My girlfriends Asus EEE 1101HA

My girlfriend was thrilled about my (or better our) EEE. I can call it 'our old EEE' now, because she got herself one too. It's superior to mine in all aspects: bigger screen (which is really a plus), more RAM, has hard disk, faster CPU, very long battery life and I'm sure there are other cool features as well. The name of the machine is Asus EEE 1101HA, it's black, has 2 GB RAM, 250 GB hard disk and comes with Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed. She has it only for a few days now, but she loves it already.

My observation so far is that it seems a bit slow. I don't know if it's the EEE itself or is it Windows 7. Maybe it just needs some fine tuning and turning off some cool visual features, but I think this should have been already done in the factory or in the shop.

The second weird thing is that when turned on, it started updating the systems, itself, the system again, then the settings, then Windows updates,... This went on for several hours.

The really cool thing is it's battery. I don't know about other laptops or nettops, but I haven't really seen a battery powered computer that doesn't die for so long. The battery life is supposed to be more than 10 hours, and it seems that it's correct or pretty close. When first charged, it worked for 8 hours already and it still not dead. The battery life of this EEE is really great.

The price for it was very reasonable, 369 EUR with tax included. We bought it in Slovenia again, this time from Enaa web shop.

EEE on vacation

Again, my Asus EEE has proven very useful. Only 900 grams (less than 2 pounds!) makes it very easy to carry and that's really what I do with it. I take it to every business trip, personal trip, vacation or conference. I've had it with me on several occasions and this is how it saved my time:

In Beijing, China for a W3C Conference
By using wi-fi I could connect to the conference network even by night. I used Skype to call or video call my girlfriend and talk for hours.

In Berlin, Germany for a Shareware conference
Connecting it to hotel wireless I used it to update my company's customers web pages. I have used jEdit for editing the code and Firefox add-on called FireFTP for uploading the content to the server.

In London, United Kingdom for the Internet World conference
Connecting to password protected pub network I used it to stay on-line and available on e-mail.

On a trip through USA (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New York)
I have used it to stay in touch with friends, family, and business over e-mail, write a travellers journal on-line, change rent-a-car reservation, reserve hotels and motels on the way and pay for them with my credit card, use the SD card from my camera and EEE's card reader to download photos and copying them to USB key, receive an electronic plane ticket for New York and sending photos from United Nations Public Service Award to the PR of Ministry of Public Administration for publishing them on their web site.

On a holiday in Turkey
I used my EEE for reading and responding to e-mail, downloading photos from my camera and to make backups of them to a SD card. Just before the trip I connected to the airport wireless and made a quick fix to one of the web applications that the customer has requested.

At home
Connected to TV I use it as a video or DVD player, I watch movies directly from a 2 GB USB key.

My EEE has become a very good companion and a great tool. I could still do without it at home, but on my trips I rely on it more than I do on my mobile phone.

From Asus EEE to TV

I just bought a new TV. I wanted to buy a regular one, but I realized they aren't sold any more. So I went with the flow and I bought an LCD (the smallest one they had). I have found out that it has many connectors, among other connectors to connect to a PC.
When I was in Berlin I bought a VGA cable (the one with blue ends) and an audio cable. They weren't really expensive so I decided to buy then even if I don't know if movie playback from a computer to my new TV will work. When I came home I first connected my EEE to a TV via VGA cable and the picture was great! I played around with it a little but I found out that it was hard to use the keyboard behind the TV. I rather downloaded a movie to my USB key, plugged it in the EEE and played it on the TV. The picture was better that TV signal, I even used the software to show the subtitles. The player that comes with the EEE is great - it has everything that I'm used to from my Windows PC, where I use the great BSPlayer. I have had some trouble with special Slovenian characters because they weren't displayed correctly. I noticed that the font for the subtitles can be changed, but I will have to look into that next time.
Overall experience: great! I will use my EEE instead of my DVD player from now on.

Skype with video on Eee

I remembered that I have read somewhere that Skype for Linux also uses video calls. But when I ran the 'default' (pre-installed) Skype, there was no video option in Skype. On Skype site I have discovered that I need version 2.0 which is still in beta in time of writing. I wanted video chats, so I decided to install it anyway. But how? I downloaded the package from Skype download page. I chose version for Debian and at the time it was version 2.0.0.43. File name was skype-debian_2.0.0.43-1_i386.deb. In Easy interface I opened Work tab and File Manager. I tried to double click the file (as on Windows to install it) but nothing happened. I right clicked on it and there was an option Install DEB file... Something started to happen and Skype got installed. Nice!
When I tried to first run it by selecting Internet tab and Skype still the old version opened. I was not sure if the installation was not connected to the icon or something else. I restarted my Eee (just for sure) and when it came back Skype was already 2.0! So I guess restart is needed.

I opened options and Video preferences, but there was no webcam. Hmm, how come, there is one on my Eee?! I found out that you have to first turn on the cam by opening terminal window (some sort of DOS window; you can do this by CTRL - ALT - T). When the window opens, I had to type this:

sudo echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/camera

This turns camera on. when you run Skype again then the video is enabled and the webcam is found! I clicked Test button inside Skype's Video preferences and - you won't believe it - the green light on my Eee (by the cam above the screen) turned on and moments after I could see myself smiling to my Eee. Yeeeah!

To turn the camera off you need to type this in the terminal window:

sudo echo 0 > /proc/acpi/asus/camera

I'm not sure if doing this saves battery, but until otherwise noted I'll use it every time after using (video) Skype.

My first post written on ASUS EEE!

I have fully unpacked the small package and started to try everything. This is also my first encounter with Linux (on a real not virtual computer that is owed by me). And this is my first post written directly on the EEE! The keyboard is small, but I got used to it in less then a day. My typing speed is the same as on normal full size keyboard.
So, what kept me busy for a few days? Trying to set up Eee was really easy, but since I consider myself a super user I wanted to tweak everything. Have everything under control. And that takes time. Linux and user interface is not that different, but if you want to change things (and I do), then it's not as intuitive as I am used on Windows. It is possible to change the operating system to Windows, but I have no intention of doing this. Using default Linux (Xandros) is a great chance of learning Linux AND getting the most of of my little machine.

What have I done to the default installation so far? First I have updated all the programs that were pre-installed. This is really easy, because the Easy mode has this feature. Go to Settings tab and select Add/Remove Software. Every program that has a new version available gets on the list and can be downloaded and installed by clicking Update button. No problems there! And now I have all the latest versions of the software that came installed on Eee.

Contents of a box in pictures

The box itself on the left and the contents of the box spreaded on the table. Note that the Eee is already plugged in and charging:
The same set but my Eee has lid already open:
This is the charger - not very large (and this is everything, there is no second charger unit):

I own an Asus Eee!!!

I have bought it! Yes, finally it happened! After all the deciding and comparing prices in different countries I went to a local shop here and bought it right from the shelf. In my case this was much better then buying it online and waiting for it to arrive.

Guess what? It's black! In Slovenia there are currently only black models so I got one of those. It was either black or white, so I am happy.

The package is small, a lot smaller then a regular laptop bag and the size of a box where you bought your router. In the package I found:

• Eee (yes, my own!)
• Battery
• Charger (pretty small compared to other notebook s I have, but big compared to my phones')
  
• Purse for Eee (some sort of elastic material, but without bands so it's hard to carry)
• CD with I don't yet know what
• Manual
• Quick-start guide
• Warranty leaflet
  
• A piece of paper explaining how to set up Slovenian keyboard