Thought Patterns

I need a new laptop. My old one, a 3 yr old Dell Inspiron 1100 (as in, can't get no basic-er) is on life support. The monitor is dead (I have it attached to an old CRT monster) and the keyboard is dying, if not dead (I use an external one). So the laptop is more of a desktop, but smaller and hotter (as in temperature, certainly not as in hot looking).

I have been shopping around for a while but got depressed at the prices. I learned a lesson with this one. I got a cheap one thinking I would use it for writing and maybe games. Nope. I used it constantly and Lorna took over the desktop. It became very important to me and not just my writing, but my life. So I know I can't get another el cheapo model but need to get a good CPU, better RAM, and better case so it doesn't get so hot. And that all adds up to big bucks that we don't have.

NaNoWriMo is coming up again. I was depressed because I wouldn't be able to meet others in the area for drinks and word wars. I decided to look into the price of PDAs and external keyboards for them. The price was more than I was hoping and never got around to looking for keyboard prices. All those bells and whistles for something I didn't think I would use, ya know?

Then I remembered the AlphaSmart Dana. I went to their website and took a look around. The price was more than our current wallets could afford but I was really interested in one. So, I girded my loins and went to eBay. I know, I know, the devil itself is eBay but I went anyway.

Found a bunch of Danas there, all less than $100. I did some research for reviews. Raves. Did more research on the software (they are based on Palm). Went back to the eBay search results. Contacted the seller with some questions. Several emails later, I hit the "Buy Now" button on one of them. Including shipping, it was $105. I ordered it Tuesday and it was here Thursday. And I am in love.

The Dana is part laptop, part PDA, part word processor. It has a wide screen and a full-sized keyboard. It has AlphaWord which saves in .doc format. It has 2 memory card slots for making backups but can also hot sync with the desktop using Palm software. The downside is if it completely is drained of battery, it loses anything you have added in. The good news is that the battery is rechargeable via the AC adapter or the USB cable, AlphaSmart sells them cheaply, and it can also run off AA batteries. How cool is that?

I like this machine. It is lightweight, can allegedly be dropped from 4' up and still work, is simple, and allows me to write anywhere I happen to be. With the flash memory, I just turn the machine off and when I turn it back on, it is exactly as I left it. Granted, if the battery dies before I hot sync or save to the SD card…. This is going to be good for me. No more lugging a 10lb computer, its bag, its power cord, the mouse. Just push the on button and go.

If it can survive November while I pound out 50,000 words during NaNoWriMo, it can survive almost anything.

Linkage:

Alphasmart - Dana
Brighthand Reviews the AlphaSmart Dana (several years old but still great)
NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month

Click the link below to see the photos and explanations.

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