ASUS EEE PC 1000HE

The ASUS EEE PC 1000HE is a late model netbook from the original netbook company ASUS.  Features include:

• 10.1" Screen (1024x600 resolution)
• 9.5 hours of battery life
• lightweight and portable
• bluetooth
• webcam
• 160GB hard drive
• 1 Gig of ram
• Windows XP

 You may thing the screen is small at first, but it's perfectly fine for everyday usage.  The only caveats would be graphic and video editing.  These functions are possible, but the screen size will have you scrolling and scrolling and scrolling...

The battery life on this machine is great for anyone who hates to carry an ac adapter around.  Unless you are going out of town you can usually leave the ac adapter at home and still have plenty of battery life for the whole day.

The webcam, bluetooth, and hard drive are all standard among most netbooks these days, however, if you are not a fan of Windows 7 then this would be a great purchase for you since it comes with and supports Windows XP and supports it well.  However, if you do like Windows 7, this operating system, as well as linux, is also supported and functions well.

Why pick this model up over newer models?  Here's a list:

1. Windows XP by default
2. Hard drive and ram are easily accessible and upgradable
3. Older models are cheaper than newer model netbooks yet have the same performance level

 Give this model a try if you need a netbook, it wont let you down.

Linksys WRT54GL

Linksys linux-enabled wireless routers, like the Linksys WRT54GL, are wonderful devices.  For the price of dinner and a movie and an hour of tweaking, you can have a wired and wireless network in your home with the features and functions of a $600 professional wireless access point, router, and switch.

Some of the new features you can add include:

• Quality of Service
• Permanent dhcp leases
• Automatic dynamic dns registration
• ipv6 support
• advanced firewall settings
• Child filtering rules
• and many more

Adding these features to your stock Linksys WRT54GL you need to upload a custom firmware to the device.  There are many different version to choose from.  Some of the more popular ones include:

• dd-wrt 
• tomato 
• OpenWRT

Seagate FreeAgent Go

I picked one of these Seagate FreeAgent Go 320 Gigabyte portable USB 2.0 hard drives recently from Walmart for a good price, especially for a brick and mortar store.  It's powered through USB so there are no annoying power adapters to carry around and 320 Gigs of hard drive space are plenty for carrying your documents, music, and videos around.

You might be wondering what makes this product so interesting.  To me, it's what's inside the device that's truely interesting.  Pop open the case and you have yourself a brand new 320gb serial ata 5200 rpm laptop hard drive to do with as you will.  I used this one to replace the 160gb hard drive that came with my ASUS EEE PC 1000HE netbook.  Not only that, I was able to put the old 160gb drive into the empty Seagate FreeAgent Go case and still have a portable hard drive to carry around.

If you're looking for a cheap portable hard drive and/or a larger hard drive for your laptop or even desktop computer give this one a go.  You wont regret it.

Adaptec GameBridge

Gamebridge AVC-1400 USB 2.0



For my first hardware a day lets discuss the defunct, though still purchasable, Adaptec GameBridge.  This device will let you connect any device with composite or s-video outputs to your PC or laptop through a USB 2.0 connection.  What set this apart at the time from other such devices was its dedication to low latency.  Latency is the last thing you want when trying to play a match of Street Fighter or Smash Bros.

I picked this device up a while ago and have just been playing with it recently.  I've successfully used it to connect my Nintendo Wii console to my new Compaq Presario laptop with Microsoft Windows 7.  I did, however, have a few hurtles to jump to get it working.

I was able to get this to work in 2 ways.

1. Use Windows 7 32bit (x86).  The drivers are old and 32bit only.  Using compatibility mode on every .exe on the CD allowed it to install without a hitch.
2. Use VM Ware.  I was able to get the device to work in a virtual machine running Windows XP using the option to pass USB devices through to the virtual machine.  This will allow you to use the Adaptec GameBridge and still run Windows 7 64bit (x64).

My experiences with the device have been favorable.  Running a Nintendo Wii with composite cables is not optimal, but it is definitely playable and at full speed with no noticeable input lag.

Tips:

• If you have problems running in a virtual machine and are on an AMD chipset, uninstall the USB filter driver.
• Look into dscaler.  This program will give you a better quality picture and let you get a widescreen image over composite cables.