Heh. Well, the morning I wrote that last entry, my order for a desktop WAS in at Staples. Then I looked at the laptop right next to it in the ad – same i5 chip, same amt. of memory, pretty much the same specs – but a laptop!
So I went there that day and got the order stopped and … well, first I was going to try a Lenovo Ultrabook that was about the same price on clearance, but they couldn’t even get the screen to turn on right. So I went with the Z580 IdeaPad (like that name – sorta inspiring!)
And it’s really nice, and while I’m still chained to the news, so to speak, at least I’m on a longer leash – already have had several nights where I’ve been downstairs with Deb instead of cloistered (trapped!) in my home office. (I just have to turn the police scanner up and … it’s another reason to mute the commercials.)
And it takes like 10 seconds to plug or unplug the USB, monitor, keyboard, power and audio hookups and free as a bird. Battery lasts, oh, probably 4-5 hours. Nice big 16-inch bright screen. Lovely!
Just one problem, and having read the otherwise glowing reviews, I saw that coming — the touchpad and its Win8 issues – mainly that when I’m on the desktop side of things, sudden mouse movements quite often bring up the Charms (settings, search etc.) on right side – and even drop me back to TileWorld (that’s what David Pogue of NY Times in his great ‘Missing Manual’ book on Win8 calls the colorful live-tile interface formerly known as Metro or Modern). Only one keystroke to get back to what I was doing but … grr. Thinking about grabbing Start8, software from Stardock – not that I need the Start menu back, but because other efforts to change the touchpad settings haven’t resolved it for me any better than many others venting and kvetching.
So nothing’s perfect. But I do like my new traveling companion.
Oh, and here’s weird – other day I woke up with a very painful pinky finger on my right hand (shades of when I broke my little toe bashing it into a doorframe going to the bathroom 25 or so years ago). Fortunately, it wasn’t broken, just a minor strain that after a day and a half or so was feeling much better.
(As my UPI boss told me on that long-ago injury after a few days off to hobble around – ‘You don’t type with your toes!” But the pinky? It’s sorta nice to have working;-)
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Leave it to Barney 