Thursday 15 November 2007

Gadgetery Goodness

If you're a long time reader of my blog you'll probably be aware that I'm a bit of a techno geek when it comes to gadgets. If I had the money I'd buy all-sorts of goodies. Sometimes, gadgets come along which are just too good to miss out on (at least in my opinion.)


This situation happened last week and I decided to splash out on a new toy. I was fortunate to find them in stock as they're very new and in demand (for those who know what they are that is.)

Its quite expensive, but also a bargain, and I hope to be able to earn the money to pay for it, well, I've already bought it, but I'd like to earn some of that money back through the following:

a) Selling my PDA on eBay - as much as it pains me because its also a gadget and I love it its sort of redundant now as I have my Nokia N95 and my new toy which effectively take care of anything the PDA can do.

b) Selling old books on Amazon - I've already sold a few, and hopefully will earn a few pennies this way whilst also freeing up some bookshelf space (much needed in our house *glares at missbliss*) 'Sociology as Applied to Medicine' is one of the many wonders now listed on Amazon, I bought that eagerly during my first week at medical school, (yes I was naive) I might have opened it once in the last 4 and half years....oops.

c) Volunteering as a 'model' for the 4th Year OSCEs - at £20 a pop, a few sessions of that will help no end (not to mention it being an excuse to get out of PBL!)


So I'm sure you're all wondering what it is that I splashed my non-existent (at present) cash on, well I could do a cal and not tell you but I'm not that mean, besides, you'd never guess in a million years.


It looks like a laptop, and is in fact a laptop, but its small, about the size of an A5 writing pad, and only 900g in weight. The Asus eee PC, is my favourite new gadget. Unfortunately the operating system is based on Linux which means its completely different to Windows but I'm slowly getting used to it and it can do just about everything that I would ask of it. Its not meant as a main PC but at £200, this exceptionally portable, sturdy and generally cool gadget can be slipped into my bag to be used to surf the web on the move, check emails, write blog posts and most other stuff your £500-1000 laptops can do.
Ok, ok, so you might not be quite as excited as I am because I am a bit of a geek but still, I'd recommend these to anyone. Few things are quite as exciting as waiting for a new gadget to be delivered - so much so that I actually looked forward to PBL this week because I knew that after it, I'd get to play with my new toy. Woo
p.s. Check out the reallm for more PBL tales.

7 comments:

ditzydoctor said...

hullo! would love to make some smart techy comment to show off my knowledge of such stuff, but sadly, knowledge in this area is greatly lacking. oops.

but have fun playing with your new baby! ;)

speaking of which, HOW AM I GOING TO GET RID OF MY TEXTBOOKS! arghhhh.

missbliss said...

PBL got a bashing in this post!

David said...

Sounds rather nice, but i still like my lenovo laptop with fingerprint recognition - no more passwords for me......

PhD scientist said...

I'm shocked, shocked to hear that you didn't spend quality time perusing the pages of Scambler, LM.

Quite jealous of the gadget. The big problem with mobile computing is always the weight. Years ago I used to use a Psion handheld (you're probably too young to remember them) to write and (mostly) do email on trains (and type faster text messages...). Once that wore out I bought a 2nd-hand Sony Vaio, but even that was sufficiently weighty that I don't think I ever actually took it away or on the train w me. And with internet cafes everywhere, one doesn't need mobile computing just for email. Anyway, have now settled for using train rides for reading or sleeping. I tell myself that when they finally come up with a phone-sized PC gadget that can talk wirelessly to both an ultra-thin roll-up LCD screen AND a "projection keyboard", I might re-consider.

Of course, the danger of gadgetry is that you become dependent on the things. I know one Professor who was due to fly soon after 9/11. When they told him at the airport that enhanced security meant laptops would have to not be with their owners for the flight duration, he decided not to go at all. He said he had to be able to work on the plane, but I always suspected separation anxiety.

I have heard lots of stories about male anaesthetists (especially) or surgeons (quite often) who become wedded to their utility-belt-attached PDAs, BTW ("updating my logbook" is the main excuse).

Anonymous said...

Cool! I love my lappy, by far the best gadget I own.

My other prized posession is my guitar, kinda balances it out a bit!

Going over to realLM now..

Calavera said...

Ooh, that is so cool! But you're so brave to make the jump from Windows to LINUX of all things! I mean, I could just about make the jump from Windows to Mac!

How is it working?

And this is an amazing purchase - totally worth the money - unlike my rather useless gamble.

jysika said...

I am not technology friendly at all. Like at all. So I'll just leave it at that ( I could tell you stories....)