Underwhelmed by the hype?

Have you been eagerly anticipating the latest press release from Wintel? Sure you have *yawn*. The origami project has been announced today with much pomp and ceremony. This thing has been so widely leaked that it came as no surprise to anyone that the announcement was for a miniature tablet pc. Not just any mini-machine, this... Wait for it.

• Battery life: too short to be useful (3 hours)
• Weight: too heavy to be truly portable (2lbs)
• Size: too big to fit in your pocket (7")
• Price: too expensive for Joe Public

It has not gone unnoticed that origami is - as I'm sure you don't need to be told - folding paper. And that folding paper is basically another euphemism for spondoolicks, wonga, lucre, cash, money. A coincidence? Unlikely.

So be sure to ridicule the first of your geek mates who proudly pulls out one of these babies. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they'll be great devices in oh let's see, (what's the Microsoft Beta again?) about 4 years time.

Our Microsoft Product Support wooing junior programmer, who shall henceforth be referred to as Jim, has somehow persuaded the object of his affections to give him her messenger account details. Unwise of her you might think - and I'd have to agree, although I guess she can always block him later - but it is a cause of minor celebrations in the team as Jim's phone mooning was beginning to pall. I say beginning to, it had got to the stage where one of the test engineers had drawn up a circuit diagram for wiring his headset to the mains.

Anyway, my money's on Jim being the first in the building to part with his hard-earned for one of these. Just for that eventuality, I've drawn up a watertight purchase request for the Boss to sign for half a dozen of these. Just so the team can research their usefulness to the salesforce you understand. Of course, we won't need one for Jim by then...