He’s surrounded by several of the devices that I need to now plug into him. Every time I do, he emits movie-correct beep beep boop sounds, much to the delight of my co-workers.

Can you identify all that crap? A pat on the head goes to anyone who can. I’ll give you a hint on the penguin: it’s actually a USB flash drive with Ubuntu pre-loaded. R2 is also surrounded by my fancy Logitech keyboard and mouse, seen here:

The last time I worked here I had a pretty geeky cubicle with a TARDIS hub and Daleks menacing me from every corner. I think I need to get back to that. I’ll get (yet another) hub for my desk at home that’s not quite as fun then bring the Doctor Who toys back.

Any other suggestions for geeking out my cubicle?

This machine is actually a perfect one for writers. It’s powerful enough to handle many programs open at once, unlike netbooks that get kinda slow after 4 or 5. The keyboard is full-size and easy to type on. It doesn’t have the spring I like best, but it doesn’t hinder typing in any way. The big screen is great for writing and editing. And it’s skinny and light enough to carry around all the time.

Well, I think it might be. So I’m putting that last part to the test. I’m leaving my Samsung NC10 at home for a week and carrying around the UL30, instead. This weekend I’m going to write with it. (More than blog posts, hopefully.) During the week I’ll write with it on the train, like I usually do.

Today I’m taking the UL30 to my favorite café in my neighborhood and then to Central Park to hunt for free Wi-Fi and a drum circle.

After that I ran a few errands and came down to Central Park. I’m not wearing my normal messenger bag because, by itself, it’s a little heavy. My NC10 doesn’t weigh me down, even in that, but the UL30 is 1.2 pounds more. You wouldn’t think that extra pound would make a big difference, but it does. My shoulder hurts a bit more than usual, but I don’t feel really weighed down the way I used to with my large screen laptop. Still, I can tell. Carrying this isn’t quite effortless.

The bag I’m using now is a bit smaller and lighter by itself. It also converts into a backpack, which is what you need when tech is straining your shoulder a bit. IN backpack mode I barely feel the weight.

Now I’m sitting by the bandstand enjoying the late summer evening and a group of excellent drummers. Earlier in the day the UL30 didn’t do that great with direct sunlight. The glossy screen is too reflective.

If you’re the type of person to sit and type in the dark, then you might not be down with the lack of backlit keys. I don’t usually type in the dark, so it’s less of a consideration for me. The light from the screen is plenty to see by.

Now I’m going to settle in for a little writing since that’s why I came out here in the first place. The UL30 is at 92% currently.

Today’s adventures are almost over. Once they kick me out of this place I’ll head home. Having carried the UL30 around all day, I can conceive doing so on a regular basis. I definitely felt it, but not yet so much that I’d rather leave it at home than take it with me just in case I can get some writing done. We’ll see how I feel at the end of next week.

For those unaware, the NC10 SE is pretty much the same as the regular NC10 except it has a larger trackpad and comes with a high-capacity battery for longer life. (It’ll probably get over 7 hours.) It came out shortly before the announcement of the Samsung N110, which is pretty much the same as the NC10 except it has a larger trackpad and a high capacity battery. …Yeah.

Okay, there are two other differences. First, the chassis (housing) of the N110 is slightly different. It has rounded corners and a glossy lid and in general a sleeker look.  Also, the screen itself is glossy, not matte.

I liked the look of the N110 and that’s why I decided to buy it. Then I started leaning back toward the NC10 SE. We even had several discussions about it over on the SammyNetbook community. The screen ended up being a big part of my wavering. I didn’t think glossy or matte made a difference to me until I spent a month using a loaner glossy screen netbook and found that my eyes were far less happy. Taking that as a sign, I decided to go for the Special Edition NC10.

Lucky for me I had a huge Amazon gift certificate to cover most of it.

I still think the N110 is a great netbook and, if you don’t mind or prefer a glossy screen, I say get it! If you prefer matte, then grab the NC10 SE. Either way you’ll have a long-life battery, a large, useful touchpad, and the best netbook keyboard on the market.