[techtalk] Re: Look, I'll sort myself a laptop soon, honest...

  • From: Greg Webb <greg.webb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: techtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:19:10 +0000

Paul Ferguson wrote:
> Hi Greg,
>>Not ideal but thanks. 
> No it's not but it's an option :)

Well, yes... :-)

>> there's now a rather pleasant young lady so
>>there's more chance of the machine being used on my lap from the
>>sofa... 
> Better be careful if
> #http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/16/laptops_cause_infertility#
> is to be believed ;)

It's clearly plausible as it's long been known that heating testicles is 
a bad idea (I can go into more details if people want...) but we'd not 
be talking hours at a time.

>>so increasing the need for portability and battery life, and
>>being able to run away from a separate keyboard. Annoyingly, that
>>creates a conflicting requirement in that the extra portability and
>>battery life doesn't seem to be available with 17" TFTs which are what
>>I need to get a numeric pad built in to a laptop from what I've seen
>>so far... suspect the numeric pad will go, therefore, but you never
>>know.
> 
> Sounds like you may have to come to a compromise WRT the features.

Agreed. Job for one day is to sit down and compare size, weight and 
battery life of machines with 15 and 17" screens. I'm happy with the 
screen size of a 15" but would like the bigger keyboard of the 17" 
(ridiculous I know!) so it's just a question of whether that kills 
enough else to make it a bad idea overall. Suspicion at the moment is 
that I'll end up with a PM or MA64 15" machine.

>>Annoying. We've got one Dell with a retrofitted MSI CDRW but that's it
>>as far as I know. 
> Well, had Dell informed us of this incompatability, it could have been
> avoided but there you go ;)

Oh, great...

I'm not over sold on Dell's current lineup anyway but I think you've 
just sealed the deal :-) Historically my preference has certainly been 
for boxshifter bits as they're all bought from the same sort of 
suppliers as I'd be using to upgrade so tend to be extremely standard 
and replaceable. I've had little personal experience of such laptops 
(though know Toshiba and Dell relatively well through work) but have 
heard good things about them plus they're easier to specify precisely...

>>OK, don't actually want one anyway. Planning on going for extra 
>>flexibility through a dongle.
> 
> IMHO a dongle would be just one more item that got left behind/fell down
> the back of the sofa etc. The onboard one (in this case) is a far better
> idea :)

Inbuilt seems to be running to £50-60. Dongles I can get for £20 and use 
at work, too. I don't tend to lose stuff that often (cue laugh from 
Sharron if she somehow reads this at the thought of remote controls but 
they're a side issue...)

>>Whoops - still, ex colleague just had a near DOA Toshiba with similar
>>so no-one's perfect...
> I don't expect them to be 100% perfect but I do them to work as
> advertised, which they didn't and a 66% failure rate on the first
> delivery is ludicrous.

OK, point made - hadn't realised that scale of failure.

>>Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to undermine your argument, just 
>>trying to get facts straight!
> 
> The facts are simple, the laptops were faulty and should not have
> reached the customer in that state. Having spoken to their Support
> people, it was abundantly clear that they were aware of this but were 
> not doing anything pro-active to resolve it but simply sitting back and 
> waiting for the customer(s) to complain.

OK, that's the clincher - thanks. Supplying a machine you know might be 
faulty that often and just waiting for the calls is unacceptable. Dell 
are now firmly off the list.

Other plausible direct suppliers at the moment include:
* Mesh
* Evesham
* AJP (in spite of their current, amusingly broken website)
* Rock
* Hi-Grade

Anyone have any thoughts on them?


Thanks,

-- 

Greg               <><
----------------------
greg.webb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Failed greetings cards number 7:  "If I get only one thing for 
Christmas, I hope it's your sister."



-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.298 / Virus Database: 265.6.6 - Release Date: 28/12/2004

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. techtalk
  3. Archive
  4. 12-2004