kernow,

I've been tracking the eee since it was announced.

As I need to use some Windows photographic software that probably does not work with Linux I've not been tempted yet.

Which particular spec is yours?

You mention the 80gb hdd. Presumably that's a USB add on? Does that not use quite a bit of battery power?

TP

TP - the hard drive is integral with 80gb on the 904 and if it does use a lot of battery I've not noticed - at least 4 hrs almost continuous use yesterday.
I was in favour of giving linux a go as a blow against the Gates empire. Open Office looks very good but like you I have one app. (my internet dongle) which only runs on windows. I still considered installing linux in dual boot but all the articles I read suggested this could cause issues that this amateur couldn't understand let alone solve :-(

TP

Your asking a lot to run graphics applications on a small processor. One with the Intel Atom processor you would be better but the Windows versions of those are getting expesive.

I've just bought the Linux Version of the Acer Aspire 1. It is a very capable machine for 210 but I'm not sure if I'd want XP on it. I've installed rdesktop which means I can run power hungry programs on my main desktop. I'm not sure whether rdesktop can handle 24bit colour though.

Kernow

If you like the Linux apps then checkout Portabkeapps.com it is a suite of free stand alone apps that run on Windows. Most of the common Linux apps are there and they don't need installing so they don't slow your computer when your not using them.

Opt,

I'd use a solid state hard drive laptop primarly to download pictures from a tethered camera. To do that I need the Canon USB interface driver to work (and how I'd find out whether that does under Linux is anyone's guess) and also a programme that links and displays the images called DLSR Downloader

I'd then use it for holidays as my e:mail and web contact device - but here I am sure the Linux equiv of Portable Apps will do all I'd ever need.

TP

TP

Yes, I see you need Windows.

Be very careful with solid state drives in general and particularly with the EEE.

Most SSD are not optimised for Windows, and apparently the 16GB EEE 900 series has a fast 4GB drive with the OS on and an incredibly slow 12 GB for everything else. The Windows machines must be different, but be careful.

If I want to store copies of documents on my hard drive, is it quicker / better / smaller to store them as pdf or jpg files?

Optimist - thanks and I've taken a look. Not for me though as my original thought was to buy a linux version and banish Gates altogether - just my contrarian nature I suppose as I knew nothing about Linux/open office et al until last week. However this is just wishful thinking until all apps can run under linux and that's never going to happen I suspect e.g. I still have to keep IE around as some internet sites I use don't like firefox

SC

I suspect that it is slower and that you get a larger file size with PDF but it is better than JPEG for documents.

JPEG is designed for pictures and as it compresses the image, the saved version is never quite as good as the original. PDF is designed for documents and should reproduce them perfectly. Make sure that you have a decent program to create them though - their must be a reason why Adobe get away with charging so much.

Thanks, we just need to be able to read the documents, not analyse them. Will go with jpeg I think.

SC
If you use JPEG to copy documents I have found that if you try to enlarge them the print goes to pixels very quickly and are unreadable on screen. SD

You might like to have a look at this:

2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

Brief Description
This download allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs.

That looks good Exec. We run Office 2003 at work but I have 2007 at home & on my lappy so it'll be useful for that.

BTW had a look at the Samknows website. That's an excellent resource. I see the only LLU we have at home is for Talk Talk, which I kind of knew anyway, but would like to see others doing it soon.

You could try the open office word clone which can export pdf files as standard.

There is also

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

which gets installed as a printer and you can then write a pdf file from any software that has a print feature. You print and then select PDFcreator as you printer. It then lets you save, email etc.

My wife's e:mail address has received 51 spam messages over the last twelve hours. Almost all are the same text but all are from different addresses.

This spam has been building over the last few days.

All my mail reader has done is to pick up the headers and a few lines of body.

It will take two seconds to junk them at compuserve which is our mail server.

But, is there something more effective that I should do?

From my point of view this is no big deal - but 1,000 a day would be tedious!

TP

If your mail program lets you view 'full headers' then copy just the part that says something like this below. Then go to this web site

http://www.ip-adress.com/trace_email/

and paste the received details into the window provided. It will tell you the real source of the email. The one below is Nigeria. I did one the other day and the map it gave could be zoomed in to a specific house in Japan. You could then go round and knock on their door.


Received: from 67.195.9.86 (HELO n3.bullet.mail.gq1.yahoo.com) (67.195.9.86) by mta165.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with SMTP; Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:42:41 -0800
Received: from [67.195.9.82] by n3.bullet.mail.gq1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 06 Dec 2008 01:41:57 -0000
Received: from [67.195.9.111] by t2.bullet.mail.gq1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 06 Dec 2008 01:40:50 -0000
Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp115.mail.gq1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 06 Dec 2008 01:38:59 -0000
Received: (qmail 25320 invoked by uid 60001); 6 Dec 2008 01:38:59 -0000

Sounds like your wife has posted her email address on a bulletin board or a web classified ad.

TP

It is likely that the 51 emails are being sent from 51 different hijacked computers so knowing who sent them does not help you much.

The easiest way to deal with them is to create a rule that identifies the text and shunts it into a junk folder. The only problem is that they will keep changing the text.

I'm not sure whether Outlook Express supports rules, but Outlook certainly does so does the free Mozilla Thunderbird.

Haystack,

The web site works. So far I have found Brazil and Macedonia. Not all that convenient for knee-capping from SW6 !!

Kayak,

Unlikely as she never uses a computer. We set up the mailbox for ease of communication with the members of her amdram group (rehearsals etc). They operate cast mailing lists so something could have leaked from one of those mailing.

Oh well. With luck it will die away.

TP

Opt,

It's no problem cleaning them out with nPOPw. I just thought I'd be a good citizen and try to help Inspector Plod.

TP