If you're looking for a new laptop...

  I bought one (Dell Vostro 1000), mainly because Windows XP was
available on it.  Else I would have just gone to Circuit City...  I'm
posting my observations in the hope it may be of use to someone.

Michael


Quickie Review of Dell Vostro 1000

The Good:
XP available.  95% of the reason why I bought a Vostro.
Dual-core AMD available
Good video card
Crisp video
DVD+/-RW
4 USB ports
SD Card Reader built in
Good price: $499 + taxes
WIDE screen


The Not-So-Good:
No DVD-RAM support
No NTSC or S-Video out (available in higher models?)
1.5 hours of battery life only on 29 W-h battery  (I was used to 4+
hrs on my refilled Compaq Armada 366MHz laptop battery)
Spongy keyboard (misses some keystrokes), spongy mouse buttons


Neutral:
Mirror-like screen
Kinda heavy, kinda big (good for movies?)
No PCMCIA (hard to find on new notebooks)
Built-in wireless; Press Fn-F2 to disable; sufficient for airplane
use?
Video card takes up A LOT (320+ MB) of RAM; can reduce this slightly
Have to go into the Small Business section of Dell.com to see the Dell
Vostro

 
I would imagine so.

You'd be surprised at how many people think that since they're not actively
using their WiFi connection, it's "off."  I can almost a guarantee that on any
flight where you have a dozen people using laptops, at least once will still
have the WiFi card enabled.

If this were truly a significnat safety hazard I imagine they'd simply equip
the flight attendants with WiFi detectors -- they're dirt cheap these days,
and some can be hacked to look for clients as well as access points.

 wrote:

You know, I've wondered about the RF hazard on airplanes too.  A co-
worker wanted to turn on his GPS receiver while flying from Ontario to
Sacramento... I wonder if I'd have to physically restrain him...

When flying to/from the Philippines, I read a list of non-allowed
devices:  CD players were among them.  Flying on Southwest, though, CD
players are approved electronic devices (above 10,000 ft).  (Why the
altitude limitation?)

While in Dipolog Airport waiting for my plane, I read a nice detailed
warning about why cell phones are not allowed to be turned on during
flight:  "Cellphone use may disable autopilot (!!!???), interfere with
ground communications, yada yada yada... while communications might be
interrupted only temporarily, any interruption is unacceptable."

Is this really true?

Michael

 On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:01:24 -0000, mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:


Not during landing or take-off, presumably, though there are some
airports well above 10,000 ft.


Why take a chance? Who is going to pay for the work to make sure it
won't?


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

 wrote:

any

Hide quoted text -

Fascinating stuff.
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_10/interfere_textonly.html

1995, 737 airplane.
A passenger laptop computer was reported to cause autopilot
disconnects during cruise. Boeing purchased the computer from the
passenger and performed a laboratory emission scan from 150 kHz to 1
GHz. The emissions exceeded the Boeing emission standard limits for
airplane equipment at various frequency ranges up to 300 MHz.

Love the part about "Boeing purchased the computer from the
passenger..."

Michael