Jeni's Musings

When I was young, my dad taught me a way of making tough decisions. You get a sheet of paper, make one column for each of the possibilities, and list pros and cons. The one that ends up with the most (important) pros and least (important) cons is the one that you should choose. My dad is a TJ-type.

My mum also taught me a way of making tough decisions. Her way was to toss a coin. But the point was not to just toss the coin, but to see how you feel when it landed. If you’re pleased, go with it. If you’re disappointed, ignore it and go with the other choice. My mum is a FJ-type.

Now I’m an INFP, which means that the latter method appeals to me a lot more than the former. I made that table of laptops in my last post, but all it did for me was expose how many factors there are: there’s no obvious winner.

So I’ve been picturing tossing a six-sided coin (yes, I know, it’s called a die), and this is how it goes:

• Toshiba Portege R500: I feel disappointed. My present laptop seemed pretty sturdy, and it’s broken under my (moderately heavy) usage, so I hate to think how the Toshiba would fare. I don’t want my new laptop to fall apart.
• Dell M1330: I feel downcast. They’ve got an amazing spec, looks aren’t bad, but they’re big and weighty when I want small and light.
• Lenovo X300: I feel appalled. Thank you to everyone who pointed this option out to me, but despite the specs I just cannot get over the design. It’s too black-boxy, business like, the very opposite of fun. It doesn’t fit with my vision of me.
• Sony Vaio TZ32: I feel resigned. It’d be good enough, but it’s so samey. Everyone in my family has a Vaio.
• Apple Macbook Air: I feel delighted, thrilled, excited, and a little bit naughty. It’s not the sensible option, but it’s the one my heart wants.

So there you have it, decision made. And yes, I know:

• It doesn’t have a DVD drive; but I’ve used the DVD drive in this laptop what? three times? My previous laptop didn’t have a CD/DVD drive and it was perfectly usable day-to-day. When I needed to access a DVD, I popped it into a shared DVD drive on the desktop computer and shared it. I can do the same with the Macbook Air using Remote Disk.
• It hasn’t got a built-in WWAN adapter; but I don’t want to fork out for always-on internet. I’m prepared to hop from hotspot to hotspot (that’s what I do at the moment anyway).
• It hasn’t got a built-in Ethernet adapter; as above. I do remember the last time I used the Ethernet adapter on this laptop, but it was a while ago.
• The battery’s not removable except by shipping to base; but I don’t think I’ve ever had a backup battery for any of my laptops. When they’re out of power, they’re out of power and I have to do something else with my time, until I get to charge them again. Yes, this has been frustrating on a few rare occasions, but never enough to get me to invest in another battery.
• It’s only got 2GB memory; but I’m not even using my 1GB at the moment, even with Firefox, Oxygen, Thunderbird and Acrobat Reader open. I don’t think it’ll prove a practical limit.
• It’s only got a 64GB hard disk; but that’s the same as the other laptops that I’ve been considering. Most of my data is held remotely on my slug and it’s good discipline to keep it there. I’m quite happy using USB drives to supplement my on-the-move storage (you can get a 16GB one for less than £50 nowadays!).

In short, all its disadvantages are things that I either don’t care about or am quite prepared to live with.

But before I order it, I want to know if any of you Mac users out there have any recommendations for must-have accessories? I was planning on getting iWork since it’s only £55 and I fancy seeing how Numbers works, and on getting the extended warranty. And a case or bag. Anything else?