Now I'm all worried about the reliabilty of the Dell; on the other hand, it would cost me around $500 out-of-pocket, leaving me plenty of my computer-budget money for nice extras like a new digital camera (I've been craving one of the tiny Elphs) and an iPod for the boy, or a port replicator plus backup drive plus boy-iPod. Even if it's not the right system, it just has to work for me for a year or two in order for it to make financial sense. But I trust the Toshiba brand a lot more, and it's got the power I need to play games and run other graphics-intensive software, which is a lot of what I do professionally. Will I stop playing PC-based computer games if I have to do them only in the lab? I don't know . . . sigh.
Sorry to keep ranting about this, but it's really been on my mind. Most of you probably don't care (except