[Frinavale]

In September my husband went back to school and so in August we bought him a new laptop. He researched his options and made a sound decision on his own.

Last month he started complaining that his CPU wasn't the speed that he thought he bought so we went back to the store and talked to one of the hardware guys there. He informed us that the CPU runs at one speed idly until more power is required. It makes sense: laptops have always been designed with battery life in mind.

Happy with the answer, I thought the "problem" was solved until he got a grant for school and decided to go out and buy a new laptop...one that can run AutoCad.

I protested a lot because school is expensive enough and we don't need to be throwing money into computers that we don't need. But what is done is done regardless of how I feel about the topic.

My laptop is an old core 2 Duo with 2GB of ram...I just upgraded it from Vista to Windows7 and it's set up with my work stuff.

My husband tried to convince me that I Needed his old computer because he wasn't comfortable with me using such an old machine. He wants to be able to go to LANs with laptops instead of desktops.

Every laptop I've owned I've dedicated to being my "work" machine...games were banned from them.

So tonight I finally booted up the "new" computer and tried to get excited about it. I changed the display to something that I liked and started the tedious process of uninstalling stuff that I would never use or didn't recognize.

Then I wanted to send a quick email...

This keyboard is almost UNUSABLE!!

I type by touch. I never look at my fingers unless I can't find the delete key or some obscure thing that isn't usually used..

Who the hell thought that it would be a good idea to put a "\" key where the right hand shift is? What normal user even uses that key??? And why would they think that it would be a good idea to put the SAME Useless KEY ("\") where the enter key is supposed to be????????? It's not like users are constantly working with XML or typing Windows directory paths... They must think that touch typesets don't actually USE the shift key and the enter key Frequently while typing!!

I have to stretch my fingers to the point that I have to leave home row to reach keys that I always use...I have to retrain myself how to type.

I also can't figure out how to get the mouse pad to scroll. My husband was saying that it is a dual touch mouse pad that I can pinch to zoom out etc....but I cannot figure out how to scroll! I tried scrolling using the edge of the mouse pad (this is how all of my laptops have worked in the past), I tried using 2 fingers, I tried clicking some strange rectangular icon in the corner of the mouse pad....nothing works.

I tried to like this machine...it's a black "brushed steel" and looks kind of nice...but I just hate it soooo much right now!!

This post has been edited by Frinavale: 18 January 2012 - 09:10 PM

[modi123_1]

New toys are a learning curve. I have an address you can send it to that would find it a good home!

[Frinavale]

It will get sent anywhere if I am first sent $4500

This post has been edited by Frinavale: 18 January 2012 - 09:12 PM

[modi123_1]

Ah.. well I thought I was going to find a stray a good home... Sad.

I find all laptops have a jacked up keyboard.. to the point where I have had a few people watch me hunt and peck for odd keys (while fixing their malware filled boxes) and say, "you do know what you are doing, right?".

[skyhawk133]

My current laptop has the touch pad about 1/2 inch too far to the left and my big ole' fat palms touch the edges and cause the mouse to jump or stop working intermittently. The 'delete' key and '\' are also in very odd places.

I feel your pain.

[jon.kiparsky]

I can't bear track pads, personally. The keyboards I can deal with, usually, but the trackpads are a nightmare. I keep spare mice all over the place, so I never find myself with a laptop and no mouse, it's that bad. The power nipple is even worse - it's impossible to actually use it for anything, it's only good for inadvertantly changing the focus while you're trying to work on something and causing havoc and despair.


Why you want to do design work on a laptop, I can't guess, but I'd suggest that your best bet is to invest a little more in a docking station and a monitor and pretend it's a desktop machine. Then you can get a full-sized keyboard and a full-sized monitor and actually get some work done - and in a pinch, it converts into a laptop, which is convenient.

[Creecher]

My enter key is about the size of my escape key. Feels bad man.

[Slice]

My sony vaio laptop was horrible at first as all the keys are spaced out with about 2mm between each key. Drove me insane, always hitting a key a little left/right to the key I wanted.

Can't live without it now

Speaking of keyboards, I've just bought a microsoft X4 sidewinder. Macro keys are great and all, but not too sure about the positioning. Keep hitting macro 3 instead of caps lock

[creativecoding]

Set your macro 3 to caps lock, now you have a very large caps lock key


If you feel like you'll never learn to get used to your keyboard, just buy a USB one and a monitor. Set it all up and soon you'll have an ultra-thin slightly-portable desktop.

[Frinavale]

I'm thinking of physically removing the extra "/" keys (especially the one by the shift...mind you the one by the enter key is pretty bad too)

My first laptop was a Viao and I loved it
It went everywhere with me
I couldn't live without it!
It had a normal keyboard and there was enough room for me to keep my palms from touching the mouse...all I had to do was reach my thumb down past the space bar and I could use the mouse without ever having to remove my hands from home row. It was a smart design back then. But the new Viaos are just as bad as the laptop I have. It's like all laptop designers lot their minds and now we're stuck with unusable machines.

[tlhIn`toq]

Personally the only time to use the built-in keyboard of a laptop is when you are flying. After that your desk should have the laptop sitting high enough for the screen to be at eye level, unless you want your posture to become a question mark?

Your keyboard then is the bluetooth accessory keyboard that you can also use on your smartphone and tablet. If you get a folding fullsize it can then go on the road with you as well.
http://www.amazon.co...C/dp/B001Q2COXC

[Frinavale]

I'm not planning on having a docking station.

I have an awesome desktop computer that I use for development, media editing, and games. I have absolutely no need for this laptop in the comfort of my home (where monitors and keyboards are available).

My husband moved 450km away for school and when I visit him I bring along my laptop. It lets me do work while he's studying during the day on the weekend and it's great for file transfers etc. I'm also allowing 3 games to be installed in case he wants a break to play something.

When I'm visiting him, I don't have an extra mouse and monitor to plug into...

He wants to replace our desktops with laptops but I'm very skeptical about it. Laptop components are designed to use less power...which means that they physically use less power...which means the processors etc are a gimped compared to a desktop processor.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but this is just how I think.

[modi123_1]

Fold out?! Bah - we all know the true 133t use rollup keyboards!

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16823166084

(And yes.. roll up is better than virtual laser keyboards)

[lordofduct]

Agreed w/ tlhIn'toq

laptop keyboard and mouse are for portability only

as general use input devices, they are balls. Extra keyboard and mouse for static use, docking stations are really nice as well if you plan to use it as a main computer.



It sounds to me like you don't really need a laptop... so why even bother. As for your husband's insistance on using laptops in place of desktops... he's retarded. I finally just 2 weeks ago convinced my entire dev office to get the hell off of laptops and that they'll get more work done on modern REAL computers for a fraction of the cost of a laptop.

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 19 January 2012 - 07:45 AM

[jon.kiparsky]

Quote

When I'm visiting him, I don't have an extra mouse and monitor to plug into...

That's not hard to arrange. Less than $50 from MicroCenter and you're set- not the fanciest, but quite serviceable ones. Add in a stand (~$50) to get the screen up to eye level and you've got a "docking station" that you can leave in place at your feller's pad, and it'll disappear into a drawer when you're not using it.

Or you could visit my office some time and I'd hork a keyboard and mouse out of the discard pile for you - and on a good day I could give you a laptop to go with them. (you'd need to replace the hard drive...)

Ironically, considering Dylan's post, the only thing I like about laptops is that they're usually free or available for a token payment. There's always a few going around that will do anything you need, as long as you don't need to run Microsoft products. Fortunately, the only reason to run microsoft is for work, and then your employer will provide the gear.