Dean Michael Berris

No, Alice is not another woman. Although she very well may be. As you may very well already know I name my computers with lady names. So this new one is an Acer Aspire One and while in a conversation with a friend of mine the name just came up. Partly because I'm not very creative with names so I chose a name which started with an 'A'. How has my first day been? Read on.

Takes a while to get used to especially since I have stubby fingers and large fingertips and nails. So this is the first biggest pet peeve for me that I had to eat my words on. Now I can actually touch type and not have to look a the keyboard anytime -- and yes I can write in the dark. And now, I can't stop typing! I thought it would make me hate writing on a netbook but apparently it's the one that's making me keep writing.

But -- and I think you had it coming a mile away -- the most useful keys are hidden in function keys. For writers, I think the "Home" and "End" keys are very important and should have to be keys on their own. And the backspace ought to be bigger and closer to the enter key. And the keys have to be a little wider. Of course then the thing would have to be a little bigger and a little heavier so I don't think it's a valid complaint. But still.

It's glossy, it's wide, and it's sleek. But it's 1024x600 -- of course, you have only so much to look into and to look at when you're on the go. Nothing much to say against or for the screen but I want to just give it two thumbs up. Basically you just have to work out how to avoid the glare. Nothing else to say.

Aside from the fact that the glossy screen is a glare factory even on low lighting. This is nothing I can't deal with, I can always move around because it's very light. As in, crazy light.

Perfect. I think this thing was really made for the wireless generation. And it's great that I'm getting the 3rd generation of these netbooks and I think they've pretty much gotten the form factor and the functionality just right. Bluetooth: check. WiFi: check. Mobile Internet -- well, there's always SMART Bro. Of course, I think wireless broadband is the miracle of the mobile world.

Alice has just shown me wonderland. And now I think I'm going to keep writing more and more. I think that might be a good thing, but let me know what you think.

(Update: minor layout changes.)