Your Laptop Likes and Dislikes

Dear Forum.

I'm writing a book about laptops. I'm doing research about people's
experiences with their laptops.

Could you tell me your experiences? - For example:

What kind of laptop do you have?

What do you like about it?

What don't you like about it?

What do you do on your laptop? – word processing, Photoshop, games,
etc.

What would you change about your laptop or about laptops in general?



Thanks for your help.

B

P.S. - Feel free to post really long messages. I enjoy reading them.
Thanks again.

Another dislike I should have mentioned is battery life. I wouldn't mind if
the laptop were heavier/thicker if that resulted in better battery life. I
suppose you get what you pay for.
Richard
"marlinspike" <> wrote in message
news:bh1gcp$beg$...
> "B" <> wrote in message
> news: om...
> > Could you tell me your experiences? - For example:
> > What kind of laptop do you have?
>
> HP ze5375us
>
> > What do you like about it?
>
> It was really cheap and has good graphics considering price and the fact
> that it's a laptop (in fact the video card, while shared, can be set to
have
> as much as 128mb). I also like the fact that it has 2 memory slots.
>
> > What don't you like about it?
>
> The fact that I have to send it rebates to make it so cheap and the fact
> that the graphics are onboard and therefore not upgradeable (except for by
> messsing with the bios, but I mean, I can't upgrade the chip). Also the
fact
> that it's not exactly quiet and that the bottom gets warm.
>
> > What do you do on your laptop? - word processing, Photoshop, games,
> > etc.
>
> Basically everything except Photoshop (so far, I hope to get a digital
> camera soon)
>
> > What would you change about your laptop or about laptops in general?
>
> If I could change one thing, it would be the fans. I have a feeling they
> could be quieter and still move the same amount of air. If I could change
> two things, I would put a better system of cooling. The fans are kinda in
> the wrong place. The laptop would be much cooler if there was one fan on
> each side (rather than two on one side). If I could change 3 things, I
would
> junk the onboard video for a real video card.
>
> Richard
>
>

On 8 Aug 2003 17:00:04 -0700, (B) wrote:

>Dear Forum.
>
>I'm writing a book about laptops. I'm doing research about people's
>experiences with their laptops.

No offense, but may I ask what qualifies you to write such a book?
No need to give a CV or reveal your ID if you don't want, but some
idea of your qualifications would be nice. Have you been published
before? Is this on spec, or are you still working on the
abstract/proposal, or is a publisher waiting for copy from you? Is the
focus of the book the history and development of laptop computing, a
buyer's guide, or what?
As for the mini-survey, there's all sorts of market research that
would give better (accurate, better sampling) answers to the
questions.
Emanuel
--
Portable Computing FAQ - http://home.att.net/~epbrown01
Sony VAIO 505 info - http://home.att.net/~epbrown01/sony505.html
Join the 505 Mailing List - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sony505/

> What kind of laptop do you have?
thinkpad r32
>
> What do you like about it?
compact size, accessible usb ports, bright display, excellent keyboard, very
quiet
>
> What don't you like about it?
battery life, creaks in case, one dead pixel
>
> What do you do on your laptop? - word processing, Photoshop, games,
> etc.

word, excel, internet, photoshop, flash, dreamweaver, director, premiere,
illustrator, digital resource for camera & mp3 player

> What would you change about your laptop or about laptops in general?

bettery casing, longer battery life. but really if i required this i
wouldve bought a centrino t40

> Thanks for your help.
>
> B
>
> P.S. - Feel free to post really long messages. I enjoy reading them.
> Thanks again.

On 9 Aug 2003 17:48:13 -0700, (B) wrote:
>I have never been published. I chose to write this book because I
>believe I have a unique perspective on laptops.
>
>Until recently, I fixed laptop for a major telecommunications company.
> I have literally fixed well over 800 laptops. I've personally
>discovered and reported several engineering and manufacturing flaws of
>very popular laptops. I've dealt with the growing pain of many
>generations of popular laptop. I feel I've acquired more technical
>and real world knowledge about laptops than most people will every
>care to know.
>
>Most importantly, I see what people do to their laptops. I know what
>parts fail the most frequently. Because of my experience, I feel that
>I am in a position to help people pick the best laptop for their
>needs, fix many issues they will encounter, and keep their laptop
>working well for years.
>
>In short, I'm not an author – I'm a computer geek who really knows
>laptops.

Thanks for the reply. I wish you luck but I think you've got a hard
road ahead. Laptops change so frequently and are so non-standard
across brands and styles that every reference I've read so far has
been crippled by its need to speak in generalities rather than
specifics. You could write a book on changing hard drives alone, there
are so many different procedures.
The rapid progress in the market also means that in the year it
would likely take you to complete the book and get it published (and
that's a charitable estimate), most of the references would be out of
date.
My recommendation would be to drop the book idea and instead write
a proposal to one of the laptop/mobile computing magazines for a
multi-part article, with sample pages included. Laptop Buyer's Guide
and Handbook (as it was then called) ran a nice series on the
technology behind laptop components a few years ago that I thought was
excellent, for instance. Writing articles would also get you some
writing credits to present to a publisher if you do go ahead with the
book.
Just my 2 cents,
Emanuel
--
Portable Computing FAQ - http://home.att.net/~epbrown01
Sony VAIO 505 info - http://home.att.net/~epbrown01/sony505.html
Join the 505 Mailing List - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sony505/

> What kind of laptop do you have?
Chembook 2050


> What do you like about it?
Great video, the Mobile processor is great!, Long battery life, and
SOOOO fast! In all truth I love just about everything about it.


> What don't you like about it?
The intel intergrated wireless. It is not linux compatible and intel
refuses to support linux on thier intergrated wireless.

Also the speakers are not great but then again they are the typical
laptop quality.


> What do you do on your laptop? ? word processing, Photoshop, games,
> etc.
software and web development (software I use: maguma, quanta, anjuta,
photoshop, paintshop pro, image composer, gimp), the traditional
things like wordproccessing(open office and microsoft office) and
gaming (but just a little).

I currently run a dual boot of win2k pro and redhat 9 with
windowmaker.


> What would you change about your laptop or about laptops in general?
I wish I could have gotten the Mobile processor with a different
intergrated wireless.

In general I wish laptops had more better speakers, intel would make
more of an effort to support linux (it the wave the of the future) and
name brands should have to tell the consumer who thier ODMs are.

I hope that you will address the topic of ODM's. Many people dont'
know that thier laptop was not created by the label on the machine. I
am so happy that I have a non-name brand machine and saved my self
close to $800 dollars.

Good luck, Carla