January 06, 2004

• We bought our iBook from J & R, based in the US. According to this site (see bottom of page), Toshiba offer a 3-year global warranty. I'm guessing you'd have to pay extra but it's worthwhile, as we've found with the iBook. Here's some links to P4 vs Centrino, too. Sorry I can't offer any personal insight but I'm sure another monkey can.
• For those who got their hopes up (like me) there are posters and images and a history of the authors/artists. There are also upcoming movies. (Will Feral. I shudder.) Oh, and this brief (?) but interesting guestbook tribute (scroll to the bottom, after "Raymond's story"...). And of course the official home page for this wonderful, if aged, monkey (George is an honourary greyback now for sure). Has he gained a few pounds I wonder... Alas, my search did not match any documents.
• boy, when the hell is Mefi and Askmefi gonna open up?
• Never, I hope. Osama bin Laden is full of hate because he never met Curious George. Western democracy is full of beauty. And fucking computers.
• *ahems* I think we could be nice monkeys and stay on topic for the Curious George posts.
• Kimberly told me to come post, so here I am...the one that you love. Sorry, I had to. Really, I did. *ahem* I don't consider myself to be an expert in laptops by any stretch of the imagination, but I will be happy to impart any/all of the useless/useful information I have rattling around in my furry little monkey head. I don't have anything more than a passing familiarity with Sony products, but I know that some people swear by them. Just like others who swear by Dell, IBM, Toshiba, Gateway, etc. (Personally, I like Dell equipment. But that's me.) Let's review the basics: 1. International support should be your number one consideration. If you know that you're going to be away from home and need help, it should be available to you. 2. Processors -- Centrino isn't a type of processor, it's a package. Centrino is a combination of an Intel Mobile processor, an Intel motherboard, and an Intel wireless card. So you can have an Intel Mobile processor and an offbrand board and no wireless card...it won't be called Centrino, but it's still the same processor. There are benefits to using a Mobile chipset over a PIV modified for laptops. The Mobile chipset was designed for laptops; it's smaller, uses less power, creates less heat (which means that the fans don't have to run as much, saving battery life), and they have been designed to perform as well as some of the 2+ GHz desktop chips. You can expect to get 3+ hours per charge with a Mobile, while most PIV laptops are about 90 minutes. Unless you're doing some high-end video editing, or some űber-rending, a 1.2GHz Mobile chip should be perfectly suited for yermoM's needs. As far as specs: Processor -- go with 1.1 or 1.2GHz Mobile chip. You mom does not need bleeding edge technology, nor do you want to pay for it. Go one generation back, and save some moolah. RAM -- Get at least 512MB. Go for 1GB if you can. It's not critical to have, so if money is a factor, get 512. For the most part, you can always add more later. Hard drive -- get at least 30GB. Sure, it's a ton of space, but you've got room to grow, and you're more likely to be buying new equipment before you need to worry about saving drive space on this one. Video -- The model that your mom is looking at has an integrated video adapter, meaning that it does not have indepentent RAM. It will rely on the RAM from your system for rending images. Not necessarily bad, but you can see a drop in system performance at times. Unless your mom is playing Quake III or Counter Strike, I don't think that she would care. But it could be a consideration. If it is, look for a video adapter with at least 32 or 64MB of RAM. Wireless -- It's nice to have an integrated wireless card, so you don't have to worry about carrying your wireless card with you everywhere, just in case you might encounter an access point. However, an integrated card is going to pull power when not in use unless you disable it. Find out if your mom wants to have to change the setting in order to maximize battery life, or if she's okay with just plugging in a pc card. Optical drive - At least a CD-RW. In most systems, this will be automatic. Then decide if you want to watch DVDs. This can come in really handy with long flights. You also have the option of a relatively low cost DVD +R/+RW or -R/-RW. A DVD burner upgrade should be less than $200. Weight - Do you need portable (8 lbs. or 3.6 kg) or do you need PORTABLE (2.3 lbs. or 1 kg)? This is where the Mobile chip is at it's best...good performance, without breaking your back. If you want to realistically use it as the form factor was intended, stay under 2.2kg. Sorry for the long post, but you asked.
• Just to add something for the sake of it, if your mother does decide she wants to watch DVDs/listen to music on the laptop while travelling, either have a second, charged, battery or a heavy-duty one that holds plenty of charge. If you have a 3-hour battery life and you're using the CD drive, it'll get used up faster. (Not to mention that flying economy and trying to watch a DVD on an open laptop doesn't leave you with any space whatsoever to stretch out in your tiny little seat.)
• Don't I know it, trace? ;) Fortunately (for her) she always flies business class *mutter mumble grumble* Thanks for the long post jim... She's seriously considering a DVD burner, and frankly I'd like to have one in the house too. Wireless access really isn't much of a priority - she's almost completely clueless when it comes to computers, and wireless hotspots aren't all that prevalent in Brisvegas. 'Course, I really should wifi the house, but.. time, effort, and $$ are issues atm. Integrated vid should be fine, too.. unfortunately, my father's (work-supplied) laptop is a Dell, and he's had any number of issues with it over the last couple of years. Dead touchpads galore, dead screen, and (the day before he flew out to africa) a completely dead laptop. Only one lil' blinking light and a slight "whirr" left. So.. Dell not popular in my household at the moment. Despite their good prices....
• Hubby had a Toshiba a few years back and had some major issues with the hard drive failing (luckily inside warranty). I don't know whether it's a common issue with Toshibas, like the logic board failure is with iBooks (grr), but it might be worth checking on various forums specific to brands, if you really want to spend the time, to see if there are any problems intrinsic to the brand you choose.
• J & R is still a good site two years later... And in laptop news, there's the new MacBook for fans of Apple (though with the intel processor, I wonder if Windows would work on it...). 30 gb is, as might be expected, not so spacious two years later.