A couple of years ago, at a conference, I was sitting next to a friend -- she was using her iPad2 and I my netbook. Someone walked up and asked us how the two devices compared. "There's no comparison." said my friend. I added "You're right -- I've got a real keyboard abd an SD slot." She showed me the third-party Bluetooth keyboard tucked under her tablet. I only learned later that her device cost twice as much as mine; I later spent a pittance to upgrade its hard drive to 750GB, on which I dual-boot between Win7 and Ubuntu Linux.
In 2010, I flew to San Diego for a three-week session at UCSD. I wanted to take at least two full-size laptops, but by taking only my netbook, I was able to fly comfortably with limited luggage. I was not at all certain that it would be adequate, but in fact that netbook met all of my computing needs for those three weeks, except that I had to ask a friend to copy a driver CD-ROM to a USB flash drive for me. I was surprised and impressed....
Biting the hand that feeds IT
