Category: Laptops & PCs

  • The Collective Weight of Microsoft Windows is Suffocating 1GHz PCs

    Reading Time: 2 minutesI’m about to give up on Microsoft Windows XP. I’ve been holding off on buying a new computer because I really want a MacBook Pro. The problem is I won’t save the money to be able to buy this computer for some time. Meanwhile, I’m losing minutes of quality time with my…

  • Google Docs and Spreadsheets May Make Microsoft Office Unnecessary on Our New MacBook

    Reading Time: 2 minutesMy wife Kathleen is finally going to get the new Apple MacBook that she’s been eyeing for months. This purchase will be a major liberation for her in the sense that she will be able to manage photos from the main family digital camera, the Canon PowerShot A540, sync her Treo 650…

  • Lee Gomes is Foolish for Sticking with Windows

    Reading Time: 2 minutesI read Lee Gomes’ “Portals” column in The Wall Street Journal today about problems he’s identified with basic file system management in the Windows Vista operating system, and came to the conclusion that he’s foolish for not switching to the Macintosh. Gomes identified a performance issue in Windows XP; He cannot get…

  • Instructables Describes How to Replace a Failing Laptop LCD

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteA couple of weeks ago I talked about the successful replacement of the screen assembly on my Dell Latitiude C810 laptop. I did this without the aid of a great article from Instructables.com called DIY – Replace Broken Laptop LCD. This Instructables article takes a more complex aproach to replacing the…

  • Initial Success with Rebuilt Latitude C810

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteAs I mentioned last week, I ordered a used LCD display unit for my Dell Latitude C810 from a reputable seller on eBay. I received the LCD display unit earlier today and successfully replaced the failing display unit on my laptop. I’ve been using the laptop on and off for the…

  • Why I’m Repairing a Fully Depreciated Dell Latitude C810

    Reading Time: 2 minutesLate last week Kathleen and I bought a 2007 Honda Accord SE. I hadn’t anticipated buying a new car in 2006, but we we had to act quickly after the transmssion in my Jeep Grand Cherokee failed. A purchase of this magnitude will force us to make a few sacrifices in other…

  • Mobile Broadband Services Only Being Used by a Select Few Notebook Users at the Moment

    Reading Time: 2 minutesYesterday Martin O’Donnell sent me an article that reported wireless broadband services offered by Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint Nextel are being adopted by some road warriors, but that adoption has been mainly limited to outside sales people, building contractors, insurance claims adjustors, and first responders. There are a lot of other businesses…

  • Replacing a Linux Server in the Basement with a NAS Box

    Reading Time: 2 minutesI’ve got a five year old Linux server in the basement at the Home Office. It was state-of-the-art before 9/11: Built by one of the biggest Linux-hardware companies of the early days: VALinux (now called VA Software). Big disk capacity: 72 Gigabytes of SCSI-based hardware RAID. That was great five years ago.…

  • Daring Fireball Says the New MacBook Compares Favorably to Recent MacBook Pro Models

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteDaring Fireball written by John Gruber is a Macintosh-oriented site that often publishes long essays that contain gems of information for readers who are patient enough to read to the end. One example is the information about the MacBook that appeared in the Confidence Game, an essay that was published about…