DIY Planner - Travel - Comments

into the wild

movie dude — Thu, 1 May 2008 18:38:07 -0400

It was tragic that McCandless died out there in the wilderness; but then again, so many people have benefited from his story... a couple of years of hitchhiking led to his story challenging thousands (millions?) of people to reexamine their lives

Watching this over the weekend!

nay nay — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:55:55 -0400

This movie just came up on my NetFlix - should arrive tomorrow. I am sure I will have a frustrating comment to add on Monday! ;)

Yes, I also found it quite frustrating

irian — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:47:43 -0400

Leaving the map behind was such a bad idea. Read the book, and they state that there was an easier way to cross the river not too far from where he was, if only he had bothered to bring a map along with him.

Into the Wild

John McCarthy — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:40:29 -0400

Arggh! I was incredibly frustrated by the way that movie ended. The movie makes it seem like he's this experienced mountain man until the river rises, and then, pow, he starts eating plants he can barely identify. What's wrong with eating the maggots? If my choice is die or eat bugs, I opt for the bugs. Also, go cross the hell upstream where it's shallower and come back down. There might be food or people up there. Or at least make a raft. The fact that the guy just sits there and waits to die just made me think he had nothing to offer me in terms of wisdom.

Eeepc after a month

Jon Rutherford — Sun, 6 Apr 2008 23:17:45 -0400

(First -- Doug, your pen articles are absolutely first-rate.)

I've had my black Eeepc 4G Surf for about one month now and have little but praise for it. It is extraordinarily solid-feeling, more than any notebook computer I've had or used before. The keyboard does take getting used to but I can now type at about 60 of my usual 80-90 wpm with no trouble -- except for that pesky caps lock key that I invariably hit when wanting "a" at least once per email, etc. I've seldom in my 50-plus years of typing ever used a caps lock key. Like the "scroll lock" key I wonder why they even exist. (I also never use a right shift key. You'd have to see it to understand.)

It took many hours to get wireless home networking to work. That is in no way the fault of the Eeepc; it's because tutorials on the Web are confusing, contradictory, and sometimes downright wrong. When I finally got it going, it was ridiculously simple (by Linux standards). Only three little files to put on the server computer and I was all set.

The display is a marvel. I bought mine on reading many reviews that bragged about the clarity of the display. I didn't go wrong.

I found an excellent wireless mouse on eBay for about $10 and that gets around the tiny touchpad problem. Settings for the touchpad can make it a lot less troublesome to use, but I've never liked any touchpad a bit, and this is no exception.

For those worried (or concerned) about the supposedly relatively short life of solid-state "drives," I have done extensive reading about that, and it appears, subject to verification, that that is now a myth -- no need to worry about wearing it out, probably, in the lifetime of the machine, or possibly even mine. These are not like the very first solid-state memory devices.

All in all, the Eeepc is better than I hoped it would be -- by quite a bit. And I had high hopes else I wouldn't have ordered mine.

Free Austin WiFi...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:58:14 -0400

It looks like there are lots of free WiFi spots in Austin. Look at the following link. But I don't know how up-to-date this listing is--haven't used it myself.

wififreespot DOT com/tex.html

And welcome to Texas, I hope you have a great time.

HTH!

Glenda

Wifi

The Bear — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:21:32 -0400

I need to clarify that I'm Scottish so of course I want free WiFi ;-)

I'm going to Austin, TX and I know I have free wifi in the hotel but hoping with it being a University town (and home of a few electronics manufacturers) there might be a few free wifi spots about. It'll only be in between kayaking and eating bbq anyway

In the UK I am fairly happy surfing in the pub! I'd be interested to know if there is 3g/mobile broadband connection in Cornwall. While camping last year we couldnt connect anywhere remotely in the country in England...

Your other solution would be

Tournevis — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:53:22 -0400

Your other solution would be to move to Montreal or Toronto, both city having ample free wireless, both inside and outside, the latter of the two havinf a municipal plan to provide free wireless to all residents.

US Wireless

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:26:36 -0400

It's not free everywhere, but you can go to most any McDonald's, FedEx Kinko, Borders Bookstores,or Starbucks and get on T-Mobile for a reasonable fee per month--like $40. And most hotels and motels have it. Google T-Mobile Hotspot and you can find a listing of all their "Hotspots."

AlphaSmart

DeanG — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:09:43 -0400

or the AlphaSmart NEO

Mobile Internet

reepicheep — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:55:48 -0400

... in the UK and unfortunately WiFi isn't as common ...

Major UK cities have WiFi networks but you'll have to pay for the access. Starbucks have a tie in to T-Mobile in most (all?) of their shops, for example. Business hotels provide it. If a student then many British universities now have WiFi networks installed. Alternatively there are now mobile broadband modems from T-Mobile and 3. Faster than my own wireless network, which is broadcasting from a router connected to my 100Mb network backbone. But the mobile broadband has traffic limiting; 3Gb/month is common. I hope it isn't 3G specific as I'm off on business to Cornwall next week and 3G coverage is pretty much non-existant there; I'll be miffed if it doesn't fallback to using the existing 2G network.

As the eee uses Linux it might be simple to use one of the broadband devices. Equally might be real difficult. But the Apple Mac stuff installed without problem here.

Depends on the city.

caligatia — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:02:59 -0400

I live in a college town in north-central Florida, and wi-fi is everywhere here. All the coffeeshops have it. The downtown area has blanket coverage thanks to a city initiative. All the county library branches have it. Even some restaurants in the student-heavy areas have it. And of course the very large university has it. (Weirdly, the community college does not have it yet. Surprising, considering they have an excellent IT program. I hear they're working on it though.)

--
Steff
[ blog | photos ]

WiFi - common?

emoore — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:38:17 -0400

Not where I live. It's not as common in the U.S. as many people think. I live in a small city in the SE U.S. and there is one spot in town that has WiFi access but they have only 4 chairs with 2 tiny (2 ft. diam) tables and it is a lunch spot. There are more urban areas where it is more common but I travel quite a bit to larger cities for work and there are times when the only free wireless I can find is at my hotel.

eee pc is indeed great

The Bear — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:59:13 -0400

I've had the eee pc since January and it's seldom far from my grasp now. Great for working on the move. Good for surfing and email. It's not bad for watching videos on either though maybe not a film.

I'm in the UK and unfortunately WiFi isn't as common as I think it is in the USA, but if I have to have a beer in order to sit in a wifi zone I can live with it. I'll certainly be bringing it to the states on my holidays to upload photos and surf on the move.

I'm a total paper notebook addict but the eee pc is really tempting me away, despite it's daft name!!!!

I WAS tempted, now an owner.

Richard T Perry — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:13:24 -0400

>is there a way to play Civilization III on it?

Yes, several different ways.

1) Install WinXP and run.
2) Add the "advanced mode" to the desktop under the Xandros/Linux OS and then install Cedega (which DOES cost a little money) and run under that.
3) Consider FreeCiv as a substitue - I was playing that last night on my EEE.

I will tell you though - I was USED to playing games like this on my 21" monitor - the EEE in this particular ap suffers from information overload/undersize a bit. Works, though!

D*I*Y Planner - Travel - Comments