Byte by Bite

Fiery laptops not good idea for teachers

by Marv Dealy

I emailed to the principal in question, questioning the idea of a free laptop for every teacher and got no response. I emailed again, forwarding news about how Dell laptops have a propensity to burst into flame; again, no answer.

To read about the exploding Dells, go to Google, click on the “news” link above the search window and search for the words “Dell laptops fire” (without the quotes) and you’ll get a whole slew of news stories, such as “May you burn in Dell” and “Honey my laptop blew up the truck.”

Dell launched a recall of somewhere between 20,000 and a lot more laptops—reports vary widely—in December of 2005. Some say Dell knew about the possibility of exploding batteries in their computers at last two years before they issued the recall (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/07/dell_laptop_batteries.html).

In any event, the only Dells in my shop are there because they need repairs. That said, if you do need a laptop for yourself or the young piker about to be off to school, what choices do you have other than a fully pimped MacBook Pro, starting at about $3,000?

You might think about saving a lot of money by going the refurbished route. For example, USANotebook.com (I know nothing about them, by the way) advertises a Pentium II IBM ThinkPad 600 for $199 with a six month warranty. This laptop was introduced in 1998 and became the bestselling ThinkPad ever. This laptop won’t please the gamers out there, but it’d be a fine typing, emailing and surfing machine I’ll bet. To find more deals, search Google for “cheap computers” or similar phrases. Make sure whatever you get comes with a warranty of some kind.

Back to the smoking Dells—it is true that all laptops have a propensity to be a heat producer. That’s why I always prop the back of my laptops up with whatever is handy to get a third or half inch of air under them. You can also buy cooling devices to place your laptop on—for example at Cyberguys.com I found 15 different ways to cool your laptop ranging from $9.95 and up. Or, just use the rack out of toaster oven. If your laptop runs a little cooler, it just might run a little longer.

Mail bag

A note to reader William Silva who wrote that he didn’t see anything on my website about repairing computers—we still do, William. We’ve been working on our website for nearly the entire life of the Internet—15 years old this week, by the way—and the next rendition will talk more about that kind of stuff. I tried to email you back, by the way, but without any luck.

A number of readers have written concerning their experiences with getting a WildBlue satellite and the gist is the same—everyone is happy with the service when it works but the installation can be a nightmare. Once again, I have one dealer I’ll personally recommend based on the dozens and dozens of happy campers they’ve left in their wake, but you’ll have to email me (address below) or call me at 962-7308 for that information.

Reader #14, Shelly Davis-King writes “The strangest thing has happened during the past few weeks of heat wave—about 1 o'clock in the afternoon the WildBlue reception just blitzes. Goes away. Won't load or unload. Nada. And then around 5 p.m. it starts back up again.”

“Day one I checked to make sure that there wasn't something like snow in the dish (don't I wish?) but all seemed fine. Day two, I called WildBlue and the technician said it was all in my computer sluggishness, and had me erase every cookie on my system. Of course, the cookies have nothing to do with the unresponsiveness of the satellite.”

“Day four, I called Wild Blue again (I had now established that this afternoon thing was a pattern) and they told me the receiver had quit working (yes, thank you, that's why I'm calling). But it was interesting that the lack of responsiveness in the receiver was something they could see in their office after asking my telephone number.”

“They had me go through about two hours of fix-its, only to have it not be fixed. I did learn that by unplugging everything from the wall for 5-10 minutes and then reconnecting and rebooting the computer fixed some of the unresponsiveness.”

“WildBlue decided I needed a technician which was scheduled for a Friday morning. Late in the evening on Thursday the tech called to find out if we were going to be around on Friday, and since we were out of the house he got no answer so he cancelled the scheduled visit. We are back in the service queue—we won't get the tech now for another two weeks. BAD service. BAD WildBlue. The good news is that with the temperature below 100 yesterday, I had afternoon Internet connection. Go figure.”

Reader Norman Milsner wrote “I think you might mention in your next column that the only way you can use Local.Live.com on a Mac Computer is to download Firefox. As of today, it will not work in Safari.” Thanks Norman, and it’s just a hunch but I’ll bet there isn’t a whole floor of people in a building somewhere working on fixing that problem.

I mentioned a unit conversion calculator Microsoft is giving away recently, and reader Dan Buckman wrote “Unit conversions are nice, but not new. What I can't find is the essential feature of showing a “tape” or list of all preceding calculations. Is their one out there? What I want seems simple, each operation listed like writing on paper. I've tried to use a spreadsheet in this way, but it is cumbersome because I have to repeat results manually and operators aren’t illustrated except manually as text.”

“Your column is the greatest; my priorities: Marv first, “Smart Computing” and “PCWorld” tied for second.

Clearly, Dan knows how to get his name in this column. I could, of course, suggest that he get a calculator with an actual roll of paper, but I’m sure he’s looking for one on his computer. Anyone who can help, step forward.

Talk Here

A virtual trickle of folks have left a comment on the blog. I’m happy to see a couple of comments concerning setting up a cheap, community-based wireless network using old computers and proximity. If you’re one of the Internet starved who can’t see paying the cost of satellite access, get on over to www.Talk-Here-Now.blogspot.com and add your voice.