The story of Dory and iPaq

For the first time in my life, I bought a new computer. That is really weird to say that, because I just realized that it's true. All the computers that I have owned previously have either been purchased second hand, or refurbished models, or received as gifts. The rig that we have now, I could say that I received it as a gift, because I did help with the construction of it, but I didn't buy any of the pieces to it, expect for the DVD-R drive. I've bought pieces of computers, but never an entire unit.

Weird.

Nevertheless, the computer that I did purchase, wasn't even for me. I bought it for Caitlin, and some would disagree that it's a computer. It's classified as a 'Netbook' by Future Shop and a 'Mobile Internet Device' by The Source by Circuit City. It's full name proper is the Acer Aspire One.

We call it 'Dory' or 'Little Blue' because it's... well, small... and blue.

Wonderful little device with a 9" screen, 120 GB Hard Drive, wifi b/g, and runs on 512 MB RAM with the Intel Atom processor. Truth be known, the RAM sounds a little low, but the OS is Linux, which doesn't need much in the way of operating memory. The Battery life could have something to be desired, it's only good for two hours, but the fact that Caitlin can but it in her purse, and it works with the mini-mouse that I've hung onto for about three years. I picked it up when I went to the press conference announcing the name change of the Edmonton Space and Science Center, which had already been changed to Oddysium, to Telus World of Science Edmonton. The mouse is super small, like size of your thumb small, but it works well with a small computer. It's really cute, and functional. Caitlin just needed something to write with, play games, check email, internet browsing, and play Pogo.com. That last one, I need to do some fixing with that one. I just need to get a Java client for Linux, which is super easy, and away we go!

iPaq is taking a back seat next to Dory, but that was bound to happen. I'm still going to use iPaq, it's really great for what I need right now. It does what I need for portable computing, and the big things, like burning picture CDs for my parents, can be done using the rig. I didn't need to got a $2000 pack of cards for Caitlin!