Since Facebook released the ‘Like’ button to the world at the end of April there has been a mad scramble to harness the viral power of the Like button. We’ve seen hidden I-Frame scripts, buggy directories, and blatant phishing attempts.

The fact of the matter is though, that someone is going to harness it.

Thus far, it is still early, but we favor the script at http://www.likelike.us

It’s easy, seems to work well, and the price tag isn’t astronomical.

Go have a look and if you want the script for yourself you will easily find it at the ‘Buy this Script’ tab.

What I found was a step up from the MST. I bought the saphire blue Acer Aspire One. It’s a beauty with 160 Gigs of hard drive, 3.5 hours of battery life, and weighs in at just about 2 pounds. For travel and the life I lead, this little marvel is perfect.

The first thing I did with it was to erase Microsoft office and download the Open Office Suite. Then I downloaded Skype and Firefox. Next I searched for an open source photo editing software and found Gimp which from the little I’ve played with it is a step up from Adobe Photoshop 7. I also installed Mozilla Thunderbird and the Filezilla FTP client. I deleted all the demo games, downloaded and installed MRU blaster, Spyware Blaster, and Spybot Search and Destroy and deleted the 30 day trial of McAfee Antivirus. I hate anti-virus but when i start going to questionable sites I will go get AVG free antivirus.

Next I transferred all my music, photos, files, bookmarks, and photos from my old Sony Vaio. I’m left with about 100 gigs of free space and a tight little lightweight computer that runs faster than the Vaio ever dreamed of. Not to mention the difference in weight and space is about 6 pounds and less than half the size of the Vaio.

The downside is that because the screen is smaller, some sites don’t seem to load up right. For instance the ghost floater that comes on at Johnchow.com sticks and doesn’t show me the x spot so I can cancel it. This might be a screen resolution issue, I’m not sure.

I am sure that at some point I will miss being able to play DVDs on my laptop, but to be honest, in the past 8 months, I’ve watched about 5 DVDs on the Vaio, so it really isn’t that big a deal. Installing software might be a little bit of a pain in the butt, but we will see.

To sum up, I’m already a huge fan of the netbook. I like the touchpad, the keyboard, and the overall size and weight. It might be the best $300 I’ve spent in years. I recommend that you get one. You’ll love it too.

Building on its line of popular Aspire One netbooks, Acer makes it even easier to stay productive while on the go with the larger 10.1-inch screen of the Aspire One AOD150-1165. A great choice for students as well as business travelers who like to travel light, the affordable Acer Aspire One weighs just under 3 pounds and has a 6-cell battery that provides up to 5 hours of battery life for extended use and productivity when away from an AC outlet. Designed especially for mobile devices, the 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor uses a brand new design structure new hafnium-infused circuitry, which reduces electrical current leakage in transistors to conserve energy

A great choice for light-packing business travelers, the 10.1-inch Aspire One comes with Windows XP Home, a 160 GB hard drive, and a 6-cell battery for up to 5 hours of battery life .

Weighing just 2.95 pounds, the stylish Acer Aspire One goes anywhere with you

The integrated webcam and microphone makes it easy to connect with friends via video chats

Offering a cool deep blue chassis, the netbook’s smooth surface is comfortable to touch, and it’s accented with distinctive details, such as the attractive orange hinge ring. You’ll be able to easily video chat wherever you roam thanks to the Crystal Eye webcam integrated into the LCD’s bezel, delivering smooth video streaming and high quality images even in low-light situations. And the built-in digital microphone delivers superior voice quality keeping background noise level low and minimizing echoes.

Packed with roomy 160 GB hard drive–great for storing a mobile digital audio and video library–this Aspire One also features 1 GB of installed RAM (2 GB maximum), 54g Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g), multi-format memory card reader, multiple USB ports, and built-in email, web browsing, and digital media applications.

It comes preinstalled with the Microsoft Windows XP Home operating system, which offers more experienced users an enhanced and innovative experience that incorporates Windows Live features like Windows Live Messenger for instant messaging and Windows Live Mail for consolidated email accounts on your desktop.

Processor
The Intel Atom processor uses a brand new design structure that packs in 47 million transistors into a single chip sized at just 22mm (0.87 inches), and it uses just 2.5 watts of power–less than 1/10 of the 35 watts used by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor–for excellent battery management. This 1.6 GHz Atom N270 processor also includes a power-optimized front side bus of 533 MHz for faster data transfer on demanding mobile applications and a 512 KB L2 cache (which temporarily stores data).

Storage
This version of the Aspire One comes with a 160 GB hard disk drive (5400 RPM), which offers enough to room to hold a an extra-large digital audio library of and still have room left over for movies, games, and a large collection of software. This Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive also quickens the pace with a higher speed transfer of data–akin to Firewire and USB 2.0.

Memory
The 1 GB of installed RAM (512 MB onboard memory and one 512 MB DIMM, 533 MHz) can be expanded to a maximum of 1.5 GB of RAM,

Screen, Video and Audio
The 10.1-inch screen has a WSVGA resolution (1024 x 600) and support for up a 262K color depth. Video is powered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, which uses shared video memory with the main memory. Acer’s CrystalBrite display technology guarantees the best possible visual experience by preventing the diffusion of surrounding light and internal ray. Compared to normal TFT LCDs, Acer CrystalBrite technology is able to read color coordinates more accurately, thus minimizing distortion and creating high-fidelity colors in all environments.

This notebook includes an integrated audio card with Microsoft DirectSound compatibility, and it includes two stereo speakers.

Connectivity
This Acer Aspire One notebook has an integrated 54g wireless LAN (Acer InviLink) that’s compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g networks and offers Acer’s SignalUp technology for enhanced antenna efficiency. It has has one dedicated SD memory card slot as well as a second multi-in-one card reader that’s compatible with five different types of memory cards–Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Card–for maximum flexibility. The ability to have both a multi-in-1 card reader and a SD card reader at the same time allows you to download photos from the multi-in-1 to share with others and store to the SD card as an internal storage device simultaneously. Here’s the full list of ports and external connections:

* 3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals–from digital cameras to MP3 players
* Multi-in-one card reader supports Secure Digital (SD), MultiMediaCard (MMC), Reduced Size MultiMedia (RS-MMC), Memory Stick/Memory Stick PRO, and XD Picture Cards
* 1 VGA monitor port
* 1 headphone jack and 1 microphone jack
* RJ-45 port for 10/100 Fast Ethernet connection
* Kensington lock slot

DVD/CD Drive
Because of its size, the Aspire One does not come with an integrated optical drive, but optional CD/DVD read/write drives can be connected to the laptop via one of the three USB ports, enabling you to create your music mixes, burn movies to DVD, and more.

Operating System and Software

* Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3 (SP3)
* Acer eRecovery Management; Acer Launch Manager; Adobe REader; McAfee Internet Security Suite; Microsoft Office 2007 (Trial)

Dimensions and Weight
This netbook measures 10.2 x 7.28 x 1.31 inches (WxDxH) and weighs 2.95 pounds.

What’s in the Box
This package contains the Acer Aspire One notebook PC (AOA150-1635), rechargeable 6-cell lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions. It is backed by a limited warranty for parts and labor for one year from date of purchase.

Product Description
Acer redefines mobile connectivity with the Aspire One, the revolutionary Netbook featuring a 10.1″ display and fun, powerful computing features delivering an optimal on-the-go Internet experience. Browse the Internet, check email, share photos, webcam, check sport scores, listen to music and enjoy a variety of entertainment in a small compact design that you can take anywhere.

By D. Hall (Surrey, England) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
I’ve only had this a week but I’ve already started using it a lot and have been pleasantly surprised seeing just how far I can push this little rascal!

You can take it anywhere as it’s the size of a small book and is very lightweight for a laptop. Traditional notebook laptops are designed to be desktop replacements, so they can end up too big, too heavy, and generally just too *much* for checking your email or editing a Word document in the few minutes you have whilst waiting for the train.

The U100 however, appears to more suitable for moving around frequently and using whenever you get a few moments to spare. It’s a great size, any larger than 10″ and it would no longer classify as a “netbook” class of laptop, any smaller and the screen would be less practical for serious use. Also, 10″ screens have the correct aspect ratio for webpage viewing, you don’t get wasted blank space at the sides as I’ve heard can happen with smaller screens.

It’s incredibly portable, surprisingly powerful when overclocked and RAM doubled, good value, nice to type on (80% size keys), and even looks good. It’s much more responsive running XP than I had expected, it actually behaves like a desktop PC! Microsoft has clearly removed a lot of their bloatware from XP to give these smaller systems the best chance of running quickly.

It performed well straight out of the box, but I spent a good couple of evenings setting it up *properly.* ie. removing the usual bundled bloatware (came with 3GB of Encarta pre-installed. *shudder*), 30 second trial versions of things you wouldn’t use anyway etc…. and now this baby is positively flying along!

So after removing the bloat, installing my own software (Office 2003/2007, MSN, Skype, AVG, Firefox 3, ZoneAlarm, Adobe PDF, heck even Photoshop CS3! Disabled unnessary processes from running in MSCONFIG. After setting everything up just the way nature intended, running PerfectDisk defragmenter and a boot-time defragmentation pass- my U100 was good to go. (well nearly) But there were a couple of things to do first…

On to…. the 1.6GHz Intel Atom PROCESSOR… well, overclocking it to be precise:

It’s great as it is out of the box, but you can get it to go 24% faster if you upgrade the BIOS to 1.10B then toggle Turbo mode with Fn + F10 when plugged into the mains. This won’t void your warranty as this is an official BIOS update from MSI. Fn + F10 when running on battery *underclocks* it so the processor only runs at 800Mhz and the screen brightness is reduced, prolonging the battery life. I know, it’s pretty cool. The light on the power switch shows you which of the 3 power modes is currently in use.

I tested the computer with a freeware utility called “cpuinfo.exe” to see what clock speeds *really* were when it was running at 1) “Eco mode” (green power light) 2) normal power mode (blue power light) and 3) “Turbo mode” (power light goes orange) I found that the CPU of the U100 now happily purrs along at 1984MHz when overclocked -so it’s basically increased by exactly 24% as the option states in the BIOS. You can choose between 8%, 16%, or 24%, but from what I’ve read it’s running stable for everyone at 24% (myself included) so you might as well set the overclock to maximum in the BIOS, you can always change it if you need to later.

This 24% increase in speed to just under 2GHz is awesome, especially when all the other Atom processor netbooks use the same processor and can’t be overclocked (to the best of my knowledge) so are stuck at 1.6GHz. So the U100 has a clear advantage over its rivals here.

What about the MEMORY?

Comes with 1GB, takes about 20 minutes and only about $40 to double that to its maximum 2GB. You don’t void the warranty to do this, and it’s dead easy. Take the 9 screws out underneath, pull the bottom half of the case off, just remember there is an on board stick of 1GB DDR2-667MHz RAM, and the expansion slot won’t recognise a 2GB module. So you fill the empty slot with 1GB and that’s it, memory doubled. I nearly bought a 2GB module by mistake before I read about the onboard memory.

The newer U120 apparently cannot be upgraded from its 1GB of RAM, has the same processor, and has a shorter battery life. You’re *much* better off with the U100 if only because you aren’t stuck with the 1GB RAM.

What about the HARD DRIVE?

The 160BG hard drive on this tiny 1Kg laptop is very generous- you wouldn’t be surprised to get half that capacity on a device such as this. In fact, some versions apparently do ship with an 80BG drive instead. With all my software installed on top of the Windows operating system, I still have 129GB to play with!

The inbuilt card reader works well with my camera’s Sony Memory Stick Pro card, and also takes SD cards and probably all the main memory card types.

WIRELESS card:

The built-in wireless card provides outstanding reception and I haven’t had any dropped connections since I bought it. It works with all 3 WLAN standards (802.11b/g/n) and naturally works with WEP/WPA wifi encryption.

The 1.3mp WEBCAM is good enough, the SPEAKERS are fine for a small laptop and quite usable, though when I’m at home I plug in my Creative I-Trigue 3300 (my favourite 2.1 system)

Thankfully the TOUCHPAD keys are beneath rather than to the sides of the touchpad which so many other netbooks I’ve seen have. That’s something I would struggle to ever be comfortable with. Although I like the touchpad, I plug in my USB mouse when using it at home as it’s easier to use.

PORTS: There are 3 usb ports (two left, one right), VGA port (when connected to my Samsung Syncmaster it can support the large 19″ LCD monitor’s native 1400 x 900 and looks great!) This is great, bearing in mind the onboard graphics card normally spends its time churning out the U100′s 1024 x 600 native resolution instead. It’s only when you want to duplicate the video output to an external LCD *as well* as the U100′s own screen that it will be forced to display the same 1024 x 600 resolution on the external monitor. This isn’t a problem, just an observation. Normally you’d only have one active or the other at any given time.

BLUETOOTH 2.1 is supported. I haven’t used it yet but it it’s nice to have with all the BT devices around these days.

Very useful row of 8 LEDs shows you Bluetooth, WLAN, sleep, battery, caps, num, scroll lock, and hard drive activity all in the same place.

Criticisms:

Full stop key and comma key are a slightly reduced size, but I’m used to it already. Only took a few days of touch typing to adjust.

Watch out you don’t buy the bilingual version in Canada. In London Drugs they sell it with the good old US keyboard, but in Staples they stock a U100 plagued with all sorts of extra keys meant for typing French accents more easily, and most of the keys have everything in French and English, the clutter is annoying. Too bad no one pointed out it’s probably no use to anyone outside of Quebec.

It is slightly front heavy due to the battery position, not a problem really, but something to bear in mind when positioning it on your lap for typing.

There’s no CD/DVD drive. You don’t need one anyway though, just transfer the contents from CDs onto a USB stick in another PC (or over the network) and use them as per usual. Optical drives take up space and use battery power, so not having them is no big loss, even though it seems strange to have a laptop with no CD drive in the 21 Century!

Two other important points:

YOU CAN INSTALL MAC OSX86 (a hacked version of OSX which can run on non-apple hardware. Google for the installer and a how-to guide.) It’s a hugely popular mod… so I hear.

You can install Linux on it- this deserves more attention than I just gave it.

(You can have dual boot, or even triple boot systems with Windows, Mac OSX86 and Linux depending on your personal preference and computer literacy)

“Netbooks” are supposed to compromise on power and functionality to increase their portability. Hence they are often thought of as mobile internet access devices incapable of doing anything even moderately groovy…

…but when you have one running at 2GHz, with 2GB of RAM, and 160GB hard drive and all the onboard peripherals you could wish for -it doesn’t look like such a compromise after all!

Youtube shows people playing various games on it, so don’t think that’s not a possibility either!

Warcraft 3

Need for Speed Underground

F.E.A.R.

I hope my ramblings have been informative! Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts.

I typed all this on my U100

Update:

Bummer. Just found out they won’t send it to the P.O. Box I’ve been using, so I will have to figure something out in the meantime. If you get yours before me, don’t brag too much!