So please join with me in wishing Tracy and Ryan a long, happy and prosperous marriage.

I’ve just signed up for an account and had a quick look around and I’ve got to say I’m pretty impressed. Don’t take my word for it. Get yourself along and stock up on the GBs. Let us know what you think! Thanks Microsoft! ::via jkOnTheRun

Hi, all. So, yes, as usual, I am swamped.

I’m taking six classes (my normal is 4) in order to graduate in May, except two of those have to be done by March 24th since they’re online classes and I can’t have outstanding online/extension courses past the deadline to graduate. I’m also working part-time at an office in order to pay the bills. I’m also planning my May wedding, which any girl knows is distracting to say the least (guys just don’t seem to get this, heh). 

As much as I like posting on the site, four hours of sleep has become the norm and my sanity has been in question. My #1 priority right now is graduating in May since it’s what everything else depends on. As soon as the two online courses are finished, I should be in the clear, but until then I’m forced to focus on the lessons instead of the site.

I’m sad to say you likely won’t hear from me much in the next two months. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or if you just want to say hi.

Thanks in advance for your understanding,

Here are the relevent specs:

• Intel Core Duo L2400 1.66GHz dual-core processor
• 12.1″ 1024×768 LCD
• 1GB RAM
• 80GB hard drive
• 802.11a/b/g wireless
• Windows XP Tablet Edition

via BoingBoing Gadgets

Thanks to Kathy Jacobs with Vitamin CH for this tip. This device (which comes in other colors than pink) does around 5-6 hours recording, plays MP3’s, has an FM tuner, and has an easy-to-use user interface. Only $70 at Fry’s and weighs hardly anything. I thought it was neat.

The Origami Experience 2.0 looked neat. The first version of it was only relatively helpful since it left much to be desired as far as usability, but it looks like MS took more into account such as actual usage. 

There’s a NOW screen that grabs all the things it thinks are new and interesting (mail, podcasts, weather, music, news, etc.) and I really liked the picture password option it adds. Picture password displays a picture of your choice and you touch the points on the picture in the order that you earlier designated as your “password.” More like a passcode. I thought it was cool.

Shown below is the easy-to-use (or so I hear) browser that navigates full-screen and has many touch features like big buttons and smart-complete web addresses (it guesses what you’re typing as you type it in). I’d have to try it myself to really see if it’s easier or not, but it looked easy for the MS guy to demo.

Picture password screen (shown below).

I think this was the Now screen…it was something like this, if not.

Thanks to GottaBeMobile, JKOnTheRun, TabletLawyer, MobileDemand, and Microsoft for sponsoring the 2008 CES Tablet/UMPC meet-up! It was a real blast to see everyone and to talk to some people I hadn’t yet had a chance to chat with. Also, thanks to them many OEM’s who helped out including Lenovo, HP, Motion Computing, TabletKiosk, Fujitsu, ProClip, Otterbox, TechSmith, and IT Cases.

I’m amazed at the shear amount of goodies that were found to give away, and not just free pens and shirts, but Tablet PCs (any fully-loaded Motion, an HP TX2000, and a Lenovo X61T) and a UMPC (the Fujitsu U810). It seemed everyone was in the giving mood!

Here are just some of the goodies…

The GottaBeMobile group had OQO’s they were blogging with at CES so I got to play with one briefly. It was a cute device and a good size, but I must say I’m in the “I wish it were a touch screen group.”

GETAC unveiled a new rugged Tablet PC that they kept dropping (loudly) on the floor. The part of the room I was in kept cringing until we decided they must be dropping it on purpose :-D.

If you count, there’s around 6-7 devices in this picture alone…

I didn’t get as much time as I hoped with this on, but it sure is a powerhouse for only 4.6 lbs. You can get a 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo which is pretty sweet for a tablet with dual touch and pen. I really liked my M200 and it seems they’ve only improved the series. Call me greedy, but I do wish it was lighter since it only has a 12.1″ screen.

Wouldn’t this be neat to have for tablet work? It has great clarity and brightness, also.