A New Android Cell-Phone

I'm creating this note on my Samsung Galaxy S2. It's a great little cell-phone with a fast processor, lots of storage, and a fantastic display. I purchased it from Amazon, and thanks to the best feature of cell-phone provider T-Mobile, SIM Cards, all I needed to do was transfer the card from my Charm to the SGS2.

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Google+

Thanks to a kind invitation from my Facebook friend Christopher Harris, I had a wonderful opportunity to play around with Google's new service (currently in beta I believe) called Google+. It is similar to Facebook with hopefully a few nice additional capabilities. So far so good! :)

Emacs

I've worked with Linux for more than a decade but never really settled on a favourite editor. I've worked with vi, nedit, gedit, and even wrote my own (running under zForth for Linux) but now I've settled on Emacs. I like the power and extensibility of Emacs and after giving it a trial period of at least one month, it has become my preferred editor/environment.

Using Google's Command Line Tools

I read a neat article today about using the Google Apps via the Command Line. This allows you to directly manipulate Apps like YouTube, Blogger (as I am with THIS posting), Picasa, Calendar, etc. As the article said - don't act like you're not impressed!

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/unleash-bernerdiness-google-apps-command-line/

The Linux Foundation

I encourage all Fans of Linux to join the Linux Foundation and contribute to the growth of our favourite Operating System. (Tux would be proud of you! :)

It comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am a real fan of CAS ("Computer Algebra System") calculators, especially the HP-50G. I highly encourage all of my fellow HP-50G fans to sign up and contribute snippets of their knowledge about this powerful tool to this excellent Wiki:

http://hp50g.pbworks.com/

I've owned my HP-50G for years and have come to learn many of its secrets and hidden powers. It is my hope and prayer that others who share more than a passing interest in The Queen of All Sciences, Mathematics, and computer-like gadgets that assist us in our Mathematical Recreations would take some time to purchase and play with this amazing device. (By the way, I receive nothing from HP for my endorsement of this excellent product other than my personal satisfaction with it.)

For some people, their recreational time with electronic devices is playing games and everyone has a favourite game.

I am no different as my favourite game is called PROGRAMMING. It's a highly entertaining game, fun to do, fun to learn, and best of all - I GET PAID TO DO IT! I hope that every young man or woman who has interests similar to my own will learn to love this "game" as I do, for it can lead to a great deal of success in life.

Last week, I purchased my latest gadget, an Asus Eee PC 900SD from Amazon/Tiger Direct at the amazing sale price of $219. Wow - now that's a lot of power for a low price! Think about it ... an IBM PC compatable laptop computer with half a gig of RAM, 8GB of fast SSD, a slot for SD cards, a beautiful display, 3 USB ports, Wifi, Ethernet, etc. for just $219 - slightly more than the cost of A GRAPHICS CALCULATOR! Software that can be put on the SSD include many different (and free!) CAS software engines that are superior to any calculator sold today. I can even install and run on it the highly-acclaimed Debug4x HP-50G Emulator that works quite well on WinXP machines (both real AND virtual).

Although it doesn't come with Bluetooth capability natively, it was easy to add it with Belkin's Mini Bluetooth Laptop Adapter, giving me the ability to work with both my Logitech Bluetooth Mouse (that I use with the HP-dv7 2040US) and my Jabra BT620s Stereo Headphones. It works perfectly with these (at the same time) and make for a great PORTABLE set of computing and entertainment tools.

Did someone mention entertainment? The 8GB SSD may not "sound" like much, and it isn't for large entertainment files like music and video collections - but here is where the SD port shines! I can plug in any assortment of SD cards with all of the multimedia data files on the cards - and enjoy them without ever having to copy them to the built-in SSD! Since as of the writing of this blog post, these SD cards are as large as 32GB capacity at under $80, that's a lot of data available on postage stamp sized media that can be plugged into the computer and watched and listened to "on the go" as they say.

The "on the go" expression leads me to another point - I have been waiting and searching, unsuccessfully until now, for a computer large enough to be able to comfortably type on but small enough to fit into my Classic-size Franklin Planner - a mini-briefcase that looks similar to this only mine is black. My search is over and the 8.9-inch Asus Eee PC fits PERFECTLY!

$219 is almost a throw-away price for such power that a mobile knowledge-worker needs - so much so that I may purchase another one for backup purposes. And why not?

As is my custom with every computer I purchase and use, they all have names, and this one is called "Eeek". :)