Okay, computer people, advise me.

[Fiferguy]

The amount of spam you get is inversely proportional to your intellect/net savvy (and to some degree that of your friends), saying it has anything to do with your operating system is just *boggle*.

Oops... My bad... Spam doesn't have to do with OS, you're right. Spyware does. My mistake. I don't remember when I wrote that, but I don't think I was all the way awake. I meant to say Spyware. I haven't gotten one piece of spyware or adware since I got a Mac, and I haven't changed my surfing habits at all. Spam on the other hand... I get plenty of that. Usually goes to the SPAM email account.

[Spec8472]

I haven't gotten one piece of spyware or adware since I got a Mac, and I haven't changed my surfing habits at all.

(Bold added for emphasis)

That seriously has me worried about you. No, really.

[Fiferguy]

I haven't gotten one piece of spyware or adware since I got a Mac, and I haven't changed my surfing habits at all.

(Bold added for emphasis)

That seriously has me worried about you. No, really.

Why would that worry you?

[wolfy]

I haven't gotten one piece of spyware or adware since I got a Mac, and I haven't changed my surfing habits at all.

(Bold added for emphasis)

That seriously has me worried about you. No, really.

Why would that worry you?

It sure does me!!!! He must be boring. (just kidding!!) Never surfs a porn or warz site or anything remotely questionable... He's got 10 book marks CNN, New York Times..... No idea how Fel's site managed to get in!

[Fiferguy]

It sure does me!!!! He must be boring. (just kidding!!) Never surfs a porn or warz site or anything remotely questionable... He's got 10 book marks CNN, New York Times..... No idea how Fel's site managed to get in!

LOL... It slipped in somehow, like that stray peanut in a Milky Way... and then I was hooked... Damned stuff is worse than morphine...

[Ledsmith]

I'm a certified computer technitian and former Circuit City Sales man in computers. Everybody above is pretty much right (except for maybe fifer, iBook...really!?!) Just a few comments, knowing Fel is going to Japan and is a college student his budget is probably pretty tight. So, here is what you absolutly must have, evey thing else is a niceity in my opinion.

Low consumption processor, I like the AMD Turions, speed isn't to big a deal...they are all bloody fast now.

2GB of RAM

and the item everybody neglects to look at, the largest bottle neck in a computer, 7200RPM hardrive, some laptops still only come with 5400RPMs which is way too slow.

As for service and warrenty, be very careful that they cover items that are going overseas. Best Buy and Circuit City DO NOT no matter what the sales man says. Even if they changed that policy it will not be a pleasant experience dealling with a store warrenty overseas. If you buy the computer from the manufacture website an extended warrenty might be worth it just read ALL the fine print.

[wildph]

Well,

I'm rooting for the macbook. It's not that much more expensive when compared to a windoes laptop features wise.

My personal choice would be for a 15" macbook pro. 17's a little too big, and a hate the small shiny screen on the macbooks. The way the keyboard lights up in low light conditions is particularly nice.

Thereis a <rant> in here somewhere, but i'm not quite sure where to put it..

Getting the mac to run XP (stay the hell away from vista) and your fave windows games isn't that much of a problem, you can either use apple's boot camp to allow you to install and boot into windows, or something like parallels desktop, which takes advantage of the vt features in the intel chip to run osx and xp side by side.

Both options allow for 3d acceleration, gaming at native speeds. Right mouse button on the mac is achieved either by pressing ctrl-click, or by plugging in a standard usb wheelmouse. Parallels is a little extra, but even the premium edition is less than 100 US dollars.

Code: Select all

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/screens&demos/

Particularly nice is the parallels coherence mode, whereby xp and osx applications can be worked at the same time and displayed together, integrated into the main osx desktop environment.

Of course, to run xp and osx side by side, you'll want memory. best bet here is to order the laptop with stock/minimum ram, and then purchase your ram elsewhere to take it up to 4GB. Last time I checked, apple's memory pricing wasn't exactly competitive.

For word processing, layout, and general work-things, my experience is that the mac will allow a much more trouble free existence, and you'll be able to spend less time faffing around fighting with the operating system, and more time working.

The spotlight system on mac, accessed through command-space will maintain an index of your files, emails, applications and contacts and let you find things based on matched keywords or sentences. Your home directory can even be encrypted, apple provides a tool called filevault with OSX to this end.

As Fifer says, virus exposure and spyware is much improved on the mac. To all intents, there's nothing to worry about. Still, i'd err on the side of caution and run virex or clamXav as a minimum.

You can still be stupid on a mac - if you download an application from the internet or get it in email, and double-click to run it, using your admin password to grant extra privileges, don't blame apple if it turns out to do something other than wot it says on the tin - it could go around changing, hiding or deleting files. Know where your software comes from is all I'm saying.

Generally osx has loads of nice touches, in addition to being quite pretty, it's still fast, not nearly as drm encumbered as vista (don't go there). exposé and dashboard (both standard) make for a really slick alternative to window management and alt-tab application switching.

Proper, usable multilanguage support is included, giving easy access to various sorts of arabic, cryllic, roman, chinese, and japanese script.

The system tends not to need restarting unless a system update is needed. It'll alert you every so often as apple releases updates, kind of like windows update does. In day to day use, the laptop can be slept or hibernated. Wake from sleep is achieved within seconds usually, while hibernation can take a little longer to recover from.

</rant>

right.. i'm bowing out of this debate now.. make the right choice eh?

XW

[Spec8472]

Why would that worry you?

Because it says a lot about what sort of precautions you take online: Apparently none, or very little. When someone does decide to target malware at Macs, I'd think you'll be among the first to get it. It doesn't matter what OS you use if you'll just install anything or follow any set of instructions you're given.

[crxbnt]

As a relative newbie to posting (although I did several years ago under a different name, no idea what it was anymore) I will be humble. But not too humble, because I have been doing this (computers) for 30 years. And I have considerable experience with folks travelling. So some baselines:

- warranties and good machines for N America / Europe mean nothing in Asia. Find out (research) which machines can be serviced in Japan. I suspect Dell is out, but most other laptops come from Japan or the Pacific rim. Even if a machine comes from Japan, you may need to ensure that you buy a warranty that specifically covers Japan. And make sure that the warranty is for service by an outfit in Japan. Some warranties would ship the machine back to the place you bought it for service, adding 3-12 months to the service cycle.

-make sure that there is a supply of parts for your machine in Japan. Just because everyone carries the parts here, does not mean the same for Japan or Europe. Because of different rules for ULA, manufactured content, power supply, some models are more approproiate for N America, or Europe.

-make sure it is rugged. Japan is an expensive place to live. I have relatives there. When they initially went to Japan they were blown away by the high costs of some parts of life that they had taken for granted. They also ran into the difficulties of culture shock (i.e. their home did not have heating through out, and it was not always on, therefore some critical components froze and ruptured). Japan is also very crowded, and personal space is not always granted. Personal property may get banged up in ways that we could not pre-conceive.

These 3 considerations are not often considered, but can be critical once you are in Japan. It is a beautiful countryu, with people that are different, yet the same. Enjoy the time you spend there. But be prepared for completely different perspectives on life, the importance of the individual versus the society, etc.

crxbnt

[Spec8472]

Good News, Everybody.

I spoke to a friend who's been living in Japan for several years now (also doing the University thing) - he's got a Dell, and tells me that Dell do indeed allow you to get support locally (he had an issue a while back with the display in his laptop).

I would recommend that you call up Dell to order, and make sure they give you both US and Japan power plugs - you can't do this online (that I can see) but apparently the phone staff can. All laptop power supplies for the last 5 years at least are switching supplies, so will accept anything from 110V to 230V AC, given the right plugs, so at worst you'll have to get a US/JP plug changer. It's worth having a spare power adaptor (one in the bag, one leave-at-home) though.

If you're going to get Theft Protection and/or CompleteCover, then you will need to double check that with them that they will extend that cover internationally.

[kabalman2000]

Hmmm ... Well you've already shot the first question I ask out of the air. "What are you going to be using/needing this computer for/to do?"

A computer to answer mom's e-mail, surf the web, and balance your checkbook is an entirely different level from one to play WoW or run simultaneous solutions for 26th order calculus equations.

I agree with crxbnt about looking very carefully at serviceability issues for whatever you get. Also keep in mind that they've got stuff in Japan with features that aren't available in other parts of the world (like the U.S.). So, depending on length of stay and fluency in the language, it might be better to get something there (though more expensive). See some here: http://www.dynamism.com/Notebooks/category.shtml

Anyway, the three competing issues are usually power, portability, and inexpensiveness. You can get two of three. But, in your case, you also have warranty issues along with parts and speed of service.

In any case: take memory sticks, keep all documents in sub-folders under one main folder, and back-up that folder (or the changes to it) every day (if not more often). If something does go kaput you'll quite likely loose all of your data since the last backup.

[afrigeek]

In any case: take memory sticks, keep all documents in sub-folders under one main folder, and back-up that folder (or the changes to it) every day (if not more often). If something does go kaput you'll quite likely loose all of your data since the last backup.

Shudder! Shudder! Anyone here having a nightmare about Fel losing some as yet unposted chapters of any of his works in progress?

[Fiferguy]

Why would that worry you?

Because it says a lot about what sort of precautions you take online: Apparently none, or very little. When someone does decide to target malware at Macs, I'd think you'll be among the first to get it. It doesn't matter what OS you use if you'll just install anything or follow any set of instructions you're given.

There's an old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs says, "He don't know me very well, do he?"

I am fairly obsessed with security on my home system, and since I take my laptop all over the place, I have a few (or many) security precautions that I take. I don't get Malware because I take an almost fanatical approach to internet security. For instance, at home, I have the following set up:

Cable modem feeds a dedicated firewall box. Firewall box feeds wireless router, which is encrypted with 128 Bit encryption and a 128 bit 26 digit hex WEP key. Yes, WEP keys are easily crackable, however I also have the router set up with MAC address list that has the only computers allowed on the network. I also run a firewall on my laptop, and I actually do use anti-Malware software and an anti-Virus on my computer. I also use a port monitoring program that lets me see exactly what's going on, and what ports are being used, and if a new program tries to access any port.

So yes, I do take precautions. Does that make you feel better Spec?

[J-Man5]

so if i sniff your network and crack your wep and then spoof your mac address i can get on? Ok tell me where you live. Oh wait I can just trace your ip via the geo map to ip database.

Grins!!!!!

J-Man5

[MommyDoom]

In any case: take memory sticks, keep all documents in sub-folders under one main folder, and back-up that folder (or the changes to it) every day (if not more often). If something does go kaput you'll quite likely loose all of your data since the last backup.

Hey everybody. I know I haven't posted in forever, but wanted to chime in quickly here. I'm a remote user who has worked off of a Toshiba laptop for years now (one of the idiots that Greymist has to deal with every day ) and wanted to echo what kbalman said. BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP. Your laptop crashes and there's usually a small to nothing chance (especially in Japan) that your stuff is recoverable.

Also, I agree with Spec. I'll contribute to the "get Fel a better laptop" fund.

MD