Making life easier with a Laptop.
 

Because I have just purchased a new laptop (notebook pc) I felt it a good reason to open a thread to let others in a similar position to me, know the great advantages and pleasure that can be obtained with one, either in addition to their pc or on its own.

My ability to get around on my feet and also to sit at my pc desk for more than short periods caused me to decide on acquiring a laptop which would allow me to spend more time in my recliner but still be able to enjoy my email, the net, writing letters etc.

My pc engineer (and friend) has selected me a very good machine and because it came with Vista Home Premium he has also loaded Windows XP Home so that I can link via VNC with my pc and use it anywhere in my home as if I were operating my desk pc. This has made a great difference to my everyday life.

I also keep the laptop on my beanbag tray so as to level out the pressure on my lap as well as keep the laptop running cool.

I hope this has interested some folk here who maybe would find life easier sitting comfortably back in their recliners or in bed and work their pc’s from there. If however the laptop is their only computer then the same applies except for the VNC link up to their pc.

Maybe this will put some ideas into the heads of those who are having the same problems as myself. I note Brian has an interest in buying one.



Tony

Add me to this list
 

I can not even tell you all how much easier my life is since I got the laptop you all so generously helped me get. I've been getting around a little more and thought well, I can sit at my desk and use the regular computer. Then from sitting so much, my feet and legs have started swelling and the old irritation in the behind is worse again. So back to the laptop. And it is so awesome. So many new features that make things easier. We did have to put a second router in for our wireless, but they are not expensive and it did the trick. But I can recline on the couch or the bed or my recliner. Anywhere in the house. Wonderful!!!

I thought at first I'd use the laptop for special occasions, now I reach for it automatically. I did not know to use the beanie bag laptop holder. But it makes sense and it would make the laptop more secure on your lap too. I'm having my husband get me one tomorrow. I've seen them at Walmart and at Hastings Book Store.

I think if you can afford it, then you definitely need to think of purchasing a laptop. It has just made my life so much more comfortable. I've got new pictures. My Dad gave me a small plant when I was in the hospital. I had such a dim poorly lit room for the first week. I was in a coronary intensive care unit. The little thing put out the most beautiful blooms. It only blooms for one day. Then falls off. But it puts out buds and blooms continously for several months. It's a Hibiscus. The blooms are just incredible. My husband took the pictures with our camera and then uploaded it to my computer. Here it is: http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x...Len_5_6016.jpg

Enjoy all,
Billye

Gee Tony - You would....
 

ask THE question while Kmeb's is in the 'shop' so to speak! Billye! Where are YOU? I believe you are a person who can 'testify' as to the advantages pro/con?
Me? I am daily counting my blessings that I can sit at my tabletop 'cloneed and cobbled' version of machine...Since Kmeb's 'puter issues, I am faithfully thanking the combo of wires, circuits, cables, etc. for coming on and working w/o hassle every time I turn it all ON!
My DH had one for work, but turned it in upon retirement...I could ask him, but he's far more interested in the internal actual PROGRAMs, than the machines themselves....Keeps saying...'The day you buy it, it's obsolete'...
Hope you are having fun, good use and absolutely NO quirks with your machine! - j

Billye, great minds run on similar
 

tracks and all that?
You really DO look so much more comfy in that Pic! And, silly question...have/can you keep the Hibiscus outdoors year-round where you live? My folks lived for a while in the US Virgin Islands, and of course folks had hedges of them that bloomed almost forever! The poinsettia hedges in the winter season were awesome! But I expect you mite be too North for them....
BTW Today I got a digital camera? Durned thing comes w/FIVE, count-em FIVE instruction booklets! It's gonna be interesting to see when DH & I figger this animal out and you all see pics of me, etc...in the future...also how far in the future. Please, no help yet! I can read the books...it's the AFTER stuff I mite have questions on...
Tony - sorry for almost hi-jacking this thread?
Now other laptop comments, PLEASE? - j

Tony: You said: "My pc engineer (and friend) has selected me a very good machine and because it came with Vista Home Premium he has also loaded Windows XP Home so that I can link via VNC with my pc and use it anywhere in my home as if I were operating my desk pc."

Now what the heck does "I can link via VNC with my pc" mean??

I know, I'm clueless....lol

Melody

Nope not in Texas
 

No,
I wouldn't even consider trying to grow the Hibiscus outside in the winter here. Texas has extremes of temperature. We can be 80 degrees one day and then three days later have ice up to the knees then three days later have 100 degrees. Things have to be very hardy to grow here.

I am so delighted about your camera! Kmeb told me you were getting one. I for one would like to see a few more pics on the forum. Especially when the pics relate to the discussion. It makes things so much friendlier. And as for those little buttons. You did see the reading glasses on my nose in the pic with the laptop? No way could I see the buttons on it without them or my bi-focals. Anyway, Happy Birthday.

Back to the laptop discussion. Sorry Tony, we got off track a little here.

Billye

Thanks Tony for bringing up this subject i am interested in find out as much as i can about Laptops, my PC is in the bedroom and this has to be the coldest winter we have had for years in my part of OZ, or i am getting old :)

I see your pc mate dual booted your laptop, which i think is real handy especially if you having software problems you only have to go into the other OS and carry on what you were doing, i do that to all my pc's.

I want one. I just have to convence my husband that I really do need it. My legs ache so much sitting at my PC desk. And putting up the feet is so important.

Hi all
 

Julie i hope your feeling better. And yes Tony have same question
as Mel. Since my old laptop it getting to be a pain,Bob went out
looking for a wireless today. Billye is yours very heavy,and was
it easy to use. That picture was beautifull by the way. Going in and
out of the hospital without a computer is well,lonely and will help
pass the time,and keep mind off all the nasty stuff.

And i have 2 more Grandchildren on the way,i thought they were
never going to have them and now 3 yesss. Any advice would be helpfull.
Thank you for bringing this up Tony and much luck with your's. Sue

Hi Mel

Yes my engineer “dual booted” my laptop as Brian said. This means he has loaded XP onto my laptop which came with Vista already loaded. I can select which one I want when I start up the laptop.

VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing and you can download it free or by payment from http://www.realvnc.com/what.html . It would be advisable to have some expert help in doing this but the result – for those who feel like Billye and me – is tremendous. :)


What it does is it allows you by the simple process of clicking on an icon on either your pc or your laptop, then type in a short number and take over the other machine as if it were your laptop. You do not have to go to your pc again until you shut it down. In my case it also allows my engineer friend to take over either my pc or my laptop – with of course my permission by typing in the number – and he can then carry out any repairs, get rid of viruses etc. by “remote control”. This means he does not have to come out to visit me, consequently saving on travelling costs. He has very many clients on this VNC scheme now. I would add that the security involved is of the highest order so I have no worries there.

I hope I have in my not very technical way explained what VNC is and how useful it is to the likes of me with a laptop in one room of my house which I can either use normally or as is most often the case, take over my pc in another room and use my laptop as my pc.

Billye – your Hibiscus is beautiful. :cool: It is just what is needed in a summer like we are having here and yes you will find the bean bag tray a blessing for evening out the pressure of your laptop. Hope you have no trouble finding one to fit. Take care. :)


Tony

Sue and all
 

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! :p

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.

Stuff
 

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????????????? :D

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.

:)

Brian....
 

.....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

Brian me to
 

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

Need Nide
 

We need Bob to answer this. We didn't have the tower, etc. at Mayo. And I think Kmeb uses just a laptop as her main computer. My husband used a little thumball sized memory drive to transfer all my favorites, etc. to my laptop when we went to Mayo. But I'm not at all sure how all this works. Maybe Brian or Bob can answer this.

Also this site has many laptop lap trays available at reasonable prices.

http://www.stacksandstacks.com/home-...ings/lap-desks

Billye

That would make a lot of difference. Here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when it gets hot, then the hot HOT area where I rest my hands to type... boy it is almost too hot to touch. Except now that the screen brightness has been turned down, it doesn't get that hot. :)

as an aside, where in London are you? I lived in Islington for 9 years. :) Some on Sudeley Street which is perpendicular to Regent's Canal, and some on the corner of Friend Street ( which I LOVED) and Goswell Rd.

:)

Hi Melody

Just a couple of sites to look at and think about.:confused:

http://www.loyola.edu/5555/students/...vsdesktop.html

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/200...shipment_2006/

It depends to some extent on the room you have got but from what you have said you seem an ideal candidate for a laptop. :)

Tony

Tony, thank you so much for the very useful information.

And one more question please, what is the difference between a notebook and a laptop??

Thanks much,

Melody

Well Melody all I can do is repeat my engineer friend's explanation which is that there is really no such thing as a laptop. It is really a NOTEBOOK:cool:

So there;)

Tony

Ah, so you all have notebooks!!!!! I get it.

Thanks much.

Melody

Yes
 

I had a transforaminal injection (epidural) maybe 4 weeks ago, and went on vacation for two weeks. I had zero pain.

I returned and sat at my computer and the pain was back within hours, and after almost a week home, it's almost at the level of before the epidural. The only thing different is sitting at a desk to do computer stuff.

So, I realize I have to spill for a laptop. It wasn't on my budget, but I do need it. I'm probably going to obsess on this a long time before making the purchase, because in my dreams, I go for a Mac and dish the PC and never again get sucked into hours just getting the darn thing to work.

Thanks for bringing this up, Tony.

Thanks everyone for the links & great advise about ' Notebooks :) " much appreciated.
Those cooled CPU temp's were a bit of a shock to me as i have mine set in BIOS to automaticaly turn itself off when reaching it reaches 75 C degrees, mine sits on 50 C to 60 C degrees max.
I can see the sleep mode that Tom mentioned as a great idea when there is no CPU activity, they are very expensive to replace if cooked, those cooling type pads that Tony mentioned are a top idea too, makes me wonder at what temps they normaly run at without any cooling help.
With the increasing sales of 250 billion per year for laptops, its easy to see what the future holds for the desktops, so i better start getting used to Notepads.
Thanks very much for your help.
take care all,
Brian :)

Hi Liza, i hope you had a good holiday, i am wondering if you are still using those magnets ? I know some get sick of them trying to pull them apart, which can be a pain, i know.
Your post reminded me of a couple days back when i only done some whipper snipping in the front of my house, after oh boy, my neck was killing me, so out with the heat bag and then 2 magnets, within 2 hours i was brand new again.

OK now Brian
 

I'll bite, what's "whipper snipping"?

Billye

Hey Tony, I'm sorry you're stressed.

I meant to ask you, what part of London are you in?

:)

Geez, i didn't think our lingo [lanquage] differed that much :) , they might be called line trimmers in the US, as they sometimes called here too, just a long electrical or motorized tool that spins at very fast speeds a line to trim back the grass from fences and path ways etc.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ELECTRIC-WHIP...QQcmdZViewItem

Brian :)

Mel - to answer your question: many hi-level tech folks I know do, in fact, use their notebook at their "desktop" computer. In other words, it is their only computer. They use it portably while on the go, and while at home, they dock it . . . that is, they plug any peripherals they want or need into it - usually a monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and maybe a few others.

The heat issue is huge in terms of notebooks. It is one of the reasons that component failure is so much higher than with desktops. Anyone thinking of using a notebook as their only computer needs to think about this problem. I have not had a desktop part go bad in the past 4 years or so. I have had to ship every notebook I have had during that time off to service repair centers, some went multiple occasions. That covers around 5, including all of them in the household and office.

Here is something else to consider: tablet PC's. I am completely sold on them and don't imagine I would ever get another plain notebook again. I absolutely love using just a pen to navigate, and getting rid of the mouse. And of course, being able to use handwriting is nothing short of revolutionary in terms of use for me. It certainly is not for everyone - you pay a premium and the specs are usually not the best in terms of performance. And screen size is normally "small."

Dual-boot systems: love em, best way to go if you have some technical know-how or are willing to invest some learning. I have a mixture: one has XP and Linux, another has XP and Vista, and so on. Linux is so lean and mean. Vista is so dumb and crippled, on purpose so it stays more secure, but is so much better than XP for media. Gotta say something about memory usage . . . it is just like the best tech guys have been writing - it appears to be a hog but in actuality uses memory far, far better than any previous version of Windows. But of course anyone who is remotely a techie will need to dual boot for now.

rafi

Hi Rfinnery, i seen some were that you need 2 gigs of Ram just to run Vista, [properly] i would imaging, considering the better quality media it would most likely need it.
Have you heard of that program nLite for Win 2K or XP ? i used it on a machine not that long ago, it only had 256 mb/SD ram, pent 3/733ghz i think, it was painfully slow, i used nLite program on it and it absolutley flew, running XP/sp2 OS, you knows, they may make one up for Vista one day.
nLite may help Notebooks too, the program is designed to takes the bulkyness out of the operating systems and has some really good system tweaks, so it should have some impact on CPU activity, also going in to statup and unchecking the programs you really don't need to be running in the back ground [ except all antvirus programs, of course ] anyone that is not confident doing this, should not attempt it, if in doubt don't uncheck anything, but for the anyone that is, just press start, run and type msconfig then click on the startup tab.

ahhh...a weed eater!!!:D

( or some call them edgers)

Brain - yep, I have used nLite and still have it around. It sure is a leaner and meaner Windows - and has its uses. BTW, the guy has already released a Vista trial version.

Vista doesn't need 2 GB to run well - you will need it if you want to use all the multimedia features. It runs great on much less - as long as it is setup properly. It appears to devour memory, but in actuality it just uses it much more effectively. Think about it - with all previous releases, we always wanted as much free memory as possible. But that number is almost meaningless with Vista. With an efficient system, it makes no sense to have a lot of free memory sitting around -- better dynamic allocation should use ALL the memory possible and just make it instantly available when needed. Vista is much, much better at this than all previous versions. But of course, it still has plenty of weak spots.

rafi

A weed eater, geez, i would of thought that as being a cow or sheep, not a whipper snipper :D :D :D, i will ask at our local hardware shop if the have any weed eaters, i wonder what response i will get :D :D :D

Yep i catch on, I guess its much like the old carby setup compared to fuel injection, one pc tech did tell me once that with all microsoft new operating systems it takes at least 12 months before they get most of the bugs worked out, [that was in the XP days] anyway some clients would want the newest systems out as soon as they were released, he said " oh what a headache they bring on themselves ", as he shaked his head.
I have never tried Linux, i believe they are better than Microsoft, and i hear very good reports about Mac's, if i win lotto i might buy one :D
all the best
Brian :)

To Brian and rfinney – are you two guys having a wrong name spelling competition? :confused:


I’m just joking of course but it did make me laugh (Rfinnery and Brain). :D


Both of you have considerably more knowledge than I do about computers of all types so I always show your postings to my engineer/mate for him to explain them to me. He also has a tablet pc but it is so small I find it too much of an eye strain and even he is not that convinced about it.

Right now I am concentrating on my dual-booted Asus notebook. For those who know, this is the spec. Processor AMD Turion 64mk 36 2GHz, 1024MB RAM DDR2, Hard Drive 120GB, 512MB Display card, Wireless LAN 802.11b/g, Screen 15.4inch WXGA Widescreen Colour Shine TFT, Dual-booted XP/Vista Home Premium. Plus I have the VNC to allow me to run it as my PC from anywhere.

Tony

PS. Brian – we call them STRIMMERS in the UK. :cool:

PSS. Karen – I live in the London Borough of Bromley, about 8 miles from the City centre. My mood changes by the hour. :rolleyes:

Ahh...
 

Weedeater Brian, Weedeater. Whipper Snipper...never would have guessed that one. I had images of you trimming the hair on a whippet dog. :p

And I knew I called up the right people with the computer knowledge. I just holler "Honey!!!!" for my own tech here. He's pretty good. But I always pass on to him the things Finney and Brian tell us. Thanks a lot.

Billye