On Thu, December 13, 2007 12:32 pm, David W. Fenton wrote: > The laptop > *is* a $deity-send when I go to the library and need to take notes > for my research, but otherwise, it's not that big an advantage as I'd > thought it would be.
I agree with David about it not being as significant as some feel it is. My first laptop was a 1997 Windows 95B Compaq Armada P-100. It's still running here for emergency dialup for email if our cable goes down. That machine served best during a European tour when we did live interactive sessions with students back in the US (one memorable one with us, Eliane Radigue and Rhys Chatham in Paris and Laurie Spiegel in New York). And being offline is pretty much not an option (I've been online since 1981 at 110 baud), so now it's a Dell WinXP 1.5GHz Pentium from 2005. For text and audio editing, basic photo work, and the usual panoply of email clients and browsers, the laptop is adequate. I'd like a better built-in keyboard and never use the touch pad. At a residency in Portugal in April, we produced a half-hour documentary video on two laptops -- my wife did the storyboard and sequenced the takes, and I composed the score and edited the interviews and songs. With respect to the original question, among the most important applications is Finale, and that's where the absence of a good keyboard and large screen makes work difficult. My context might be a little different, though, because I actually compose into Finale, and need to be able to see a great deal of the score and flip around quickly. Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
