Regular readers of my blog will know that I'm on a mission for an easier life. Some time back, with a move to the States looming (it's still looming by the way) I decided the time had come to replace my desktop computer with a desktop replacement notebook. Why? Well, I saw a time coming when I'd be travelling a lot for work, and I wanted to have one computer right now that could do absolutely everything I do (write, code, play) but which could also travel if the need arose. After all, for most stuff I still have my dinky 10 inch Acer tablet.
Well, that period of travel is here - I'm commuting daily albeit in the wrong bloody country, and I've run into a problem. Commuting daily means things that I would normally do at home (write) I'm now doing on the train. In addition, I absolutely positively need a tablet PC in my job right now. I'm the enterprise architect on a cool project for a customer of mine defining an SOA architecture for all apps they run, and also getting involved with some of the eXtreme Programming teams on site as needs be. I'm doing all this in an industry that I really don't know so well, so I'm pretty much taking notes, drawing diagrams, and attending meetings constantly. All those things in my opinion are tablet territory so my Acer never leaves my side.
Now the dilemma. The acer is tiny. Really tiny. It's resolution is also tiny at a humbling 1024x768. Those are two facts that are causing me pain. On the physical side, the keyboard on the Acer is just too damn small to type a book on. I've been trying all week, and succeeding (edited 3 chapters this week, and I'm nearly done writing a new one - Dominic and Gary will be most pleased), but boy is it painful. Having edited my chapters though I'm now facing the need to produce screenshots for them, something I typically leave until the chapter is written and edited since the screenshots need to be numbered in the order they appear in the text. I can't screenshot on my Acer. APress need 120DPI screenshots and if I put this computer into 120DPI mode I end up with a display that can hold the a single character of text and not much else. I'm exaggerating of course, but the fact is that at 120DPI you can't fit the Visual Studio UI on screen in all it's glory and screenshotting becomes something of a painful nightmare. Which of course means I'm facing the rest of the week with the back breaking prospect of carrying a 10lb Dell XPS notebook AND my acer to work each day, so that I can screenshot on the train with the Dell, and use my Acer in the office. I have a 1 mile walk from the train station to the office, and while I really want to get fitter in my life (that's why I'm walking), I don't relish the prospect of the premature spinal arthritis that carrying that little bunch daily, along with books etc etc will induce. I need a new solution.
Fate delivered it today. For all it's niceness, it turns out the Acer just isn't built to commute. I got to the office today, pulled it from my bag and spotted something chilling that my bleary 5am eyes hadn't notice on the train. My screen casing has a crack. In fact, it's not a crack, it's a break. It's an inch long and I just know it's going to get worse. Instantly I knew that if I am going to continue to bring a tablet to work it will have to NOT be an Acer. Bugger.
So, I started digging around and came across the Toshiba M200. Now apparently that thing rules. It runs a Pentium M at 1.8 Ghz which according to the heavily technical sites run by people wearing sandals means that it's really equivalent in power to a 2.2 to 2.5 ghz Pentium 4. Yoinks. In addition, it's got lots of RAM, lots of disk space, and best of all a screen resolution nearly equal to my Dell which practically begs to be put into 120DPI mode to use. Checking out a few reviews I found it's also powerful enough to play the two games in my life (City Of Heroes and Eve Online), and has a full size keyboard that you can actually type on without ending up looking and feeling crippled.
In fact, it could be a desktop replacement. I fired off an email to James Avery, but it bounced, looking for info since he's got one. I'll try that again later. I also got in touch with Toshiba since I'm broke right now (all great artists live lifes of financial hardship in order to make the world a better place - least that's how I'm trying to look at it) and Toshiba run a "developer partner" discount program. I'm not a developer partner of course, but I figure if standing up on stage at user group meetings etc with a Toshiba tablet, writing 2 books on it (I'm writing two at the moment by the way - one official, and one hopeful and related), and of course blogging on it, isn't good enough PR for Toshiba to give me money off then I don't know what is. Heather's got a slinky black dress I could try wearing to their head office with some suitably garish makeup to see if that helps qualify me - you never know.
So the plan is now sell the Acer (it's still great and works, I just can't risk wrecking it with the stuff I put it through), give the Dell to Heather as her "U.S" computer and I'll get myself a Toshiba M200 ASAFP (As soon as financially possible) to do absolutely everything I need it to do. This also helps with the move since I'll only need to move 1 computer, and not 3 (Acer, Dell and A.N. Other that I wanted to buy, but which I dare not mention now cos it hurts my heart to type the name of the one I am now doomed not to love).
SO, please Toshiba, get me a discount, and I'll promote you to the ends of the earth if your tablet really is as good and versatile as you claim to the world it is.
8:02:09 PM 
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