🚀 go-pugleaf

In <HeffjCJwXaam057yn@comtch.iea.com> paula@comtch.iea.com (Paul Achuff) writes:

>In article <2o27ci$l99@gazette.esd.sgi.com>, Ed Bank wrote:
>> My son will be attending law school in the fall and I told him I would get him a computer. I was wondering what would be a good system for law school. He wants a portable of some type. Any recommendations ?????

>Check in PC Magazine or one of those types and you'll find a myriad of
>low-cost portables that would make a great machine for your son while he
>is in law school.


Although not in Law School, my girlfriend is.  Let me give you
some experiences that I have from helping her with computers in
law school.


First, there are a number of considerations.  

1.  How much does he know about computers?
2.  Is where he is going to school the same location
    that the computer is at?
3.  How much money are we talking about?


The first two questions deal with potential problems with the
computer.  It is true that I could go to PC Mag and find
a low-cost clone.  I would do that myself, but that's because
most of the problems (hardware and software) that could go
wrong would be fixable by myself or someone I know.  Most
of the problems with computers will happen in the
first 6 months, so the last thing you want to happen is
to buy a cheap computer (saving maybe 300 $) and have it
go out right before your sons 1st semester finals.  From what
I pick up from this group, the first and second semesters are
it as far as "success".  If you screw up the first year your
destined for ambulance chasing (bit of an overstatement, agreed).


So, let me assume that your son has low-medium knowledge of computers.

If he is going to law school in the same city where you will buy the
computer then if it malfunctions he could just bring it in to the dealer
and have it fixed quickly.  If you bought it from a magazine you
would typically have to ship it to them for repair.  Much more time,
and a bigger headache just when the rest of his life should be
calm.

If he is going to a city different than you, find a national chain
to buy it from that has an office in his new city.

As far as brand, don't buy a cheap computer.  There is a reason why
they are cheaper.  If it's PC, go for the brand names (Toshiba, 
IBM, Sharp, etc).  

You get what you pay for.  My girlfriend orignally had a  clone laptop
from a company that had gone out of business.  The batteries for
this thing cost 400 $ because they stopped making them.  I sold it
to someone and bought a less full featured brand name, and she has
had no troubles.


What type?  Depends on money, of course.  My experience from dealing
with this and my girlfriend is to buy a lesser loaded computer and
buy some good peripherals.  What I would suggest:

Computer (Mono or Passive Color, 4 Meg Ram, 120 Meg HD).  When using
Dos and Stacker or Doublespace a 120 Meg Harddrive will fit about
200 Meg on it.

Get a fast modem, either a PCMCIA modem or an external pocket modem.
I would go for an external pocket modem, but you have to make
sure that the computer has enough ports for the modem, mouse, and
printer.  I think that external pocket modems go for about  180 $ or so
for decent ones.


Did I mention printer?  Oh yeah, my girlfriend has a cheap Epson printer
that takes about 4 minutes/page to print.  When she wants to print
a 30 page document she can come over to my place, use my laser printer,
have dinner, and be back at home before her printer would be done.
I don't think a laser printer is necessary, but a good printer would
be very useful.


In short, (if you doubt that I can be short, read on ...), If I had
3000 to spend:


External Pocket Modem (14.4)  Viva Brand                     238.00
Printer: (Lower end HP, Panasonic, Star Laser Printer)       600.00
Computer:  Compaq LTE Lite 4/25 (4,120)                     2000.00
Additional Battery:                                           50.00


Or, if you wanted some color , you could do:
External Pocket Modem (14.4)  Viva Brand                     238.00
Printer: (Good ink jet)                                      400.00
Computer:  *AST Bravo NB, Dual Scan (4,120)                   2300.00
Additional Battery:                                           50.00

*  I recently read an article that has elevated my opinion of
AST's from one of those brands that I would avoid to one
that I would buy.   

The extra battery would give about 4-6 hours/day of computer
use on batteries, probably enough for all classes.


I guess my philosophy is if you are going to do it, do it right.
If you want to spend less, you can certainly get lower featured
components for eveything listed above.  For example, a 9600 baud
modem might be enough because it seems that that is all 
Westlaw and Lexis (us?) can handle. I think that would be about 120 $ or
so.


Well, hope this helps.  At least I hope it doesn't hurt.  My prices were
out of "Computer Shopper", so you could expect retail stores to
be about 10% higher.  But then again, my magazine is about 3 months old,
so it is likely that prices have dropped.




mark



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Mark Coyle
PhD Candidate, Computer Science Department
0L, U of Minn Law School entering in Fall 1994

U of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN  55414

coyle@cs.umn.edu
coyle@dexter.psych.umn.edu
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