The Smorgasbord

I think the most exiting thing to happen in computing in over a decade is the SSD or Solid State Drive. Many believe Solid State Hard drives will eventually replace spinning disk hard drives (the slowest part in a PC). SSD’s certainly are the buzz right now because of the allure they offer in speed and data transfer, in addition to making laptops and gadgets like iPods and cell phones both lighter and more powerful (more storage). I will teach you everything you need to know about Solid State Drives in this article, and provide you with all the places they are currently available and why or why not you should get one, and maybe even give you enough information to decide for yourself if they are the “next big thing” or not.

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

First, let’s talk about what a Solid State hard Drive is. You get the definitive answer from Wikipedia of course. Let me give you some details from that Wikipedia entry:

A Solid State Drive, or SSD, has no moving parts. Think of it as a huge flash drive. Because it has no moving parts, it eliminates the seek time and latency of a traditional spinning disk hard drive – and it’s faster. So because you’ve eliminated electro-mechanical delay, you’ve also eliminated electro-mechanical failures. It’s not to say an SSD wont go out, but at least you know it can’t go out due to moving part failure.

A Solid State Drive is comprised of either Flash RAM or SDRAM. SDRAM SSD’s are “fast access”, and data access is less than 0.01ms (250 times faster than the fastest hard drive in 2004). SDRAM SSD’s have an internal battery, and if the power goes out, whatever is in memory (RAM) can be copied to disk. There’s a distinct advantage over a spinning disk. Flash memory is slower than SDRAM, but because it’s more durable and rugged – it’s more widely used in SSD’s. Flash based SSD’s do not have a battery and use non-volatile memory.

SSD Pro’s:

• Faster startup and boot time
• Faster I/O (data access, see time)
• Longer lifetime (10 years of normal use)
• No moving parts
• Easy to ‘wipe’ clean
• Lower weight and size

SSD Con’s:

• Price ($8/GB compared to 0.25 cents/GB for spinning disk)
• Data possibly harder to recover with drive failuer vs. spinning disk
• Possibly affected by magnetic fields / static charges
• Slower random write speeds

Now, let’s give you a better perspective by sampling some information about SSD’s from across the net. Popular Mechanics calls the Solid State Drive the 3rd most Brilliant Gadget of 2007. They also mention the use of the term “solid state disk” as an oxymoronic term.

Tom’s Hardware reviewed the Solid State Drive 4 years ago, and one of the things that I noted was the fact that they said their test unit literally didn’t get hot at all and was virtually silent. In addition to being smaller than a traditional hard drive, it’s power consumption was way less than a spinning disk, and nearly nothing at all when not in use. These are definite distinct advantages that didn’t seem to come up in the Wikipedia article. I’ve had many computers in the past that had 3-4 hard drives installed, and they not only sounded like an airplane hangar – some of the drives would get very, very hot. SSD drives would definitely completely change that picture. They also mentioned that the drive could be used in nearly any environment, which I didn’t think about. Spinning disk would not work as well (or at all) in extreme heat or cold, but an SSD should. In this article you can view the performance graphs taken during testing showing how much faster and better performing the SSD was compared to 20-odd spinning disk hard drives.

So let’s recap what we’ve learned here…

• SSD Solid State Hard Drives boot faster than spinning disk drives
• SSD’s weigh less, don’t get hot, and use less energy than traditional HDD
• The SSD cost much more, but prices are coming down
• You see how well an SSD can function in a mobile situation – like a laptop or portable
• Solid State Drive’s are worse than traditional HDD is sustained data transfer – which means it’s not well suited for saving, moving, copying lots of large files or functioning in a constantly data intensive situation, like a database server
• SSD’s should last longer and be way less succeptible to failure than traditional HDD

If you’re considering getting a Solid State Drive:

• Can you justify the price vs. the benefit
• Are you better off waiting for prices to come down?
• Do you do data intensive work that is better suited to a traditional HDD?

Last – I’m going to provide you with some links so you can get current pricing on SDD Solid State Drive’s.

There are several Solid State Drive’s listed on Amazon:

Here are the most recent eBay auctions for solid state drives:

OCZ Technology 30 GB Vertex Series Solid State Drive
	USD 79.99 (0 Bid) End time: 2010-09-04 00:37:42

17-inch MacBook Pro Solid State Drive (SSD) EXCELLENT!
	USD / 3900.00 (0 Bid) End time: 2010-09-03 21:20:36

Lexar 16GB ExpressCard External Solid State Drive (SSD)
	USD 54.99 (0 Bid) End time: 2010-09-04 01:13:05

Intel X25-M SATA Solid State Drive-160GB
	USD 290.00 (0 Bid) End time: 2010-09-04 07:10:13

Do you own an SSD? Have an opinion about Solid State Drives?

Is the Samsung BD-P3600 better than the Playstation 3?

Do you need a Blu-Ray player, but don’t want or need the gaming aspect of the Playstation 3? The Samsung BD-P3600 one of the highest rated non-PS3 Blu-Ray players on the market. The features on this player are a laundry list of what you will need to never leave your couch again (or so the marketing people say). According to cNET (the holy grail of tech reviews) “The Samsung BD-P3600 is a huge leap ahead for standalone Blu-Ray players with blazing-fast operational speed, tons of features and excellent image quality.” Well let’s see if this player reaches its potential, or lags back like the rest of standalone Blu-Ray players we’ve seen in the past.

The player claims to boast a new innovative Video Quality Enhancement (QVE) feature that further improves the picture quality by adjusting brightness, flickering and other visual “noise”. While this sounds like an awesome feature it really only goes so far to improve video quality. This feature is clearly targeting videophiles but most videophiles have manually tweaked their settings anyways. We’re talking about guys so geeked about their home entertainment that they’ll spend $120 on a single oxygen free gold plated HDMI cord. This is not a mark down, but a heads up.

Besides the QVE vido enhancement this player really shines when you see all the options for viewing your media. First it has your Blu-Ray player, of which the benchmarks of the loading times met or came close to the industry leader, PS3. Next, it has a Netflix instant streaming player, which in term of performance works only slightly as well PS3’s Netflix player (but at least it’s there). It also has a Pandora Internet radio player but it feels tacked on and load times are on the slow side. Finally, the player offers the ability to stream content from your PC or laptop. Once again the feature seems tacked on, and not as full featured as it could be. It seems like it is only there so Samsung can say “look what we did!”

I really wanted to like this player. It seems like for everything it does right, it does two things wrong. If you are in the market for a Blu-Ray player or you are looking to upgrade, get a Playstation 3. Its really easy and it offers all the features of this player and much more, but it does it all much better.

The new version of the Amazon Kindle 2 is out, so I thought I would give it a review. This time around they’re really taken the time to refine the device and create something very functional, elegant, lightweight, and cool. This first thing you’ll notice is how darn thin it is. It’s only as think as most magazines. Also it doesn’t weigh much more than a standard paperback (10 ounces). The screen is more legible and battery life has been extended by 25%. It has 2GB of internal memory, and uses Sprints 3G network for connectivity (no cost for this beyond the device). One of the really cool things about the Kindle 2 is that is has PDF document conversion – you can email documents to the device and they will be converted to PDF for you to read. You can even listen to music and podcasts on the eReader. Kindle 2 only weighs a little over a pound and a half.

Here’s a video review of the Kindle 2:

There are all kinds of deals for Kindle in auctions ending now – check some of these out:

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You can also check out the price of a New Kindle 2 on Amazon now:

Would you like to access the Internet 100 times faster than you do now? According to Roland’s Emerging Tech blog that reality isn’t too far off. I’ve been using the Internet the very beginning of dial-up and the 1200 baud modem. That’s probably 100 times slower than the broadband we have today. What if I told you that a new way to transfer data for the Internet has been developed and it’s 100 times faster than what we have now?

In Australia at the University of Sydney they created an optical chip based on plain glass that could transfer up to 640Gbps – yes “gigabytes per second”. That’s about a dozen and a half full DVD’s (per second). They say it could be up to 100 faster than what we have “at no additional cost to the consumer”. Well, that’s university people saying that – you sure can bet, even if it doesn’t cost your provider any more – because it’s 100 times faster they’ll jack up the price to who knows what. When I read this article the thing I wonder is if they can make computer parts based on this new glass switching technology and lessen the reliance on silicon. Exiting things are definitely to come.

High gas prices got you down? Check out this 280mpg VW car!

So you’re thinking you might get a Prius to enjoy that 60mpg at the gas pump, or maybe a Honda Civic with 35mpg? Maybe you were even thinking of getting motorcycle or moped. I get that you didn’t think there was a car currently being tested that gets 282mpg – did you? The pic below is from Wired, and this car is called the “One-Liter”

This concept they’re calling a “microcar”, and they plan to build a limited number of them in 2010. It’s a two seater car (one behind the other) with aerodynamics much like an airplane or jet sans wings. Made of carbon fiber, magnesium, and titanium, the One-Liter weighs less than a third of a Toyata Echo and has less the coefficient of drag of a Honda insight. It has a one-liter (of course) diesel engine, anti-lock brakes, and airbags. It can do 65 on the freeway, and the engine shuts off at lights and automatically restarts when you hit the accelerator. By the time it hits the market it’s sticker price could be $20-30,000

VW is only slated to build 1,000 of these per year, but I bet they’re sold out completely well before they are even available. To go as far on one gallon as an entire tankful means that the average person driving 10,000 miles per year at $4 per gallon of gas could drive the one-liter for $160. A traditional car that gets 20mpg would cost $2,000 per year in gas.

Caveat emptor though, it’s only a 2 seater, and if something goes wrong your little exotic green car could cost a lot to get fixed! Would you feel safe driving this? Would you give up your SUV for something like this?

If you’re thinking being green, saving gas, and looking futuristic – the “UNO” motorcycle has all that and more!

They call the “Uno” an electric unicycle, but I don’t think that’s actually a good descriptor since it has two wheels (side by side) and it doesn’t require any balancing like a unicycle does. It has an internal gyroscope – like the Segway to keep it balanced. This blog says it’s a Segway with a seat.

There are lots of quick blog posts about the Uno and it’s creator, like this one on MakeZine, but none are quite as in-depth as the Motorcycle Mojo interview. It turns out that they found the Uno at the 2008 International Motorcycle Show in Toronto. The bikes inventor is from Canada as well, Ben J. Poss Gulak. What you might not know is that he is only 18 years old and just now enrolled in MIT.

So, how does one invent something so unique and innovative at such a young age? Well, Ben’s grandfather had a machine shop in his basement, and Ben made plenty of projects like model rockets and trains. In the 9th grade he invented a simple model car that “shot round a track using accelerator coils” that allowed him to represent Canada in an international science fair. His grandfather passed away within a month of that competition, but the machine shop was willed to Ben – who continued to learn and work on projects.

So, for the next international science fair he invented the Uno (version 1). What you see in the picture above is revision 3. The difference being, Ben got a little help creating the body and programming the digital gyroscopes for this version. Follow the Motorcycle Mojo link for the full details. You can read about version 1 of the Uno here on engadget, and here on canoe technology.

The Uno is said to be able to reach 40mph and weighs about 120lbs. It only has one control, an on / off switch. You just lean forward (or back) to move, and it’s powered by 36v wheelchair batteries. To charge – you just plug it into any standard outlet. It has a range of about 2 1/2 hours and would be perfect for commuting. I’ve read revision 3 has a top speed of 25mph for now, but with bigger motors that will increase. Even though the wheels are mounted side by side, they are independantly operated making turning more precise (treehugger).

Ben is currently looking for some investors to get this thing into production, visit the Official Uno Web Site (be warned, it’s kinda under construction a bit).

Is the Uno the only electric unicycle like thingie out there? Well, no, the Bombarider Embrio electric unicycle also exists.

Looking for a “Hi Def Camcorder”? The “Canon Vixia HF10″ is not only affordable, it records direct to flash media – which is why we think it’s the best bang for your buck right now!

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

I was shocked and amazed when I saw the Vixia HF10 for the first time. Weighing less than one pound and only a little less in size than a water bottle (3″x2.5″x5″) this little wonder is amazing. The one feature that makes it stand out most is the fact that it has an internal flash memory of 16GB. Wow! No more silly tapes, no spinning disk hard drives – none of that! And it has a slot for SD or SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) flash memory cards. You can buy a high capaticy SD card now for around $35, so that’s a big pro! Canon is not the first company to make a flash drive based digital camcorder, but they may be the first to do it as well as they have – especially at this price!

Here are the features of the Canon Vixia HF10:

• 12X Optical Zoom (200X digital zoom)
• 16GB internal memory and SDHD card slot
• SuperRange Image Stabilization
• 2 hours 1920×1080 Full HD Recording time
• 2 Channel Dolby Digital Audio
• External Mic Jack
• Mini HDMI Out
• 2.7″ LCD Screen

I’ve read a lot of really positive reviews, and it’s amazing to me that you can now buy an HD Camcorder for under $1,000! The Vixia HF10 got a 5 star review from c|Net – watch the video review:

One of the things that the video highlighted that I forgot to mention was the fact that you get about an hour of HD record time per charged (included) battery. What you want to do is order one of the double size aftermarket battery packs that will get you about 2 hours of recording time. It will stick out a bit and make the Vixia HF10 a slight bit more bulky – but it will be worth it.

Most places online are listing the Canon Vixia HF10 for $1,000-$1,200. The reason I wrote this review today was that I saw just this morning that Newegg (practially my favorite online electronics store) has it listed for only $829! I consider that a steal since my last digital camera was over $600. This would make the perfect gift for a birthday, Christmas, or Father’s Day! Newegg even has free shipping, how can you beat that with today’s price of gas?

Canon VIXIA HF10 Black High Definition Camcorder
Price: $829.0
Canon VIXIA HF10 2.7″LCD 12X Optical Zoom High Definition Camcorder

Like always – it’s always worth perusing eBay to see if you can get a deal. Here’s the latest eBay auctions for the Vixia HF10:

[nms:vixia hf10 -battery -cap -lens -cable -filter -tripod,5,0,0,smorgas.vixia.hf10]

If you’re looking for one of those double sized aftermarket batteries, eBay is a great place for that as well:

[nms:vixia hf10 battery ,3,0,0,smorgas.vixia.battery]

Looking for one of the 8GB or greater SDHC flash memory cards? eBay once again to the resuce:

[nms:sdhc,3,0,0,smorgas.vixia.battery]

Bionics, Cyborgs, and exo-skeletons are on the verge of being able to be sold to industry and the general public. Here are 5 different things that seem to be ripped from the movies and television right into reality.

I see incredible things based on new technology nearly every day. But I think back to when I was a kid and how we dreamed of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and laser pistols. The funny thing is, the things that are becoming reality seem to be ripped right out of the movies and television. Remember Robocop, the Bionic Man, and recently even Iron Man? These were all a combination of man and machine, whether an armor type “suit” or embedding robotics and electronics in a human.

Check out the Exo-Skeleton Suit. It can enhance what you do and allow a human to life ut to 10x more than their normal body strength. The military is testing other types of exo-skeletons that allow people to carry up to a 200lb payload with minimal effot and no load bearing. Unlike our childhood dreams of everyone having their own robot suit, this has real world applications. In my younger days I had a few factory jobs that required liftings where I would have killed to have something like this to assist me. I can see all kinds of applications for something like this, from a construction roofer to a stockboy at Wal-Mart. Also – they are already testing exo-skeleton designs for people that lost limbs. Imagine being able to wear an exo-skeleton instead of having to use a wheelchair!

When I was looking at exo-skeletons I saw some Cyborg Insects that were really scary. If they can make a robot moth that really flies, imagine the counter intelligence they could do with this! You wouldn’t be worried about hidden cameras anymore, you’d be worried whether bugs were spying on you or not. What would happen if a bird that normally ate months ate one of these?

Robots Swarms seem like something right out of a movie. They are little tiny robot modules that attach themselves together in a “swarm” and morph into something for a common goal. In a disaster this could be very helpful for saving people – but it’s so damn scary looking!

The Self Healing Chair I don’t believe is a realistic product per se, but more like an illustration of what robots of the future will be able to do. In some compacity robots of the future will be able to repair themselves, find the parts they need, and put themselves back together again. This really reminds of the Terminator!

This last one – the Self-Repairing Robot is really incredible to watch. I can’t even begin to put my finger on what this will be used for, but the unique ability of a robot to be able to create and build, and morph is unbelievable to watch.

We may not be living in the “Jetsons” age just yet, but technology is doing incredible things right under your nose! What incredible things have you seen lately that seemed to jump right out of a movie into reality?

Can Holographic Storage, a technology 20 years in the making, be the future BluRay killer?

Robin Harris wrote an article on his blog the other day about holographic storage shipping next month. The technology was in the works for decades before becoming a reality. Every now and then I read about something and go “wow – that’s the future!”. I remember when I was a kid in the 80′s and my day telling me about computer storage and memory doubling nearly every six months. He also told me “someday you’ll be able to carry your 30 albums or your entire record collection on a small postage stamp sized chip in your pocket.” It seemed like something out of the movies back then, and yet my 4GB SD Flash card for my digital camera can hold about 1,000 songs which I guess is about 75-80 CD’s (and it’s about the size of a postage stamp).

We’ve all seen a holograph in a sci-fi movie. A holograph is a projected image that, if you moved around it, would actually have perspective form different angles. A holograph is a true “3D image”. So, how do you turn a holograph into storage? Technically a holograph IS storage, because it stores information about the image to be projected. A hologram uses 2 laser beams. A reference and illumination beam create an interference pattern on photo sensitive media. Shine a laser on that reference pattern and get an image in 3D – simple as that. Robin Harris brings up to good points in that article, the first being that a small fraction of the reference data can reconstruct the entire 3D images (you just can’t move as far around it). This means that unlike a CD or DVD, if the photo sensitive media is scratched it doesn’t (completely) destroy the data. Imagine data that can “reconstruct itself” from the remaining bits. His other point was that the amount of storage is just about limitless. By changing the reference point and illumination of the beams different holographs can be produced – so hundreds (or more) could be stored in the exact same space on the media.

Oh – did I mention the fact that photographic media has a lifespan of over 100 years, so holographic storage has the longest lifespan of any media to date. The company that created this holographic storage technology is “InPhase” and the first units will be shipped for $18,000 next month. One disk costs $180 and stores 300GB.

Why do we care? For the same reason that both CD and DVD players were thousands when they first came out. This is the future of technology. Movie studios with long term storage needs will gladly pay $18,000 for this device, but as the prices drop I think that this kind of technology will be something that consumers need. You can buy a half-terabyte drive at your local Wal-Mart now for $100. I think it’s great to be able to back up all of our digital pictures and music on an external drive for our home network. But as time goes on I will need multiple ones, and eventually some will fail – and eventually I’ll lose some really cherished memories. I think that’s why a lot of people I know print out so many digital pictures on photo paper – they know that if somehow the digital copy is lost, the printed version should last a lifetime. If InPhase eventually created a consumer version holographic storage drive, wouldn’t you buy one? I mean come on, you could store you family digital photos knowing that the media would be good up to 100 years. I know of no other storage technology other than printed photos themselves that could give you that kind of piece of mind.

Think about the industry uses this could bring. Movie theaters could ship out their blockbusters to the theaters on these disks knowing the quality wouldn’t diminish no matter how many times they were rented out. Web hosts could practically offer “uncorruptable backups”. You may not know this, but your local cable company usually has movies “downloaded” on their local server for the video “on demand” services you can watch. With holographic storage they could store tens of thousands of movies for you to watch, and not just hundreds. Unbelievable amounts of data could be stored in black boxes of planes, trains, and automobiles. You could possibly take your entire entertainment system from your living room to your car on one disk. Entire textbooks could begin to be stored on disk cartridges to be read in standard readers and books in schools and universities would not only be cheaper, but the quality of the content would never diminish (just the hardware readers to view them).

So that’s why I think holographic storage is a future BluRay killer. How many years will that be? I don’t know. It took 20 years for holographic storage to become a real piece of hardware you could buy. I don’t think that it will be 20 more years before what I envision comes true, but it’s certainly possible within the next 5-10. But you never know, something might just come along that’s even better than this!

Asus Eee – Linux Finally Beating the Piss out of Windows?

The sale of new PC’s with windows is declining! The average person watching TV would think that Mac is winning this war, with all the “Mac vs PC” and the new Mac Airbook. Just read Windows caught between Mac and Linux. It reveals that Mac’s operating system share went from 9% to 14% from 2007 to 2008. That’s only 5% – but it’s significant. PC’s grew 9 percent in shipped units, but Mac’s saw 60% growth. In 2007 Wal-Mart sold out of their Everex Green PC’s (gPC) with Linux installed – but they sold out online. The retail versions were pulled from store shelves. I guess this only shows that geeks purchase online, but the popularity of the $199 Wal-Mart Linux PC’s should have been a great indicator to how well these Eee PC’s would do for Asus.

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

Although no one is really tracking Linux PC sales (linux sold on a brand new PC) – the Asus Eee PC 4G Surf is all over the Amazon top selling “Computers and Hardware” list taking 8 out of the top 25 spots, including #4 and #4 beating ALL the apple models. The “Asus Eee PC” takes up 9 of the top 25 spots for Amazon’s Best Selling Notebooks category, here taking #2 and #3 spots beaten only by the Sony VAIO – and again beating all Mac’s. Maybe that’s why Asustek’s chairman predicts they will be selling 2 million Linux PC’s in 2008.

Why is the Asus Eee PC so popular?

So why is the “Asus Eee PC” a sleeping giant? Let see what Wikipedia has to say about the Asus Eee PC. It’s a “subnotebook” (or “minibook” in the UK) and the three EEE’s stand for “Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play”. They came out and sold 300,000 units in 2007. Some say it’s a response to the OLPC or One Laptop Per Child initiative. You get a lot of bang for the buck with the EEE PC models ranging in price from $300-$500. The 7″ display (800×480) doesn’t take up all the space within the lid because the remaining room is left for optional speakers, microphone, and camera (0.3 megapixel 30fps) in the top. The Eee PC’s use solid state drives or “SSD” instead of traditional spinning disk, which means it’s less prone to damage from shock if it’s dropped. The SSD drive’s are soldered to the motherboard to reduce costs, so you won’t be upgrading that. You also get an MMC / SD memory card slot, 3 USB 2.0 ports, headphone jack, VGA out, and Kensington lock slot. You get Wireless b/g and 10/100 wired ethernet connections. The wireless connection is supplied by the installed card in the PCIe mini-card slot, a second PCIe slot is empty. Some models have DDR2 So-Dimm ram that can be expanded, it’s one socket expandable up to 2GB. I did read that currently the Xandros kernel supplied only uses up to 1GB of RAM anyway. I read that earlier models were “slotted” RAM, but there was no access door to reach it so buyer beware on that too.

The Eee PC’s reported boot in about 20-22 seconds, and Xandros Linux is preinstalled (which of course is a version of Debian). Most versions come with Firefox, Open Office, Skype, Tux Paint, E-mail and Internet radio apps, google Docs, and a Wikipedia lookup tool. The 4 cell Lithium-Ion batter has about 2 hrs 45 minutes of life, and the entire unit (Eee PC) weighs about 2 lbs. Processor in most of these models is 900 Mhz Intel Celeron. The measurements are 8.9 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches and you get a one year warranty on parts and labor.

The bottom line is, these things are sleek, fast-booting, open source gadgets that are cool looking (available in 9-odd pastel colors), purportedly long lasting (SSD drives), and cheaper (and a helluva lot more functional) than both an iPod Touch or iPhone. And – they’re only 2 lbs! I think every geek should have one.

I think the proof is the reviews of actual users. In Amazon reviews of the Eee 4G Surf (the 800 Mhz, 512MB Ram, 4GB HD black version) the score is 4.5 out of 5 stars and 167 reviews. I think that’s pretty damn respectable. The reviews I read said “the Eee PC made a great media player” and another guy said “make a great little Windows computer”. Apparantely the Eee PC ships with very simple instructions to replace Xandros Linux with a licensed copy of Windows XP. Some people use a 4GB SD card for additional storage. One guy writes “very user friendly” despite the fact that he was “never a huge Linux fan”. Also “highly recommended for adults and kids, recommended for all ages”. That’s probably because with this small form factor the keyboard and touchpad are noticably smaller. One reviewer said “beware for people with large hands”. I would imagine that means this small device is a boon for kids with small fingers and hands.

Other reviewers write “perfect traveling laptop”, “cheaper than iphone”, “outstanding”, and “great for personal use”. There are of course comments from not so happy people compaining about the lack of software choices, small keyboard, small amount of storage, and connecting to certain digital devices (cell phones and PDA’s). Many of these reviewers admit they were not familiar enough with Linux – to the Eee PC’s may remain a bit slanted to the “geek” crowd for now. But selling 2 million of these in 2008 means that there are a lot more geeks nowadays!

Here are 2 video reviews on YouTube, one is for the Linux version of the Eee PC, and the second is for Windows XP installed on the Eee PC:

Where can I get the best deal on a “Asus Eee PC“?

The Asus Eee’s are best sellers on Amazon (17 different models currently listed in various colors), but you can also find lots of them on eBay now as well (500+). I’m going to give you links below to the various models available and you can look for the best deal. The little Linux powerhouses are definitely worth the money!

[nms:asus eee pc -skin -charger -sdhc -case -sleeve -mount -screen -battery -keyboard -cover,8,0,0,smorgas.asus.eee]