I saw that earlier this week and it’s got me all confused. I was set on purchasing an iBook, but after checking out the Alienware stuff, getting on of those Shuttle-based machines and a Alienware laptop was sounding very cool indeed.

The alienware laptops are kind of insane. Have you seen their gamer laptop with the desktop p4 processor and graphics card? It must weigh a ton, heat up like lava, and be loud as hell with all the fans though.

The shuttle’s form factor is the best innovation to come this year, and I bet all home computers will resemble it in a few years. A couple years ago intel tried to launch a small motherboard that fit into something about twice the size of a shuttle, but perhaps that was ahead of its time.

It was clearly ahead of its time, but I think the interesting thing is the reason why: We haven’t needed faster processors since then. Except for Alienware’s gamer customers, everything a person does on modern PCs works fine with a 600 mhz processor from two years ago.

It’s funny, when Intel released the 286 and 386, they kept saying, “this is so powerful, it’ll only be used in servers, it’s too much for desktops.” And I guess we’ve finally believed them after all these years. So little (and quiet!) is better than big and fast.

My dad used to have a portable AT-compatible that fit into a custom case about the size of a large book. A large, heavy, metal book. (It came with a 10-inch monochrome monitor, and an 80% keyboard, too. So cute.) And of course mini-towers were all the rage until everybody needed more than one CD drive.

As a technician, though, I can see how if this isn’t designed with proper releases and the like, it could be a real bear to get into, and kinda nasty on the ol’ fingers.