laptopI’ve been thinking about a new laptop lately.

I like my current laptop. I don’t really want to replace it, but…

  1. It is big and heavy.
  2. The CD-ROM quit working a long time ago. It tries to work, but just sits there blinking, whether there is a disk in it or not. I don’t care because I have a USB CD drive I use, but someday something is going to go wrong and I’ll need to re-install the operating system. The BIOS does not support a USB drive, so I’d be screwed then.
  3. The trackpad is wearing out. The right button has been sticky for ages and now the plastic strips on the buttons are coming off. On top of that, it no longer responds to a double-tap on it’s surface for a right-click. It’s not replaceable. I do use a USB wireless mouse a lot of the time (I sometimes use it consciously to spare the pad) but it just doesn’t work in your lap!
  4. I’m running out of disk space. I have moved a lot of stuff off to a USB drive and have a huge pile of CDs of stuff I’ve archived to get it off this machine, but it’s still constantly bogged down and warning me that I’m running out of disk space. I seem to generate it faster than I can back it up and erase it.

I’m sure I could think of other reasons, but I think those are enough. Irregardless, I’m sure I’m on borrowed time without the CD drive.

A smaller, lighter, faster laptop is sounding better all the time, but I’m reluctant to spend the money. So the thing I’ll probably be doing is watching the marketplace and waiting for a deal to save a little money.

I went to the local Circuit City a few days ago to see what they had. Nothing really grabbed me. One good thing I noticed, almost every screen was indistinguishable from the next in terms of brightness and clarity. Sure there are differences in size and resolution, but there doesn’t seem to be the need to see them first-hand like it used to be. I’ll feel comfortable ordering one online.

So, for now, it’s going to be a waiting game to see which comes first, a really good deal, or my present machine breaking. Wanna start a pool?