Julianna Yau’s blog

My friend at Open Studio sent me the article What can we learn from the “netbook” from The Artful Manager. The article was a good reminder for me that not everyone in the cultural community is as immersed in technology as I and many of my new friends from Twitter. Based on the interest in the Technology in the Arts conferences, I would agree with Andrew Taylor that integrating the use of netbooks into a cultural manager’s daily routines could take some work. But there is certainly no shortage of people already using them.

Photographer Sean Puckett picked up an HP tablet a while ago (which I, naturally, ogled) for use as a super digital-photoframe. If I didn’t already have my EeePC, I probably would have gotten one too. Not merely is it a fully functional computer (albeit too lightweight for gaming or for intense audio-visual work), but it’s an absolutely charming option for a portable portfolio. Less clunky than hauling around photos; more practical than having everything on a flash drive and hoping to have access to a computer; more instant than giving someone a card with your website on it.

Amrita, owner of Tinku Gallery, recently acquired an iPhone so she could easily show her artists’ work to others when she’s away from the gallery. Because of the size of the screen, the iPhone was a much better option for her than a BlackBerry. A netbook, on the other hand, was more than she needed, as she already had a full-sized computer.

I’m almost always equipped with a travelling office, with either my EeePC or full-sized laptop, my BlackBerry, occassionally a digital camera (if I know I’ll need it) and more flash drives and SD cards than I can fill. Unlike Sean and Amrita, my gadetry is mainly for administrative work. Although I have photos of all of my work on all of my devices, my BlackBerry keeps me in contact with people from the arts admin work I do, and my EeePC is used to its intended purpose—a connection to the internet (and a glorified note-taking system). For someone who is currently loving connection, being able to access all of my contacts (and not just their contact information) and any information available online makes my life a lot easier.

The question, still, is how to keep up with it all.

Quite some time ago, a few blogs and several of my friends brought my attention to RBC’s EeePC banking bundle — that is, sign up for a bank account with them, and you’ll [eventually] get a “free” EeePC. Exposing myself neither to television or movies in the cinema, I was shielded from the ads… but they’re going full-force on transit systems (notice the asterisk next to “free” in their ad). Typically, I’m excited by technology, marketing campaigns (really… I miss campaigns) and free stuff, but this is getting a bit silly. Not only is RBC’s latest campaign unrelated to banking, but their website is curiously difficult to navigate if you’re looking for the EeePC offer (I had to ask Google to find the page for me). Obviously, their marketing department doesn’t communicate well with whichever department manages their website.

The conditions?

• Setup the new account yourself, or upgrade the account if you’re an existing client
• Transfer or set-up at least 2 (two) pre-authorized payments from your new account.
• Transfer your automated payroll direct deposit or monthly pension direct deposit to your new account.
• Select paperless statement option on your new account.
• Pay at least 1 (one) bill through RBC® Royal Bank Online Banking from your new account.
• Wait 10-12 weeks (that’s up to 3 months) after you’ve done all of the above… so much for instant gratification
• Pay $13.95/month in banking fees

And, hey, it’s only the 2GB 701 EeePC. Of course, a real penny-pincher can see that it’s cheaper to pay the monthly banking fees until they get your EeePC, then switch to a more suitable bank account, but they’re still risking RBC running out of EeePCs before they ship yours

Like the XO, I needed to have my Eee exchanged for another due to a keyboard problem. But unlike the XO, the problem was mostly cosmetic (the left side of the space bar was slightly warped) and I was able to take the Eee to the retailer to be exchanged. Not being a consumer product, the XO naturally has a disadvantage because it has no retail store. That was to be expected. But the fact that I needed to pay a total of $32CAD in shipping and $48USD in brokerage and surety bond fees was a total surprise. That added another $80 to the price of the laptop, with no guarantee that the one I would get in exchange would be fully functional.

That’s not to say that the keyboard of the Eee is perfect. Like any keyboard, it requires a bit of time to become accustomed to it. Because of how cramped the keys are, I really notice any extra length on my fingernails because I’m typing with the very tips of my fingers on the main A to L row of keys. The placement of some keys is quite awkward, particularly the “1”, which is more easily accessible with my ring finger than my pinkie. The “e”, “i”, “c” and “m” keys are often missed due to how I need to curve my fingers and apply pressure to the keys. Surprisingly, this is more noticeable for single words than when typing entire sentences.

The touchpad, like any other, is a painful alternative to a mouse. Luckily, the Eee’s operating system (Xandros, a flavour of Linux) auto-recognizes the two Logitech mice I have. Linux does not have great support for more than just the scroll-wheel and left- and right-click buttons, but this is not something unique to Xandros and is something I don’t really need.

I did have some permissions issues when trying to install new dictionaries for OpenOffice.org…it seems that I could only get to the “super user” access through the terminal. This may be a strange glitch in the way I have customized my Eee, because I have not seen this problem reported by other users. Once I was able to install the Canadian dictionary, the spellcheck was an invaluable feature of OpenOffice.org. Because of the idiosyncrasies of the keyboard, it is invaluable to be able to correct many typos quickly.

Adding more software to the Eee is not always an easy task. From what I’ve seen, “Easy Mode” only allows for updates to the software, and any adding or removing of software needs to be done in “Advanced Mode” (i.e. full KDE desktop for Xandros). Because Xandros does not have the same market penetration as SUSE, Fedora or Debian, it doesn’t have quite as many pre-compiled applications available. Many users have reported that most Debian packages are compatible with Xandros, but those packages do not seem to be supported for Xandros by either the Xandros folks or the Debian folks.

When showing off the Eee to friends, they’re always struck firstly by how tiny and light it is, and then by what a familiar feeling they get from the “Advanced Mode” interface. When using the Eee in public with little fanfare on my part, I found that many onlookers were extremely curious, but stopped short of actually asking about it. The Eee received many glances which I assumed were intended to be discreet attempts at determining what the heck it is (and possibly who makes it).

The power adaptor is both a blessing and a source of frustration. Because of its size, I was able to toss it into my purse along with the Eee itself. But the placement of the prongs relative to the bulk of the adaptor resulted in two instances where I thought I could use the adaptor…but couldn’t. In the first instance, there were two free ports on a powerbar, and the length of the adaptor was greater than the space available for two more compact plugs. In the second instance, the outlet was on a hub attached to a table at a lecture hall and the prongs were too far down on the adaptor for it to nestle into the L-shaped space allowed for the adaptor. In both instances, I was dearly missing the compactness of the actual connective parts of a standard laptop adaptor.

Because of the size of the screen I would not recommend the Eee as the only computer you own. It’s great as a portable second computer, but is less than ideal for extended use and extensive work (particularly anything involving graphics work). The operating temperature of the Eee is also a persistent concern. Although it seems to level out at a “hot-but-not-too-hot” temperature, I often worry about it overheating.

Overall, I love my Eee. I just need to find a way to make the adaptor …more adaptable.

Between technical difficulties, a cold and life in general, I’m way behind on blog reading and writing. So rather than desperately trying to write several cohesive posts, I’m simply going to summarize some things of interest [to me].

After I returned my XO due to a defective keyboard (with hopes of getting one that works), I also ended up exchanging my Eee for another one because it had a warped spacebar. The new one also has a warped spacebar, but it’s not as bad. Neither had any performance issues, and the problem seems to be widespread.

jkkmobile and EeeUser.com are reporting that Asus is planning to make an Eee with a touchscreen.

Apple released the MacBook Air, and entrepreneurial laptop sleeves and minimalistic ones are already making their rounds in blogs, reminding me of the case I “made” for my Eee last week (798 views on Instructables as of the writing of this post!). So far, thinking of an uber-creative case for the XO has been quite daunting… and the OLPC laptop strap idea will be difficult to outwit.

Crave and BBC reports that NASA is thinking of creating a virtual world.

The MAKE blog has some articles about 3D printing:

• Kiosk – Sci-Fi tale of 3D printing, fabbing and more
• Fabaroni: a homemade 3D printer
• Sci-Fi objects and more made with a Spectrum Z510 3D printer (photo gallery)

Note (added after some feedback): This post is based on the fact that I received a unit with a defective keyboard. I’m hoping my second first impressions will be much better. Also, I have edited the shutdown time to reflect a soft shutdown.

Original post follows:

Before I start, I need to let you know that I’m a little disappointed.Not even from the fact that this machine is not as sleek as the Eee, because what it lacks in sleekness it makes up for in cuteness. But some aspects of the design are puzzling, regardless of the fact that it is meant to be an educational tool.

First, and most frustratingly, the keyboard requires MUCH pressure for the keys to register. I don’t mean that I simply can’t touch-type, but I actually have to press down on many of the keys, and sometimes pound down on them. It reminds me of the days of yore when typewriters were still being used. Seriously, my arms are tired and I’ve barely written three paragraphs (ed note: this post was drafted in the Write program in the XO, but the final edit was done on my Toshiba M300). I can’t imagine how difficult this would be for a child who conceivably has less developed muscular strength. And remember—I’m a stone-sculptress!

More keyboard woes:

1. The CTRL key is where the CAPS key normally lives, and there is no CAPS key.
2. The space bar is difficult to use.
3. The backspace button is labeled “erase”
4. The keyboard is off-center, with the bulk to the left.

Perhaps I have a defective unit, because the right-click button for the touchpad doesn’t do anything. Neither does tapping the touchpad. I do think it’s cute for the left-click button to be marked with an X and the right-click to be marked with an “O”…but the cuteness doesn’t really help the functionality problem.

The SD card slot is in a very odd space below the monitor. It can only be accessed by swivelling the monitor counter-clockwise. Although my Sandisk 512MB SD card was recognized by the XO, my Sandisk 512MB Cruzer Micro (USB drive) was not.

The “ears” are very secure in their homes, and I was a little worried I might break them while trying to unfold them. One is more secure than the other, and I scratched a finger the last time I tried to get it open.

Power, RAM usage and wireless activity indicator lights are on both sides of the monitor/top. I have not yet tested all of the buttons, but the Neighbourhood View/Group View/Home View/Activity View buttons on the keyboard are handy, and the screen rotation button works well.

If I hadn’t spent time on the OLPC News Forum, I wouldn’t have known to look for expandable media in the Journal. I suppose that’s something which would be taught to students and educators, but it just seems like a strange place for them.

The word processor does the job, and I’ll be looking forwards to the next Sugar release which fixes the file format problem. Again, I would need to visit the OLPC News Forum to figure out how to save files to removable storage, because it doesn’t seem very intuitive.

The paint program was quite basic and mimics paint programs. I could not figure out how to resize or save images (I clicked the “Keep” icon, but don’t really know what it did because I was afraid to make any changes to my original).

The built-in browser had positive and negative aspects. Positive: to maximize screen space, the address bar shows the page title when the cursor is not in that field. Negative: many functions do not work (for example, I tried to upload a photo into Photobucket, but the “Browse” button did nothing). Many users have switched to Opera, but the flimsy built-in browser is a disappointment, especially when it’s supposed to be a version of Firefox.

The Sugar interface needs some work, because it isn’t entirely intuitive. When hovering the cursor above an icon, the text which appears is sometimes a tooltip/label and sometimes a menu option. There is no visual clue indicating the difference. The bar of Activities along the bottom are bookended by scroll icons for the left and right. When you are at the leftmost bar of Activities, the left scroll icon does not change and does not loop you back to the next bar of Activities. The same goes for the right side.

A startup/shutdown time comparison (building off my post about the Eee’s UI). Note that the shutdown time of the XO is based on a hard shutdown using the power button. I have not yet been able to find a shutdown option through Sugar:

Nicholas Negroponte has been quoted as saying “It’s an education project, not a laptop project.”

What I’m having difficulty understanding is how a keyboard which requires the same amount of pressure as a typewriter, a right-click button which doesn’t do anything, a touchpad which doesn’t respond to taps, a browser which doesn’t respond to websites the same way as the rest of the world and a user interface which doesn’t have visual cues for info-only/event-option icons is acceptable for and/or helps education.

Perhaps the resulting frustration is supposed to give students an incentive to make things better… but there are plenty of other problems for them to be solving, I think.

I’m hoping my faith will be restored after I spend some more time with the device, and when I how kids react to it compared to me. But, for now, I’m glad I bought the Asus Eee.

The XO is damned cute, though! Here are a bunch of pictures: