I'm taking on a project for my wife. My idea is to take a small sized computer and put a touch screen LCD on it. I would then make a recipe program that she could use on the computer to store and bring up her recipes while she's cooking. Ideally, I'd like to have the computer small enough that it could be in a cabinet or drawer somewhere and just the monitor would be on the counter. The computer itself would only need to support the program and the monitor. My problem is that I don't really know where to start. I'd like to spend as little as possible, but does anyone know of any good sellers of small, barebones computers and touch screen monitors? I do have a follow-up question. Is there anyway that I could just get the monitor and have it on a wireless network or something so I could run the actual program somewhere else in the house? That way I could just use an old computer I have lying around and just the monitor would be on the counter. I know that's asking a lot, but I figured I'd ask. Thanks.

Check eBay for a cheap tablet PC. These already have the touch screens, and most are as small as a desktop monitor, so you could just set the whole thing on the counter (maybe build it into a wood frame or something). You could also look into the Eee PC or a PDA, but these have smaller screens and may not support the operating system you will be programing for. -Ryan Adams http://RyanTAdams.com

I think you best follow RTAdams' suggestion. The idea of putting a display on the counter (especially a touch screen) and the computer elsewhere is not very practical.The best option would be to get a small portable unit to put the recipes on it. But I suspect that if you talk it over with your wife, she would probably prefer to have a bunch of cards in a box.

Here's a start: http://www.touchsystems.com/ Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen. -