Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners » laptops

2 laptop suggestions for college students

Rick — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:46:12 +0000

Millions of new college students will be leaving for their respective campuses (campii?) soon. These students will more than likely go to college with a computer...probably a laptop. I would like to suggest two possible laptops ideas for these students.

Both of my ideas involve good systems that will allow college kids to word process, chat, email, listen to music, watch DVD's, browse the web wirelessly(for school research of course), create presentations, spreadsheets, download and edit photos and much more. Neither involve Windows and thus don't require a degree in computer security and maintenance. One of the computers costs between $1200-1800 and the other costs less than $700.

Netbooks – What are they really designed to do and for whom?

Rick — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:53:07 +0000

Today, I demo'd the original EeePC from Asus and the new Dell Mini 9. These Netbooks and all the others on the market from nearly a dozen companies have the following characteristics in common:

Netbooks are NOT made for Windows XP or Vista

Rick — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:50:18 +0000

One year ago, ASUS started a fire storm of new computers that now go by the name of netbooks with the release of their EeePC. I wrote about this subject just a few months ago, but with the holidays approaching and netbooks are high on gift giver's radar screens so I want to explore netbooks a little more in depth.

Netbooks make attractive gift giving ideas for a few reasons:

They are inexpensive; usually cost less than $400.
They are extremely portable (2-3 pounds).
They are cute.

Here are some facts you need to know about netbooks:

Lazy computer users

Rick — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:37:25 +0000

Over the past few days, the tech news sites and blogs have carried a story centered on a quote from a NetBook (tiny laptop) manufacturer stating that the company receives 4X the returns of Linux based systems versus Windows systems. The more often I saw this headline and read the articles, the more irritated I became.

Computers are still in their infancy compared to much of the technology we use today. Americans have had indoor plumbing for 75 years, electricity for almost 100 years, telephones for almost 100 years, televisions for 50+ years, and radios for 70 years. Computers, however, have been around just over 15 years en masse, and even today they only exist in about 70% of American households.

My point is that computer technology has not matured enough to

New Dell Mini laptops

Rick — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:21:44 +0000

Dell has joined Everex, Acer, HP, Sony, and the ground breaking Asus Eee PC in the arena of the netbook. Netbooks are small laptops with a screen of 9" or smaller and a weight of less than 2.5 pounds. They all run on either a form of Linux or Windows XP. The Dell Inspiron Mini (click the picture above to buy or read more about them) is Dell's entry into this increasingly crowded and popular market. Remember that these netbooks are not for everyone, but they fill a niche for frequent travelers, train or bus commuters, and computer users who want an inexpensive yet capable second computer.

Asus started a whole new trend

Rick — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:29:02 +0000

I just returned from visiting my brother and his new baby and traveled, again, with only my phone and my Asus Eee PC. As usual, the little laptop did not disappoint. I was able to keep up with email, work with my spreadsheets and word processing documents and do other web research as well. All from a little marvel that cost less than $400 and weighs less than 2 pounds.

WiFi is truly becoming ubiquitous

Rick — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:46:29 +0000

I've mentioned before that I think that laptops make a lot of sense for computer users who travel. With a great deal of our communication and information gathering tied up in the computer world, not having this tool when traveling is a definite minus. My family and I just returned from a short trip where having our laptop with us saved us a lot of time and aggravation.

While traveling, we used the computer and a wi-fi connection (which was easy to find) to :

Email relatives
Access maps
Compare shopping centers we were thinking of visiting
Keep an eye on the weather
Check road reports
Find our favorite eateries
Find independent coffee shops (we like them better than Starbucks)
Download and look at pictures we took
Stay current with news without having to wait for a newspaper or the evening news

I'm curious what other travelers use their laptops for on the road. Leave a comment and tell me your traveling laptop story or tip!

Help! My laptop has been stolen – No they didn’t catch the bad guys

Rick — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:56:21 +0000

Before I get a bunch of comments about the news story on the bad guys who were caught, it doesn't appear to be the same bad guys at the moment. My stuff was not in the initial find and the dates don't match up. Maybe the bad guys know each other, but until the police contact me with a find, I am assuming that my laptops are still out there. Yes, both my laptops were stolen out of my car last night. One was an Averatec with tons of stickers plastered on the top cover, the other was my Asus Eee PC. There was a lot of other stuff in the bag, but nothing that I can't replace.

No great holiday computer sales

Rick — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:59:36 +0000

I was pretty disappointed with the lack of good computer sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Prices for computer have been pretty low since mid-summer, but I was hoping to see some 2GB RAM laptops under $450 and desktops with 2GB of RAM for less than that. Maybe we will see some lower prices before Christmas Eve.

Adam didn't post any outstanding deals on digital cameras either, so I'm assuming that the camera market was equally as flat as PC's.

Sleepy Tryptophan effect is a Thanksgiving myth!

Rick — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:07:45 +0000

Most people will not read this post in time to help this Thanksgiving, but hopefully it will come in handy for next Thanksgiving and future poultry dinners to come.

The tryptophan effect is a myth.

That's right. Every Thanksgiving after the big meal I hear family members complain that the tryptophan is kicking in as they feel a sudden sleepiness.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that is in turkey and does cause sleepiness. However, there is not enough tryptophan in turkey to cause sleepiness - and even if there was - the tryptophan would only kick in on an empty stomach with no protien present. Not likely at Thanksgiving dinner.

How do I know all this? I read it on Snopes.com.