Toys!

[Xepher]

So, it's certainly a long way to christmas or whatever, but I was just looking around online at various "toys" that I wish I could afford, and I'm curious as to what sorts of things the rest of you wish for. Let's ignore the semi-practical like "more ram" or "a more economical car" and stick with the really FUN stuff... but keep it possible. I want a MIG Fighter Jet too, but...

Here's a couple of mine...
http://www.wacom.com/lcdtablets/index.cfm
21" LCD tablet screen. Pressure, tilt, and rotation sensitive pen table, with 1600x1200 resolution. I'm not even a real artist and I want one of these!

Oh, and a 16.7 megapixel camera would be nice too...
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=10598

But I could "settle" for the Rebel XT
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=11154

[MPSinclair]

*drools*

You and me both on the tablet screen. Been wanting a tablet PC for some time now.

[Databits]

What I want, and this may be crazy but is still possible with many years of payments, is a Hummer H3 or H1. Yeah, crazy thoughts with the gas prices, but meh it's more fun!

The tablet screen that you linked is quite attractive. I think it'd be awesome to have one of those, it seems like computer art could be more natural off something like that.

I'd also like to have a (call me crazy) platinum edged, titanium, lazer refined edged katana with a small dagger (made the same) hidden within the handle.

and.... the time to finish coding my site! Damn classes... *grumble grumble*

[Xepher]

Yeah, I want one of those new H1 Alphas with the 6.6L engine (46% MORE horsepower) and the new Allison transmission. Or I'd "settle" for a modern (not circa 1985) surplus HumVee. Wonder if I could convince them to leave the TOW launcher on it... *smirk*

And as for swords, I worked out a nifty design for a managable claymore. Most of the core and blade are carbon fiber so it's fairly light (not too light though) but the blade edges are ceramic composites, or in a few years maybe, just make the whole thing from structured carbon. Imagine a 5 foot long actual sword that's light enough to fence with and a razor edge that never needs to be sharpened. Of course I'd "settle" (that word again) for just a good, traditionally designed, hand crafted one made from carbon steel.

[Ashley_Rose]

I looked around for what I want, and found a picture. They're very hard to find, and goodness knows where I'd park it.

My dream

[MPSinclair]

*lmao* Nice, Ashley_Rose.

[Ashley_Rose]

In all reality, this is one of my 'realistic' dreams.

Beauty

[Databits]

Considering that they have designed a working exoskeleton in Japan, this doesn't seem too far off in the next 10-15 years. It's scary when scifi starts to become uncomfortably close to reality.

[trekkie1701c]

What do I want?

Most of this stuff can be found at the store at http://www.mini-itx.com

VIA EPIA PD 10000 LVDS All In One Motherboard
1GB RAM
A Low-profile Media Case (you'll get what I'm saying if you go to the store)
80gb Hard Drive (Laptop sized - getting conversion cables as well)
Panasonic CW8124 Slotload Slimline Combo CDRW/DVD
Small, 20x4 Front LCD display
PCI USB Card (with adapter to fit in case)
Wireless mouse and keyboard
Regular keyboard (I'll have two, of course.  Fear my gaming abilitiies...)

To top it all off, I want any sort of a plasma screen TV with computer input..  As large as I can get.  Wall sized, pretty much.  Imagine DOOM on that thing.  Total cost is in the $2000-$7000 range (depending on the size of the TV).  The computer system itself is well under $1000.

I'd also like a few PDAs... a TREO 650 and a LifeDrive for that matter (http://www.palm.com), with a bluetooth headset.  

But what I really want is (yep, you guessed it) this:  http://startrek.publispain.com/imagenes/1701c000.jpg  (the only good picture of that ship that I could find)

[Xepher]

Heheh... we've got something like that set up in our living room already. Though no plasma TV, just a regular one. Well, the whole thing is the ghetto version of that. Much older Via board, less ram, smaller hard drive, and just a cheap usb joypad for a remote. Still though, it's networked, and so I can play all my downloaded videos and music in the living room... AND it's got a SNES emulator on it, with nearly every rom ever made, so that's nice as well.

Now if only I could build one into my car...

[RoxorFuxor]

I am going to ask for a laptop and *maybe* a Motorola Razor (sateliette phone, black) for christmas.  I will probably get the laptop, since I will probably need one in Japan, but the phone is a stretch (a BIG stretch, let's hope the price drops!)  Anyone have suggestions on the laptop?  I haven't taken much time to really browsed around.

[Gwyn]

One day I WILL have a mini theatre type room for movies and games.

And a Mini Cooper :p

[Databits]

I myself have had bad luck in HP's, Compaq's, and Toshiba's. I'd recommend a Sony Viao system over those brands myself. Simple, HP's really suck... they are always low end systems that can't preform very well.

Compaq and Toshiba laptops, at least the one's I've had, seem to have issues with power loss. Each system I had did this, and even when sent into the warranty repair shop and they claim to "fix" the problem, it still existed when it came back. Yes I know how ot treat a laptop, in that they are more fragile than desktops and really need their ventellation.

Just speaking from my experience. I found that repairing my own laptop ended up being the best solution, until the screen got cracked I didn't have any issues after I repaired it (the problem on my Toshiba happened to be the damn processor fan, something that must've been overlooked all 6 times it went to the shop, in addition to way WAY too much processor grease). Their solution was normally to just replace the motherboard. Horay for outsourcing to people who aren't truely qualified!!

[DC Bueller]

I would really love a set of the replica Drizzt swords I saw in some comics I got recently...$245 each though...maybe later...

[Xepher]

For laptop suggestions... I would extremely caution you to stay away from Sony at all costs. We had one in the shop the last week. Important files corrupted. I pull the hard drive out and backup what data I can for the guy, then run a lowlevel scan on the drive. It's just fine upto the second half/platter, then it completely fails to read.

Now, this is only a 3 month old laptop, so the guy figures he'll send it back to sony. But sony won't let him send it back. Seems they don't care what anyone says, you have to do it their way. So they want him to use their "restore" tool, that basically reimages the drive so it's just like it came from the factory. It works, of course, because the image is only 6GB or so, and it easily fits on the first part of the drive. Anyway, long story short, the guy argues and argues with sony for a week. Finally they agree to take it, but on the condition that if it's NOT broken, he has to pay charges and all that. Low and behold sony gets back to him two weeks later (poor fool has been out a computer for 3 weeks now) "Well, it seems you were right, the hard drive was bad." They ship it and he gets it a week later. A month without a computer.

Another story... This time with Dell. I go onsite and look at this computer. It comes on, "sometimes." LEDs flicker... bad power supply I think. Take it back to the shop, plug in a test power supply, and everything works perfectly. I call Dell up, give 'em the service code off the computer and the guy says "So what can we help you with?" "I need a new power supply?" "You know that for sure? Tested it with a known good or some such?" "Yup." "Okay, what's the address I should ship that to?"

They overnight it and first thing in the morning I get a shiny box from dell. Swap it out. Put the old one in the box, and then take the peel off label/waybill inside and stick it over the old label, call the courier service, and they come pick up the old one... All at dell's expense. They were without a computer for 18.5 hours.

Anyway, as for laptops, I don't know what features you need. I hear good things about the toshiba tablets, if you want a pen one. Dell is good for all around stuff, and as I pointed out, their service is good. For really good value, check out Averatec... they're on the low end, but definitely the best bang for your buck. I've had a 3270 for several months now and I love it. I use it all day at work, since I don't have a desktop machine there. I toss it in the backpack anytime I go on a call, and it holds up really well. Paid about 800 bucks for it, and it's nearly as fast my desktop machine (minus, of course, the video card.)