Sony is recalling 73,000 Vaio TZ laptops because of a possible manufacturing defect that may cause them to overheat, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday. The recall relates to a problem with wiring near the computer’s hinge, which could short-circuit and overheat in certain circumstances.

To sum up the Acer Aspire One: this is what notebooks should have always been like. Small, portable, light, fast, and cheap. For just EUR 299, you are getting a proper netbook, with all the functionality of its big brothers and sisters. Maybe not as full-featured as the MSI Wind, and not as hyped as the eeePC, but still the better choice.

Nicholas Negroponte had a vision: to build a $100 laptop and give away millions to educate the world’s poorest children. And then the fat-cat multinationals got scared and broke it.