Asus Eee - is it a good idea?

A few weeks ago at work, a coworker told me about his new purchase - an Asus Eee.

It sounded too good to be true; a small, lightweight PC that ran linux and had all the functionality you could want while on the move.

I look a look at the Eee in my local Selfridges store - it seems nice, well made and with 100% solid state storage a good portable device. However the screen is small at just 7" and the keyboard is a bit tight if you have FFS (fat finger syndrome). Its not really a small "PC" more of large "PDA".

It is really a good buy - I don't really think so.... take a look at alternatives such as the Dell Insprion lappy with Ubuntu pre-installed. Its a full size lappy with a 15" screen, more memory, a bigger HDD and only £299 - just £80 more, upgradable and Dell has so many offers on the hardware I'm sure you could get it even cheaper.

Ubuntu comes with all the software you need - Firefox, Thunderbird, lightning, Open Office, VLC..... and on and on.

Its a nice idea and I'm sure if the screen was bigger and it had more storage I might change my view - hang on, if that happens it will just be another laptop. Oh well.

The one-page IT strategy

I've been think recently about IT strategy documents - ever since our company auditors asked to see ours. I suspect they, like many in the industry, equal quantity with quality. I've read many fine documents over the years; 100's of pages, beautifully bound and usually the result of many man-months of work or hefty consultant price tags.

Its all rubbish - all they do is satify the CEO (because he thinks he should have one) and the auditors (who know you should have one) - but why create shelfware?

I'm working on my master plan for (IT) world domination, the one-page IT Strategy. Whats so complex it takes more than a single sheet of A4 to articulate?

Red Nose Day - The Big One (16th March)

Well done to the BBC & Red Nose Day - 40 million pounds!!!!!

For me there were two high-lights:

Firstly Piers Morgan on the receiving end of "You're Fired!". Well not Piers himself in fact, but the smug face of Alistair Campbell and the twist of the knife in the back comment "what, again?".





Secondly Fern Cotton - what was she wearing? Two puppies fighting under a blanket comes to mind.

First ever blog

Well, what do people say on their first blog?

Legal IT, what's that all about, I suppose for a lot of people who work in IT a job is a job, but I must say that the experience of working in a partnership (and a large one at that) has been quite an education. I've been in IT since 1984 after getting my Computer Science degree at Wolves Poly. The last 10 years have been with a UK based major international law firm and its the best and worst job I have ever had ;-)

I always say to new recruits that it takes 6 months to get your head around the politics and a further 6 months to discover where you fit in to the picture. Many have fallen by the wayside, I'd like to think those who have not listened to my advice but that would be a little cocky to say the least. Lets say "only the strong survive!".

Radio - I am a radio amateur (G4V**) and enjoy listening to radio stations from all over the world, originally using shortwave and medium wave but more recently via satellite and the Internet but to be honest you can't beat good ol' AM radio!

Travel - born & live in the UK but love Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia.

Music - born to rock, I'm a "Dead Head" at heart and on a visit to San Francisco in the 1990's I made a pilgrimage to Haight-Ashbury

I have a 40GB iPod and its full - OK, not all music, lots of BBC Radio podcasts and a growing number of Gartner audio CD's - but more of that in the future.

Work - Enterprise Architecture - I worried for months that I was a fraud and that people who knew a lot more about the subject were giggling behind my back - guess what - they aren't and I now know why - it's because they don't know either! Its a black art and it is what ever you make it!