Sue,
The size of the screen was important to me because of the vision problems I'm suffering from. Sjogren's affects the vision badly and with the medications it's even worse. I get by sometimes with just magnifying reading glasses, but most of the time I use a pair of bifocal progressive moisture chamber eyeglasses. (read goggles here!) So we chose the largest screen we could get in the laptop. A smaller screen of course makes the laptop lighterweight. The laptop still even with with the larger screen isn't all that heavy. And for any movement outside the house, you can use a case that is softside and has a shoulder strap that lets you sling it accross the body. But I find no problem carrying it around in the house. It's sort of like an extra appendage to me. One that works better than the other ones!

Hope this helps in trying to choose.

Billye

Okay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Now I get it.

When I first got my Verizon DSL, the disc it came with would not work. I called up the Verizon Tech person and a very nice lady asked me "can I take over your PC"?? After my jaw got up from the floor, I said "you can take over my PC?" and she called it "remote something or other". I don't remember.

I had to get to a screen, type in a number (her password I guess or somthing to that effect), and in one minute, she had control over my computer, and I watched my cursor moving on the screen. She typed in everything and then I was prompted to release her from taking over my computer.

I never was so impressed by technology in all my life.

So thank you for clearing that up!!!

Ain't technology fun!!!!

And my 83 year old Aunt in Florida won't go near the computer room in her development. They all want to teach her (she's not your average 83 year old, she belongs to the purple hat society and (just like the red hat society), once a month, everybody puts on a purple hat and they go to this big dinner theatre and they have the time of their lives. So she's a real hoot, my aunt, but for some reason, technology is not her thing.

She has grandchildren with webcams and I often say "Aunt Sallie, do you know that you can see your kids and grandchildren every single day and talk to them FOR FREE on the computer. She goes "really???, well they want me to go upstairs to the computer room and the teacher there wants to teach me".. I said "who is the teacher?" and she said "Oh, she's a retired schoolteacher who runs the program in that room and she's 93". I said "Sallie, if there's a 93 year old lady doing computers, you most certainly can". Her response was "But I'm afraid I'll break the computer".

I tried to explain that you can't break computers, but then I remembered that this is the same person, who 15 years ago called me up all excited because she got her first VCR at the age of 68 and the only thing she wanted to tape was The View which came on, in Florida, at 3 a.m.

Here's the conversation (exact) that happened 15 years ago:

Melody ..."Aunt Sallie, how nice, you got a VCR, now you can tape your stuff", (she had the vcr for a week by then).

Aunt Sallie: ..."Oh yes, I've been taping it all week, I get up at 2:55 a.m. and press the record button". I said "you do what????" She said "I get up at 2:55 a.m. and press the record button, so the next day I can watch the View".

Melody (after laughing my head off): "Sallie, the purpose of a VCR is that you can program it to record at 3 a.m. so you can go to bed at 9 p.m , the VCR will turn itself on, tape the View, and then you can get up in the morning and watch it whenver you wish"

Aunt Sallie: "you've got to be kidding, this thing will turn itself on and I can tape it at 3 a.m. "???? I said "absolutely". She then said "how do I do that?" so I wrote everything down, (I knew the make and model of her vcr).

She called me when she got the instructions and I walked her through it.

So she finally learns how to put it on timer, and she tapes the View.

Now here's the best part. She asks me "Melody, do I have to rewind the tape to watch The View'. I said "Of course you have to rewind the tape, how on earth will you watch a show if you don't rewind the tape?" Her response was "what do I do after I watch the View, do I then rewind the tape". I said "that's what you do, then you can tape over it".

Her response: "why would I want to tape over it"???

That did it for me. I gave up!!! And I expect her, at 83 to go up to a computer room and learn webcams???? I don't think so...

lol

Melody

P.S. My Aunt Sallie is a dear, but she has severe hearing loss and I told the family to get her one of those teletype gadgets from the phone company because she can't hear anyone on the phone. Now when you get this gadget, you are supposed to READ THE WORDS, and then you can talk into the phone so the other person can hear you. You are not supposed to try and hear and read at the same time.
So they get the teletype thing. I call her up on the phone (you have to dial a special number and you get connected, I guess, at her end, the bells go off or lights go on and she knows a phone call is coming in.

Here's the conversation:

Aunt Sallie: "hello hello, who's there???

Me: Hi Aunt Sallie (now I'm thinking she's reading the words, but nooo she's trying to hear me and she goes "who's this??"
So I sigh and go "It's me, Melody, Sallie, read the text" and she goes: 'He died, how did he die?? I go "Who died?" and she goes: "you said he died". I go "I never said anyone died". She again goes "oh my god, he died??".

Believe me, I never called this woman again. I told her son what happened and he fell on the floor laughing because he goes through this everytime he calls her. I told him to tell her "Melody sends her love".

Sorry to hijack this thread, but since this thread is about techno stuff, I felt it was okay to tell this story. My aunt is a hoot but I certainly wish she would go up and learn the computer.

Tony - great about the laptop! I've always used them - when I worked it traveled to work and back with me - as my work was rather never ending and wanted to go home once in a while! I've had several that really never had problems with! Just seems like I've had a run of back luck lately! But agree with you and Billye - can be essential at times when sitting is difficult for any period of time.... I also always have used an external mouse with mine - much easier then those "mouse touch pads" on the machines....

Billye - gorgeous photo! Dahlek - wheres the pix?????????????

Oh Melody - thats how my last laptop met its final demise last February (or when I reached my boiling point and made them take the machine back - I let tech support take over my puter and within 30 seconds the tech had somehow corrupted the hard drive - oops - just hung up and that was that - I called back and demanded my money back - gotta watch out for those guys (or gals) sometimes!

Ohhhh, I LOVE this thread.

I LOVE my laptop.
But my first one burned out... It was a little strange. I had an extremely stressful day and all of a sudden it was as if the stress reached into the laptop.

It was a Gateway.

So then I had to get another one... this one is a Toshiba, and it's super fast. And it has a lot of memory which I need for my web site.

When I was without a laptop, during the transition and while I didn't have electricity recently, I ... don't do nearly as well. I use my computer to supplement my mind. It reminds me of things, keeps track of things. I just LOVE it.

When I first saw lap tops I could not believe how totally sleek they were and still had everything in them. The whole works. My old set up was soooo huge.

I got my Gateway when my hard drives kept burning out... going bad. Five in one year. That was when my tower was sitting over the privy pit, and I next to it... Not so good.

I have a picture of my desk on my privy pit page... my desk was so pretty, it's hard to believe that it was over a privy pit ...

http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...house-Pit.html

(If you look closely at the picture... can you see my kitty looking back at you?)

I am just absorbing all the info about laptops as the posts are comming in, i have a question if someone would be kind enough to reply.
Heat is electronic's worst enemy so to speak, in my desktop i put in a decent size exhaust fan to help extract the heat to the out side of the tower, i also put in a much better [copper] heatsink & fan to help cool the cpu, i am happy with the temps i get now from the mobo sensors and cpu, plus i have an exhaust fan [preinstalled] in my PSU [electrical box]
Now with a laptop everything is pretty compact and i am wondering if heat is an issue with them, what i trying to say do you have to turn them off after a certain amount of time ? or can you just leave them running like 24/7 with no problems with over heating ? because once i get on the net the time just fly's.
thanks in advance for any info.

Brian

Yes, heat is an issue.

My Toshiba came with warning labels "DANGER" heat, sort of thing. And it can get very hot. In the winter I felt it was a good little heater.

I have mine on an old refrigerator plastic shelf from my small refrigerator. It has lots of little - darn, I don't know how to describe it... but it is so that there's a lot of air under my laptop.

Then a month or so ago my computer quit and I took it to a fellow in town rather than send it away, since I need it so much, and he turned down the brightness of my screen and now it runs a lot cooler. Who would have guessed.

(My screen still seems real bright, so it isn't hurting my enjoyment.)



Oh, Brian, I almost forgot to say... mine is on nearly 24/7.
not quite... but pretty close sometimes.

.....most laptops today have a feature called sleep mode. After a period of inactivity cpu output,power output and sreen display are " powered down" to conserve energy and heat stress on componets. This is also part of "green technology", perfected to conserve energy and emf pollution. In a lot of business enviroments laptops are left on for long periods of time and some have associated docking stations providing power .---tom

Hi Brian – my TV engineer says:-

“Heat is an issue because laptops are not laptops as they are designed to be used on a hard surface. This can be overcome by using a TV dinner tray - the type with a bean bag underneath and a hard top. Running 24/7 is not good without extra cooling. This can be overcome by using a cooling tray between the laptop and the TV tray.”

Have a look at http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9700201-1.html or type in laptop coolers and have a look around.

Over here in the UK we don’t get hot enough for anything other than a bean bag tray
Such as http://www.sawitfirst.co.uk/content/inglesbbeanbag_tray . This is a boon for comfortable laptop work.

Hope this may help


Tony

Tony thank you for posting that imformation. And Billye a large
screen would be somthing i would be looking for as well,those SS
blurs,well you know what i mean. I can't remember which one you
decided to get. Does your's have a webcam ? I think it's so great
you can just up and go with it. I really glad for the both of you.
And i can't wait to J pic,so far it sounds like it's going to be of
her foot. Bob took pictures of my leg,i should post it,you all could
cure me,nooo you have to keep you lunch down.. Well thanks Sue

I have a question about laptops vs desktops.

If a person does not want to buy a desktop, with the tower, the monitor, etc. etc. and that person uses the computer a few hours a day. But that person can be on that computer for 3 hours straight. Maybe 4 even. Can a person (when their computer breaks down), go out and buy a laptop, put it on the desk where their computer desktop used to be, and can a person then use the laptop as their personal computer?? I can't find anyone who will answer me. I have asked computer tech people and they only say "A laptop is not a desktop and should not be used in place of a desktop".

Well, why not?? If you can put most everything that is on a desktop (like microsoft word, windows xp, WHATEVER??, why is it a big thing if you don't want to buy a whole computer set up. I mean, if all I want to do is go on the internet, check my forums, look up stuff, do e-mail and occasionally print something out, well, can't I just buy an Apple, or a Dell, and the bring it home, put it in the same place the computer used to be, hook it up to the same printer the computer was hooked up to, and then plug in the dsl modem thing. I don't need wi-fi or whatever that is. I have a dsl modem.

I can use a laptop with that right?

I just want to make sure I know my options, if this Hewlett packard thing ever blows up on me.

Thanks to anybody who can give me a clear cut answer. I told Alan, (when we were going to buy a new computer last year, I said "why not buy a laptop, then we can move it around, sit in the kitchen, sit in the bedroom, blah blah, but then I asked the computer guy at the store, what is better, a laptop or a PC and he said "well, you need a PC, because a laptop will never take the place of a PC" . See why I'm so confused??

Melody