mdrejhon

Booties can also help you track very far, as well as help with slowfall, if you twist legs just the right amount for maximum benefit... Also again, hard to describe without actually doing it. One example -- this can't be done in the tunnel so worth mentioning here in dropzone.com -- many novices track trying to point legs straight back, but with booties, it helps to point them pigeon-footed behind you, allowing the booties to be sideways with more cross-section to the air, in a slight cupping fashion. The pigeon footed flat track doesn't benefit bootieless jumpsuits, but makes a big difference with booties, once you figure out how to adjust legs during a track. Watch the potato chipping during the track (For the aviation buffs, the phugoid cycle - it can happen to you while tracking!) -- wearing a bootie jumpsuit for the first time and tracking with one, can be a different sensation when fine-tuning the track. Track with a team, can help you learn how to track better.

I learned something new, worthy of a skydiving water-cooler discussion: I've found that there are situations where it's better to wear a slow-fall jumpsuit AND wear weights, rather than wear a fast-fall jumpsuit without weights. Some background info.... At the Perris 50-way and 100-way camps which I attended, I had the opportunity to experiment with my slowfall and fastfall jumpsuit, as well as my weight. For a big way outer slot I always tend to get low with my fastfall (partially spandex) jumpsuit which I usually use for 4-ways and tunnels. The slow fall jumpsuit makes me happy as a clam in the middle of a fallrate range myself being roughly the 95th person to dock (last out of a trail otter!) on a 100-way formation. For all 18 jumps of the 100-way camp, I always made my slot each and every time without getting low, with the exception of the first few jumps (where I was still waiting for sheepdogs to make it) -- the slow fall jumpsuit has paid for itself many times over, even though I only jump it about 10-20% of the time, I even sometimes got almost too floaty as a 100-way outer (thanks Kate Cooper for calling me a floaty...lol) - easily fixed by pulling up the sleeves a few inches to stop 1-inch or 2-inch underarm "wings" from forming. I have learned a lot about equipment selection and have found that there are occasionally situations where I actually find benefit mixing a small amount of weight with the slowfall jumpsuit to gain further advantages. It is very important for one to be very familiar with exactly what equipment I need for a big way jump, and choose the right equipment to be roughly in the middle of the fallrate range when I fly my slot in a big way formation. When wearing my usual jumpsuit, I tend to be a surprisingly fast faller for my compact/skinny looking size, I am about 5lbs heavier than I "look". (i.e. people keep telling me to wear 5 pounds too much, and then tell me I need to wear 5 pounds less on the next jump). Slow fall jumpsuits are recommended equipment for big way jumpers that want to be good in any slot. I can pop "up the tube" safely without sliding under others; I had to do this once during the September 2008 camp when I was part of a redzone collision -- and recovered within a second or two to dock. Since then, I have had two other people who got low (below stadium) and flew under the whole weed whacker, and this jumpsuit 'saved me' by preventing me from falling into burble. (The trick is to be familiar with fast burble recovery -- tunnel training helps a hell of a lot with that -- the slowfall jumpsuit just makes it very easy to recover from burbles) -- - I have never, ever gone unrecoverably low with the slowfall jumpsuit -- the only occasions I got low (mostly due to burble) I was able to recover to level from, "up the tube" with no sidesliding. So for those who get low occasionally and need to wear a sweater, the slow fall jumpsuit is an advantage -- sometimes an UNFAIR advantage methinks. In it, I'm never of diving fast at a bigway, last-out, from a trail Otter (which I apparently have done a couple of dozen times already -- the organizers loved putting me in a trail-otter last-out slot for some reason.) On one of the last-out situations, I even make slot when I exit 7-8 seconds after the floaters did, because neighbour in front stumbled and the seat fell down. I think I could be just fine at the back of a Hercules line-up (front?) for a 500-way record... That'd be a challenge all the same, but I'm not scared of such a slot anymore... My two jumpsuits, although similiar in colors, are dramatically different, and having jumped about 150 bigway-camp jumps in the last 1.5 years, I've learned a ton about how different jumpsuits behave in different slots: My Fast Fall Jumpsuit - Tight spandex areas - Great for tunnel, 4-way - I can cuddle up to the base and fly easily, wearing only 0 through 5 pounds of weight - If jumping in the base, I only need to wear up to 8 to 10 pounds of weight to keep with anvils sometimes wearing 15 pounds of extra weight. - I sometimes get low with this jumpsuit, if I am diving from last out or near last out, as it takes a long time for me to brake myself, and then the formation gets too slow. - Great control being a middle area landlocked with bellyflyers behind and ahead of me (i.e. second wave breakoff out of three breakoff waves) - More limited fallrate range My Slow Fall Jumpsuit - Loose cotton throughout, with enough fabric to stretch out to form 3 inch underarm "wings" if necessary. - I can eliminate wings just by pulling up my sleeves a few inches, so I can easily 'tune' this jumpsuit. - Great for last-out big ways - Amazing stopping power. I can dive fast and easily, safely stop on cue at the top of a big way stadium without overshooting or getting low. - I can safely pop a few feet "up the tube" to immediately compensate if someone who got low, slides under the formation and almost takes out a few people, puts me slightly below the formation. I've done this a couple of times and not one to slide sideways uncontrollably under a formation trying to fall slower (tunnel training helps with that phenomenon, too) - I have never, ever gone unrecoverably low with the slowfall jumpsuit. - Greatly expanded fallrate range. I also wear weights when needed, and have discovered that sometimes it actually works to my favour to wear weights while wearing the slowfall jumpsuit. Now, this is counter-intuitive to some people, but this combines the expanded fallrate range and stopping power of a slowfall jumpsuit, while the weights eliminate an occasional floatiness problem. Wearing 5 to 10 pounds of weight on my slowfall jumpsuit doesn't even diminish the stopping power of my slowfall jumpsuit noticeably -- I can still stop much faster than wearing my fastfall jumpsuit without weights. Diving with a slowfall or fastfall, I can dive almost equally as fast - and I can just dive slightly steeper to compensate and still follow a sheepdog all the same. Despite being a slowfall jumpsuit. Often on the first few jumps on the first few days I'm nervous of diving fast, but after a few jumps in the same slot, I become incredibly fast when I know the sight picture -- I've always been able to catch up with my sheepdogs pretty quickly despite the slow-fallness of my jumpsuit. In most of the last camps, I've been commented I generally have very good "funnel recovery" abilities now... So upon this criteria: 1. I need great stopping power (i.e. last out on a trail plane to a big way, and need to dive hard to reach the bigway quickly) 2. I find myself slightly floaty being last person to dock. I need to prevent being floaty when I finally make my slot, being in the middle of my fallrate range. 3. I would historically almost definitely end up low for the slot if I was wearing the fastfall jumpsuit (even with a sweater -- yes, even a sweater is not enough sometimes I have discovered) THEN Wear the slow fall jumpsuit, AND wear a little weight (5lbs of lead). This allows me to be able to reach slot quickly with confidence - with good stopping power to prevent overshooting and going low. I keep the benefit of the bigger fallrate range of the slowfall jumpsuit, while I gain the benefit of the faster fallrate. It happens too often that the fallrate range of a fastfall jumpsuit (and 9 hours of tunnel training), still isn't enough to prevent me from occasionally going low (even with a sweatshirt) on a bigway outer (especially during my May 2008 camps), sometimes I need to be able to fall fast while simultaneously having great stopping power. I only went low once during all of the 2009 big way camps, and only during the 50-way camp, promptly fixed by switching to the slowfall jumpsuit -- I still have to push the limits of the fast fall jumpsuit as I don't want to get lazy, but at the same time want to be reliable making my slot. Obviously, this is not a combination used in everyday skydiving, and fairly unconventional. Even irregardless of occasional use of weights, if one needs to be a serious bigway jumper and one often needs to wear a sweater in some slots, consider a slowfall jumpsuit -- it gives you a nearly 'UNFAIR' advantage! (Especially with tunnel time in addition too!)

I saw O and Mystere in different years in Vegas. I loved both, but I'd choose the O over Mystere. I haven't seen the other, newer shows. Yes, it cost three arms and two legs -- but damn worth it!

Or hidden dust devils -- I've flown through the top of one at ~1700 feet before I realized it was a dust devil. I just happened to open right above one! Closest to unexpected canopy collapse I've ever gotten..

I'm late in this fray, but my two cents... I was assigned outer slots in the 100-ways this time around (including last out of a trail plane!) -- and wearing my slowfall jumpsuit that allows me to be middle fallrate as on a near-last dock at the end of an outer whacker -- I can track really good with such an unfair advantage, in addition to being first breakoff wave, last to open -- so I was often pretty far away under canopy. I usually had the luxury of choosing where to land at the very far periphery of the dropzone -- almost half a mile away from the grass... (I've broken off from base and middle breakoffs in the previous camp, but for the 100-ways, I was always the outer for this particular camp) That, from a distance, I did get very scared of what I saw in the airspace above the grass sometimes. It's all important to start learning how to fly crowded airspace for the upcoming 500 way world record. At some other occasions where my position in the sky was appropriate, I merged myself into the dozens of canopies aiming at the grass, and it's a very intense experience keeping eyes on caonpies flying nearby. It can be part of the excitement of the event if the rules are followed, but I am very well aware that a significant percentage of skydiving deaths happen as low-altitude airspace collisions. That said, I think a few minor procedural changes for the next Perris Big Way event is probably in order -- in the name of safety, given what is already posted on dropzone.com ... Bigways are full of danger. But I still think it's safer than competition swooping. (Not that I don't like to swoop recreationally, or might expand into it someday -- though that's not my skydiving career path right now)

Skyventure Montreal has the smoothest air I've ever felt in a tunnel. In fact, very good even near the door. When I flew right in front of the door area, there was no turbulence, just a smooth drop-off of the air as my leg accidentally pokes out of the door -- it's very easy to recover from being too close to Skyventure Montreal's chamber door as it has much less turblence than at other Skyventure's I've been to. Even fits 6-ways, and makes it very easy for skydiver-experienced novices to go almost straight into 4-way in less than 30 minutes. One of us skydivers at the 4way camp, had only 10 or 15 minute tunnel time at Orlando but in less than half an hour, he was quickly promoted up to 3-ways and 4-ways, performing slightly better than the worse of us who had more tunnel time. I had the opportunity to fly with him. All in all, I had 2h45min tunnel time in one weekend a few weekends ago before my Perris trip Yes, I did almost 3 hours in the tunnel in one weekend! 2 hours a day is very manageable when spread throughout the day all day long in many rotations, and there was good healthy food nearby in various restaurants near Skyventure Montreal, plus there's fast food at the colossus multiplex if one needs a quick takeout of New York Fries... Here's a video "walkthrough" of Skyventure Montreal on YouTube, from my trip. As you can see, the tunnel camp occured while the operational tunnel was still finishing construction! (fittings, etc). The cash register area doesn't even exist yet... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeozVemqFPc This was three weeks ago, so more progress has been done since!

Brett came to LAX at the same time as he did, though I got off at the Air Canada. I was pulled aside for a pat-down search, but I showed them my parachuting license and preemptively told them it was a parachute. After 10mins, they let me proceed, keeping my rig as carryon, untouched, though they looked at it with some scrutiny. This was the most 'invasive' search at an airport I have ever had, and was worried but in the end, I was waved on. I have a gear backpack, which I bought for $25 from a retired skydivers gear sellout ($100 orig, $50 orig resale quote, bid down to $25 because it needed repairs at strap attachments, went to a tailor, did the repairs, good as new, good gear backpack for cheap.). It makes it so much easier to carry without worrying of pulled handles too - and I can hand-carryon my other laptop backpack like a "personal item" with the gear backpack on my back). It looks so much like a gym bag that maybe it played a factor in letting it be waved on. (I had checked my hook knife, something I had remembered to do, although occasionally forgotten - it's a metal handle hook knife. However, it's aluminum. Wonder if it shows only as a 1cm x 1cm embedded metal blade in the hook, or shows, including the handle, a signature the the size of a Cypres AAD? If they gave you a sugar cube finger-width approximation, also the thickness of a Cypres AAD, it also happens to be the size of the blade embedded inside a plastic handle or even sticks out relative to an aluminum handle.)

My flight arrives at LAX 11:30am on April 29th. I need a ride too. If you still need a ride, we can all share a SuperShuttle like last time. Please PM me if you want me to pay for your gas. :-)

Correction: 2 tunnels in Canada... There's a Flyaway-type tunnel in Niagara area (www.niagarafreefall.com) but Skyventure Montreal (www.skyventuremontreal.com) is definitely the Skydiver's Choice.

I did the vast majority of my freefall progression in one weekend. (Preqrequisite tandems and trailing graduation jumps were on other weekends, though), at 8 jumps in one weekend. It took me a long while till I got my A license, as this was a weekends-only dropzone. But in America, there's a number of dropzones like Perris, Chicago, Spaceland, etc. that's open 7 days. Find a good 7-day dropzone with known good weather, take a one-week vacation to get your license as quickly as possible, and then you can be a travelling skydiver. Just make sure you hire some coaching now-and-then for some small-way jumps, and visit a few wind tunnels (see www.bodyflight.net along the route), to keep yourself proficient. To accelerate things even further, go spend half an hour at a wind tunnel one weekend (with proper skydiving instruction, even if not the same AFF instructor as the one who will teach you in the sky) in some city you're going to anyway for a show. Then in a subsequent trip/vacation, begin to do the compressed A license plan like the other posters are suggesting. Fewer levels will likely be repeated with some tunnel experience. That's if you can't stay at one dropzone for very long, but it's still best to go all the way to A license at the same dropzone -- just do it in a compressed instruction. The tough part will be finding other skydivers to accept you as an A-license skydiver for small group jumps, so your first few jumps after the A-license might be solos, but you can also compensate for this in part by doing some tunnel time during other weekends, then you can easily fly smallway groups while you pratice your tracking and canopy skills, etc. (stuff that can't be practiced in a tunnel) Tunnel time is a timesaver in skills-learning too. Canopy skills are very important, you will need to really focus on that too -- perhaps spend some of your early post-A-license jumps with a canopy coach, to help your ability to land at unfamiliar dropzones you'd probably be visiting so early in your skydiving career. Some instructors say it is a bad idea to do compressed instruction (full instruction, just without much rest breaks), but if you've got the energy to travel frequently with lots of moving bags, and a crew member that often consumes lots of energy during performances (even backstage or support crew), then you probably got the stamina to deal with an accelerated 7 day A-license program.

Fingers crossed. Yes, recession finally hitting me -- almost. My work situation is precarious right now. Normally self employed, doing 6 months contracts. But due to the recession, I'm operating off filler 2-to-4-week contracts at the moment. Mobile programming contracts, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile stuff, is what I do. I just got a possible good 2-week contract that ends perfectly right before Perris, and more than pays for a single 50-skydive trip without affecting my savings (for rent/food/cost-of-living) that I need to weather out recesion downtime. I'm just waiting for confirmation tomorrow if I got it or not! If I got it -- Perris, baby! If I lose it -- the guillotine falls and I lose this opportunity, I get to cancel Perris because I got to preserve ability to pay food and rent for the next while, while I keep looking for other contracts. Is there a special good-luck dance I need to do? And what's the going rates for golden knights these days -- maybe I can get one to jump into a volcano to appease the skygods of the blue skies? I'm crossing my fingers.

Routers are a bitch. I hope Skydive Perris has fixed their connectivity problems - because I had lots of WiFi connectivity problems during my last visit during Perris P3. The IHOP router was working perfectly, though.

I loosen mine, not release. Especially in a long spot where I also lift my legs to have a slightly more aerodynamic glide. Canopy course tips.

Perris, I'd stop jumping when I see dust devils or everyone grounded -- sometimes that's as little as 15mph or a tad less. I still fly 150's and 170's, so I do have the risk of backwards landings at the high end of winds that other experienceds jump in. Fortunately I have stood up all of them so far. So at a good big farmland dropzone with lots of soft outs, that I am familiar landing at, I'll probably jump reliably-steady approx 20-25mph winds if everyone else was jumping, and winds steady and not gusting, also based on my history of reliably standing up those winds. Situatiosn where it's farmland, few obstacles, no turbulence, easy to land backwards in the peas. I've landed my Sabre 170 occasionally that way. Even landed a Manta 288 flying backwards twice - standing up. Now, I *have* flown through a dust devil before (at 1800feet at Perris - I opened right *above* the top of it!), canopy near collapse, recovered at 1700feet, and I am scared of that stuff now. If the winds are gusty or inconsistent, that bothers me far more than the wind's speed. Different dropzones have very different safety levels -- some dropzones that feel very safe at ~20mph while other dropzones are more challenging at 10mph. So I really pay attention to the consistency of winds and whether others are grounding themselves.

5-way and 6-ways actually fit in Skyventure Montreal: Facebook Video Clicky (need Facebook account to view)

A mobile website that's excellent on iPhone and BlackBerries would be cool too. Though I can view almost every website on my Bold pretty fast now, with the new Bolt web browser. (I also use Opera Mini too, which is faster than BlackBerry Browser. Been an explosion of new mobile web browsers lately.)

I'm looking forward to jumping Canada's fastest climbing skydiving Caravan. (err.... World's fastest climbing skydiving Caravan) I also hope Skydive Gananoque gets to borrow this plane for one of their Turbine Boogies. They borrowed this same Caravan once last year (if I remember correctly, pre-engine conversion). Fingers crossed.

For BlackBerry Messenger I prefer PIN's instead of email's -- more spam protection -- I don't like it when my BlackBerry email address gets spammed. But PIN's are still pretty spam-proof (At the moment, anyway) Type "mypin" in a blank message in the BlackBerry, and a 8-character PIN comes up. That's what people often love to trade online at some places like CrackBerry.com and BlackBerryForums.com ... You can easily "Add" these to BlackBerry Messenger, and spammers can't spam PIN's -- so PIN's are much safer to post online.

Canadians, I have finally published the Canadian Big Ways website. Clicky: www.CanadaBigWays.com Essentially, Canada's version of bigways.com and bigways.eu -- I've linked to them as well. Canada is not currently a major bigway country, but I'm trying to help with my little bit at least. (Noncommercial, volunteer website only. Any Canadian dropzones planning any 20-way or bigger events of any kind, please contact me and I'll add you to the list) And big news for Canadian big way jumpers... Skydive Burnaby hires P3 team-member Doug Forth to lead the Canadian 40-way training camp (towards 2010 Canadian 100-way). So we'll have a Canadian "mini-P3" camp of sorts, and with the new tunnel at Skyventure Montreal, the skill base in Canada should be large enough for a 100-way by 2010! Canada Can Do It! Interesting factoid: There was a 99-way over Canadian soil in 1986 (1986 World Record Attempts during Expo '86 -- but the world's first 100-way didn't quite succeed just yet.)

From Tom Jenkins ________________________________ For Immediate Release World Team Slated to Return to Thailand to Set New World Records Bangkok, Thailand (18 March 2009) – The World Team Organizing Committee is pleased to announce its close collaboration with the Royal Thai Air Force to conduct an ambitious series of new skydiving world record attempts in the Kingdom of Thailand. This project, known as the Royal Sky Celebration, is being conducted to commemorate the “7th Cycle” 84th birthday of Thailand’s King Bhumipol. The plans for the Royal Sky Celebration include three world class skydiving events staged over an 18-month period leading up to HM King Bhumipol’s birthday in December 2011: January 2010: 200+ big-way Sequential Freefall Formation: Guinness Book World Record January 2011: 444 (or larger) big-way Freefall Formation: FAI and Guinness Book World Record December 2011: 999-way Mass Freefall Jump: Guinness Book World Record In the Buddhist culture, with its 12-year calendar cycles, every 12th anniversary is a very auspicious occasion. World Team’s Larry Henderson explains that, “His Majesty King Bhumipol is the world’s longest reigning monarch and is greatly revered by the Thai people. Throughout 2011, the whole Kingdom of Thailand will be celebrating his birthday in many special ways. World Team is honored that the Royal Sky Celebration will be one of the principal 7th Cycle tributes to honor His Majesty.” Collectively, World Team is the largest international team of athletes ever assembled to pursue a common goal. With its highly skilled skydivers from 40+ nations, World Team has been actively conducting skydiving world records since 1994. World Team and the Royal Thai Air Force have a very successful track record of setting skydiving world records to honor members of the Thai Royal Family, including the current 400-way Largest Freefall Formation and the 960-way Largest Mass Freefall, both conducted in 2006 to celebrate His Majesty’s 60th anniversary of ascending to the throne. The skydiving activities of the Royal Sky Celebration will be led by a highly experienced international cadre of big-way skydiving organizers and competition team captains, most of whom are veterans from previous World Team projects. Team members for each of these new events will be selected via a comprehensive world-wide evaluation process directed by World Team’s Kate Cooper-Jensen, in collaboration with the World Team sector captains. World Team Dive Director BJ Worth expresses both apprehension and optimism when describing the challenges for the Royal Sky Celebration. “The 400-way required us to push the envelope on many fronts, and these new world records will be exponentially more challenging. Fortunately, World Team is ready to push those envelopes to the max. In the past few years, the collective level of big-way expertise has advanced significantly around the globe. That fact, plus our expanded use of high-tech equipment and the steadfast commitment of the world’s top big-way skydivers will allow us a practical opportunity to raise the bar to a whole new level.” Additional information will soon be available on the World Team website (www.theworldteam.com). Tom Jenkins tom_jenkins2004@yahoo.com

Less than 60 seconds ago on my BlackBerry From Tom Jenkins ________________________________________ For Immediate Release World Team Slated to Return to Thailand to Set New World Records Bangkok, Thailand (18 March 2009) – The World Team Organizing Committee is pleased to announce its close collaboration with the Royal Thai Air Force to conduct an ambitious series of new skydiving world record attempts in the Kingdom of Thailand. This project, known as the Royal Sky Celebration, is being conducted to commemorate the “7th Cycle” 84th birthday of Thailand’s King Bhumipol. The plans for the Royal Sky Celebration include three world class skydiving events staged over an 18-month period leading up to HM King Bhumipol’s birthday in December 2011: January 2010: 200+ big-way Sequential Freefall Formation: Guinness Book World Record January 2011: 444 (or larger) big-way Freefall Formation: FAI and Guinness Book World Record December 2011: 999-way Mass Freefall Jump: Guinness Book World Record In the Buddhist culture, with its 12-year calendar cycles, every 12th anniversary is a very auspicious occasion. World Team’s Larry Henderson explains that, “His Majesty King Bhumipol is the world’s longest reigning monarch and is greatly revered by the Thai people. Throughout 2011, the whole Kingdom of Thailand will be celebrating his birthday in many special ways. World Team is honored that the Royal Sky Celebration will be one of the principal 7th Cycle tributes to honor His Majesty.” Collectively, World Team is the largest international team of athletes ever assembled to pursue a common goal. With its highly skilled skydivers from 40+ nations, World Team has been actively conducting skydiving world records since 1994. World Team and the Royal Thai Air Force have a very successful track record of setting skydiving world records to honor members of the Thai Royal Family, including the current 400-way Largest Freefall Formation and the 960-way Largest Mass Freefall, both conducted in 2006 to celebrate His Majesty’s 60th anniversary of ascending to the throne. The skydiving activities of the Royal Sky Celebration will be led by a highly experienced international cadre of big-way skydiving organizers and competition team captains, most of whom are veterans from previous World Team projects. Team members for each of these new events will be selected via a comprehensive world-wide evaluation process directed by World Team’s Kate Cooper-Jensen, in collaboration with the World Team sector captains. World Team Dive Director BJ Worth expresses both apprehension and optimism when describing the challenges for the Royal Sky Celebration. “The 400-way required us to push the envelope on many fronts, and these new world records will be exponentially more challenging. Fortunately, World Team is ready to push those envelopes to the max. In the past few years, the collective level of big-way expertise has advanced significantly around the globe. That fact, plus our expanded use of high-tech equipment and the steadfast commitment of the world’s top big-way skydivers will allow us a practical opportunity to raise the bar to a whole new level.” Additional information will soon be available on the World Team website (www.theworldteam.com). Tom Jenkins tom_jenkins2004@yahoo.com

I knew about various GPS loggers for BlackBerry. Most new BlackBerries now have built in GPS. One can just turn this feature on, put the BlackBerry in a jumpsuit pocket, do their jump, and then they see their skydive path (and velocities) in Google Earth. Although the BlackBerries tend to use Sirfstar III chips which are relatively good, the antennas in the BlackBerries are not as optimal as handheld GPS units, so the lock may not be maintained as well. Something to try though.

Already got 120 minutes of 4-way tunnel time reserved on that very first weekend

Some comments about ultrasmall laptops/UMPC/MID's Although the OQO is of a form factor that I am not interested in unless it falls to netbook prices. I disliked the Toshiba and HP keyboards and the original/smaller eeePC keyboard, but I liked the MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, Asus N10J, Asus eeePC model 1000, and the Sony Vaio P series. I was impressed at Sony Picturebooks about ten years ago, and wanted one of those but were out of my price range at the time. Picturebooks (google it) ten years ago was the same form factor as the Vaio P series, so netbooks have existed for a long time, but at crazy price levels, or restricted to Japanese editions. (until OLPC and ASUS came along). Six years ago, I once put down about $3000 CDN on a Sony TR-series laptop (Can't remember which exact model now, but it was netbook sized) before I asked for a refund on an order that didn't go through, and then just got a cheap Dell instead. Now I am pleased netbook-sized of similiar sizes are already available for the sub-$1000 range. The $300 ones are definitely out of the running now due to lack of RAM or lack of sufficient size HDD/SSD, or missing dongle-free Bluetooth. The cheapest model that fits my needs is about $500-600, the question now becomes: Do I want to spend an additional $300 to get a already-test-driven-touchtypeable laptop that's even smaller? Tough call. I may actually buy a $500-to-$600-league netbook instead and wait a little bit for better-performing model (dual core perhaps). Though I may still get the Sony and tweak it instead. Keep tuned.

And the same keyboard when folded. Actually about the same size as my wallet, and about half as thick. Although discontinued right now, it is called iGo Stowaway Ultraslim Bluetooth Keyboard. (Also went as Dell Executive Bluetooth Keyboard, as well as ThinkOutside Bluetooth). The closest equivalent is www.freedomkeyboard.com but that one is twice as bulky. Yes, this same keyboard would work with the OQO, but I have actually used the OQO (model 01 and 02) as well as about a dozen netbooks and handheld devices (I'm a mobile software developer).