Whoa Mama! The 9" Eee PC is So Near, I Can Taste It!

Engadget

Some of you may already heard of the bad news... my 13" MacBook was stolen last week... a few days after I sold my 4G Eee PC 701 to my sister.  Yeah, I know... big bummer!

Anyway, looking at the silver lining of this cloud that had formed over my head, I find it serendipitous that Apple had released a new line of MacBooks days before my MacBook was stolen.  Then barely weeks after I sold my old Eee PC, this comes along.  Is the universe conspiring so that I can refresh my gear?

I am blogging this using an El Cheapo, no-name generic laptop running both Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP (dual boot) and I am quite thankful to my Eee PC experience because I now know my way around Linux to make me use my Ubuntu installation more than WinXP.  A friend (or a relative) may look forward to another bargain laptop for sale once the 9" Eee PC becomes available locally because this is just to sweet to pass up.

And as for this blog, well, it just had a new lease on life, thanks to the 9" Eee.

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Happy Penguin Awareness Day!

It's Penguin Awareness Day! Have you hugged your penguin today?

Eee PC + Jailbroken iPod Touch= Happiness

One of the downside of always bringing my Eee PC with me everyday is its inability to directly sync up with my iPod Touch.  Not much of a big deal because my music library is rarely updated.  My problem is my inability to add eBook files to my Touch.  I use my iPod Touch more as an eBook reader and since I read fast, I need to add new eBooks rather frequently and just this morning, I finished yet another book.

So I thought of experimenting with my Eee PC so I can use it to upload an eBook to my iPod Touch and heres how I did it:

• I made sure that my iPod is running the BSD  Subsystem  and  OpenSSH is enabled.
• On my Eee PC, I checked if I can connect to the iPod Touch by opening a Terminal window and issuing the command "ssh  192.168.1.xxx -l root + [Enter]"  where  xxx  is the last  octet  of  my  iPod Touch's IP address.  The Terminal session will ask for a password so enter your iPod Touch's root password.
• Once connected, I typed "ls" and see if I can list down the files on your iPod Touch.  Then I ended my SSH session by typing "exit"
  
• Then I typed "sftp root@192.168.1.xxx + [Enter]" then entered my root password when prompted.
• I then navigated to /Media/EBooks and issued the command "put [name_of_my_ebook]" and after a few seconds... HAPINESS... I have a new eBook on my iPod Touch!

Note that the iPod Touch I used in this exercise has already been "jailbroken".  An iPod Touch that is "fresh" out of the box will not work with the procedures I outlined here.  That being said, this procedure can also be used with a jailbroken iPhone.

Happy hacking!

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Torrent-ing on the Eee (using Bittornado)

I've been wanting to try Ubuntu Linux on my Eee since I got wind of the news on eeeXubuntu. I found the download link but since I'm a good netizen (at least I think I am), I opted to use bittorrent to download it. BUT, the Eee doesn't seem to come with a good bittorrent client so I had to install one.

I decided to use Bittornado as my torrent client and here's what I did to install it:

• at the terminal, I first issued the command "sudo apt-get -s install bittornado-gui" to make sure that the installation will not bork my Eee
• after making sure that it will not over write any important files, i then issued "sudo apt-get install bittornado-gui" to initiate the download and installation of Bittornado.
• once its done Bittornado client automagically appeared at my Advanced Desktop's Application --> Internet menu group!

And that's it! Happy torrenting!

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eeeXubuntu [EeeUser Wiki Home]

eeeXubuntu

If you want to run an alternative Linux distro for the Eee, specifically Ubuntu, then go and download this custom package dubbed as eeeXubuntu, set it up on a flashdrive and away you go!  I you like it so much, you can even install it permanently (or so says the wiki).

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You Ask, NoypEee Answers (Activating Eee's Advanced Mode)

NoypEee reader danny asks for any easy way to activate the Eee PC's advanced mode so here it is:

• from the Easy Mode desktop press "ctrl-alt-t" to open the terminal
• at the terminal window, type "sudo apt-get update" at the user prompt and wait for the user prompt to return
• then type "sudo apt-get ksmserver kicker" and the installation process should start
• once the process is done (you'll know because the user prompt at the terminal will return, close the terminal and restart your Eee. After the restart, you'll still see the usual Easy Mode screen.
• to go to advanced mode, press the power button (or click on the round red button beside the smiley face in your task bar) and you'll see an additional option "Full Desktop" -- click it and your Eee will restart its window manager to the Advanced Mode.

That's it!

If you want your Eee to permanently boot in Advance Mode, go to Settings --> Personalization in Easy Mode and additional Login Mode will be visible, click on "Full Desktop Mode" .

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You Ask, NoypEee Answers part deux (Windows-less Eee PC)

My colleagues has been asking me why I have not "Microsoftified" (read: installed WinXP) my Eee yet. Here's the long and short of it:

My Eee is not my primary computer. I use Windows XP at work and I use OS X at home. I like to think that I am platform-agnostic and I take pride in my ability to work in whatever computing environment in front of me. Besides, the cost of "upgrading" my Eee PC from Xandros Linux to Microsoft (Windows XP + MS Office + MS Money) will end up being more expensive than my hardware!

In its out-of-the box state, the Eee PC is usable because upon its first boot up, it already has almost all the necessary applications for a person to be productive -- OpenOffice.Org for word processing/spreadsheets/presentations, FireFox for web browsing, Thunderbird for email, Pidgin for instant messaging, and a host of other **free** bundled applications.

With all these in mind, I see no need to change my Eee PC's operating system.

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HOWTO: Use Google Desktop as a Quick Application Launcher (like QuickSilver)

As a Mac user, one of my most frequenty used application is a useful program called Quicksilver. Using QuickSilver, I can launch applications simply by typing the first few characters of the program I wish to run. This is what I sorely miss when I started using the Eee PC as my "light" alternative to my MacBook. I have searched the web for a Linux alternative but the ones I saw were a bit too clunky for my taste. One alternative (Katapult) updates a lot of base Linux files that it rendered some poor soul's Eee PC inoperable.



Then I sort of discovered Google Desktop for Linux. I installed Google Desktop as an exercise of my Linux command line skills but I uncovered a feature in it that sort of mimics some of the functions of QuickSilver.



By configuring Google Desktop to respond to the key combination Ctrl-Shift, Google Desktop will open a "Quick Search Box" and by typing the program I want to run on that search box I can scroll down to my desired application and run it without having to go through Eee's "start" menu!

Using this, Google Desktop filled my need to quickly launch applications a-la QuickSilver and it should suffice for my needs now.

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EeeTip of The Moment: Stuck in Eee PC's Xandros? Here's a Website For You

The Ultimate Linux Newbie Guide :: Linux without the technobabble!

I know that a lot of new Eee PC users are having a hard time adjusting to the new software environment that comes with the Eee PC.  Well, until they get the courage to tinker with their Eee and setup Windows, here's a website that can provide a lot of help  through those d'uh moments -- the Ultimate Linux Newbie Guide!

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