Next to a basic cell phone, I consider my laptop to be my most useful electronic tool. With it I can do anything. Well, almost anything. I can communicate with people all over the globe. I can edit photos. I can write. I can store and quickly find useful information. I can use spread sheets, analyze data, and watch helpful videos. I can listen to music in Guatemala, read news in the States, and sharpen my mind with the intake of information. I can go portable without being attached to cords, continue to be productive when there is now power supply, and even improve my hand/eye coordination from time to time.
Of course, the same laptop that I find so useful can become an incredible time waster. But, that is a problem with discipline and self and differences of believe. The man who uses a hammer as an efficient tool to do his work can find great pleasure (or at least, I would) in using the same hammer to bash out the glass windows on vehicles (assuming he wouldn’t have to pay for it afterwards). That’s essentially how we can start using our laptops –only the risk is less, the numbers of vehicles are never exhausted, and it’s probably more fun.
Recently I ‘upgraded’ to a new laptop, which is pictured. This time I decided to go sleek and portable to boost my mental productivity in Guatemala. I looked at the world of netbooks and loved the portability and battery life that I saw –perfect for word processing. But for the photo editing that I do, I wanted a larger screen than the common 10.1″ that you find in netbook, a larger keyboard, and healthy dose of electronic horses to do my work. Oh –and I was on a budget.
I finally settled on the Asus Eee 1215N which boasts a 12″ screen, a full size keyboard, a battery life of 5.5 hours (I compromised my batter life for more speed), dual core 1.8 atom processor –and one of the features I love best, a 512mb Nvidia video card sporting the all new Optimus technology (which basically only uses the dedicated video when needed to save battery).
I’ve been very pleased with my set up –especially the long battery life and portability. The small screen does not feel small after a bit of use, except for photo editing it still feels small. The processor is a bit slow for the stuff I put it under, but it’s not bad. The video card is more than adequate. With only 2GB of RAM, I’m hoping to upgrade sometime, but I’ll probably wait till I’m home from Guatemala –no use doing too many upgrades only to have it stolen, and I won’t need the extra RAM that much.
A used HP Elite keyboard and Microsoft wireless mouse complete my package (combined with coffee, mind you) , making me look forwards to more time writing again.
That’s why I blog –because it forces me to write, which is one of those things I can’t afford to just throw off as useless. It helps me remember that I have a mind to use, and it helps my mind to grow and broaden instead of simply fermenting inside my skull.
And maybe I can encourage you the reader in some small way. Just one time –and it makes this all worthwhile.