March 20, 2009

Ooo! It’s So Cute!

Filed under: Main — Tags: — admin @ 12:01 am

teeny laptop
I thought I thaw a laptop. I did! I did! I did thee a laptop!

I went to CostCo the other day, and not because I was doing “research” and wanted to deduct my gas mileage for the trip. While I was there, I stumbled upon a tiny, minute, little, itsy-bitsy, midget laptop. I mean, the thing is doinky.

Despite its diminutive stature, I found myself compelled by the thing. I was mesmerized. It was just so cute! And cheap! About $300, or $299 or something.

The laptop came packed with 1GB of RAM and has a 60GB hard drive. It runs Windows XP. The graphics are so-so, but I don’t think anyone would get a 2.5 pound laptop for playing Crysis.

Sadly, the baby laptop lost its appeal for me when I went to test out the keyboard: too small! It wasn’t as bad as typing on a cell phone, but it was close. There was no way I was going to touch-type on the elfin HP laptop.

Still, temptation had a hold of me. I was thinking, “Darn!” (Though I didn’t actually say “Darn!” but it’s older brother expletive.) “Darn! That thing is just cheap! I mean, I could reformat it with Ubuntu Linux and have a swell little NIX box that I could play with and be real nerdy!”

So I stood around the tempting toy laptop for a few more minutes. I looked at the price. I admired the miniscule laptop. I looked back at the price. Then I tried once again to type on the thing, maybe hoping that my first impression was wrong.

In my very first laptop book, published nearly 20 years ago, I wrote that laptops will decrease in size as long as technology keeps making things smaller. The only limitation is the size of the screen, which must be visible, and the size of the keyboard, which you have to type on. For me, that HP Mini 1000 Netbook computer is just too small to type on.

I moved on and didn’t buy it.

3 Comments

  1. Dan-
    Im really surprised you couldnt touch type on the HP netbook. That is one thing that sets it apart from all the other netbooks is that it has a really large keyboard, to me it feels just as big as a regular laptop keyboard. You must have huge club fingers. Well there are mini-laptops you can buy that are still fairly light, like about 5 lbs and have 13 or 14 inch screens.

    Comment by BradC — April 12, 2009 @ 11:20 pm

  2. I could touch type, just not fast enough to keep me happy. I’m a keyboard snob. :\

    Comment by admin — April 14, 2009 @ 10:46 pm

  3. yeah, you like the Model M keyboard huh? 😛

    Comment by linuxlove — April 20, 2009 @ 11:57 am

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