On the hunt

Okay, my laptop’s about 4 and a half years old, and it’s starting to choke as I ask more and more of it, especially in the realm of video. Athena, my friends, is long in the tooth.

Meanwhile, I expect a fair sum back from my taxes. See where this is going? So here are my thoughts:

My next laptop will be more compact. To make up for it, it needs some kind of port replicator. For those not in the know, a port replicator allows you to dock your laptop at home, with video, audio and data sources all plugged into it. Press a button, bam!, you’re off and running without all of the encumbrance.

Think of Firefly’s shuttle. :)

Not too many laptops come prepared for that, though – it would be a little goofy (and slow!) to do all that through USB. My work laptop has one, and it is totally sweet.

The reason? I’d like to use a full keyboard, eSATA hard drive, and at least one reasonably large monitor at home, but hauling a 10 lb, 17.1″ laptop around is unnecessary.

Any thoughts on this would be welcome.

~ by Skennedy on April 2, 2009.

Posted in Uncategorized

8 Responses to “On the hunt”

  1. Having worked on Macs for a while now, which have basically nothing resembling a port replicator available, I found that the couple of cables to plug in and unplug really aren’t that big a hassle. I guess a docking station would be nice from an aesthetic viewpoint but when it comes down to it, it doesn’t take much time or effort to arrange and plug in power, video, usb, and audio out.

    pfrank said this on April 2, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    • Well, that’s the difference between my work computer and home computer, actually. When I leave home with my laptop, I am constantly negotiating wires, and I have a choice of either tucking those wires away and having to crawl under the desk every weekend or leave them out where I can (and have) trip or catch them on my chair.

      At present, at home, I have my laptop on a stand with power, usb mouse, usb hard drive, speakers, usb headset and data connection. In the future, I’d like to add an external keyboard, so I can keep the laptop closed, and an external monitor, which I already have.

      atdt1991 said this on April 2, 2009 at 4:29 pm

  2. Boss#2 does that. Has a docking station at work and at home.
    Need ideas what you’re looking for.
    Gaming?
    Video?
    Ultra portable?
    Below a grand?

    jellopony said this on April 2, 2009 at 5:16 pm

  3. Do you have a brand preference???

    muteid10t said this on April 3, 2009 at 12:37 am

  4. So glad nobody mentioned this yet…

    “Think of Firefly’s shuttle. :)”

    You want to have sex inside your laptop??? Or did you mean the other shuttle?

    wendigovegan said this on April 4, 2009 at 6:37 pm

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