Anton Olsen.com

My New Dell Mini 9

I recently got a Dell Mini 9 for work and travel. It’s light weight, long on battery life, and keyboard doesn’t suck. So far I’m loving it.

The first thing most people notice is the small nine inch screen. At just 1024×600 it is a little cramped, but the display is very sharp and small fonts render well. I suggest running Firefox in full screen (kiosk) mode to maximize your display area. If you’re looking for the F11 key, it’s available, but hiding if you have a newer BIOS. fn z and x are F11 and 12 respectively. This makes switching in and out of full screen mode easier.

Everyone I’ve shown the netbook to wants to know about the keyboard. It is smaller than a normal laptop keyboard, but not as bad as the Asus eee 2G. I find that my right hand feels a little cramped and the number placement isn’t quite right, but I can still touch type on it with my fat fingers. The hardest thing to adapt to is the location of some of the punctuation, especially the tilde, pipe, and backslash. The grave and tilde have moved to fn q and w respectively and the pipe and backslash moved to the right of the P with the punctuation from right of the zero.

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Heading to Maker Faire

I’m heading down to attend Maker Faire in Austin this weekend.  Drop me an email (anton @ this domain) if you’ll be there and we can try to meet.  I’ll be wearing a black VEX polo and ballcap, but I don’t think I’ll be the only one dressed as such.

I ran out of business cards and Moo cards recently so I designed and printed these up.  Reactions are good so far, so hopefully they stand out in the stack.  I had though of a screen cap of a ‘finger anton’ command on my server, but Mark convinced me it might not be understood by enough people.

My writing gig at GeekDad allowed me to get a Press Pass for the event.  Aside from access to the Media Room with free internet and beverages I have no real idea what that entitles me to.  I’ll be sure to blog about it here and on GeekDad in the coming week.

YouTube – Samsung Omnia (i900) Unboxing

YouTube – Samsung Omnia (i900) Unboxing.

Some totally awesome packaging, let’s see if Apple can top this.

Cool Folding Paper Model

Cool stuff.

[via MAKE]

The XO Laptop

The XO Laptop, also known as the OLPC, is a product that aims to make computing affordable to kids everywhere. It has extremely low power requirements. The transformer it ships with produces 12V at 1.4A or about 17 Watts. This should be well within the capabilities of a medium sized solar panel or even an inefficient pedal powered generator.

Opening the XO

With a couple exceptions, everyone I asked to open the case had difficulty. The case lacks any good indicator aside from the antennas as to which side opens. Everyone looked at the battery compartment and most of them tried the latches. Most people assume the hinge is on the end away from the handle. I’ll spoil it and say that to get it open you flip up the antennas and pry the thin crack that opens up on the near edge. There are no obvious indentations for fingers and the whole process feels awkward.

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HD DVD is Dead

Toshiba pulling the plug on HD DVD already? – Yup it’s over. – Engadget

Toshiba was ready to dump its money-losing HD DVD business, with news that the company is prepared to cease manufacturing software and hardware, at a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars

The fight is over.  HD-DVD has lost.  Of course this shouldn’t be a surprise since the porn industry switched camps during AVN.  So look forward to cheaper Blu-Ray players as more manufacturers get on board to produce them and an end to the consumer confusion of which disk to buy.

CrunchGear » Archive » MacBook AirHead: why Apple’s new laptop is basically useless

CrunchGear » Archive » MacBook AirHead: why Apple’s new laptop is basically useless

First, let me just say that the Air is an extremely impressive piece of technology. The miniaturization, the optimization of space, the blatant disregard for current standards — it’s everything a revolutionary machine should be. Except it isn’t one. It’s a flight of Apple vanity that is completely impractical for anyone who needs to do more than the most basic functions with their computer. Find out why inside.

Mac fans should turn away now, the rest of you can click through for an accurate review of the Macbook Air. My take on it all. It’s fancy, expensive (on par with the Dell tablet), and horribly under powered.

Appliance parts, electronics parts & more from PartStore.com

Appliance parts, electronics parts & more from PartStore.com

PartStore is America’s largest source for replacement parts and accessories. Our web site makes it easy to find and purchase hard to find parts, commonly misplaced or broken components & accessories, and great add-ons for your products. We carry parts and accessories for all your household electronics and appliances.

I really wish I’d know about the site last time I went searching for a new bearing for my dryer.

Take 1 Tablet And Call In Broke Tomorrow

Dell has announced a new tablet PC, the Dell Latitude XT [engadget] and while it’s really easy on the eyes, it will tear a new hole in your wallet.

The $2500 price gets you the entry level model at 12.1 inches, 1.06 Ghz Intel Core Solo, 1GB of RAM, and a 40GB disk. The case is as sexy as it can get, and it certainly has a lot of wow factor, but I’m disappointed about the processor and price.

I recommend eBay and pick up the HP tc1100 for about $400. It is about the same size and similar specs except it’s only got a 1Ghz Pentium M. Then save the $2k for a really nice desktop with a pair of 20 inch wide monitors.

Desktop Factory: Our Product

Desktop Factory: Our Product

The Desktop Factory 3D printer builds durable, functional models from the bottom up, one layer at a time. The Desktop Factory 3D printer has a build speed comparable to existing 3D printing technologies, and produces robust parts that are strong enough to be thrown across a conference room table!

All for the low low price of $5k. I don’t expect I’ll be getting one anytime soon, but it’d sure be one helluva incentive to learn to use a good CAD program.