Traitorous Leanings

It's been a while since I've posted, and I apologize.  Been a busy couple months, and it's not really letting up as we head into the holidays.  But, work is work, and I'm glad I have it.

I've made some heavy changes in my computing arsenal.  Some have been necessary, some not so much.  Some have resulted from tripping over exceptional deals on eBay and elsewhere.  Some may eventually send me to the poor house.

I previously mentioned my purchase of a Surface Pro, and how much I actually liked it.  Well, due to some of the demands of my current job (RE:, some truly horrific websites that I'm required to access), I found myself somewhat having to use a Win8 system.  I wasn't particularly happy about that, but ya does what ya does...

The Surface, while a great little system to tote around and use on the go, is not a system for everyday office work.  A 10" screen just doesn't cut it, especially when your eyes are as bad as mine.  So, a check of the local Best Buy netted me an el-cheapo Asus computer for just a bit over $200.  (It was an open-box/demo/closeout deal.)  It had an i3, a decent 15" screen, and a serviceable keyboard.  And it worked.

Till today.  I started having trouble with the USB 3.0 port.  Inserting a thumb drive would crash the computer.  (I have my suspicions of what's going on, but I'm not sure.)  This didn't make me happy, but luckily, I was testing a new system I just got it, thanks to one of those serendipitous eBay finds: a Thinkpad X1 Carbon.

Yeah, I know.  But the price I got this one for was literally too good to pass up.  It's a nice system, 1.8 Ghz Core i5, 4 GB RAM, and a 256 GB SSD.  Running Windows 8.1  I've loaded Office 2013 onto it, as I wanted OneNote, which I've (re)fallen in love with.

And the whole system is beautifully compact, yet completely usable.  I've avoided the "ultrabooks" for a long time, just considering them overly expensive toys.  The Carbon changed that opinion.  Yeah, it's damned expensive, but it's definitely no toy.  I have to put a big check mark into Lenovo's corner on this one.  (I'm starting to sound like an advertisment, aren't I?)

Today was the first day i used the Carbon in the office full time, and it was like night and day from the Asus.  Yes, the 14" screen is smaller, but the keyboard more than makes up for that.  I've heard people gripe about the new "island-style" keyboards.  And I have to admit, I love the older style Thinkpad keyboards, but this one holds its own.  It's damned good.  And it makes typing on this system a pleasure. 

So, here I am, becoming a Windows user again...

Well, not really.  But that's a story for another entry...  ;-)