On the Road, Again

Did you get all of the goodies that you had on your Christmas wish list? As usual, I didn’t get all of my wishes.
I always wish for my dream machine and somehow the technology never seems to reach the level of my expectations. Occasionally, it approaches some of these aspirations, however, the approach is usually in the desktop area and not in notebooks. Mobile computer users seem to have to wait forever to catch up. Have you noticed that technology takes a giant leap just after you bring home your new machine? Within weeks, there’s a lot more being offered for less than you just paid.

At any rate, my dream machine had a four Gigahertz processor, with two Gigabytes of memory and a one hundred Gigabyte hard drive. Of course I need a nineteen-inch screen (the thinner the better) and a super graphics card with lots of memory on board. I wanted the same connectivity that I have on the desktop. Nothing short of full DSL speed will do. I needed at least four USB ports, along with the standard parallel, serial, PS/2 ports (you never know what gadgets you may get your hands on) and slots for all of the current cards.

Did I mention the DVD+RW/CD-RW drives? I really need a high quality sound system in my dream machine too (Why not? Remember, I’m dreaming). Preferably, my machine’s battery has to last for many hours without recharging. Something like twelve hours sounds reasonable. It should be able to fully recharge in a very short time (like a couple of hours). I absolutely need a built-in numeric keypad. I’m so tired of lugging around all of the add-ins that didn’t come with the machine so that they can keep the weight down. Don’t let me forget to mention a floppy drive (if I don’t mention it, I probably won’t get one). Of course, all of this should not be too heavy to carry. Less than seven pounds would be acceptable.

I’d like my dream machine to be portable but it doesn’t have to be light enough to take everywhere. Transportable from office to office and from home to hotel/motel is adequate. For shows and like events I prefer to carry my Palm. Many of the programs that I use on a daily basis are on my Palm and synchronize with the notebook or desktop. This frees me from forever lugging around a notebook (brick). If you want to justify leaving the notebook in the hotel room, just try carrying it everywhere for a week at Comdex in Las Vegas. My last visit to Comdex I had a very light mini Toshiba and it became a burden to carry it everywhere.

Well, if you didn’t get your dream machine this year, keep dreaming. Someday your dream may come true.