My goodness ... I just can't keep up with new technology. I had to google 'netbook' to see what it was. It sure is a cute little thing.

I heard a new word the other day, 'Twitter', I had to ask some one what it meant. What happens with these new words ... do they eventually publish them in the dictionary?

I don't have the netbook. I go back-and-forth between whether or not to schlep my MacBook on vacation or not. Unless I have a writing assignment, I will probably leave it at home and do emails with iPod Touch when I can get a free wireless connection. The bad thing about the iPod is the tiny keyboard (actually touchscreen). I was looking at a netbook at Sam's Club today, but don't want to go back to Windows!

I'd be interested in hearing your feedback. I think quite a few of my travel buddies are getting that same model that you bought.

Cameron

Don't feel bad Edna, I'm still looking forward to my first flat screen for my desk top and not feeling a bit bad about it. I do have a top of the line Dell PC and I enjoy it immensely! but I didn't feel the need for a new screen when the 19" I have works perfectly fine. I'm still not really interested in a laptop but may get one when we start full time RVing in a couple years, just to save space and weight. I don't think I will ever go to the Netbook, too much eye strain for me, LOL! I love technology but seldom feel that most of it is neccesary. Still I like to keep current with what is out there.

Let us know how you like your's Thinmnan :) What operating system did you get with your Netbook?

Cameron, you can get a couple of the Netbooks in a couple of other operating systems besides Windows, check some reviews out and you'll get the names of them, I can't remember them at the moment. Good Luck!

MeMo

Seems you're our test case, TM, please report.

I had good experience with an Acer desktop circa 1990. maple family? Gotta love it ;-)

Does it offer a touch-screen thing you can do with a stylus?

Sounds like your intended use is perfect. One thing I'd be cautious about: being tempted to use 'cloud' computing for anything you wouldn't want the whole world to see.

I have you beat Memo! I have the old 15" monitor.......I do want a larger one......but this one is still working..........

I was all set to invest in a new computer, but my computer engineer son told me he is waiting for the new version of Windows.........he does not like Vista! He doesn't think I will either. I guess I will wait a while longer to 'improve'.

He will be down over Easter and check out my system to see if it will support the new monitor without it compromising the speed or anything else.

I had to check on Twitter too...and had never heard of your new gimmick, Thinman.

I have used laptops some, but they seem so small to me. I hate change and adapt slowly................

Gee,at first Thinman I thought maybe you forgot how to spell notebook! :)

I have never heard of it either. All of those hand held thingies seem so small to me. My eyes aren't getting any younger. I still haven't figured out how to use everything on my cell phone and it's pretty basic. I don't travel much so I usually have access to a computer.

I would like to have something that I can jot down notes on in one place instead of scraps of paper that get lost.

So, wow! I'm on the cutting edge of high tech in this group, huh? Who'd a thunk it?

I'll keep you posted about it. I've used it now for a few days, and it is so light and easy to move around that I may just ditch my old laptop entirely, but never my desktop. I have noticed a little bit of eyestrain feeling after an hour or more on it, but otherwise so far so good.

MeMo - I got XP on it. Though I have Linux running on my laptop, getting it running right was not a painless or speedy experience. Also, I wanted DW to be able to use the netbook immediately. I've set it up so that everything looks exactly like our desktop machine and she has jumped right in with no problem. Although the netbook doesn't have a DVD or CD drive, I've been able to easily and quickly transfer files to it using a 4 Gig flash drive.

Ana - No, it doesn't have a touch screen, and, not to worry, I don't see cloud computing anywhere in my near future.

I'll be giving it a good travel test soon. We are going to Portland OR, and Seattle, leaving tomorrow the 10th and returning on the 20th. I should be able to do the trivia just fine, though it may show up a few hours later in the day.

I'll be in touch, unless I'm not. :-)

ThinMan

Hee-hee!! Ahead of the curve in this group!!! Don't get too cocky!!! lol.

Edna, actually, the English Oxford Dictionary regularly updates and changes both words and definitions, and occasionally removing archaic and unused words!! Check this out:
Notes on OED's March 2009 release of new words

bird-dogging n.
This North American colloquialism is interesting in its own right, the work of a dog trained to retrieve birds for hunters finding figurative expression in the sense 'determined searching or pursuit' as early as 1933, but a side note adds extra fascination. The 1972 quotation in this entry seems to point to a possible explanation of the hitherto somewhat obscure origins of the name of DOGGING as an exhibitionist pastime. However, caution must be urged: the gaps in time and distance between this 1972 U.S. use and the first 1986 use in Britain of dogging argue that perhaps nothing more than coincidence is at work.

achy-breaky adj.
Inspired by the title of the 1992 hit "Achy Breaky Heart", written by Don von Tress, and performed by Billy Ray Cyrus (now perhaps more famous as the father of Miley Cyrus, TV's Hannah Montana), this adjective has found life after the pop charts in a variety of contexts, possibly aided in this by a capacity to prompt either extremely positive or extremely negative reactions in the people who hear it; not unlike the song itself.

lifestyler n.
The current release of revised material, which contains, among other things, human, social, community, life, and related words, has something of a focus on human society, the changes that it has gone through, and the reflection of these in the English language. This word, first appearing in 1970 (the word "lifestyle" itself dates back only as far as 1915), forms rather a nice microcosm of these themes with regard to the later 20th century. The quotations at the first sense reflect a selection of (often unconventional) lifestyles characteristic of the time, and the increasing familiarity of these to an audience broader than the actual participants. The second sense focuses on a specific social phenomenon, urbanites moving to the countryside in search of a (frequently somewhat idealized) simpler life. This is as familiar in Australia and New Zealand as anywhere, but only there have such people earned the epithet lifestyler.

humanly adj.
This last item, as well as being a good example of an old word which is new to the dictionary, is interesting precisely it appears not to have caught on at all. It's logically formed, its sense ("characteristic of human nature") is easy to divine intuitively, and its two obvious parallels in the language, manly and womanly, both went on to flourish in the language; in fact humanly owes its origins to a translation of the Dutch equivalent of the former. The reasons for its failure relative to these words perhaps lie in the ready availablity of human itself as an adjective by this time, denying a suffixed adjectival form the room it needed to grow.
Graeme Diamond, Principal Editor, New Words, Oxford English Dictionary

I know, I know, I am a word geek.

Nancy.