When I went on holiday, I took my Asüs eee with me. As I’ve already reported, it’s a wondrously compact and light machine, and is half the price of a more conventional laptop. True, there are a few things the Asüs can’t do that a laptop can, but they’re not features I really need. I can’t really think of anything I’d use such features for that couldn’t wait till I got home.So, the things that it will do that I need:

Text: I can make notes, or even write articles. The word processor is Open Office 2.0, which converts readily and automatically to MS Word when I transfer it to my ‘big’ computer by means of SD cards or memory stick (There isn’t a CD drive). However, I did find when I ‘copied and pasted’ into my blog, all my ‘white space’ disappeared, and I had to wait till I got home to rectify this. Big advantage was being able to sit by the pool and work.

PDF

:  I copied some PDFs before I left home, and was able to read them easily. In fact, this machine is the best ‘ebook reader’ I’ve found so far.

Pictures and video

: I’ve got a little ‘family album’ that I can view as a slide show whenever I like. And, I can read the memory card on my digital camera, and view my pictures. I can also store some video … this was especially useful when I wanted to show one to someone. A slight problem was that the sound-track ’slipped’ slightly, but that I can live with. However, I have not yet found any means of resizing my pictures so I can email them or paste them in my blog; that, too, has to wait till I get home.

Sounds:

I can copy music and podcasts to it, or plug in my MP3 player, and listen to the tracks on it.

Internet:

The hotel I was staying at had free wifi, and was able to connect most of the time. Sometimes, it worked in my room; others, I had to come down into the foyer to work. I never could connect to my email server, but did manage to connect to my ’secondary’ address, which I will have to publicise more if the issue isn’t with the local server. I couldn’t get YouTube, either … but, as you can see from the entries I made while I was away, I did manage to get into, and post to my blog.

There’s probably a few more bells and whistles, but I haven’t found … or needed them … yet. Further posts as and when … or if … I do.