Laptop Poser

If your mom's boss were to offer you his old laptop (as in Windows 98 old), would you take it? This was the question posed to me by my mom's boss through my mom earlier today. He has purchased a spanking new laptop and is thinking of disposing his somewhat old and dysfunctional laptop, and thought of giving the old 'junk' to me as a 'gift'. Don't ask me why but maybe he's in the holiday cheer mood. ;)

I've been wishing (and dreaming and hoping and praying and begging) to own a laptop for a very long time now but couldn't afford these really costly 'gadgets', hence I bought myself a Palm Tungsten E instead. Yeah, it has its advantages and all but when I need to perform some of the tasks that requires the use of a full-fledged computer system either at my lab or at home, I find myself stuck in a rut. At the lab, I tend to allow others to use the computer as I feel that they probably need it more than me since they are not from around here and are not as fortunate to have a broadband connection at home like me. Also, I feel that it's not nice having to intrude on my neighbouring lab and use their computers when they probably need to use the computers too. At home, although there are two computers around, they are always being utilised by someone all of the time. As such, I sometimes find it difficult to get work done or even do some leisure stuff on the internet, where I want it, when I want it. That explains why I've this yearning to have a laptop of my own, no?



For a long time now I've been eyeing the Apple iBook. It just looks so lovely and nice I could just eat it or sleep with it. I like the 12" one as it looks so cute and feels so light. Most importantly, it's the cheapest laptop model offered by Apple at RM3999 (which has dropped slightly recently). So why haven't I broke the bank and made this baby mine yet? Well, first of all, there's no bank for me to break as I am so broke that I need extensive repairs and probably an overhaul myself! Also, I'm waiting for the upgraded iBook which is rumoured to be launched in January 2006 during Macworld which will feature an Intel chip inside, the first ever Mac system running on Intel chips. ~drool~ But since I can't afford such an expensive 'surplus to requirements' thingamajig, I'm satisfied with the occasional daydreams I have of me happily owning one of them babies.

However, now I can live a part of that dream by owning a laptop (albeit being a cranky old system). It's no iBook but a laptop nonetheless. Of course I will have some work to do to bring that old geezer up to a level of acceptable performance or it might just end up like this from the constant banging of my head on it!



Well, I'm not exactly sure if I want to take up the offer but of course I'm leaning towards it. It's not exactly portable as it doesn't have a functional battery to start with but that can be easily settled. It's not like I'm commuting on public transport or have time to kill at locations where I cannot find a power source. It's going to be a really slow system but I think I can speed things up, at least a little. It might also have compatibility issues and all but I'm hoping that it's not going to be that major of a problem that I can't find a way around it. Of course, I can't complain at all since I'm getting it for free! This offer couldn't have come at a better time. Well, you tell me if I should take up the offer.

(pictures from Techtree, Palm, Free-Backup and ToastyTech)