[at-l] backpacklaptopoptartyvek Re: New laptop (for reading AT-L, of course...)

[Art Cloutman]

My wife and I love our Mac's.  I have an iMac she has  laptop.  We 
like the way the Mac performs.  Actually, I had an Apple II and 
outfitted an entire Computer lab with them back in the late 70's. 
They worked for teaching mathematics to high school kids very well. 
And I taught computer programming on them for several years. 
(PASCAL, BASIC, Assembly Language, machine language).   I got used to 
the DOS as they evolved over the years.  The high school switched to 
primarily PC's as time went on but maintained a Mac Lab for the math 
department.  Graphing software and programming features were 
extremely instructive for teaching math concepts.  Hardly every used 
them to get onto the web until the last 4 years that I was working. 
Then graphing calculators became the tool of choice.  I just am more 
comfortable with a Mac even though I have had several temp jobs using 
PC's.   The Mac's rarely crash.  It is unusual for them to get 
viruses.  And using the operating system is very obvious.   At least 
that is my opinion.


>Say what?
>
>On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 3:29 PM, Tom McGinnis 
><<mailto:sloetoe at yahoo.com>sloetoe at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Having the "latest & greatest" at work meant that I really didn't 
>need anything at home for a long time. The 8086/8087, with the 3.5" 
>and 5.25" floppys (and no hard drive) is in the next room. Never was 
>Net-enabled...
>So I spent a year doing research, "chose wisely", and in early 2005, 
>did the whole cable-modem computer thing. It is *still* the fastest 
>communicator around that I've seen, is very stable, and only slows 
>up when working on multiple screens at <http://HULU.COM>HULU.COM. 
>(This is important, because of my trading: stability and speed are 
>*paramount*. And no, I'm not watching HULU when I'm trading.....)
>The long story short is that I would advise you bust for the 
>least-performing of the best architecture, get not the biggest hard 
>drive, but the fastest, get the best connection you can *discern* 
>the performance of, and lastly (and perhaps most importantly), KEEP 
>THE CRAP OFF YOUR 'PUTER. (Now, some people spell c_r_a_p as 
>"MicroSoft"....) I recommend, Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice Suite 
>as smaller, feature-rich, and freakin' STABLE.
>
>And yes, this is much like a backpack deally. Minimize fru-fru and 
>garbage; leave the disfunctional at home; hike light and f-f-far. 
>*Then* you can really enjoy the scenery.
>
>opensourcetoe
>
>(Oh, and I've never worked on a laptop that I wanted to own. Ever.)
>
>--- On We
>
>Is there any advantage anymore to a fixed system, or is laptop the way to go?
>
>
>
>
>--
>"The Ordinary Adventurer"
>A new backpacking adventure book
><http://www.FunFreedom.com>http://www.FunFreedom.com
>
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-- 

Life is Good!!!
Art Cloutman
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