Netbooks are good for many things, although none of those things is “actual work." For simple browsing, e-mailing and perhaps even listening to music, the little laptops are ideal. For actual, heavy day-to-day use, they’re still lacking.

I was reminded of this today when I took my Wind Hackintosh to the local library to work. I was lazy and figured it would be easier to sling in my bag than the usual MacBook and, given that blogging is an online activity and my NetNewsWire account is synced across machines, I would have all my tools with me.

It quickly became clear that I was wrong. First, there were no power sockets free, so I was running against the clock. The three-cell battery in my Wind lasts for around one-and-a-half hours on a good day. By the time I had replied to mail and dithered around, I was at around sixy-some percent. After one post, I was halfway to a dead battery.

Next was the keyboard. I have a mouse hooked up, so the terrible trackpad doesn’t matter, but the keyboard is just too cramped. My typing is always bad, but trying to tap out more than two words without a typo is impossible on this thing.

So I got to wondering, why do I have this machine? What else could I use it for? What is it actually good for? I came up with the following:

Photo Assistant

This was my first thought, and one I will test out this weekend on a trip to Rome (don’t tell the Lady — it’s a surprise). I will be taking the Wind to use as a portable backup for my photos.

It’s perfect: A netbook is tiny, and can be thrown into carry-on luggage. The screen is big enough for basic viewing and editing, and all netbooks have SD card readers built in. My Wind clone has a 160GB hard drive so there’s plenty of space, and the addition of a tiny, bus-powered external drive will mean I have two copies of everything.

Compare this to buying extra memory cards. I use Sandisk’s Extreme IV CF cards in my D700, and the 4GB ones are around €50 ($70) a pop. Just five of those cost the same as a Wind, and are easier to lose.

Traveling Researcher

This one is fantastic. I recently spent a week in Berlin with the beautiful and vivacious John Brownlee, formerly of Boing Boing Gadgets. We hung out with another of his friends, a guy named Travis who reads stuff for a living and had a netbook tethered to his BlackBerry’s data connection (he also had a couple of six-cell batteries).

We had a typical geek week, hanging out in Wi-Fi bars with our computers, but as Travis was always connected, he ended up as a human version of the Star Trek computer. Every single fact could be checked, and he did it. It sounds simple but the change this makes to a conversation is incredible, if impossibly nerdy. And that’s before we get started on the Instant Rimshot.

Clock

Download the excellent Fliqlo screensaver (pictured above) and turn your netbook into a nightstand clock. Any clock would do, of course, but this one has just the right retro-ness (it’s just like Marty McFly’s clock in Back to the Future) and is free. OS X and Windows.

Alternatively, use your computer’s built-in ability to display a slideshow as a screensaver and use the netbook as a $350 photo frame.

Product page [Fliqlo]

iTunes Streaming

The Airport Express is a great piece of kit — hook it up to a pair of speakers and you can stream music wirelessly from any computer in your bachelor pad. But if you already have a netbook knocking around, you can save yourself the $100 that the Airport Express costs.

You’ll need software. Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil is an application that will stream anything to an Airport Express, not just music from iTunes (it even does movies). The $25 app comes with a free companion application (which can be downloaded separately) called Airfoil Speakers. It runs on OS X or Windows and turns your netbook into a virtual Airport Express. You just hook the netbook up to the speakers and stream from anywhere in the house.

Product page [Rogue Amoeba]

Laptop Tray

I’m not kidding. Right now I’m sitting on the Lady’s bed typing this, using my MacBook (the battery on the Wind died at the library after two posts). My lap was getting a little hot so I looked around for something flat to tuck underneath and protect the family jewels. The little netbook came to the rescue and is now adding an inch or so to the gap between lap and laptop.

Your turn now, readers. To what other uses can a netbook be pressed? Suggestions in the comments.