If you are a technology snob

 don’t bother reading this post. It is about old technology that still does the job well.

I have had a friend and occasional reader come charging in to the rescue with yet another Combat Laptop to replace the old work horse that has served me well since I snagged it around February of 2010. It was the first of a pair of Gobook IIIs. The other lies next to one of my ham rigs where it serves me well and runs the digital modes for me.

A chat with a couple of IT guys says that I get pretty good mileage out of those surplus laptops. The one I have hauled all over hell and back has served we well. When it finally died I was wondering which way to go to replace the old work horse.

Enter a friend that happens to have a couple of them kicking around that he got in a horse trade somewhere along the line. They’re old for a laptop, they came out in about ’05 and besides the military, and police departments, contractors and others used them because they were so damned tough.

My old workhorse has taken several spills and kept on ticking.

Over time the guys grin when they see the clunky old thing fire up and shake their heads. One guy knows why I carry it. Both our machines took a spill once. I didn’t even have to reboot mine and his newer one went into the trash. I did have to repair a dent on the deck, though. He became a believer.

Money plays into the equation, too.

Companies generally lease laptops for three year leases and many of those that are leased don’t even last the three years.

I was able to buy the old Combat laptop for $200 delivered to my door ready to plug in and use. It doesn’t get a whole lot cheaper than that for just about anything these days. I believe I got four plus years out of this one. That’s about $50 a year for a damned good computer when it’s all over and done with. You can’t beat that.

Of course, it was simply a case of a tool that fits the job. I sure wouldn’t want to use the machine for any of the current computer games but for simply surfing the web and writing these machines were and are still ideal. If you want technology spend your $200 on a netbook.

While the netbook I bought a while back for someone had much more hard drive and a faster processor and is certainly lighter than the old GoBook it is harder to write on and from a practical point of view has no advantage but size and weight.

If you have read this far and are stammering and stuttering about me not being able to play “Knights in shining armor” or some other game, please go back and reread the first sentence. After you do you may then say, “Oh.” Please feel free to feel foolish.

I’m glad that a friend has come to the rescue and went through his Civil War era relics and dug out another GoBook3 for me.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY