posted
Ok folks, i've been seriously considering getting a laptop. I've come up with reasons why it would be a good addition to my business: ability to work on projects when i'm stuck away from the shop, ability to sit down with clients at their business and go over ideas with them, hell the ability to do design work anywhere other than my office. But what i want to know is how many of y'all have laptops and use them for business and how. Has the laptop been a benefit for you or just a luxury. If it has been good for you, tell me how you have benefited. How has it changed how you operate?
Thanks for any input on this subject.
John
------------------ MacElite, aka John Rodgers Prodigy Sign Systems Atlanta, GA
Posts: 58 | From: Lawrenceville, GA, USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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posted
I dont have a laptop but I definitely plan on getting one. My plans just keep getting delayed though, as always. hehehe.
I actually plan on becoming a bit more mobile in terms of touring with the Pro jetski race tour and being on-site to advertise and sell my products.
I'd have to say the time I realized I should get a laptop is when I was trying to figure out how to fit a full server tower PC and monitor into my truck cab when I was getting ready for a 1500 mile drive from AZ to Missouri. It would have been nice to have a laptop and avoid having to pack up keyboards, cables and all the other junk that ya gotta drag with ya for a PC, then worrying that I may have forgotten something like a power cable halfway through the drive.
It would also be nice to save some desktop space in the office. I could add a shelf to the plotter stand and put the laptop on it, let that run off all the material while the table is freed up for production.
Being able to design right in front of the customer would be nice too. They get to see a pro at work and you avoid having to make several visits or faxes, burning up time.
It says something to the customer when you show up prepared for a job, and that's a nice tool to help out in that area.
Plus there's other benefits too like being able to design or just play around while resting on the couch. =)
I would actually like to setup a personal wireless network that I could use to access my website and my home computer, using the laptop from any location. The technology is available right now but it's still pretty pricey.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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John..I got my first laptop in December of 1999..just a used cheapie to see how I could benefit from it. I bought the current on in June of 2000. I wouldn't be without it now. I am heading over to a customers place in about an hour. He has no internet access so I can just show him on the laptop what the layout is going to look like on his truck. That is is the biggest advantage, workwise. It also makes an excellent backup computer, which I found out when my main computer got hit with a virus that wiped out the bios. I ran the cutter and everything from the laptop for several days while my other computer was being repaired. If you get a laptop...be sure to get a network card so that you can network with your main computer and use it to backup files, in addition to any other backup system you have.
As was discussed in a previous post..I have my website loaded on the laptop so I can show customers and since I have every CorelDraw file I have ever created on the laptop also, I can show those as idea starters for customers too.
Laptop is as indispensibel as the digital camera for me.
------------------ Dave Grundy AKA "applicator" on mIRC "stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!" in Granton, Ontario, Canada 1-519-225-2634 dave.grundy@quadro.net www.quadro.net/~shirley
I have been using a laptop for 2 years now and I would be lost with out it. I have just put a desktop into the house and i thought I wouldn't use the laptop as much but it still goes strong. I do not agree with buying it to go to customers to show designs...that is what your printer is for. I use it mainly for designing at home or if I want to go somewhere to get my creative juices going. I have many times rented a cottage and have gone there with the laptop just to get away. Make sure you buy yourself something that will work for you. Mine has a 15" monitor on mine and it is great.
Good Luck, Doug
------------------ Freshink Creative Design Group 376 Romeo, Street Stratford, ON N5A 4T9
posted
I have a Sony VIAO but it's really a luxury,I use it on trips & vacations for internet access and to upload my vacation pictures to from my digital camera.And lets no forget it has a DVD player to watch movies while I'm flying or while my wife drives.It's just an expensive toy really.
posted
Geez Alad your just gonna have to put that very nice machine to work, hehe
I've had a laptop for 2 years now, first I bought it to video conference while I was on mission trips, then I tried doing drawings in Corel and taking them to the client.
The reason I like that better thean printing it out is that when it is in the laptop I never leave sketches, can't, it's that simple.
Now I have Omega loaded on it and I sometimes take design work home with me. And also I now do my books on it and take that home so I can enter bills, create invoices and other stuff I just don't have time for at the shop.
And last but not least I use it for storing all my digital photos.
I couldn't live without it now!!!!
Just buy a reliable one with a 3 year warranty, lots of battery room is important and a zip drive or a cdrw would be nice,
------------------ Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA bob@creativesignworks.com
"Some people's kids"
Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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I've been using laptops for several years and have been very satisfied with them. It's great to be able to work wherever you're at. Plan on replacing it in about 2 years because of the pace of improvements. My 1st one was a Pentium 133 with a 12" screen & I replaced it with a P-II 400 with a 15" screen (both from Micron - great warranty service) about two years later. I'm getting ready to replace this one now with a new one. I don't think you could go wrong with a Micron or a Dell although I have to mention that I just saw a Titanium PowerBook from Apple at CompUSA the other day & am strongly leaning toward jumping the fence to this beauty! First time I fell in lust with a machine in quite a while! Plus, I'd rather be drawing than working on the machine just to keep windows working.
Bob has a great point about using a laptop to avoid leaving a sketch. I really like a 15" screen (which has the same screen size as a 17" monitor) and have used the DVD drive for movies more than I thought I would. I've also been carrying a HP CD-Writer (M820) which is about the size of a walkman CD player so you can burn discs anywhere. Try a LS-120 Superdisc drive instead of a floppy drive (same size as a regular floppy but hold 120 mb each, much more reliable than a ZIP drive & backwardly compatable with std. floppies. Try a laptop, I think you'll like it.
------------------ Chris Elliott cell 620-845-0264 1longshot@msn.com
Posts: 686 | From: Scottsdale, AZ & Anthony, KS, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Whew that's a pricey toy Alan.. ya know, for about $1500 you can get a Panasonic Portable DVD player AND a Handspring Visor Prism (full color Palm Pilot basically) with wireless internet access. They even have fold-away keyboards that fit in your shirt pocket so you dont have to resort to the "Pen Language" they use to write stuff on it. =)
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Since I do not only the sign stuff but also embroidery, I am lost without my laptop.
My plotter is downstairs, my sewing machine is upstairs, and the desktop is in the middle.
I thought I was just being extravagant until the laptop went down for a couple of days and all of a sudden I feel like my hands are tied, there's no way to work after everyone comes home!
Chris, like you, I am drooling over the G4 Powerbook. I'm debating the costs of transfering my programs though.
Maybe I'll just wait till my kids get one and then I can play with their toys for a change!(hehe)
Valerie
------------------ Valerie Connot DOA Flatliners North Wales, PA
Posts: 138 | From: North Wales, PA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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each time i packed up a desktop puter to either go home on weekends(when the one there died) or to go to a meeting i cursed the fact that i didnt have a laptop. when we traveled up-over last year i reeeeealy wished that i had a laptop to use for the net. i did almost buy one last year but at the last min found out the new model toshiba was almost due out and that i really would kick my self for not waiting just a little longer. then i found a great stop gap... while at the puter markets we have in my home town each month i grabed a cheapie old 133 for a few hundred $'s and have been having a ball ever since! wanting to only use a laptop as an internet puter i quickly found that this was the least of it's jobs i use it to transport big files between work and home, i use it to design simple stuff on site... and like dave grundy i dont give printouts to customers till they pay for the artwork so the lil laptop works great as a screen to play show and tell on! just running a slide show of sum work we have done while the laptop sits on the customers desk helps to make the customer aware, albet subliminaly (wow thats a big word... bet i spelt it wrong) of the kind of work we are capabile of doing. i agree that network card is essential and as mine came with a duel modem and network card i'm laughin i will upgrade to the toshiba that i have drooled over eventually but right now this little one is working just fine and for the money i 'didnt' pay for it i am extremly happy. good luck with your yours
regards gail
------------------ on chat T2
Gail & Dave NSW Australia
taurus_signs@one.net.au
sumtimes ya just gota
Posts: 794 | From: 552 O'Regans Creek Rd Toogoom Qld 4655 Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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