Today I’m taking the opposite point of view — that a netbook is not all that useful. Ironically, I am typing this on my Psion PDA, and I notice that the space bar key is no longer working that well. Whatever Psion replacement I will eventually settle on, it better be soon.
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Two weeks ago I received a netbook from my father, and I’ve noted a few factors that make a difference. The most obvious observation is that it’s very nice to have a netbook and be able to surf the web during the daily commute. But if I am to buy a netbook for myself, what factors are important to consider? I’ll summarize my thoughts here. Continue reading this story »
While I consider buying an Asus Eee 901, my dad has offered to borrow me his super-cool netbook for evaluation. It’s a little bigger and a little heavier (1,5 kg with extra battery) but it might still be fine.
Perhaps I’ll just keep it?
IT news sites report that Google will launch a new browser today that will compete with Firefox and Internet Explorer. It’s going to be interesting to see what it offers. From a technical point of view it will probably be great as it is based on fresh young ideas and not on several earlier versions (which is a strength in other matters though). Continue reading this story »
This is officially the moment where the iPhone lost. I am not going to consider buying one anymore.
The factor that “did it” was that I just sat down and typed two blog posts for fun. It took a few minutes. Okay, so I just wrote those two posts on my Psion Series 5 which is not online, so I can’t actually post this until later. But I can write it now, and I like to write. I couldn’t type that much or that fast on an iPhone. I don’t deny that it’s a really cool device, but it’s not good for typing and that is what I want. Either I keep my Psion alive longer still, or I need to find some neat micro laptop. Stay tuned.
“Commuting demography” is a brand-new branch of observatory philosophical science. I just made it up.
I just noticed that the kind of people riding the regional trains are very different from those that I see in the subway. My subjective classification is that the regional commuters are nicer folks. Continue reading this story »
When I wrote about the new bedroom closet a few days ago I hoped that there would be no surprises, because there have been unforeseen obstacles at just about every step along the way to moving into our new apartment. Of course there were obstacles again. Continue reading this story »
I am having significantly more time to read during the commute to and from work these days. I have nearly an hour of train time each way, and I can make good use of that. Today I read an article with a very interesting sentence:
If you’re trying to choose between two theories and one gives you an excuse to be lazy, the other one is probably right. – Paul Graham
Hit that link and read for a few hours. There are a lot of goodies (and oddities) in the articles.
I’m also dreaming of having a very small laptop (which are now called netbooks) to use on the commute so that I can surf and blog while on the road. It turns out to be difficult or expensive or both. The good netbooks are too big, the smaller ones have too short battery life, and the really nice ones run some special Linux-based operating system that doesn’t support my HSDPA USB modem, meaning no Internet connertion. And they are all still rather expensive. At the moment I’m hanging on to my Psion but as I’ve written earlier, this is a relationship that can’t last forever.
If someone feels like giving me a free Asus Eee 901 I’d be happy to accept it.
Just a brief update here about how our apartment is getting nearer to finished. Yesterday an electrician friend came over and connected our cooking range and oven, so we’re finally out of microwave land now. That’s a significant step in feeling “at home” even though I will retain the right to use the microwave whenever I feel like it.
In other wired news, today the telecom guy will hook up our DSL Internet connection so that we can get Internet on all our computers and not just the one that has the USB HSDPA stick. On the offline side of life, today is also the day when our bedroom closet will be delivered and assembled. This means that by tonight we will no longer be living out of suitcases and boxes.
That makes three steps forward in two days. It feels good when things are heading in the right direction. Now I’m just hoping that the bedroom closet will not contain any sneaky setbacks like the kitchen did…
I can’t say we are done with the move to the new apartment, but we’re now officially settled. We gave back the old apartment last week, and by now we have finished the new apartment so far that we can live there comfortably. Mind you, we still need to connect the stove and the oven—you can imagine that our cooking is rather limited under these conditions, but we get by well. Continue reading this story »