In a case of good, old fashioned, Down Under ingenuity Bismar - a forum member at Overclockers Australia - is building a slate form factor tablet PC from the bones of an Asus eee PC.

The images below are design drawings done in Sketchup that gives a pretty good idea of what the finished product will look like.

Why you might ask?  According to the forum thread on OCAU:

With the 9” model of the Asus eee pc being released, numerous 7” models were being sold for bargain prices in OCAU’s trade section. I bought such a model coming to approximately $255 AUD, which is much much less then the Sony e-book reader which came to $430 AUD with shipping.

Now this would save me almost $200 AUD, and as a an advantage I have a color screen instead of B&W, ability to surf the WWW, wireless connection, ability to do more then read books, be used as a pad to jot down uni notes.

Of course - Bismar also points out that the battery life will be a challenge.  Isn't it always?  :)

This is an interesting and innovative approach to the lack of new slates on the market!  For bigger versions of the above images and lots of photos of the work progress to date check out the forum post on OCAU.  I for one will be following this as it progresses.  Given that Bismar is an Aussie I might even be able to make contact.  I'll try at any rate as I would love to get a look at it when it is finished.

On a side note why is it that community members are out there innovating and the OEMs - with a few notable exceptions - are churning out me-too convertibles?

Big thanks to Rob Fornasari who sent the link to us thinking we might be interested.  Great call - we certainly were!