Changing Infrastructure

Two days ago, the computer died. It was old, it was more patched parts than original, but it died. It is time to update into the 21st Century in the PC sense.

Originally, we planned on getting a nice new desktop - nothing fancy, no great indepth searching, just a Dimension 5150 from Dell (like I use at work). It's fast, it's fruity and most of all it's reasonably cheap! The spec' is perfect for the web and graphics work I do as well as running WoW.

However, in the interim period, I have been playing WoW on the laptop (owner: Mrs G.) and it has ran perfectly well. It has also illustrated some of the unseen stresses that furniture positioning puts on the household. For example, when I use the desktop, I have my back to the rest of the room, facing the corner. This is not seen as the most sociable of things and indeed, when I am mic'd up it generates quite a bit of tension and frustration. It can also be a tad claustrophobic.

So we discussed getting another laptop... and this lead to a number of other revelations. We could get rid of the PC table/shelf array in the corner and clear that corner as a toy-area for the kids. That would mean that the current pile of toys could be replaced by our new spangly 27" flatscreen HD TV thats coming tomorrow...which would mean that the TV area could be shelved and we would have more bookspace and DVD space. And that means that if we are both watching TV on different sofas, one of us will no longer have their back to the other, as it is at the moment.

Hey, and if I am working (or playing - lets be honest) on the laptop, our super-duper wireless system will allow me to sit in the kitchen or the conservatory and watch the kids play etc. whilst doing it - rather than being pinned in one hole.

Now there are downsides - laptops are a lot less adaptable than desktops and when they break, they BREAK! However, the prices of an Inspiron 6400 and the Dimension 5150 are not that different for very similar specs. And we do need to take into account the massive social implications that this could have. We are a computer-house, but being a social computer house would be even better.

Not something about hobbies really, but something I fancied putting down for perpetuity!

Neil