So my laptop just died...

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  • #31
    Re: So my laptop just died...

    Originally posted by Paul Striver View Post
    Correct, you can use either. But try it, you'll like it. I always thought I'd hate it, but now I much prefer it to a touchpad.

    By the way, you can buy standalone ThinkPad keyboards for your desktop too. That's actually how I first became acquainted with them. There the trackpoint is incredibly nice, because you don't have to reach for a mouse.
    My Dell has both also, but I always disable the tap feature on the touchpad. I just use the buttons below -- when I'm not using a mouse I carry with the laptop.
    STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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    • #32
      Re: So my laptop just died...

      Originally posted by Write-Away View Post
      Yep, it was my primary (and only) computer that died. I'm typing now from my little netbook which thankfully I just bought a week ago to take travelling. Even though my Toshiba is still under warranty, this is my second major hard-drive crash this year so I'm replacing it probably with a Lenovo based on the comments here and my computer guy's recommendation.
      But it sounds more like a bad hard drive than a bad laptop. And the hard drive should also still be under warranty.
      STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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      • #33
        Re: So my laptop just died...

        Originally posted by BurOak View Post
        If you can afford a Mac, even used one, that would be your best bet.

        PCs are much more problem-prone, in my experience.
        I think it's a matter of taste. What little I've done on OS X didn't seem particularly "intuitive" to me -- but I'm sure I could get used to it if I had to. PCs aren't any more prone to hardware trouble, it's Windows and its poor security design that causes the problems -- which is why I use Linux.
        STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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        • #34
          Re: So my laptop just died...

          Originally posted by Centos View Post
          I don't (personally) see using an iPad as a typing machine because I need a real keyboard.
          Just to clarify, I need a real keyboard, too. The iPad and the Apple wireless keyboard (it's fullsize, but w/o the number pad) travel in my backpack. That was one of the things that bugged me about several brands of netbooks--the keyboard isn't standard, and I touchtype.

          But, again, I think the iPad is great only as secondary; I certainly don't see it replacing a primary computer.
          If you have someone on the set for the hair, why would you not have someone for the words?
          Louis Malle

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          • #35
            Re: So my laptop just died...

            Originally posted by Centos View Post
            But it sounds more like a bad hard drive than a bad laptop. And the hard drive should also still be under warranty.
            Hi Centos,

            I don't pretend for a second to be computer savvy, but to me the hard drive *is* the computer. When it crashes you're S.O.L. The last time this happened to me was early 2010 and I was on assignment so it was disastrous timing. My laptop went into the shop (yes, under warranty but that's small consolation when you're that inconvenienced) they wiped the hard-drive clean to fix it or install a new one or whatever. So not only did I have to rent a computer in order to keep working (stressful when you're under the gun) I had to get all my files restored once the repaired Toshiba came back to me. That's a huge headache too since all your preferred settings/customizing have to be re-set as well.

            I will take it in again for repairs in the new year and yes, it's still under warranty (Toshiba doesn't seem to differentiate itself from the hard-drive manufacturer) but I don't want to deal with this headache anymore. I'll get it fixed and then it can become my back-up computer should anything ever happen to my new primary laptop. So maybe it is just the hard-drive and not the laptop itself, but I definitely want to find a computer with more reliability and durability.

            Btw, I love your avatar. ScriptThing brings back fond memories of my script coordinating days.

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            • #36
              Re: So my laptop just died...

              A little tip. If your laptop dies and you either can't reboot an O.S. Recovery CD or to BIOS and the Geek Squad wants to charge you $65 for data recovery which they will get to in a week or so...or you take it to your local shops and pay even more for a quicker turnaround...

              For $5-10, you can get a 2.5 inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure Kit which converts a laptop's 2.5 inch internal ATA hard drive to an external one. Windows 7 will automatically find the drive and you can download (i.e. recover) the files yourself.

              http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CDIQ8gIwAg#

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              • #37
                Re: So my laptop just died...

                Originally posted by Write-Away View Post
                I will take it in again for repairs in the new year and yes, it's still under warranty (Toshiba doesn't seem to differentiate itself from the hard-drive manufacturer) but I don't want to deal with this headache anymore. I'll get it fixed and then it can become my back-up computer should anything ever happen to my new primary laptop. So maybe it is just the hard-drive and not the laptop itself, but I definitely want to find a computer with more reliability and durability.
                I understand. I tend to forget that, just because I work on my own computers, doesn't mean most people want to do it. Sorry. I'm just thinking that you got a bum hard drive and the last time it was fixed, Toshiba probably just reloaded the OS without replacing the hard drive -- thinking it was a software issue.

                Btw, I love your avatar. ScriptThing brings back fond memories of my script coordinating days.
                I like the "ScriptThing." I used to watch its eyes while the program loaded. If an eye blinked (which it occasionally did) I figured that was good luck. The publisher had a good sense of humor.
                STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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                • #38
                  Re: So my laptop just died...

                  Originally posted by YakMan View Post
                  A little tip. If your laptop dies and you either can't reboot an O.S. Recovery CD or to BIOS and the Geek Squad wants to charge you $65 for data recovery which they will get to in a week or so...or you take it to your local shops and pay even more for a quicker turnaround...

                  For $5-10, you can get a 2.5 inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure Kit which converts a laptop's 2.5 inch internal ATA hard drive to an external one. Windows 7 will automatically find the drive and you can download (i.e. recover) the files yourself.
                  You can also get a Linux Live CD or USB thumb drive, boot to Linux and retrieve your documents with it. This has the advantage of leaving the internal hard drive inside the machine.
                  STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Re: So my laptop just died...

                    Originally posted by Centos View Post
                    I like the "ScriptThing." I used to watch its eyes while the program loaded. If an eye blinked (which it occasionally did) I figured that was good luck. The publisher had a good sense of humor.
                    They also used to have a "cheat" option if you didn't want your script to spill over to an extra page for instance. You could select: "cheat the page", "cheat the line" or "cheat the IRS". If you selected cheat the IRS it playfully admonished you. They definitely had some fun creating that software.

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                    • #40
                      Re: So my laptop just died...

                      Originally posted by Write-Away View Post
                      They also used to have a "cheat" option if you didn't want your script to spill over to an extra page for instance. You could select: "cheat the page", "cheat the line" or "cheat the IRS". If you selected cheat the IRS it playfully admonished you. They definitely had some fun creating that software.
                      Yeah, it pretended it had logged into the IRS, the call had been intercepted and they were tracing it ... but you couldn't get it to hang up. The dial-in sounds were pretty realistic (back in the days of the land line modem). He also did something funny with the calendar. I still have ScriptThing for DOS and ScriptThing for Windows -- I should install it just for the fun of it.
                      STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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                      • #41
                        Re: So my laptop just died...

                        Originally posted by Centos View Post
                        Yeah, it pretended it had logged into the IRS, the call had been intercepted and they were tracing it ... but you couldn't get it to hang up. The dial-in sounds were pretty realistic (back in the days of the land line modem). He also did something funny with the calendar. I still have ScriptThing for DOS and ScriptThing for Windows -- I should install it just for the fun of it.
                        You still have ScriptThing for DOS? Man, I spent months looking for that. Several years back I convinced myself that I missed writing in DOS because in DOS I never had internet access, couldn't get distracted by anything, couldn't do anything but write. By that point I had moved on to ScriptThing for Windows and there was some sort of corruption on the 3 1/2" DOS version floppy. I even wrote to the original creator, but he couldn't sell it to me anymore because by that point Movie Magic Screenwriter owned all rights to the code.

                        By the way, out of nostalgia I went back and made a ScriptThing icon that I use instead of the Movie Magic one on my Mac:

                        http://i.imgur.com/hWY9c.jpg

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