"Ron Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote...
> How big a deal is the small screen?
You need to be a bit creative. But it plugs right in to a 17" monitor if you have a
semi-permanent location, taking you to 1024x768. I have a cheapo video switch on my
WinPC @ work, so I can flick between the two when I'm there. And it auto-detected
that resolution when I plugged it in to a projection screen, allowing me to save a
major business presentation at the last minute when somebody else's laptop got
Airborned to the wrong place ('cuz it was too heavy to carry!)
> How big a deal is the small keyboard?
For normal typing, not. I have fat fingers but don't find that I make more typos.
(At least, once I got the trackguard extension that keeps my dragging thumbs from
moving the cursor around accidentally.) Again, it's easy to plug in a regular kbd &
mouse from any old junk Mac you can find -- cheap! You'll probably appreciate the
"home," "end" and "PgUp/PgDn" keys if you use WP programs. The biggest grouse? No
way to get VPC to generate those wierd codes that some DOS programs like. (Alt-2-4-1
= plus-or-minus; the digits must be on the numeric keypad.)
> Are the keyboard replacements available a lot better for word processing than the
original keyboard?
Regular desktop kbds are. The number of keys, not the action or size, is my issue.
> How important is the 80 meg ram barrier?
Probably my biggest grouse. I spend a lot of time (and grief, per my post about
disabling Software Update) juggling extensions to try to keep my bigger combos alive
& well. Problem is that I like the contact mgmt & internet stuff at the same time,
and "About This Mac..." shows close to 20MB just for the system et. al. VPC would
run a lot faster; as it is I usually invoke a "location" that strips out all but the
bare necessities. Forget OS X, or who knows what future new s/w goodies. (They're
not making 'em any smaller.) If I could squeeze 256MB in this thing, I'd probably
still be using it in 5 years.
> Since it doesn't come with an internal modem how "mobile" is it in terms of the
internet?
I use a Lan(ethernet)/Modem card. Easy. Probably halfway affordable, too.
> Is it possible to use a cable modem with it?
I haven't, but the Ethernet card should make it easy.
> Or should I just spring for the extra money (and weight) and buy and iBook?
My plan is to stretch my current machine's lifetime until I can afford (hah!
rationalize) whatever the then-current Titanbook is. Think carefully about how much
schlepping you're willing to do... as a twice-a-week flyer, I hate heavy gear.
You didn't ask, but you might consider: the Comet has almost no headroom to tackle
today's nifty new things. I really went gaga over iTunes, figuring to save myself
the short stack of CD's & player that burden my flight bag each week. But iTunes
burned my batts too fast; the 2400 wouldn't make it from Chicago to either coast
while running it (and saving a file caused a hiccup in the sound, so no
multitasking.) I guess it was OK to spring for the G3/320 a couple years back, but
it definitely would be foolish (near impossible) now. You'll be on the trailing
edge. So if you have a well-established usage set that you can map onto the machine,
and it exploits the low weight (a godsend) or size (nice) of a real Apple, go for
it! Otherwise, keep looking.
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