It's always good to remember that hardware is just what good software runs on. If your software is good, it will run on any old commodity hardware. 

The Perfect Laptop (/HPC)

I sometimes find that I'm sitting around somewhere waiting - for example commuting, travelling, staying at boring friend's houses... I'd like to take a laptop with me. However, laptops are too expensive, heavy and need recharging every 3 hours.

(Update: since I wrote this, mini-notebooks have become all the rage!)

The perfect laptop would have:

• 10 hours of battery life.
• Be small and light.
• Inexpensive (if it gets stolen, I just get another...).
• No moving parts that break.
• At least a 640x480 screen.
• A real keyboard, a touch pad, mouse.
• Would be able to run Squeak.

Other possibilities include:

• The Sharp Zaurus.
• The new Palm folia.
• A laptop with the hard disk ripped out and replaced with an extra battery.
• The OLPC (or XO). This is for kids in developing countries, but the features make it better than most commercial laptops!
• The EEE-pc, or something similar. Unfortunately, it's x86 based (yuck!), and the keyboard and trackpad buttons feel tacky.

My Jornada 820

Currently I'm using an JP Jornada 820. It has:

• 16MB  RAM, 16MB ROM, and no permanent storage!
• A StrongARM SA1100 CPU.
• CF, PCMCIA slots. I use a 1GB CF card.
• Windows CE 2.11, with Pocket office and IE in the ROM (!). This little Jornada reacts faster than most desktop machines do.
• A 640x480 LCD screen and VGA out (also 640x480 :-( ). The screen is pretty bad compared to modern LCDs - very slow refresh etc.
• 10 hours of battery life.
• It cost me NZ$60 - beat that! If it breaks or gets stolen, I just buy another. In fact, I was thinking of keeping a few spares at home :-) (j/k).

Getting Squeak running on a HP Jornada 820: http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/2436. Squeak runs and I can write code in it, but it is pretty slow.

Better Computers

I want a PC that doesn't make noise, doesn't have cables everywhere and that boots up quickly.

A better keyboard

I want a keyboard which has...

Nerdgasm: http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra_csx.html

http://www.openpandora.org/

http://nicegear.co.nz/single-board-computers/  but has no VGA.

 Create your own free wiki!HelpPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS