What do You do on the Computer? (A look at Netbooks)

I admit it. I'm on my (or at least 'a') computer most of the day. It's my preferred location, reinforced by events such as today's "Adventures in Lawn Mowing" wherein our hero ended up with an angry, buzzing lawn. (Okay, so my youngest bother was actually doing the mowing, but, man, there were a low of hazard-striped flying things stirred up! My lawn currently has a mohawk until the lawn does some anger management.)

While on the computer, I do a great variety of things. MSWord is my favorite and most used program. I nearly always have a document (or three) in prgress and open on my computer. Novels, assignments, scripts, and other projects are some of the things I do. I admit that mainly, I type. Not too much fancy, in spite off all the nifty things Word can do. I totally underutilize this great program. (It's worse with Word2007!)

I also use Excel, PowerPoint, and Picture Manager at least once a week. I use Outlook daily. And Media Player regularly. And a couple other programs for specific purposes.

And of course, the Internet. I love the Internet. I love Google. And I have my list of favorite haunts, places to visit, things to read or enjoy. I could spend days on the internet.

The more I use my computer, the more likely I am to do things on the computer these days.

Now, one of the big issues with computers is what you do-- this relates to what sort of computer you need. My brothers play games on their computer and thus require machinea with some guts and go power. I collect parts and cobble together a machine from "outdated" parts too slow for my brothers' gaming needs. I need something that is fast enough to multitask since I never have less than three programs running. Something with space to store my projects. And good internet access.

One of the hot new trends is "netbooks" which are small laptop-type computers. They're usually pretty small in size and guts. If you're only using the computer for Internet, email, and the occaisional Office application, very well may be the most economical choice, rather than buying a regular computer or desktop. One of the things to make sure of is, if you type a lot, that the small sized keyboard is adequate. Nothing like a crappy keyboard...

Same as the Mac/PC debate, the most important factor is whether the computer does what you need it for. It's not worth the money, even if it's cheap, if the computer isn't used regularly.

Mac or PC?

I always thought those Mac and PC commercials, with the middle-aged boring guy as the PC and the young hip guy as the Mac, were pretty cute. Somewhat skewed, but so are all commercials.

Personally, I think whether a person picks a Mac or PC is kind of like picking your type of undergarment. It doesn't matter to most anyone else, but you sure better be comfortable with the choice.

I'm a PC. (No, I'm not going to tell you my underwear choice!) My biggest factor is price, and PCs tend to meet that need far better than Macs. I don't need processor power for much more than handing a large (very large!) MSWord document or maybe streaming a video. My current desktop computer is the Holiday Inn Express of computers-- it's not fancy, but it does the job rather well.

I've used Macs. The skies didn't open up for me. (In fact, I got tend to get frustrated because all the commands I'm used to are missing or moved. That problem is compounded because when I'm on a Mac, it's usually to troubleshoot an ill-intentioned device.) But I have nothing against the little cuties. ;-)

Some users have less trouble on Macs-- particularly with viruses. Fair enough. But the only virus I've gotten in the last ten years was from my stupid pirate brothers downloading a game crack that was infect. That reminds me-- I still haven't thanked them for that... To me, all computers are comparable. It's the user that is the biggest equation. What do YOU want from your computer.

I have more time than money, so I'll buy the cheap machine (or cobble parts from friends and family to make a Frankenputer ). Then I'll use my time to learn how to make sure it obeys. The occasional sacrifice of a goat or small animal to the computer gods doesn't hurt.