Netbook, ahoy!

I picked up a netbook for several reasons:

1. My laptop has eaten another battery. I figured if I was going to replace a second one, I might as well get a new device instead.

2. Clearance price. I got this little sucker for less than $200 (after tax), which was the only thing that made it plausible.

3. I’d been thinking it would be nice to have something I could take with me to work, so that I can write during my lunchbreak. The netbook is small enough that it fits in the tiny work lockers.

4. Last but not least, surprise money.

And here she is:

I’m calling her Shortcake since she’s tiny and cute and peppy. These things have very little logic. It’s an Acer D255E-13639 (which you can see in the photo) and I’ve already changed the wallpaper.

The stupidest thing about Windows 7 starter is that you can’t change the desktop wallpaper or themes. Me? I don’t give a hot damn about themes but there was no chance that I was keeping that standard background. I suspect this was the plan of the evil TechNOverlords to annoy the average joe into an $80 upgrade [jerks]. Doing a very quick google search (have I mentioned how much I’m liking the latest Chrome?) I found Oceanis to change the background. I’m not linking the site because it tried to install malware but my AVG Free/ZoneAlarm free caught it. Anyhoo, thanks to hackers everywhere I’ve got a set of nifty background images that I can rotate through as frequently as I’d like.

As to the REST of Windows 7 Starter… I’m not noticing much of a difference from Home Premium (which I have on my laptop) probably because I didn’t get Shortcake to DO those things. This is not the machine you’re looking to stream movies from Netflix and get great picture/sound because it’s got a 10.1″ screen, for crying out loud. I’ve installed a couple of writing programs to play around with, the keyboard is comfortably sized and I haven’t had any issues getting the machine to do what I want. The hard drive is the same size on this as it is on my laptop (250G) and I’ve already used dropbox to add music to Shortcake.

In peripheral news, they have come a LONG WAY in wireless mouse technology. I love that this has a multitouch pad but I grabbed a wireless ($19 at Target) because sometimes it’s nice to have one. The usb interface is very nearly flush with the edge of the netbook, making it the tiniest usb input I’ve ever seen. Go you, Logitech!

I haven’t had any luck locally finding a sleeve that isn’t too big, but Office Max does stock a couple of TINY backpacks perfect for this.

This is probably where I should also do an endorsement of the free AVG and ZoneAlarm products, as in all of the years I’ve had PCs I’ve never gotten a single virus or trojan. Go free software! It also helps to download from cnet, as they make sure your programs come malware free.

A new skin from DecalGirl is already wending its way to the mountains. You can use DECAL10 and get 10% off right now, or like their facebook page and get a one-time only code. I’ve used their service for virtually all my devices in the last 4/5 years and I’ve got nothing but great things to say about them.

So yeah. Spouse has been at a work thing and I’ve been nerding out with my new toy ever since I got home this afternoon. There’s a solid chance I may even install Linux on this one. I haven’t touched my phone or looked at the television but I guess he’ll be relieved not to hear me TALK ABOUT ALL THIS since I’m just putting it on the internet.