Today I thought I would try bringing in the eeepc to work on the train as a side by side comparison with travelling with the 15.4” macbook pro.
Despite being half of the weight of the Apple it wasn’t noticably lighter but it felt less awkward since the eeepc can basically fit entirely in the palm of my super-sized hands.
For pure writing efficiency the keyboard works ok but with large hands comes great large fingertips so I need to be super accurate to avoid hitting two keys at the same time.
As part of this trial I am investigating how long the battery lasts when using low screen brightness, no wifi, no multimedia but sleeping when I’m actively doing work instead of being shutdown and being reaonably used for typing and editing.
With the MBP (admittedly I don’t use it all day long because I’m at work) I regularly get 6 hours from the battery whilst purely writing on a low screen brightness and I’m interested to see how long the eeepc can go in similar conditions. In my previous experience the MBP has much more advanced battery management and when asleep it barely consumes power compared to the eeepc which can easily run flat over the course of a day.
pause
I have to say it’s not the fastest machine to resume from sleep. Especially considering that the machine is completely solid state. The small screen is big enough to type on but I would be really interested in seeing the new model that has the bigger screen.
I feel like I’ve influenced so many people to get eeepc’s. Though being so cheap and small it’s an extremely easy sell. I think I’ve influenced the purchase of at least 5 eeepc’s in my circle of friends but the I also find strangers recommending the machine to me randomly all over town. I suspect they’ve been a raging sales success for Asus, I just hope they’re making enough money per unit to make it a profitable exercise.
Most sub-notebook machines are extremely expensive and whilst this isn’t exactly full featured it really has stand out performance for the size and price. It’s exciting thinking of what the future holds for tiny computers. 
I would possibly consider getting a macbbook air but it’s too large and far too expensive for a machine that would only be used when I
‘m out and about.
Called the motorbike shop again this morning and they promised the work would be completed by this afternoon. I’ve heard this story for a while now. It’s been about three months since I’ve had the motorcycle in my posession.
Two hours into my working day, another quiet time.
The eeepc has been sitting on sleep for quite a while and the battery life has dropped to 90%. We won’t really know how it’s going for sure until the end of the day and I can see whether it’s gone the distance on battery power alone.
I’ve noticed that when people have an important meeting they seem to randomly start calling ‘IT’ from the phonebook regardless of whether the team they call can actually physically assist them with their problem,
Just got a call requesting to be transferred to someone else.
Just whenever I start typing work comes in, must be because I’m at work. 
In the quiet times though it can be really really quiet. Really depends on the day.
3 hours into the day battery is on 80%
6 hours in (mostly on standby) the battery is at 60%. I’ve been pretty busy and I haven’t had a chance to write much over the last few hours. Ineresting that the battery has gone down 20% whilst on standby.
I never checked the battery again.
Tonight I was supposed to attend a going away dinner for a friend. Unfortunately I arranged to pick up the friend in my ill fated MX5 which drained the battery flat on the way there.
He came to me and picked me up (and the dead $200 battery) we went to the dinner (and they wouldn’t serve us due to a mix up over the times) so we had pizza down thee street at another place. Much later three of us drove back to the Mx5 via my house to collect my old dead cheap battery and managed to get some attention of passing cars by playing loud 80′s music.
In the rain and dark I fitted the old really cheap battery in and on the first attempt the MX5 roared into life, all electrics working fine and continued to be fine for the 30 minute drive home in the rain.
I suspect the old cheap dying battery still has more life than the 2 week old ‘made in the USA’ $200 battery but until I get a multimeter on the car I can’t really tell.
It’s late, time to get some sleep.
In many ways I wish I was going to Europe as well with my many friends.