Ade in Business

Yeah, I’m supposed to be pinching pennies, but I recently splurged a little and bought myself a new laptop. I already have a pretty decent desktop computer that I’ll continue to use as my primary machine, but I found that I was just craving some more mobility, and realized that I really needed something for when I have to travel.

I just came from a work environment where I spent more time out of my office than in it, and even when I was in the office I usually had someone else in there discussing something. I had underestimated the drastic change in coming from that to working all day in a home office where I work mostly in isolation (no, IM and email don’t count). Even though I’m much more productive in this setting, and there are dozens of other things I love about it (e.g., barefoot coding), it does get hard to sit in the same chair all day staring at computer screens, especially when some of those days span 12-16 hours.

Of course, the strain seemed to be more pronounced lately, as the weather has been really nice, and the daylight is lasting longer. I even found myself with a desire to go outside and do some yard work instead of staying inside and coding (OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration).

So I settled on the capable, but relatively inexpensive Dell Inspiron E1505. At the time I ordered it, Dell had some really great promotions going (appealing to the tightwad in me) — free upgrade to the Dual Core processor, free upgrade to 1GB of RAM, and free shipping. Adding a $300 off coupon I found at GottaDeal, the total bill came to a palatable $700.

The laptop performs pretty well, although there have been a couple of disappointments. First of all, the machine comes with so much pre-loaded junk that I spent the first couple hours with the machine uninstalling software. Secondly, I was let down by the actual maximum resolution of the display. I had looked at the specs for the graphics card instead of the display, and was expecting 1900×1200, but can only go to 1280×800 with this display. My primary workstation has a 3200×1200 display (using dual monitors), so it’s hard getting used to a display that has only about 1/4 of the real estate.

Nevertheless, I think it’s been a good buy. I’m looking forward to mixing up my day by getting some work done from the sunroom, or at one of the three Starbucks down the street from me. Something about those guys sitting at Starbucks with their laptops and lattes always used to bug me, but now I think I get it.