Tuesday, February 5, 2008

I need a 2nd, small (very small) laptop

Requirements:

  • Aforementioned small size
  • RJ-45 (goodbye Macbook Air)
  • 802.11g
  • Any OS (OS X, Linux, XP preferred in that order.. WinCE would suffice, but just)
  • At least one USB port
Would be nice to have, but not required:
  • One 1394 port
  • At largest, a 12" screen
  • 802.11n
  • bluetooth
That's really about it. I am fortunate in that I have two connections at my desk: the regular "office" GigE RJ-45 and a second connection with a direct connection to the Internet. Yup, I am totally unencumbered Internet access that does not touch one piece of company network hardware. Why would I have such a thing? I have to test and troubleshoot VPN problems as part of my job so it helps to be directly connected to the Internet in order to do so (if you ever sneak into my office orange Ethernet cable is the one you want).

I have a 3rd option to connect, well 3rd and 4th, as well: company Wi-Fi and public Wi-Fi that bathes the campus where my office is located. As you can imagine the public Wi-Fi is kind of, ahem, busy most times so I prefer to connect to the Internet via the orange Ethernet cable at my desk. The 2nd small laptop would sit on my desk attached to the Internet were I could do all the things I'm technically not supposed to do during long teleconferences that don't apply to me (that I also seem to have to attend on a regular basis).

Right now the Asus eee PC looks like a front runner. The cost is low enough and I

2 comments:

Tanner Lovelace said...

"and I" ...

Come on man, don't leave us hanging like that! :-)

Out of curiosity, btw, will the USB ethernet dongle the MacBook Air comes with (or is it an add-on option?) not work for you?

Parlez à la Main said...

...."and I" think I could afford one? I don't know, but that might be what I was going to type.

Yeah, the USB dongle on the Macbook Air will work but I just don't want to go back to the days of the dongle. I remember having to carry one for my first PCMCIA ethernet card and another for my modem card. Yuk. It just seems like it should have been possible to include a RJ-45 in there somewhere.

The real difference is cost when comparing the Macbook Air and the eee PC. If I could afford a Macbook Air I'd probably already have one on order!! But times are tight and even though I am a DINK I can't seem to have everything I want. Oh well. :( I can survive a couple more years with my dual processor 2.0 Ghz Macbook which, really, is a nice little laptop.