OT: Computer advice requested

[vdub.grego at gmail.com (Matt Gregory)]

I know you specifically mentioned MS (meaning Windows or Office?), and I
don't know what "recording marks" (special software for recording grades?)
is but I suggest a MacBook.  The iBooks that preceded the MacBook line were
designed with students in mind (to be tossed in and out of backpacks, etc).
This is the functional reason you do not find any edges on Apple notebooks
... so there's nothing to get hung on.  For word processing and iTunes it's
perfect.  And then there's Adobe Lightroom or Aperture when you're ready to
get your digital darkroom going.

MS Office is available for Mac, but two killer (and free) alternatives are
OpenOffice and NeoOffice.  Both alternatives read and write Office documents
seamlessly.  If you have a need to run Windows to support some special
software you can always dual-boot it with BootCamp (free) or buy Parallels
which will allow you to run Windows inside a window in MacOS X.

We had ThinkPads at my previous job.  We had them for a year before I left
that company.  In that time mine had one large crack along the back of the
case (behind the display), one of the corners that jutted out got a good
chunk of it knocked off somehow.  (I'm pretty careful with my computers).
One colleague had 2 hard drives replaced (or one replaced twice, whichever
way you want to look at it).  Another colleague had their motherboard
replaced because of a bad USB port.  And another colleague's keyboard looked
like it could use a dental plan ... I'm not sure how he typed (was missing a
few critical keys).  But it was a very large company and I'm sure there was
a much larger number of ThinkPads without any troubles than the ones I just
mentioned.  My new company had ThinkPads when I arrived, but has sworn them
off (I haven't asked why).  I asked nicely and they let me have an Apple
:-).

Good luck in your search.

matt.

On 5/8/07, C Boyko <roccit_53@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Okay, I've got a really old laptop that eventually I'm going to have to
> replace. I think what I'll do is buy a new but inexpensive laptop for use
> running MS and to do school stuff like recording marks, and later get
> something that is better for manipulating digital still images (perhaps a
> desktop), I still do not know the digital darkroom well, but am already
> frustrated at the slowness of shuffling 10Mpixel files around on this
> machine. The only other things I'd need a machine for would be simple word
> processing and running iTunes, just to load music files onto my iPod
> shuffle. I have no need of anything fancy for gaming or video, and
> probably
> don't need to burn DVDs. Likely a really basic machine will be more than
> what I need. SO...what am I looking at as far as specs? And what are your
> suggestions as far as durability goes? It'll get banged around a bit
> getting in and out of the car I imagine and I'm pretty sick of wrenching
> on
> my old Latitude and would prefer something not prone to breaking.
> Durability is probably more important than features.
>
> If you have any sites like "buying a computer for Dummies" or anyplace
> that's good to buy from, LMK. Thanks. (you can contact me offlist)
>
> And Dan, could you post about that error message with the .bat file?
>
> Cathy
>
>
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