Thanks, Ulrich. I guess my packet sniffer is doing okay since I haven't felt the need to aircrack lately. I may just have to get myself one of those little EEE jobbies. Sounds like a great travel computer and quite inexpensive. I read 33 reviews that were totally wonderful (Amazon). I'll think about it. I'm still ticked at Dell. They infuriated me, hung up on me 3 times and kept me on hold for ungodly amounts of time. They do not deserve another chance at my business. I'd pay more for the same system in order to get better customer service.

 

Kludge (pronounced kluj) goes back to the dawn of computing. When a program had to be written there were two ways to do it. You could write an elegant, flexible, well-commented, robust subroutine -- or you could just assign this string variable to that number function, stick in a "goto" statement, and even though it shouldn't work it seemed to give the right result.

The latter is a "kludge".

Heaven help them if later on if somebody has to open up that program again and figure out what's going on and how to modify it.

 

Thanks and Yo, Mike, is your packet sniffer operating well? J/K
Thanks, Jonas, you dollbaby, hunkeroo for bringing this item to our attention. This forum ROCKS!!!! I think I'll go out and find some cute little geek to hug after I log off.

 

Hmm. How far is it to Fredericksburg again? (gets out street atlas...)



JonasM

 

--------> Here's a virtual hug!!

 

Geez.....I was so busy on Tuesday that I was not online until Wednesday.

Look what happens

Seriously, thanks for all of the tips thus far....seems that Val and perhaps others will also benefit

 

ummmm, yeah. Thanks for posing this question, Jer. Oh, and here's a virtual lovey-hug for you too.

 

Jerry,

If all you really want to do with this laptop is use it for communicating via the Internet, then I really don't think you need to spend much.

It needs to have wireless (I think all do now), is size and weight an issue?, I would 'settle' for XP since it may be cheaper and Vista is not necessay, I would get 1GB of Memory (either std or add it since it is cheap), should be able to play DVDs (you may want to watch movies on it), Screen size may be a consideration.

But for Horsepower, I don't think you need alot to do what you describe.

If this computer may 'graduate' one day to do more then some more options and chip speed may be considerations, but in my view not for basic internet connections.

Good Luck,

Jim

 

Thanks for your thoughts, Jim Since there is always the possibility of 'graduating' to additional uses (like....when the home desktop becomes a real dinosaur), what items would you "add" if dollars can be stretched? Also, do you have any preference for the lower cost brands and/or chip mfrs?

 

Hi Jerry,

I know this isn't going to help, but it all depends on what you will do with the machine. You can build a real monster that will handle a ton of tasks well but will have more than you need.

I haven't looked at the market recently but my advice to people has always been to most importantly know what you want to do with the machine and also decide what physical features are most important (keyboard, screen size, weight, type of mouse).

If for instance someone wants to do photo work, then screen size, resolution, graphics card, memory and storage size would be key items for them to look for.

If you are using if to do basic home stuff such as letters, simple spreadsheets, internet, quicken, etc... you will not need as much and could get away with a basic config. that has the physical features you are looking for.

If you travel and will be carrying the laptop the size and weight are very important.

Sorry if this doesn't help.