The impetus was a flood of extracurricular writing assignments. In July and Auguust I performed my annual update of the CEB Government Tort Liability book. Meanwhile, an appellate court justice requested that I write an article about one of my recent published appellate cases. And I have a presentation on E-discovery that I'm giving at a conference in two weeks -- with the written materials due September 5. All to be completed primarily on evenings and weekends. (I got a lot of writing done last month while watching the Olympics.)
These deadlines (all of which I've now met, which is why I can write this) prompted the search for a small, portable laptop that I could use for brief jaunts on the Web and writing jags, say in between court appearances or on planes. Our regular sized laptop is ill-suited for such use, because of its size, its weight, and the amount of time it takes to boot up. I therefore searched for a "netboook" -- the tiny laptops that have recently filled the market that weigh about 2 pounds, cost a few hundred bucks, omit CD/DVD drives, and yet provide a decent keyboard and great net connectivity. Plus, they boot up quickly (even the Windows XP versions) and often feature solid-state drives that are more durable than hard drives.
On advice of my friend Don Burr, an IT expert, I waited awhile in anticipation of Dell's much rumoed netbook. But two anticipated release dates in August for that netbook came and went without the computer materializing. (Dell finally released it last Thursday.) Hence, I ended up getting the netbook I first had my eyes on (spurred by a price drop and a rebate) -- the Windows XP version of the Asus EEE 901.
I must say that this netbook (on which I'm now writing this post, at the Venice Grind coffee shop) is a lot of fun. It is incredibly tiny and light. The keyboard takes some getting used to, but it is usable. The connectivity has been fantastic.
I tried out the portability of it in the last week of August. I went to court in the morning with the EEE stuck in my briefcase. Right after the hearing, I went to the Starbucks on the plaza next to the downtown courthouse (I've got two hours a day of free wi-fi at 'Bucks, so long as I use the Starbucks card once a month) and e-mailed a report to the client about the hearing. Worked great.
I also hauled the EEE to Vegas this past Labor Day weekend (post on trip forthcoming). Pulling the laptop out for security was much easier than with the full sized 8 pound laptop, which I'm always afraid I'll drop and destroy.
I can only hope my aging eyes stand up to the strain of reading the 9" screen.
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