Acer Aspire One - Crunch Bang Linux How To

http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/howto/aspireone

Take a look at this entry on the ever-so-kickass, #! CrunchBang Linux wiki. One of the users is building a step-by-step guide to installing #! onto your AAO.

Acer Aspire One - First Week Impressions

Happy New Year to everyone! (to the 3 people who actually read my ramblings)

I am back to the grind at work, for the most part, and I have now had the opportunity to put my new Aspire One to work for me to a certain extent.

I have stayed at home during the holiday weeks – however I am absolutely certain that I am just going to love this little guy while I am on the road. I do spend a good 3-4 days of most weeks on the road visiting accounts and staying in my 2^nd home in Philadelphia. The functionality and portability I get out of the Aspire One will truly allow me to just pitch my aging HP dv1000 laptop that I have been lugging in my bag for years now. The HP laptop was fairly small and served me extremely well however and in recent times has proven to be quite Linux friendly to boot.

As much as I love Linux and I try to use it as my primary OS – my job has made it extremely difficult to continue to do so. Last year the company I work for moved to the use of Cisco-based VoIP phones and as a result I am forced to use a Cisco software-based phone. On top of that, just recently, the company also shifted to Windows Server 2008 and since then my Citrix client for Linux has been non-functional. After many futile attempts to continue to function with Citrix to connect to my company's server – I have had to back burner the endeavor for now. Damn Citrix!

So now that I have attempted to clear the air as to why the hell I am still using the installed version of XP on the Aspire One I think I can put the nudging I may hear from some of my friends to rest for now. To be honest – I am not seeing a great deal of fully compatible distros for the Aspire One either... though I am sure it will improve.

OK, so my impressions of the Aspire One are out right tremendous with the exception of the track pad. Yeah this track pad truly sucks, and I don't think I will get used to it. In my opinion, if the left and right buttons were perhaps easier to click and perhaps a bit more “touchy” I could prove to be a marked improvement to the design and allow better functionality. I have yet to get out my mini-optical mouse yet for the thing .. I am just dealin' with it for now in hopes that I will get accustomed to it. That is the only complaint I have about this netbook.

(**edit: as of 7:23PM 01.01.09 I said f*ck it - and reached for the mini-optical..I can't take it anymore**)

I have the 6-cell battery that gets things done for me... I am seeing an easy 5 ½ hours of life on the average, which is more than perfect. The 6-cell version of the One also came with a 160GB HDD and I am not sure of any US-based retail store that stocks this version – however there are many ways you can purchase this version on-line.

When I first laid hands on the Acer I figured the keyboard would be awkward to use and when I made up my mind one which netbook I wanted, I was expecting this. Again however, the Acer Aone has given me another surprise – after 1 week I am very comfortable with the smaller keyboard and I can just sit down and type away. Very cool indeed.

I have yet to use the 1.3 MP web cam that is built into the unit – well other than making sure it works. Its OK I guess... the built in mic seems quite “tinny”, but I expected that. I will be using the web cam on the road every day when I talk with the kids at home on Skype. Previous to this I was using an external cam with my HP laptop – so the built-in web cam will keep things a lot more convenient for me in this regard as well.

Unless you hear otherwise – just consider my opinion regarding the Acer Aspire One netbook to be a slam dunk. Please let me know how things are coming along in the way of Aspire One friendly Linux distros, I'd appreciate it. As well as anyone that may have some good knowledge of using Citirx on Linux.

My Acer Aspire One Specs:

Model#A150-1447

Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz

8.9" WSVGA

1GB DDR2 SDRAM - 160GB HDD - Fast Ethernet, Wi-Fi - Windows XP Home - Sapphire Blue

I wish everyone all the best in 2009 and thanks for reading.

Thanks Santa!

Happy Holidays!

Aside from a great time I had with my kids and family this year - Santa took care of me too. My wife dropped an Aspire One netbook on me and Paul Westerberg (former frontman for the Replacements) just put out another MP3-only EP release on Tunecore for less than three quarters ($0.74)!

With all of the stuff going on for me these last few days because of the holidays I have yet to really check out my new netbook and Westerberg's , "D.G.T" EP much. I can tell you that I am typing this blog entry on the Aspire One - mainly as an opportunity to get used to the smaller keyboard. I have to tell you, aside from the annoying trackpad button configuration (buttons on the side due to space) it has taken very little to get used to the keyboard.

Stay tuned to my next posts reviewing both my new netbook and Westerberg's latest release.

Daddy, can I please play that Vroom game...pleeease!?!?

I have been hearing this phrase every Saturday afternoon for weeks. My 5 year old has become an SGI fan for life. He and I have been playing with some Synth tools, Video Capture, Cycles, BZ Flag...and yes, his favorite, Vroom.

It has been a lot of fun hacking away on the SGI again. Irix is the greatest - its just now time for me to pick up some more stuff. I think the Indy R5K with XL graphics will remain my favorite - but its time for me to get a Fuel or a O2. I just can't seem to use it anymore with my son glued to it every Saturday morning after toons. :)

Its been really crummy outside for the past few weekends and snow is certainly on the horizon - SGI's and Miggy's are the definate cure for a borring day. Go ahead - take your A500 out of the closet and throw it at you kid to brighten his/her day. And be sure to tell them how you remember when computing was fun!

Wow! It has been awhile. A1200 Arise!!!

I have been obviously too busy to update my blog. I will spare those 5 people that actually frequented my drivel to just say that the tail end of 2007 was hectic with the usual things.

I am planing on resurrecting my A1200 for a few tasks. The first one is play around with Aladdin 4D (Amiga OS 3D software) - by friend, fellow co-host of AmigaRoundtable Podcast, owner of DiscreetFX, and fellow Amiga Freak, Bill Panagouleas - has purchased the rights to this package in December from the former rights-owner and plans on porting this package to OS4, Morphos, Linux?, and AROS. I am getting a copy of the classic version to play with. (Thanks Bill!)

As well as playing with A4D - I am going to get my A1200 involved in some audio work that I have been meaning to get back into. (gosh - I have been saying that forever!) Not only do I want to play with Octamed once again.. I plan on using an 8-bit sampler to use with my noise-music-projects that I have been somewhat involved with in the past few years.

My A1200 is slightly upgraded with an 030/50mhz card and 32mb of RAM. Which is enough to get me going for both purposes. On the other hand - I have been itching to get one of my x86 boxes, Amiga emulated, I may just do that and leave the 1200 for the 8-bit sampling tasks. We'll see... nevertheless these are my goals for the first part of 2008.

I also and going to get the AmigaKegger2008 website started. (see previous blog posting last summer) So be on the lookout for that. Date for the event is tentatively set for June 28th, 2008. The location will probably be in Philadelphia for me. We hope to have other locales set up impromptu all over the world on this date. Web-casting, IRC-chats, and lots of drinking. :) Want to be a part of this??? Send me an email!

Care for a bit of Satire?

In lieu of Amiga, Inc.'s Open Letter to The Amiga Community that was posted last night, The Amiga Roundtable Podcast team has their own Open Letter. Yeah..we were a little angst-y last night....


ART's Open Letter to the Amiga Community



Please - Please - give us back our OS..hang your hat and be done with it Amiga, Inc.

Acube Systems' SAM440ep Public Launch

Anyone who knows me knows that I am an Amiga wacko. And like many many other Amiga users we all waited in heated anticipation for the looming launch of Acube Systems' Sam440ep. The Sam440 is the current hopeful savior for us as the platform for Hyperion's OS4 (latest Amiga OS) - however, due to a tedious court battle between Hyperion and Amiga, Inc. it is still not a done deal - yet.

However here are the details on the board. Obviously this is not just an AmigaOS platform, it will prove to be a very powerful system for embedded development.
Pricing on the board will clock in at 350 - 550 Euros, if I have my notes straight. I am hopeful we will hear more information about this board, early adopters, etc. Until then, I will probably just wait until OS4 is available for it at this point.

• CPU SoC AMCC 440ep
  • Integrated DDR 266 memory controller
  • Integrated PCI controller
  • Integrated Flash memory devices controller
  • Integrated USB 1.1 Host and 2.0 Device controller
  • 2 integrated Ethernet 10/100 ports
  • Up to 4 serial ports
  • 2 I2C interfaces
  • SPI interfaces
  • 64 pin for I/O General Purpose
• USB 2.0 OHCI/EHCI NPX controller
• Audio Cirrus Logic CS4281 e Codec Realtek ALC655
• 4 Serial ATA ports
• ATI RADEON Mobility M9 with 64mb RAM graphic chip
• FPGA

- Image used taken from an Amigaweb.net attendee at Pianeta show in Italy :) -

(Great site by the way - check it out!)