Ooh Shiiiiny..
 

Bought a new laptop. Not high end, actually cheap end. Acer Aspire 3680-2682.

The price was right, I needed a laptop for basic functions so here I am! Anyhow, just to throw it out there, Circuit City has it for a mere $350.

Shiiiiiny.....

Congrats!
:)

Whaa???? $350???

My travel laptop is an Acer. I've had it for around 5 years, and I've never had a problem with it! I love the little thing... :blush:

Edit: Here's the link to the inexpensive little gem...

Cool, I know a couple folks needing to upgrade dinosaur computers... posted the link on my LJ. Thanks!

Just as a countervailing example I've never had a good experience with Acer and they are now on my personal Do Not Buy list. Odds are it will be completely fine (lizziebeth's experience is probably closer to the average) but you may want to make sure you keep all the paperwork and boxes for a while.

We're in the market for a new laptop, but will probably splurge a little as we intend it to be our main computing device. That along with a RAID-5 backup solution and perhaps we'll finally have a household that's not living in the late-'90s computer tech wise.

Indeed, as I always do. I figure, if I go a year with it - I'm happy. Heck, if I can get 6 months, I really won't be all that pissy about it. ;) Well, I probably will be - but it'll get me to the other side of school.

Thanks for finding that link, Liz - I was too busy being excited to actually do it, myself.

Don't subscribe to Norton.

Download AVGFree for your AV software.

I agree, our friend Julio advised me the same, and I love it.

Also, congrats on the new shiiny toy! May it run well, run long and keep you happy, I suppose sort of like a geeky vibrator.

I third that motion

Just got AVG - good stuff!

Ooh Shiiiiny..
 

Congrats i have an Acer laptop i think my modle is Acer Aspire5100 got mine at Circuit City as well. I love my laptop and i always take extra care with it as well and i did get the extended warranty as well. Nice. :) No problems with mine so far.

Next up, Ad-Aware and Spybot.

Ad-aware is old hat.

Spybot, I have yet to try.

Ooooh! Did you sniff it when it came out of the box? I love the smell of new computers! (and exit gate handstamp ink)

I was noting the smell today. I want this new computer smell to last forever. It's a good smell. It's the smell of technology and progress... or maybe it's just the... I'm not going to question it. It's technology and progress scratch-n-sniff.

I'm so tired, and a little bummed. I don't know why I think it's different anytime I get a new electronic gadget... I get it, imagining that it's usefulness is instant. And sure, it was pretty useful and stuff... but I'm faaar more into realizing what stuff I need to download, stuff I need to install from disks, yada yada yada, to actually get anything productive done with it today. I did do part of a take-home test, but the new shiny shiny kept me from concentrating.

Oddly, I'll be looking forward to getting "over" the new computer part, and just getting into the "functional laptop" part.

*yawn*

Me too, me too! I'm a handstamp huffer.

And Nod32.

It's geek Potpourri!
Ad-Aware is a must! I've been using it for years. But isn't Spybot pretty much the same as Ad-Aware?
I use McAfee, I've always wondered if the free virus programs are as good. What insentive do they have to work around the clock to counter all the new virus and worms put out every day if they don't have paying customers? I would rather pay the $39.95 a year to make sure. I ran Trend Micro PC-cillin and got a nasty virus. That's when I changed to McAfee and have had no problems at all now for the last three years.

I know of more than one person who has experienced Ad-Aware catching something that Spybot didn't and vice-versa. Not an absolute reason/evidence, but interesting none-the-less.

This happens to me nearly every time I run them. I usually run one, then the other.

They are each designed to detect slightly different variations of spyware/adware. Using both is your best bet.

Meanwhile, we just purchased a new laptop of our own. Inspiron1721, with some upgrades over the base, though we decided to forgo the $50 color upgrade (the black matches our TV anyway).

My mom and I just ordered new Latitudes. With abundant bells and whistles.

Nearly every tech geek I work with/have worked with uses AVGFree at home. AVG has a subscription based AV service with ad-ware removal among other tools. I presume that since it costs them little to nothing to maintain the AV program without the ad-ons it's almost like free advertising.

Never had a problem, and have had AVGFree catch stuff Norton missed.

I forgot to mention that the ultimate selling point was the € button on the keyboard, making it easier to type out €uromeinke.... LoT-friendly laptops!

First, congrats on moving into the 21st century of computing! Second, a $50 paint job??!! I remember when Earl Shibe would paint your car for $29.95!

Interesting! I'll give it a try! Makes since that two different sets of people would catch different things....

Small update

As much as I preach using Spybot AND Ad-Aware, I had never got around to installing Spybot on my new (a month or two ago) computer. This thread prompted me to do so.

I last ran Ad-Aware the day before yesterday. I installed Spybot last night then updated and ran this morning. Spybot found and removed 54 objects.