14 Mar 12 Netbooks
Reading certain sections of the media has led me to believe that everyone’s buying tablets and smartphones, a few people are buying laptops and desktops, and the netbook is to all intents and purposes, dead.
However, I notice a few netbooks on sale in Curry’s in the local high street, and glancing around in Starbucks, now as I type this, I see that four out of five people in my line of sight are using netbooks, not including myself.
I’ve had this Acer Aspire One for almost four years now, and it’s still going strong. Last year I replaced the battery, and took the opportunity to buy a larger one. This gives me 6-7 hours life, and tips the machine forward, so I have a better angle to type.
This is, of course, too slow, and the screen too small to do serious work on. No, I’ll correct that statement. It’s too slow and too small to do serious work on for very long, but it can do just about anything I need it to do, except play or edit HD video.
My Toshiba laptop with a 17.3 inch screen is better for tasks like that, but it’s too big and heavy to carry in my work bag, along with everything else, and in any case, the battery only lasts about an hour and a half with typical use.
I really did get a good deal with this little machine too. I purchased it from Tiger Direct as a refurb. Because of that, it came with only a 90 day warranty, but as I only had to shell out 200 green backs, and it’s still going strong I’m certainly not complaining.
Looking at those High Street models, that are around £240 – 300, I must admit I’d think twice about another; I could spend another £100 and get a laptop with a better specification. Still, its portability has served me well, and as I really don’t get on with on-screen keypads, is a better option for me than a tablet would be.
Tags: desktops, hour and a half, intents and purposes, line of sight, street models, tiger direct, toshiba laptop, warranty
05 Aug 11 D-Link DIR-655 as an AP
To give better wi-fi range than was available on a BT Voyager 2100 DSL modem, I used my spare Dlink DIR-655 router as an AP.
It was easy to do.
Connect to the DIR-655 with a CAT 5 cable (don’t do this over wireless).
Then:
- Click on Advanced and then click Advanced Network. Uncheck the Enable UPnP checkbox. Click Save Settings to continue.
- Click Setup and then click Network Settings. Uncheck the Enable DHCP Server server checkbox. Click Save Settings to continue.
- Remove the CAT 5 cable from the computer. Connect one end to a LAN port on the BT Voyager, connect the other end to a LAN port on the DIR-655.
- Reboot the DIR-655
Tags: bt voyager 2100, cat 5 cable, click network, connect one, d-link dir-655, dlink, email, lan port, modem, router, wi fi
31 Dec 10 T-Mobile UK USB Broadband Stick in Ubuntu
I went into my local T-Mobile store because I wanted to get set up with a PAYG mobile broadband solution for my netbook. Sure, I can find wi-fi hotspots about, but that isn’t going to work when I want to go sit in the park on a spring afternoon.
Anyway, not only could the store not tell me if their sticks worked with any Linux distribution, but they also told me that once I bought a stick, there was no Linux support from their helpline, and no refund.
I was on my own.
Well a little research, and this is such an easy solution.
Fire up your netbook.
Using an alternative means of connecting to the internet, do the following:
- Open a console.
- Cut and paste the line below:
sh -c 'wget http://www.betavine.net/repository/bcm_lucid_install.sh -O /tmp/bcm.sh && /usr/bin/xterm -e sudo sh /tmp/bcm.sh'
Let it do its work; it will install the Vodaphone connect Manager.
Then plug in your T-Mobile USB Stick, and fire up the installed VCM. It will find your stick.
Click on connect. You’re done, except for one more thing. You need to go to the T-Mobile site http://t-mobile.co.uk/payperdayhome and set up your first day’s top-up.
That’s about it. Any Questions, drop me a line.
Tags: amp, broadband solution, connecting to the internet, easy solution, fi, helpline, hotspots, linux distribution, linux support, mobile store, mobile uk, repository, spring afternoon, sudo, t mobile, tmp, usb stick, usr bin, vcm, wget
