jamie goode's wine blog: Eeepc on the road, and a tea tasting

Friday, January 25, 2008

Eeepc on the road, and a tea tasting

Yesterday afternoon I learned a great deal about a subject I'd previously been woefully ignorant of: tea. It was the Circle of Wine Writers/Guild of Food Writers tea tasting, held in association with specialist tea importers Jing (http://www.jingtea.com/). It's a huge subject - I felt like a wine novice must feel at a wine tasting, and came away with the impression that this is a really interesting but rather daunting subject.

Now for the promised eeepc update. For the last 10 days I've been on the road with just my eeepc. I was slightly nervous about the decision to leave my laptop at home and rely just on this tiny notebook device, but it has served me well. For picking up emails, surfing and posting blog entries it has been perfect. You get used to the small keyboard (any smaller would be unusable) and tiny screen (which has great resolution even though it is small) fairly quickly. Its portability is a great asset, as is its fast boot-up time and easy connectivity by Wifi and LAN (bizarrely, the Iberia VIP lounge doesn't have wireless).

What I haven't used this machine for is image editing or updating the main wineanorak site, largely because I haven't had time to learn how to install the relevant open-source software. The fact that the eeepc has an SD card slot means that photos can rapidly be uploaded even if you haven't got time to download them all from your digital camera. I also haven't been able to do any video editing on the road.

In conclusion, the portability of the eeepc makes it a great choice for a travel computer, and it will take the place of a full-sized laptop for my travels in the future. At just over £200 it is a total bargain.

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6 Comments:

At 3:12 PM, Blogger Colin said...

I'm typing this comment on my EeePC having only just bought it a week ago. I'm impressed and will give me much needed flexibility whether it's whilst travelling or simply at home where I can't be bothered to fire up the desktop to add a comment such as this.

As far as your observations about tea are concerned, I'm a convert having spent 10 days in China in November. There they have tea ceremonies in many of the places where tourists visit. Whilst primarily a sales exercise, they are enormously educational and we've come back with quite a range of teas. It can get quite addictive and expensive. Our guide in China confirmed that even for the locals tea is pricey,

 
At 11:47 PM, Anonymous Alex Lake said...

I remember reading some bumf about tea at Royal China Club a while back (waiting for an Anthony Byrne Fine Wine do) and it was very interesting about "the three rights" and stuff like that. I've totally forgotten it now, though ;-)

 
At 12:28 AM, Blogger Jamie said...

I'm just interested in flavour, and its appreciation and geekdom - so tea does interest me, as does coffee and all manner of drinks where there is a culture of connoiseurship(sp?).

 
At 11:21 PM, Blogger Dan Eskildsen said...

What mode is your eeepc in? Simple or advanced?

 
At 1:58 PM, Blogger --David said...

I just got an eeepc yesterday,and I love it. As for transferring pictures, it is very easy (works just like Windows (select what you want, right-click copy, then go to my documents, my photos, then right-click paste). I used the feature to upload photos to my own blog. You'll find it very easy with the included software - no additional 'stuff' needed (though you may want GIMP for editing)..

 
At 10:49 AM, Blogger Sie Whange said...

I like tea.I'm just interested in flavour, and its appreciation and geekdom - so tea does interest me.Thanks

 

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