siliconchef.com 2.0

The interesting thing about working at a 23 year old computer company is what you find when you get ready to relocate the office. I got designated as the “museum curator” during the move preparations, so I’m collecting classic elements of classic computing as we toss obsolete equipment.

During the move I sifted through the never-completely-cleaned office of an ex-boss to find this …

Yes, it’s the original version of the classic Infocom text adventure … The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It has everything from the original packaging except for the “DON’T PANIC” button. Pictures are posted to my flickr account.

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In the breakroom …

CEO: (to engineer) “They tell you in kindergarten never to believe everything you read.”

Me: “And in marketing, they tell you never believe everything you write.”

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I may have lost my mind at work. After repeated threats, meetings, shouting matches and meetings with company directors I have yet to acquire the elusive “schedule” … so I’m resorting to weird e-mails …

Well, Valentine’s Day is coming tomorrow. I like to think that you care for the sales & marketing department (in ways that are in accordance with our human resources guidelines).

I’m not a complicated man … I don’t like flowers or expensive wines … I don’t need cards or jewelry …

Tomorrow I’d love to see a completed 2008 development plan. It would be the thing to show that you care about my feelings and respect my needs as a technical marketing engineer

I’ll be amazed if this works. If it does, I may have to bring chocolates and tell the engineering department they look pretty. “No, those poorly implemented features don’t make your code look bloated …”

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In yesterday’s post, I gave readers the history of the OLPC & Asus EeePC products … including why I’m go eager to geek out over cheap notebook computers. Today I put them together for a proper comparison.

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written by siliconchef \\ tags: computers, EeePC, OLPC

Tonight, on this website … two not-so-giants of the computing world meet to do battle …
Well, they won’t do battle … but they will be compared. And pictures will be taken …

No, not those kinds of pictures (pervert) … it’s just my comparison of the Asus EeePC and the OLPC.

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Either my computer is too small or my pants pockets are too large, but the Asus EeePC my employer purchased for me fits in my cargo pants pocket.

So “there’s a computer in my pants” might sound like a creepy pickup line at a tradeshow, but it might also be true.

If you want a tiny computer shipped to you in any reasonable amount of time, you might want an EeePC instead of an OLPC, since they seem unable to deliver them to “paying” customers. I’ve actually had a chance to compare the two side-by side. I’ll post later with my observations, pictures and video featuring a cat walking across both keyboards.

written by siliconchef \\ tags: computers, EeePC, OLPC, pants

Thanks to the folks at work, I have the use of an Asus Eee PC 4GB Surf. It’s a very cool little, and I do mean little, Intel based laptop. I haven’t done much hacking, just adding & removing packages to customize the default Linux configuration.

I will post progress reports as I learn more about this cool little computer.

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