random incoherence and infantile meanderings

A couple days back Jade got some sort of negative scanner. Unfortunately, it turns out that her desktop computer had no USB 2.0 ports.  (I was under the impression that the sole difference between 1.1 and 2.0 was speed, but…) For some reason the scanner would not work AT ALL with any of the USB ports on her computer.

Thursday morning, we went out to Best Buy to buy a new USB 2.0 PCI Card so that she could use the scanner.  While we were there, I noticed that they had the Asus EEE PC 900A for $199.  In other words, it was about $80 cheaper than I had seen it, just last week.  So I stood there for a good half hour feeling the keyboard and sliding around, comparing it to the Acer Aspire One and Asus EEE PC 1000 that were right next to it.

Jade said I should just get it.  I have, after all, been closely watching the netbook market since it was invented a year and half ago.  I’ve been preaching the religion of netbook for most of that time.  But I haven’t been able to settle on a particular piece of hardware, haven’t been able to swing the $300 or $400 that they cost.

Especially hard was the fact that I had just decided that the Aspire One was the right one for me.  It has an excellent battery life, a brilliant screen (though a tad overly glossy (but not as bad as that HP netbook)), and a nicely sized keyboard.  I had seen it at a decent price a few weeks back and had even got elegiac to take a peek at it.

I eventually decided to continue to sit on it.  I wasn’t sure that this was really the model that I thought it was, so I wanted to at the very least do some more research from home.  And I did.

What I found was that the price was aggressive.  So much so that even Best Buy’s own website did not have the same model at that low low price.  The closest I could find was at least $50 more.  Which puts it into the range of the other other netbooks, close enough that I could waffle about maybe I should do this one or look at that one or wait for this one… But at almost a $100 less than ANYTHING else with a comparable processor?  Nothing.

I started to get ancy.  I wanted it.  And I wanted it NOW.  At this point, it was already 2 or 3 in the afternoon.  I should have already gone to bed.  Instead, I txt’ed Jade.

“Come and get me!”

I am the giddy owner of a brand new, very shiny, very white, very light, very small EEE PC.   I can’t wait to get it charged up so that I can start to play with it.