Asus EEE PC, a smart cheap laptop alternative

While I find the Macbook Air to be well-priced, I understand that it's not affordable for everyone. The Asus EEE PC is what I dreamed existed when I was in college. It is extremely affordable, even for the college student, with the cheapest model at $299.99. It is extremely mobile at only 2lbs (only 2/3 the weight of the Macbook Air) and about the size of a sheet of paper folded in half (though of course much thicker). It also looks very durable. Unlike the Macbook Air, where I recommended all sorts of cases to protect it, the EEE PC is small enough and sturdy enough to simply toss into a medium sized purse or in the small pouch of a backpack.

Last week, my best friend and I tested this laptop out at Micro Center. It is very cute, though the disadvantage to the size was certainly felt in the keyboard and screen sizes. The keyboard was difficult to type on when we first started testing it, but it was pretty clear that it was something we could easily get used to if we owned one. Though those with chubby fingers should still be wary of this problem and perhaps steer away from this laptop choice. The screen seemed really small at 7", but the resolution actually wasn't bad, and the version of Linux loaded on the machine was very easy to use, along with the specific layout customized for the machine. Ars Technica did a review of the machine with a very good section on the loaded software and operating system.

The EEE PC comes with SSD standard on every model, though HD sizes only ranges from 2 gig to 8 gig. But thumbdrives have been getting cheaper (I got a 2 gig one from Micro Center for free when they opened), and larger options such as the Western Digital Passport external hard drive are sleek, portable, and reasonably priced.

It is certainly not a computer for performance, with less than a Ghz of processing power. But really, for goofing around in a lecture hall, surfing and using chat clients, how buff do the specs really have to be?

Macbook AIr Accessories

With a fashionable notebook should go fashionable accessories! To protect that beautiful brushed aluminum exterior of the Macbook Air, I recommend check out the Shinza ZeroShock III Macbook Air Sleeve. Many companies make very similar looking sleeves, but I find Shinza's to be quality to be the most impressive. There's padding all around the zipper, and the padding on the sides is impeccable. It is lightweight, durable, and comes in three colors (white, black, orange). On the website, they have a picture of a 2mm sheet of glass inside the ZeroShock that survived a 100g iron ball having dropped 2m. My friend's brother decided to replicate this test with an egg inside the sleeve, dropping textbooks on it. The egg survived.

The one flaw to the sleeve is that there are no handles. It's a nice fashionable and smart way to protect your laptop, but not really to carry it around. Therefore, I suggest the Mobile Edge products. My personal favorites are the Milano for a business look:

and the Komen Microfiber Tote for a more casual look:


Both of these bags include an interior compartment specially made for laptops. It is lined with foam, with extra thick egg carton style phone at the very bottom, to protect the laptop from impact as you slide it into your bag. They are both extremely stylish, and provide plenty of extra space for make-up, books, notepads, external harddrives, mice, etc. They are even stylish enough for me to use as a normal bag! The Komen Microfiber Tote even provides a donation to the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation as an added bonus, so you can be both stylish and charitable!

Macbook Air

It shouldn't be too surprising that I have been seduced by the Macbook Air. While not being the top-of-the-line machine in performance, it is more than adequate, but when it comes to style, it wins hands down to any other laptop on the market. Previously, the trend in computers was to build something perfectly tailored and customized to your needs for a computer, with factors such as mobility, processing power, capacity, etc. The Macbook Air is a boutique laptop that maximizes on style and mobility, but is only about par across the other criterion that people use for buying a computer. It is more of a fashion accessory than a machine of brute computing power.

And yet, I was surprised to find that many of my more techy friends also drool over this machine. I had assumed that for the typical male techno-geek, the Macbook Air would provide too little in specs, and the extra sleekness over the Macbook Pro would be inconsequential being that the Macbook Pro was already small and light enough for them. How wrong I was. Here I am trying to dispel stereotypes of female techies, yet I was making stereotypes of the male techy! When asked for their reasonings for wanting a Macbook Air, the response I got was that it was something small enough to slip into a backpack for the unscheduled circumstances where it may come in useful, such as an unexpected trip to the girlfriend's place. Anything that would require mega processing power would be a planned event where they could make sure to be near their "real" machine, however the Macbook Air is still powerful enough to fire up an IDE to code up a quick fix to an urgent bug and test it.

When the Macbook Air first came out, I was surprised at the base price. Though it is less powerful than the Macbook Pro, I expected it to be a lot more expensive. Instead, it is in fact cheaper. My expectation was based on the Sony laptops, which I think was previously the most drooled over of the smaller notebooks. The 2-4 lb. VAIOs were always more expensive with less specs than their 6-8 lb. counterparts. I had been planning to buy a Macbook Pro around this time as my first Mac notebook, but with the announcement of the Macbook Air, I immediately knew that I wanted it instead.

Now a lot of fuss has been made about the SSD option, and I must say, that I find it extremely attractive. However, the Ars Technica article that was found its way to become a top Digg hit argues that the SSD is not worth the extra $1300. First of all, the SSD is an extra $999, while the 200 Mhz upgrade is $300. Second, for me personally, their benchmarks were not the ones I was interested in. Instead, I found this comparison to be more useful for myself. I find that the most frustrating thing about laptops, is the speed which it takes to boot up and come back from sleep mode. I am an impatient person. The $999 is certainly worth the frustration I save as well as the time. Meanwhile, $300 for 200 Mhz while processor speed is rarely the choke point anymore, I think is too steep.

The Macbook Air with SSD, while never the choice for a primary computer for a true techy, is certainly worthy of technolust. It is the newest in fashion for laptops, a must in the 2008 collection for males and females alike.

The Modern Tech Female

I went to Carnegie Mellon University for Computer Science. US News and World Report consistently ranks this the #1 program, usually tied with MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. In the late 90s, the program was known to have a higher Dave-to-female ratio. While the number of females have vastly increased since then, there is still the perception that there are only a handful of females in technology, and those who exists look like males, still exists. The ones who are even remotely attractive are thought to have batted their eyes at the males to get them to do their homework and help them pass exams.

I hope to dispel that image and show that there are female engineers who are intelligent, beautiful, and socially adroit. I want to show that it's possible for females to chat about their latest technolust while getting manicures. Or for sorority girls to build robots or write their own virtual reality simulator (as I am also a proud sister of Alpha Chi Omega sorority).

So welcome to my blog.