As a CIO, I spend a lot of time in meetings where I take a lot of notes. As a result, I go through a lot of note pads. In some situations and in some cultural settings it is considered rude to bang away on a laptop during a meeting. I also seem to attend a lot of meetings via conference call on my mobile phone. Have you ever tried to take notes on your computer while trying to hold your mobile?



When my "old" Vista laptop needed upgrading a few weeks ago, I decided to try moving to a notepad. Since my firm uses mainly Dell PC products, I decided to go that route and ordered the latest Latitude XT2 with 64 bit processors, Vista Business edition and 3 Gig of RAM.


After teaching it my cursive handwriting style, and installing MS OneNote (recommended by a friend) I was off to notepad penmanship. I soon learned that trying to use a touch sensitive screen to take handwritten notes was a challenge. Rest your hand on the screen, and an application launches! After turning off the touch feature things calmed down nicely.


I realy like OneNote. It lets me organize meeting notes and find information quickly using search. Converting script to text works nicely.

Last week, I blew everything away and installed Windows 7. The tablet PC capability is greatly improved. I didn't even need to "teach" it my handwriting. With a fresh instill it is amazingly accurate at turning my scrawls to tent. I published this blog without typing a single key.

I read in one tech pundit's blog that one day all notebook computers will be touch screen. What are your thoughts? Do you agree?