Notebook frustrations

This
entry has nothing to do with Visual Basic, but I need an outlet for the
frustrations I have endured while shopping for a notebook computer. Okay, maybe
it’s somewhat related—I plan to use this notebook to develop new VB features.
Does that count? Whatever...

The goal
is to purchase a machine which offers mobility but can be used as a PC at home.
Of course, I want the notebook to be portable, i.e., thin and light, within
reason. I don’t want a sack of bricks. It needs to be quiet and capable of
digitally connecting to my stereo and LCD monitor, via SPDIF (or Toslink) and
DVI-D interfaces. The display should be a nicely-sized widescreen so I can
watch DVDs on the go, and (important) so it can support widescreen external displays
with widescreen resolutions. Finally, I need a slot for reading Secure Digital
(SD) memory. 

It
appears that no such product exists.

I thought
I found the answer. A solid notebook with a 15” widescreen display, SD slot,
1.6 GHz Centrino, 6.5 lbs., and a port replicator with DVI and SPDIF ports. Too
bad—this particular notebook doesn’t support DVI or SPDIF even though the port
replicator does. Other notebooks offered by this manufacturer support DVI, but
no widescreen. Some have everything—but weigh ten pounds. Argh!

I looked
elsewhere... Still nothing, not even close. Is it just too much to ask?

This is
the 21st century and yet most of us are stuck in a 4:3 analog world. In 1996,
I bought a cheap CD player in Japan that had an optical port. Widescreen TVs
were the norm—I was amazed! 1996. Six years and an eternity later, I’m struggling to find
similar features on computers, the essence of digital technology. 
What went wrong?