Custom Laptops

I just bought a laptop computer a couple of months ago, after agonizing over the price and what I wanted and all that jazz. I thought I did pretty well given my financial circumstances. But, some of my friends disagree telling me I should have waited a little longer and gotten a custom laptop.
There are some very fine laptops on this website, like this beauty, the Howard 1681. It features a 2.40 GHz Intel Core i3 Mobile 370M Dual-Core Processor with 3MB L3 Cache, the Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional 32-bit (with Media), a 15.6'' Display with Intel GMA HD Graphics Package, 1 Gig of memory and a 160Gig hard drive. That's a lot of wallop for a laptop!
Perhaps my friends were right, I should have saved longer and gotten myself a fancier laptop. Too late for me now, but not too late for you. Go and check out all the great systems that Howard Computers has to offer you and how you can customize these systems.

Laptop Typing

I really love my new laptop but I don't care that much for typing with it. I just don't know how anyone could stand to type a lot with a laptop but I know that some folks write entire books using their laptops.
Maybe it is because I tend to hit the keys too hard, I do it on my desktop PC as well. My wife always complains that I must be angry when I am typing and reminds me that a soft touch will make the keys type just as well as pounding on them.
I'd like to think that my problem is that I am old enough to remember typing on a real typewriter, a Royal manual one in fact. I loved that old typewriter and was never impressed with the electric typewriters. I used electric ones to type up college term papers but writing on one of them machines was not as enjoyable as my old standard Royal machine.
And, of course there is always the fact that my fingers just don't type as well as they did when I was a young man. But, I try my best to do the things I need to do fumbling as I go.
I am sitting in the living room with my laptop typing this entry as I did the previous one on cigars. I am here because it is warmer in this room and the laptop itself is providing some warmth for my lap. I am still cold even though it is now afternoon and the house is normally warmed up by now.

I Need Padding

Okay, so I have the laptop now which means I can change from this office type chair (cushioned)to my overstuffed chair in the living room which is very cushioned.
The problem with it all is that no matter which chair I am in my butt hurts after a couple of hours. I think them nurses put bad thoughts in my head lol
I like using the laptop for most things, although I don't care much for the tinier keyboard. But it is great for playing games and doing things on Facebook so that part is all I could ask for. Not the laptops fault that I have clumsy fingers when typing.
Not sure what to do about my back and my butt though. I could switch chairs more often I suppose but that is a hassle for a couple of reasons. I'd have to keep shutting down the laptop so it doesn't just sit there and overheat and if I am not using this desktop my daughter is. I'd hate to have to deal with that mess of taking her off every couple of hours.
I will figure things out, eventually.

Bigger Is Better

As my readers should all know by now, I have a new laptop computer. I like it because it affords me the pleasure of sitting in my overstuffed chair in the living room when my back and butt get tired of the office chair I normally am sitting in. It's a nice laptop and it has a nice sized hard drive inside it.
I also like using Ubuntu as my operating system rather than Windows XP. However after installing it on my laptop I can see now why people that use a dual-boot system on one hard drive need a bigger drive.
The hard drive on the laptop is a 40 Gig drive which should be more than enough space for a portable computer. However, when I installed my Ubuntu operating system onto the laptop along with the XP that was already there, the amount of free space left little to download and save much. Between two operating systems, if I wanted to actually save anything like music or pictures or videos, I would definitely need a hard drive twice the size, at least 80 Gigs. Since that isn't going to happen, it was good-bye Ubuntu.
I'm sure I will survive with Windows XP although I wish I didn't have to. Some things I use on a daily basis require Windows to run so those are the things I will be using most on my laptop.

Scary!

I was sitting in my comfy chair the other night when suddenly the new laptop shut itself off, entering Hibernation Mode. For the life of me I couldn't get it to wake up and I was worried. I went to the HP website to see what I could do but none of the instructions worked. Damn! I was afraid that I was going to have to send the laptop back for repairs after less than one week. Not good. Apparently it was all a comedy of errors, although I didn't laugh until it was over.
First off, the laptop shut itself off like that because I ran out of battery. So, when I brought it into the kitchen to look at the HP site nothing they suggested worked because it had no juice left. I took it back into the living room and plugged in the AC adapter but that didn't seem to make a difference either. It appears that my lovely daughter had turned off the switch that gives the plug power when she turned off the light the night before. OOPS
The next morning, thinking that the battery should be fully charged, I tried again to wake up my laptop. No good :( So, I checked the light switch again, turned it back on and that made no difference either. I was getting really worried now!
Drinking a cup of coffee to allow myself time to think I came up with one more thing to try, make sure the adapter was even plugged in.
It was plugged in alright so why didn't it charge my battery? On closer examination I discovered the truth, wrong one! The adapter that was plugged into the wall was the adapter for the old laptop not the new one. I changed adapters, hit the power switch on the laptop and *miracle* it worked!
I have since gone into the Control Panel and changed the settings. I never want that laptop to Hibernate again, ever. I don't use it for work so I don't care if I somehow run out of battery and lose whatever it is I am doing at the moment.
I am just happy that the laptop is okay, working fine, and I can laugh at the silliness of the situation.

Here I Sit

Here I sit, in the comfortable oversized chair in the livingroom, typing away on my new laptop. I was on the desktop PC earlier today, making my pennies from PTC sites and such, as is my norm for the day. Now I have dragged my bony butt into this chair to give it some much needed relief. The nurses at the hospital would be happy to see me doing this. They complained that I am just too bony on my backsides and my spine and I really shouldn't be sitting in a chair for so many hours per day.
Speaking of making pennies, I realize that most people think that clicking ads and writing blogs and social networking sites that pay you a few pennies per day are not worth the hassle or the time, but they are wrong. Being on a fixed and low income as I am, every penny is a true blessing. In the past six months or so I have now paid for two desktop PCs and this laptop, something I never would have been able to do otherwise. While I know that i did not get top of the line computers, they are all refurbished ones, I also know that I am happy with them all and that is what counts. Sure I'd love to have a computer with 4 Gigs of memory and a TB hard drive and all the bells and whistles. Who wouldn't? If I had that kind of money though I am certain it would be used paying bills and feeding the family instead. So, I do with what I can afford and that's that.
This laptop has one gig of memory and that is enough for the things I do online. I don't play WOW or other high graphic programs or games so I really don't need that much memory. I also have a RAM booster program so that helps some too. I am writing this blog on the laptop and it isn't running slow so what else can I ask for?
Today is a great day!

Cell Phones

I probably should have let my wife write this blog, she is a cell phone fanatic. She looks at every cell phone that comes out and starts to drool. She'd love to have a Blackberry phone but hasn't bought one yet, I'm not sure if Virgin Mobile even allows their users to use one of those.
Me, I have a cell phone that I can use to text people or (gasp) even call them or I can surf the internet though I never have. Closest I've come to being on the net is when I have checked my cell phone balance. I am not a big cell phone person, although I realize that most people think they would die or, at the very least, be lost without their cell phones.
Seems as though the world of cell phones is trying their best to replace home computers. I remember on my last train trip to Washington that there were a few people surfing online with their cell phones ( and grumbling when the mountains blocked their signals). I think there were more people using their cell phones for that purpose than there were those who had laptops and wireless connectivity.
If you are one of the many that must have the latest and greatest cell phone then this site is for you. They have tons of cell phones from the simple to the Apple Iphone. They also have news from different cell carriers to keep their customers up to date on what's happening and where. that's kind of nice.
Already have the latest and greatest cell phone? This site also has computers, laptops, gaming stuff and other goodies that will attract your attention. So, go, check out the site and grab something good for yourself.

Netbooks

After the fiasco with my last computer purchase where it took over one month to actually get a working computer but still no monitor I realize that I should have gone with my first inclination which was to look at netbooks.
I bought an older laptop a while back thinking that was a nice purchase because the computer is portable. It was a nice idea but, because it was an older laptop, the monitor on it doesn't work most of the time. Part of that, I'm certain, is because my daughter used it almost all day and evening and she is careless of how to treat electronic devices. For instance, she sees nothing wrong with coming in the door and tossing her cell phone or Cd player across the room hoping it will land on her bed. The laptop perhaps never stood a chance.
Netbooks are like laptops, they are portable and are a complete computer. Unlike laptops though, netbooks tend to be more durable and can withstand some bad treatment here and there. Looking at the netbooks on this website I see that, for a bit more money, I could have gotten a very nice portable netbook that has a much larger hard drive and more memory than the PC I bought. I'm sure that one of these netbooks might actually outlast the PC I bought also.
Live and learn, I suppose. A hard lesson too. My wife is happy with the PC I bought her but I'm willing to bet that she, and our daughter, would be much, much happier with a netbook. So, I am now saving my money up for a netbook.

Oh Oh!

I am using the laptop that I bought for my wife these days. It is incredibly slow and has some difficulty loading pages as well as programs. But, it is better than nothing at all, I guarantee that :)
The desktop computer has bitten the dust. I tried to fix an older desktop but I managed to fry that one :( Fired it up and smelled something burning. That's not good at all.
So, here I am, typing away on this small laptop. The keyboard and my fingers do not seem all that compatible, especially if typing in a hurry which I usually am.
I did find a very nice desktop on Ebay that I want to buy. It's basically the same as the desktop that has died. One gig of RAM and a 40 Gig hard drive. And it is fairly reasonable, only $120 with free shipping.
All I have to do is figure out how to get my PayPal account to let me spend my money. I have no bank account and no credit cards. I bought a gift card and am hoping to get that to work long enough for me to buy the new computer. Time will tell.
In the meantime, I am using this with roughly half a meg of memory. Slowly but surely I get online and do what I need to do.

You Did, What?

According to the television commercials I have seen, along with ads on my computer, it appears that everyone these days owns a laptop computer, including school age children.
As a parent of five, I have gone through a multitude of computer keyboards, mice, desktops, clothing, jewelry, you name it my kids have probably either lost it or ruined it. It's what kids do, just part of Life. I know because I was the same way as a kid.
But, a laptop is not cheap. It's not like a sweater or a coat or even a necklace that you can run to the store and replace fairly easily. These things are costly. I know that I would never give a laptop computer to a child to take to school, but that's just me. Many parents do and, in some lucky cases the school provides laptops. But what happens if your child makes a mess of things? That is where student laptop insurance comes in.
Laptop insurance covers just about everything you'd need, from accidental damage to natural disasters. And, it is very affordable, certainly cheaper than replacing that laptop all by yourself. Like any other insurance policy, it will give you peace of mind that you are not left holding the bag if bad things happen.
If you have a student with a laptop, or even an IPad, then you need to check out the benefits of this insurance for yourself.
Just remember, no matter how perfect your child is, accidents happen.