What an age we live in

Damn technology.

The problem: I require an inexpensive, practical solution to pass the time on occasional plane travel (read: this year I will probably make 6-8 flights of at least 3 hours).

The previous solution: Loading ripped DVDs onto my iPod. It works, but there's the tiny screen to deal with and the complete lack of a comfortable viewing position - i.e. I have to hold the damn thing up in front of my face most of the time.

The new solution: Netbook. I have rendered the need for my current laptop obsolete, as it no longer plays WoW at even the lowest settings at anything closely resembling a decent framerate. It's other uses consist of trying to watch DVDs at hotels, editing spreadsheets and their ilk for work, and lots and lots of browsing. Those purposes can easily be filled with a Netbook. And so I present to you the ASUS Eee PC 901 XP.

Not the most powerful Netbook, and not the biggest (it uses an 8.9" viewable screen instead of the newer 10"). What it does have in spades is usefulness. For the low low price of $279 (seriously..that's amazing), it provides the above functions as well as Wireless-N and Bluetooth - which many of the more expensive ones do not. What it sacrifices is a real hard drive in favor of a 12GB SSD, but it's been pointed out that that drive can easily become 60GB spread over various media as flash-based removable drives get bigger and bigger. Yes, I could spend a little more and get a 10" screen and a keyboard closer to standard, but is there a need? At some point it becomes a laptop all over again.

We'll see how I feel this weekend.