When I saw the blue screen the first time, I thought that it “s an accident. But then it started happening every ten minutes or so hellip;It “s my second Dell laptop, the first one “s motherboard died when it was 2 years old. I got another Dell just to be able to reuse some remnants from the first one. This one has also lasted for about two years, and the warranty is over. It gave me all kinds of messages about memory failure – I played with memory chips, ran chkdsk ndash; did not help.

Then I called Dell tech support (I still have the phone tech support). When their technician asked me about the error code on my blue screen and said that he needs to do some research on Yahoo, I realized that the case is closed. Then annoying email and automated follow up phone call to show off their “care about customers rdquo;.

Anyway Dell is over. It “s a matter of weeks now. What “s next? This is what I need:

The monitor has to be small 12-13 inches, because when the person in front of you on the bus or plane lowers her seat, I do not want to move the laptop on my roundish belly.

I do not get why people pay top dollars for laptops with 17 inch monitors? It makes a lot of sense (and is a lot cheaper) to by a laptop with a small monitor and separately a large monitor to use at home, if needed. I also need 1Gb of RAM, 1.8Ghz CPU and 40Gb hard disk and DVD drive.

Several people told me that IBM (Lenovo) uses better parts then Dell. Another person I trust told me that Macbook Pro is a way to go. When I asked him why he would not by one for himself, he sadly replied, “Unfortunately I have two laptops that still work rdquo;. Poor thing!

Yes, I “m thinking of Mac laptop. 13 inches monitor, 1GB, dual boot ndash; Windows and OS X. Having this notebook will make me even cooler, and Windows is going to be my safety net if something goes wrong in the unusual territory.

Do you have any experience/suggestions in this regard?