Much thanks for your service as consumer product tester. The ladies of the house (particularly Paula, who is the litterbox Ghoddess) had been considering getting one of these evil-looking devices. Given your elegant description of the thing's operation (and the fact that the litterboxes live in their bedrooms) have put this idea on deep hold.

A grateful nation salutes your sacrifice.

What happened with the Dana Wireless? I remember long ago you were getting one, but not if it was splendid or terrible.

Still very tempted myself.

My new work dual 2.5 G5 and 20" cinema screen might just outshiny your laptop :-)

Michael: still got the Dana. Nothing beats it for banging out text on battery power, but when I actually travel somewhere it's usually with Feorag in tow, and some luggage. In which case, an iBook with fast user switching gives us not only word processing, but also web and email access.

The 17" powerbook is my new desktop box. I'm keeping either the 12" or 14" iBook (not sure which, yet, but probably the 14" model as it's got double the memory) as a backup machine and out-of-the-house-on-trips box. And the Dana as a when-the-power-fails-for-a-week typing machine. There is, as yet, no such thing as a one size fits all computer for me, until someone comes up with a folding keyboard with a projection screen attached that can scale from 4" to 30" diagonal at > 1600x1200 res.

Oh yes. I forgot: the 17" PB is a second-hand 1.33GHz model, not the faster 1.5GHz current model. Which means it has a DVD-RW drive that can be flashed to RPC-1, so I can reset the region coding on it an unlimited number of times (unlike the more recent 1.5GHz model, which has an RPC-2 drive). I reckon being able to stick my thumb in the eye socket of the MPAA's illegal trade cartel is worth about 7-8% off my peak performance.

The dual 2.5/G5 with 20" cinema screen is indeed shiny. However,can you take it into the bathroom and read the Guardian on it while using the loo? :-)

There's certainly no option for the PM and cinema display to go to the loo with me, at least until Apple's much vaunted iAntiGrav comes out. However, I'm not sure I'd want to take a powerbook there either, especially a 17" which are a bit unweildy from what I've seen.

For browsing in the loo, a wifi equipped Palm does just fine :-)

Just in case you wanted confirmation, Charlie, the image is definitely a Fark Photoshop. Still quite funny, though.

Shouldn't you be writing?

No, I'm on vacation, recovering from Worldcon.

Even without tracking down the competition, have a close look at the perspective on that monitor (looks more like an old TV) on the wall. It's wrong. Possibly a camera with a different focal length of lens, as well as being slightly out of true.

Which wouldn't rule out it being an old-fashioned fake, with sheets of photographic paper and sharp knives and glue, instead of electron pushing with Photoshop.

I've done it. It works better when you take the pictures with the same camera, but if you want to put an object into the centre of another image, it had better be in the centre of the photo you take it from.

You should try (or maybe not) Warhammer 40K, The Dawn of War.

I've lost ten hours of solid writing time to that damned thing already.

Respects,
Steve
From Flyover Country, U.S.

Some games are useful, though.

I'm writing military Sword and Sorcery. Medieval Total War is the only way I have to put into practice the tactics and doctrine I've learnt from studying medieval warfare.

If I was doing a modern military, I'd probably clock up some time on an Apache sim.

What I avoid, though, is things which scratch the creativity itch. So no online RPGs for me....

From what I've heard -

Do not, under any circumstances, let anyone introduce you to World of Warcraft. You will never be seen again.

(I've been avoiding online RPGs like the plague since they got graphics. I'd wake up one day to find I had emigrated to a world that doesn't exist.)

You will now play Planescape: Torment. *jedi handwaving*

Best character driven RPG ever. By a longshot.

I was wondering whether I should mention Torment as most people who've played it (including myself) always try to cram it down the throats of those who haven't, but I might as well echo the previous post. In the world of literary video games, it's definitely heads and shoulders above the rest.

Er, remember I'm a Mac guy, guys? Are any of these items available on OS/X?

Uh - if you really want your time to die; start creating your own NWN mods. Simple C+ish kind of language that lets you do all kind of funk in the modules.

I end up making mods more than playing them - damnit. Hey Charlie - come jump on our server some day (when its up)- Server Eggs pass Bacon (That goes for anyone else here too).

>Er, remember I'm a Mac guy, guys? Are any of these items >available on OS/X?

I think we've hit on the real reason why successful creatives reputedly prefer Macs - it's actually the other way around: creatives with Macs don't have any decent games software to tempt them.

Perhaps I should dust down my old BBC B....