First, the results of my laptop hunt. Thank you so much for all the suggestions — there are a lot more ultraportable options than I realized. I narrowed it down to two wildly different possibilties:
- The Lenovo ThinkPad X200s. I missed the 200s on my first survey — I didn’t realize Lenovo had one under 2.5 lbs. It’s got perfect geek-oriented engineering (tough metal hinges, spill tray, incredibly rugged, Linux-friendly, etc). It’s just a little bigger than I was going for — it’s pretty large for its weight.
- The Sony Vaio P. I love the form factor — 9″ wide but only 4″ deep; you could slip it in a pocket. And the 220 PPI screen is everything I could want. It’s shiny and pretty and only weighs a pound and a half, and when I played with one I fell in love. But it’s a Sony, which means shiny appearance but no openness — repairs suck, and Linux will only work haltingly.
In the end, I decided neither was worth the cost just yet while I could squeeze a little more life out of my old laptop. A new battery, hard drive, and some antibiotics, and it could last another year. But if I had to pick now, I’d go with the X200s. The ability to toss it down a mountainside and have Ubuntu boot when it lands trumps gadgety sexiness. But only barely.
Kindle 2:
On a contrary note, I have a Kindle 2. I’ve been really happy with it so far, other than the PDF support being poorly documented (it claims to handle PDFs natively in some of the literature, but you can’t actually just plop them down on the drive — it requires passing them through Amazon or converting them yourself). But it handles html, text, and some other formats fine when just dropped on it via USB — it’s a lot more open than the Kindle 1.
I’m surprised at the talk of the cost being too high. For me, the comparison is to a laptop with a cellular broadband internet card — $1440 for a standard two-year contract. The Kindle 2 doesn’t have a full web browser, but if you’re favoring text-heavy websites (news, blogs, mail, wikis), it’s perfectly sufficient. Plus, it’s a nice screen and has many-day battery life. All in all I think it’s a more-than-reasonable price for something that lets me read reddit on the street corner so as to better shout at sheeple about government conspiracies.
The xkcd sysadmin, davean, notoriously scornful of any new technology, took a look at the Kindle 2 after it arrived this afternoon. He spent several minutes playing with it, discovered he could use it for email in a pinch, confirmed that an ssh terminal could be hacked together using the browser and javascript, and bought one for himself within the hour.
Bottom line, I think it’s a really neat device that fills a niche that nothing else really does. And seeing the prices, I’ll probably even buy some ebooks and magazines. But the web access is the real reason I got it. And if the advertised free access to Wikipedia and other text-y websites is curtailed, (as the Terms and Conditions suggest could happen), the Kindle’s battery life means that I can camp out drunk on the Amazon lawn yelling at Jeff Bezos for quite a while.
I would LOVE if someone answered me…what exactly did Mr. Munroe mean by the Tripod books? It’s possible that this is an answer I’ve been searching for. E-mail works.
…nevermind. Google was more helpful than I expected it to be.
XKCD should be adjusted so that I can read it from my kindle. Pretty please?
Randall.. Loved the check on failblog!
Thats hot. Let us know if they figure it out.
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Re: today’s comic:
Still doesn’t justify giving the owners of a failing business bonuses for running a failing business.
Ian K., they were contract-mandated bonuses, the contracts for which were signed long before this legislation was passed. And according to AIG (I haven’t heard anyone else confirm it, but the fact that the Treasury/Obama administration were worried enough about it to tell Dodd to remove the clause disallowing bonuses of any kind and to substitute one exempting contractual bonuses predating the law would seem to give it credence,) under Connecticut law (where the AIG division that received the bonuses is located) companies who fail to pay employees according to contract terms can be sued for double the original promised amounts.
Furthermore, the bonuses weren’t “here’s a job well done” bonuses; they were retention bonuses, designed as incentives to keep key employees with the company so that all of its talented types didn’t leave and further destabilize it, thereby making the bailout useless after all.
Excellent comic, as always. Puts things into perspective. Less than .1% went to bonuses. My question is, since these were contract mandated payouts, and there are all sorts of lawmakers saying that the employees aren’t going to get the bonuses, can the AIG employees now sue for their bonuses? Then the government would have to take 90% of that back. It would be like cutting a hole in a shark’s stomach and watching it eat the self generated chum…
For a new laptop, I highly recommend the Acer Aspire 6930-6073. I just got one for my birthday, and I really love it. It had the best hardware for just under $1000. The thing itself has a sturdy design, and the thing I hate about it the most is the glossy finish on its cover. Other than that, it’s great.
I have a Lenovo X60s – a gen or two before the x200. I would like to replace with a x200, but it is still ticking. I did drop it in an airport when I lamely missed slipping it into the pouch of my bag. The battery flew off and some filler plastic of the battery broke and slide somewhere – lost forever.
Yet, I slapped the battery on and it came right up. That was a year ago now, still ticking along.
The Vaio P seems a little small for me. I would want to trial one first.
Lawls, I am getting a Kindle II because it is obviously made of win. I wish to buy more actual size stickers – I enjoy the entropy it creates.
Beh teh wuh, thanks for the funny webcomic. One of my favorites.
How is Kindle 2 more open than the first? I have the first and it can do all the things you mentioned natively as well.
Hm, would I dare suggest a EEE PC, light, already loaded with Linux, small as you can ever wish for, solid state drive, can be modded for a touchscreen… Hmmm
Personally, I like the system 76 laptops, but those lenovo ones look good.
I personally like system 76 laptops, but the lenovo ones are good too.
[...] that changed my mind about the device. Randall Munroe, the creator of the genius XKCD webcomic, blogged about his recent purchase of a Kindle 2. He wrote: I’m surprised at the talk of the cost being too high. For me, the comparison is to a [...]
The kindle screen & battery life may be pretty good but those wireless TOS are pretty bad. They more or less say in there they intend to start charging for all internet access except for shopping & downloading from Amazon & Partners. Then they reserve the right to do whatever the heck they want to for their wireless terms. If you need an ebook reader get a Kindle, but don’t expect the free high speed wireless internet access thing to last.
I clicked on the “validate xhtml” link on the rhs of blag.xkcd.com The page does not validate.
RE: Students
Randall, it’s worse than that. I’ve had the “first day at college” dream for decades.
Until recently, that is. Though now that I’ve realized this, they’ll probably come back.
Arrgh!
MKotS
What happens when you inevitably drop it?
Sewwwww…..Is there anything this thing can do that a laptop can’t? (besides the 3g wireless)
Hi
Can anyone post a link where I can find out how to get SSH working on the Kindle 2? I’ve googled like crazy, and couldn’t get anything like a tutorial…
bleh, I didn’t know it sucked so much…
may be you should try the the “eSlick”… that foxit reader thingy
I clicked on the “validate xhtml” link on the rhs of blag.xkcd.com The page does not validate.
Look up the program “RadicalCodex”. It will organize any pdfs and a bunch of other files and makes it a bit easier to export over.
I’ve bought a Kindle DX at Revolution Store few weeks ago and I’m really impressed with it. It’s wonderful. I love it!
WOW!!!
Amazon is offering refurbished Kindle 2 for $219!!!
I’m gonna buy mine right now!
Hello, now you can buy the newest Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, U.S. & International Wireless, Latest Generation) for only $279! or the Kindle 2 (6" Display, U.S. Wireless, Latest Generation) for $259! on our online Kindle Store.
Kindle can now be shipped to customers outside the U.S.!
Amazon Cuts Price of International Kindle by $20 only few days after sales began. The newest Kindle International version costs now $259.
Read more: Kindle World.