Scripting News: Uncle Davey's new laptop

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Uncle Davey's new laptop

Yesterday, I had had enough hand-wringing over the decision to get a new laptop or wait for Apple to announce its new line of computers, so I got in the car and drove down to the Apple store in Emeryville, and bought the computer I had been dreaming about.

I was so on the fence about this, it was totally not an impulse decision, I almost turned around a few times on the ten-minute drive to the store. But I didn't, and now I have the computer, and I couldn't be more pleased. It's a luxurious upgrade from the Blacmac, which is now going to be my stereo's computer, playing music and soon movies (when it gets its own screen).

So the next step is to get EVDO. That's one reason why I upgraded. I had had a $39 per month plan with Tmobile for wifi access at Starbuck's and SFO, and wasn't using the service enough to justify it. I figure for not much more I can have broadband access pretty much everywhere, avoid the $10 per day fee charged by many hotels, and not have to wait for all the wifi carriers to get their roaming agreements together. Everyone else is having fun with EVDO, I want in on the party too!

So now I'm starting to get educated. Sprint or Verizon? Should I wait for an Expresscard version like so many people are? I already have a Cingular Blackberry, so does it make more economic sense to stay with them? I don't see too much talk about their wireless broadband, though, most of the buzz is about Sprint and Verizon. I saw this update come through a few days ago, now it's beginning to make sense how things fit together. What are your experiences?

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:33 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

Feb Apr