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What Are Netbooks, and Where Can I Get One?
I’ll admit it: I’m getting old. My eyesight’s shot and my fingers are too fat and stiff to use those microscopic keyboards that kids text with. Texting. That didn’t used to be a word, did it? A verb, no less! Anyway…
In 1982 I bought my first computer, a Timex Sinclair 1000. It had 8k (yes, as in “kilobyte”) of ROM, and 2k of RAM. It cost less than $100, so I sprung for the extra 16kb RAM memory expansion. I used my TV as the black and white monitor, and an audio cassette recorder for backups. The 12 ounce, 7-inch-wide computer had a membrane keyboard, and I used this little gem to learn Basic by writing dice-rolling programs.
Alas (and thank goodness!), the Timex was too limited to compete with the Altair, Apple, Commodore, and Radio Shack (TRS) computers that took the home market. Then IBM muscled its way to the front of the line, eventually loading Windows to finally grab up the competition-weary market.
In well-controlled industry-wide planned obsolescence, desktops morphed into faster, smaller laptops, then into smaller notebooks, and then into still smaller subnotebooks. Some freak dwarf machines called palmtops came out, which I guess morphed down to today’s iPhones and Blackberries.
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But before we start talking brain implants, let’s back up a bit from those teeny tiny computers and try to keep it real, okay people? Let’s shoot for a keyboard designed for Human hands, a color screen that doesn’t require a magnifying glass, a built-in video camera, wireless internet connection, stereo sound, and all the usual computer programs. Can you say Netbook?
About the same size as my old Timex Sinclair, my new $300 Asus Eee PC represents the latest generation of personal computers, specifically designed for optimal Internet use. At 7 x 9 x .8 inches, it’s small enough to use 2 or 3 of them on a Starbucks table. My hard drive is 160GB (yes, as in “gigabyte”), 1GB RAM, and I have another 64GB SD card in the expansion slot. The Eee was designed for the very efficient Linux OS, but my model came preloaded with WinXP Home, which Windows still supports for netbooks. You can even load Mac OS X if you don’t mind bending some licensing provisions. I like the touchpad, but you can plug a mouse into one of the USB ports. The solid state circuitry means no moving parts, so the battery can last up to 5 hours. |
This little miracle was so great that I bought three of them and made special gifts of the other two.
Broadus
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