This is my brain on Post-it notes

[grammarwoman]

Well, there's nothing like getting the stick after the carrot. I glumly decided that I couldn't justify the Burbank trip, what with the economy tanking and making muddy the solid financial ground I thought we'd found. Then the husband's car broke AGAIN, and yeah, it looks like we're going to have another case of happy bonus money being eaten by mundane costs.

This is on top of entering week five of cold symptoms, and having the PA diagnose it as a combination of cold and allergies. (I staunchly maintain that this doesn't feel like any case of allergies I've had before, since I don't want to scratch my face off, but the chest congestion is driving me batty.) Plus the husband is on antibiotics for his own sinus infection, and the Emperor's birthday is in two weeks and 75% of the prospective guest list have already canceled, and I'm evidently insane because I'm actually pondering hosting Christmas this year, and...the brain, it just doesn't stop.

However, I am bound and determined to find some silver lining here, so I am by gum going to get myself a new laptop.

Of course, now this opens up a huge Vista* of dithering. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go PC rather than Mac, as much as I still feel brand loyalty to the latter company. I'm poking around the Dell site, especially the outlet deals, but there are so many choices for my limited brain power! My needs list is: supports basically unlimited online surfing, including as many YouTube offerings in a row as I want; runs Microsoft Office; supports whatever software I need to start vidding; wireless is a given; as big a hard drive and as much RAM as I can get; DVD RW drive; decent battery life.

I am useless when it comes to hardware, I know, and it's a willful blind spot. That's one of the reasons I count on my husband so much.

So, anybody feel like offering an opinion on computers, especially when it comes to specs and software to enable vidding?

* Vista = DO NOT WANT. Do they actually sell computers loaded with Windows XP anymore?

Comments

[hecateuse.livejournal.com]

I gotta disagree, I have a Dell laptop at work and love it so much I bought the same one for home. You just have to get a GOOD one, like the Latitude D830 or today's equivalent thereof. Inspirons are crap.

You Absolutely Must Get a real video card with dedicated video RAM. Most laptops do this "shared" bullshit that does not cut it for serious use (gaming, video, or otherwise). Get the largest, best screen you can afford. Min 2GB RAM, 4 if you can afford it.

For the love of all that is holy, do not buy a Compaq. EVER.

[aabassplayer.livejournal.com]

I will admit that my Dell experience is from the corporate world of on-call rotation laptops and is quite an extreme. The problems I had were that, after a year of being an on-call rotation laptop, the dell latitudes had very flimsy screen hinges, the keyboard was down to about 97% (keys not working/sticking,etc at times), and the whole case was generally flimsy. I could grab it in two hands at the middle (either side of the screen when closed) and twist it back and forth about 5 degrees either way...

Now, the situation that this happened in is a laptop that had to travel back and forth to work every day, was rotated around 7 people all whom had no interest in the longevity of the computer, and who would only use it a couple times a week. They aren't good for the hard-travelled.

Overall, the systems were stable and provided the needed computing power...it was just that the long-term resilience of the casing back then (4 years ago) was not up to par with something I'd want to own.

I've had experience with IBM thinkpads, IBM/Lenovo thinkpads, Dell Latitudes, Old gateways, new gateways, Sony Vaios, and Mac Book Pros. Of all of them, the sturdiest were definitely the vaios with the metal casings, and the IBM thinkpads of yore. The Sony Vaios are shiny, but break down from cheap manufacturing errors the day after warrantee expires. I've relegated my Sony (after spending $200 in repair charges to get the memory slots resoldered, and then to have the video card go wonky, which is sad to see happen on a 16" 1600x1200 pristine display) to being a linux router. The mac's have about the same reliability, but they've got apple care protection which can cover most issues for three years, at the expense of paying about what the the repair costs would be up-front.