Day 181

12:09 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »


This is my new computer! It's a 14" Sony Vaio with a Core i3 processor. It has 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. There are lots more specifications, of course, but I have no idea what any of them means. I know that I can play the Sims on it, it has Bluetooth, and it works. I have completely Stephanie-ized it--Google Chrome has a flowers theme and Shaun White is my background. I have to say, it's nice to just have the dang thing and not have to worry about it anymore!

I'm still getting used to it. The buttons are a little more spaced apart on the keyboard, so typing feels a little odd. I don't know what some of the buttons do--(what does the Vaio button do?? Or the Assist button? What is Evernote?) But I'm confident I'll figure it out. I thought Sony laptops weren't very good, but according to the sales associates, Sony is one of their best products. Since the Boy was with me, who used to work at that Best Buy, I trust them--he hooked me up with the non-sketchy sales people, who wouldn't try to screw me over.

I also got a pink wireless mouse to go with it, and with the extended warranty plan (which would let me drop it in a pool, and they'd have to fix it), it only cost about $130 for the whole thing. Thank you, Best Buy no-lemon policy (if you bring it back 4 times, they'll junk your computer out as a lemon. Then you get a new one, pretty much free of charge.) Even after all the stressing... I kinda like this one =]

And yes, I know, I'm slacking on Valentine's Day pictures. BUT, I will soon have ALL of my pictures off of my external hard drive permanently stored on the new laptop, and then will promptly (well... I do have two tests and am going to an Atlanta Thrashers hockey game this week. So as soon as I can) post pictures and share about them. Really. I will.

Day 180

2:08 PM Posted In Edit This 4 Comments »
So I found my camera, but it's not currently with me. I will write about Valentine's Day--promise! Because I know that you're all eager to hear about it =]

This post is about something else entirely--computers. I can't remember if I wrote about this or not, but my beloved Dell XPS died. The mother board on it crashed, so I took it to Geek Squad. Fortunately, I have a service plan with them, so they were able to ship it off to be fixed. In the mean time, Dad has been meaning to buy a laptop for the family for a long time, so he bought be a mid-range Asus to tide me over until mine came back, and he would use it when I got my Dell back.

A month later, and it comes back to the store. They ran a few tests on it to check for integrity, and, lo and behold... it wasn't okay. To make up for things, the guy overnighted it back to Computer-Fix-It-Land. A week goes by, and I didn't hear anything from them. Finally, I got an email saying I need to call my local Best Buy because they needed some additional information from me. When I called, they informed me that my laptop had become a "junk-out"--basically the computer version of a totaled car. The cost of fixing it was higher than the value of the laptop, so the guy told me I could come into the store and pick out a new laptop for the same price as my old one, which is, with tax, roughly $1100.

Now, you would think that with that chunk of change, I could find something really nice that I liked. Well, you think wrong. Because I have store credit, I have to go with what Best Buy offers. In this price range, they offer: Dell, HP, Sony Vaio, Asus, Toshiba, Apple, and Gateway.
Here is my problem:
  • I refuse to buy another Dell. I loved the one that I had, but it was the top of the line, and it still messed up. What does that say about the cheaper ones?
  • I know several people whose HPs have died right after the warranty was up. I also had a rather expensive HP printer crap out on me after only a year or two. No HP for me.
  • I've been told that Sony Vaio is alright, but it's really not that reliable and is overpriced.
  • I like the Asus, but I'm not sure I really want another one. I don't have a problem with the machine I'm on now, but... I don't know. I'm just not blown out of the water by it.
  • Toshibas, I've heard, are fairly decent computers too. The problem is that I can't find one at Best Buy that I like--they either have awesome battery life, but are 8 lbs, or they're light and sound good...with a 2 hour battery life.
  • I'm scared of getting a Macbook. I've always been a Windows girl, and I have NO idea how to use a Mac. Also, I would have to install Windows because most law school technology runs off of Windows XP.
  • Gateways are dinosaurs. The end.
No matter which computer I look at, there's something about it that I don't like. With my XPS, there was NOTHING wrong... well except for that pesky motherboard problem.

What do you think?
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