Wakefield 2008 show live news | RISC OS news and information from Drobe


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Wakefield 2008 show live news

Published: 26th Apr 2008, 06:30:35.

Latest gossip from the hall floor

We're reporting live from the Wakefield 2008 show floor and you can catch up with the latest news, theatre talks and gossip from the link below. A preview of the show is here and a full report will follow later. Photos may well also appear below too, if you're lucky.

Click here to see news filed from the show floor

We'll be filing copy via mobile phone and taking notes in show presentations. Feel free to say hello if you recognise any of us. Many thanks to readers who donated cash to Drobe this year - it helps pay the bills for covering RISC OS shows.

Links
Live show news feed
Wakefield 2008 show website

Discussion

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I'm just about to set off to the station to get to the show. I hope everyone has a good day there (or two or three hours in my case because of the badly-timed trains back).

SimonC on 26/4/08 7:44AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Drobe does a great service. Hopefully you'll get to see the theatre presentations for those that might miss them,

AW on 26/4/08 8:36AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

RComp have an eeepc with VRPC? WOW!!!! I guess that this has windows loaded? Is the processor still at 630Mhz or have they used the tweak to get it to the full 900Mhz?

How fast is it running on the celeron?

Is this a linux port?

cheers Bob

nijinsky on 26/4/08 10:15AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

There was supposedly work done on a Linux version, (presumably much would be common with the Mac version) Apparently the reason it wasn't released was due to worries about supporting the variety of Linux systems available.

If this was the case, the supporting a single platform via a reseller would not have the same issue.

Hope it is Linux and comes with RO 6 (and I can afford one).

jess on 26/4/08 10:33AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I've already got an eeePC and the 900 is out now (not in uk yet) cheers bob

nijinsky on 26/4/08 3:48PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On the train back to London, and this year the wifi is free :-)

The show seemed decently busy, with crowds round each stand.. I had to queue for the Artworks upgrade at 3.30!

The EeePC running VirtualRPC looked very cool. It was being run at 1000x600 resolution but the display still looked very clear. If only it didn't Windows to be installed :-(

As others have said, maybe a Linux version of VRPC could be produced for the EeePC and sold as a complete system. I'd buy one straight away!

helpful on 26/4/08 5:19PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Oh and Chris "Drobe" Williams was running around with a camera like a true paprazzi snapping away like mad! Expect lots of pictures of Louie to follow!

But still not as many as Druck has got :-)

helpful on 26/4/08 5:27PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Nope! in Druck's defence he didn't take one!

Andrea on 27/4/08 9:25PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I'll try and get the pictures to drobe tonight, I had to write yesterday off to natural wastage.

druck on 28/4/08 9:18AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

druck: of what?

bucksboy on 28/4/08 9:22AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

My throbbing head.

druck on 28/4/08 9:53AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

bucksboy:

druck was lead astray by Louie...

epistaxsis on 28/4/08 10:27AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

In reply to druck:

Throbbing head - you had at least an extra hour's sleep to the rest of us!

sa110 on 28/4/08 10:28AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Our eeePCs (RISCBook Mini) default to 630Mhz (70Mhz fsb) but have dynamically switchable performance profiles which allow for closer to the 900Mhz full. We don't allow absolute max speed as many machines fail around 850+ mhz, but being able to dynamically switch up the CPU performance is a good thing, I think. HOWEVER, at the show, we ran at 630Mhz to be "fair" in our demonstration.

NOTE, it's a heck of a lot of work to get do the RISCBook Mini working like this (several days per machine). We even have about 600Mb of free internal disc space after installing XP, windows updates, OpenOffice office suite, RISC OS, internet software, Acrobat viewer and AV software. If you consider that just installing Windows and doing a Windows Update will normally crash with "disk full", you'll understand why this is quite an achievement.

arawnsley on 28/4/08 2:24PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Oh, and there's also a bunch of custom stuff under the hood to make it all hang together properly. VA has a habit of crashing without that (on the eee), so I was glad when it all came together. (Uh oh, that sounded like an A-team quote)

arawnsley on 28/4/08 2:27PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

In reply to arawnsley: -

"love it when a plan comes together" usually is followed by explosions - hope this did not apply to your eeePC!

Random quote of the day: "The truth points to itself".

sa110 on 28/4/08 2:46PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

arawnsley: One assumes you're using a custom Windows installation? I seem to recall the Eee can netboot. A few hours of effort setting up a network installation server, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to install all that software precisely to your specification using BartPE.

rjek on 28/4/08 4:18PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

For windows on a standard 4Gb EEE you need to nLite it or something similar.

The new 900's come with 20Gb SSD (linux)n or 12Gb SSD (windows). So these should be better.

In reply to Andrew. Apparently you get more stability moving from the standard 667 Mhz RAM to 800Mhx RAM when increasing speed.

One word of warning on the 4Gb machines (linux). Domt update everything using synaptic on Xandros, simce many updates are added to the user space and not the protected unionFS space. You can quickly fill up a disc that way.

The boot time for the original xandros is 15 secs but I'm going to sacrifice boot time and move to Mandriva. Ges I know I'm better with a fast slacky, but there ain t one for the EEE. :-)

Cheers Bob

nijinsky on 28/4/08 4:32PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

sa110:

"what do you want?"

epistaxsis on 28/4/08 4:57PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

In reply to epistaxis:

You are an annoying little man and I want you to go away!

(Zoot Zoot)

sa110 on 28/4/08 5:00PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Hi,

Did anyone discover what R-Comp's new PDF software does better than existing solutions?

fylfot on 28/4/08 8:31PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

sa110:

& zoot zoot to you to! :p

epistaxsis on 28/4/08 9:00PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Having attended this year's Wakefield show after three years of non-attending, I'd just like to say that I was very impressed with how friendly and helpful everyone I talked to was.

msww on 28/4/08 9:26PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

fylfot: All I could gleam was that it was a point-and-click interface with a pamphlet-sized guide on how to use it. I didn't investigate much, however.

rjek on 28/4/08 9:27PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

arawnsley:

Are you planning to PRODUCTIZE your RISCBook Mini? I could be sorely tempted by one - if the price difference from a vanilla Eee were not too vast, and the speed not too tiny.

(I'm already sorely tempted by a Linux Eee, and I suspect I might get some actual use out of RISC OS version. As opposed to merely playing with it.)

richcheng on 29/4/08 5:10PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Richcheng - we've been selling the RISCBook Mini for about 3 months now, and I have stock (really!). However, the big problem is making the price competative - the cost of RISC OS and Windows (plus VAT) adds a lot, and that's before I start to cover the time involved.

arawnsley on 29/4/08 6:15PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

fylfot - wider PDF format variety, control over image compression, better handling of source documents (works round a few problems in Ghostscript), preview at various stages so you can see what screwed up and where, UI that "remembers stuff" for more rapid generation of PDFs, quick and easy installation/operation. To name a few. Sold out by lunchtime. Of course, it's nothing you can't do other ways, so probably not worth your time (wink)

arawnsley on 29/4/08 6:19PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

In reply to arawnsley.

ASUS now sell the EEE with windows. Probably the best system would be the new 900 with wiun installed. ASUS are offsetting the cost of the windows version by selling it with a smaller SSD.

You should let the chaps at www.eeeuser.com know. I'm sure it would be good for business. Mind you, I'm sure you've already done that ,since it is the main EEE portal.

cheers bob

nijinsky on 1/5/08 9:06AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Not quite sure why eeeuser.com would want to know about RISC OS on a eee? But yes, the 900 series does look good, the only caveat being that another 15-200 would net you a 12" RISCBook with DVD, more RAM, 160Gb drive and full resolution display (1280x800), and a dual core CPU. The question is, where do you draw the line?

arawnsley on 1/5/08 10:11AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Because it is small. Eg My EEE701 fits in my small gortex jacket pocket like a cycle jacket. It is 900g and it takes up little room on the table when traveling on the train every morning.

And eeeuser have forums specifically for alt OS's

nijinsky on 1/5/08 12:36PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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