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Reviews (5)
08 September 2007
My favorite game ever
Simply my favorite game. Most games are either easy to begin playing but lacking depth, or very challenging but very difficult to begin playing at an acceptable level. Civ is the odd exception, It is very simple to begin (an easy level with a good tutorial), and can get very difficult, while constantly revealing new subtleties in gameplay. The ways you can play it also allow you to tailor the game to your personality - world domination vc. diplomacy vs. space exploration. The same is true of the technologies you can build - armies, libraries, banks, etc.
I have played, and continue to play the later versions, which have signigicantly better graphics, but this is still a great game. One plus is that the entire game can be loaded onto your hard disk, so you don't need the CD in a drive to tun it. My wife has tried each later version, and always gone back to Civ II. There are also a number of add-on packs to increase the versatility further - you can re-fight World War II or an alien invasion.
01 October 2006
Outstanding MP3 player
17 of 17 found this helpful PLuses - FLASH based, hard disks in small portable devices are prone to fail
Good capacity - 6 GB plus a Micro SD card expansion slot (there is also an 8 GB model)
FM radio, voice recording, built in mic
Bright TFT color screen - can display photos and video, good backlight
Easy to use control layout
20 hour batter life
Works with WMP10+ and other software, but doesn't lock you into a particular package
Drag and drop files to player works
Battery can be replaced by the user
Minuses
Quite small, but still larger than some players.
Battery replacement takes four screws rather than just removing a latch
I would prefer it to run off AAAs, you can't really swap out a battery while walking, for examole
You recharge the battery only via USB or an optional AC adapter
No MP3 player gets everything right, byt this is as close as any I have seen.
23 October 2008
Excellent intro to the EEE PC
This book is well written and quite comprehensive. The main downside is that Asus is coming out with so many models that not all of them are covered here. The original EEE PC is barely a year old. This book covers it, and the 900 series, but the 1000 is mentioned in a paragraph referring to future EEE models. Still, the vast majority of what this book covers is common to all models.
The main reason that this book is so necessary is that the EEE, like many netbooks, comes in both Linux and Windows XP models. While XP is fairly normal, most people are not that familiar with Linux, and the Xandros Linux used by the EEE is not the most popular distribution. In addition the EEE uses a tabbed "Easy Mode" interface which is specific to this line, so much more handholding is needed with a relatively unfamiliar system.
This book does that weil. While the EEE PC can be used very nicely as an "appliance" computer, using only the built in software (which is quite good), The EEE Handbook will help you go beyond that. There are sections on customizing Easy Mode, on enabling the full KDE desktop, which adds a lot of capabilities, on adding additional software (which Asua makes more difficult than it should be), on configuring wireless networking, and on learning the Linux command line. If you decide to give up on Linux and convert to Windows XP, there are chapters on doing that as well (I'm sticking with Linux).
This book would be useful for any EEE PC owner, but ther closer you are to being an owner of the Linux model who doesn't know Linux well, the more essential it becomes.