This week I purchased a netbook, the Toshiba NB305-N310. A netbook is just a mini laptop, with a 10" screen. It's meant to be a portable companion to your other laptop, as opposed to the computer you use all the time.

It's kinda ironic in that laptops were originally a portable version of a desktop computer. But now, laptops have surpassed desktops in sales, and most people use them as their main computers. So today, they come out with netbooks as the portable companion to a laptop.

I bought a netbook because every now and then I take my laptop to a cafe or bar, and spend time doing work there. Not because I have to be there, but because I need to get out of the house.


So I figured I don't have to take my full-sized laptop, which is bulky, and contains lots of my business data. Rather than lug it around and put my business data at risk, I can just take this little N310 and still do much of my day-to-day work.

But it's got me thinking.

I think netbooks are going to open up a new level of "citizen reporting". Laptops revolutionized the business world because it let people take their office with them, either to a client's office or to their home. Writers will find even yet more inspiration to report and journalize at the scene, instead of gather data and compose their article at the office.

I kinda already do this with my BlackBerry Storm, and have blogged on the scene as well. But it's still very limiting.

My idea is to put this netbook in my motorcycle and ride off to some other town and find cool bars and cafes where riders can hang out at. In the motorcycling world, "ride to eat" is becoming a more popular mantra. It combines a passion for riding, a love of travel, and the desire to find new places. Hence, an inspiration for a new blog, and to run it as a business.

How's that for crass American entrepreneurialism?

But the point is that netbooks make it easier to do stuff like this.

Funny, about 10 years ago we had those "palmtop" computers that ran on Windows CE. But the world wasn't ready for them at the time. Now we have netbooks, which are effectively like palmtops, just a little bigger, and here the world is going crazy for them. I think it's because blogging and social media caught with up us and gave us a reason to have them.

But I'm still scratching my head why stores won't sell netbooks with solid-state drives. That should be a no-brainer. Epic fail on the part of retailers.  ✓