This book seems to go on the same principle of bootstrapping design (maybe a little more in depth?, check the sample chapters as well):
http://designforhackers.com/
I trust these guys, my asus ul20ft touchpad and keyboard is also crap,
apple laptops get a lot of bad talk about being expensive but at least they have realiable hardware.
This is my second asus laptop, the screen is average, keyboard is kinda bad touchpad is awful, i have some cracks on the plastic surrounding the screen, it was cheap but now i regret not spending more money on the computer where i do all my work.
looks pretty cool, some students from my university had a similar idea http://bundlr.com you should check it out, they released a redesign some weeks ago.
I'm in!
Never participated in anything like this but i like the idea of having a time constraint on hands (i get lost without one).
Don't know much about python, don't have much free time (Classes are just starting for me) but i think in one week i can hack something together.