The Lap, not the Laptop
Glenn Reynolds posts on his idea of the a good laptop, which in his case is the Macbook Pro.
I'm pretty happy with it. Pluses: Slim, elegant design. Nice screen. Starts up -- whether from cold or from sleep mode -- a lot faster than my Dell notebook. Switching to the OSX operating system is easy -- but then, I never needed any lessons to learn Windows either. Both are pretty self-explanatory. The built-in speakers aren't bad for a laptop. Stable. Pretty icons. The iChat is cool, especially the video ichat, which is very well implemented. I like the way the keyboard lights up automatically in the dark.
Minuses: Battery life is way inferior to my Dell -- less than half as long. Form factor is a bit large for actual laptop use. (I'd prefer something more like a 12" Powerbook, really, but Apple doesn't make anything like that). Not as crashproof as advertised -- I've had to reboot once or twice, because of Firefox crashes. Gets hot. No right mouse-button. (Yeah, you hit CTRL instead but it's not the same). No real delete key.
What would it be for you?
What the "best" laptop will be for different people depends on what they want from it. Bill Roggio would settle only for a Panasonic Toughbook (correction by Flavius Maximus) because it was sealed against sand and dust and was specifically designed for use in harsh conditions. He remembers dropping it onto a armor steel ramp from waist height. Try that with something you get out of Walmart. But it is comparatively heavy and hideously expensive. But it was the best for him. My own choice was a Sony VAIO VGN-TX27, an 3.5 pound device with an 11.5" screen I chose principally because it had a huge battery life (6-10 hours real) and a PCMCIA slot. The PCMCIA slot was needed to support a wide-area wireless card which allowed Internet access anywhere in Australia, somewhat similar to a Verizon card. This in addition to its built-in WiF and Ethernet slot. Like Bill Roggio's machine, it is overpriced for the performance spec. If the Toughbook exacts a premium for combat durability, the VAIO's claim to its somewhat excessive price lies in its portability. And portable it is. You can use it one handed standing, seated on a ferry, propped against a wall, sitting in a cafe or in a library corner. With an extra battery you can be power socket independent for close to 18 hours solidly connected. But. There's always a but. A small size means you will strain at the antlike characters on screen. And if you accept the VAIO's draconian power management features (which give it that magnificent battery life) you will have a heck of a time reading the screen unless you are in a sufficiently darkened location. And woe betide the man with large, sausagelike fingers. The miniature screen and miniature backspace/delete keys will make this VAIO a living hell for him.
Recently I've had people walk up to me to ask about the VAIO, largely I suspect, because of its carbon-fiber shell and the fact that Daniel ("James Bond") Craig used a bigger version in the movie Casino Royale. The truth is that it won't make James Bond out of you so much as blind, and unless you have the need to stay connected with a full-power PC only slightly heavier than a PDA you are better off with a more human-friendly machine. Technological advance will continue to make better models available, but I feel certain that the following suggestions will remain useful in selecting a laptop "as time goes by".
- Don't buy a laptop unless you need to. Desktops are cheaper and easier to upgrade. If you have money to burn, buy the biggest flat panel display you can find and the nicest chair you can afford and spend five minutes each day laughing at all the idiots hunched over their laptops getting migraines just cause it looks "executive".
- If you mostly commute between a home and regular office, or go from hotel to hotel, get a reasonably priced, big screen laptop. Since it is a short way from the parked car to the desk, portability is really a secondary issue. So get the most reasonably priced desktop-like, high performance laptop you can find.
- If you are like Bill Roggio and need something that will repel water, dust, shock and even the occasional low velocity fragment, pull out all the stops and get the latest model of the combat laptop. But be prepared to hump that piece of ironmongery. Of course if you really needed it in the first place then by definition you would be prepared to hump it and have the muscles to do it.
- If you are the kind of guy who needs to stay connected at all times, get both a desktop and a laptop. Then get the VAIO kind of laptop, which has the very opposite physical characteristics of the desktop -- with support for universal connectivity, vast battery life and real portability. Remember that if you can't hump a load like a combat infantryman, you will be hard pressed to carry anything over 6 pounds, including all the accessories for 8 hours, each and every day.
52 Comments:
Any ideas for a Christmas gift that would serve as a bed tray for a laptop?
I can't seem to find one...
An additional point regarding laptops - and one hinted by Wretchard...
They have a lifespan of about 2 - 3 years. They cannot be upgraded. They cannot really be repaired. And, they have heat problems.
Never underestimate 'search'!
Buddy links a converted bedpan!
Great for downloads.
I've been quite content with my Powerbook G4. The keyboard is nearly full size, certainly big enough to type on for hours without hand cramps, and the screen had enough real estate to work with without making the overall size too big for a backpack, which is how I travel.
The poor thing's had a hard life, too: my daughters have dropped it on hard surfaces at least half a dozen times and it's still ticking with no need for any kind of repair.
On the other hand, I'm on my second battery and power cord (Li-ion batts are good for about eighteen months, and the power cord has obvious and well-documented engineering flaws.) I consider that Apple actually sells these for $250.00 over the list price, which is the cost of a replacement batt and cord.
By the way, Wretchard - Great Blog!
Anybody have much experience with parallels on a mac?
Sounds like the best of all worlds.
Wretchard wrote, "Don't buy a laptop unless you need to. Desktops are cheaper and easier to upgrade. If you have money to burn, buy the biggest flat panel display you can find and the nicest chair you can afford and spend five minutes each day laughing at all the idiots hunched over their laptops getting migraines just cause it looks 'executive'."
I'm not a game player, I only use computers to blog, maintain my website, write, and create music. So my main machine is just a $400 emachines job about three years old, running XP and Debian Linux in a dual-boot setup. Sweetie gets the $179 Chinese-made desktop from Frys running just Debian (once the worthless CD drive was swapped out). My $199 laptop from UsedLaptops.com runs Windows 98 and is mostly for road trips but I keep my budget spreadsheet on that one. Burglars wanna hit our house they won't get much.
I hadn't used a laptop for 4 years but recently bought one for a child to take to university; a Toshiba A100 with a 15.4" screen and T2400 processor. (The latest Core duos were not quite ready yet.) What a dream that laptop is. They've come a long way. I'd certainly consider one as an adjunct to my desk machine so I can read blogs away from my main PC.
If portability is important, don’t hesitate getting a smaller display and using a second one while at your desk. A dual display (or 3 or 4) really adds to productivity. Modern display chipsets and XP support dual displays with no fuss.
Buddy,
Uuuuuggggghhhh... I was searching through specific stores where I had seen something interesting. Sometimes one forgets the basics, eh...
One of the early hits on your google search nailed it. Believe it or not, a place that specializes in Bed Trays called the The Bed Tray Shoppe'.
Only on the net...
Consider any computer an expense. 18-24 months is a reasonable life expectancy. I use macs exclusively and daily for at least three to four hours per day. My latest is the:
Machine Model: MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 2
I travel frequently and find the fifteen inch laptop the most practical. I spent about $2,500 so my cost of use is $2500/ 547 days of use/ 4 hours daily = $1.14 per hour. Internet access of $125 per month adds another $1 per hour for a total cost $2.12 per hour cost. That is less than my cellular phone costs with the equipment fully amortized over 18 months.
I do not need a secretary that saves me $4,000 per month. E-mail saves $800 per month by eliminating overnight services. Search engines and creative software conservatively are worth $1000 per month. I save $400 a month on various news subscriptions.
If I extrapolate the cost savings over the same period of use, I get cost benefits of $111,600/547 days/4 hours use or $51 per hour. My true cost of the laptop and internet access is $51 per hour minus $2.12 per hour or a negative $48.88 which means my computer use saves me $48.88 per hour.
My original equipment cost of $2500/$48.88 per hour/ 4 hours per day use, means that the computer pays for itself in in less than 13 days. After the 13th day it makes me a daily profit of $195.52
I will let Rufus figure out my internal rate of return.
Still think laptops are expensive?
arthur,
I am fortunate to have both a desktop and a laptop. And both have their uses. The desktop really shines when you have to work for extended periods, in which case the desktop becomes part of a customized workstation, with a mounted webcam, landline, VOIP headset and other peripherals as part of the station. The key things typically are the monitor(s) and the high back, tiltable swivel chair. I have a 19 inch flat panel, but if I ever get the money there's a 32 inch wide-screen monitor I want, which will actually require a special video card.
Many people also have a quality highback swivel chair and a carpet protector you can roll it on. The 32 incher is to dream for, but a European I know has got multiple monitors in a kind of semicircle with the display split between. The guy multitasks like crazy. Back when I used to develop software, it was not uncommon to have different monitors to dedicated to different resources, so that if you were doing a build or a long query, you could switch.
Basically a real desktop setup is like a studio, with a lot of simultaneous fires burning, more like a command center. With a laptop, no matter how capable, your in a different ethos. In my view, at least, you use a lap top to reconnect to the physical world. You carry around your portal to the virtual world with you as you attend conferences, go places, pick up information, get inspiration or get drunk, or call on a client.
In summary, the desktop is for bringing the world to your command center and the laptop is for taking the virtual world in to the natural universe.
A good friend, who labels himself a software architect and who was a consulting expert on the DoJ case against Microsoft, is a total Mac-head. He had one inviolable rule for life with Powerbooks: Replace them every 24 months.
The problem, as has been noted, is heat. At 24 months, heat will have affected the hardware to the point that the work on the machine is at risk. He tried a Dell notebook for a short while (in tandem with his then Powerbook) and decided to go back to Apple exclusivity.
Two things - if you need both a desktop and laptop, consider a docking station instead, with a big screen, and a few USB hard drives, unless you need the power of a desktop for gaming or graphics, you get the best of both worlds.
Second, if you mainly consume media on the road, rather than produce, consider a smartphone. You don't want to write a novel with your thumbs, but if you're just reading blogs, it may be all you need.
I can't get my hands on what I'd prefer - too much moolah to get it by Mrs Triton... I'd have to build my own.
(Don't laugh - AOpen has a bare case available for those who dare.)
Wretchard -
Just out of curiosity, what did you think of "Casino Royale"? Ironically, I thought it was great just because of the nice break from all of the ridiculous high-tech gizmos which had been weighing down the series. I think it was grittier than the others, and hence a touch (I said jsut a touch) more believable than the recent ones...
IMHO (somewhat biased since I work for Intel) I've seen em all and right now you can't beat a Hewlett-Packard laptop with a docking station for home use. Make sure to get the intel core2 duo mobile processor and an extended battery and you still come out well below $2k with lots of options. Nobody's making better laptops right now than HP and the core 2 processor gives you lots of horsepower and great battery life with good heat dissipation. Very sturdily made as well.
Wretchard, you mentioned the high back, tiltable swivel chair. I'm in the market for one, and since I know many of your readers are virtually attached to their PC's, I thought I might take this opportunity to ask for suggestions.
The best laptop is one that someone else pays for. My company machine is a Dell Latitude D610, and the only weakness I've noticed is that my wireless modem sometimes doesn't work where others do.
My own, 4 year old Dell Inspiron 8200 just died with a horrible gnashing of hard drive noises. I think I paid over $2,000 for that sucker!
As for chairs, the Herman Miller Aeron is the long-time champ, with recent strong competition from a Steelcase model. There's an excellent article at www.consumersearch.com.
Okay, enough staying on point.
Did you guys see the Al Qaeda announcement to the Dems that Al Qaeda actually won our last election? HAHAHAHAHAA!
Maybe John Kerry and the rest of these Senate tools who are visiting our enemies can take comfort in that. Talk about another Vietnam! This is EXACTLY how we lost that war, and Kerry was the star of that effort too!!
Ahhhh, this is too good. It's on Brian Ross' blog at ABC right now, on Drudge, too.
I'm Jane Fonda, and the SDS does not approve of that message.
Hey Jane,
Loved your work in Barbarella!
The photo shoot in the North Vietnamese AA mount - not so much, you FTB.
"I will let Rufus figure out my internal rate of return."
---
...and develop a sustainable energy power supply.
FTB?
WTF?
What's up with that?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Since my beloved Titanium Powerbook died lasst week, a MacBook Pro sounds good to me. Having to use Windoze machines while here is Israel reminds of of why I don't want one.
"They have a lifespan of about 2 - 3 years. They cannot be upgraded. They cannot really be repaired. And, they have heat problems."
My Titanium Powerbook never gave me a spot of trouble for 3 years of 8hrs/day use, plus intermittant use for 2 years after that. Finally the screen went dead, but the computer is still working. If I attached it to an external display it would be fine (but not much use for traveling.)
Kid's New Dell has 5200 GB Memory!
Dell PowerEdge 1955, 3.0 GHz, Infiniband
MHPCC
opps, That's the Gay U.H. Website
Whirrled Peas:
Maybe we can get the Muzzies Hooked on Artificial Blood
Rufus,
We REALLY need sustainable energy supply for this one:
"This new 5,120-processor Dell PowerEdge 1955 system"
---
Forget how much he said it burns every 24 hrs.
Barbarella--hubbahubba
Tony,
Does your Dell have one of those modular hard drives?
Lots of those available on E-Bay.
Thanks for the visual nostalgia of Barbarella.
How sweet she was/is.
Joshua e,
Casino Royale's virtue is that it is relatively faithful to the Ian Fleming novel's plot. Like the Lord of the Rings movie, it benefits from hewing to a relatively superior story line. Screenwriters should realize that the classics are classics for a reason and refrain from tampering with them without good cause.
j willie,
I can't recommend any chair in particular except to say don't save money on the chair if you are going to spend hours in it. All the human interface things will tell in the long run. The chair, the mouse/trackball, the keyboard, the screen. If you don't spend much time on a computer, you can economize on all of these. If are a developer/author who is shackled to the workstation for endless periods, you can never have too good. As good as you can afford is what you need.
When working at a single location I definitely prefer a desktop. I'm looking to get a new Mac. The 24" iMac may work. The new iMacs are like a laptop without the lap; no tower, very small footprint, but also not upgradable. Of course about half the price of a laptop. The 24" screen is very cool. A 32" screen would be too big for normal work.
OT, W have you seen happyslip? Filipino culture in the Big Apple. Mixed Nuts YouChoob
Anything wrong w/the mini?
utopia parkway,
32 inches would suit me just fine because you can split the screen into two working areas without much eyestrain. Using a 32 incher for one code window would be too much, but if you were working across documents incessantly it would have it's uses. Alternatively, I could get a couple of 20 inchers and hefty video card and then split the screens between the virtual resolution. Probably cheaper to do that than hold out until the big screen becomes affordable.
Hey Doug,
Yeah, my dead Inspiron has a modular hard drive, I went out and got one for about $70 new. That's when I discovered it really also needed a new optical drive (boot CD drive to recover or re-install XP). So, that was too much hassle and I just put it on the shelf for a month or two. One day I switched it on and it miraculously came back to life. Then it died again, and now the hard drive is making torture noises. I'll probably just replace those two things for a total cost of about $100 and my fat-fingered labor. It still has the big screen, nice keyboard, XP Pro, Office, etc. Though the urge to buy a new one is always there, I'd rather have this:
http://www.gunslocal.com/gunimages/2972.jpg
(Ps. Along with my old laptop, I lost my Belmont cut'n'paste link code - can someone help me out?)
Doug, the mini is a little underpowered and of course hard to upgrade. How handy are you with a putty knife? If you already have a monitor/mouse/keyboard it may be a good budget choice. Not all of them have DVD burning capability, which you want for backups (at least I do) and you probably want a Core 2 Duo if you can get it. I think most would be more happy with a 17" iMac, which is only a few hundred more.
W, I was looking at a 30" monitor in CompUSA and it is a big mutha. You'll probably mount it on the wall or on an arm. It depends what kind of work you're doing on whether it would work for you. For viewing videos it would be great, but you'd sit across the room. I'm not sure what it would feel like to sit within arm's length of it and do work though.
My wife has a 23" screen and because of her aging eyes she can't read small text onscreen very well. She sets the font size in her documents to mondo and works like that. Whatever you have to do to get your work done I guess. I'll have to tell you about my computer glasses but I've got to run.
"My wife has a 23" screen and because of her aging eyes she can't read small text onscreen very well. She sets the font size in her documents to mondo and works like that."
---
Redacted and revised, ready for presentation to Husband Review Commission:
---
"My wife has a 23" screen and because of slight vison problem she has had since birth, she can't read small text onscreen very well.
She sets the font size in her documents slightly larger and works like that."
I don't have a spelling problem,
just a slight vison one.
Lacking in vison since birth.
Doug, I think she sets the font to more than "slightly larger."
My computer glasses are great. I am near-sighted and see well up to about 12" from my face. I prefer to read and do close work with no glasses. I can also use a computer with no glasses but I have to place my head close to the screen, which tires my neck after a while. Alternately, I can wear my regular glasses and keep my head at arm's length, or a bit more, from the screen.
I found myself alternating between glasses off and close and glasses on and far, which led to back and neck pains.
The optometrist gave me a prescription for glasses that are weaker than my regular glasses and which keep everything in focus that is within arm's length. He called them computer glasses.
I have progressive bifocals now for my regular glasses and they are terrible for computer use.
If your eyes are starting to weaken with age and you're near-sighted ask your optometrist about computer glasses. Not sure if they have something similar for far sightedness.
"I have progressive bifocals now for my regular glasses and they are terrible for computer use."
---
Utopia:
Thanks for that:
The wife has been trying to talk me into those now that my computer glasses have mysteriously become too strong.
(notice how much nicer that sounds than referring to myself and my own eyes.
THAT's probably what motivated Sandy Bergler to remove a few things here and there: Modesty.)
You have cemented my decision, time for a new set of computer glasses.
---
I see fine w/no glasses.
...from 3" to 7"
Great for close work, fine print, a little lacking in depth of field!
(or if I misplace my glasses)
OTH, I do a heck of a Mr. Magoo thing, hoping not to feel that horrible lump under my thongs as I stumble about.
---
She'll still want me to get progressives also, as I drive her nuts looking over, taking off glasses, etc. I'm fine, of course!
Tony,
Here's a pic of the code you can type into notepad.
The b....... resized it, sorry.
Last time I used a png, they left it intact.
Anybody know how that works?
---
---
I hate automatic stuff: Now they're messing with the code, but the link with the date above gets you there.
The Original Image (I hope)
I sold the Toughbook/Let's Note R4 (one of, if not *the*, smallest and lightest [sub]notebooks around--2 lbs) for the fully ruggaridsed Toughbook CF-29 (8lbs!).
You know what? Thanks to the handle, it's more portable! The footprint of the cf29 is identical to the R4 (now R5) once you factor in the 10.4" polyurethane Zeroshock sleeze you need to transport something as dinky as the R5 safely.
One thing abot the CF29 (this may be fixed in the new CF30): it's rugged as hell (screenflex??!--feh!!) but some serious design flaws mean it's not really reliably sealed against dust and moisture ingress. The battery and port doors are watertight hatches but the USB port is attached directly to the motherboard and pokes out of an oversized *hole* in the chasis, through which you can see the mainboard (internally the thing is open plan so everything is exposed--cpu, the lot). This hole is plugged by a dinky plastic cap when the usb port it not in use. So, you can't really use the usb port in a dusty or wet environment, with the usb cap out the Toughbook is one of the most vulnerable computers around. Absolutely crazy. Almost as if the USB port (and there's only one of them onearly CF-29 models) was an afterthought in an (ostensibly) $3G laptop. Even the headphone jack is behind a hatch.
Otherwise, it's awesome. Love how you can use the backlit rubberised Rambo keyboard as a coaster for mugs of tea. :) Unfortunately it does lead to rather a lot of typos, I really need to refit the normal keyboard....
I picked the 29 up new from an MOD overrun on ebay for a quater of the retail price. The fully ruggardised models can be had inexpensively as they are often from a volume corporate or gov order, the executive models tend to hold their retail value.
Toughbook Elites used to have a reputaion for not being as well built (and certainly not as well equipped) as the Japanese-market trailblazers. If you're interested in buying a Toughbook, consider getting a Panasonic Let's Note from a reseller like myicube.com. Price is about the same. Don't worry too much about the warranty issues--you shouldn't expect to need it.
leog.net forums are the best place to ask questions about Panny models before buying.
The Toughbook 74 looks great... semi-rugged executive model (with a handle!).
...Silicon Seal a Stub USB cable in place!
Thanks Doug!
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, does Desert Rat still come around?
All I want for Christmas
As a computer professional (programmer/analyst) I find different circumstances require different machines. When I want to work out in the field a laptop is necessary. At home I have three desktops and a laptop. The desktops each serve a different purpose.
But what I really want is a reliable computer that I can wear on my wrist like a watch with good enough speach recognition so that it will do what I want (Dictate a letter, send an email, check the weather) by my talking to it. Kind of like the old Dick Tracy Wrist Video, but with an onboard computer. That would be nice. And the nice thing about it is that it should't be too long before we get those. :)
Tony:
A Good Spot to look for the 'Rat
When he's working out in the field, Sardonic, watches Jane's video on his laptop.
Back home he's got Surround Jane.
>...Silicon Seal a Stub USB cable in place!
haha ,yeah, that's an idea. Crazy this should be necessary.
Post a Comment
<< Home