investigate the possibility of getting a bluetooth dongle, so i can hook up to my mobile phone to the Internet at times like these; or will one of those dedicated USB 3G modems work.

Secondly what else can i do with my Eee? As an idea I thought I'd look into the office suite as part of the answer. Properly known as Open Office 2.0, there are all the main components that come in other suites of this type, a word processor (called document), spreadsheet (called spreadsheet), presentation software (called presentation), and email/calender package (called mail, not imaginative names admittedly, but they help give a good clue as to their purpose!).

As standard the word processor, spreadsheet and presentation packages all save their files in the relevant MS Office 97/2000/XP formats, so file interchange with Windows machines should be no problem. When you realise theres a VGA socket on the Eee, it soon becomes obvious that the Eee, coupled with a mobile projector is ideally suited using as a mobile platform for giving presentations in other locations; as opposed to lugging a full laptop, or taking a CD that may get damaged and not play by the time you get there.

So to begin with I'm exploring the word processor's capability by writing my next installment of this blog offline using Document....

By no means would I think of myself as highly skilled in any of these packages, but I know enough of the basics to get along fine. Being a PC user since my dad got a 386SX when I was back in school many years back, you get accustomed to the ways of Windows (3.0 in those days). Times change, and certain things in the world of the PC are a certainty, like every few years MS will release a new version of Windows, 3.0, 3.11, '95, '98, ME, XP, and now Vista. Each time a new version of Windows comes out, some other things become a certainty:

Microsoft will tell us its their best ever product, and this new version will revolutionise the way we use our computers.
People who use Windows will complain about how the outgoing product was so much better, and how this new version sucks (admittedly in the case of ME the users were right that time).
There will be a new version of Office released about the same time as the new version of Windows; each pretty much similar in the way it works as the last, with the odd tweak, new feature and a newer look than the last to go with the new windows. So essentially it was the same package re-branded. This had a big advantage of professionals that used office needed little in the way of retraining.

Hand in hand with Windows, MS Office has been my suite of choice for years, it was familiar like an old friend, I knew its ways, and how to make the most of it. I've adapted and grown to like most of the MS versions of Windows (not ME), Office, and even DOS. Even now people complain that XP is better than Vista, but I'll admit that I like Vista, warts and all.

That was until Office 2007 arrived on the scene. Office 2007 was not familiar, it was not helpful; I was in unknown territory, adrift in a new world of 'the ribbon'. This was not change for the better, and left me longing for a good old fashioned toolbar.

Enter the Eee into my life, I decide to take it (still my new toy, and untested by me) along to one day to collect a friend from an airport, which is where we came in, in a Tarantino-esque time shift.

Well I'm glad to report that I like Open Office 2.0's word processor, its already like that familiar old friend, the toolbars there, every things easy to find (I've got this far all by myself without having to plough through endless unhelpful 'help' files, {are you listening Microsoft? give me back my toolbar}) The other thing worthy of note is Open Office is free, and not only is it available to work on Linux, but theres also a version for Windows powered machines, which is also FREE!

As for the other packages, after a quick play, I've found the spreadsheet, presentation and mail packages to be just as familiar, and user friendly. They're perfect for my needs, and really enhance the appeal of Eee ownership. I really can do everything I usually do on a Windows machine (except maybe the odd spot of online gaming action, but maybe even thats available, I'll just have to look into it a bit deeper)

Suffice to say I'm now having a long hard think about what my choice of office suite will be for my Windows powered machines at home, and its looking like Open Office may well be getting downloaded and installed, sooner rather than later for a spot of trial and evaluation. And all because of the Eee PC, I'll keep on exploring and writing about what I find.

First post, first blog, first Eee

2008-01-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

So I've never had or used a blog before.

Then again I've never owned an Asus Eee PC before.

For those unfamiliar with the Eee have a look on the web, its a very small, very light, very cheap, very portable PC that I've just got hold of.

So my intention is to do my blog entirely from the Eee, taking it on my travels, and such.

About my Eee

Well its the 4G model, in black. Currently its as it rolled out of the factory, so my first upgrade is on the way. Its a 2Gb DDR2 SODIMM to suit the Eee, and should make running smoother.

Other future things on the cards are an 8Gb SDHC card, an external DVD writer, and a few little other mods, more of which later.

So why buy an Eee?

Well occasionally I have to go away with work for anything up to a few months, and I prefer to travel light. I need WiFi to access my email, the internet, and do a few of those more mundane tasks we all do with some form or other of computer power.

So what were the options?

PDAs win on lightness and size, but lack of 'proper' keyboard, and sometimes unreliable connection to a PC meant this was not a viable option. I've had 2 already, but could never feel fully happy using one full time.

Laptops I have one already, its a good spec, 15.4" screen, Core2Duo, 2Gb memory, 160Gb Hdd, less than 6 months old. But relatively, its heavy and big.

UMPC Better, a computer that has the power of a laptop, with a small size and weight, a lot closer to a PDA. Traditionally the main problem with small laptops is the smaller they become, the more they cost.

That was untill the Eee PC was created. Admittedly theres no CD or DVD writer, the small size means the keyboard's cramped, and it runs Linux instead of Windows (although XP can be put on it quite sucessfully, the manual even tells you how to do just this, and the DVD that come with the Eee has the drivers already there).

But... Its really easy to use, it has wifi that connects without hitch, it can go on the internet using firefox, collect email, has a nice little office suite that you can do all the basics, theres a messenger package for IM needs (It'll do MSN, Yahoo, iCQ and all the other big ones) and skype which I'll be using to stay in touch with family on the move.

Also as an added bonus, theres a good media suite to play DivX films, and MP3s, and other things in there.

Hardware wise its all solid state, so more likely to take a knock or two. Theres 3 USB sockets, Wifi and a Lan socket to connect to networks, and the internet. A 7" LCD screen, HD speakers built in microphone, 0.3mp webcam, 4Gb solid state hard drive, 512Mb of ram and a 900MHz Intel CPU.

But the big bonus is the price (currently between £220- £260 GB pounds) which for a very small, very light laptop is a steal.

Anyway enough of the mini review the webs full of mini reviews, as well as a normal blog, I'll be documenting any problems I have with it, and the solutions and work arounds I find.

Upgrades...

To this point its absolutely stock (less a few personalizations) as I said earlier I'm going to be upgrading the memory to 2Gb, its just a case of buying a DDR2 667MHz 200 pin SODIMM (laptop memory) of the capacity you want, and fit it. The Eee only has one memory slot, and the max it can take is 2Gb. As the price of memory is at rock bottom at the moment, it makes no sense upgrading to 1Gb.

The next quick upgrade I'm looking to do is find some form of sticker or decal to go on the lid, just to personalize my Eee. I've seen a space invaders themed one, and a scooby doo one i like so far.

Anyway, more later, Its been a fairly long post on a small keyboard (my right thumb's aching) so I'll possibly looking for a USB keyboard in the future!

Take care Peeps

EvilTwin.