Choosing a laptop

Buying computer equipment is an essential part of starting a new business. PC Magazine recently published an article on the type of equipment a small business will need to start out (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2130280,00.asp) that has a lot of good tips when choosing servers, desktops, and laptops.

When it was time to replace my 2 year old and beloved Dell 700m, I initially looked for the upgrade model: the Dell XPS M1210. This highly portable laptop boasted performance (Core 2 Duo processor) and entertainment (integrated webcam). I purchased my 700m two years ago from the Dell Outlet website, which sells refurbished, canceled orders, and scratch & dent equipment. My 700m was a refurbished laptop and the only problem I had in the two years I owned it was a malfunctioning DVD/CDRW drive. Luckily it failed right before my 1 year limited warranty expired. This was enough for me to trust another refurbished laptop.

Unfortunately this process was not as easy as I thought it would be. The Dell outlet website contains a shifting stock of inventory. You have 15 minutes to purchase the item after you’ve added it to your shopping cart. I required a DVD-RW drive for the new laptop (the inability to burn DVDs in the 700m was an annoyance), but there never seemed to be any good deals when I searched for M1210’s with DVD-RW drives.

I ultimately became frustrated with trying to find a good deal on a refurbished Dell laptop. After a few days of searching, comparing, and reading reviews, I ended up buying an HP Pavilion TX1110US from my local CompUSA. I paid $1199 , but it came with a $50 mail-in rebate. The laptop is a 12.1”, 4.18lb, AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual Core Mobile Technology 1.6 Ghz power horse. Oh, and a DVD-RW w/LightScribe technology :). The screen swivels 180 degrees, but it is not a touch screen like the higher model, TX1120US. It came with Windows Vista Home Premium preloaded, which was my first experience with Vista after briefly messing with a beta version last year. Here’s a good review from NotebookReview.com: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3656.

I also went ahead and purchased the HP QuickDock port replicator for $149, which was essential to me because I use a monitor and countless USB peripherals in the office. However, the QuickDock does not come with its own power cord, which was very disappointing.

I’ve had the laptop for about 2 weeks. At first I was very disappointed with the performance. I blamed it on the 1GB of RAM, which I read on many pages was not advisable with Vista. I ended up breaking down and buying 2 1GB sticks of Crucial memory from NewEgg.com. Now I’ll have to find some time to sell on eBay the 2 sticks of 512 MB of memory I pulled out of the laptop. In hindsight I wish I would’ve gotten the higher model, which comes with 2 GB of memory PLUS a touch screen. As the NotebookReview.com reviewer found, the swivel screen is sort of useless without a touch screen.

Overall, I think it was a good purchase for the price. Unfortunately, just a few days after I bought it (and spent hours transferring my data from the old 700m), HP released a $150 rebate that I could not take advantage of!

Starting a Business

I've created this blog to serve as a journal of my trip down the valley of small business ownership. For the past decade (that is, before I even started working) I have dreamed of starting a business. I am a man in my late 20's, unmarried, in a long term relationship, and have some undergraduate school time left to finish during night school.

The firm I am starting is sort of a hybrid. The simplest description I can give as the main purpose of the company is that it is a document conversion service for large companies. This entails taking in documents (paper or electronic) in one format, and returning it to the companies in other formats, along with databases that contain information about the documents. In addition to providing this service, my company will create software to be marketed and sold to the same industry it services.

My company is what Eric Sink would call a Micro ISV: an Independent Software Vendor made up of 1 person. It is my hope to do well enough as one person to grow larger.

This blog will focus specifically on the technology needs of a business my size. In order to provide objective and honest information about this trip down entrepreneurship, I have decided to make this blog anonymous. This will allow me to write about both good and bad technology decisions I may make.

I hope you enjoy this blog.