New Computer Suggestions

[Greg Peng]

Compaq makes the most reliable PCs? Are you kidding me?

[Will Kalman]

So sad reading this ... yeah a Mac :heyes: might be more expensive ... but it runs essentially trouble free. How much is THAT worth!? Spyware, viruses, worms? Whose got time to deal with that crap.

You, soon!

iBotnet: Researchers find signs of zombie Macs

[Jeff Shyu]

Compaq makes the most reliable PCs? Are you kidding me?

seriously.

we opened up my ex-roommate from college's computer (compaq), and i kid you not, there was hot glue in there.

[Steve Ekstrand]

Compared to a comparable equipped eMachine how many times the price is the Apple???

[Mako Koiwai]

In more then twenty five years with Mac's, I've had six of them ... including an early laptop concurrently with a desktop ... and have had only one problem. One internal HD went down ... but that was seemingly caused by using an early Norton Disc Doctor on a new at that time System X Mac. Next morning the Mac wouldn't wake up. Ended up having to use a data recovery service. Used that as an excuse to by a new MacBook Pro laptop. Had a new HD put in the iMac and my son inherited another Mac.

I've had one external LaCie HD start to go down but replaced it in time. I know have four external HD's ... all of those racing photos take up a lot of room! ... the Terabyte one being a master back-up using Apple's cool automatic Time Machine backup system. I'll be buying another one soon. I guess I should be backing up to DVD's?

I also really don't care what computer anybody uses. But there are plenty of you guys and only a few to champion the Lexus/Porsche of the computer world. :king: It seems that if Kathy had more disposable income these days, she would be a Mac type.

[Will Kalman]

Compaq makes the most reliable PCs? Are you kidding me?

seriously.

we opened up my ex-roommate from college's computer (compaq), and i kid you not, there was hot glue in there.

Actually, that was pretty common across many manufacturers. It was done to keep connectors from vibrating loose during shipment.

[Kurt Rahn]

Compared to a comparable equipped eMachine how many times the price is the Apple???

Compared to a Hankook Optimo H418, how many times the price is a Toyo R1R? But which do you use? Looking at computers based purely on price is silly.

[Mako Koiwai]

Kurt ... you beat me to it ... I too was going to point out to Steve & Co. that he had no problem spending the money on R1R's. ;)

[Larry Andrews]

Don't touch any product made by Symantec. Ever.

If you don't mind being IT guy a bit more... Why?

Not being critical - just curious. I've used their stuff for years for free (Fry's rebates) and haven't had any significant problems beyond the intrusiveness that virtually all AV/AM/AS software seems to have. Is there something I should know?

+1 for the 'DIY' advice - nothing helps people to understand what their computer is doing quite like fixing it when it ain't right. Oh - Kathy, sending my best wishes for great luck in your search.

[Kristoffer Gjevre]

Don't touch any product made by Symantec. Ever.

If you don't mind being IT guy a bit more... Why?

Not being critical - just curious. I've used their stuff for years for free (Fry's rebates) and haven't had any significant problems beyond the intrusiveness that virtually all AV/AM/AS software seems to have. Is there something I should know?

+1 for the 'DIY' advice - nothing helps people to understand what their computer is doing quite like fixing it when it ain't right. Oh - Kathy, sending my best wishes for great luck in your search.

Yeah, I am curius too.
Where I work we have been using Symantec for years (and McAfee too, but I prefered Symantec), and when we were accuried a few years ago by a much larger company their policy is that you have to have their corporate version of Symantec on all your PCs to be compliant, and I have never been infected at work or had any issues (laptop + 4 test servers with numerous virtual machines).

[Steve Ekstrand]

R1R's are expensive????

And I've never had to have the Hankook owner, err PC owner tell me that their 3-4 yo high end Macbook Pro won't run the Race Technology data analysis software.

I ran a business for 13 years or so with Mac's and PC's co-habitating. The Mac's were a total pain in the ass for us. And compatibility issues for us were enormous. Same with the college environment.

But I have no Mac experience in the last 4 years are so where the problems are mostly gone and you can move cross platform software wise. And document sharing is a totally different animal.

Still I'll probably never own a Mac unless the pricing changes dramatically. I can't find value there. But enough idiots do that I own the stock.

[Kurt Rahn]

I can't find value there.

That's really what it comes down to. Either you do or you don't, and whatever works for each individual is what it is.

[Will Kalman]

Don't touch any product made by Symantec. Ever.

If you don't mind being IT guy a bit more... Why?

Yeah, I am curius too.

They just have a *terrible* rep in the IT world. Their software is bloated, has features nobody wants, is unreliable, and generally screws systems up. I most recently used a backup product of their (LiveState Recovery) a couple years ago and it would variously hang, or not do backups, or refuse to do an incremental. I worked with a guy who was previously a Symantec phone support rep and he said "Speed disk wrecks filesystems. They told us to never admit it on the phone".

But they have a big marketing machine and a well-known name so corporations keep buying their enterprise software and licenses by the thousands. They're one of those companies that constantly "re-brands" their same products, either to keep the customers guessing, show of "new" things, or help them forget their experiences with the previous version. Kinda like GM with cars ;) .

[Giovanni Jaramillo]

Malicious program targets Macs

[Steve Ekstrand]

I had a huge problem once a few years ago with a Symantec packaged back-up software.
Took a long time to diagnose and fix.

Symantec guy said it was a very rare problem since it only crashed the systems of every user who had the very rare combination of Windows XP and an HP Photosmart line of Printers. Yeah that's rare.

[Mako Koiwai]

Thanks ... lots of good info in that article on why I'll continue to use a Mac.

[Jeff Shyu]

Thanks ... lots of good info in that article on why I'll continue to use a Mac.

i don't think anyone's trying to talk you out of a mac (at least i'm not).

just think it's good to know that not all which glitters is gold.

[Mako Koiwai]

Another good thing about a Mac laptop is that they sometimes get so hot that you could probably fry an egg on it's backside! They literally get so hot that you can't have it touching bare skin. Do PC laptops offer that dual function, ie. coffee warmer/image processor? }:)

[Christine Grice]

Another good thing about a Mac laptop is that they sometimes get so hot that you could probably fry an egg on it's backside! They literally get so hot that you can't have it touching bare skin. Do PC laptops offer that dual function, ie. coffee warmer/image processor? }:)

My 17 in HP laptop does that. Then again it would also run Solidworks flawlessly which is pretty good for a laptop. I used to place it up on top of Post-it note pads so that air would flow undernieth it.

[Mako Koiwai]

We use a variety of dish drying mats ... available from $1 Discount Stores. Actually the better ones have little feet/posts beneath the mat that allow more air flow:

[Ron Horn]

If you are going to get a Dell get on their mailing list.
The send discounts and specials all the time.

[Christine Grice]

fyi for Mako:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/22/firs ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mako Koiwai]

Gio beat you to that article! See yesterday's messages ...

[Tito Sar]

If you are going to get a Dell get on their mailing list.
The send discounts and specials all the time.

Or you can check out:

http://www.techbargains.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.xpbargains.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.cheapstingybargains.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just bought my Dell a couple days ago. I couldn't pass on a Quad-Core computer with a monitor for $600!

We use a variety of dish drying mats ... available from $1 Discount Stores. Actually the better ones have little feet/posts beneath the mat that allow more air flow:

Or you can get a notebook cooler!

[Mako Koiwai]

If you can only afford a PC, you're probably better off at the Dollar Store and the dish drying cooling rack.