My new laptop!

audiobliss

Some of you may remember I started a thread a while back asking for advice about what kind of laptop to buy for school. Well, I bought a ThinkPad T61, but due to some password security issues, it ended up turning into an expensive paper weight. I lost a lot of time in trying to get that taken care of, but taken care of I was, and very well at that. In fact it was very awesome transaction, it's just a shame that those involved had to have this happen to them.

Anyways, I JUST received my new ThinkPad T61 today, and I'm SO STOKED! Woohoo! For starters, it's not new, but new to me. And honestly looks brand new. It has an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz processor, 3GB of RAM, a 200GB HD @ 7200RPM, a 128MB nVidia Quadro NVS 140M, DVDRW drive, bluetooth, 802.11a/g/n, and a 14.1" WXGA+ widescreen monitor (1440x900). Yes, a VERY nice laptop in my book! At my request, it has Windows XP Pro (current up to SP3), Office Pro 2003 including Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Visio, Publisher, Outlook, OneNote, InfoPath, and FrontPage. Not a bad deal for $1125 shipped/insured! I've always wanted a ThinkPad...now I have one...and I have NOT been disappointed yet.

Here are some pics of it immediately after I opened it and of it booting up for the first time (in my possession. Sorry for the quality - I took them on my Razor.

audiobliss

I do have a question about it, though. I've decided I'll never fill up the 200GB hard drive, so I want to install iTunes and put all my music on it in MP3 format (hey, it's just my laptop). However, I already have iTunes with all my music on it on my desktop and sync'ing to my iPod. How is it I'm supposed to go about 'authorizing' another computer? And getting all my music on it?

Would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

mantis

I had a thinkpad. They are solid computers. Probably the best all around Pc based laptop I have ever owned. If I was to get another Pc laptop, I would get a think pad. Great bussiness/Programming laptops. Love em.

On a side note, I have to get a new laptop for work. I'm going Apple with also Windows xp Installed on about 80g of the hard drive. I program just about every day so I need a good quality laptop, but when I'm home , I perfer Mac.

Dan

BaggedLancer

As AB already knows I have a Thinkpad x31, I won't give that thing up for anything. 3.3 pounds, 12.1" screen, no disc drive, no touchpad, the thing is so portable it's silly. Best all around computer I've ever owned.

BaggedLancer

solid state drives are amazing. I wish they would come down in price.

BaggedLancer

16gb id fill in about .00000003 seconds.

Kex

The wifey has a Lenovo ThinkPad X61S. It's not as light or as thin as my Toshiba Port

polkatese

Congrats, AB. It is a solid laptop. It's not my cup a tea laptop, I can't stand the nipple, it was used to be company's stinkpad standard until they switched over to Dell Satellite. For me, MacBook Pro seems to offer the best of both worlds.

Happy computing!

audiobliss

Thanks for all the replies, folks. I've certainly been having a LOT of fun with my new laptop!

At first I didn't really like the idea of the UltraNav pointer, but I've gotten used to it and really like the convenience of always being so close to the keyboard. Though my finger has gotten hung up on it a few times while typing a 'b'.

BaggedLancer wrote: »

As AB already knows I have a Thinkpad x31, I won't give that thing up for anything. 3.3 pounds, 12.1" screen, no disc drive, no touchpad, the thing is so portable it's silly. Best all around computer I've ever owned.

I would love to have something that small and portable someday. But I'm really REALLY happy with my T61 so far! :D

Lasareath wrote: »

Laptops are hard because they are not connected to your home network at all times. I have the same issue with some of my clients who have 80GB of MP3's on their network and they want the MP3's on their Laptop's as well. You just need to make a copy of your mp3's and put them in your mymusic folder and load itunes.

What I do on my home network is I have all my MP3's on my S (S for SAL ) Drive and each computer on my network has added MP3's from this drive.

Thanks for the info. I've already kinda started the process. I only have 30GB of MP3's on my desktop, but it still takes a while with a 4GB flash drive! :P

But it's not really a problem because I don't think I'm going to put all my music on it, but just a few of my favorite albums. Come Christmas time I'm going to reformat my desktop and do all my music yet another way, so maybe at that point I'll move it all to my laptop, too. It really shouldn't be much of a hassle, since I've decided I'm never going to hook up my iPod to my laptop. I'll just use the laptop for playback only and let the desktop take care of syncing.

Though if I go that route I may decide to use something other than iTunes for playback. I don't know, I can't decide. I haven't really been happy with MediaMonkey, and I don't really want to go to something QUITE as simple as foobar2k.


Thanks again for all the replies! She sure is a beauty!

mmadden28

audiobliss wrote: »

I do have a question about it, though. I've decided I'll never fill up the 200GB hard drive, so I want to install iTunes and put all my music on it in MP3 format (hey, it's just my laptop). However, I already have iTunes with all my music on it on my desktop and sync'ing to my iPod. How is it I'm supposed to go about 'authorizing' another computer? And getting all my music on it?

Would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

I don't have much music purchased via iTunes (I avoid DRM when possible), but I'm pretty sure that you can have 3 computers authorized or something like that. Not sure how though-The last time I bought something iTunes automatically assigned the licences, apparently because I was accessing my itunes remotely with my Roku and another desktop.

Just copy the entire folder where the actual files are stored, to the new laptop, in the folder that iTunes looks for them.

I don't auto sync-but I think you can only sync your iPod to one computer (at a time), so you'll have access to your itunes library on both , but only sync on the one. You can setup a separate file syncing to keep the libraryies on each system in sycn with each other (like MS Synctoy).

audiobliss

mmadden28 wrote: »

I don't have much music purchased via iTunes (I avoid DRM when possible), but I'm pretty sure that you can have 3 computers authorized or something like that. Not sure how though-The last time I bought something iTunes automatically assigned the licences, apparently because I was accessing my itunes remotely with my Roku and another desktop.

Just copy the entire folder where the actual files are stored, to the new laptop, in the folder that iTunes looks for them.

I don't auto sync-but I think you can only sync your iPod to one computer (at a time), so you'll have access to your itunes library on both , but only sync on the one. You can setup a separate file syncing to keep the libraryies on each system in sycn with each other (like MS Synctoy).

Hey, thanks for the info. I'll look into that Synctoy.

I think I was trying to make it more complicated that it really is, because I haven't purchased anything through iTunes, either. All the music I have in it I've ripped from CD's. So it really shouldn't be much of a pain to get it on both computers. Could just end up being a little time consuming.

Thanks again!

mmadden28

audiobliss wrote: »

...
At first I didn't really like the idea of the UltraNav pointer, but I've gotten used to it and really like the convenience of always being so close to the keyboard. ....

I prefer the pointer to the trackpad-always have since way back in the day, but for extended use I definately prefer an external mouse.

audiobliss wrote: »

...
I would love to have something that small and portable someday. But I'm really REALLY happy with my T61 so far! :D

I'm looking into getting an ASUS EEEPC soon. My wife is getting tired of me being in the office surfing the Polkforums etc. With a nice portable device like that I'll be able to hang out with the fam and still surf I'd probably only use it for surfing and for perhaps a better way to control my SB Duet (web based).

mmadden28

audiobliss wrote: »

Hey, thanks for the info. I'll look into that Synctoy.

I think I was trying to make it more complicated that it really is, because I haven't purchased anything through iTunes, either. All the music I have in it I've ripped from CD's. So it really shouldn't be much of a pain to get it on both computers. Could just end up being a little time consuming.

Thanks again!

Here's a link for Synctoy. Its free. It mkight take a moments to get accustomed to how it works, but it has a preview mode as wlel as the ability for several sync profiles, so you can see what would happen without actually moving/copying/deleting/overwriting anything. But it's a very useful tool. One use I have for it is for syncing my camera memory card pics. Normally when I plug my memory card in from the camera, it mounts as a drive letter, then I copy the pics to a specific directory on the PC. My wife doesn't do it as often so she can't remember where they need to go. I just setup a Sync profile for it and put a shortcut on the desktop-She just plugs the card in and dbl clicks the icon and the pics are synced to my liking and she's happy because its super simple.
Make the wife happy and you'll be able to get more toys (all in the name of making her life easier ya know )

If you have a WiFi network or wired connection, the files would transfer faster then using a slower USB drive. Just a thought.

audiobliss

Thanks for the link. And it's free! Wow, sounds like that could be a really neat program. Thanks!

There's no wifi here in the dorm, though I do have a wireless router here with me. It keeps messing up the internet connection, so we ended up having to unplug it. However, could I still use it as a wired router to connect my desktop and laptop? I'm really pretty clueless with most things networking, so I have no clue. But that could be a great way to do it. Or could I just connect to two computers directly with an ethernet cable?

Thanks!

mmadden28

audiobliss wrote: »

Thanks for the link. And it's free! Wow, sounds like that could be a really neat program. Thanks!

There's no wifi here in the dorm, though I do have a wireless router here with me. It keeps messing up the internet connection, so we ended up having to unplug it. However, could I still use it as a wired router to connect my desktop and laptop? I'm really pretty clueless with most things networking, so I have no clue. But that could be a great way to do it. Or could I just connect to two computers directly with an ethernet cable?

Thanks!

If the wired router also has a built in switch (most do anymore), then yes, and it would likly be easier to do that way since the router will assign an IP address to each system for you. Just connect both to the switch side qand leave the internet/WAN side unconnected.

You might be able to directly connect the PCs to each other, some of the newer stuff will automatiically crossover the network wires for you, older systems either require a crossover cable (just wired differently) or a switch.
Directly connecting to each other might be more difficult though since you no longer have the router's DHCP server assigning IPs. Either the automatically assigned IPS (via the OS) might work, or you would have to manually assign the IPs. Using a wired router (hopefully with a switch) that is the easier way to go and since you have one....

Once connected network wise, just connect to the other system like any network shared resource, You could share a folder on one or both, or access the admin shares--Start>run> \\olddesktop\c$ You might be promopted for authentication (unless the usernames and passwords are set the same on both).

audiobliss

Awesome. I'll get out the router and play around with that after some homework.

Thanks so much for the info!!

brettw22

Those pencil mice irritate the hell out of me.........

You can sync your iPod to as many computers as you want........just go into your iPod and set it to manually sync instead of automatic so you can hook up the pod to whatever computer you're on if you want to. Then just connect the iPod to your new laptop, sync everything from the pod to tunes and then you have your library on the new laptop.........

polkatese

brettw22 wrote: »

Those pencil mice irritate the hell out of me.........

I thought the proper technical term for it is NIPPLE, Brett?

brettw22

maybe, but the term i use is '**** stupid piece of rubber in the middle of my keyboard'........nipple might be simpler, but it doesn't catch my full irritation with it's design.

polkatese

gotcha Brett. I shared your frustration, some folks swear by it though.

mmadden28

brettw22 wrote: »

...Then just connect the iPod to your new laptop, sync everything from the pod to tunes and then you have your library on the new laptop.........

I didn't think you could sync from the iPod to the laptop (only ratings)-is this a new feature in the newest versions of iTunes? I know it wasn't possible previously without 3rd party software.

mmadden28

I like my Thinkpad, its only a T30, but its still kickin around just fine. We used to have a ton of them around the office until we upgraded everybody and most of them didn't even know about one of my favorite features on it-Not sure if your model has it, but on mine you press Fn+ the upper right most key (page Up?) to turn on a little LED light on the top of the display that shines a light to your keyboard for when you're working in the dark. I can't type without being able to see the kb, so its a very nice feature for me. Just thought I'd mention that in case you find it useful.

Let me know if you want to tackle getting the WiFi to work, I could try to walk you through getting it setup.

-Madden

mmadden28

polkatese wrote: »

gotcha Brett. I shared your frustration, some folks swear by it though.

Yep, I love it, but I also know many hate it, much like I hate the pad. I've been using them since they first came out. You just have to master the pressure to control the speed--

Another reason I loved my Thinpad so much was the three mouse buttons. If you hold the middle button down while using the pointer (nipple), you'll scroll in the current window. Saves from having to click on the scroll bar or from constantly haveing to swipe the pad to scroll through a long web page or spreadt sheet. I do miss that when I'm on a different laptop.
Of course I recenlty was exposed to the new Macbook Air and I really like some of the nifty tricks they put into thier pads (may not be limited to just the air), such as using two fingers at the same time anywhere on the pad in a swipe to scroll. Yeah I know HP and others you can do that with one finger on the far right or left of the pad, but it just isn;t the same.

polkatese

two fingers scrolling is awesome! I don't even have to get used to it, it's addicting from the get go, because it's so intuitive....

audiobliss

mmadden28 wrote: »

I like my Thinkpad, its only a T30, but its still kickin around just fine. We used to have a ton of them around the office until we upgraded everybody and most of them didn't even know about one of my favorite features on it-Not sure if your model has it, but on mine you press Fn+ the upper right most key (page Up?) to turn on a little LED light on the top of the display that shines a light to your keyboard for when you're working in the dark. I can't type without being able to see the kb, so its a very nice feature for me. Just thought I'd mention that in case you find it useful.

Let me know if you want to tackle getting the WiFi to work, I could try to walk you through getting it setup.

-Madden

Ahh, yes, I think the little keyboard light is a pretty neat feature. I haven't really been able to take advantage of it yet, but I'm sure I will at some point.

Thanks for the offer on the wifi. If I decide to try that, I'm sure I will need some help with it. However, I think I'll a little bit of reading about it before I try tackling it. But I'll definitely shoot you a PM if I need some assistance. Thanks!

mmadden28 wrote: »

Yep, I love it, but I also know many hate it, much like I hate the pad. I've been using them since they first came out. You just have to master the pressure to control the speed--

Another reason I loved my Thinpad so much was the three mouse buttons. If you hold the middle button down while using the pointer (nipple), you'll scroll in the current window. Saves from having to click on the scroll bar or from constantly haveing to swipe the pad to scroll through a long web page or spreadt sheet. I do miss that when I'm on a different laptop.
Of course I recenlty was exposed to the new Macbook Air and I really like some of the nifty tricks they put into thier pads (may not be limited to just the air), such as using two fingers at the same time anywhere on the pad in a swipe to scroll. Yeah I know HP and others you can do that with one finger on the far right or left of the pad, but it just isn;t the same.

Yes! That middle button for scrolling is SO convenient. The ONLY problem with it is that it doesn't work in every instance. But when it does, it's awesome!

brettw22

mmadden28 wrote: »

I didn't think you could sync from the iPod to the laptop (only ratings)-is this a new feature in the newest versions of iTunes? I know it wasn't possible previously without 3rd party software.

Honestly, it's been a while since I did sync mine.......but I remember connecting my ipod toa new computer and dumping all my music there.......