Dude I got a Dell

[mrskippy]

My new Dell laptop arrived today, less than a week after ordering it. Wow!!! The packaging, the nice manual, and other stuff -- very impressive.

As for the laptop itself, I wonder why I never purchased one of these before. Totally cool. As fast as my desktop. It has good reviews, with the biggest complaint being weight. But I don't think it's too heavy.

Right now, until my wireless card comes in, I've got it tethered via ethernet cable to the Web. Next week, I'll be able to go online from any room in the house and from all sorts of public hot spots.

I want to do PowerPoint presentations in the classroom. The laptop connects to a TV. Should I buy PowerPoint or is there a cheaper alternative in terms of presentation software?

Downloading FOF 2004 right now. It'll be the first game on the laptop.

Also, besides a case, a spare battery, the TV hook-up cables, the wireless Internet card, is there anything else I should get in terms of laptop accessories? Do I need anything special to plug it in on an airplane?

[MizzouRah]

Do I need anything special to plug it in on an airplane?




Yeah, an extra battery to fill the other bay. :)


Todd

[mrskippy]

Hehehe. Well, I'm going to buy a spare battery. That's on my must buy list.

[MizzouRah]

I have a nice optical mouse I carry in my bag as I hate those touch pads.

Seems to me you have everything else covered. (Maybe a USB printer cable?)


Todd

[mrskippy]

That printer cable may be a good idea for backup, though I don't have a printer and I'm sure I can easily hotswap with another computer when necessary.

I'm thinking about getting a small portable mouse or one of those trackballs you can attach to the side. But, I'm going to try and get use to the touch pad. At least it's not that little button thing that used to be in the middle of the keyboard.

I just found out that OpenOffice and StarOffice have their own versions of Power Point. I can save them as Power Point and than use the Power Point viewer/player on my laptop. Excellent!!!

I have a book to write for my teacher education class and we can make it a Power Point presentation. I'm going to give it a shot.

[SnowMan]

Did Kevin at Dell sell it to you?

[mrskippy]

No Michael from Dell did though.

Actually, it was a Web-based purchase.

[mckerney]

Did you find out if the school has digital projectors to use instead of TVs?

[cartman]

APC makes a pretty sweet airline/car adapter, and it's only around $70. It has a normal 3 prong plug in one end, like a wallplug in your house. One the other end, it looks like a cigarette plug, which works in the car, and you can remove the cigarette plug piece, and below is the airline seat-style plug.

This means you can use it for any kind of AC device. Most of the other solutions I've seen you can only use for a certain device, end either only in the car on only on a plane. Since this has a 3-prong plug, you can use it for anything.

Here's the link to APC's site on the product. I've been using one for the past year and a half, and love it.

http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=9