Damn Computers (in appropriate category)

I'm thinking about getting a mac, though I haven't really decided. They do have the reputation for durability, but as my brother likes to say, if you buy a pc in the same price range you get a decent computer too.

Macs are okay, I guess. When you first get one it's all exciting, everything is nice and shiny and new. But then you realize all the stuff you CAN'T do with it.

I'm still fascinated by chromebooks, but I don't know why. Maybe it's the fact that everything is done online. And having a device that boots in seconds is attractive.

Maybe I need to give chromebooks some thought.

Last laptop I bought was a kind of cheap pc one. Don't think I'll go that way again, though it's still bearing up. The durability of mac's sound really enticing, but I guess there's still certain things they won't do.

DI just got one for about 8hundred and I doubt I could be without it.I find comfort in bed watching dateline or Jeremy kyle or ant and Dec . PR the Father Brown series

is there an alternative to photobucket? its not letting me see my photos.

Imgur.com is what I use most of the time now.

cheers Eldo I will try it.

So on Sunday I spilled water on my keyboard.

At first nearly everything was gone, but I rigged up something with a box and a hairdryer and several hours later about half my keys worked. The only way I could write was copy and paste from other documents: you may have noticed I've been rather laconic lately.

Not long ago I had my hard drive replaced, then I replaced my battery, and with the new keyboard I've realized I was only $200 away from just buying a refurbished computer. Oh well, keeps stuff out of the waste stream I suppose...

but I'm back.

I'm glad you're back, Halfy.

My mom's computer has broken but she's avoiding buying a new one, so currently she's trying to get by with my old laptop. It's about seven years old and was never a very good model (it also can't hold a charge anymore so it has to stay plugged in). It's got Windows Vista and Ubuntu 9.10 dual booted but a lot of the software is hopelessly outdated. It's got Chrome 7 on it (the current version of Chrome is 41) and I couldn't even find a way to update it (the Google help page describes features and formats that don't exist in that version ). Flash is about seven versions out of date and Java wasn't working even after I updated it. I'm trying to convince her to get a new computer but we'll see.

Chromebook?

That thought did cross my mind, largely because of you bringing it up recently. I think she needs local file storage for some of her work stuff though (in part for privacy reasons). I'll bring up the idea to her though, because it's painful trying to use the old computer now.

I hate when that happens, you do bits and bobs thinking that you are saving money only to find out that you are 78p in pocket and you really could have bought something new for less.  I prefer to patch up and mend rather than throw things out. My grandparents all preferred to go to the repair shop, but now the repair shop is more expensive than buying new stuff. its mad. Take shoes for example, who goes to a cobbler nowadays when you can buy a new pair for £10 made in China? no wonder theres an island of plastic the size of London in the sea.

Eldorion wrote:That thought did cross my mind, largely because of you bringing it up recently. I think she needs local file storage for some of her work stuff though (in part for privacy reasons).  I'll bring up the idea to her though, because it's painful trying to use the old computer now.

I'm still not sure myself. I'm sure you can expand storage space with an SD card or flash drive (I recently upgraded from my 2GB flash drive that I paid about 15 dollars for about ten years ago to a 64GB flash drive that I paid 20 dollars for). I can definitely see myself using a Chromebook because a lot of what I do is online, but I would not be able to use Finale (music notation software), or GIMP (unless I installed Linux), and I wouldn't be able to do any video editing (which I rarely do, but it is fun when I get the chance). I think a possible future for me would be a Chromebook for daily stuff and then keep my MacBook Pro around for the creative stuff until I drive it into the ground, and then maybe look into getting a MacBook Air or something similar.

I'm pretty sure that if you put the Chromebook into developer mode you get access to the local file storage.  Chrome OS is a fork of Gentoo so it's already Linux and in developer mode you've got the command line and stuff.  I dunno how using other software would work from the end-user perspective though.

For me personally, I try to save up and just buy one laptop that will fulfill all of my computing needs (except for ultra-mobile stuff that I use my phone for) and then stick with that for a good 2-3 years.  I do really like the look of the MacBook Pro, but I'm not comfortable spending that amount of money on a computer at this point when there are decent enough alternatives (at least, they become decent after dual booting).

I think a cheap computer for correspondence and surfing and a beefier for work is a good idea.  That way you don't wear out the work computer as fast.  The key is to have a good method for file transfer, as inevitably you'll want to get to stuff you did on the other computer.

Eldo - if you like the idea of a macbook pro, go to the apple online store and then go down to apple-refurbished computers.  You can save about 20%, which brings it into the range of attractive.  That's how I get my computers.  And of course it's based on UNIX which means the command line would be familiar to you.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

For comformtably less than $1000 you can get modest size flash drive, etc.  keep checking back as they normally only last a week or so then something else pops up.  If you are willing to go to 11.6 inch screen and 256 GB flash drive you can even get down to a shade over $800. I should add that the best time to buy is a few weeks after a line has just been refreshed, as has happened with the macbook pro.

I have a 3 terabyte flashdrive. It's more than 2/3s full.

I got my MacBook Pro refurbished, and I've had it for almost four years now. Jeez, has it really been four years?!

There's an ASUS Chromebook that I've been eying up for a while. Only $200.

http://www.amazon.com/Chromebook-13-Inch-Gigabit-Storage-Black/dp/B00KD5SEPK/ref=cm_rdp_product

Thanks for the info about refurbished MacBooks, halfy. I'll definitely take a look at that.

I'd prefer them over the new version, in any case. Squeezing everything down to one port just to get lighter and thinner is taking things too far. It's as stupid as decreasing battery life in an iphone just to shave off a couple mm in thickness.

Yeah, the idea of needing a(n undoubtedly overpriced) dongle to be able to play a DVD or rip a CD is pretty unappealing to me.  I can handle my laptop being an inch thick in exchange for full functionality.

The problem with the new Macs is that they don't have disc drives. Not even the iMacs. And I know for sure that the stand alone superdrive that they'll want me to buy is 100 dollars and can't even read bluray discs. Apple just makes me so angry sometimes.

Yeah. Though admittedly they pushed technology adaption more than once. You may be too young to remember the uproar when they stopped providing floppy disk ports - that turned out pretty well in the end. Other types of cables as well.

Now I think Apple is pushing blue tooth connectivity for everything. The first few years will be irritating, but no doubt wireless is the way devices are going. I won't be one of the early adopters.

halfwise wrote:Yeah.  Though admittedly they pushed technology adaption more than once.  You may be too young to remember the uproar when they stopped providing floppy disk ports - that turned out pretty well in the end. Other types of cables as well.

Now I think Apple is pushing blue tooth connectivity for everything.  The first few years will be irritating, but no doubt wireless is the way devices are going.  I won't be one of the early adopters.

I bought the first generation iPod touch back in 2007. I will never be an early adopter ever again.

I hate to think about all my DVDs becoming worthless junk that go the way of VHS.