Joe the Plumber!  If you are reading this, you know who I am talking about.  Obama started Joe's fifteen minutes of fame, when he was walking around in Joe's neighborhood and Joe asked him a question about taxes, and Obama made the statement " spread the wealth". This exchange got picked up by news media and Joe became an icon for the McCain campaign.  No problem from this guy on any of these events. 

Until the media felt it necessary to dig into Joe's background and try to make the guy look like a criminal!  All because he asked some questions.  This is not a pretty side of America, let me tell you! Now I have learned that criminal charges are coming in all of this!  Because it seems that someone used government computers to illegally obtain and share Joe's information.  All I can say is I hope they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  This isn't about politics, but about privacy!  Joe didn't break any laws by challenging a guy who wants to be his president with his policies.  But for the media to smear Joe, they had to have the dirt, and they obviously went on a search to make just that happen. And someone obviously knew someone, who knew someone, who had access to Joe's private stuff. This is so wrong on so many levels!

This whole Joe thing has not played out!  Word is, that Joe is going to run for Congress! I am not sure he is qualified, but I say go for it! And I would just about bet that when it is announced who accessed those computers, the trail is going to lead right to MSNBC. This is the type of news that only they are worthy of producing anymore.  But regardless of Joe's future, it's a very scarey thought, when you think of all the bad things that has happened to this guy because he wanted to know more about Obama's tax plan. And it is our media who is responsible for this one . . .

Laptop just put up a review of the EEE PC S101. For the most part, their review mimics my opinions that Asus has offered a netbook at a price that's hard to justify.  Praised were it's looks, weight, and dual touchpad control. The list of negatives included no extended battery option, the weird placement of the shift key, and it's price.  They did stress that as netbooks go, there are none any sexier with it's Swarovski crystals in its hinges, and the beautiful, thin design. But according to Laptop, the S101 turns out to be 1000H ($479) with a red dress and high heels (my words, not theirs) It uses the same processor, has the same amount of RAM and the same Hard Drive size. 

Laptop's EEE S101 Review

Remember when Asus made this announcement about a new category of Personal Computer?  It created what has come to be known as the "Netbook".  The original EEE (Easy, Excellent, Exciting) had a 7" screen, a Linux OS, a web cam, flash memory (no hard-drive) and a simple interface.  Best of all, Asus said that it would retail for under $300!  Man, was the world ever excited.  This very attractive computer has been extremely successful, despite the fact, that it has only recently reached a price of less than $300 that Asus first claimed for the very low end model.

Now as all successful things go, Asus felt the need to morph the EEE PC.  Offer further options, such as a larger screens, Windows XP, a hard drive, etc. According to their web site, Asus now offers  a total of nine different EEE models. Make that TEN!  Introducing the newest member of the Asus EEE family: The EEE PC S101!  

This thing has an introductory price of $699.  Now if you look at the spec sheet, you will see that it is pretty much a typical "low end notebook".  one gig of RAM, Windows XP (there is a Linux option also) 5.5 hour battery life, WiFi, etc.  Nothing really wrong with any of these features. . . .   Except for the price!  I certainly don't think that $700 is necessarily too much for such a computer.  BUT I do think it is too much for what my vision of a Netbook is supposed to be.  Lets face it!  This thing has entered the realm of 80% of what is being displayed at the local Bestbuy. 

Asus hit a home run with the original EEE.  And all the Netbook competition that followed the EEE release is certainly a sign of that success!  Other EEE PC's with further options is not a bad thing either.  But when you basically build a low end laptop, with a low end price, Asus, you have totally lost your very clear vision of what made the EEE PC a EEE PC.  And $699 will buy a whole lot of Toshiba or HP laptop. Usually with more RAM and Hard Drive than what you are offering in your higher end "netbooks". Anything "EEE" with a pricetag above $500 is not a netbook, any longer in this person's opinion . . . .

About a month ago, I picked up a Flip Mino (pronounced Minnow) digital video recorder, made by Pure Digital. It's small, lightweight, easy to hold and easy to upload video to the places that we put video on the net. Turn it on, and about 1.2 seconds later, push the big red record button and you are on your way.  After the video is recorded, your options are to go direct to a television or to use the mechanical USB connection to which the Flip gets it's name to put the video on your computer.  Once your connected there, you can use the software that is stored on your Flip to view and edit the video, or you can simply treat the Flip like a Thumb drive and pull video over to your computer for editing within your own software. Or you can configure YouTube, MySpace or AOL to automatically send to your accounts there.

The Flip records in avi format, so that means it's going work with about anything you have on your system.  The quality at this point really is excellent.  Like any video, compressing to other formats usually results in slight pixelation. But this is true for about any video I have made from other video recorders that land on YouTube.  The original is always going to be better than the super-compressed flv's that you watch on YouTube. Audio is suprisingly good.  I was concerned that the mic just wasn't going to be adequate enough, but so far I have been very impressed with it's ability to capture sound from another side of the room.