A Cheap and Portable Word Processor?

An anonymous reader asks: "Last evening I was waiting for a bus and realized that it would be very nice to have a little portable word processor; not a fancy PDA, but something with a bare minimum of processing power, small screen, and a cheap mini-keyboard, so that it could fit in a jacket pocket. It doesn't seem like an infeasable product - consider the price that all-in-one 8-bit game machines like the C64 DTV go for, add that to the price that the cheap organizers go for, and you get a retail value under $50. The only major difference would be in the software, and with some attention given to expansibility it might even be a decent device for homebrews. Does Slashdot have any thoughts on what might fill these gap, or is there really no product that tries to be small, cheap and low-powered like what I'm looking for?" "When I got home, I did a search for any such devices, and came up with two choices: bulky 1980s machines with outdated connectivity options, found on eBay for pennies - some of these are actually programmable too, interestingly enough; and overpriced 'educational' machines which are almost equivalent to the 80s machines (over $200 or even $300). Electronic organizers are going for under $20, but they are woefully limited machines. The only other cheap option is to get a used PDA."

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Notebook?

[JoaoPinheiro]

I don't know about you but I simply use a good old-fashioned paper notebook.

I got you covered

[shift.red.avni]

Pen + Paper

Obvious answer

[Electronik]

I suppose the obvious one is pen + paper and a good text reading software package at home!

Anyway, $200 - $300 is quite cheap anyway, no?

My solution that costs less than $5.

[Ralph Spoilsport]

First, this:

a small notebook for USD$0.75

and

some pencils which can be had for$1.86

Given the amount of energy that goes into making a piece of high technology, and the loss of metals and petroleum to build something that is vastly more toxic to dispose of than paper and pencil, and how little energy goes into making a pencil and small pad of paper, I think it is the height of idiocy to apply such high technology to something that can be just as easily handled with a pencil and paper.

I'll repeat the main point: Get A Small Pad of Paper and a Pencil. A small, all purpose, Swiss army knife is useful for sharpening them, also, small sharpeners are easily found. It will cost you less than $5 and you're set. You can even use parts of it to store important phone numbers and stuff.

Just because something CAN be done with technology doesn't mean it SHOULD be done with technology.

Given the state of the world, I would recommend we get used to such solutions...

RS

I use a $3 notepad

[WillAffleckUW]

It's blue, it's got lines, and it's portable.

Mind you, you have to refill the ink in the black pens I use, but if you get the Human Brain add-on, this is no prob.

Geesh ... slaves to the machine, or what?

Why not just buy a cellphone with all that added in and get it over with if you need it that much? The new ones have them built in, and I'm sure I'll make money from my PalmSource holdings since most use that for the OS and apps.