Thinkpads: Lifestyle question. How has it affected you?

Message

thinkpadhk · #1 Post by **thinkpadhk** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 2:24 pm

Hey all.

So I'm a new thinkpad T42 owner, and I just absolutely love this thing. I feel like there has been a major paradigm shift in my lifestyle. I got a T-mobile Hot Spot account too, and now I just feel like I'm ready to take on the world. Sounds tacky, but I feel like I've opened a door to some new dimension of total mobility. I realize just how confined I was when I was limited to my desktop now.

Another thing I noticed. I am totally addicted to buying gadgets for this thing. I keep searching online for new toys to add to it. This is actually the one down side of this laptop. It makes you want to spend more and more.

Any other stories out there?

dpb · #2 Post by **dpb** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 3:39 pm

I used to go into my back yard every night, smoke a cigar while reading some magazines and come back inside after 90 minutes.

Now I take my T42 with me, need to re-light my cigar about 5 times and come back inside when the 9-cell dies, usually around midnight. LOL.

My wife is not amused.

kjarrett · #3 Post by **kjarrett** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 5:18 pm

It's not just a laptop, it's an obsession.

Just wait until you have to be without it for a week or more due to a service call. Talk about invconvenience! Not to mention withdrawal...

-kj-

MSE Environmental · #4 Post by **MSE Environmental** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 6:11 pm

It's been a great tool for my business. With a wireless network in my home, I can be on the job anytime. It allows me to take the T42 downstairs while my wife is cooking and be "on the job".

It's small enough that I can watch TV and have it on my lap, making me much more efficient when responding to customer requests.

The reduced weight of the T42 has made my traveling much more pleasant. After lugging my almost 10 lb. Dell brick for two years, the addition of the T42 makes traveling much more pleasant.

The T42 was the best purchase I've ever made for my business.

Plinkerton · #5 Post by **Plinkerton** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 8:04 pm

Wow. Where do I start?

I'm on this thing all day long when I'm not in class. My girlfriend gets free range with the TV, as I don't even want to watch it anymore. I hardly play my XBOX, (except I just started again, because Halo 2 came out, and it's awesome on Live).

I have Wifi in my house, and right now I'm lying on the bed typing this. I take it to college with me, as my whole campus has wifi. I can sit in the corner of the library, and do all my email stuff there. I don't have to deal with all the horrible computers in the library.

I've learned a lot about computers, and notebooks specifically from having this computer. My parents now have Wifi at their house, and it's great to be able to bring all my bookmarks and other stuff with me when I visit them. Also, it's nice to have two computers there, so I can see how they act with each other (remote assistance for example). Also, XP is new to me, and I like it a lot.

Overall, it really has changed my life significantly. It's nice to finally have my own personal computer, with only my stuff on it. I don't have to worry about having access, or needing the computer when someone else is using it. It's mine, all mine!!!

I really love this thing. I realize now, that I will always have a notebook computer, for the rest of my life. When this one dies, hopefully in many years, I will be buying another one.

plucky duck · #6 Post by **plucky duck** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 1:49 am

The way I compute hasn't changed because of when I got the Thinkpad T42.

It changed a long long time ago when I first had a brick-size Toshiba Tecra 380XDT with a 12" screen and a PCMCIA modem. Took forever to load windows and display browser pages. But oh god how I loved that thing! Quiet as hell compared to the desktop. Took with me to the living room all the time. No longer was I confined to the desktop in my room. I can now surf the internet and watch TV/movies at the same time. I'd surf while in bed.

I used to spend and spend and spend on upgrading the desktop. Now? I don't have to worry about that anymore with a notebook.

Wireless internet connectivity was god send when it came out. I remember being the first to have it. Paid a good $800 for the setup as well.

I'm a desktop-notebook convert.

During the summer, I take the laptop with me to the backyard and get to enjoy outside a bit. Aside from those pesky musquitos and flies.

songman · #7 Post by **songman** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:57 am

Hi,
How does t-mobile work? I mean, does it connect you to internet where ever you are? or is it some sort of package with your cell phone?
Thanks, david

thinkpadhk wrote:Hey all.

So I'm a new thinkpad T42 owner, and I just absolutely love this thing. I feel like there has been a major paradigm shift in my lifestyle. I got a T-mobile Hot Spot account too, and now I just feel like I'm ready to take on the world. Sounds tacky, but I feel like I've opened a door to some new dimension of total mobility. I realize just how confined I was when I was limited to my desktop now.

Another thing I noticed. I am totally addicted to buying gadgets for this thing. I keep searching online for new toys to add to it. This is actually the one down side of this laptop. It makes you want to spend more and more.

Any other stories out there?

p0ser · #8 Post by **p0ser** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:59 am

this is an interesting subject ... it sounds like most pepole are describing their first experiences with using a laptop computer as their primary machine for the first time. I think the in the past few years we've definitely experienced the intersection of the ubiquity of 802.11 and the affordability of powerful laptop computers. I can say for sure the before wifi and even before broadband, it was not all that life changing to have a laptop computer.

Elhabash · #9 Post by **Elhabash** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:35 am

Right, it changed my everyday life more because it was my first computer of my own. Plus because it's portable and the wireless.
Those are three really great things...

XCoalMiner · #10 Post by **XCoalMiner** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:43 am

For me, it's the combination of a very portable laptop, a T41, and a wireless connection to broadband around my house. All three work together.

I now use this as my primary source of news and information, it's replaced television in that respect. The time I used to spend in front of the television I nw spend online. The only thing I watch on TV is the travel shows on PBS.

no_man · #11 Post by **no_man** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:24 pm

WOW! hot topic, should be a poll. My life changed in California, doing market research, I purchased a tmobile hotspot account for my IBM 770X and had fast internet at Starbucks to be used for updating my client account logs and getting paid so much faster. Now in Ohio, my Ebay and PayPal accounts are current and active as I travel, and the hotspots continue to increase, now with Kinkos, Borders Book, and Starbuck we have no limits!

bevross · #12 Post by **bevross** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:54 pm

Granted the wireless thing & low-weight add mobility but when I need to sit down and do serious work (for me, database analysis or web editing or something), then I go back to the desktop. Nice to have both but if I could only chose 1 then the desktop is more practical for "real work" (more ergonomic). I mean, I don't have to websurf while watching t.v.

lfeagan · #13 Post by **lfeagan** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:01 pm

I would have to say I fit in with some of the more somber sentiments around here. More specifically, having a Thinkpad has not somehow change my life. My first notebook was back in 1996, a Toshiba Portege with like a P150/64MB RAM. Took it with me to high school and programming contests and all sorts of places. I love that notebook and still always am checking out the Toshiba Porteges. They are still sweet notebooks.

Anyways, for me a notebook is just a convenience and in many ways functions largely as a a portable display a lot of the time. I do a lot of programming and have a lot of large data sets I deal with and nearly always run them off of a parallel machine/cluster sitting somewhere or one of my servers in my apartment. I just run an X11 server on the notebook to display the remote display. In the end, when I do all my programming work I love sitting down at my desktop with dual-head setup on Suse 9.1 and whipping out a program. I admit though, I am a huge fan of CRTs and other than the ones my notebooks have do not own a single one...but I do own top of the line Iiyama and Sony CRTs that do 1600x1200@110Hz and would not be happy without them. Flicker is something I laugh about when other people whine about their CRTs being so inferior to LCDs. For serious graphics work where color is important I don't see the CRT being replaced ANY time soon. Yes, LCDs are great for business users, but I have not yet seen an LCD that does even half-way accurate color reproduction of a full-spectrum on the screen. For the things I work on, not being able to see the most subtle of shadings is not really acceptable and so the notebook gets relegated to preliminary work mostly for me or just convenience to check out things in general.

Just my 2cents on the whole subject.

Leon · #14 Post by **Leon** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:21 pm

T42/FireFox (pre-tabbed to all my important websites), broadband access at home, when going out, into the Booq Powersleeve, data card with Verizon National/Broadband access keeps me connected EVERYWHERE else..... practically an appendage, in use and helpful constantly.... definitely life changing for me.....

Elhabash · #15 Post by **Elhabash** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 6:43 pm

For serious graphics work where color is important I don't see the CRT being replaced ANY time soon.

Maybe when the LED backlight gets a hold, I am expecting a lot from this. Better colors, better brilliance, brighter displays and less power consumption (maybe I am wrong about the last point).

nesen · #16 Post by **nesen** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 8:40 am

At the Electronica 04, there also were some display manufacturers with very amazing displays:

contrast up to 3000:1
more than 300 dpi
refreshing time down to 0.05ms
amazingly brilliant colors, sometimes we thought the display was a window!
and so on...

I don't think a CRT even comes close to this. And with OLED Displays (the ones with 0.05ms refreshing time), power consumption should also decrease.

Greg Gebhardt · #17 Post by **Greg Gebhardt** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 10:55 am

My T42p (2373KXU) and my Cisco access point allows my the ability to use my laptop anywhere in my house including my favorite chair in my dock on the St. Johns River.

To be able to read and answer my email and cruise the internet on a nice morning with a big cup of coffee is one of the main reason I bought my TP.

lfeagan · #18 Post by **lfeagan** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 4:21 pm

nesen wrote:At the Electronica 04, there also were some display manufacturers with very amazing displays:

contrast up to 3000:1
more than 300 dpi
refreshing time down to 0.05ms
amazingly brilliant colors, sometimes we thought the display was a window!
and so on...

I don't think a CRT even comes close to this. And with OLED Displays (the ones with 0.05ms refreshing time), power consumption should also decrease.

Yes, OLED displays will rock when the hit volume production. I too have seen one about a year ago in fact and they are amazing. They are easily capable of 16 million true colors being displayed, as opposed to today's displays which largely display 262,000 to 512,000 colors. You messed up on the refresh period spec, its 5ms, not 0.05ms. That would give you a total refresh of 20,000Hz, which is just plain silly....5ms gives a refresh rate of 200Hz, which is more like it. Besides, at 20,000Hz you would run into cable bandwidth limitations for 24-bit color x 1600x1200x 20,000Hz would equal a bandwidth needed of around 100GBytes/second

Yes, I realize that a digital only has to update pixels that need to be updated, but that adds other overhead. The point remains that you need to be more careful with your numbers.

Nonetheless, I have talked to companies about OLEDs hitting the supply chain in a more major way and the consensus is that middle of 2005, likely july/august timeframe, some units might coming out, but real volume production won't really be in place until 2007-2009 timeframe. So, don't expect to be running out and buying one soon that is like a 20inch OLED. They are still in a somewhat prototype stage of production, despite what their sales reps will tell you. You can NEVER trust a salesman or marketer. If you do, you are a sucker. They are willing to do anything to get the sale and your business. My apologies to all sales people. I am sure you know that engineers all have these feelings about the sales staff.

nesen · #19 Post by **nesen** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 5:19 pm

Oh yes, I messed something up. It's not the refreshing time but the switching time, my fault. Means that I have to be more careful with my words

Anyway, I also don't expect them to be available the next 2-3 years, but they may be available when I buy my next Laptop

lfeagan · #20 Post by **lfeagan** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 5:48 pm

Yes, I too will be happy to see them on laptops, and 2-3 years certainly seems like a good estimate. For the time being, however, the current glass-plate LCDs we have are not going to reach the level of CRTs within that time period. There are things about the way they operate at a fundamental level that will keep them from being as good as a CRT ever. OLED/plastic displays should be able to make that difference up and when they have a 20" OLED display out I will definitely be in line for one as I hate lugging around these 75 lbs monitors. Makes me glad I didn't get one of those Sony 24" monitors as it weights in at like 100 lbs. Well, lets just hope the LCD companies get haulin' out on making sure OLEDs hit the market in a big way in the next 2 years so we can all enjoy them.

Side Note: Smaller variants of OLEDs should be in some cellular phones already, which is good news. The only major issue confronting them is scaling up the reliability to get larger sizes in reasonable volumes to bring the price down.

Elhabash · #21 Post by **Elhabash** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 8:25 pm

Cool, thanks for the info update, ifeagan!

And I second this:

Anyway, I also don't expect them to be available the next 2-3 years, but they may be available when I buy my next Laptop

It's always nice to make technology jumps.

atlacatl · #22 Post by **atlacatl** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:26 am

I shouldn't say my life has changed, but, I do feel a bit satisfaction everytime I turn the machine on. It's just a very cool looking machine...

As per new gadgets, I have to admit also that I want to get anything and everything for the T40p I own. I did stop at an extra battery. My next item in the list, is an extra hard drive caddy - I upgraded to 7200 rpm drive...

I also look at other models. The T42p top of the line looks pretty good and so does the X40...

The X40, seems to be a nice companion for any T - However, it's still underpowered, IMHO...

RoadHazard · #23 Post by **RoadHazard** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 1:42 pm

Yeah. My life changed. I still use my desktop PC at home but I have to take the TP with me everywhere I go now.

ziggetty · #24 Post by **ziggetty** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 1:46 pm

just ordered my 2373kxu, which will be my main system.
Had a notebook in the past, but it in that time it did not replace my desktop. But even then i loved it, 2 work where you are.

In the last years worked at office in utrecht and travelled to home (brussel) or temporary home(amsterdam) and clients. Did a lot of travel to office to be at my system, to do some work.

Hope to be at home more, which will be liked by my wife and the little girl who just turned 1. No time lost anymore just because something had to be done, and the system was in another place. And maybe even become 'always be mobile' and close the office space(or rent it out and keep the facility to do a meeting there once in a while)

Probably more behind the system, and my wife still happy because i am nearby.

ian · #25 Post by **ian** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 4:58 pm

I can't really say my lifestyle changed much when I bought my T42 - well, not as much as when I gave the UNO to my daughter and bought a Golf...

Before the T42 I had a desktop AND a laptop - both happily coexisted. Now I have just a laptop. Simple really...
- there's so much space on the hard disk I don't really need a larger one on a desktop
- the screen is perfectly large enough for me, the Flexview means I can get up, move around the room and I don't lose the image
- the automatic connection is a dream as I currently use three wireless networks and I just power the machine up and within seconds I'm connected

I feel sure there are tons of other positive things to be said, but to me the REAL change is the useability, if such a word exists - this machine does all I want (and probably more)

Thinkpads: Lifestyle question. How has it affected you?

Thinkpads: Lifestyle question. How has it affected you?

Re: Thinkpads: Lifestyle question. How has it affected you

Who is online