Ah feck! I need a laptop!

I have some travel shit to do and suffered badly when a work laptop died on me in Taiwan over Easter. it would seem the safer option is to buy one that can communicate with work through VPN from wherever I happen to be.

Sorry for the new thread, I looked and didn’t find one on “buying a laptop”, then again this changes by the damned week!

I need to buy a laptop this weekend in HK. All suggestions open. Oh, and a couple of suits.

HG

What do you need it to do? If you can find an iBook, you could probably get a 15" model for under NT$30,000.

I was in the Sony shop this afternoon and saw a VAIO laptop thet was priced at NT$115,000 and change.
Beautiful piece of work. The size of a small coffee table with a 22" wide-screen. Intel Core 2, 2.8g. with 2 gigs of 1066 ram. I think the darn thing had its own geo-synchronous satellite included. This thing was loaded to the gills.

I, of course, did not buy it.

Heavy editing stuffery. Big word docs, excel and possibly media files. Loads of emailing, but importantly, I need to connect to the HK office files.

TC. That Sony sounds like a dream, but work aint paying!

HG

I have an iBook G4, 1.3 ghz, 1.5 gig RAM, and it gets a bit laggy when editing large docs with embedded media. Laggy enough to piss me off when I’ve a lot of such work to do. Networking isn’t an issue though.

In your place, I’d get a smokin’ MacBook… but then I’m biased in favour of sense and usabilty, so I loath Windows machines.

I agree with you on the Windows front, I know just where to go from here.

Thanks!

HG

So, what did the last one die off? (your notebook that is, not your servant)

Was it:
a, old age
b, porn overload
c, drunken abuse
d, other

Nah, the ITs, they done gave me a shitty hand. Payback HK style. I loathe them.

HG

I’m a big Mac fan (one iBook, one Powerbook & one iMac)…but before you go Mac, talk to your tech guys about getting onto the servers. Shouldn’t be an issue, but it is in some organizations (like mine)

What the other mac guys said. The Macbooks (pro or regular) with the intel chips can run Windows if you need to. Good 3 year warranty if you buy the applecare.

Talk to your IT guy at work.

[quote=“canucktyuktuk”]What the other mac guys said. The Macbooks (pro or regular) with the intel chips can run Windows if you need to. Good 3 year warranty if you buy the applecare.

Talk to your IT guy at work.[/quote]

Macheads rule, eh? Will it be a nightmare going from Windows to Mac? Will I have to relearn loads of silly tech guffery that basically I have no time for?

Talk to the ITs at work? Good god, man! You’ve lost all credibility with that one. :laughing:

Or is there something special in the way one should reboot a Mac? I mean. that’s all they know what to do when something is amiss. “Ah, did choo try and reboot da compooter?”

HG

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I need to buy a laptop this weekend in HK. All suggestions open. Oh, and a couple of suits.
HG[/quote]

For suits I go to:

Maxwell’s Clothiers
Suite A, 7th Floor
Han Hing Mansion
38-40 Hankow Rd, TST
Kowloon
Phone: 2366-6658 or 6705

Call ahead 'cause I haven’t been there in a couple years and they may have moved. You would need to go for a first and second fitting …

HGC,

If you plan to have the IT folks at work support your computer, get something they know. In fact, if you tell them that you’re asking them for a recommendation, need to buy a brand new, clean computer, what would they buy, then you’ll get a good recommendation. I would think that the company has a “standard” laptop definition and configuration?

If you have a choice for work, my recommends are IBM, TOSHIBA. I think that the Acers/Asus have really come up strong and are good alternatives as well. Asus probably gets the nod due to their Global warranties.

Happy hunting!

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Nah, the ITs, they done gave me a shitty hand. Payback HK style. I loathe them.

HG[/quote]

I don’t want to pry, so won’t push this line of thought-but my first comment would be to communicate the situation-that you are not getting support from IT, and that it will cost the company through late reports etc- with my direct manager and get the company to pay for a notebook. Do you really want to pay for this, and those IT guys to have the satisfaction of knowing they cost you 1kUS$+? Seems a perfectly normal expence for a company. As far as the suits? Good excuse to pop over to Taipei for the weekend and get some decently priced threads with helpful advice from people like Sandman.

As for the ITs and what they know, I doubt I can produce much on a Playstation 2.

To clarify, in hindsight it probably wasn’t a wise move for my boss to paste in a gif of a moving bug into an e-mail and send it to the ITs with the message, “Help! - There’s a bug in my e-mail!” It was also unwise of him to forward me their response some three hours later saying, “we think it’s just a gif file, do you need any further support? Have you tried rebooting your machine?” It was extremely stupid of me to forward this e-mail to all my mates saying “what a bunch of unbelievable clods!”

Erh, they’re . . . in all liklihood, reading this right now, aren’t they?

Gulp!

HG

See, questions like this only tell me that it’s time to make the change.

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Will it be a nightmare going from Windows to Mac? Will I have to relearn loads of silly tech guffery that basically I have no time for?[/quote]snort See, that’s why I moved to Mac… too much brain stuff dedicated to making Windows run, reinstalling Windows, purging worms, viruses, ect. Why using a computer should require reading entrails, I don’t know, but now that I no longer have to bother, I don’t care.

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Or is there something special in the way one should reboot a Mac? I mean. that’s all they know what to do when something is amiss. “Ah, did choo try and reboot da compooter?”[/quote] Reboot? Huh? Oh, yeah, I remember that. :laughing: Hell, I remember 10 consecutive reboots, and three reinstallations in a single day. :unamused: It’s an exceedingly rare event. When necessary, you press and hold the power button. That’s it.

If the IT guys are that dense, why bother asking? Get the machine and let them sweat it.

I can’t be the only one thinking this so let me be the bastard to say it.

HG, we thought you were a high flyer in Hong Kong, the cream of the expat crop, walking the corridors of power, pressing the flesh with the rich and powerful, and raking in the dollars. (My God, you almost met Al Gore.)

Now we find out you have to pay for your own laptop (computer that is)! :astonished: :slight_smile:
Come clean. Are you the office tea boy?

At least in my job I get supplied with my own markers (and I get to take them home).

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]As for the ITs and what they know, I doubt I can produce much on a Playstation 2.

To clarify, in hindsight it probably wasn’t a wise move for my boss to paste in a gif of a moving bug into an e-mail and send it to the ITs with the message, “Help! - There’s a bug in my e-mail!” It was also unwise of him to forward me their response some three hours later saying, “we think it’s just a gif file, do you need any further support? Have you tried rebooting your machine?” It was extremely stupid of me to forward this e-mail to all my mates saying “what a bunch of unbelievable clods!”

Erh, they’re . . . in all liklihood, reading this right now, aren’t they?

Gulp!

HG[/quote]
Heh.

It may be that the IT guys were playing with your boss as well. Some IT helpdesk support guys are certainly idiots. They are almost without exception however, extremely sensitive to hierarchy and often need to stifle the urge to really speak their mind. There’s a reason why in the IT world, “l-users” is a common uttered epithet. Your boss may be one.

In any event, most IT guys like to talk shop and tech with their users. If you appeal to their geekiness, they’ll reciprocate and will take care of your tech needs and you’ll have good service for life. When you’re on the road on business and need a life line, it’s great to be able to call your tech guy at 2am in the morning asking him for help.

Yours truly from an ex-IT helpdesk techie…
(and sorta still is)

I am whatever grubby little fantasy your mind can conjure up. Baaa!

But truth is they gave me a laptop and it died. I don’t trust the office ITs, and they’re probably trying to read this, so I trust them even less, now. I want something that works reliably, thus far they haven’t offered me that.

One day, when I grow up, I’ll be in a position to sack the lot of them. And I fucking will too! Did you catch that bit, ya useless pack of wankers? Here, let me reboot your arse!

Edit: Aw Christ YC, I wish I had’ve read your post before posting this!

“Hey dudes, Dram rocks, how’‘s the flash hangn’?” Do ya reckon I can pull it off?

HG

I have a Mac and it’s fab and does pretty much whatever. Except run the Windows only software I need to use for work… (I don’t have one of the newer ones)