Laptop recommendations
 

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/29/2017 6:41 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.


I agree with Wayne. My last two laptops have been HP Pavilions. The
first, purchased in 2007, finally died after about 8 years of heavy,
daily use in the guitar shop. The second and the one I am currently
using, is an HP purchased in 2010, still running Win 7. I downloaded
the free upgrade to Win 10 but have not installed it.

That said however, I wonder how much of a particular brand contains
unique and/or proprietary hardware. Seems like most of the major brands
use the same CPU (usually Intel) and hard drives made by others.
I suspect the same is true with mother boards and power supplies.

I'd consider a Dell if I could find one designed for commercial use.
Seems to be many of them around that are still chugging away.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 8:04:45 AM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/29/2017 6:41 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.


I agree with Wayne. My last two laptops have been HP Pavilions. The
first, purchased in 2007, finally died after about 8 years of heavy,
daily use in the guitar shop. The second and the one I am currently
using, is an HP purchased in 2010, still running Win 7. I downloaded
the free upgrade to Win 10 but have not installed it.

That said however, I wonder how much of a particular brand contains
unique and/or proprietary hardware. Seems like most of the major brands
use the same CPU (usually Intel) and hard drives made by others.
I suspect the same is true with mother boards and power supplies.

I'd consider a Dell if I could find one designed for commercial use.
Seems to be many of them around that are still chugging away.

Dell does have a "business" side of their online store. I'm not sure they are more rugged, though. It seems that the biggest difference between their personal and business PCs is that the personal line has more availability of fast video cards and other go-fast goodies. You know, for gaming. The business line is more mainstream hardware for doing business apps that don't require the video performance of modern games.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wednesday, 29 March 2017 06:18:23 UTC-3, Poco Deplorevole wrote:
This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I was given a HP Notebook a couple years ago for Christmas.
Had a lot of trouble with the wi fi reception. Even had the cable guy in to check signal strength. He said it was probably the Notebooks antenna.
Told this to the HP support people and they brushed me off saying if that was the case the signal would never work. We went through the usual troubleshooting over the phone and eventually they authorized me to send the unit to Ontario for repair. Had to argue with them over warranty coverage...HP had 2 years but COSTCO provided 3.
Got unit back...same problem.
Went through the same over the phone trouble shooting and arguments about warranty coverage a 2nd time. Costco people told me to insist on the top tier service people and they authorized a 2nd trip to Ontario for repairs. This time they got it right and replaced the antenna and whatever board it was connected to. Has worked fine since last summer. (fingers crossed)

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.

Laptop recommendations
 

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:04:36 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I'd consider a Dell if I could find one designed for commercial use.
Seems to be many of them around that are still chugging away.

===

I have an old Dell laptop that lives on the boat, usually at the lower
helm. It gets used mostly for displaying weather information and as a
comm terminal for the SSB radio, but it can double as a navigation
display/chartplotter if necessary. What's not to like? It has always
been flaky and temperature sensitive, requiring periodic reboots to
restore it to operation.

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/29/2017 2:09 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:04:36 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I'd consider a Dell if I could find one designed for commercial use.
Seems to be many of them around that are still chugging away.

===

I have an old Dell laptop that lives on the boat, usually at the lower
helm. It gets used mostly for displaying weather information and as a
comm terminal for the SSB radio, but it can double as a navigation
display/chartplotter if necessary. What's not to like? It has always
been flaky and temperature sensitive, requiring periodic reboots to
restore it to operation.



Tough environment for a computer, I'm sure.

We used to buy computers to run the systems we built in my business but
I've forgotten what they were. They were used for graphical displays,
some computational purposes and storage of various process programs in a
spreadsheet. The actual connection to the system was via an industrial
programmable logic controller (PLC) that served as the input/output
device as well as the actual control and interlock logic.
We liked Allen Bradley for this.

The computers were "industrial" rated, but I am not sure what that meant
other than they were supposed to be physically "rugged".

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

I like a laptop when I travel because we hijack the TV for our music
and streaming movies if their connection is fast enough to do it.
Otherwise I usually have 150-200 G of movies on the laptop we can
watch.
It is also better for editing pictures and videos. Sometimes I do that
on the TV if we are connected.
Some hotels use special TVs that you can't hack into but when we are
renting a house they are regular TVs and you just plug in.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:38:59 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

The computers were "industrial" rated, but I am not sure what that meant
other than they were supposed to be physically "rugged".

The IBM "industrial" PCs had filters on the fans and usually more fans
(assuming higher ambient temps). The cases were a little more
industrial looking. Other than that they were pretty much the same
inside.

Laptop recommendations
 

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

I like a laptop when I travel because we hijack the TV for our music
and streaming movies if their connection is fast enough to do it.
Otherwise I usually have 150-200 G of movies on the laptop we can
watch.
It is also better for editing pictures and videos. Sometimes I do that
on the TV if we are connected.
Some hotels use special TVs that you can't hack into but when we are
renting a house they are regular TVs and you just plug in.


I rarely edit my pictures, and do not watch much TV.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 06:41:45 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.

Coincidentally, I've kinda had my eye on this one:

https://www.costco.com/HP-ENVY-17t-L...100317268.html

Thanks for the comeback.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 06:49:10 -0400 (EDT), justan wrote:

Poco Deplorevole Wrote in message:
This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?


I use a Samsung tablet along with aToshiba laptop. Both are
reliable. For wireless, you will need to tether to your phone or
get a wireless hotspot. Use the campground Wi Fi when available.
If you go with just a tablet you will also need a wireless
printer. HTH

Thanks. I'm down on Samsung now after the fiasco we went through with the washer. I just looked, but
apparently Costco doesn't carry Toshiba for some reason. I'm a bit partial to Costco. Lifetime tech
support and two-year warranty.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:04:36 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 3/29/2017 6:41 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.


I agree with Wayne. My last two laptops have been HP Pavilions. The
first, purchased in 2007, finally died after about 8 years of heavy,
daily use in the guitar shop. The second and the one I am currently
using, is an HP purchased in 2010, still running Win 7. I downloaded
the free upgrade to Win 10 but have not installed it.

That said however, I wonder how much of a particular brand contains
unique and/or proprietary hardware. Seems like most of the major brands
use the same CPU (usually Intel) and hard drives made by others.
I suspect the same is true with mother boards and power supplies.

I'd consider a Dell if I could find one designed for commercial use.
Seems to be many of them around that are still chugging away.



My problem with Dell is all the software crap that comes loaded on the computer. Of course, Best Buy
and others will remove, for a fee, all that crap, but still...

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

My wife's got a tablet she uses in the truck for finding campgrounds, cheap fuel, etc, plus all the
stuff she does. I want something on which I can store files, pay bills, etc.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 17:00:19 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

I like a laptop when I travel because we hijack the TV for our music
and streaming movies if their connection is fast enough to do it.
Otherwise I usually have 150-200 G of movies on the laptop we can
watch.
It is also better for editing pictures and videos. Sometimes I do that
on the TV if we are connected.
Some hotels use special TVs that you can't hack into but when we are
renting a house they are regular TVs and you just plug in.

A friend down the road, Air Force Major, gave me the movies he'd gotten on his last trip to
Afghanistan. I had to buy a 1 TB harddrive to hold them. The military in the mideast has a hell of a
bootleg operation going...all legal of course.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 21:41:35 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

I like a laptop when I travel because we hijack the TV for our music
and streaming movies if their connection is fast enough to do it.
Otherwise I usually have 150-200 G of movies on the laptop we can
watch.
It is also better for editing pictures and videos. Sometimes I do that
on the TV if we are connected.
Some hotels use special TVs that you can't hack into but when we are
renting a house they are regular TVs and you just plug in.


I rarely edit my pictures, and do not watch much TV.

Gotta have something for the grandkids, especially when it's raining!

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:12:58 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 06:41:45 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.

Coincidentally, I've kinda had my eye on this one:

https://www.costco.com/HP-ENVY-17t-L...100317268.html

Thanks for the comeback.

That is a nice machine if you are gaming or doing video editing. It
may be a little bit of overkill for the normal user.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:20:17 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:04:36 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 3/29/2017 6:41 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.


I agree with Wayne. My last two laptops have been HP Pavilions. The
first, purchased in 2007, finally died after about 8 years of heavy,
daily use in the guitar shop. The second and the one I am currently
using, is an HP purchased in 2010, still running Win 7. I downloaded
the free upgrade to Win 10 but have not installed it.

That said however, I wonder how much of a particular brand contains
unique and/or proprietary hardware. Seems like most of the major brands
use the same CPU (usually Intel) and hard drives made by others.
I suspect the same is true with mother boards and power supplies.

I'd consider a Dell if I could find one designed for commercial use.
Seems to be many of them around that are still chugging away.



My problem with Dell is all the software crap that comes loaded on the computer. Of course, Best Buy
and others will remove, for a fee, all that crap, but still...

I haven't played with a Dell for a while but they usually come with
all of the install disks so you can wipe it and reload what you really
want. Just "removing" software does not really get rid of it all. A
lot of times they will replace the stock DLLs with theirs on
installation and you are still stuck with it when you remove the
program. There is also stuff in the registry that will not go away.
Dell is also very good with driver support and a lot of time I will
get drivers for other manufacturer's systems if I figure out Dell uses
that chip set on one of their machines.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:26:49 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 17:00:19 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

I like a laptop when I travel because we hijack the TV for our music
and streaming movies if their connection is fast enough to do it.
Otherwise I usually have 150-200 G of movies on the laptop we can
watch.
It is also better for editing pictures and videos. Sometimes I do that
on the TV if we are connected.
Some hotels use special TVs that you can't hack into but when we are
renting a house they are regular TVs and you just plug in.

A friend down the road, Air Force Major, gave me the movies he'd gotten on his last trip to
Afghanistan. I had to buy a 1 TB harddrive to hold them. The military in the mideast has a hell of a
bootleg operation going...all legal of course.

I have a lot of movies I recorded with my Replay TV off of the
cable/satellite but these days I find myself getting DVDs from the
pawn shop for a buck and ripping them to a hard drive.
Newer movies come from Amazon, Netflix or HBO/Sho. I don't bother
recording them and they make it hard to actually do it in anything but
NTSC quality.

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/29/2017 6:37 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:12:58 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 06:41:45 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.

Coincidentally, I've kinda had my eye on this one:

https://www.costco.com/HP-ENVY-17t-L...100317268.html

Thanks for the comeback.



That is a nice machine if you are gaming or doing video editing. It
may be a little bit of overkill for the normal user.


I don't "game" on a computer but the last two HP's I've had were/are
their Pavilion "entertainment" versions, meaning high speed video, CPU
and other features apparently gamers want or need. I figured if they
can do games well, they will probably do everything else well also.
They have.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:02:30 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


That is a nice machine if you are gaming or doing video editing. It
may be a little bit of overkill for the normal user.


I don't "game" on a computer but the last two HP's I've had were/are
their Pavilion "entertainment" versions, meaning high speed video, CPU
and other features apparently gamers want or need. I figured if they
can do games well, they will probably do everything else well also.
They have.



You can get back in forth to work in a Tesla too but you don't really
need all of that power. I guess if you want the biggest and baddest
machine on the block, go for it. You can afford it. ;-)

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/29/2017 7:27 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:02:30 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


That is a nice machine if you are gaming or doing video editing. It
may be a little bit of overkill for the normal user.


I don't "game" on a computer but the last two HP's I've had were/are
their Pavilion "entertainment" versions, meaning high speed video, CPU
and other features apparently gamers want or need. I figured if they
can do games well, they will probably do everything else well also.
They have.



You can get back in forth to work in a Tesla too but you don't really
need all of that power. I guess if you want the biggest and baddest
machine on the block, go for it. You can afford it. ;-)


Lesson I learned a long time ago from a old timer
mechanical engineer (P.E.)

"When in doubt, make it stout".

Laptop recommendations
 

Poco Deplorevole wrote:
This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I stopped dragging my laptop on most of my trips and now carry my
Samsung tablet and a Chromebook. Combined they weigh about half of my
laptop alone. The tablet is used mainly for movies and games on the
plane. The Chromebook is for email and surfing the web. The tablet can
do that, too but I prefer an actual keyboard for choosing restaurants
and finding other things to do. I can also access my work computer with
the Chromebook and tablet but the Chromebook wins again for the real
keyboard. The two combined are less than a decent laptop.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:34:37 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

You can get back in forth to work in a Tesla too but you don't really
need all of that power. I guess if you want the biggest and baddest
machine on the block, go for it. You can afford it. ;-)


Lesson I learned a long time ago from a old timer
mechanical engineer (P.E.)

"When in doubt, make it stout".


Unfortunately, in the computer biz, stout is not the same as fast.
I had to give up my PC based MP3 players because once you got much
beyond a P1 166, reliability in the Florida car environment because
you couldn't keep them cool. The same was true of hard drives. Once
you got much over 10-15gig, they started getting more heat sensitive.

My interest in laptops used to be as cheap (to run) servers since they
used to run at "night light" levels of power. This last one I got came
with a 90w power brick. You need to put a towel in your lap if you
actually use it as a laptop or you will roast your nuts. The Dell
Latitude (P3/400 W/98 machine) I am running back in the shop is always
cool to the touch.
The specs say it pulls a max of 36w but it seems to cruise in the
10-15w just talking to the printer, scanner or banging an external
hard drive.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:46:11 -0400, Alex wrote:

Poco Deplorevole wrote:
This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I stopped dragging my laptop on most of my trips and now carry my
Samsung tablet and a Chromebook. Combined they weigh about half of my
laptop alone. The tablet is used mainly for movies and games on the
plane. The Chromebook is for email and surfing the web. The tablet can
do that, too but I prefer an actual keyboard for choosing restaurants
and finding other things to do. I can also access my work computer with
the Chromebook and tablet but the Chromebook wins again for the real
keyboard. The two combined are less than a decent laptop.

If you are outdoor people Google Earth is essential and the bigger the
display the better. We can scope out the hiking trails before we book
the trip. I pin the ones we want to hike and we go from there. Then
when we get there we can pull them all up and switch to maps and find
them.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 4:44:35 PM UTC-5, Bill wrote:
wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

I like a laptop when I travel because we hijack the TV for our music
and streaming movies if their connection is fast enough to do it.
Otherwise I usually have 150-200 G of movies on the laptop we can
watch.
It is also better for editing pictures and videos. Sometimes I do that
on the TV if we are connected.
Some hotels use special TVs that you can't hack into but when we are
renting a house they are regular TVs and you just plug in.


I rarely edit my pictures, and do not watch much TV.

Same here. Well unless my wife wants me to watch a movie with her, but that's about it.

Laptop recommendations
 

Poco Deplorevole wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:04:36 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 3/29/2017 6:41 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.


I agree with Wayne. My last two laptops have been HP Pavilions. The
first, purchased in 2007, finally died after about 8 years of heavy,
daily use in the guitar shop. The second and the one I am currently
using, is an HP purchased in 2010, still running Win 7. I downloaded
the free upgrade to Win 10 but have not installed it.

That said however, I wonder how much of a particular brand contains
unique and/or proprietary hardware. Seems like most of the major brands
use the same CPU (usually Intel) and hard drives made by others.
I suspect the same is true with mother boards and power supplies.

I'd consider a Dell if I could find one designed for commercial use.
Seems to be many of them around that are still chugging away.



My problem with Dell is all the software crap that comes loaded on the
computer. Of course, Best Buy
and others will remove, for a fee, all that crap, but still...


Just got an advert for Dell at $140.
http://deals.dell.com/mpp/productdet...02922624028084

Laptop recommendations
 

Poco Deplorevole wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

My wife's got a tablet she uses in the truck for finding campgrounds,
cheap fuel, etc, plus all the
stuff she does. I want something on which I can store files, pay bills, etc.


I can bank online with the the iPad. Depending on memory size, can store
stuff, and use for pictures. It runs safari or Crome.

Laptop recommendations
 

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:12:58 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 06:41:45 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

===

I've always been partial to HPs. I believe their engineering and
reliability are a notch or two above the others. I'd also get a
wireless mouse for it since most touchpads leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately you will probably be stuck with Windows 10 if you buy a
new machine. People seem to like it once they get used to the new
interface but I'm set in my ways in that regard.

Coincidentally, I've kinda had my eye on this one:

https://www.costco.com/HP-ENVY-17t-L...100317268.html

Thanks for the comeback.

That is a nice machine if you are gaming or doing video editing. It
may be a little bit of overkill for the normal user.


I had a 17" laptop. Died. But was a big pain to deal with the size while
traveling.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Thu, 30 Mar 2017 02:39:35 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

Just got an advert for Dell at $140.
http://deals.dell.com/mpp/productdet...02922624028084


That is a nice little machine if you just want the basics.

I am a Dell person. After I bought my first Dell desktop I was sold on the brand. I bought my first laptop a Dell 15" back in 2005. When I replaced that laptop in 2012 I passed it on to my daughter.

That old Dell finally died last December. I ordered a new Dell laptop and will pass on the old one to my daughter again once I get it all cleaned up, meaning deleting and transferring all its files to my new one.

The first dell ran Vista, the second one Windows 7. The new one is Windows 10 and that is taking some getting used to. Its definitely different than Windows 7 but I am getting used to the new version.

Personally I do not think you could go wrong with either HP or Dell.

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/29/2017 9:04 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:34:37 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

You can get back in forth to work in a Tesla too but you don't really
need all of that power. I guess if you want the biggest and baddest
machine on the block, go for it. You can afford it. ;-)


Lesson I learned a long time ago from a old timer
mechanical engineer (P.E.)

"When in doubt, make it stout".


Unfortunately, in the computer biz, stout is not the same as fast.
I had to give up my PC based MP3 players because once you got much
beyond a P1 166, reliability in the Florida car environment because
you couldn't keep them cool. The same was true of hard drives. Once
you got much over 10-15gig, they started getting more heat sensitive.

My interest in laptops used to be as cheap (to run) servers since they
used to run at "night light" levels of power. This last one I got came
with a 90w power brick. You need to put a towel in your lap if you
actually use it as a laptop or you will roast your nuts. The Dell
Latitude (P3/400 W/98 machine) I am running back in the shop is always
cool to the touch.
The specs say it pulls a max of 36w but it seems to cruise in the
10-15w just talking to the printer, scanner or banging an external
hard drive.



Greg, not many people use or are as interested in computers as you are.
I really am not interested in seeing how long I could use Windows 98.

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/30/17 5:48 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/29/2017 9:04 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:34:37 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

You can get back in forth to work in a Tesla too but you don't really
need all of that power. I guess if you want the biggest and baddest
machine on the block, go for it. You can afford it. ;-)


Lesson I learned a long time ago from a old timer
mechanical engineer (P.E.)

"When in doubt, make it stout".


Unfortunately, in the computer biz, stout is not the same as fast.
I had to give up my PC based MP3 players because once you got much
beyond a P1 166, reliability in the Florida car environment because
you couldn't keep them cool. The same was true of hard drives. Once
you got much over 10-15gig, they started getting more heat sensitive.

My interest in laptops used to be as cheap (to run) servers since they
used to run at "night light" levels of power. This last one I got came
with a 90w power brick. You need to put a towel in your lap if you
actually use it as a laptop or you will roast your nuts. The Dell
Latitude (P3/400 W/98 machine) I am running back in the shop is always
cool to the touch.
The specs say it pulls a max of 36w but it seems to cruise in the
10-15w just talking to the printer, scanner or banging an external
hard drive.



Greg, not many people use or are as interested in computers as you are.
I really am not interested in seeing how long I could use Windows 98.



Greg apparently has lots of hours to fill during the day keeping his old
computers running, carpeting his home town with tiki bars, and building
RV trailers out of old bed frames. As soon as he picks up enough old
microwave ovens from dumpsters, he'll be able to communicate directly
with the Trump administration.

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/30/17 7:35 AM, justan wrote:
Bill Wrote in message:
Poco Deplorevole wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

My wife's got a tablet she uses in the truck for finding campgrounds,
cheap fuel, etc, plus all the
stuff she does. I want something on which I can store files, pay bills, etc.


I can bank online with the the iPad. Depending on memory size, can store
stuff, and use for pictures. It runs safari or Crome.



Does the Apple stuff allow use of sd cards for storage?
Freind of
mine was complaining that she was getting memory full errors. I
didn't see a way to add storage to her phone.


There are external storage devices that work with iPhone and iPads.

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/30/17 8:45 AM, justan wrote:
Keyser Soze Wrote in message:
On 3/30/17 7:35 AM, justan wrote:
Bill Wrote in message:
Poco Deplorevole wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

My wife's got a tablet she uses in the truck for finding campgrounds,
cheap fuel, etc, plus all the
stuff she does. I want something on which I can store files, pay bills, etc.


I can bank online with the the iPad. Depending on memory size, can store
stuff, and use for pictures. It runs safari or Crome.



Does the Apple stuff allow use of sd cards for storage?
Freind of
mine was complaining that she was getting memory full errors. I
didn't see a way to add storage to her phone.


There are external storage devices that work with iPhone and iPads.



She wants to carry her tunes, photos and every email and SMS she
has ever recieved, on her phone.
How do these devices connect to an iphone and can they be used for
backup of files?


The ones I have seen plug into the lightning port on the bottom of the
device and have a USB port on the other end. I've not used one, but I'm
pretty sure they'll do what you want. Here's one such device:

http://tinyurl.com/mlh7r2f

Laptop recommendations
 

On Thu, 30 Mar 2017 07:23:39 -0400 (EDT), justan wrote:

Keyser Soze Wrote in message:
On 3/30/17 5:48 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/29/2017 9:04 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:34:37 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

You can get back in forth to work in a Tesla too but you don't really
need all of that power. I guess if you want the biggest and baddest
machine on the block, go for it. You can afford it. ;-)


Lesson I learned a long time ago from a old timer
mechanical engineer (P.E.)

"When in doubt, make it stout".


Unfortunately, in the computer biz, stout is not the same as fast.
I had to give up my PC based MP3 players because once you got much
beyond a P1 166, reliability in the Florida car environment because
you couldn't keep them cool. The same was true of hard drives. Once
you got much over 10-15gig, they started getting more heat sensitive.

My interest in laptops used to be as cheap (to run) servers since they
used to run at "night light" levels of power. This last one I got came
with a 90w power brick. You need to put a towel in your lap if you
actually use it as a laptop or you will roast your nuts. The Dell
Latitude (P3/400 W/98 machine) I am running back in the shop is always
cool to the touch.
The specs say it pulls a max of 36w but it seems to cruise in the
10-15w just talking to the printer, scanner or banging an external
hard drive.



Greg, not many people use or are as interested in computers as you are.
I really am not interested in seeing how long I could use Windows 98.



Greg apparently has lots of hours to fill during the day keeping his old
computers running, carpeting his home town with tiki bars, and building
RV trailers out of old bed frames. As soon as he picks up enough old
microwave ovens from dumpsters, he'll be able to communicate directly
with the Trump administration.


It's his hobby. Do you have a hobby?

===

Harree's hobby is denigrating the skills and interests of others. It
makes him feel superior and he thrives on the insults he receives in
return. Sick puppy.

Laptop recommendations
 

On 3/30/2017 8:51 AM, Keyser Soze wrote:
On 3/30/17 8:45 AM, justan wrote:
Keyser Soze Wrote in message:
On 3/30/17 7:35 AM, justan wrote:
Bill Wrote in message:
Poco Deplorevole wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2
1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for
traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We
download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on
airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone
hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they
have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot
more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for
business
use.

My wife's got a tablet she uses in the truck for finding campgrounds,
cheap fuel, etc, plus all the
stuff she does. I want something on which I can store files, pay
bills, etc.


I can bank online with the the iPad. Depending on memory size, can
store
stuff, and use for pictures. It runs safari or Crome.



Does the Apple stuff allow use of sd cards for storage?
Freind of
mine was complaining that she was getting memory full errors. I
didn't see a way to add storage to her phone.


There are external storage devices that work with iPhone and iPads.



She wants to carry her tunes, photos and every email and SMS she
has ever recieved, on her phone.
How do these devices connect to an iphone and can they be used for
backup of files?


The ones I have seen plug into the lightning port on the bottom of the
device and have a USB port on the other end. I've not used one, but I'm
pretty sure they'll do what you want. Here's one such device:

http://tinyurl.com/mlh7r2f


thanks,
Sounds like just the ticket. I'll pass it on and let you know if I get
any feedback

--
--
Make America great again. Yes we can.

Laptop recommendations
 

On Thu, 30 Mar 2017 02:39:38 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

Poco Deplorevole wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:25:49 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:17:47 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

This summer will see us doing a bit of travelling, and I'm finally
giving serious thought to getting
a laptop. Any one having good or bad luck with theirs?

I have had pretty good luck with Lenovo (formerly IBM) and my 2 1996
vintage 365s still run but they are not fast enough to do much.



We use tablets. Both wife and I have iPad mini. Works well for traveling.
Gets and sends email. Which is 80% of the travel use. Other 20% is
looking up local places or maps. Tablets are great for that. We download
books from our local library as well as Amazon so when on airplanes can
read or play games. For wifi we either use hotels, phone hotspot, or
Starbucks or McDonald's. I also have Xfinity for home, and they have
public wifi wherever Comcast is a provider. The tablet is a lot more
convenient than a laptop for travel, where you do not need it for business
use.

My wife's got a tablet she uses in the truck for finding campgrounds,
cheap fuel, etc, plus all the
stuff she does. I want something on which I can store files, pay bills, etc.


I can bank online with the the iPad. Depending on memory size, can store
stuff, and use for pictures. It runs safari or Crome.

I can't stand typing on the tablets. I don't like laptop keyboards either, but they're better than
those damn tablets.