A Web Life

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date	22 Jan 2009 13:58 CST
place	Milwaukee, WI, USA
tags	computer, photography, web, flickr, simplicity
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The EEEPC travels well

In late 2008 and early 2009, I went on a trip from Wisconsin, to Illinois, back through Wisconsin, and into Michigan's Upper Peninsula with the EEEPC laptop computer. I took the EEEPC so as to have a way to check my email, browse the Web, and post some photos to flickr as I traveled. The trip was for about 20 days and consisted of travel by bus, train (Amtrak, Metra), car, and foot through urban areas (downtown Chicago) to rural areas and woods. I had to have all my stuff with me in a small backpack. With this challenge, the EEEPC worked out extremely well--so well that I would not want to take another trip anywhere without it.

Trip Photos

Some observations from this trip:

• The EEEPC's small size and weight made it easy to pack and carry everywhere (on an Amtrak train, in downtown Chicago, up a 337 meter "mountain" and in small towns and woods).
• The EEEPC was crucial to my feeling connected to my online life during the trip. I had my own computer at the homes of relatives so as not to have to borrow theirs. I could post photos to flickr using the SD card of from the camera to the EEEPC. I had something to do (browse the Web for news, watch online videos) in the extra free time I had from not being in my regular routine and from the holidays.
• I was able to connect to home WiFi networks of relatives as well as connect to free WiFi networks at a coffee shop and public library. I used the same Google mail and documents and Web-based bookmarking that I use on my home desktop. This was an absolutely a wonderful way to travel as it provided a seamless experience for me--the EEEPC gave me the same window to the online world (only a bit smaller). I used the SD card to temporarily store documents when I had no access to a network, but then uploaded them to Google documents when I got to a WiFi network.
• The hard case that I use for my EEEPC worked well, as it protected the EEEPC during hikes, walks, and getting in and off buses, trains, cars, and going around town in all conditions including cold and snow.
• I got used to smaller size screen of the EEEPC very quickly, and it didn't bother me. I just focused on smaller tasks (one window at a time rather than multiple windows and browsers).
• I was not able to get some HDR software that I use to run on my EEEPC, so I had to borrow a laptop to post an HDR photo that I made during the trip to flickr.
• I found that I had to take 3 chargers on the trip: one for the EEEPC, one for the digital camera and one for the cell phone. I dream that one day, one charger could charge them all, and there could be standard-sized batteries (varying a bit for device size) for all mobile devices (sort of like the old days when AA and AAA batteries worked in different devices).