It's a Mad Mad World

I walk into a cafe and pull out my trusty netbook.  It is actually rather small, it is light weight, it's got a very very nice almost full-size keyboard (we're talking Lenovo quality here - which they didn't invent but inherited from IBM), it can run for ages without a charge, it is hugely quick and I can do just about anything on it that I can on my desktop (albeit on a slightly more cramped display), can run flash, can run java - can run anything I choose.  Two years back that was the hottest thing, now people actually stare at me like "why the fuck is he carrying around that antique" (no, the pic is the same model - it's not mine - I wouldn't dream of running Windows).

All around me people are sitting with their iPads, Samsung Notes, Galaxy Tabs and what have you not, awkwardly trying to hold the device while typing on the screen, joggling around a cup of latte and a cigarette - not an easy task apparently. Inevitably some of these get fed up trying to joggle all this at the same time and put the damn thing on the table with some stand containing a bluetooth keyboard.  And they got what?  Two devices that combined together still haven't got half the functionality that my netbook have, cost about 4 times more and is a hell of a lot more awkward than my netbook - that has been designed quite well to stand unaided on a table in front of me leaving my hands free to do whatever I want.

It's a mad mad world.