I bought an ASUS Eee last week, and I'm very pleased with it. So far, I've learnt how to write text, store photos and videos, play music, listen to a podcast and read e-books and .pdfs.

The thing will do email, but I can't report on that just yet, as I don't have a wireless router and haven't found a free wi-fi hotspot yet.

There's a lot of things it can't do that a bigger laptop will, but it suits my needs. And, besides ... remember Parkinson's Law! :D

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Keith Kellett
http://travelrat.wordpress.com
Amesbury, England

I've been tossing around the idea of a cheap laptop ($575 to $625) versus one of the storage tanks for photos ($390 to $700). The laptop loses only in weight (7 lbs. versus about 1 lb.), but I don't intend to carry it around race tracks anyway. 14" screen. 160 GB hard drive. Possible email checking. Add to that some general utility in writing while I'm not home (something I don't normally do). But I guess now I need to check the Asus Eee.

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Charlie Self
www.charlieselfonline.com

Anyone used -- or even seen -- one of these Asus Eee computers

We had an intensive advertising campaign here on the merits of eee laptop at 300€. It's very small and it contains no hard disk but comes with a web cam and offers the essentials of internet access.

Yah! I just checked it out. It's dead useless for my purposes. Way too much money for what it is when Dell has a small laptop on sale for $499 plus shipping and sales tax. I'd want to go one step up, to the $749 one, but I cannot understand why anyone, anywhere, any time (over the age of 17) would want a web cam built in.

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Charlie Self
www.charlieselfonline.com

I have one thing to say about my new Dell laptop. I hate Vista. Get one with XP if you can. I did find a way to convert the screen appearance to Windows Classic. It at least looks more familiar now. The touchpad stinks and I wish I'd ordered the wireless mouse right away, rather than as an afterthought. It's also slow despite being over-muscled because it's loaded with a gazillion programs and I guess there's a bunch of stuff running in the background that I can't see. And haven't figured out.

I hatehatehate these learning curves. I cannot imagine my folks dealing with this as complete non-tech newcomers. If the Asus scales all this muchness down, it's worth it just for that. I'm thinking this computer was developed for kids (like the Alphasmart) and adults figured out a way to utilize them to good purpose.

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Founding member of The Blood-Red Pencil
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com

IME, all touchpads are equal: lousy. Dell does have a propensity for loading a computer with programs that are of interest to about one customer in 500, as I recall. Then they keep wanting to update them, or someone tries to sell you updates. It's annoying, but does keep costs down. Delete, delete, delete. My next computer is going to get stripped so fast it will think it's in a tornado.

I'm not a fan of wireless mice. I've had, I think, five or six in the past three years. The little SOBs eat batteries, including Energizer Lithium E2s, just as does the keyboard. I do not really care for replacing batteries all around at two bucks, or more, per battery, in a six week period. I tossed all of 'em recently and went back to cords and no batteries. Stunning! I'm hunched over the desk anyway, so cordless is basically a waste of money. With their battery eating appetites, it was even more costly than I had figured. Now, a MS Natural 4000 keyboard and a 10 buck Mi mouse do just fine. About 1/3 the cost of the wireless, no battery hassles, and better durability all around.

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Charlie Self
www.charlieselfonline.com

Ah, and if you drop a regular mouse, you can find it easily. Himself had a cordless one that would skitter under the desk just out of reach. IF you could snag it, something would press a button and all kinds of stuff would start happening.

Wireless is not my gig either.

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Karen
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http://anovelplace.wordpress.com/

http://lifeinthedykelane.blogspot.com

So, um... dumb question alert. Can I just plug in my favorite mouse and use it on the new laptop? I have a Dell keyboard I really love, too... can I plug that in somehow for a full-size one if I'm sitting at my desk? I might be much happier almost instantly. And I had no idea abou the batteries. My digital camera is bad enough!

And here's another million dollar question. Do I have to buy the Easy Transfer USB cable to move files from my desktop to the laptop? Or will the the Radio Shack transfer cable work as well? Is this the easiest way to do this? Or am I setting up a nightmare here? Gawd, I am so bad at all this and Mr. Luddite is so totally useless right now. Bless the darling man, but why can't he be a bit more of a geek, I ask you? Show the slightest sign of interest in this whole process. O, why?

And why did they load a bunch of music on the thing? One tune I might keep, but now I have to hassle to uninstall all that other stuff. Groan. It all makes me crazy.

I'm so tired,
I'm so tired,
Vy don't you toys
chust leaf me alone?

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Founding member of The Blood-Red Pencil
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com

The toys are winning. You should be able to plug any mouse into the USB port and have the machine accept it. Same mit der keyboard. Of course, you're running Vista, so who knows?

What is the difference between the Easy Transfer cable and the RS cable? One route you might take: Ask the guy at RS. He may not know, but I've found many of those around here are far mroe knowledgeable than your averge store clerk.

If the specifications for the two cables are the same, I can't figure any reason for the RS cable not working.

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Charlie Self
www.charlieselfonline.com

I love my Eee. But it's not for everyone. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone's parents (someone suggested this a few days ago). It's too small. It's a terrific small notebook for travelling. The monitor is small but very clear and readable. The keyboard is small and takes some getting used to. I use a track-ball instead of a mouse -- the track ball is nice for travelling because it does not need much desk space. The Eee and the trackball will fit comfortably on an airplane tray table.

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"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."

-- Samuel Johnson

Wouldn't one of these be the thing for a laptop rather than a regular mouse?? I didn't know what this ways until I looked it up at webopedia.com , but now I think it might just be what I'm after. You think?

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Founding member of The Blood-Red Pencil
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com

One of what? Did I miss something?

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Charlie Self
www.charlieselfonline.com

>> love my Eee. But it's not for everyone.<<

Is anything? You have to ask yourself what you want the thing for; it's ideal for my purposes. I've got a friend with similar needs, but she's just bought a £1000 laptop that will do everything her PC at home will do ... her husband described it as 'like buying a chainsaw when you only want to prune a rose bush'

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Keith Kellett
http://travelrat.wordpress.com
Amesbury, England

My goal is to use only the laptop which (allegedly) used about 25% of the electricity the desktop uses. An issue in the Age of Climate Change. Right now, the new laptop has way more Gigs than the desktop.... and is way slower. Go figure. But it should be the only computer I need for everything I do with the added benefit of taking it on the road if I need to. Which probably won't be often. Really the selling points for me were lower energy useage, way smaller physical footprint, more memory, same price as a decent desktop. And the color. ;)

Charlie..... scroll up a post to figure out what we were talking about... track-balls maybe? Is that what they're called?

I'm so tired, I'm so tired............ LOL. At this stage in life, I can't remember their names, much less what to do with them. The toys, I mean.

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Founding member of The Blood-Red Pencil
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com

You might want to ditch Vista and try XP. Supposedly, Vista won't even run on a machine with less than one gig, while XP motors on anything over half a gig.

Trackballs. I finally tossed the one I tried a few years ago. It irked me too much to use. I guess after a decade mousing it, I'm unable to ball...or something.

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Charlie Self
www.charlieselfonline.com