Alyce:

I would recommend looking at them in the store to see which keyboards you like. Keyboards on notebooks can vary from pretty good to terrible.

You probably want to stay away from the "netbook" class of notebook PCs, as they tend to have poor screens and keyboards. And no DVD drive.

I've had really good luck with my used ThinkPad, which I bought for $500. You might make out pretty well with a refurb from a reputable place.

HP seems to have pretty good quality. Dell is extremely variable, so I would avoid them.

I would avoid "gaming laptops" in general, as they have lousy battery life, and tend to run really hot, leading to poor long-term reliability.

Jon A.

I have a Dell Inspiron (190Gig hard drive, Intel Duo T7500 processor @ 2.2Ghz, 3Gig of RAM) that ran very acceptably under Windows XP. I'm not sure how it would do under Vista, though. I currently run it under Ubuntu 8.04, 64bit distro. Performance under the existing config is quite palatable and the thing boots up and shuts down in a speedy and amenable fashion. On the whole, I like it.

The keyboard is liveable but the keys are not as fault tolerant or sturdy as the keys on either of my Sony Vaio laptops. They also do not (pluck off / snap back on) easily so that you can clean the crumbs and cat hair out of the keys. On the plus side, replacement Sony keyboards were like ninety dollars. The Dell guy says that a replacement keyboard for this is under thirty bucks. I have not been moved to replace the keyboard yet and the box is a year old, just about... and I am a dreadful housekeeper, eat in front of my laptop, and have two cats who shed a lot.

The mouse is OK. I'm not in love with the feel of the mouse button actuators, but what the hell. It works, has decent scrolling action. It also has sensitive areas where you can scroll the screen up/down and right/left. I do not use that feature b/c it pisses me off.

Ports on the box are fine, mostly located on the right hand side along with the DVD drive. Drive is sturdy and well-behaved. USB stuff all appears to work fine. There's a row of fucking stupid buttons on the front of the laptop (down below the mousepad on the edge that is nearest you as you type) and one of those buttons (They look like buttons for a DVD player or VCR. They might be for use with some dipshit media viewer crippled boot option for the laptop. If so, I have never used it.) is the mute button. Sometimes I hit it by accident and then I have to go up and unmute the sound. This probably wouldn't be nearly the problem that it is if I didn't actually put my beloved laptop on my lap, the which I do rather a lot.

Laptop latch is easy to work and functional. Screen is clear and easy to read. Speakers are loud enough. Haven't used headphones, ever. My laptop's outside is a matte finish red. (There are colors at no additional cost.) The finish fingerprints and marks pretty easily, have never tried to clean it off so I don't know how that would work.

-- Jessica

I also have a Dell. It's worked quite well for me. This is my second Dell model. My previous Dell was a workhorse, used all the time as my daily machine, and it didn't die until it was battered quite nastily during a long air flight. (It still sort of works but it now has several nonfunctional keys.)

--Jon

Hmm, I hope Dell's laptops are better than their desktops these days -- we bought a whole bunch of high-end ones at work and they're absolute crap, breaking down all the time.

I don't want to be That Guy by mentioning it, but I've been pretty happy with my old Mac iBook, which was relatively cheap at the time. Admittedly it's a bit underpowered these days and the new ones don't sell for less than a grand. But hey, you can install Windows on them!

-- Mark

Or for that same grand I can buy two regular laptops. Or one laptop, and cushion it against damage with the other $500. :)

--Jon

My brother had a Dell laptop that was a POS, its keyboard died over and over again until he got tired of having it repaired. That was some time ago, however.

I had a Dell Inspiron when I worked at GHX that was fairly solid, but I babied it. My boss's Dell at the same place was a problem child.

As for Macs, I'm not going to recommend them. They are every bit as susceptible to quality control issues as Dell.

Jon

> My brother had a Dell laptop that was a POS, its keyboard died
> over and over again until he got tired of having it repaired.
> That was some time ago, however.
>
> I had a Dell Inspiron when I worked at GHX that was fairly
> solid, but I babied it. My boss's Dell at the same place was a
> problem child.
>
> As for Macs, I'm not going to recommend them. They are every bit
> as susceptible to quality control issues as Dell.
>
I love mine. But then, I don't have a laptop.

SubPrioress Semicolon Sue

Saw Quantum of Solace on Saturday.

I liked it, but I would be hard pressed to explain to you what happened in the movie. It all seemed to make sense at the end, but most of the movie was a blur.

I did like how they portrayed Quantum, which is the new International Organization of Bad People Bond Hasn't Killed Yet. For once, bad guys who weren't trying to blow up the world, instead they were all about subverting the system, ruthlessly, for their own gain. And they had an evil plan that might actually have worked, and would have allowed them to escape detection if it had.

Jon A.

That's incredible that Rick Astley was such a good sport.
OK. It's a new source of PR, but it's essentially acknowledging
that you are one of the internet plagues/memes out there.


As for finding the perfect laptop?

It tasks me. It tasks me and I shall have it! I'll chase those specs 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round Perdition's flames before I give up! Oh . . where were we? Ah yes! Laptops!

I've had to deal with laptops of almost every make and model. IBM(Lenovo), Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq. Notebooks, Tablet PCs, touch pads.

I would need to ask the basics before going to town.

When you say inexpensive, what's your budget range look like?
Aside from email and internet are there any features that are 'must haves'?
Like weight, screen size, different port choices?

What version of Dreamweaver are you running? Any plans to upgrade?

Without knowing that information and shooting from the hip I would say this.

Apple. iBook nice, but expensive. Big potential benefits.

Touchpads and touch screens are still priced high for the return.

Dell - I like. I've worked on supporting them. YMMV. Some of their interface technology seems a little ungainly. See Jessica's comments. Although Indian support is still a turnoff.

IBM/Lenovo - I've worked on Thinkpads for a couple of years before I moved. The thinkpads I've dealt with (A22 and m series) are bricks. They take a great deal of punishment and were reliable up to three years. I don't know how things have changed with Lenovo. Our hardware department up here has a contract with Lenovo. I'm using a Lenovo desktop right now which appears to only have changed in name alone. The laptop verdict is waiting for the jury.

Gateway - Personal anecdote testimony. People were always asking me questions about their gateway laptop problems. Unless something has radically changed with Gateway I tend to avoid them like the plague.

Toshiba - Another personal anecdote. One of our third party reps for hardware repair was able to support his business on Toshiba laptop repairs. Although I hear mixed reviews and have only viewed a Toshiba laptop in stored and never in 'the wild'.

Acer - Never dealt with these guys as they are a newcomer to the laptop scene. Relatively speaking.

Sony Vaio - My cousin in DC had a couple. He feels they are a good laptop. I usually see these mostly with businesses. Might not be the case, but that's my personal experience.

HP/Compaq - Although they are the same company. I have never and I MEAN NEVER had a good experience with a Compaq laptop. I would always get a question from a dad at the office that started with "My daughter at college has a Compaq laptop with X problem . . ." HP is YMMV.


Your horoscope today says view DELL, HP or Acer. Stay away from the Tiger or the Monkey.

 

BTW, New Line is trying to get some guys to adapt Asimov's Foundation for the movies. Please discuss and remember to show your work.


As for news from the home front. Donna, Jarek and I have been sick the past two weeks. Our water heater is starting to die and the OS drive on my Mac G5 popped its clogs.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I live in a trailer and that's my blues song.


 


Never gonna give you up. Never gonna not turn over and strand you! - You've just been Rusti-rolled!

I feel sorry for Rick Astley. Yeah, it's free publicity, and he kind of has to ride the wave and be a good sport about it. But on the other hand, he didn't even get to finish his song, much less a proper set.

If singing is what you do, that's got to crush you inside.

Jon A.

I bet Rico Suave is trying to get a meme started on YouTube even as we speak.

This is so... you guys.

http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001355.html

Or... what happens when Greek Mythology meets people who think too much!

I don't know about that, it's pretty clear that Midas's gift didn't work like that.

OTOH, I must confess having a discussion online about Heroes season 2 that centered on how Bob Midas' gift could be used as a "death touch." With benefits!

Jon A.

Incidentally, I discovered over the weekend that my outgoing emails are not getting through, presumably due to shenanigans on the part of RCN.

I think this has only been going on for a week or so, but I'm not sure.

So if you were expecting an email from me at some point in the recent past, and it never arrived, let me know. I AM receiving emails, I just can't send.

Hopefully tonight I can get their tech support to cough up a solution for whatever they did that is blocking me. I spent a whole hour on the phone with their support people this morning, but they weren't much help.

Jon A.

Firkdingblast....

A French Cat Film short from Youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7ibPk37_U

Oh, oh, my!

A trailer for a pencil adventure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BLZQOH5M9Y

Well, I did a disk cleanup and the defragmentation. I uninstalled two programs, but the third one (NASA World Wind 1.3) got hung up on a Wing Ding 1.4 font. So, I got out of it, but things went well.

My mom sent me a cookie recipe as a JPG today, and things got so funky that I had to hard reboot. I hate this bleeping computer!

BTW, Ed had a lovely first day at daycare and the Early Intervention program at CCIU in the Starkweather Elementary School.

Jen