hannah | Fuckery.

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Fuckery.

I have no idea what happened, but for some reason my entire laptop got fragged and I had to reinstall the whole operating system to even be able to get it to turn on. And now it's just not working. The wireless is shot again, and the mouse is still fucked.

Any advice on what kind of new laptop I should get? I can make it to a local Best Buy sometime this week without too much trouble.

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YIKES. Oh, Hannah. That sucks.

I'm still really happy with my Toshiba Satellite (it's an L515-S4960). It doesn't have a webcam, if that's something you'd need/want. I ordered it from Newegg.com -- it was their "Notebook of the Week" and cost about $450. This was after I looked at Best Buy, Office Max, and Office Depot and found that while they were advertising lots of different brands, the only machines they actually had in stock were HPs and Compaqs (and very high-end Sonys). It may be different at your Best Buy, though.

I need a word processing/Internet/media box - I don't need to play games or cut videos - that runs Windows, has at least 60 MB of memory, and costs less than $800 without counting the shipping costs. I'm looking at NewEgg and Best Buy right now, and I'm leaning towards Dell because I've had good experience with their customer support, but those haven't gotten many reviews.

I'll look at the Toshiba options.

*nods*

We've had Dells (both personal use and company-supplied) and they've been good machines. I used to have problems with their AC-adapters, but that's something that if it happens it's easily replaced. And yeah, their customer support was very good.

I got the AC adaptor replaced a few months ago. In retrospect, I think that was the beginning of the end.

Toshiba and Sony rate highest for reliability; Dell and Gateway I think are the two least reliable makers. Just for what it may be worth.

My Dell gave me very few problems in the years I've had it - the problems, however infrequent, were huge. I'll see what Toshiba offers.

That sucks :( Last year my laptop suddenly expired and wouldn't be revived.

I think I'm in a different country (so prices aren't directly comparable) and I got my new laptop in the days of Vista, but I would suggest you do what I did: make a list of anything about your old laptop that annoyed you, and go as far as you can afford to improve on those points. For example, I hated that my old laptop was slow (512MB memory) and had a small hard drive (30GB). My new laptop is 4GB memory with a 250GB hard drive.

Very little abuot it annoyed me, really; I recently developed a problem with the mouse, but that's a hardware issue which probably came from handling the machine too roughly. I do plan on getting more memory and a bigger hard drive.

Mac. you know you want it.

Except I can't right-click. And...its display would be too much to get used to.

You can right click with a mac. Control-Click. Its display is sexy.

Its display is very shiny, which I know I would find distracting. I'll go with something with less lens-flare.

Unfortunately, most screens now are shiny because colors look more vibrant and it’s easier for them to lull people into an impulse buy, especially the cheaper laptops. Privacy filter takes care of that somewhat, I usually have the matte side of one facing me.

I'm not talking about the colors; I'm talking about the display itself. Circles, curves, and icons that bounce aren't what I want, which are blocks, straight lines, and icons that stack on top of each other in a Lego-like fashion across the taskbar.

By “shiny” I thought you meant “high-gloss.”

Nope. But I wouldn't much like that, either.

I’ve been right-clicking on Macs since 1997. If you’re right handed, two button mice work right out of the box, no drivers needed. Since a few years ago, they added a pref so that it also works for lefties.

Besides, right click is so over-rated. Ever since the two-finger click to control-click and two-finger swipe to scroll, my wrists have been so happy.

Two-finger click? What the hey?

Look, I know you love your Macs, and I appreciate the advice, but they don't work for me, all right? Telling me about them now isn't helping anything.

Er, two-finger tap to right-click. Anyways.

I know that the OS X interface gives you cognitive and sensory issues and therefore they can’t ever work for you. I just didn’t want you spreading mis-information about right-click especially since it hasn’t been true in over a decade.

Double-tapping isn't clicking a completely different button. I like highlighting stuff as I read it, and double-clicking would disrupt that. So I wouldn't like it either.

I have a Gateway, bought in 2007, that's needed only one repair (a new video card) and that was under warranty. When I have to replace it, I'll go for a Toshiba because the Gateway was expensive for what it is. I paid $700 and Corgiguy kicked in some undisclosed amount for an extended warranty.

Toshiba is now leading the pack. I'll see what the stores have for that.

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