Freeday 4 June 1999

Extremely local news of the day: The crew at Chaos Node has been joined by a portable machine. I must admit that it is a Toshiba, but I really can't afford brand awareness here. I may feel rich compared to how I once was, but for a Norwegian I'm hardly even middle class. This is actually my first laptop. (Though I borrowed a 386, long time ago.)

I remember the time when laptops were executive toys, and according to one expert they sat on your lap approximately as heavily as a secretary and slightly warmer. There has been some improvements of late, then - this is more like a baby in weight and heat. No wonder many of these machines are now sold to young women.

For that matter, I remember the first hand-held mobile phones around here (some of you may know them as cell phones). They were already fairly lightweight but quite expensive, both to buy and to use. Carrying a mobile phone marked you as a VIP, and needless to say it was an almost exclusively male thing.
Then the phone companies started to compete, and they rushed out mobile phones practically for free if you just bound yourself to one phone company. Suddenly lots of teenage boys were strutting around with mobile phones too. The women were still scornful.
Now, you see them on the subway, you see them on the bus. You see them lying down with you and you see them waking up... oops, wrong song. But anyway, they're here, there, and anywhere. And more likely than not it's a girl or a wife talking to her hand as she walks down the main street.

Anyway, despite its relative cheapness, this little puter has a higher screen resolution than my main machine (which is, admittedly, a year and a half old). A faster processor, more disk space, even a faster CD-ROM! Oh, and built-in speakers. Now if it had a decent mouse, I could play Daggerfall on the bus. The sound effect of the skeletons in particular would certainly make people sit up and notice. The mouse substitute, though, is certainly not made for quick swordplay. Hardly even for double-click, click-and-drag or heavy petting. A minuscule knob in the middle of the keyboard (between the letters G, H and B actually) moves the cursor, while two arches near the thumb act as mouse buttons. I understand more expensive laptops have other solutions. But it should more than do for me. For my purpose. Yes, there is a purpose even to this. It all ties together.

Was on GabGab's chatchat today (for some reason she had it when I was awake, for a change) and it was like my dream. GG and Douglas were there, and Sandra Babediva Babeobrain, and a flock of other similar folks, most of them heathens with cats, it seemed. I told her that I didn't have time to watch TV, but of course I didn't have time to tell what I actually do. Even if I should eventually find it out myself.

Sudden, unexplainable link of the day: