I have to say I am quite pleased with my little netbook. The quoted battery life is 8 hours, but that number was probably figured with the wireless card off and the computer running nothing more cpu intensive than a text editor. I have watched about 4 hours of streaming video off of Netflix and still have almost 2 hours left, so I am fairly impressed. I knew before we went looking that I wanted one with a 6-cell battery, and was pleased they had made it into the low-end netbooks...low-end netbook sounds redundant, I know. But my low-end netbook also plays WoW, which surprised the hell out of me. Obviously, I had to turn all the settings down to almost nothing and it is still a little sluggish.
I can only think of two real complaints about it: Windows 7 Starter, and the [End] key. The limitations tossed in with Win7 Starter is lame. I appreciate that Microsoft wanted to make a cheap version of their OS for developing markets, but not being able to change the background without using a hack? Really? There do seem to be a few things that it isn't supposed to be able to do that it can, like multi-touch and network printing. Mostly though, I hate the [End] key. I apparently use this key all the time, but now I have to hit a function key first. It is a small thing, I know, but I really do use this key a lot.
On a side note: I reactivated our Netflix account. While digging around I found all the seasons of Have Gun Will Travel, both streaming and on disc. I have been plowing through, just finished episode 25 before laying down on the futon to write this post. After I finish the episodes online from season 1, I am going to hold off a bit. For some reason, episode 13, the "Christmas" episode wasn't online so I have the disc coming. I want to watch it before moving on to season 2. It is interesting watching the episodes. The show was filmed in 1957, it is all in black and white, and for the most part, it is a really non-violent western. Maybe I am remembering westerns wrong, but I was pretty sure every episode of Bonanza started with Little John going to a nearby town and getting beaten up, and the Rifleman shooting multiple people in every episode of his show (I don't remember The Big Valley much). Gene Roddenberry wrote a number of episodes for the series.
Reading through this made me realize two things: I can't keep a coherant thought when I am this tired, and I probably shouldn't tab away to other stuff when I am typing. G'night.
