I know I’m way behind the curve on this one, but a week or two ago I finally decided to jump into the addictive and all-consuming black hole that is Twitter. I kept avoiding it because I didn’t think it would be worthwhile for someone who doesn’t use a cell phone much, but it is turning out to be a pretty interesting blog supplement, networking tool and up-to-the-minute news ticker. It sort of merges blogging, e-mail and instant messaging into one simple yet powerful form of communication.

The catch is that you’re limited to 140 characters per message, which forces you to be somewhat succinct and a little bit creative with what you post, but it’s a lot less work than writing a full blog post or an e-mail. If you want to practice a Chuck Palahniuk-esque minimalist writing style, just get on the “Twitter diet” and you’re guaranteed to drop those pronouns in 30 days or your money back!

People seem to view Twitter as either brilliant or moronic in its simplicity, but the many Twitter-related apps out there only prove how versatile it can be (things like TwitterFeed, Sandy, TwitPic, Twitticious, etc.).

It has caught on mostly in the tech community, but it’s starting to branch out. There are plenty of interesting celebrities out there who Tweet, everyone from Obama to MC Hammer to fan-based fictional characters like Cobra Commander. I recently started to follow Henry Rollins on Twitter, and after just finishing one of his books it is cool getting an occasional dose of one-liners directly from the mind of Hank himself. (Of course, in the book, his constant cynicism and self-doubt got a bit tiring after a while, but when delivered in short 140-character snippets, it’s all quite amusing.)

The only problem I’m finding is that Twitter adds yet another layer of complexity to my daily travels around the web. Between Twitter, Facebook, del.icio.us, Flickr, Flixster, Last.FM, and my various blogs, this Web 2.0 crap is really messing me up, man.

You can follow my Twitter updates over at twitter.com/filmjunk.

I’ve been in the market for a new laptop for a few weeks now, since our old Toshiba Satellite had succumbed to an AC adapter design flaw and could no longer be charged. Not wanting to spend a lot of money, but looking for something more portable and lightweight, Kurt from Row Three dropped by last week to record The Movie Club Podcast and just happened to bring with him what may be the smallest laptop I have seen to date. All he had to do is tell me that it cost $400 and I was pretty much sold.

Given my past history with new computer systems (read about my short-lived stint as a Mac owner for more details) I was hesitant to jump into something Linux-based. However, after seeing the software that came pre-installed, and knowing that I could install Windows XP if necessary, I was ready to take the plunge. I’ve now been using the EEE for a little over a week, and I can say that I don’t regret the purchase at all. This laptop is definitely not going to suit everyone’s needs, but there is a growing user base out there, and I can totally understand why.

So here’s what you get for your $399:
- 512 MB DDR2 RAM (expandable to 2 GB)
- 4 GB solid state disk (no hard drive)
- 900 MHz Intel Celeron CPU
- 7″ LCD screen running at 800×600 resolution
- 1.3 megapixel webcam
- no CD or DVD drive
- 3.5 hour battery life
- built-in stereo speakers and microphone
- built-in Wireless LAN, 802/11b/g WiFi connection
- 3 USB ports and an SDHC card reader
- Linux OS with Open Office, Firefox, Skype and lots of other apps pre-installed

Clearly this isn’t something that could act as a primary machine for anyone who does graphic-intensive work, video editing, or PC gaming. On the other hand, this machine is probably more than enough to handle what most people in the world use their computers for; that is, web surfing, word processing and e-mail. I have also installed GIMP, a Photoshop alternative, and Comix, a comic book reader (turn the laptop sideways and it’s pretty damn close to reading an actual comic). It plays videos and MP3s fine too.

Although standard laptops are now sometimes seen hovering around the $600 mark, the portability of the EEE is its main strength (the thing weighs less than 1 kg). The storage space is small, but you can extend it with USB flash drives and SD memory cards — plus, the lack of hard drive and optical drives actually make the laptop more sturdy and a lot less noisy. Did I mention that it only takes about 10 seconds to boot up?

The only real frustrations that I experienced were the low screen resolution (you might have to scroll horizontally when reading certain webpages) and the cramped keyboard/tiny touchpad area. These took a little getting used to, but for some people I could see them being a deal breaker. I still do occasionally hit the Up arrow instead of the Right Shift key, although there are scripts that switch the functionality of the two keys for people who just can’t adapt. The good thing is that there is a great user community out there with plenty of ways to customize the machine to suit your needs.

Ironically, it was just announced that the new EEE 900 model is due out in May and it will have a 9″ screen. I suspect this may actually be the perfect size for the machine (assuming they make the keyboard and touchpad a little bigger too), but the problem is that now the price is creeping up towards $550, which puts it in direct competition with full size laptops. I’m really happy with the 701 to be honest. At $399, it is an extremely versatile machine at a price point that is comparable to an iPhone — but you can actually type with a real keyboard instead of that infernal touch screen! If you’re looking for something super small but still functional, the EEE is it as far as I’m concerned.

Well, my two week journey into the land of Apple was brought to an abrupt end yesterday, after my brand new iMac stopped doing the one thing Macs are always supposed to do: work. I had spent the last two weeks familiarizing myself with OS X and getting the new machine tuned to my liking. I had located all the Mac equivalents to PC applications I used on a regular basis, and even found a few new ones. I had successfully imported my e-mail from an Outlook backup, transferred over my iTunes library and brought my DVD Profiler collection into Delicious Library. I had installed Windows XP using Boot Camp and successfully ran a number of PC games without issue. I was even starting to get used the close buttons being in the top left corner instead of the top right. And then the damn thing just gave out on me.

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure it was a software issue and not a hardware thing. Here’s what happened: one day, while surfing the web in Firefox, the screen slowly dimmed from top to bottom and a message came up on the screen saying that the computer had to be restarted. Then after restarting, nothing happened, the computer was apparently dead. After unplugging it and leaving it for 10 or 15 minutes, the computer would start up again, only to have the same message come up shortly thereafter. After doing some research, I found out that I was experiencing a “kernel panic“, which is basically the Mac version of a Windows blue screen of death. Apparently kernel panics are almost never supposed to happen on a Mac; I read forum posts from people saying they had never seen one in years of using a Mac. And yet, here I was, after my first two weeks, consistently seeing one happen every 5 minutes.

I did some more reading and came up with a theory that the problem was being caused by a Logitech mouse driver. So I ripped that software out and plugged in a different mouse. The system ran smoothly for a couple hours afterwards and it seemed like the issue was gone. But then the next morning, the computer had frozen up again and simply would not boot no matter what I did.

My first instinct as a PC guy is to think it could be a virus, but I’m told there is no such thing as a Mac virus.

I suppose it could have just been bad RAM, but then why did it take two weeks to act up? The panic log seemed to indicate a memory paging error, but I also did a Mac extended hardware scan and it didn’t find any problems.

The guy at the Future Shop said it sounded like a faulty hard drive, but I don’t really buy that.

In the end, my options were either (a) exchange it for a brand new iMac and start all over again, (b) send it away to Apple and wait 2 or 3 weeks to see if they could fix it without losing my data, or (c) get my money back. Seeing as it was the last day for option (c), I decided I didn’t want to risk either of the other two options. As painful as it was, I had to part with my new Mac and accept the fact that it just wasn’t meant to be.

I’m not going to say that Macs suck and I’ll never try one again, but it’s pretty hard not to be put off by the whole ordeal. If it was a hardware thing, then it’s possible that I simply got a lemon. If it was a software issue, it could very well have been my own fault for installing some crappy shareware program or old system utility that borked the whole thing. But unless I could identify the culprit, how was I know to know it wouldn’t happen again? I really didn’t like the idea of an OS that couldn’t handle a little bit of fiddling behind the scenes, and I didn’t like the fact that once something messed it up, you had no recourse other than to reformat the entire thing. At least with a PC you can usually boot to DOS and try to recover some data or re-install Windows without losing your files.

So I guess this means my days as a Mac convert are over. Here is my short list of pros and cons that I took away from my brief stint as a Mac user:

The Good
- Compact and quiet: The iMac ran super quiet and made for less desktop clutter since the CPU is inside the monitor.
- Increased Compatibility: With an Intel processor I was able to run both Windows and Mac software quite easily using Apple’s own free Boot Camp software.
- OS X Features: There are some pretty cool features in Mac OS X… things like expose, widgets, and spotlight made my life easier. I think Windows Vista has since ripped off some of this stuff though.
- Peripherals: It came with a built-in web cam, firewire ports and a bunch of other things out of the box that my PC didn’t have.
- Enhanced Podcast Tool: Macs have the ability to make enhanced podcasts with chapter stops and pictures, but the software doesn’t exist for Windows yet.
- Delicious Library: Jim from fjetsam tipped me off on this Mac-only media cataloging program and it is amazing… movies, music, games and books all in one, and the interface is so much better than DVD Profiler.

The Bad
- Mouse Tracking: This may sound like a stupid complaint but I seriously could not get used to the mouse movement on a Mac. Despite an array of utilities aimed at fixing the problem (MouseFix, USB Overdrive, MouseZoom), I wasn’t happy with any of them.
- Home/End Key Behaviour: By default the Home and End keys do not move to the beginning and end of lines on a Mac. You can customize this in your key bindings and hack it in for certain programs, but it’s still not a system wide thing.
- GarageBand Sucks: And Adobe Audition is not currently available for the Mac.
- Limited Troubleshooting Ability: If your system dies, whether it’s a software or hardware issue, there’s not much you can do other than send it away to Apple and get them to repair it.

I guess I’ll be spending next week checking out PC system packages. Sigh. Dude, maybe I should just get a Dell.