SOlid points, Michael. However, horses for courses. I didn't think I = would use one, so when I bought my first laptop 18 months ago I bought a second-hand 400mhz Celeron. I have since proved that I can't live = without it, since I work on lots of different sites and for different customers = and if I am at Site A and need to do a quick update or source some = information for Site B. I also manage to squeeze in the odd half and hour or hour's = work in cafe's and in other peculiar places (like when we are down the = Coast). =20 I can justify it to myself, and that is all that counts!!! And it is = amazing how the advantages of the portability and flexibility can quickly = outweight in your mind the other disadvantages that you mentioned. Cathy Morison Technical Writer Database Development, PMD Geoscience Australia ABN: 80 091 799 039=20 Website: www.ga.gov.au=20 -----Original Message----- From: Michael Granat [mailto:mgranat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]=20 Sent: Tuesday, 18 May 2004 1:48=20 To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: atw: Re: Buying a new laptop ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************