Life and stuff

My new XO laptop came in yesterday. First impressions: SMALL. I knew it’d be small, but even then it managed to defy expectations. It definitely feels like a quality unit, though the rubberized keyboard will take some getting used to. The speed of the unit isn’t too bad considering the specs are geared more for power savings than for brute performance. I like to click around just to see what happens, so the interface wasn’t really an issue; its just different.

A few minor niggles so far:
- no WPA encryption over wireless until the next software update (or via a handy-dandy script for a CLI person)
- suspend doesn’t work yet (covered by next software update)
- no extensions in the web browser — adblockplus could be very useful for stripping ads to save screen space

Just for kicks, here it is in comparison with a Thinkpad T60 (15.4″ display):

Free Rice: Play a vocab game, and advertisers will donate 20 grains of rice per correct answer (through the UN) to help feed the hungry. Kind of like the Hunger Site which gives free food for clicking a button, though I think I’ll remember the Free Rice site more just to keep my vocab in shape.

And yes, I realize its far from a cure-all. In some cases, its the distribution system rather than the lack of food thats the problem. Still, there are plenty of worse ideas out there, and you get to train your brain while you’re at it.

stockharketslive.com has a post with some pictures of a job fair in China. All I can really say is glad I’m not hunting for a position over there. They probably don’t even have enough swag for 1/4 of the people.