Kid and Caboodle

Due to some sort of inventory overhaul, my office has asked that when I return to work on Tuesday I turn in the government laptop I’ve been using for the past few years. This means I am now shopping for a new laptop so I can continue telecommuting on Thursdays. Arrgghhh!

We do have another machine in the house, but I don’t like using it because it takes a very long time to boot up and is starting to fall apart. The touch pad and one of the USB ports don’t work properly, for example. The machine also is configured to my husband’s preferences since he is one who uses it the most. This means that even when I go into “my” profile, the browser tries to load all kinds of bookmarks I don’t want and the virtual desktop is cluttered with all kinds of software I don’t use. I think it would be cleaner for us to have separate machines altogether; we can transfer files between machines as emergency backups, but in general each one of us should be able to set things up as we like on our machines. Having two machines in the house also will enable both of us to telecommute at the same time, or let our son play on one machine while we do some work or play something else on the other.

I glanced at a few Web sites selling computers this evening and was fairly bewildered by the wide array of choices at my disposal. I know three things I absolutely need: wireless Internet capability, video-playing capability and the longest-lasting battery power available. I know I don’t want to spend more than a certain amount of money, and I assume a speedy processor and a lot of hard drive space are important. Pretty much everything looks the same after that point, though.

While I was shopping, one thing did catch my eye: Dell is selling a number of machines under the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, in which companies donate a percentage of the sales of specified products to help fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa. I had read about this campaign from an article one of my co-workers wrote recently, but had not realized computers were one of the things one could buy. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of going with a (PRODUCT) RED laptop. As I have written before, I regularly shop at places like The Hunger Site or Ten Thousand Villages so I can contribute to good causes while shopping. Since I’m going to buy something anyway, why not buy it at a place that also is helping the less fortunate?