New toy at twc central:
With a 2.2Ghz dual core and only 4GB of memory, it’s not a barn burner, but capable enough for a lappy to take into the entertainment room and use while keeping my Wonder Woman company as she’s booking it on her classes for her next degree (yeh, another one *heh*) or watching one of her fav shows while doing some light gaming or FB stuff on her lil lappy. (She multi-tasks–a lot. ;-)) This, in preparation for moving my office into the basement–when she’s around, I kinda like to be around her, and a basement office would put a cramp in that… unless I also moved the entertainment room downstairs, and that’s another project I just don’t want to add to my plate right now.
Anywho, even though it comes with Win7 Premium, I’ll likely use the 320GB hard drive to install a few VMs–Ubuntu, a couple of different Windows versions–heck, maybe even Win98 and some old Win9X software–using VirtualBox. As I said, a new toy.
BTW, I am going to do some burn-in testing during its first month of usage to determine whether I might need to take advantage of Newegg’s “first month replacement” policy, but there is one burn-in test program I think I’ll eschew:
“Keep in mind, use this program at your own risk. By using this program, you agree that neither I nor Intel shall be responsible for including, but not limited to: burned up CPU, fried motherboard, spontaneous room temperature increase, hair loss, or mental stress.”
I’ll just say no to the potential hair loss… 😉
Well, I did break down and buy a Microsoft RF/USB mini-mouse to match the one we got for my Wonder Woman. Some things are handy to do with the touch pad, others are just handier to use a mouse for. The lil lap desk is juuuuust large enough to allow a 4″ mousing space (if I hang the ‘puter 1.5″ off the lefthand side *heh*). I will probably mod the lap desk later to add a mousing deck on the right, but for now this works fine.
Good for you David! FedEx is supposed to bring my new Media Center tomorrow. Fun to get new gear!
Yeh, this lil toy computer will have its niche, and I even “WallyWorlded” a laptop “desk” I think I can enjoy using (why a laptop “desk”? Well, while I used a touchpad for years, back when carpal tunnel was eating me alive, I’ve developed better mousing habits since then and think I’ll probably add one of these, since my Wonder Woman’s has worked so well for her. A lap desk like the one linked should giver me plenty of mousing room (almost 5″), should I decide I want to “mouse” instead of “mush”. The only thing I may do is move the hinges since I’d prefer to lift away from the side nearest to me instead of the side furthest from me. Still, I’d have spent about as much to build the thing from scratch…
That’s nice, I reckon. Hey David, I was thinking last night (for some reason) about how you said your wonderwoman’s laptop allows her to scroll using the touch pad with only one finger. And then it hit me why i was confused. If you can scroll with one finger, how does it know when all you want to do is move your mouse cursor? Seriously, explain it.
Easy, Mel. To scroll up and down, just swipe the right-hand side of the touchpad. To scroll right and left, the bottom allows that. Those functions have been available on Wintel-enabled touchpads since aboput 1994, when I had a touchpad attached to my old 486. It really bumfuzzled a Macrodist friend who was always wanting to use (and gripe about) my PC (cos it was more capable and had the software he needed to use) whenever he begged the use of it. Imagine that. An old 486SX25 in 1995-96 (had had the thing since ’93) with mushpad capabilities Macs just began to emulate a couple of years ago…
David I’m not talking about the difference in the scroll direction. I’m just talking about moving your mouse cursor around. So If I want to move my cursor to the upper right side of the page to click on something, what tells it if I’m scrolling (any direction) or just trying to move my mouse cursor? And yeah, macs used to suck, the brand new ones are awesome. Keep in mind I was a PC user up until a year ago. Now everytime I get on on one (especially for web design purposes) I get frustrated at the things I can’t do. Much of this is in the difference in programs though, not necessarily the computer or operating system. Like, my Adobe Photoshop on my macbook pro can do more things and more efficently than the windows version on my PC. That kind of thing. Just a few things that I like better don’t have to do with certain programs. Like if I want to copy a recipe from a web site into a text file, I don’t have to open the text program to paste it. I just have to copy the text and drag it to the desktop and it creates the file for me without opening anything. Not trying to convince you of anything, mind you… Just discussing why I’m a mac (converted).
As I said, Mel, to scroll up and down on a page on most touchpads on PCs (Windows or GUI ‘nixes), simply swipe up or down on the right-hand edge of the touchpad. To scroll left and right, swipe left or right on the bottom edge. Easy peasy. All other mousing around has all the other touchpad real estate–and it’s plenty. Heck, “double-clicks” and right-clicks (to invoke context menus or select items, text, etc.) can easily be elected in most touchpad interfaces–without having to use the buttons at all.
And I enjoyed these capabilities on a WFWG 3.11 computer well more than a decade before Apple made ANYTHING that could even approach such a thing. Apple a tech leader? A gross misperception.
Dragging text to the desktop to create a text file? Cluttered desktop, unless you move it. Then you’ll have done as much work as alt-tabbing (or Windows Key-tabbing) to an already open text editor (heck, that’s what multi-tasking is for–having multiple programs open doing things, and alt-tabbing to an already open text editor isn’t even multi-tasking; more like task switching, which has been available since DOS days) and saving it directly to the location you want. Different strokes; no more work one way over the other. I just refer not cluttering my desktop up and then being compelled to clean crap off it. In this instance, the “Mac way” would be a PITA for me.
Still, if I wanted to, I could do likewise in a ‘nix box, though I’d never do it, as–as I said–it’d just create desktop clutter to move later, instead of having things filed away in an orderly fashion to begin with. Different strokes.
As far as software goes, there’s absolutely nothing I want to do with computers that I couldn’t also do on a Mac (more cumbersomely, while wearing the Mac straitjacket, doing it THE “Mac Way”)… for much more money.
Example: to get a Macbook that’s “more” capable than the lil (average capability) $500 ASUS I bought, I’d have to buy at least a Macbook Pro for $1500 or more… and still not have some of the built-in features I like on the ASUS (like the number pad). I’d also have to like paying 3X as much for a slightly smaller screen, a 3# or more weight penalty, etc. What’s to like about that? A faster (INTEL) processor in the MBP would be the only thing to commend it, and that’s simply not enough, given having to put up with the Apple straitjacket.
And I don’t buy the idea that the Macbook Pro would be better “quality”. I’ve played around with MBPros. Unimpressed. ASUS quality–and especially the bang-for-the-buck ASUS brings to the table–does impress me. A lot. And high end? Apple doesn’t make a computer as nice as Son&Heir’s 17″ ASUS killer notebook, and it’s not even the ultimate notebook gamer’s rig other companies make.
Apple is fine for some folks. It’s just never popped my eyes with any–and I do mean any–of its products. Different strokes.
Well I don’t have to drag the highlighted text to my desktop. I can drag it anywhere. To a folder or email or whatever. That’s just me, desktop. Lazy. Me. Just highlight the text and drag it somewhere, there’s your text file. Also I’m addicted to the speakability feature and that, too, shows my laziness. Also addicted to the dictionary feature. Addicted to my mac. Hate my PC. Just me, just sayin’.
Ah, and I forgot I can just drag the highlighted text to my email icon, and it will open my mail, with one ready to send for me to just fill in the TO box… text will be in the email. See, shorter. Quicker. Lazier.
“drag the highlighted text to my email icon”
Gee, that’s cumbersome, Mel. I just highlight text, right-click and choose, “Send as email”…
😉
OK so last comment I promise. I hook a Windows keyboard, mouse and bigass monitor up to my macbook at work, so I do have the numberpad (which I never use). But the reason I’m commenting is to tell you to check out my new “series” on my blog. Heh.
I can do that too, right click and send as email, but my email icon is right there.
Well, Mel, nice that Apple is finally getting away from its completely stupid one-button mouse. The old “Hold down the dumb looking ‘options’ key-click” two-handed emulation of the simple right-click was just too cumbersome and outright dumb for words. Of course, the best mousing on Macs is still via real PC mice (and yeh, I’ve used a so-called “Magic Mouse” which I call an over-priced white *&^%–*heh*). It’s amazing to me what Apple users put up with for so many years while Macs lagged behind PCs in real usability features, all the while carrying the myth of being more usable than PCs. Jobs et al have done a great job with their KoolAid stand…
I wish you the joy of your Mac. Now that Apple’s building Intel PCs and using BSD as the OS to run its GUI on, it’s finally starting to join the PC world and start adding in functionality and usability features the rest of the world’s enjoyed for years. Oh, and it gets to keep its phony mystique of being a leader in the personal computer field, because so many of its users are clueless about what’s been available for years on the PC side–even most of the “converts” from PC-to-Mac. *heh*
Status update: aside from some “normal” *heh* notebook keyboard strangeness (placement of home, PgUp/PgDn, etc., keys), generally a Better Than Usual notebook experience. The numerical keypad is a BIG plus for me, and the “close enough to normal-sized” qwerty portion of the keyboard makes typing really easy. ASUS has gone backwards a bit on the touchpad, emulating–of all things!–the compounded effort of a Mac-like functionality. I’m sure I can find a way to get rid of that crappy “two-fingered scrolling” (already done in Opera ;-)) and the inexplicably stupid THREE-finger “right-click” emulation,but I may not. I may just add a MS mouse and disable the touchpad, The lil lap desk I bought for the thing looks to have enough room for normal mousing, and I might even engineer in a pop-out mouse tray for it, just for the heck of it. Or not.
And again, Windows 7 (Premium this time) is Good Enough for this lil toy. Joining the wireless network was, as always with Win7 a simple, CLICK-passphrase-CLICK, and bob’s your uncle. Nice.
Next, as I have time over the next few days, Virtualbox and a few VMs with different OSes, a head-to-head between M$Office 2010 and OpenOffice and a few other lil fun things.