Right now I run a Toshiba Satellite laptop that i bought about a year and few months ago. It’s a 17″ beast, with 1.7 ghz Centrino, and I upgraded the RAM to 1.5 GB (to do graphic editing, 512 MB is not enough) and it has a generic 128 MB graphic card in it (a non 3D type). 80 GB Hard Drive. Don’t get me wrong here - I have no problem with the hardware by Toshiba. Toshiba, in my opinion, makes some of the best laptops, but Windows XP has its limitations when it comes to stability.

Now, it runs off Windows XP (obviously) and we all know about the unstabilities of this. Because I am a web developer, and a techy geek who likes to try out software and do a lot of different things off my computer other than just word processing, I do end up messing up my computer. Most of the times I just use the system restore function, but often, it does not seem to be enough. Ever. Every 3 months, on average, I end up backing up all my files on to my 250 GB external hard drive, and I toss in the Toshiba recovery CD which erases everything on my hard drive and resets everything to factory settings.

Here are few of the symptoms I’m suffering right now :

• Some sites just do NOT refresh on Firefox as I modify them. It’s very strange. I had the document open under domain.com/page.php format, and it won’t update even after I save the file on the FTP, live! And when I refresh it, or delete my cache and then refresh it, still the source code does NOT update. And then if I reload the page under www.domain.com/page.php, it shows the right stuff. And then, when I’m back at domain.com/page.php, without the www. again, it goes back to what it was! The fix for this? Open the same page on IE 7, and then come back to FF. Then it updates! It happens with HTML code, AND images!!!
• An Illustrator CS2 installation disk which worked fine on my friend Steven’s computer won’t work on mine. It says some file is not accessible AFTER it copies it onto my hard drive, and the installation stalls. So I’m running Photoshop CS2 with Illustrator CS. It’s quite annoying, although not life-threatening.
• Of course there’s the constant concern of spyware and such. It’s a small petty annoyance, but the fact that Norton has to scan all my emails as it goes in and out is annoying. Also the fact that I cannot visit some software crack sites because they are infested with spyware/malware is rather limiting. Also same applies to porn. I’m just being an honest guy here!

So right now, as we speak, everything is being backed up (and man does this take a while when you have so many hefty files!!! I do graphic design as well…), and now I need to make a checkmark of all the items that I MUST backup before I can format my hard drive. Those items include my Outlook data file, as well as my notes, windows preference settings, etc.

And my friend Jordan always tells me to get a Mac, but I do have some complaints against the Macbooks. The biggest is this :

They DO NOT have a full keyboard with the full keypad, even on teh 17″ models! Many of the generic IBM laptops that are 17″ widescreen have the full keyboard because the space allows for it.

Actually, thats the only problem I have with a mac. As you can see, my Toshiba has the full keypad which I love so much. I don’t think I could live without it. It’s a matter of personality and style.

Good things about a Mac that I know about :

• Virus free, and no constant security updates required.
• More compatible with external devices such as TVs, extra monitors, cameras etc.
• Easier interface for multimedia handling.
• The Remote.
• The magnetic power cord that prevents tripping damage.
• The fact that it can still run Windows on it!

If Mac added that full keypad feature on their Macbooks, I will buy it right away.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Gadgets and Electronics, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.