Your finger as a pointing device on a tablet

Another thing that makes the Lenovo Ideapad K1 tablet (and I think any other tablet based on the same touch screen technology) harder than a laptop for me to use is the way you need to use a thick finger to point to input fields, select words, etc. You can hook up a mouse I heard, but with your finger, you have to go thru lots of screen 'stretching' (on a multi-touch screen, a 2-finger exercise) to select small input fields, like dates.

I really need a mouse to do any fine-point selection. And, with my previous notes on the keyboard, you should also get a keyboard too if you want to do any real efficient content creation. And, to state the obvious, after adding a mouse and keyboard, you have a laptop, but with an ineffective, made for screen-interaction interface and operating system.

I actually plan to add an inexpensive bluetooth mouse and keyboard when I can afford it and report my findings. I did try a roll-up keyboard, but the user interface was horrid.

Anyway, with all these limitations, tablets are not replacements for laptops, for me anyway. Why are they so popular? They are good for content viewing, and maybe as special devices like cash registers like I saw yesterday in a bakery(sort of) and portable data collection, but not so good for many essential traditional laptop (and desktop) uses.

More on Lenovo Ideapad K1

Just a note here. I'm typing this using my IBM T42 "workhorse" laptop I've had for years and upgraded successfully several times.

The IdeaPad keyboard functionality seems the most pressing issue right now. Today I could not subscribe to the New York Times using the Ideapad because the webpage entry for credit card expiration date month would not accept keyboard input using the IME. Using the Android keyboard input method resulted in a rejection by the Times site, even though it looked like the month was enters OK.

I've updated to Android 3.2.1, and there seem to be no newer upgrades when I let the Ideapad search for them. It says the Ideapad is up to date.

This reinforces my thinking that this device is great for data and information consumption but not for actually creating stuff, although it does a fair job of creating email. Note that the email client that came with it does not allow searches of past emails like the gmail client does, and to a limited extent the K9 mail program does. Why did they hamstring the non-gmail email reader? I can only guess it was to promote Google, and that is a big mistake since they will loose customers to Apple's iPad.

Anyway, Android tablets have a ways to go before they will be as smooth as the iPad.

Short review of ideapad

After using this tablet for a week, here are some obervations:

I just observed strange keyboard behaviors as I started this blog entry. The enter key greys out using the IME keyboard. I am now using the Android keyboard to finish this entry.

Also the keyboard disappears when the Android enter key is hit.

Ahah! Editing blog in html brings back the enter key.

This tablet seems excellent for consuming material,but entering other than email,such as google docs is painful. The tablet mode only allows you to enter data in spreadsheets, but not formulas. The web gdocs interface seems better, but still has restrictions.

Email searching in other than the gmail reader is not available. You must use the web email interface to your email provider.

I have not been able to get spelling correction as I type working.



I got printing to work but it is painful, and maybe expensive if you must buy the app that comes with the tablet. A caveat: my wireless printer is on a separate router then my internet router, and that makes it harder.

I use gnucash on my windows and Linux laptops, and it is not available for Android.

I use Password Gorilla for password management on the laptop in both Windows and Linux, and it is not available for Android.

I don't have the patience for continuing this entry using the tablet,so I'll quit now. More later hopefully.

Got an Ideapad for $279.00

Title says it all. Except, I bought it at Staples, North Conway, New Hampshire.

This is discussed in more detail in subsequent postings to this blog.

Back in operation

I'm now in New Hampshire and looking at the twitter feed from the monitor, reconstituted on the new, clean Linux build. Cleaner environment, code, the works. I'm finding a slight memory leak, using the new total/free memory statistics. Follow @zouckhome to see what's going on.

Back to Text Messaging: new 'clean' puppy linux build

I found that the broadband wireless I mentioned in a previous post was not available in area: we are in a rural area shadowed by some hills, and the web site said we would not get a signal here. So, back to text messaging.

I decided to rebuild puppy linux for the Asus eeePC, and document what I did as precisely as possible so it would be repeatable.

Here's whats in the new build, burned to 4 GB USB flash memory stick ($6.99 at Staples):

Puppy Linux 4.3.1 iso file

Pet packages applied:

tcl-8.5.6
tk-8.5.6
tkcon-2.4
tcllib-1.11-i486
bwidget-1.3.1
modem_fix_pack_to_431-6

Development environment, in case needed (contains gcc, ld, CVS, etc.):

devx_431.sfs

For revision control, use RCS  versus CVS, siunce the later is too demanding regarding use as root, ownership, etc. Download rcs-5.8.tar.gz file, unzip it, run configure, make, make install to build and install. devx_431.sfs must be installed to do this:

rcs-5.8.tar.gz



Approximate steps to build:

• Download pup-431.iso, and place on bootable USB stick using Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.7.4 I downloaded for this purpose.
• Copy other pet packages from list above to USB drive with puppy linux
• Boot Asus eeePC with USB.
• Apply each pet package, place devx_431.sfs in /mnt/home directory and add to list of .sfs directories that will be mounted at boot time using setup.
• Reboot 

Various pet packages are here, and here

Utilities for Tracking Network Usage (by process, interface, etc.)

If I am to use the internet via a broadband wireless supplier (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) I need to keep control of how much data I use. Nethogs is a utility for doing so, on Linux (Ubuntu.) The web page contains references to still more utilities.

Ntop is a server that collects network interface statistics, but not by process. You communicate via a browser.

Nethogs screen shot: