New laptop
My tired Toshiba M4 died over the weekend, or at least had a pretty bad stroke: no video any more except in Safe Mode with an external monitor. So I spent a few hours Sunday getting everything migrated and set up on a new Dell Latitude D820 as shown here.
So far I like it. It has a much sturdier feel than the M4, and I can’t wait for my next attempt to get some work done on a bumpy flight — that M4 tablet hinge was so shaky that the screen wobbled constantly in those situations, but the Latitude is like a rock. I also have great battery life with the extended battery, an area where the Toshiba sucked, and most of all I like the fact that the Dell was designed for Vista and so I no longer have some of the quirky problems that the Toshiba had with Vista: brain-damaged sleep/hibernate behavior, terrible performance, etc.
Now that my main work machine is stable again, my next computing maintenance task will be to set up my new UMPC (also known as an Origami). I traded the iPhone I received for not speaking at Office 2.0 for a UMPC, which is more useful to me at the moment. I have a brand-new Blackjack that I’m happy with, and I’ve been wanting a small reliable camera-bag computer: a place to download and store photos, with Photoshop and real email and everything else I might want when I’m out taking pictures for an hour or a week. I’m excited to have it, but it’s sitting on a shelf at home because I don’t have time right now to dig into it.
Ah, the tyranny of maintenance. (That’s one of my favorite phrases/concepts from Tom Robbins’s “Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates,” a book I loved for many reasons, most of which I can’t share until I decide for certain whether I’m ever going into politics.)
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 10:08 am. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on October 3, 2007 at 4:01 pm Tom wrote:
Boy, that’s pretty. I just went and priced one out and it’s doable for me if I start saving my shekels. I’ll be keeping tuned in about your experiences with your swanky new Dell, as I think I have at best about four months left on this Toshiba of mine. No more Toshibas ever. Mine’s been rebuilt three times under warranty (and out of warranty, but I was able to be unpleasant enough to make them fix it anyway), and I’ve replaced two hard drives and two fans myself. Nice keyboard, though. That’s why I bought it, and I hope to have the emotional strength to resist another sexy keyboard on a crappy laptop in the future. And even at its best, I had a similar feeling about the hardware (outside of the keyboard) — it’s kind of tinny and creaky.
I’m also very interested in your experiences with the Blackjack — I’m mostly very pleased with Palm OS (I’m still in love with my creaky Treo 650), but I’ve never used the mobile Windows version that’s on all the devices the kids are using these days. Have you used both enough to be able to compare them to each other? Either way I’m very curious about your take on it, as you tend to have very little patience for lag and interface BS. Does it have a stylus or at least a touchscreen? And do you find it easy enough to thumbtype on? And more important, how’s the connection speed and the browser? The Palm OS stinks as far as web browsing goes (no javascript, poor rendering). And Sprint wants a stack of money to upgrade the Treo, so maybe a Blackjack with another provider is the way to go.
on October 4, 2007 at 8:55 am Doug wrote:
I’m happy with the Blackjack, but I don’t really use it for anything other than Exchange-based email, phone, and web browsing. For those basic chores it’s fine, and the 3G data speed is great for web browing.
I’ve not used the Palm OS since 2003, or the Blackberry since 2005, so my view of those is probably outdated. I seem to remember ugly monochrome displays with one font — I’ll bet that has changed.
on October 4, 2007 at 9:27 am Scott wrote:
Love that book! Have you read Villa Incognito by the same author?
I’m also shopping for a Dell to replace my Toshiba S1. Similar experience to Tom….two replaced mother boards and one replaced hard drive. Toshiba and I are breaking up.
Will be curious about how you like the “photo bag” computer.
sp
on October 4, 2007 at 9:32 am Scott wrote:
Oh…and Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas…equally odd and entertaining. I’m guessing you will enjoy (or have enjoyed) the theme of the Sirius mysteries and the mythology surrounding the Dogon Tribe.
OK…done.
sp
on October 4, 2007 at 12:43 pm Doug wrote:
Yes, I need to read another Tom Robbins. Thanks for the suggestions.
And I’m with both of you guys on Toshiba. That M4 was a disaster so many times, and even during the good times it was loud, slow, hot, and unreliable. Add to that the terrible battery life, hefty price … goodbye, Toshiba.
on October 7, 2007 at 7:27 pm Scott wrote:
Amen, brother!