My first experience(s) with the LCD screen and mini-keyboard of
a Dell laptop has not changed my mind about the 'toy' status
of a laptop versus a real work station PC. I am even more
determined to avoid laptops in the future, if t at is possible. 

The XP 'home' required the addition of a series of Windows
utilities before the machine would become a productive
'desktop'. I would list what those utilities were but the
laptop went black-screen on me and I can't access that hard
drive right now. Fortunately I had uploaded all of the work I
had done to the FTP server and was initiating a second 'round'
of changes when the machine decided to die. 

My first realization was that optimizing graphics for websites
is a mistake when using an LCD screen. Depending on your angle
of viewing, amount of light in the room, and the phases of the
moon, you get different results re:quality of the graphic. I'm
referring to JPG compression variations here. 

XP wants to do 'fade in' and 'fade out' of menus etc. which is
no real help when using an LCD that tends to look this way
regardless of what the display settings are. :-\ 

The last time I used the laptop it complained about a low
battery and seemed to be unaware it was plugged into the wall?
When I removed the battery pack I found a button on the side
that, when pushed, lit up three of a total of five 'green
dots'. No mention is made of this button or the green lights in
the user manual and now I notice pushing the button does _not_
light _any_ of these dots. My first inclination was that the
power cord had breaks in the wiring but now am wondering if the
battery has internal shorting? Maybe it's both? 

Calling DELL connected me to India where a seemingly
nice/polite person tried desperately to speak in English to me.
I had to ask him to repeat every other phrase he spoke.
Terminology doesn't lend itself to mispronunciation but he
patiently repeated the phrases until I could grasp the meanings
of what he was saying. Short story: DELL does not sell parts
even where they have a physical presence. All parts must be
ordered through India who then passes the order to Texas where
the parts are actually shipped from. This requires about 10
working days to _ship_ then whatever time it takes for the
actually delivery over land to the destination. 

I did not bother. 

I drove 150 miles back to where my desktop is at and am
finishing the work on a REAL workstation using W2K. Laptops are
'toys' IMO and XP s*cks. :-\ 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

--- * ATP/16bit 2.31 * 
... DOS the Ghost in the Machine! http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/