For those who are in pain because of weight, laptop computers are wonderful. Finally a way to compute that's easier to use where you want to use it, problem is, most are still just a bit to heavy.

Average notebooks weigh 6 pounds or more. Some as much as 10 pounds or more. If you hunt high and low there are some that come in around 4 pounds such as my beloved Toshiba. If you'd like a computer that will take care of 99% of the tasks you normally use a notebook for, look into the new breed of Netbooks out there.

Though these littly guys look like nothing more than just a toy, they are real computers that really work! Please note, I am not endorsing any brand, but only speaking from experience.

In January I was scheduled to have my left leg amputated above the knee, so my best friend out of the blue told me that he wanted a new Netbook, and that he wanted me to get it all set up. Truth was, he just wanted to lift my mood a bit, and he hoped that these pint-sized computers might just be a little handier. WOW are they handy!

Ed bought an Acer Aspire One with a 120 GB hard drive for $349. In our whole town, we could only find one, because they are selling as fast as they hit the shelves. I fell it love with it.

After sort of not returning this useful and handy and just plain fun mini-computer for 5 weeks, my wife decided that my friendship was worth more than a computer so she got me one of my own so I'd finally return my friends almost neew machine. The only difference is that mine has a 160 GB hard drive and we found mine for only $299. In a town of 350,000 people, they didn't have one to sell or one they could order. In my town they were amazed when they found on they could mail me, because they too were sold out.

Don't be scared off by their toy looking stature because they really do work. Even though I have a 3 1/2 pound Toshiba, this is the computer I grab first each morning. I can take it anywhere and it's such a joy to use for all my typical word processing and Internet chores. I found a Play Station 2 bag that's exactly the right size and it's well padded. With my external mouse we spent less than $400 out the door and I'm always smiling as I compute each day.

There are Lenovo (I like this one a lot), HP and a couple other brands that have come up with these little machines, but look hard at what they have to offer. With my 3 USB ports plus 2 multi-card readers, photo's and moving files from machine to machine is a breeze. With my in home WI-FI, I never plug in at home, and when I take it out to our local coffee shop, people are always curious about these to cute little toys. Remember though, these do not have a DVD or CD drives. You can plug in an external, but I think you'll find you don't need to very often.

The price is right, the usability is great, and I can't find a reason not to get another one. I can't wait to see if you're as pleased as I am. Bob.