(no subject)

[tanaise]

My dad is buying me a laptop.

A new laptop, because apparently, unlike other people's dads, my dad *is* made of money.

I had actually made up my mind to do some legwork, tracking down a cheap secondhand beater laptop for writing type stuff only, and then negotiating with him for the, you know, 2, maybe 3 hundred bucks. But instead of that, he's buying me a new Dell. I even get to pick the configuration myself, which is always the scariest part of the whole deal, as I never know what to add to it. My brother sent me a configured example, but then it didn't actually come through so I had to go mess with it on my own. I can get almost exactly what I want within my dad's price limit (1050), but I'm not sure if I should ask for a little more money to get an internal wireless card ($39) and/or an extended life battery (also $39). I lean more heavily towards the wireless card, but other than that, I've got a Combo drive, and 512 RAM and a 30 gig hard drive and a bigger screen than my monitor was, and a mobile intel pentium 4 chip, which is 2.66 gig and scares me. I'm pretty sure that's got to be faster than I think. and definately more reliable.

Wow. I'm still in shock over this. He said he and janet couldn't imagine living without a computer in the house--this, from the guy who didn't even have an internet capable computer in the house while I was in HS and college. You know how some people have strokes, and they become like, nicer people? It's either that or a pod person. When he called us from the mall on his cell phone, we inisted he'd been replaced by aliens.

Comments

[astrophysicat.livejournal.com]

very very cool.
Both those things are cheap for how much more convenience they will afford you, so I'd give him a new total price and tell him why.

[podling]

I have three words for you... Early onset Alzheimer's. It isn't all bad. (hee, kidding (but really, you have no idea how much nicer my grandma was once the dementia kicked in))

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

Happiness is, in fact, a new laptop. I think pop has earned some daughterly hugs and kisses for that.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

get the wireless card - i love having one in mine. (And changing batteries yoursself later is probably way easier than adding a card.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

oh, and check the weights - bigger screens are nice, but if you plan to carry it around much, those 10 lb laptops are killer

[msisolak.livejournal.com]

Get the wireless card. My Dell laptop's battery goes pretty well for four hours. I haven't run out of oomph more than once or twice--and that was at Clarion.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

We got one of the batteries you switch out with the DVD drive, it comes in very handy for travelling or when you need to be away from the power socket a long time. Ours came with a wireless connection built in, recheck the specs as I don't think it was an extra and we picked one of the cheapest models...