So I got a netbook :)

Amsra · 12-10-2009, 12:34 AM

Been wanting something portable for a while now but not wanting (or affording) a full on notebook. Settled on an HP 311.

Nice little machine

Yes I got it from Verizon so I've signed away my first born child for a data plan but I did want the 3G too if I'm not by a hotspot. It's a lot faster than I thought it would be and the graphics are stunning for an 11.6" screen. I've looked at the 9" and 10" netbooks before and really like the screen on this one way better. The keyboard is almost full size which is nice. The touchpad works well, tho next paycheck I have to get a wireless mouse for it

Was apprehensive with it being an HP and their tendency to bloat ware but was not really bad. Uninstalled everything in about 10 min

Haven't spent alot of time playing it yet but Torchlight seems to run really well on it

Also got Kindle for PC on it, it makes a really sweet ebook reader. I'm writing a little bit now too so it's cool to have something with me all the time

All in all, if you are looking at picking up a netbook, I'd certainly recommend this one or any of it's variations. I got the 160G hd, but you can get it with 250 if you want. Also will go up to 3G ram which is nice

my 2cp

rabb1t · 12-11-2009, 04:41 PM

Be careful doing online gaming. I talked to a wireless person about gaming once and they said that they've seen bills in the thousands for a single month because FPS games (and video) will rapidly run you over your monthly allotment. (Not so much with MMOGs, but they will still run something like 40-60 meg an hour if I recall.)

The Ion is much better than ones like mine that are first gen with no real GPU, but be aware you'll still hit a pretty low CPU/GPU cap. Should be fine for things like Torchlight though.

I got a little wired mouse, it was like $12.

Amsra · 12-11-2009, 09:14 PM

Naw if I was gonna on-line game on it, it would have to be wired or wireless

But for surfing and some light downloading the 3G is nice, faster than I expected

The connection manager is nice too, when I connect to 3G, the first thing it does is tell me what I've used. And of course it also lists any detected WiFi. I've been downtown and even in my little town, there are enough bars and restaurants on 1st St with free WiFi that the whole area is covered

Slide · 12-16-2009, 03:34 PM

I remember a friend of mine was addicted to Legends of Kesmai when it was on AOL, his monthly bill was like $1000

rabb1t · 12-18-2009, 04:20 PM

Ah the days of $2.50 an hour after you go over your initial 20 for the month.

I always lol at people who complain about $15 a month games. But then, I'm one of the few who actually do remember the "pay to play" models of 20 hours for like $20 a month +hourly when you went over. I didn't do AOL games, I did Imagination Network, but I did have some $50 months here and there.

AsheMan · 12-18-2009, 05:26 PM

I used to play on a local BBS and had to pay for my second phone line at my house ($20), a personal phone connection to the BBS ($20), and then pay for my MUD subscription (another $20). $60 a month just to play a text based game when I was 15. Since then, $15 a month seems like a fair deal.

I also remember the AOL pay-to-play days. I always wanted to try some of those games but never trusted myself to play with reasonable self-imposed time limit.

rabb1t · 12-19-2009, 02:29 PM

AOL was ok, mostly it was about Neverwinter Nights. Sierra's Imagination Network was where it was at. (And I'm still shocked to this day that noone has copied them in the like 13+ years since their demise). You had a battletech game, a flight game (Red Barron), a dungeon game, but I think it's strongest area was the regular social games; chess, checkers, and what I spent my time with most, 'Boogers' (an Ataxx / 7up spot clone).

I'm sure there are sites out there that copy some aspects, but they had personal avatars, chat, everything that things like Xbox live and the Playstation network are set up for but don't really do (to my knowledge.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagination_network

mmorpeegee · 06-02-2010, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slide

I remember a friend of mine was addicted to Legends of Kesmai when it was on AOL, his monthly bill was like $1000

That used to happen to me in the early days of Everquest. I live in the UK and we were really late here to adopt the fixed monthly rate thing. So even in 1999 and 2000, I was paying per minute to be connected to dial up. So entire weekends playing EQ really brought in some epic bills... My parents weren't too pleased. I was such a naughty boy!

Luckily it all changed pretty shortly after that and I got myself a flat rate isdn connection.

Back on topic, belated grats on the netbook. My dad has one and it's really nice. It's a bit puny for any serious work or gaming, mainly because of it's small SSD, but for browsing the web and using google apps and stuff, it's really great. I would like one for myself but I'm making do with my iphone for now.

Amsra · 06-02-2010, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

That used to happen to me in the early days of Everquest. I live in the UK and we were really late here to adopt the fixed monthly rate thing. So even in 1999 and 2000, I was paying per minute to be connected to dial up. So entire weekends playing EQ really brought in some epic bills... My parents weren't too pleased. I was such a naughty boy!

Luckily it all changed pretty shortly after that and I got myself a flat rate isdn connection.

Back on topic, belated grats on the netbook. My dad has one and it's really nice. It's a bit puny for any serious work or gaming, mainly because of it's small SSD, but for browsing the web and using google apps and stuff, it's really great. I would like one for myself but I'm making do with my iphone for now.

lol, nice necro there

Still liking it a lot, tho I mostly just use it for ebooks. Finally got a wireless router last week, so now using it a bit more. It is nice to be able to stream Netflix and porn to the bedroom

mmorpeegee · 06-02-2010, 08:51 PM

Lol yes. Nice to be able to sit in bed and browse and play flash games too.

Dragon-RD · 06-03-2010, 03:02 AM

Well I'm late to the party but I also invested in a netbook. I'm a tech whore and was intrigued at the prospect of a box to play iPlayer on and move around a bit with. Ion was the way to go. I ended up buying an Asus Eee 1201n and have absolutely no regrets.

Even less so now that it'll play Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Divine Divinity and a boat load of other titles my flashy desktop doesn't agree with. Hell I even got WoW running at a 40 FPS average (will drop to 10 in Dalaran, and late teens early 20's in large combat. But it's playable, likely even more so if I wack in another gig of ram)

But the main reason for buying one was just to slap iPad owners in the face. If any are randomly browsing this site and come across my post:

You got pwned by Apple. It's a big iPod Touch.

mmorpeegee · 06-03-2010, 10:38 PM

Wow nice I'd love to be able to play games like that on a portable device.

I love the look of the iPad, but Apple are way too nazi-ish for me to ever consider one. Besides it being far too expensive for me, and the fact that it's not all that powerful, it's just not a fair purchase for someone like me. They don't allow Flash so all the super fun Flash games that I regularly play, you just can't get

And those epic old games you mentioned I couldn't play either. You couldn't even put DosBox on it or anything, Apple are just way too restrictive.

Although later in the year are going to be lots of PC's built to look like the iPad, so they might be nice.

Dragon-RD · 06-04-2010, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

Wow nice I'd love to be able to play games like that on a portable device.

I love the look of the iPad, but Apple are way too nazi-ish for me to ever consider one. Besides it being far too expensive for me, and the fact that it's not all that powerful, it's just not a fair purchase for someone like me. They don't allow Flash so all the super fun Flash games that I regularly play, you just can't get

And those epic old games you mentioned I couldn't play either. You couldn't even put DosBox on it or anything, Apple are just way too restrictive.

Although later in the year are going to be lots of PC's built to look like the iPad, so they might be nice.

Come to think of it mmorpeegee why are apple slagging off Adobe anyway and basically saying "No!" to flash. The only reason to own a Mac is for Photoshop and Final Cut - and I believe Adobe offer a very strong alternative to it.

This will be their downfall I think, why go against the rest of the web? Flash is so widely used and that won't die out because some fools creating shiny devices say they prefer open source variants.

rabb1t · 06-05-2010, 03:38 PM

Probably because they have to licence it and they don't want to pay? Someone that visits my work say there are apps to get around it. Not sure I'd want to get one though. If I were to get a tablety thing I'd likely just wait for the Win based ones that are just around the corner.

mmorpeegee · 06-06-2010, 12:56 AM

I think Apple are just managed by a lunatic. I always assumed the reason for no Flash, is that they know how good a lot of the free Flash games are on the web, so cutting out Flash means you have to buy games specific to the device. I have spent probably £20 on games for the iPhone and pretty much all of them are just copies of Flash games that you can play on a PC for free, and which are actually better than the iPhone version.

I also read somewhere that Flash is resource hungry so Apple banished it from the iPhone because they don't want people to see their precious 'perfect' device stuttering and struggling.

Why it's not available on the iPad though, I don't know. Although I don't really care. Like I said, there's no Flash, but there's also no DosBox and no [loads of other stuff you can have on a PC].

So yeah, roll on the PC pads! In fact, I saw a REALLY cool one called the Lenovo U1 Ideapad. There are loads videos of it on the web, from CES 2010. It's basically a notebook with an intel processor and Win7, but you can detatch the screen and that becomes like an iPad basically. So it's the best of both worlds in one device. It's a fun time to be a technology geek :P