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Stewart Taylor asked us to recommendation good laptops.
Sorry, I can't do it. But I can recommend against one widely
available brand: Whatever you do, don't get a Compaq.
Unless things have changed since I last looked, and I doubt
that a whole lot, their proprietary add-ons to Windows are
buggy as all get-out, and there is no way to run the machine
without them. On some models, also, (including the one
I made the mistake of buying) it's impossible to fix any of the
cumulative problems without reinstalling the entire system,
destroying all your programs and data files. While using the
thing pretty much constantly, I had to strip it down the the bare
drive and start again three times in the first six months -- and
I've heard of worse records.
In fairness, I have to admit that as a once-in-a-while, Word-
and-IE-while-on-a-trip machine, it isn't too bad. Then again,
few computers are too bad if you hardly ever use them.
As for the Dell, see if you can lay hands on one before buying.
I used one for a week or so in someone else's office and found
that the touchpad wasn't recessed enough to get it out of my
way. Whenever my attention wandered to my work, rather than
to controlling my thumbs, the cursor ran all over the screen.
Other folks have found this less of a problem, but I couldn't adapt
to it.
Owen Davies
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