I realized yesterday that my ancient tape recorder (seriously, I think I’ve had it more than 20 years) was dying. I could record, but the tape had both the new recording and older ones. At first I’d thought it was the tape, but after about four of them, I figured it had to be the machine. Time for a new one. I picked up a nice Olympus DVR – model 4100PC – and the preliminary tests have been great. I get to give it a true test today in a phone interview.
In general, I’ve been behind the curve technologically, but I’ve reasoned that I really didn’t need the new stuff. I replace things when they break, not when a new thing comes out. So now I’m staring at this 9-year-old Dell desktop and wondering if the speed has just been surpassed by my need for more responsiveness. I suspect by December, I’ll have to replace it. It’s on its second hard drive, so at least part of my computing is in the same decade.
That raises the question – desktop or laptop? I hate laptop keyboards and screens, but those are easily modified with external keyboards and monitors. My reason for considering the laptop is portability. We have a higher-than-average number of power outages for the suburbs, and once this year I’ve been forced to grab a laptop and make do at the library with just the info I had access to, which wasn’t much. How much easier to unplug and go!
Do you use a laptop? If so, how have you set it up? What brand has been good to you or given you grief?
I’m lucky (?) that my all-in-one printer died a few years ago – I loved that printer, but a power surge fried some things, and I was forced to upgrade. Luckily, the price on the Canon Multipass line had come down to half what I originally paid. I got a bit more power and function for a lot less.
So how old is your office? Do you believe popular opinion that we should upgrade every two years? What’s your ideal office look like?
My husband coaxed me into switching from a desktop to a laptop about four years ago, and I’ve been thanking him ever since. We also have a wireless internet connection. I use a MacBook. I do use a wireless keyboard and put the laptop on a stand to raise the screen height most of the time; if I don’t, my mousing wrist starts to bother me.
Our neighborhood is plagued with frequent power outages, and I have spent too many work days in wifi coffee houses that otherwise would have been totally unproductive days. I can and do take the laptop with me on travel.
Best of all, even though I have a fairly nice office, it’s in the basement and gets no natural daylight. So during the school year, when I don’t need to isolate myself from the kids, that laptop goes upstairs or even outside on the picnic table where I can work with natural daylight.
I can’t imagine being tethered to a desk.
Get a laptop. Get a laptop. Get a laptop.
What a timely post – my lap top just crashed for the second time this year – faulty motherboard chip. I think I’ll be needing a new one by the end of the year as well.
Like you, Lori, I pretty much only replace things when they break. I’m not terribly tech savvy – I have a desk top, lap top (well, kind of…), printer and I just bought an Alpha Smart Neo wireless gadget on ebay for those days when I’m dragging four small children to and from the dentist, doctors appointments and any other place that might require extended wait times – but I need to figure out how to operate the damn thing.
Kimberly, I feel your pain and frustration! I used to be right on top of technology. But then DOS went to Windows and then Windows morphed from 3.11 into the stratosphere… ;)) I’m also betting you have a Dell laptop. My daughter’s just died. Diagnosis – motherboard problems. Four years old! Sheesh.
Eileen, thanks for the advice. Do you use an external monitor, as well?
Lori, I do not use an external monitor. I just put the laptop on a stand that raises it about 3″ so that the laptop screen used with the external wireless keyboard are ergonomically beneficial.
If I want to move around the house (or work outside) I carry laptop, stand, wireless keyboard, mouse, and mousepad around in a large basket I bought just for that purpose, and then set up wherever I want to. If I’m not going to be doing too much work in a non-office location, I’ll skip all the paraphernalia and just take the laptop alone. But I try not to, because my right arm will start bothering me without the right setup.
My friend Skippy is a huge technogeek, and he recently did a lot of legwork trying to determine which laptop to purchase. Here’s a link to his final post about it (there’s a link within this post to his other post on the topic). He gets pretty technical, and not all of it has to do with laptop A vs. laptop B, but hopefully you can glean something useful from it.
That IS useful – thank you!
I don’t have an office – I know shame on me. Four kids tend to take up a lot of space so sadly I make use of my laptop’s ability to move. I got it last summer when I figured I would use it for school also. I will, I repeat, I will never use my desktop again. That’s for the kids. And I won’t even discuss how old it is or how many modems I’ve been through or other various parts.
I love that I can pack it up in a bag and take it where ever I need to go. Kids irritating and too noisy, unplug and move to another room? Power outages? I’ve got about two hours of batter time with my laptop and I use Firefox so any web pages I was on when the power went out are the first ones I see when I’ve got electricity again because it saves your last session.
At first I didn’t think I would get used to the keyboard or the mouse but after having this for a year, everything else is foreign to me.
My perfect office would just be to have an office.
Be like Nike; Just Do It.
I think I’ll take your advice, Nikki. 🙂
Okay, I see I’m in the minority here, but I have a desktop and a laptop. The laptop almost never gets used. These days, it’s mostly just a storage device for digital photos. I bought it so I could work outside during the nice weather. Unfortunately, once you’re running off battery power the screen resolution is so dark and poor that that’s out of the question. I like having it to take with me on vacation, but that’s about it. LOVE my new widescreen desktop monitor, though.
I’m so used to a desktop, Kathy, that I’m seriously questioning the laptop idea. Tell me – why do those screens have to be so dang hard to see? You’d think given all the technology someone would’ve figured out how to put a decent monitor on a laptop.