Acer Aspire One Netbook – Buyer Beware

Purchased an Acer Aspire One 532h netbook in April 2010 (from Croma, Delhi, Rs.16,500/-). Its  Atom N450, 6 cell Li-ion battery, 160GB HDD and 1 GB RAM.

Its extremly topple prone. The design of the battery makes it physically unstable. Its a good machine otherwise, but this topple-effect has really put me off. The battery pack forms the base of the front side of the netbook, and its semi-cylindrical in shape. Even a slight touch on the screen sends the netbook in a flat fall.

Some snaps of the battery pack would give the idea:

 

UPDATE:

15 July 2010:  Just over an year old now, my Acer Aspire One 532h  and the battery has died. Not a very great record for battery longevity,  is it?

A crappy netbook through and through … stay away from it.

DI-524UP Wireless Router, Print Server & Netgear DG834G

Well, recently picked up a D-Link DI-524UP router. It has four LAN ports , a WAN port for the DSL modem and a USB port for connecting a printer. It was only the USB I was interested.

I’m a big fan of WiFi and use it on my Notebook, Netbook, Desktop PC, PSP and my Nokia N95! And Netgear DG-834G with inbuilt ADSL modem and router combo suited me just fine. It was only when I had to lug the computers from one room to the room with the printer, that I sorely missed having it on WiFi.

And that’s where D-Link DI-524UP stepped in with its WiFi Print Server. Picked it up for Rs.3000 in Delhi. Okay, now, enough of chitchat and lets come to the point. Which is that installing this Print Server was one hell of  a pain in the ass.

Random Thoughts – Codies Ashes Cricket 2009

So, this rant is about Codemasters’ Ashes Cricket 2009.  Tons of issues and I won’t even delve into them here. This is just a random thought.

Was playing India vs. Sri Lanka test match. Opener Gautam Gambhir (i.e the player I was controlling) was hit by Vaas’s deliveries repeatedly … the first 11 deliveries that Gambhir faced … all of them hit him on the body with a suweet thump sound and Gambhir limping on the pitch (no offense meant, Gambhir ji) .

And yet. He never retired hurt? In fact, I played him all the way to 43.  Howzzat?

Why Did Mariam D. Deng Ignore Me?

I received an email from Mrs. Mariam D. Deng, informing me of the unfortunate murder of her husband Mr. Dominic  Dim Deng. She also gave me the link to BBC story confirming this. She wanted my help in stashing only Seven Million pounds and I, like the good man I’m, offered my full co-operation and also a home to her kid. She never replied. Here’s her solicitation and my reply (I hope she doesn’t assert her copyright on her mail).

**********  MADAM DENG’S EMAIL  **********

MARIAM DENG FOUNDATION.

PLEASE REPLY THROUGH MY PRIVATE EMAIL: maria.mdeng@yahoo.com.hk

My dear Beloved.

Greetings in the name of our Lord, it is in my search for a reliable  and God fearing person and having gotten your contact through prayers and  pains taking efforts via searching I made on the internet on my bed side. Presently, I’m in a hospital here in Beijing, China where I have  been undergoing therapy treatment for Oesophagi Cancer.

Though its a sad and long story but I will cut it short for your quick  and easy understanding.

An eye for an eye?

“I and the public know

What all schoolchildren learn,

Those to whom evil is done

Do evil in return.”

– W. H. Auden

…

“An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind.” – Mahatma Gandhi.

….

I, for one, am quite confused!  Maybe the linguists have ground breaking interpretation for this. But then whats’ with, “do evil in return?”. That’d lead to the whole world going blind … choice is mine … or your’s.