New Laptop!
I got myself a new laptop for Christmas, with some help from my lovely girlfriend. It's a Compaq Presario V2424NR - AMD Turion64, 512mb, 100gb, 14" WXGA screen. Best Buy had a $200 rebate on it, so the total cost will be around $900 (plus tax). Quite a good deal.
But the primary reason I chose this laptop over any others was because I like the feel of the keyboard. For whatever reason, when computer geeks evaluate computers, they rarely talk about ergonomics. Honestly, computers have gotten to the point where they are commodity items. Gone are the days when it really made sense to build your own computer and cherry pick all the best and fastest parts. Nowadays, for a desktop computer the quietness of the CPU fan and the location of the USB ports is more important for most people than the speed of the CPU or video card. And for a laptop, since you can't easily swap out most of the parts, the quality of the keyboard, touchpad (or stick, if you are lucky enough to have that option), and screen are going to be paramount. So while I feel like I got a fast CPU with lots of features, more importantly I feel like I got a laptop that I would be able to type on day in and day out and live with comfortably whether I'm sitting at a desk, on a couch, or in bed.
Personally, I like keyboards that require a bit of pressure to register the keystroke. That's because my fingers are a little bit imprecise, and so I frequently touch other keys adjacent to the key I really meant to press. Most laptops (and desktop keyboards) try to be quiet and allow "touch-typing", and that bugs me because I end up hitting too many keys I didn't mean to. Also, I like the tactile sensation of knowing exactly when a key stroke has been registered. It lets me know that I've typed the key I wanted to type, and I can move on to the next key. Yes, very silly I know. BTW, I like Nokia phones partly for this same reason.
Oh yeah, I added another gig to the laptop today (courtesy of newegg). I've been scanning a lot of film using a film scanner at 4000dpi, and it chews up tons of memory. I remember the days when 16mb of RAM was a total luxury. Now, thanks to multimedia files, bloated graphics libraries, and Java, we need gigs of RAM just to have a smooth-running system. Gotta love it!
But the primary reason I chose this laptop over any others was because I like the feel of the keyboard. For whatever reason, when computer geeks evaluate computers, they rarely talk about ergonomics. Honestly, computers have gotten to the point where they are commodity items. Gone are the days when it really made sense to build your own computer and cherry pick all the best and fastest parts. Nowadays, for a desktop computer the quietness of the CPU fan and the location of the USB ports is more important for most people than the speed of the CPU or video card. And for a laptop, since you can't easily swap out most of the parts, the quality of the keyboard, touchpad (or stick, if you are lucky enough to have that option), and screen are going to be paramount. So while I feel like I got a fast CPU with lots of features, more importantly I feel like I got a laptop that I would be able to type on day in and day out and live with comfortably whether I'm sitting at a desk, on a couch, or in bed.
Personally, I like keyboards that require a bit of pressure to register the keystroke. That's because my fingers are a little bit imprecise, and so I frequently touch other keys adjacent to the key I really meant to press. Most laptops (and desktop keyboards) try to be quiet and allow "touch-typing", and that bugs me because I end up hitting too many keys I didn't mean to. Also, I like the tactile sensation of knowing exactly when a key stroke has been registered. It lets me know that I've typed the key I wanted to type, and I can move on to the next key. Yes, very silly I know. BTW, I like Nokia phones partly for this same reason.
Oh yeah, I added another gig to the laptop today (courtesy of newegg). I've been scanning a lot of film using a film scanner at 4000dpi, and it chews up tons of memory. I remember the days when 16mb of RAM was a total luxury. Now, thanks to multimedia files, bloated graphics libraries, and Java, we need gigs of RAM just to have a smooth-running system. Gotta love it!
posted by Chris at 8:59 PM
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