I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I would've been far less inclined to broach the topic had I not been suffering all of the maladies shown in my insightful diagram.  The missing backspace key is really the straw that broke the camels back, so after factoring in the age of the current machine and the technological advancements since, it was decided that perhaps I would recoup yet another investment in technology with newfound performance gains.  I like to think this old girl lived a happy and productive life; despite that incident where she just completely shut off and wouldn't turn back on due to a faulty AC power port on the back.  So she's had a transplant or two in her time as well.  I type like its going out of style though and when I start making typos when I *know* I hit the key, that's when I start questioning it.  Still, with an external keyboard and external mouse, someone could definitely make use of it.  So perhaps it will wind up back at HQ, or perhaps I will add it to my collection of experimental machines to either help test in multiple resolutions, or install experimental technology, or even serve as a repository for my budding collection of MP3.  A happy employee is a productive employee after all.

The fact is, this laptop was a hand-me-down in the first place, is hot, loud, flaky, and has hardly any battery life.  When you work at home you find that its hard to separate work and play.  Even if you have a nice little home office, the wife and kid(s) find a way to grab you for something or other.  So rather than get in a heated argument about how you're "not really there" or "pretend i'm at work", it's sometimes easier to just get up and do it and then she'll leave you alone.  I envision some virtual nods out there; yeah, you guys know what i'm talking about.

So you wind up trying to account for lost time. So you either work late or start your day early, but in general, you find yourself always on :)   Always on, trying to get your work done, and always on the move, trying to get away from the distractions!  Viva la mobile computing!

And of course, if you travel, laptops are good for that too , but I suppose that's a topic for another time.

So I'll leave you with this:  I went through all the steps to spec a laptop at Dell and I was all ready to present my findings to my finance committee, and what should I realize but that none of the latest Dell laptops come with the trackpoint nub.  I guess they want you to plug in a mini-mouse or use the touchpad, but of course my problem is that with the mini-mouse, that's something external I have to drag around with me and have a surface on which to use it, and the touchpad I wind up clicking as I move my finger across it too fast (because I'm a power user ).  The trackpoint is awesome.  It keeps your hands over the keyboard so you can move around quickly and continue typing.  Very efficient, and left click/right click are right under the keyboard.  I almost never move one of my hands down completely to use the touchpad or touchpad buttons.

So, I've been extolling the virtues of Dell since the beginning of time.  Is this where the party ends?  I guess I'm going to go surf some competitors because that trackpoint is a must have.  I know IBM (Sorry, Lenovo) has them, but their screen size is a puny 15 inches.  I've gotten used to cramming a whole lot of multitasking into my 17 " wide screen.  So the search is on...  :)