Dale, I think I would tend to agree with you about the laptops except for the fact that I find most of their keyboards a real pain. Perhaps it is because I am fumble fingered but I really do not like their feel. Now, on the other hand, the wireless card is a real nice feature and I could use it almost anywhere. Also, my current machine has a 1.8 Athlon XP processor but I am getting ready to take over my son's computer. He is in Iraq as a guest of the U.S. Army and has procured a laptop for his use. His computer is a 3.5 GHZ Athlon 64 bit processor with 1 gig of memory and a 250 GB hard drive. Well, so much for being conservative. (LOL) Cy, the Ancient Okie... -----Original Message----- From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dale Leavens Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 11:55 AM To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: buying a computer I am really becoming partial to laptop, also known as notebook computers. The lower priced ones are very competitive in price too to a desktop with monitor but it is much smaller and somehow buying, wiring, running a monitor bothers me. You may need one occasionally for use by sight enabled persons when jaws goes belly up and when you don't need it the monitor on a notebook is small and mostly out of the way. The built in mike on both of mine appears to be adequate for voice applications like for-the-people and Skype. Both I have now do everything I have needed and with wireless a lot more. I bring it along travelling and a small USB powered scanner and I can read in a hotel room, do e-mail and have even used Skype from a hotel. Even the desk top machines these days are getting small because there is little need for additional cards, the machines have most of what people need built in and the cheap Acer I bought just before Christmas has 5 USB ports on it so you can hang just about any custom devices on it if you want, say a second sound card, printer or pretty well what ever you could think of. Like Cy said, processor speed isn't usually much concern and on these centrino technology chips many functions are processed simultaneously so processor speed is a less reliable measure of performance. So, my advice is to consider a portable machine as a good alternative. You can take it with you next hurricane. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cy" <cselfridge@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 10:33 AM Subject: RE: buying a computer > Lou, > It all depends on what you do with your computer. > For those of us who are blind we just really don't need all that > blazing speed because we do not play a lot of virtual reality type > games. Most any computer over about 1.5 GHZ processor speed will > process Eloquence nicely. Now, this may well sound like herisy but, > you just might want to look into a mini Mac because their new Tiger > operating system includes a screen reader. > Otherwise Consumer Reports gave the E Machine a very good rating. > If you wish please contact me privately so James won't have a stroke. > cselfridge@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Look forward to hearing from you. > Cy, the Ancient Okie... > > -----Original Message----- > From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On > Behalf Of Louana > Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 6:03 AM > To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: buying a computer > > > Hi all, I am needing to buy a new computer. I would like to get some > input from you all on what kinds you are using. I need some specific > information on processor speed, hard drive size among other things. I > have no idea on what to buy. The one I have is five years old and was > in my apartment with water after Katrina for about two weeks before I > could get it out and I am afraid it will not last much longer. Thanks > for any help you all can give. Lou > -- > To post a message to the list, send it to jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To > unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to > jfw-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject > line. Archives located at: //www.freelists.org/archives/jfw > > If you have any concerns about the list, post received from the list, > or the way the list is being run, do not post them to the list. 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Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.17/229 - Release Date: 1/13/2006 -- To post a message to the list, send it to jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to jfw-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. Archives located at: //www.freelists.org/archives/jfw If you have any concerns about the list, post received from the list, or the way the list is being run, do not post them to the list. Rather contact the list owner at jfw-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx