Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5207

I need it for school. i have a good machine at home already. It will mostly be for taking notes in class and writing the occasional paer on. I am normally an Apple fool but I am flexable on this, Apple has a g4 laptop that would meet my needs for about1k, but I'd be willing to use another platform if'n it was cheaper but still worthty.

Suggestions?

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Registered: Apr 2005
Location: summer!
Posts: 10457

i hear they are for free in texas, as long as the owner is not around when you take it, loser.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 14954

Go for the G4 iBook, 12 inch, small, lightweight, long battery life.

Windows laptops are only useful if you specifically have to do windows things.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35561

New intel based mac laptops are out soon.

You might want to wait for G4 laptops to get cheap in advance of the new ones coming out. Or ask Mudded, he has a pretty sweet tablet setup for taking notes.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 4983

I did indeed take the plunge and bought myself a tablet. Worth every penny in my book.

The best thing about it is actually MS one-note... it allows you to take notes, (handwritten or typed) while at the same time tying a recording of the lecture into the notes at the time of writing that particular section. It also allows you to link files, pictures and weblinks into your notes, and rearrange everything on the page as you see fit. all the notes are in one file, and it really has made it a breeze for me to stay organized with minimal effort.

The one-note system would work just as well on a regular laptop, but I like the tablet as it makes meable to draw graphs and figures by hand, and add handwritten annotations to PDF files, without printing first.

Good tablets are expensive though, even though consumer grade tablets are dropping in price fast.

My HP tc4200 was 2200 bucks total, but I got the following bang for my buck.
- 2 Ghz pentium m
- 1.5 gigs of Ram
- intel 915 chipset (so no ghastly intel extreme graphics)
- 10.5 hours of battery life with wifi on, and power saving features enabled (I have the main + extended batteries)
Virtually no fan noise (only short five second whispers now and again)
around 5 pounds worth of weight in the laptop bag

It is a very good compact laptop, and and an OK tablet

Other high-performance tablets have dedicated graphics cards, but this tends to degrade battery performance.

less money will buy you less performance or reduced battery life. Other tablets in the TC4200s price range are generally smaller, lighter and have subnotebook type performance.

as soon as apple decides to make a tablet PC, I will be switching platforms.

Cheers
-m

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5207

Thanks everyone.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

Yeah, if you're not in the market for something as pricey as what mudded got, I'd agree with skalie, I believe those 12" models are running right around $1k so fairly affordable. A seventeen inch display sounds cool until you have to carry it around. On a personal level I pretty much think any display over 12" has no place on a portable since it tends to be self defeating, it eats more battery and the display, more than anything defines the size of the machine, at least until flexible displays come into their own. Having used a 12" display machine for a while, I can say that the display size is more than adequate for use of something that's going to be pretty much always an arms length away and it's still quite portable, even if not portable enough for me.

-m

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

Oh, and I forgot, if you wander over to Gizmodo.com they're running a contest for Lenovo thinkpad, it's a short film contest entitled 'laptop confidential, with a film noir style demanded.

Just thought I'd mention it.

-m

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35561

For programming, a big screen is a good thing. I want a UGA screen on my next laptop. If I ever get one. I don't tend to run off battery for more than an hour or so anyhow, though; I'm more interested in being able to move the thing around than run it away from the power supply.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 4737

14" screen running at SXGA+(1400x1050) is fine for most of my programming needs for those couch based coding sessions. But then I tend not to use IDE's much these days.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35561

I'd need to significantly expand my own memory to code c# and ASP.NET without Intellisense and point and click.

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5207

My boss, the same guy that pays for my education in a field completely unrelated to my job, gave me his "old" laptop this morning. It's a little dell, emphasis on little. Further emphasis on free.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 4983

congrats...

model number please...

Cheers
-m

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5207

Lattitude LS. Alas it is only a p3, but good enough for my needs.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 4983

ooh... one of the early subnotebooks, eh....

1 inch thick and less than 3 pounds, yes?

score
-m

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5207

That's it.
Yeah it is pretty fucking cool.
Hey do you know of a software patch that will keep msword from reading Arch/geo/bio/anth terms/jargon as mispellings? Is there such a thing?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35561

I just add them to the dictionary when it picks up on them. Unless someone's written a dictionary addon for them, which would be most handy.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

I often have to add things to the dictionary of spell checkers. Just make sure you add the proper spelling.

Depending on the age and amount of use, you may want to invest in a new battery, they're pretty pricey usually, but compared to buying a laptop, not so much.

-m

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5207

Got an extra battery for free, too. The IT guys had one, I didn't even ask for it. I'm not sure why people are always giving me expensive stuff for nothing, but it happens with disturbing frequency.

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5207

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mordecai
I often have to add things to the dictionary of spell checkers. Just make sure you add the proper spelling.


-m

---

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

I had you in mind when I wrote that.

By the way, if anyone gives you any expensive techno gadgets for free that you don't have a use for, I'm always looking for new toys.

-m

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Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 15982

Me too.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 4983

I love the fact that many of the high end executive class laptops of the P3 era are hitting the sub 1000 and even 500 dollar range on the used markets. On day I will own a toshiba portege m100, if only for webbrowsing and emails... mmmm.... cheap subnotebooks.

this thread gives me joy
-m

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5207

free expensive stuff for loser update:

Last week they gave me a 9gb pocket drive, and apparently they're giving me another, newer laptop tomorrow. All that was said discription wise was smaller, sleeker, faster.
the bastards.

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