a top on your lap?

Response for Journal Entry #1: "With the GOOD, comes the BAD"

Modern-day communications technology is evolving at a fast rate. Look back to your parents' generation - presumably the youth of the baby-boomers, where Elvis was slowly taking over the radio airwaves and Star Wars was "in."
Now everyone's all about the iPods, the MP3 downloading, cell phones, PSP's, Nintendo DS's... You name it. Entertainment and technology have never been so heavily associated with each other, in my opinion.

More specifically, I'm here to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of something I constantly rely on: my laptop. Being an owner of one myself, I should know first-hand what having a laptop is like. And it's pretty nice!


You might be thinking... a laptop is a computer, right? Why's she talking about a laptop in specific? As you must probably already know, computers are generally divided into two physical body types: desktop and laptop. Desktops, while they are the bulkier of the two, can pack in much more RAM memory, disk space, and have the capacity to run much faster than laptops. Laptops, on the other hand, can also provide powerful systems that are portable. While you don't get the max performance, you do get portability bragging rights.

Having a laptop is perfect for me, since I hate when dust starts collecting on top of a computer that just... well, sits there. I love being able to bring it anywhere with me - all my data is all available to me, and I can use it without having to plug it into a power outlet. Not to mention that it's exceptionally easy to bring my computer to school when I have big projects. It's also convienent when there are multiple computers in the house - my Mom has a non-wireless laptop that she brings home from work from time to time, so we can hook that up to our router while I go to the living room and use my wireless there. There's no hassle to disconnect a cord from the back of a machine, or even not use the computer at all - the portability and power that the laptop packs in is extremely convienent.

At the same time, I also lack the power that a normal desktop would have. The processing power of my laptop is the equivalent of a desktop... that was manufactured around 5 years ago. My old desktop (2000-2005) packed a whopping 1.4GHz, and my current laptop runs on 1.7GHz. It takes forever to burn a CD or a DVD, sadly enough. A normal 4GB burn session usually takes about 20-30 minutes on a desktop, as where it takes double the time on my poor laptop. Something that's a little irrelevant to me as well is playing games or watching movies on my trusty sidekick - it's less than necessary for a girl like me, but they would be much better appreciated on a desktop (more specifically, a media PC). But I guess that's the price I pay for the portability of my laptop.

Overall, I think that a laptop is the perfect solution for someone who's always on-the-go and only needs the essentials. Sure it doesn't pack the punch of a desktop, but at least you can bring your data around easily and access it while you're not in the office or at home.