Re: adultery

[Jonathan Q <jq@example.com>]

Peter Evans (peter@example.com) wrote:

> what I've heard about them from other people -- but these others have
> mostly been talking about the single IBM that they had bought, and of
> course people are notoriously reluctant to badmouth their own purchases.

If you want proof, go to Akihabara and crawl through some used shops and
see how many really old Thinkpads are for sale.  486-25, 486-33, 
maybe even a few 386 units.  You'll probably see more of those
than of all other brands combined from that time period.  That's
no doubt partly a reflection of market share, but is also a 
tetament to the durability of those things, that there are still
so many around.

Nothing seems to have changed.  We use our Thinkpad 240 mostly for 
hooking up to the serial consoles of routers or access servers in
remote locations.  It's means of transport is generally being stuffed
in somebody's backpack as-is (no notebook case or anything).  We've
had it for over a year now and couldn't even begin to count how
many road trips it has been on in this fashion and we've never
had any sort of problem with it.  Not just "computer-related" but
no trouble of any kind.  Nothing has gotten loose, fallen off, 
anything.  Thinkpads are built tough.

The verdict in my department is unamious: if we neeed another 
notebook, we'd get another Thinkpad 240.  We like it so much
we wouldn't even comparison shop anything else.

Of course, analyze it against your needs.  A decent keyboard was one
of our requirements, too.  Others were:

*  A real serial port (not USB), because we wanted to be 100% sure there
   would never be a problem connecting to any serial consoles 500 km from
   Tokyo with no other notebook around;

*  Weight (it weighs 1.3 kg with the battery, quite easy to carry);

*  Display quality (very sharp, bright, and clear; IBM has always had good LCDs);

*  Durability;

*  Lots of memory (it came with 64, and we got the 128 meg expansion module
   to take it to 192 meg), and a good pointing device (it has the IBM nipple,
   not a trackpad; we don't like trackpads). 

A note on nipple-type pointing devices: the quality of these things can
very tremendously by manufacturer.  The above-mentioned Toshiba also
has one, but the Thinkpad's pointing device gives about triple the control
of the Toshiba, so pay attention to this point when you buy a machine.  Maybe
trackpads are like this too, but I avoid them so don't really know.  Combining
poor pointer control with the vanishing cursor (the display on the Toshiba
is poor, too), and you get a really frustrating experience.  Check those
points carefully in the store.

> A B5 machine would be fine, if the keyboard was big enough. I think I'd

The keys are the same size as on an A-4 stone of a Toshiba we also
have (Dynabook 2540 - piece of crap), and I can actually type a lot
better on the IBM.  The key feel, travel, everything, blow the 
Toshiba away.  It's a much larger machine, but it's not nearly as
comfortable to type on.


> If I were in the You-Ess I might well get one of these:
http://www.unbeatable.com/products/laptop/LaptopRB.asp . 

Wow!  Have it delivered to your desk by forklift and never move 
it again :-)

Jonathan