Well, we never showed you Dell laptops.

I humbly disagree with your very smart man. Young James recently had to replace his entire Mac Laptop because of a defect.

I hope the very smart man is willing to help you at 11PM at night when you have problems. :p

Please don't tell me this is true! James didn't tell me about that.
Even so my dear son, I know you would try to help me anyway.

But don't worry yet, we are starting with non-Apple laptop from your Dad'w work first. I can't really justify buying an new desktop so soon after getting this PC.

That doesn't stop me from wanting a MAC!

Macs are beautiful -- and -- easy to use.
Plus, because Mac owners are a minority, we're always (thankfully) overlooked by the hackers who are perpetually creating brand new viruses and worms that wreak havoc on PC's via email attachments.

However, your son has a point when he gently reminds you that it's him you'll be calling in the wee hours when you have computer problems -- and might i add, that you have no idea how lucky you are when it comes to knowing someone you can trust when it comes to computer woes, who's willing to help you out, and for FREE :-)

He also has a point about the Mac laptop defect issue -- i don't know if he's refering to the same defect issue i experienced, but here goes; i have many Macs that i use for work and frankly never have had a problem. But i did have a near-scary experience a month ago with my 5 month old gorgeous sleek Powerbook Titanium G4.

All i did was open the lid/screen and i heard a crack, and the next thing i knew was that the left hinge which connects my screen to the laptop had snapped in two, and my screen was now sort of hanging in place.

After i calmed myself down, i figured, OK, no probs, Apple will replace the little bitty hinge, and that's that. However, when i brought the Powerbook into an Apple dealer, i was told that i would have to have the entire screen and casing replaced and that it would cost almost $1500 Canadian to replace -- unless -- it was under Applecare warranty.

However, of course i had an Applecare warranty, in fact, i'd purchased an extended Applecare warranty, so all i did was dial the Applecare 1-800 number, confirm my name and address, tell them that i had the extended warranty, that i'd opened the lid/screen one evening, and had heard a crack and discovered the hinge had broken.

They acknowledged that there was indeed a flaw/defect that had come up with the hinge issue on the Powerbook Titaniums, confirmed that the entire screen and casing had to be replaced, then they gave me an Applecare work order number and told me to bring the computer and the work order number to the dealer and in a day's turnaround, i had a shiny new screen and casing and got my computer back, at no cost to me.

Now, if that's considered a pain in the ass when it comes to computer "problems", i don't know what to say. Then again, seeing as you are one of the lucky few who have free tech support from your son, and he's likely a pc user/expert, you might wanna take his advice into consideration :-)

To voxpopgirl: I do appreciate how lucky I am and try never to call Mike in the wee hours. But he is a busy man, with work, and family. I know someone else who had the same problem with his Mac laptop. Still want one. Can I ask you for help if I need to ask a question?

of course you can ask me for help if you have any questions about Macs :-) i'm certainly no genius expert but because of my work i've been using and owning Mac's since, oh my goodness, 1985!

Judi, you mentioned in your email, not knowing how to add a link in the comments section; unless there's some restriction within the comments system, you simply write up the link the same way that you do for your blog like this: "i agree with Matt about General Wesley Clark ."

There is no URL button on the comment section. Is there a shortcut? Or, is there some way I can set it up that way? On my primary e-mail account with AOL, all I have to do is right click over the name or words highlighted. I tried that last night here but nothing happened. Or possibly, my brain had turned off due to the late hour.

Thanks for your offer to help voxpopgirl.