Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Morning Has Broken and So Has My Chair

I’ve been laying low early in this New Year as seems to be my tradition just as is fixing everything that falls apart around our house over the holidays.

Fluttering fluorescents in the basement. Toilets not flushing. Shower drains not draining.

Let’s not forget the gap in the garage door that provided entry to the winter winds. And, apparently, a family of field mice. They made themselves at home in a basket of winter hats and gloves then noshed on salt-and-pepper pistachios from the pantry shelves. They even had a mobile home, a fact I learned the first time I put on my ski boots and found pistachios … among other, um, stuff.

Then there is my so-called “work life.”

My laptop, after five-plus years of loyal service, is on life support. In the past few months the power cord has developed a habit of randomly not providing current, the battery had to be replaced and the screen frame  cracked. Worse, of late its performance has all the consistency of Axl Rose when he’s off his meds.

In less technologically challenging news, two days ago this happened:broken chair

At least, for once, I know my eggnog-enhanced hindquarters were not responsible for this casualty.

So while I wait for the Staples delivery man to bring me Temper-Pedic pleasure for my posterior and drive myself insane by over-researching new laptops, you may chew on this:

Please click over to DadCentric and read a piece I wrote about a North Texas father who pretended to be a gunman to expose security flaws at his child’s elementary school.

Then give me a recommendation on a non-Apple laptop. I could use a few more opinions to overwhelm and confuse me.

19 comments:

  1. I'm really liking Samsung's offerings. They offer a great balance between price and power.

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    1. I'll check them out. I've been a Dell guy for a while (with a little HP mixed in ... big mistake) but I've been leaning toward Lenovo (T430 or T430s).

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    2. I've heard some good stuff about Lenovo as well.

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  2. Don't get one of the inexpensive Vaio machines on the market now. They look cool, and they're fast, but the one I bought at Best Buy in July went dead in August and had to be shipped to Sony for repairs. Works for now. All the 20-something nerdanistas in my office have Macbooks. Jerks.

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    1. I've had generally bad luck with Sony products of all kinds of the years, so I'm with you. I'm not opposed to Macbooks I just don't like being trapped under a spiral of Apple peels.

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  3. A lot of this is my life, except instead of avoiding things or fixing them my husband creates work arounds. Good times.

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  4. The gap in my garage is so big that the raccoons only have to lift it slightly to get in and camp out. I'm very careful when I open my saddle bags now.

    Lenovo was the first thing I thought of when I read your request for suggestions. I just bought one for my husband and he loves it. It's pretty bad ass and I got it on sale for under $500. It's the Lenovo IdeaPad N586. Happy laptop hunting.

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    1. Lenovo is at the top of pack so far but I just keep second-guessing myself and burying myself in more and more research. Damn my gathering instincts!

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  5. I just got a new laptop, a Gateway NV Series (or so it says on the box). It has a quadcore thingy, Windows 7, Microsoft Office Startup, some kind of sound card, some kind of video thing, 500 Gig memory, some rams (but no ewes, so I wonder what the rams will do in their free time?), wireless capability, an almost full-sized keyboard that I am adoring, and a screen bigger than a postage stamp. Also, it is white, which for some reason makes me happy.

    Oh, yeah...there's a webcam, which I tried then decided it would be best that I ignore because the Blue Nowhere just isn't ready for that kind of non-glamour, but it is nifty.

    It has a kajillion programs installed on it and needed a lot of updating at first, but that's fairly standard now, I'm told.

    It is computer-idiot friendly, clearly, since I am using it.

    My only tiny complaint thus far is that the sound is not terribly loud, even maxed, so some speakers or headphones are in order for truly epic listening.

    List price was less than $500.

    Good luck - my eyes glazed over when shopping for this thing...

    Shade and Sweetwater,
    K

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    1. Kyddryn? It's be ages! And I know the eye glazing over thing too well.

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  6. Nice! I loved my cute little ASUS until one of the kids stepped on it. Now unless it's at a very specific angle, I get red lines throughout the screen. I'm considering a Chromebook for my next computer. Or maybe just fix this one, if I can get over how creepy the Geek Squad people are.

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    1. I looked at the ASUS some. Pros? Cons?

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    2. I looked at the $199 ACER one in Best Buy. The cons are that it's an Internet computer, and you might need another "real" computer for desktop stuff, like iTunes and Office. I'm thinking of keeping my red-screen laptop for that, and getting that Chromebook, since it will be cheaper than fixing my computer.

      The pro is that--for me at least--it's $199 that make much more sense than a $500 iPad (even if it were the same price). The iPad is an amazing device, but it's not very useful to me.

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    3. Ha, I swear I forgot I had a "somewhat-related" scheduled group-giveaway thingy on my blog... I just got an email reminding me about it. Makes me comment seem a little disingenuous. But I still plan to buy it or wait for the next model (depends on how annoying that red screen gets).

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  7. Just be confident that your new laptop is the perfect fit. Because the next day, a newer, faster, sexier model will introduced. At a lower price, of course.

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  8. The Pumpkin Man got a computer for his Birthday, from Grandpa, but I don't think it has the power you're looking for. It does play annoying midi type tunes really loudly though. Good for you on fixing the plumbing. I'm at about a 65% success rate at that around here.

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    1. What I really need is to fix the digestive systems of those who clog it. ::cough::Excitable::cough::

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