Wow. That was an eye opening post.

Not for the topic per se. But for a glimpse of your background.

You claim to have 20 years working IT in the finance sector. That pays VERY WELL! And you work long hours with lots of pressure and stress.

Glad you’re paying your taxes Rick. Keep up the good work.

2 things,
1) If you are worried about cooling I bought my wife (she has a dell laptop which sits on a wood desk all day where the heat just stays) a 15 buck item off ebay which lifts the laptop off the wood and has 3 fans to pull the heat out. COOL ITEM.

2) I don’t get the netbook explosion. I helped my brother by a full laptop for 379, why save the 79 bucks for a $300 netbook?

You may have noticed that there have been a lot of job losses over the last year or two. Often times this means that there is an overabundance of used equipment available from your local IT department for free or at a significant discount. Do not be afraid to ask about these, but DO be sensitive about the subject.

If you are in the undersireable position where you are the person being let go (not performance related), feel free to ask if you can keep your laptop or computer. While this may seem awkward employers will often allow this in an effort to help you get that next job (and it allows them to sleep a bit better). My experience is that you have roughly a fifty-fifty chance of them saying yes (factors include relationship with company, duration of employment, and your employer’s policies). Keep in mind they will probably have to scrub the PC to insure that no confidential information remains on the computer (it may be a process, just be patient).

Anyhow, sorry for the double post!
Peace.
Rick Beagle

With that said, please let me provide two pieces of unsolicited advice:

1) Never, ever purchase any technology that doesn’t have a need, and purchase with those parameters in mind. Computers can do some amazing things, and like many other items in the market, the higher the price the more “amazing” things it can do. The question is do you need all of those amazing features?

2) Talk to an IT expert. Most of us have access to one of these or a few either at work or school. Please, I am not talking about the guy who seems to be handy around computers. To drive this point home, just because you can change your own oil doesn’t make you a mechanic. Get expert advice. The good news, most of us in the IT field will provide you with more information that you can handle for a lunch. That’s right, you potentially save thousands for a five dollar sandwich – quite the deal.

Funny,
Since I’m already being a blow hard let me chime in with regards to your situation. There is a new operating system coming out from Microsoft later this year. Succinctly, businesses by and large have resisted converting to Vista (there are a number of reasons why, but given the nature of this site, suffice to say that it costs far more to support Vista than was purported or desired), which has resulted in a bottled up need for IT improvement. If the product is half as good as it claims (I am a beta tester and it is), then we should see an explosion of upgrades in 2010-2011 (tepid at first with the explosion immediately following SP1). So, if you have to buy a computer now insure that you get the OS upgrade assurance and that the computer is capable of running the new OS smoothly.

As for printers, buyers BEWARE! HP is notorious for selling their printers cheap knowing that they will make up their money in ink and paper. Pay attention to these costs when looking at your printer’s costs…..

Nuff said.
Peace.
Rick Beagle

I’ve been eyeballing Costco’s $800 HP laptop-&-cheapo printer combination. Not too sure about HP quality, but I guess with any PC it’s a pig in a poke. When my job ends and the university takes back its laptop, I’ll need some sort of PC for jobs the Mac doesn’t do well…this looks like a reasonable answer to that need and would provide a back-up printer in the bargain. But, there’s that unpredictable factor: will enough jobs that require Microsoft’s software really arise to make it worth spending $800, when in a pinch I can mooch some time on my son’s high-powered PC? Hmmm….