Hi Ho Everybody, I'm back. I haven't had a lot of time with the Eee PC, but it's still reasonably nice. I'll like it a lot better when ASUS increases the screen resolution. It would also be nice to move up to a Core 2 processor with real power management, but these are the trade-offs you make when its only $400.

I've been in the middle of thinking about AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA as we all do this dance around the ring - its like a three-way fight where we take turns helping and hurting each other. I'd call us the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (I'd let you all decide who is who, but I know my choices).

On the topic of ASUS, I'm beginning to wonder about the quality of their motherboards. Both my stepson and I have problems with the motherboards not booting properly and these are two completely different motherboards. How hard can that be to get right?

One project I recently completed was taking video at the memorial for the mother of my wife's brother in-law. I used Pinnacle Studio 10.5 and found it pretty easy to use and create a good basic video with fades and titles. I want to do more work with it over the holidays.

My response to TWiT 120

First, I told Leo that I couldn't make the show for two reasons: one, was that I had a friend from Chicago coming into town; and, two, was that I didn't think there was anything I could provide an interesting comment on as the preceding week's news was more about software/Leopard and Internet business related.

As it turns out, I was wrong on both counts. My friend and I didn't connect on Sunday afterall and this TWiT ran into some interesting questions on phones and PCs. I should have joined, but then I would have missed the Patriots and Colts game, and as much as I am a techie, I still wanted to watch that game. Yes, I could have recorded it and watched it later (fast-forwarding through the commercials), but I just don't enjoy football that way. While I was watching the game, I also found time to move my game PC into a new case with a new power supply. The case is the Antec 900 gaming case which was on sale at Frys for 1/2 price, too good to pass up. But I digress.

Despite not being there, my name did come up with regards to NVIDIA's participation in the Google's Open Handset Alliance (Android) project. My decision to not participate in TWiT 120 had nothing to do with this announcement. Google's announcement was not a big deal for us as we don't have a lot of handset sales right now. And, the announcement was all about the software stack, not about the hardware, so I stand by my statement to Leo that there wasn't much hardware news.

Where I would have liked to interject were on the discussion on the PC dying as a platform. Dvorak would have also been a good foil for this debate. The most dynamic, transformational platform is still the PC (and I include the Mac here). A good example is the new Asus Eee PC. It's really small, and not real fast, but its only $400, runs a robust and lean Linux desktop, its very light, connected, and portable. And it's selling like Wiis. The PC will continue to evolve and reach new markets. I still think it's the best gaming device (well maybe that because I never mastered the game controller). I won't deny that many millions of people will access the Internet first through their cell phones, but I believe they will still prefer the PC (as primary Internet access device) if given the choice.