Tag Archives: YouTube

4th of July weekend 2011

  By Big Dan | July 5, 2011 - 10:06 am |
5 Comments

This weekend I didn’t do much exciting for the holiday. Friday was spent running around doing all the grocery shopping and such trying to beat the weekend traffic. The first trip to Wally-World at 5:30 am was pretty quiet. The second trip the butcher and dollar store in the afternoon was a nightmare with traffic.

Saturday was pretty uneventful though busy. I did some lawn mowing then came home and fried eggplant for Eggplant Parmesan for my sister’s birthday on Sunday. After all the cutting, breading, cooking, and frying was done I had to start my laundry. :eek: By the time I hit bed at 3am, I was wiped.

Sunday was my sister’s birthday. We had a big dinner and brownies other that I took it easy.

Monday, I finished the front lawn of a house I take care of. Today (Tuesday) I have to go up and mow the back plus do a little raking. Thankfully the backyard is much smaller than the front and I’ll probably grab Chinese for lunch up there while I’m working.

I bought God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood off Amazon yesterday. I’ve always loved the song but only listened to it on YouTube forever it seems. Now it’s on regular rotation on my MP3 player.

This week is shaping up to be busy. A friend of mine is driving up from Florida to move back into his house. I’ll be helping him get everything cleaned up so he can live there. Then we have lots of work to do to make the house sellable. Other than that I’m hoping to grab a day at the beach.

How is your week shaping up?

 

MSI Wind 12 U230 Review

  By Big Dan | January 24, 2011 - 4:53 am |
9 Comments

MSI Wind U230As most of you know I trashed my Acer laptop by spilling cereal on it. D’Oh! I’d been in the market for a new laptop since then. With some dough finally saved up I went shopping at New Egg. My original plan was to get a full sized laptop with an i7 processor and as much RAM as possible to replace my 3 year old desktop as my main machine. That wasn’t in my budget this time around everything in my price range was  similar to my old laptop. That’s when I decided on a netbook. My desktop still does it’s job well enough and I don’t need a laptop for much more than the occasional trip out of town and to detach from my desk and work elsewhere once in a while. Shelling out for a mid-range full laptop instead of a powerhouse that would be my main computer for 3 years would be foolish.

After playing with a few netbooks I knew I didn’t want a regular 9 or 10 inch one. They’re just way to tiny for my hands to type on so most netbooks were out. I settled on the largest one I could get, 12″.

The exact model I bought  is MSI Wind U230-086US. It’s a great little computer. My biggest reason for buying it was screen size, 2GB of RAM,  Windows Home Premium included (instead of Starter on most netbooks), and full sized keyboard. Here’s a walk through video I found of my exact model on YouTube:


The Good:

  • Feels solidly built. Keyboard and frame doesn’t flex even under my heavy hands.
  • 12″ Screen – large by netbook standards. 1366×768 is plenty of space for browsing and writing.
  • 2GB RAM – Good for light multitasking – browsing and instant messaging at the same time.
  • Keyboard – Full sized keys. They’re still placed closely together so key travel is shorter than usual. Doesn’t take as much getting used to as a smaller netbook.
  • Ubuntu runs perfectly on it no hacking required. You can optionally install video drivers for Compiz but not required.
  • 320GB Hard Drive – Big enough for me.
  • Built In Webcam and Microphone.
  • Decent sized touch pad with scrolling.
  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (see The bad Below).
  • Wireless b/g/n.
  • Memory Card Reader.
  • HDMI & VGA outputs. Haven’t tried HDMI yet.

The Bad:

  • Processor – The 1.6Ghz single core AMD MV-40 seems under powered for all but the most basic tasks. More than 5-6 tabs open in Chrome and things start slowing down significantly.
  • Windows 7′s Performance - I’m blaming this on the processor as I’ve been a huge fan of Windows 7 so far and never had issues with performance. It took me 4 hours just to install all the Windows updates when I first got it. Installing my standard apps took 2 hours. More than 3 tabs open at a time in Chrome slowed  to a crawl.  I wiped everything and installed Ubuntu which runs a lot better on here.
  • Battery Life – Not an issue for me but I only get 3 hours off a full charge that’s a lot less than most netbooks.
  • Webcam is pointed to low.
  • Speakers sound worse than most netbooks I’ve worked on.

Over all I’m happy with my purchase decision. It could do with a better processor though. Eventually I’ll max out the RAM to 4GB for a little more breathing room. It’s perfect to pop on and off online to check email, quick IM sessions, blog, and manage my sites while on the road.