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My smallest computer is a Nokia N800. Purchased in the fall of 2007, this "Internet Tablet" preceeds the current "Netbook" craze that's been taking off in the last year and a bit.
 I purchased this one from Dell during one of their "Days of Deals" promotions for around $300 or so - which was reduced significantly from the original asking price of around $500 at the time.
As with all technologies, of course the price dropped right after the purchase. In fact, on the day that I received this via courier, its successor, the N810, was released.
The N810 has a couple of advantages to this model - the primary one being a tiny keyboard that slides out of the bottom. This one doesn't come with a physical keyboard at all - just a stylus that can be used to navigate through an "on-screen" keyboard. There's even a finger mode (as this uses a touch-sensitve screen) that gives you a larger version of the on-screen keyboard that is big enough to work on using your index finger. It also has a built-in GPS unit. The N800 does have a GPS option as an add-on, but it's almost as much as this unit itself.
This is the screen shown during the second stage of the bootup - the initial screen is just a Nokia logo, and after this (and the "Nokia Sound"), the desktop is loaded.
  The N800 runs a special version of Linux. This unit shipped with Nokia's OS2007 which I ran for a few months and was able to configure pretty much to my liking. However, I'm a tinkerer by nature (particularly with technological devices such as this), so once an updated OS was available (OS2008, which ships standard on the N810), I downloaded it and installed it.
You can see the OS2008 desktop here. There are a few icons along the left side (Web at the top, then contacts/communications, and then an icon for all of the other applications that are installed).
The top of the screen shows a few status icons - from left to right - bluetooth, online presence (which I usually turn off), screen brightness, speaker volume, wireless network status, and battery status.
This device gives a whole new meaning to battery life. Fully charged, the batteries will last pretty much all day with average use (currently,my status display says 7 hours remaining "when in use", and 10 days remaining "when idle".) I've found that to be not too far off - although the life does depend somewhat on the type of use.
During my trip to Toronto last summer, I packed both this device and my 7" Asus EEE, and found that the batteries allowed me to listen to tunes through pretty much all of the 5 hour flight from Vancouver to Toronto.
You can also add "applets" to the desktop. I usually have a couple running by default - the Terrace weather forecast, the date and time, and the Internet radio, which is nice.
This unit is called an "Internet Tablet" - so you would expect that one of its strengths would be connectivity. You would be correct in assuming that.
This web browser is based on the Mozilla engine (there are several options that can be chosen), and as you can see, the splash screen from sande.ca is displayed here. Most web applications work fairly well; the only real limitation I've run into is with the javascript code that runs my webcam streams - which I've never been able to get to work properly. This means that I can access the static picture after logging into one of my Trendnet webcams and can access the configuration section (so I can reboot or reconfigure the cameras), but I can't stream - which also means I can't control the cameras directly.
However, there is a workaround that I'll mention a bit later - so this isn't a complete showstopper.
Probably one fo the biggest limitations of this device is the screen size. It's small at 4.1 inches diagonally, but it sports a resolution of 800 x 480 - which is the same resolution as my eee netbook. But, the device itself is very small and will fit into a shirt pocket quite nicely. At 2.95 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches and a weight of just over 7 ounces, I think it's actually a bit smaller than my old original PalmPilot Pro, which isn't really "pocket compatible" unlike the newer PDAs.
But this is much more than just a PDA.
 As the N800 runs a customized version of Linux, a wide variety of software is available for installation onto this device. It also supports running applications both on the command line and through its graphical user interface (GUI). This photo shows the command line interface of the device - and if you look closely, you'll see the following commands on the screen:
sudo gainroot
tuncfg
hamachi start
So - what's all this command line stuff? Well, these are the commands necessary to connect into the virtual private networks (VPN) that I've established to help me manage my remote computers. Hamachi is a true cross-platform VPN that is entirely software based (and free for basic use). There are clients available for various modern flavours of Windows (I've used it under Windows 2000, XP and Vista), the Mac OS, and Linux. Some enterprising soul took the open source version of Hamachi's Linux client and ported over to this device, making it a part of any Hamachi VPN.
Some of the other software packages available for the N800 that I've installed on this device include the Apache web server (so this can act as a tiny, portable web server), the Skype VOIP internet telephone application , VNC remote desktop client and server software, the Pidgin Internet Messenger, Streamtuner for listening to the thousands of Internet radio stations available online, and a variety of other software, many installable by loading the device's "Application Manager" software and just clicking on an icon.
Of course, like many other Linux computers, some software must be installed via the command line - like Hamachi.
 One of the main uses I have for this device is to use the Hamachi VPN along with the VNC client to monitor some of my servers. I've connected to the main "sasquatch" server located in my basement in this screen shot. Sasquatch, as it's known to my network, is a dual-core ACER tower purchased last year. After wiping out the Vista OS that came on it, I installed and configured an Ubuntu Linux LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) server to host my internal website. I also installed the Gnome desktop, which allows me to run VMWare Server which boots and runs an image of Windows XP in a VM (virtual machine). This VM does two things - it captures and uploads a webcam image from my front window webcam once a minute, and it monitors the hollowaybar.com web site for any new webcam images, which it downloads and stores. Once connected to the sasquatch remote desktop, I can enter any keyboard or mouse commands from this device just as if I was actually sitting down at its keyboard.
One of the more "difficult but convenient" things I've done on this device is use it to post the "Picture of the Week" on my other website, www.hollowaybar.com, while I was on vacation last summer. I had pre-done several pictures with stories on my main computer, "yeti", which I had left running. I had also copied these files over to my eee netbook, which I also had with me on my trip. However, when Monday morning rolled around, the Edmonton hotel's wireless network had stopped passing out IP addresses so the netbook could not connect to the Internet.
However, I had been streaming Internet radio the night before and had left the N800 turned on and connected to the Internet - so was able to use it to control the "yeti" computer and complete the picture of the week upload.
Handy device... But a little tough to enter information into using your fingers and the supplied stylus.
 But, there's a solution to this potential problem as well. The N800 has a built-in Bluetooth interface, so I was able to find a
small, folding portable keyboard originally designed for a PDA. Once paired with the N800, it allows a one to type almost as fast as if you were using a full keyboard.
The best this is that all of this is very portable - a scouting trip to Walmart uncovered a very small carrying case designed for the Playstation Portable that is split into two compartment - the bottom being just large enough for the N800 in its slip case and a USB cable - and the top holding the folding keyboard, power supply, earphones, and a spare stylus. In its case, it's very portable and about the size of a smallish hardcover book.
There are some other ports and expansion slots on this device as well. In addition to the USB connector (which can be used to connect it to a computer), there are two-SD card slots which can be populated with SDHC-compatible SD cards (so it will support large card sizes) - one located inside the back cover which is meant to be a little more permanent, and one located on the bottom which is easily removable.
You can also see the built-in webcam sticking out of the left hand side of the device - in fact, you can see me taking the picture on the device's screen. While not compatible with the Skype software available for the N800, it does work with Google Talk as well as some additional Instant Messaging protocols (to be honest, it's a feature that I haven't really used).
So, this has been a handy device for me, particularly considering that it was purchased before the availablility of the first "Netbook" - the ASUS eee.
Watch for more articles on the computing environment I've created for myself - I hope you'll find it as interesting to read about as it's been in putting together.
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