Blogging from the deck

Well, we're getting some sun ... finally. It's been a soggy summer here in Nova Scotia, and I'm grateful for the nice weather when we get some.

I'm on the back deck checking out the wireless connection on my new toy -- an Asus Eee PC netbook. It's the 1000HE. I won't go into the details of how I came to acquire it, but I'm digging it so far.

It's like a notebook PC but smaller. It has a ten-inch screen, runs Windows XP Home on an Atom 280 processor, and comes with a 160GB hard drive. I upped the RAM to 2GB.

I haven't done much on it yet, other than run a ton of driver upgrades and add a bunch of software -- Google Earth, OpenOffice, Ccleaner, Avast! antivirus, etc. But it seems really sharp. I could be mistaken, but I think this might be one of the most powerful computers in the house.

Also out back, I'm seeing a lot more wireless networks than my router inside is able to see. There's probably ten access points showing up on the survey. A few are unsecured. I upgraded my router's firmware to DD-WRT, so I was able to boost the transmitting power of the access point in the basement. Now I have a clean signal and I can blog, watch videos, read e-books or do whatever from the comfort of the back deck ... in the breeze ... where it's actually getting cloudy ... and a little cold. Brr.