I’m pretty interested in watching the proliferation of little computers everywhere. Here’s the latest example I saw: a Linux firewall machine that fits inside your Windows laptop. I don’t exactly love the architecture of this particular beast (redirecting network traffic out to the firewall and back in via a hacked-up network driver), though I understand why they did it that way. But it is an interesting thing to contemplate how such nested/cohabitating computers can add neat little features to the mobile lifestyle.
With my latest mobile computing acquisitions, I’m becoming really fond of little semi-specialized general-purpose computers all over. If I want to go light, I can have my phone with me and still have very basic web browsing and email capabilities. If I want a few more features, I can add the internet tablet to the mix. If I have to do real work, I can add the laptop, or sometimes the laptop and the internet tablet. Pretty much mix-n-match, because they’re all good standalone and they synergize nicely when used together. They also all have some means of accessing the Internet and getting to my servers and a million others, which further extends the synergy.