I just spent way too much on a computer. Asus and Best Buy, it seems, are content to rub that in. The box retailer is offering Asus's Eee PC 900A for $299--I'd calculate how many of those I could have purchased instead of a MacBook, but that would just make me sad, so I won't.

The sub-$300 model comes with a 4GB solid state drive, a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor, and 1GB of RAM. Honestly, at this rate, they ought to start stocking them at the checkout counter alongside packs of gum, for that last-second impulse buys.