New toys

I've been thinking of getting a new laptop for DJing for a while now. After the Battle of the Bands two weeks ago, my 5 year old Mac powerbook had a little health scare, so I dove in and bought a new setup. Turns out that I jumped the gun, because the powerbook works just fine again, but I still have the feeling that the powerbook is reaching the end of its usable life, and I'd rather not have it die on me just before (or during) a gig.

So my new toy (currently writing to you on its "93% full size" keyboard) is a Samsung NC-10 netbook with 160 gig hard drive and (upgraded) 2 gig RAM. Along with it, I snagged a BlueTooth laser mouse from Logitech, a Creative X-Mod external sound card, and a Targus netbook case.

It's not the speediest computer I've ever used, but I knew that going in. It has been working just fine for DJing, and I LOVE how light and portable it is. I can get all the equipment I need into the carrying case, which is about the size of a big textbook. I still need to add a couple more things (appropriate audio cables, a dedicated pair of headphones, and a couple of CDs for emergency backup) but then I'll have a complete set of DJ tools all packed in a little bag.

All in all, quite happy with the hardware. Software is another matter though, which I'll explain later.