I want to thank all of you who posted comments and sent me emails giving me great advice. The wireless network hardware and software has been purchased and will be arriving in a few days. IÂ’m looking forward to setting that up and seeing how the process goes. IÂ’ll be reporting about it here and will give it a rating in terms of level of cursing, from minor swearing to full fledge latrined-sailor mouth.

As for my laptop, after getting additional things to consider in the comments/emails I received, the search became a bit more broader, not narrower. It seems that what I want is what your average young male (20+) wants in system. So, to make sure I got what I wanted I made a list of all the things I need to do with my computer and all the new things I want it to have. It helped create a list of minimum required & features I need to look for in my new baby. Of course, price, user & editor's ratings will be the final deciding factors, but at least I would get something that had everything I needed to get me (and eventually my son) through the next 10 years. Below are my basic needs & the specs that will satisfy them.

My needs (technically speaking):
- Soft & gentle touch keyboard – that will stand up to my intense manipulaiton and not wear out with my heavy playing session. It also must not aggravate my carpel tunnel condition in the process.
- Long battery life – what’s the use of setting up a wireless network if I have to be hooked up to a power cable. I want to be free of cables! Free to go anywhere and be in any position I want when I play.
- Infrared port – so I can update and back up my phone apps (calendar, contacts, financials, etc) wirelessly between my pc and phone.
- Lots and LOTS of RAM for me to play with. That way I can install every last bit of software I use and not have to decide which pc I should install it on. More importantly I want to use multiple apps and access multiple files simultaneously. Right now as I type this IÂ’m running a file search on my hard drive, typing this in a word processing app, while listening to music with a headset and running a search via an online search engine. If I were to do my infrared hotsync between my phone and pc both would crash. Imagine being able to upload and download simultaneously. Now THAT would be HOT!
- Fast processor w/high benchmark scores. I don't want some salesman telling me how fast it can go. I want to have proof of how fast he can go and make sure he can execute all my commands at or near warp speed BEFORE I put my money on the table. Right now my pc is running real slow with all the demands IÂ’m placing on it. This girl is tired of slow! I WANT TO PLAY REALLY FAST AND WANT POWERFUL THRUST SPEEDS on my new baby. As for processor type, I think weÂ’ve established that CORE DUO is mostly hype. I recently discovered that it can only run 64 bit apps knocking it out of contention with me.
- Solid graphics processor with longevity – as my son will eventually be inheriting my new baby. Looking 5 or 6 years down the line when my son’s 12 or 13 he’ll want the laptop to be able to play dvd's, video and online games on this baby. I'll want the laptop to be able to be upgradable and functional for 4 more years beyond that, well at least till he’s 16 and can afford to buy his own racehorse.
- Multiple networking platforms This pc will be my virtual office (where IÂ’ll be answering calls made to my office phone line remotely on htis laptop and emailing via the VPN simultaneously) when IÂ’m working from home. To be truly wireless I'll need for the pc to have Bluetooth capability. But when I travel I want to be able to have access to Wi-Fi Hotspots and connect via the local office network when I visit the Wash. DC office (Ethernet).
- Expansion ports/slots - Yes, I want to have the oppty to have my baby interface with any number of peripherals and grow with all my ever-increasing needs: IEEE 1394a (FireWire), Serial port, S-Video out, I/II/III PC / SD and Express cards.
- It also has to be able to handle hot swapping and have easy seamless integration with any state of the art high performance gadgets I have in order to keep this baby very happy. Gadgets like a dual layer optical drive CD/DVD+RW, bluetooth telephone headset and bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
- Finally, it has to remain quiet and stay cool at all times, but especially during long, intense and rough mpa playing sessions. It also has to play flawlessly with me in the hottest of environments [@=>30F & @=<105F].

Ohhhhh, writing about my fantasy laptop felt sooo gooooooood. Sighhhhhh! Now that I'm clear on what I want, I can focus on making sure every single one of my needs is met by an exciting, new, high-performing, state of the art, piece of equipment. YesÂ… YesÂ… YES, I WANT IT ALL! Ahhhhhhhh! and IÂ’m not going to pay a lot for it either. NO siree! IÂ’m going to make damn sure of that.

ItÂ’s now time to flex my excited and nimble fingers over my current hard keyboard and fire up its search engines. This is a job way beyond Zonker and his Library Elves or Mr. HelpfulÂ’s capabilities. This is a job for me to embark on alone. IÂ’ll let you all know when IÂ’m finally finished and successful.

Again, thank you all for your help and suggestions!

Posted by: Michele at 10:23 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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