Ventura County Computers Eletter

It's a wonderful life, with my Notebook.

As I write this article I find myself sitting in a jury services room waiting to serve my public duty as an American citizen. If you think I'm going to complain about having to serve, Forget It! As American citizens we are given the greatest country in the world to live in with very few civic responsibilities. Of course we all are expected to obey all laws, drive our cars in a safe and sane manner and generally do what a police officer asks us to. But other than that we are pretty much free to engage in the pursuit of happiness. EXCEPT, for being expected to serve once a year as a juror. So here I sit, but there is really isn't much to complain about. I have a notebook computer along with a handy electrical outlet. My super fast FERARRI 3000 Notebook uses as much juice as the race cars it was named after. I went for pure power, speed and design for my notebook and the ACER FERRARI gives me all of that except a long battery life. Oh well, live fast and die young I guess. As I look around there are quite a few prospective jurors who are using their notebook PC's but none are as cool as mine. The only downside to being so cool and stylish is it's almost impossible to find a RED notebook case that isn't designed for a woman.

But wait, what's that I see? A new wireless connection is available called JURYNET! I can barely contain my glee. I am not banished to the mundane but I am free, free, free at last to roam the endless expanses of the Internet. What an incredible world we live in that we have such unlimited capabilities within the grasp of even the most average person. Now granted, I'm not sure how many are sitting here whiling the day away playing solitaire but there are quite a few people engaged in some sort of work as well as those of us who aspire to share our thoughts with the world. But what is really cool, I mean really cool is that not only do I have the ability to take my work with me I can actually work at my own computer at the office. Thanks to Microsoft, Acer and Toby SCOTT I can use XP Remote Desktop Connection to tunnel in to my PC and use it as if I were sitting at my desk. In fact, TOBY even likes it better when I work this way as he doesn't have to listen to me talk incessantly all day. What started this wondrous new lifestyle were the recent rainstorms that plagued Ventura County this last month. As a resident of Ojai I found myself stuck at home with all access roads closed. When one finally opened it was one lane for both directions of traffic which was laborious at best. Mind you, I was quite content to stay home with my newborn son and enjoy this extra quality time with my family. Unfortunately the paperwork had no bottleneck in finding its way to my desk and my work piled up. So with a little help with the aforementioned trio I was able to log in to my work PC through a firewall router. I was able to have a courier (one of those unfortunate people who had no choice but to brave the traffic each day) bring me my paperwork. I was able to get quite a bit accomplished while working in my bathrobe. I gave one of our vendors a purchase order titled "lounging at home." The only thing keeping me from doing this more often is I would miss seeing all the wonderful people that I do in my line of work.

So what's the rant about this month you ask? I cant' believe I'm saying this but I can't think of anything to complain about. My taxes are done for the year, all the bills are paid, I'm healthy and physically fit and thanks to the Lord above I have a new beautiful baby boy. And thanks to Remote Desktop Connection I am able to spend time at home taking care of him as well as taking care of business. It's a wonderful life for me. I just wish it could be the same for you and everyone else. I like to think TOBY and I are making the world a better place, one computer at a time.

Just a note from the VCC workbench; I have been accused in the past of painting other computer vendors in an unfavorable light but hey, would you be as interested if all I did was say how great the major computer corporations were. So here's another pearl. Next time you go to buy that Sony VAIO PC, remember that some of their power supplies are proprietary and quite expensive. I had to order one for a client and it cost $150.00 for something that should be under $50.00. Why does Sony choose to do this? I wish I knew. Lately there's been a trend in PC's by the major companies to make them more standard complient to make replacing components easier and less costly, keeping the cost of ownership lower over time. But some of these guys still don't get it and keep shoving proprietary hardware down an unsuspecting public's throat. So when you're ready to buy that name brand PC's ask to look under the cover. Oh, I 'm afraid that's not allowed in the stores. What do you know, yet another reason to kick the tires at your locally owned shop where you can look under the hood and REALLY see what you're getting? Pay a little bit more, sure. But at least you know what you're getting yourself into.

See ya next month.

(Editors Note: AS you can see his having nothing to complain about didn't last very long.)

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It's a wonderful life, with my Notebook.

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