Comments on: Readership survey

By: paul

paul — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 05:41:49 +0000

How recently have the orphans been backed up? Are the orphans running legal software and do you have the installation disks for the orphans? If so, save the laptop… Otherwise, hire one orphan to send your mail, one to keep your calendar, one to store all your old files, and one to run from house to house with printouts of your blog… then you won’t need your laptop..

By: j-a

j-a — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 07:08:54 +0000

orphan, because you are smart enough to have a backup zip drive??

By: Solonor

Solonor — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 02:53:10 +0000

It depends. Orphanned what?

By: Waterhot

Waterhot — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 02:16:35 +0000

I second Sarah – a choice made easier by the fact that my notebook is a Moleskine 6″…

By: flerdle

flerdle — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 01:35:19 +0000

Unless the notebook is already in a waterproof case, you’ll have a harder time of trying to make it survive in some sort of functional condition than with the an orphan.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:40:40 +0000

If you try to save the notebook, you’ll sink to the bottom like an old parable. But if you grab an orphan, you can make a quick and simple flotation device by blowing deeply into his lungs a few times and then pinching his throat closed.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 20:43:43 +0000

Save the orphan, but make sure you either save your notebook as well, or be sure you have a computer at home so that you can write in your blog about how you saved an orphan.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 20:12:38 +0000

I’d save the iBook AND a couple of orphans — iBooks are light. Hopefully the orphans are too. (Also, I’d have all the info on my iBook backed up on a jump drive, in case the orphans had been fed a particularly strarchy diet, poor things. Then I could ditch the iBook, save the orphans, sell my story, get a new computer, and continue working with my data.)

Seriously, though — iBook goooooood.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 19:28:01 +0000

Hey, So, it’s been awhile since I wandered by here. Last time I was in the neighborhood, you didn’t have an RSS feed. However, now you do (he says, stating the obvious) so I will be more in evidence in the future…
Anyhow, I’m confused. Is this exercise about determining where one’s values lie or is it about getting a new laptop? If it is the latter, then we are on the same ferry boat at the moment. At the moment I am leaning towards an Apply, but I want to see how the Intel chips work in the new machines first. On the other hand, the Dell machines are quite nice and have a pretty good reputation.
Now, if we are *really* talking about making a hard choice, I’d have to go with the orphan…namely because I will *always* have a big old thumping desktop machine which will have my life on it. The laptop will be synced, but not vital for my survival. Nothing portable will have that responsibility in my life. Besides, the big thumping desktop is attached to a home network where I have all my necessary-for-life files backed up one a “spare” (read less powerful) machine. If my primary goes down, I do have a backup in the wings I can use until the main ‘puter gets repaired/replaced.
So, it’s not really a hard choice for me…the orphan-laptop one. The Apple-Dell choice is much harder…

By: wildsoda

wildsoda — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:07:07 +0000

I’m sorry, of course I meant I’d recommend saving a 12″ or 14″ orphan, your choice.

By: flerdle

flerdle — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 13:15:53 +0000

Heh heh.

By: anne

anne — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 11:30:35 +0000

you’re a very bad man and will be given absolutely no christmas presents next year.

also very funny.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 20:02:01 +0000

The U.S. online apple store is selling Office at a discount when you buy a new Mac. Too lazy to check if that’s true elsewhere. And if it breaks, your wife can take it to the Ginza store for repairs the next time she goes to Japan.

I have heard some complaints about the iBook’s lack of sufficient memory and the price of software for the Mac, but I can’t comment from experience.

I’ve used a lot of junky Dell laptops at work, but that’s what I have at home too, because I got it for free. I don’t think I would pay money for one.

So there you go, I bet that didn’t help at all.

By: Horst

Horst — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:54:09 +0000

I bought an Apple 12″ iBook four years ago, and it still works, and it’s still fast enough for everything I do with it, I never had a virus, and I never lost any data due to software problems or crashes.

My only grudge is that if you buy one of those these days, they’re so much faster and cheaper than four years ago.

By: Elke Sisco

Elke Sisco — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:31:38 +0000

mig – your Windows software *can* work on a Mac. You can actually run Windows on top of Mac OS. But it’s slow, unless you have tons and tons of space (both hard disk and RAM). Still, there’s MS Office for Mac, and almost all other software too. And the new Macs all include lots and lots of software already. And these days, exchanging files is not a problem any more. A Mac will be able to read Windows PC files without any trouble.
And for discounts – if you have any connections in academia, the education discounts (both for students and teachers) are the best you will find.