GeekDrew

Leaving Christmas lights up all year is hard on the lights. They are designed to be used and exposed for a short while only -- not all year. While I sympathize with those that do not want to put lights up and take them down every year, that's the only way to keep lights functioning properly -- they look horrible during the off-season; if they are colored, they fade; and the wires are not designed for direct heat and light year-round.

<sigh> So I returned the Vaio to BestBuy today. GeekSquad (thankfully) didn't question me on what was malfunctioning... which is good, since it wasn't doing it consistently. Well, because I have no use for a gift card, I decided to try to exchange it for another laptop. I browsed through their entire laptop selection for quite a while... and there was only *one* laptop (other than the model I just returned) that looked interesting to me... the HP dv4275. All of the other laptops had horrible build qualities, or didn't have specs I was interested in. So... I decided to get the dv4275. I also bought the extended service plan. I get it home... and the build quality of the laptop feels much worse than that of any Vaio I've ever seen. There's a single pixel that is stuck on 'red'... and that's bothering the hell out of me. Furthermore, the LCD just generally is bothering me... it looks very, very different, depending on what angle you see it from... and I'm not used to that on the other LCDs I've seen. <sigh> Why me. I just wish that I could order a Dell Inspiron and be done with it. :( They just can't get one here soon enough.

<sigh> I already told Ross -- *he* now has the right to say "I told you so". I've had this laptop less than two weeks (thankfully), and the LCD started malfunctioning today.... in a big way. So, it's going back to the store tomorrow. Or Saturday. I still have a few days before my two week return period is up.

I went to BestBuy today, and walked out with a Sony VGN-FS740/W. It cost me a little over $1300 before rebate... ~$1150 after rebate, IIRC. That doesn't include the extended warranty... I didn't get it today, but I'll probably go back to BestBuy and buy it sometime in the next two weeks... just need some more money for that. I spent more money than I would have liked on this laptop... but it was the best deal that I could find, that I could have in my hands immediately. Thanks, everyone. I really wish that I would have been able to get a better deal, but since I live in the middle of nowhere, and needed it immediately, I think this is about as good as it gets.

I started a new job a couple of months ago, and have since been promoted and transferred... I'm now frequently driving all over creation, and it would be awesome to have a laptop, so I didn't have to drive home every night to send reports to headquarters. ~280 miles/day is too much for me! Budget: >$1200, the lower the better.... $850 seems like an arbitrarily good number Exclusions: Absolutely *no* HP/Compaq, Acer, and Gateway Laptops I'm not very big on extra features... but as far as the LCD goes, the higher the resolution, the better. I'm also not very particular about battery life, or weight. Time to delivery is important - I need to have this ASAP.... I'm tired of getting drowsy at the wheel. I need to stay on-site, but can't do that until I get a laptop.