Have Laptop Will Travel

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is now available again after it was delayed because of issues found with users who have Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System in their computers.

According to Microsoft, the one-file update is 316.4 MB. They are recommending that those who only need to update one computer should just consider using Windows Update as it will be smaller there.

Going back to the bug with DRMS, a hotfix has been released to fix the error and it is recommended that the hotfix is applied before updating to SP3. The funny thing here is that when you click on the hotfix, you get a 404 error, which means that the hotfix is not there. Hopefully, this error has been rectified by the time you read this.

Laptop users in North America are quite lucky. ASUS has confirmed that major retailers across the country are now accepting preorders for its forthcoming second generation ASUS EEE, the PC 900. The product will officially be sold on May 12 and users can have a choice of getting a Linux or Windows XP “variants”. The new price point for these babies are at $549, although those who will get Windows will have to contend with a smaller hard drive because of the higher cost of getting a Windows user license.

For those who haven’t yet read any of the references to the EEE PC 900 in this blog, the new unit will have a largers 8.9 inch screen and 1 gigabyte of memory.

I’m currently on the lookout for a good laptop for my wife. I’m planning to buy her a new one as a Mother’s Day gift even if I might get it at the end of the month.

Right now, I’m torn between the ultraportability of an ASUS EEE or the decent computing power of an ACER laptop. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve fallen in love with the EEE’s small form factor. I know my wife will love the fact that she can bring it with her in her various meetings and during her brainstorming sessions with her staff. But I am also considering getting her an ACER with a decent graphics chip. I am proud to say that my wife is also a gamer and she has been complaining that she hasn’t had the time to play her favorite RPGs and simulations. A budget gaming PC will be something she will definitely appreciate.

There are just so many choices right now. I think I’ll need a couple more weeks before I arrive at a decision.

I whipped out my ASUS EEE at a meeting this week for a new project I’m working on. As expected two of my teammates got intrigued by the diminutive size of the machine and got more surprised when I told them how much it costs. A few days later, at another meeting those two approached me to say that they are going to buy an EEE in a couple of weeks. I told them it’s a good investment but they might want to hold off for a few more weeks because the 900 series is already available. The two said that they’ll think about it.

My last conversation with them actually left me wondering, too. With the 900 series available, the lure of the bigger capacity and screen size is really something that will make you take pause. But the attendant price increase is the one niggle that is not really sitting well with me. With the new price point for the 900, you can get a full featured budget laptop for the same price. ASUS may have forgotten that the price point is one of the biggest selling factors for getting an EEE. By eliminating that advantage, the EEE is shown for what it really is, a low featured laptop.

I hope that ASUS gets its act together especially when they announce the release of the Intel Atom EEEs.

Microsoft has postponed the planned April 29 release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP because of a reported compatibility issue.

According to the Company, the issue stems from an incompatibility between the new Service Pack and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System or RMS. The same compatibility issue is also reportedly present with Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1.

RMS is a retail chain management solution that is made available to small and medium-sized customers. What Microsoft has done is to put in place a filtering system that will prevent the update from being downloaded in machines that carry RMS.

Reportedly, a fix is already available and is being tested before deployment.