Around a month ago, I won an MSI Wind U160 netbook on MSI’s Facebook page. I didn’t have much use for a netbook. Therefore, I listed it on eBay as Buy It Now Or Best Offer. After two weeks of being on eBay, no one had bought it and the best offer I received was around 40% of MSRP. I realized that the netbook is probably worth more than that to me and decided  to keep it.

Ever since the release of the First Asus Eee PC that started the netbook craze, I have always wanted a netbook. I think it is because I liked the idea of an inexpensive, ultra-portable laptop that is just powerful enough to perform day to day tasks.  The Wind U160 fits the bill. It has a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom N450 “Pinetrail” processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 250GB of HD and the usual netbook fare like 10″ LED backlit display, Bluetooth, 802.11N, etc. It also came with a large 6 cell battery that protrudes from the back and props it up when set on a desk. This battery is supposed to give this netbook 14 hours of life on one charge. I only got 9 hours while browsing the internet and 6 to 7 while browsing and watching videos.

The form factor is pretty nice. It isn’t too small like the 7inch netbooks, but it is still small enough to be considered ultra-portable. Here it is sitting on my 4 year old MacBook Pro.

This netbook arrived with two partitions and Windows 7 Started pre-installed on one of them. Since, I knew that I probably wouldn’t be using Windows, I resized the partitions and installed Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Netbook Edition which is the latest LTS release. The installation process was relatively painless. Then, when I booted up, I couldn’t get the wireless to work. After some googling, I found out that 10.04 didn’t come with wireless drivers for the chipset found in my netbook. I had to add a 3rd party repository and download the drivers. I used Lucid Lynx for a week, but found it a little too clunky for my uses.

I downloaded the newly released 1.0 version of Jolicloud, the Ubuntu Jaunty based netbook OS and installed it over Lucid Lynx. immediately, I noticed that Jolicloud started up much quicker and has a slicker interface. As the name suggests, Jolicloud takes advantage of cloud based applications. The whole front end is built on HTML 5 and is very fast. Here is what the home screen looks like after start up and login.

All the applications are presented in an iOS-esque page system with large, beautiful icons. Some of the apps are native Ubuntu apps like Gimp.

Most are webapps. They are basically browser windows with toolbars absent. The Reddit “app” is below. As you can see, it is just the normal desktop version of the Reddit site.

Adding apps is as easy as it is on the iPhone. After clicking the large “+ Add” button on the top left, you are presented with a list of apps that is easy to sort and search through. When you want to install an app, you just click the add button and the OS takes care of the rest. When you go back to the home screen, the newly installed application will be there waiting for you.

The 250GB of storage and 10 inch screen make this a great portable video machine. I have been watching 720p episodes of Firefly and Gundam 00 on it.  As you can see, Gundam looks pretty good at the netbook’s native resolution of 1024×600.

There are a few complaints I have. First, for some reason USB drives did not automatically mount. I had to remedy the problem by editing the file system table. Also all utilities and built in apps are hidden away. I didn’t really care because I usually launch terminal by pressing atl+f1 and launch other apps through terminal. It was only when Caroline called asking me where terminal went (she had the beta version when terminal was easy to find) that I noticed that this may be a problem. For some reason, I cannot find any way to add any of these built in applications to the home screen. That is why you see the folder icon on my menu bar. It is a shortcut to the folder full of built in applications.

Other than these minor problems, the netbook experience has been much better than expected. I was expecting to be constantly frustrated by its small form factor and weak power. It isn’t going to replace my MacBook as my daily use computer anytime soon, but it will probably be my travel computer from now on.

Do you know what I hate? I hate it when people try to determine what is the “best” without establishing standard by which to measure how good something is.

For example, somewhat frequently on Reddit, a person will post something like, “I am going to college and I need a laptop. Here is what I want to do with it…” At first, the posts are all really well thought out. One guy will say get a mac if you want the support. Another guy will point to a deal on a cheap Acer. Then, it quickly devolves into a fanboy hatefest. Everyone starts listing reasons why one make or model is better than the other, or how everyone else is a bunch of idiots.

I have to admit that I am guilty of once acting like this. Until recently, I was a devout Apple fanboy and never wanted to touch a PC again. Now I have a Mac and 2 PCs running Linux and Windows. Each one is good for a different purpose. No one computer is the best.

The same thing goes for athletes. No one can be the “greatest” or “best” athlete. You can be the richest or the fastest or the tallest, but not the best. Best is meaningless. Without a benchmark, how can you prove that something is the best?

So in the future, before you say that something is the best, reconsider what you mean. Maybe you actually mean to say that something is your favorite or that it is the best based on a measurable standard.

I know today is April Fools Day. I just don’t understand YouTube’s logo.

It is even called logo_april_fools-vfl157034.png

Does anyone know what this is about?

Update: It looks like some YouTube videos have an ASCII version in edition to the various resolutions like 420p and 720p. It is very similar to VLC’s ASCII filter.

Someone working on Wednesday’s Columbia Daily Spectator must really love copy and paste. Also the editing staff must have been sleeping. Read the first eight paragraphs. Notice anything funny? I can’t believe this was printed on the front page.

Listen closely at 0:49. HAHAHAHAHA. Ironically, the song is titled “Tasty Love.”

As most of you know already. Apple unveiled its much hyped and rumored iPad tablet computer today. Some say that this is a monumental event in history. This without doubt is an extremely important event for Apple and the consumer electronics world. The question is. Why exactly is it important?

About a month ago in late December, MG Siegler from TechCrunch wrote a good piece about the tablet. He argued that Apple was at the cusp of a major change in their product lineup and that the market was ripe for a revolutionary tablet device. He pointed out how similar the tech world was right up to the launch of the iPhone. Phones back then basically sucked and all the buzz was about a rumored smartphone from Apple. And then the iPhone came along. It changed what we do with our phones and added a new cell phone form factor that has quickly become the hottest. Certainly the iPhone changed mobile phones and mobile computing at least as much as the original Macintosh changed personal computing. Is the iPad the iPhone of the tablet world?

The tablets up to the launch of the iPad were clunky, hard to use and awkward. Ebook readers like the Kindle and Nook use slow E-ink displays. They are not too bad for reading books, but don’t compare to the true experience of a book that you can flip through. Other tablets were just netbooks without keyboards, another confusing product segment. So in this sense, the iPad situation is just like the iPhone’s and iPod’s. A new device comes in to meet a market of crap devices. But this is where the analogy stops. The thing that MG Siegler and most of the tech community have forgotten is that the iPod fixed a discrete and well-defined market, the MP3 player market. The iPhone fixed the cell phone market. What about the iPad?

The tablet market, since its inception has been sort of an awkward child. It doesn’t really know if it should/can roll with the older, bigger guys or the smaller, faster guys. It, like the netbook is stuck in-between two distinct segments. Even look at Apple’s product line up or the menu on their website.

Is the iPad a bigger, more powerful iPod touch? It runs iPhone apps natively, but it also runs some of Apple’s desktop software. Then is it a smaller, more portable MacBook? I’m curious where Apple will put it.

I think that if the iPad is to succeed and truly become the “revolutionary device” it is supposed to be, it needs to define the poorly defined tablet market. It needs to convince me why I shouldn’t just get a smaller, more portable iPod touch or a larger, more powerful MacBook. It also needs fully capitalize on the potential it has. Its large multi-touch screen affords the capability for interactivity never before seen. The iBooks store (Apple’s new eBook store) and Apple’s history of having very close connections with content providers could further propel eBooks into ubiquity. It could also be the key to saving traditional print media.

I also forgot the stakes. 10 years of hype and almost rabid craze up its launch set the bar for success much higher. Therefore, the iPad has quite a bit cut out for it. Can it provide? We will have to see.

To answer my original question, the iPad is important because it is really a pivotal device. It has the potential to change the world and make Apple even more powerful. If Apple can pull it off, the rewards will be massive. If not, it could go down in history as the Newton 2, yet another failed touchscreen device.

One thing is certain. I really wish I could trade my Kindle 2 in for one of these.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and holidays. I certainly did.

After receiving some great presents, I started thinking. What would have been my dream wish list? So, I decided to compile this list of stuff that I could only dream of receiving for Christmas (or for my birthday in march *hint* *hint*).

First up is the Leica M9 digital rangefinder camera and Noctilux 50mm f/0.95 lens. The Leica M9 is Leica’s first full frame digital rangefinder and arguably the best small-ish camera in the world. Coupled with the Noctilux, this thing is a bokeh monster. If I could pick any setup for street photography, this would be it. Unfortunately, a setup of this caliber does not come cheap. The camera costs $6,995 and the lens costs $9,995 for a grand total of $16,990. I could buy a decent small car with much money.

Next up is a watch. It’s not just any watch. It is the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Milgauss with stainless steel construction, green sapphire glass and internal components that are resistant to magnetic fields. The first time I saw this watch, I knew I had to get one. The utilitarian case and strap and the orange lightning bolt second hand make it a symbol of precision engineering and design. Plus, since it is a Rolex, I know that it would be a very reliable watch. Unfortunately, like the Leica, this kind of quality comes at a price. It sells for $6,750.

I have a camera and a watch, but I still need a car. That is where the Lexus LFA comes in. Lexus has been working on this car for the last 10 years and it shows. No detail was overlooked and there were no compromises made. Lexus purchased one of only two circular looms in the world. They use it to weave a perfect carbon fiber A pillar. Top Gear even seemed to like it, and they typically hate Lexuses. Obviously, like the other items on the list, this is not cheap either. Pricing starts at $350,000 for each of the 150 that will be sold in North America.

And that’s it. It is a short list, but an expensive one. $373,740 for the lot. I don’t have that kind of money, but we can all dream right?

Actually not really. But there is a picture of Hartley and Hamilton on a wall about 10 minutes into the first episode of this season (9). Here is a screenshot.

It is finals time already! Here are some videos I watch to increase morale and get ready for exams.

This should have been posted weeks ago. Alas, here it is.

I hate trolls. And I hate people who think they are all that because they go to high ranked universities.

These are comments I found on a video of Bill Gates on Youtube of him explaining something about Windows Vista. Read the third comment. sigh.

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