My Home Office Netbook Setup

I thought I'd post up a quick post to show you guys my netbook setup, if you aren't interested at the very least it will give you a different idea of how to arrange your home computing setup.

Click the pic below to enlarge (sorry about the quality I'm using an iPhone camera at the moment).

I'm opting for a pretty minimalistic setup at the moment, and nothing was really staged for this pic (cleaned up a couple of mugs).

Left-to-Right

• Herman Miller Aeron Chair - this chair is essential for extended computing sessions without breaks. It costs an arm and a leg but is extremely durable through the use of high quality materials and rigid construction. I have a back injury and have had trouble sitting still for more than half an hour at a time until I got this chair. It'll pay for itself in increased productivity over a couple of years, and not to mention saving on Physio and Chiro bills.
• Blue Pencil Case - this is filled with pencils, pens, rubbers, colored pencils and other goodies that I use for web design planning and offline work. Despite living a digital lifestyle I find that creativity is best when not using digital means. 
• MSI Wind U100 (closed) - I do all of my computing using my MSI Wind hooked up to the following peripherals.
• Logitech Z-10 speakers (either side of screen) - these I picked up for $100 on sale, they are the best sounding PC Speakers I've heard, they look great, have glasstouch buttons for controlling media and to top it off these have a display which shows you media player information (see below) as well as unread emails, CPU/RAM usage or a clock/calendar. At loud volumes they do not distort and I watched HellBoy II last night (an action movie) and it was great!
  A big plus for netbook users is that these speakers are USB connected, and wall powered. This means that the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) is located inside the speakers (as the audio input is digital) which bypasses the sub-standard DAC used in most netbooks, that tends to stifle sound quality.
• Samsung 2253BW 22" LCD - This LCD is pretty and inexpensive and great for multi-tasking and movies with its 1680x1050 screen. VGA-input plugs straight into my Wind, as the 1024x600 native resolution of the Wind is inadequate for decent productivity
• WD 250GB 2.5" USB HDD - This HDD is in addition to the 80GB HDD in my Wind and is used for backups and storing larger files like movies. I think its essential to backup your netbook to a HDD such as this, as if you are taking your netbook everywhere the risk of loss or theft is high.
• Logitech Dinovo Edge Rechargeable Bluetooth Keyboard - This keyboard is one of the best pieces of tech I have ever owned. The 'Dinovo' keys are a godsend for frequent typists, try one out at a store if you haven't before. It makes typing for extended periods infinitely more comfortable and effortless. The keyboard claims 3months of use on a 3hour charge. This is possibly optimistic but it does last a very long time on a short charge.
  The Bluetooth connectivity with my Wind usually picks up in about 5-10 seconds after boot and has pretty decent range. There are programmable Fn buttons for launching apps, a media player launching button, a sleep/shutdown/hibernate button, vol control, mute and even an integrated touchpad. Ideal for blogging, typing documents, media control and movies.
• Logitech MX Revolution Rechargeable Wireless Mouse - Although not Bluetooth the MX Revolution integrates perfectly with my Wind and takes over from the small and ineffective touchpad. 
• USB Pencil Sharpener (white box right of screen) - Gimmicky? Yes. Convenient for lazy web designers? Very.
• iPhone dock - self explanatory really
• Casio MS-20TV Calculator - My fav calculator discovered from years of banking. A must have for any CSS based web designer.
• Folders and Folios (note the EV Orange!) - One for Web Design, one for personal stuff (tax etc.) and one for business interviews and meetings.

This setup is super-convenient for me and ultra-productive. My peripherals (speakers, mouse receiver, iPhone dock, USB HDD, iSharpener :P) are all hooked up via a USB hub velcroed to the back of my monitor. This means when I'm being a road warrior I plonk down my Wind, plug in power, VGA and USB and I'm completely docked into a 'Desktop' environment.

And here's what I'm listening to while blogging; "Runaway train, Running right off the track!"

Check out Brad from liliputing's setup, James Kendrick (jkOnTheRun) or Notebook.com's post on "What Tech Bloggers' Desks Look Like" that inspired this.