When Computers Crash

July 25, 2007

It must be the week of computer crashes. DazzlinDonna reported on Monday that her computer crashed over the weekend. Mine crashed yesterday. Grrr. She’s looking at portable apps, which I think is a great idea when I get my next laptop.

Speaking of which, I’m taking suggestions. But not from Apple fanboys. I’m writing from a MacBook as we speak, so yes I’ve been tempted by the MacBook Pro. But the only feature that I really care about is the built-in web cam. I can get one of those on a Dell Inspiron, which is almost $1000 less. But I’m also thinking about a convertible Tablet PC and here’s why.

Monday morning, Adam and I met with a client at a local coffee shop. I found myself switching back and forth between copious note-taking and looking stuff up on the internet.

With a convertible Tablet PC, I could take notes on the tablet and easily transform back into the laptop - and turn the screen around - when needed. Later, when I need to look at my notes, they’re right there on the computer.

“But why should I need to take handwritten notes when I could just type them out,” you ask. After all, I do type 77 glorious words per minute. The answer is that handwriting gives me the freedom to write all over a page and group things together. Hey, I’m spacial, what can I say? Then again, when I was taking notes in college, they were very linear.

Another reason is that when you have your laptop out in front of a client, it comes between you and the client like an ugly centerpiece at Thanksgiving dinner.

But convertible Tablet PCs have their downfalls. One is their size. Most come in 12 inch screens and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t go any smaller than the 13 inch screen I’m on right now. (My crashed computer is 17 inch).

Another negative is finding one with a built-in webcam that’s within my price range. Why is the webcam thing so important? Because I want to get into video podcasting. (Actually, I have dreams of becoming a big time cewebrity, but let’s not get too far off track here.)

So, leave me a comment with your suggestion for my next laptop. And don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed in order to find out whether I took you up on your suggestion or not. I’ll be letting you know of my decision in the next week or two. And who knows? It might just be by video.

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