What’s up with Chris

WTF! The Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl!!!!!

I’ve had the NC10 netbook now for about a month now. I’ll some up what I’ve done so far since my last post.

1. Installed Ubuntu using Wubi.
   I messed around a little with Ubuntu and Netbook Remix.  I was only a little impressed with UNR.  For whatever reason whenever I opened up a new application from the dashboard it would open, then be obscured by the dashboard.  I haven’t found a solution to this and it’s damn more annoying that the calibration issues with the trackpad.  I also started having issues with the Ubuntu wireless driver.  It worked for a while, then it just quit on me.
2. Unistalled Wubi, Used Unetbootin to install OpenSuse.
   At this point I thought to try out something new.  I’ve never use OpenSuse before.  I downloaded Unetbootin HERE and selected the 11.1 installation.  Everything install smoothly and I thought the OS was pretty usable.  My only gripe is the boot time and how it handled (or lack there of) hibernating.  I just could not get the thing to hibernate when I closed the lid and when I initiated it manually it took forever to do so.  On the upside I really do like the new KDE 4.1 series.  So much that I’ll upgrade my Mandriva desktop to it this weekend.
3. Over-wrote OpenSuse with Ubuntu.
   So I tired easily of OpenSuse and decided to go back to Ubuntu.  The boot and shutdown times were faster and there wasn’t as much bloat.  This sort of thing really does become important for a mobile, battery powered device.  I’m not going to use UNR though.  I’ll just stick with the standard desktop interface and customize it a little more.

I really do like the NC10 and Christine really gets a kick out of how responsive and handy it has become.  It takes up very little space and tucks away neatly out of site in our living room.

My goal now, as I mentioned above, is to customize the interface a little more.  I’ll setup the email client and browser.  I’ll configure a media player to connect to my content server and make sure I can play music and movies.

At some point I think I’ll write an application that will let me selectively sync my NC10 with the media server and it will allow me to have only the media I want on the NC10.  So if I want to watch Iron Man and Charlie Wilson’s War on my next trip, but I don’t want to watch Super Troopers again, it will remove the old movie and sync up with the newer ones.

I think I’ll also want to add a photomanager… maybe Picasa or something similar.  And my Sansa utilities… yeah, that all sounds about right.

UPDATE:
I discovered that having desktop effects enabled in Ubuntu was causing the focus issues in Netbook Remix.  After disabling this everything works great!

I recently picked up an NC10 Netbook.  It’s a sort of 30th B-day present to myself.  I’ve wanted a small laptop to tote around on trips or to a relative’s house to help them setup/debug their home networks.  I’d like to have the ease of taking the device to business meetings and pitches without having to worry about lugging around a big briefcase.  Simple is better.

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The weather has turned cooler in AZ.  Highs are in the 60s this week.

After a great 30th birthday party thrown by my wife, Christine and I are prepping the house for the holidays.  My folks are making their way to AZ by car from B-lo.  My sisters are flying into town next week.

This will be the first Christmas for my parents and sisters outside of NY so we’re trying to make it memorable.  We’ll hit up a Coyotes game, check out some local events, and get together with the in-laws.

Good times.  Good times.

So we’re off to Europe for a much needed vacation. VERY MUCH NEEDED! We’ll be posting periodically from the road. Whenever we can find time and an internet cafe, we’ll likely take a few minutes to write a few emails and post some pictures here.

A brief summary of our itinerary:
Sat-Wed: Rome
Wed-Fri: Florence
Fri-Sat: Venice
Sun-Wed: Paris
Wed-Sat: London

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