Downsizing

I haven't owned a desktop computer for about five years. I used to have one (in fact, several), and then I bought a laptop on the basis that it might be nice to work/play/waste time in different rooms or even outdoors. Once I had the laptop, I hardly touched the big old thing in the study, and that soon went to join its forebears in the garage, waiting for the right moment to torch the hard drives and take the rest to the tip.

I took the laptop on holiday with me this year, for the first time, as the availability of wi-fi meant that I could keep in touch better, and perhaps update the blog. (I've tried doing this with the iPhone, but it's a bit like trying to cook a five-course meal on a camp-stove - possible, but needing more determination, co-ordination and focus that I can be arsed to give it.) It was semi-successful, but carrying your laptop under your arm on a campsite felt a bit too much like going to work. A lot of people I saw were using these tiny little netbooks, and I felt a teeny bit envious. So I did a bit of hunting around when I got home. And lo and behold, entering my life sometime in the next few days will be an Acer Aspire One in blue, like this:



It's about half the size of the laptop, and I think it looks great. I took a quick mental audit of the stuff I used the computer for (email, web browsing, blogging, home stuff) and it looks as though the Acer will do all of that. If I can get along with the small keyboard and screen sizes, it should be fine. I'll still have the laptop for longer word-processing tasks, spreadsheets, burning CDs and the like, and my monster external drive will hold all the stuff I don't need with me all the time.

I quite like the idea of downsizing in any case - as the old car and bike tuners used to say, "simplify and add lightness". I'm wondering if my Nikon D100 is perhaps too much camera for me now. I have the DSLR body and a range of good lenses, but I only make use of the full capability once in a blue moon; perhaps selling the Nikon and getting a smaller point-and-shoot would be better. There are whole areas of my life that could do with a good, clear-eyed review, and some simpifying decisions made.

I am not selling the Triumph and XT and replacing them with a scooter, though.

There are limits.