Dear Lazyweb...

[miss_squiddy]

Lovely colleague Tracie needs to get herself all wired up for work based purposes.

She's looking for a laptop which she can use for:
- Occasional internet access
- Downloading and editing films from a camcorder
- Music download

She's got up to £350 to spend, but would prefer something fairly cheap and says "a nice colour and design would be good" because she's a bit arty like that. :)

She's also looking for a cheap internet connection for very occasional use and is considering BT Broadband Option 1. Can someone talk sense into her?

(Oh, and she's also asked if there are any nice guys who wouldn't mind taking her out at the weekends too. Anyone like tall blondes?)

She's going to kill me for that. :D

Comments

[crazymeandave.livejournal.com]

sorry to spam your lj, but am hoping some of your chums might be willing to help rig a competition my flatmate has entered...

Go to this website
Click "solutions & vote" and Select "list view".
Find Dan Fortnum - Going forward "technology & the planet" vote for it & Dan might win a MiniHD Camcorder =o)

this would make him very happy.


thankees :D

[miss_squiddy]

Done :D

[crazymeandave.livejournal.com]

thank you :)

[crazymeandave.livejournal.com]

freecycle might offer a laptop capable of performing the task

as for interwebs... bt are rubbish. virgin offer a better service

[kynon.livejournal.com]

I understand, from reading PC Gamer, if she is an existing Yodafone customer, she can get a mobile internet dongle for £5/month, offering speeds of up to 7.something MB/s...

Can't help much on a laptop though.

[lee-chaos.livejournal.com]

From my experience of editing video, that laptop looks about right - she'll be lucky to get a decent working spec laptop for £350 - a desktop would be better suited to video editing, as you can sling in better video cards and extra ram more easily, but I'm guessing that's no good?

[miss_squiddy]

I don't think she needs to do anything more technical than 'download - cut - burn' so she'll probably be OK...

[lee-chaos.livejournal.com]

Even so, most video cameras these days are at hi-def which is about 2gb for 30 mins, which can put quite a strain on a processor...

[dork-mistress.livejournal.com]

that looks liek a good deal - and I am in the market come next payday....(yay for mileage on 3 trips to north Wales!)

[twisted-one.livejournal.com]

You mean you're not going to go through Central Purchasing? ;)

[miss_squiddy]

Hahahaha. NO.

[meltie.livejournal.com]

Stay the hell away from BT - BT Internet are totally legally separate from the people who provide the most of the guts of the internet service, so the argument that sometimes gets bought up, of "it's all BT so if it goes wrong they can fix it quicker" is complete bollocks.

If she's got an O2 mobile then there's a cheap deal that O2 broadband do (and is actually provided by "Be" who are good)

[miss_squiddy]

I do know that she's on O2, so I shall suggest this. Thank you.

[meltie.livejournal.com]

Woohoo :)

[resident-gnome.livejournal.com]

Steer away from BT they are awful. Virgin are better but not brilliant. Mobile connections are pricey. As occasioanl internet user could she piggy back on friends connections and pay in coffee or cake? Ask me again in a couple of week and I'll know more about each company and the packages (I have that training to come).

[miss_squiddy]

Thanks Sam!

[rodneyorpheus.livejournal.com]

Dell 1525. Fast, reliable, and they come in lots of pretty colours. And cost less than 300 quid.

Tall blondes are cool too.