RE: Labtop

Karl,
 
I was really surprised to hear about the keyboard qualities on an X
series; this is one of the under 3 pound subnotebooks right?
 
Chip
 
 




------------------------------

Chip Orange
Database Administrator
Florida Public Service Commission

Chip.Orange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(850) 413-6314

 (Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public Service Commission.)


 


________________________________

        From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Karl Smith
        Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:30 AM
        To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject: RE: Labtop
        
        

        My Lenovo X61 with Vista Ultimate has a nice keyboard with an
alt and control key on both sides of the space bar and a six pack.  the
computer is a 12" unit as I don't really care about the screen.  The
touch on the keyboard is really very nice perhaps the best I've had
since my old Toshiba 1200 DOS machine.

         

        Karl

         

         

         

        ____________________

         

        Karl Smith

        Access Technology Specialist

        Axis

        4304 South El Camino St.

        Taylorsville, Utah 84119

         

        Phone:  866-824-7885

        Fax:    866-824-7885

        E-mail: karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 

         

        Life is one dumb thing after another....Love is two dumb things
after each other.

         

        From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Chip Orange
        Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 8:50 AM
        To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject: RE: Labtop

         

        it's a line of laptops, which used to be made by IBM, and which
have been sold to the company which was manufacturing them for IBM,
lenovo.

         

        they have a reputation for being of the highest quality and
durability, and being pricey, meant for the business world.

         

        lenovo has lowered the price, and I don't know about quality
changes.

         

        they had a lot of unusual options back in the days when other
laptops were out only to keep the price down, and so offered few
options.  I got my thinkpad for instance with a device bay on each side,
and you could hot-swap various drives and other devices in and out of
the bays as needed.  one option I bought was a  numeric keypad which
popped out from the right side bay, giving you almost a full-size
keyboard.  I had thought at the time it would be important to my use of
a screen reader.  I've since learned the laptop layout, of jaws at
least, is just as easy to use as the standard jaws keyboard commands.  I
could if I like, remove the keypad and put my floppy drive in that bay,
or an additional hard drive if I had one; they made a lot of
accessories.

         

        If my wife hadn't wanted a white computer, I probably would have
bought a thinkpad, because of their reputation for ruggedness.

         

        One of my relatives owns a "T" series thinkpad, and it's small
and light, with a nice keyboard, and nothing has broken on it for many
years.  it's by far their most popular line of laptops.  I believe
office depot carries thinkpads if you want to try and see one hands-on,
but usually they were a mail-order only company.

         

        hth,

         

        Chip

         

         

         

        
        
        

        ------------------------------
        
        Chip Orange
        Database Administrator
        Florida Public Service Commission
        
        Chip.Orange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        (850) 413-6314
        
         (Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do
not necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public Service Commission.)

         

                 

                
________________________________


                From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Randy Campbell
                Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 9:56 AM
                To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                Subject: Re: Labtop

                Thank you for your input.  That helps a lot to know  and
I know more now than I did.  What is a thinkpad?  Thanks again and have
a great day.  Randy

                        ----- Original Message ----- 

                        From: Chip Orange
<mailto:Corange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>  

                        To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

                        Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 8:43 AM

                        Subject: RE: Labtop

                         

                        you'll get a lot of opinions, probably all of
them right in some way.

                         

                        I just bought a Dell inspiron, one reason is
that it has a relatively full keyboard, which includes alt and control
keys on both sides of the space bar (not a given with laptops), and it
has all six keys of the traditional six-pack grouping (some laptop
keyboard require you to make these keys by pressing a special fn key
plus an additional key; when you're trying to make control-shift-home,
and you have to press fn+ something else to make the home key, this can
become a pain).

                         

                        try to ask questions about the keyboard, as it
will end up influencing how you feel about your purchase more than say
the processor speed.  In this case, the heavier the laptop the likelier
you are to be pleased with the keyboard, as the larger the laptop is
likely to be.

                         

                        I bought a 14 inch screen inspiron, that weighs
about 15 pounds.  I never price shopped, I was interested in many other
things besides price.  I simply tried to bring the price down as much as
I could by choosing the cheapest screen size, which is today around 14
or 15 inches.  smaller and larger screens usually cost you more.

                         

                        I'd recommend you get built-in bluetooth and
wifi, as these don't work nearly as well if you have to use add-in
devices later on.  built-in from the factory means special built-in
antennas as well.

                         

                        Try to get the cheapest graphics card and sound
card you can; this is usually the one built into the motherboard.  I
don't believe you'l benefit from upgrading either, and even the cheapest
sound cards today are multi-channel.  If you ever want to do complex
audio things you'll end up doing them at some home desk setup, and it
won't be an inconvenience to buy an external high-quality usb sound card
if you ever needed something better than you got.  Complexity when
upgrading the sound card sometimes causes confusion with drivers that
have too many options or features which interfear with speech
synthesizers.  still, if sound processing is what you live for, and you
know it, go ahead and get something high-end built-in.  Dell offered me
a choice of 3 sound cards, much different in price, but I had no real
idea how they differed in capabilities.

                         

                        If your money is tight, you can put off buying
things like a dvd burner til later, they can be moderately expensive.

                         

                        the exact model of what I bought is the Dell
1420 if you're interested.  It's available in your choice of colors,
including color matched accessories if you buy any.  speaking of
accessories, don't buy a leather case; they're heavier, cost more, and
are no more durable than the regular ones.

                         

                        I'm also impressed with thinkpads (now from
Lenovo).  I still own one which is 5 years old.

                         

                        I am very unimpressed by Sony, and wouldn't
recommend them.

                         

                        hth,

                         

                        Chip

                         

                         

                         

                        
                        
                        

                        ------------------------------
                        
                        Chip Orange
                        Database Administrator
                        Florida Public Service Commission
                        
                        Chip.Orange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                        (850) 413-6314
                        
                         (Any opinions expressed are solely those of the
author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public
Service Commission.)

                         

                                 

                                
________________________________


                                From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Randy Campbell
                                Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 11:48
PM
                                To: jfw
                                Subject: Labtop

                                I am looking to buy a new labtop but I'm
not sure what to buy.  Could somebody on this list reccomend what they
think is the best labtops out there.  Thank you.  Randy

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