I come from a large family, so we do the Kris Kindle thing, buying a present for one person only. This year I have my brother. He is about 23/24, and works as an engineer, travelling worldwide as the job requires it. (Currently a lot of the sites he visits are backwoods in Eastern Europe).
I have an idea about getting him something he would enjoy for the long journeys in a service van, or flights, etc etc. The idea of a netbook occurred to me, but I have a few concerns, namely…
-What way do netbooks work for internet coverage? I think Iphones will give you internet access through the phone line no matter what country you are in, can you get something similar for Netbooks?
-Can Netbooks play DVD’s?
-What are the batteries like on netbooks? Should I buy a spare?
Failing that, and more importantly, does anybody have any good ideas what to get a twenty something travelling engineer?
Someone who spends part of their time in Eastern Europe and part of their time in Ireland has no need for MORE booze.
The netbook thing sounds like a good idea. I’m pretty sure they don’t play CDs - or at least the one a friend of mine had didn’t. (Although there are surely workarounds to get music onto the computer.) Another would be a digital book sort of thing, like a Kindle or a Nook. I’m pretty sure neither of those specific brands would work in Europe, but there must be some kind of European version of the same idea.
Netbooks don’t have internal optical drives (that’s one of the sacrifices necessary to make them so small), so no, they can’t play DVDs. Somebody will be along shortly to explain why I’m wrong.
Well, that answers that. He isnt really into music in any great fashion, and I suspect he wouldnt spend any time uploading music to any computer, while I do think he would make use of a DVD feature, as well as the internet surfing ability. (Strangely, I am not keen on portable DVD players. I have an impression of them as… cheap and nasty)
I have been reading up on netbooks, and looked into getting mobile broadband. Its seems however that mobile broadband is very expensive when used outside of a home country. I dont mind splashing out on a present, but I would prefer not to have something that leaves him with overlarge running costs going forward. (This is why I havent really considered an iphone, who am I to leave him with a contract or monthly bill)
If you were thinking of the iPhone but nixed that because of the monthly bill, then an iPod touch does the same thing (except for the phone service) and doesn’t have a monthly bill.
Of course, if you really want to do a Kris Kindle thing, then you should get him a Kindle.
I believe that in Britain, Ireland, and Australia, good friends and brothers (as well as strangers) routinely call each other “cunts” in a spirit of friendly joshing. It only makes sense that the euphemism “berks” would be at least as acceptable.
Oh hell, my sister and I call each other cunts all the time, also in a friendly way (we say a lot worse too).
I’ll ask my cousin what she’d like. She’s only about a year older than him and she travels back and forth across the country and to Canada doing something technical and scientific. Maybe traveling techy type people have the same wish list.
Calling people a cunt in a friendly way would be very rare. However, “berk” is definitely the type of friendly insulting term you might use about your brother or friend or SO in a joking fashion.
Thinking on it, I havent ruled one out completely. I might look around and see if there are any good models on the market. I would have preferred having a laptop style device that could also store films, as opposed to having to carry DVD cases around with him. I suspect if he had to carry DVD’s, he might leave it as often as not, which would be a bit of a waste. I suspect I am a little ahead of the technology curve here.