Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Blogging with my Asus Laptop

In response to my post ASUS eee laptop, a reader and fellow blogger sent in this email:

If you have a chance, a little more blogging about your experiences with the ASUS would be appreciated.

Are there any limitations or problems you have run into when working online on your website or with working online generally.  I know your initial post on the ASUS was done on the ASUS and worked quite well.  I was just wondering if you had run into any problems or limitations when using it to work online.

When I travel I need to update my own website and to retrieve data from other sites.  I generally do not need heavy apps.  I am tired of carrying a laptop.

Can it run a Powerpoint presentation (assuming you chose to load windows) and can you connect a projector to it?

I’m answering that question by blogging on my Asus. In fact, earlier this evening I blogged a recipe and a wine review using the Asus.

To illustrate what I can do with the Asus, let me add an Amazon Associates link to this post via which you can buy an Asus. ... Done.

Now let’s take a picture of my Asus with my iPhone, send it to my email account, download the picture to the Asus, and upload it via Expression Engine (my blogging software) to this post. ... Done.

As my Australian friends would say, “no worries.”

Email and blogging are thus easy. As for PowerPoint, I understand that you can get an Asus loaded with Windows XP and Microsoft Office applications. I opted for a Linux OS loaded with Open Office apps. I’ve used Open Office’s equivalent of Word to work with text documents and its equivalent of PowerPoint to work with presentations with no problems.

I haven’t tried showing a presentation from the Asus, but it has a standard USB port and I assume that a USB projector compatible with Linux would work fine.

I’ve only got 2 major complaints. First, over extended periods, the small screen gets annoying for my 49 year old eyes. Second, every once in a while I hit some key stroke combination that for reasons I haven’t figured out causes the screen to display Chinese characters. Fortunately, when this happens, a tool bar opens that has a drop down menu from which I can select roman letters.

As a hunt and peck typist, the small keyboard doesn’t bother me. But I suspect it might get on the nerves of a touch typist.

In sum, as a tool for email and blogging, I love my Asus, even though I wouldn’t want to write a book on it. 

In closing, let’s link a Youtube video review:

BTW, I also bought a 8 GB SDHC card and a USB reader. My Documents file at work is about 4 GB. So I can load all my files onto the card and use Microsoft’s Synctoy program to sync them when I return from a trip with no problems at all. So let’s add the Amazon boxes from which you can buy them too. You do want to subsidize my blogging, don’t you?