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New Laptop

Dr_Spin
in ForzaMinardi.com Forum -- The Pub
Guys,

I'm just setting up my new laptop, a Toshiba Tecra S2.

1.73 Ghz processor,
1 GB RAM
60 GB HardDisk

My old Compaq is getting a bit old in the tooth and actually has an araldite and ducttape patch on its broken hinge.

I decided that I should replace it before it finally croaked and can stop apologising for its battle scarred appearance at presentations and meetings.

I took delivery of TECRA #1 on Thursday.
Thursday night it died after several freezes...NOT GOOD!

Took it back to my IT tech stuff vendor who agreed I should get a new one. Toshiba apparently agreed when they checked it and found it DOA. Today the I collected the new one and, so far, so good.

Anyway, I guess I took the right decision to get a new one before old trusty expires. I'll leisurely transfer stuff and relegate old lapdog to desktop use, as it outperforms my current home desktop.

With LANs and thumbdrives (1 GB) transfer of programs and files is much easier than it used to be.

Frankly I don't care to get caught with a total loss of system. I have enough on my mind without that sort of grief.

At work our second offshore field came on stream this week, so we're doing our bit to keep the oil flowing.

Currently trying to get another five platforms contracted out to build, and another to float out and install next month.

We haven't had a good discussion on IT hardware since Quig's last urgings for us all to go Mac. So any comments welcome, during the race break.

Spin

Comments

  • MCSF
    There is not much to discuss really. Just switch to Mac.
  • Neil_s
    The MAC never crashes?
  • forzaminardi
    it does crash, more often than a well configured PC with enough RAM imho

    Not sure whether I'm a great fan of the Centrino processor. Depends how much you run the thing on battery I guess (which I hardly ever do as there are plugs wherever you go)

    what do you need it for? I can imagine you want to use things related to autocad for you engineering work. a p4 ht might be a better choice.
  • Stan
    Looks like a nice machine.
    I would never want to get rid of my desktop computer though, even if I had a laptop that was better. I just like the good old keyboards and mice better than those laptop flat keys and touchpads.

    I know you can connect the hardware I'm talking about to it to, but it still wouldn't be the same.
  • MCSF
    it does crash, more often than a well configured PC with enough RAM imho
    Not sure where you get your stats but I run 2 Macs everyday and can't remember the last time I had a "crash". In Mac lingo it is called a Kernal Panic. That being said I am referring to OSX and not to the "freeze" prone OS9.
  • forzaminardi
    there was an internet caffe in siena which used macs. no idea what os they were on but it was quite a pain
  • MCSF
    I remember when we went there - I think they were original iMacs and prob were on OS9 unless they were upgraded to accept OSx. That would have been pricey on the original iMac.
  • cettepe
    how about a casper laptop

    512ddr ram
    2,0 Centrino
    60 gb
    bluetooth
    dvd writer
    4 usp outs

    only 1300 $ but only in Turkey :)
  • Rekart
    I've never found Macs to be any better. People say they never crash and are completely stable, but they slow down and crash more for me than any Windows computer ever has.
  • Stan
    Well, I have worked on a Mac for hours. And I only had one crash.

    Besides the numerous ones I had with Internet Explorer, but what do you want, it was made by Microsoft ;)
  • Dr_Spin
    Looks like a nice machine.
    I would never want to get rid of my desktop computer though, even if I had a laptop that was better. I just like the good old keyboards and mice better than those laptop flat keys and touchpads.

    I know you can connect the hardware I'm talking about to it to, but it still wouldn't be the same.
    I invariably connect an optical mouse with scroll wheel:-

    ..a Logitech Genious on my old laptop and a new Samsung on the Tecra. They work on almost any surface.

    I use desktop work stations in the office together with my laptop for programs and data I don't want loaded of left on client machines or networks.

    Initially I preferred the desktop keyboards but gotta say I don't notice any difference these days.

    What I can't go for is too serious use of cell phone keyboards or miniature touchpads. Imagine writing something like this on an SMS?

    Last night I transferred about 10 GB of current stuff in a few minutes using the home LAN. So easy.

    Worst part was having to dig up old passwords or renew them for all my news and subscrber sites.

    Someone mentioned power and batteries.
    One lesson I'm going to take on is to run on batteries rather than floating on power. Lithium batteries need to be exercised or they lose their memory, and that's a pain when you only get twenty minutes of so of battery life after a year or two.

    Spin
  • Stan
    What I can't go for is too serious use of cell phone keyboards or miniature touchpads. Imagine writing something like this on an SMS?
    Ack, indeed those are pretty bad. Glad I can send SMS messages using my Palm and it's bluetooth connection.
  • forzaminardi
    Lithium batteries need to be exercised or they lose their memory, and that's a pain when you only get twenty minutes of so of battery life after a year or two
    tell me about it...:(
  • PistonBroke
    We run Macs here and still use OS 9 and OSX depending on the graphics work that comes in. We finally retired a 'Cube' but keep it just in case.

    With the new Intel processors coming along, we'll wait to see how stable
    they are and probably 'muck-around' with a cheap Mac Mini ($500US)

    If you guys havn't tried OSX then it's worth looking at even if it's for the
    fact of seeing other peoples interpretation of an operating system.

  • viges
    My computer is black.
  • PistonBroke
    My computer is black.
    I wish I had something black,...but it's not a computer!
  • Dr_Spin
    My computer is black.
    :hehe:



    :D:D:D :D

    ...hope the sound still works!

    Spin

  • bernie
    I had a mac from 1984 until 2000, no complaints, loved that I had not real crashes... ran out of memeory and then I tried windows. It crashed on my dell when I was doin the intial software laoding. That should have been a sign...

    By september of last year I was sick and tired of all the cirticacl updates... the downloads that had to be done, just when I needed to printo out one page of a report and was running late... all the stupid DOS crap! I actuall picked up a 4lb sledgehammer at one point but then realized that Bill Gates wanted me to trash it and buy a new one..

    Last September I went back and got a Mac. We've now purchased 4 of them for the company and are converting over everything to Mac. It has all the software we need... the only thing that gives me fits on occassion is the MS products that slow down and almost freeze on occassion. The Mac stuff is flawless. OSX Tiger
  • printscreen
    my new laptop arived last week:

    "Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo"
    -P4 2800 HT
    -512 pc3200
    -Ati radeon 9200
    -60GB 7200rpm HD
    -Dual Layer DVD writer

    It's seriously fast..
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