man, computers got cheap all of a sudden didn't they?
i've been using the same laptop for about 3 years now. was an old sony vaio, which i liked for what it was, but wasn't cheap when i bought it, that's for sure. i think i paid 1900 when i got it, and for laptops under 5 pounds with over 6 hours of battery life, it was one of few choices back then.
unfortunately i dropped it and broke the side of the case open about a month ago and while it still works, i was getting tired of taking it out to the shop to blow the dust out with my compressor, so i figured i'd get a new one.
turns out i had trouble spending 700 dollars on a new HP, which is pretty much superior in every way to my old one in terms of ruggedness, keyboard, screen brightness, etc. i wound up getting one from the mid grade business class (probook) line. even the high end line was only around a thousand.
guess recessions aren't all bad, huh? ;)
netbook keyboards & hand size
Quote:
Originally Posted by
John Schreiber
I sat next to a lady using a small (9" across) computer very successfully. Then I realized that her hands were half the size of mine, so the keyboard fit her well.
Maybe they should make keyboards in different sizes for different hand sizes.
I have a 10" Asus Eee. I have small hands but had trouble with swiping the touchpad when typing. This is the first machine I've had that is exclusively touchpad-IBM/Lenovo Think Pads with the "eraser" pointer for me, thanks. Anyway, the insert point moving was driving me nuts. The lastest alpha release of Ubuntu Netbook Remix has something where the touchpad can be disabled while alphanumeric keys are in use. My frustration with wandering cursors had decreased considerably:D. I don't know what the time interval between the last keypress and the touchpad being active is, but I haven't noticed any lag. It works great!
The other compromise with Netbooks is screen size. Mine is around 1200X600. It's still great for portability and web browsing/light duty office stuff. Not suitable for industrial strength photo editing, CAD obviously.