NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, June 2007
President's Corner
by Bill Moeller, President
wmoeller@arkansasusa.com
(click to email author)


As I write this I am sitting in my son's living room in Tucson, Arizona, learning all about laptop computers and wireless internet connections. As a practicing conservative I have always used desktops and hardwired dial up connections. Crude, and unimaginative, but they have always worked for me.

I am using my older grandson's Dell Inspiron 1200 to write this, and find that it a nice little machine, but that the screen has a very narrow viewing angle and the keyboard doesn't accommodate the customary droop of my wrists as I type.

I have also used his brother's Dell Inspiron 1501, which seems to have a more tolerant angle of view, but pretty much the same kind of depressed keyboard.

My son just got a new Macbook Pro which he has not yet allowed anyone else to touch--he's too busy trying to figure out what all is loaded on it, and how to use it. Looking over his shoulder I can see that it has a much broader field of view, a feature of much value to photographers, of which we are two.

I could get used to this wireless thing very quickly but do have some concerns about security. All three machines work flawlessly, connecting to a router owned by one of my son's tenants in an adjacent apartment. The convenience is great, and the cost is right, but who knows who's reading my mail?

The point of all this? It's nice to drive a new car before buying it, and trying out all this gear is certainly going to give me more confidence when I buy my first laptop. It might also lead me to get into wireless. I would recommend that any of you about to lay out a few bucks for new gear look about also and see if you can try before buying.

See you at the June meeting, assuming that the four wheel technology that got us here gets us safely home. Have a good one.

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