For my purposes, an iPad doesn't do anything my lap top doesn't except it's easier to carry. We got my son an iPad so he could organize his school assignments better. My idea - a notebook - got nixed on the grounds his handwriting is atrocious and he's better off learning how to use keyboard. My idea would have cost me $1.95. Theirs set me back $500.

Check with you cell phone provider AP.  Chances are they have a specific tablet or two that they offer along with a service package.

For example, we have AT&T.  I know they have a deal where you can add service for an Ipad for $10/month.

You might be just as well off staying with your wireless internet connection. We have a wired PC, but we use the lap top and the iPad wirelessly (I've heard and read that term, but I'm not sure if it's a real word) more than the PC.
The problem I have with the iPad is the screen is smaller than I'm used to. And since you control the screen with your finger instead of a mouse, I'm always accidentally going to websites I don't want to be on. It's a pain in the ass for me, but my wife and son don't complain about it.

Last edited by artie_fufkin (1/04/2013 10:30 pm)

APIAD wrote:

I am interested if I could get on the internet anywhere for a reasonable monthly fee.  I am scared to actually shop for one tho.  My idea of shopping is buying.  You either do it or dont.

There is a gadget that is actually more common in Indonesia than it is here.  It is a little USB device that acts like a cellphone modem.  You stick it in the USB port in your laptop, pay for the monthly subscription service, and you can use the internet on your own computer anywhere that you get cellphone signal.

Max wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

If you get a tablet, Netflix or something from which you can download TV/Movies is a must. The app is free. It costs 8 or 9 bucks a month. You can download stuff to the IPad and play it on your TV, but as long as you're in an area with a signal, you can watch stuff in your car as well. If I'm not driving, I watch stuff on my phone whenever we drive anywhere that takes more than a couple hours. Plus, your password works on multiple devices, so I can watch something on my phone, Bob can watch something on his and Madison can watch on Michele's all for the same $8/month. As your kids get older, the ability to keep them entertained on trips in invaluable.

No family will ever sing show tunes again.

This is not a bad thing.

APIAD wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

You might be just as well off staying with your wireless internet connection. We have a wired PC, but we use the lap top and the iPad wirelessly (I've heard and read that term, but I'm not sure if it's a real word) more than the PC.
The problem I have with the iPad is the screen is smaller than I'm used to. And since you control the screen with your finger instead of a mouse, I'm always accidentally going to websites I don't want to be on. It's a pain in the ass for me, but my wife and son don't complain about it.

Your wife isnt here.  You dont have to lie about looking up porn.

Rec, but I probably misspoke. What I should have written is my fingers are so fat I try to look up a box score on Yahoo and I end up on a page that has a story about Princess Kate's pregnancy.
Anyway, we exchanged the iPad today for some gizmo made by Microsoft. Scarface or Scabface or Surface or something like that. It's supposed to have a bigger keyboard. I don't know. It's out of my hands. Wife's decision. Best Buy took back the iPad and we got around $60 refunded in the swap, so the only part that pissed me off was having to drive to the mall.

"That is what it is like to live in the sticks Artie. "

Maybe, but my neighbor is so close I can smell the cigar smoke in my kitchen from the party he's having right now.

artie_fufkin wrote:

APIAD wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

You might be just as well off staying with your wireless internet connection. We have a wired PC, but we use the lap top and the iPad wirelessly (I've heard and read that term, but I'm not sure if it's a real word) more than the PC.
The problem I have with the iPad is the screen is smaller than I'm used to. And since you control the screen with your finger instead of a mouse, I'm always accidentally going to websites I don't want to be on. It's a pain in the ass for me, but my wife and son don't complain about it.

Your wife isnt here.  You dont have to lie about looking up porn.

Rec, but I probably misspoke. What I should have written is my fingers are so fat I try to look up a box score on Yahoo and I end up on a page that has a story about Princess Kate's pregnancy.
Anyway, we exchanged the iPad today for some gizmo made by Microsoft. Scarface or Scabface or Surface or something like that. It's supposed to have a bigger keyboard. I don't know. It's out of my hands. Wife's decision. Best Buy took back the iPad and we got around $60 refunded in the swap, so the only part that pissed me off was having to drive to the mall.

Look into a USB modem.  Anyway you slice it you will pay a monthly service charge for cell signal.  With the USB modem you buy no new hardware, other than the modem.  And best of all, you don't need to learn how to use some new gadget.  You just use your trusty old laptop.

"Is your area one of those that the houses are arm lenghts apart and the windows pretty much look into eachother houses."

Yep. We have to be careful not to walk around the kitchen in our underwear because their big window faces our big window. The Cub Fans on the other side are even closer. In the summer time when the windows are open, we'll see them setting their table and ask them what time we should come over for dinner.
And don't even get me started on the state cop who lives in back of us who likes to flex in front of the mirror in his bathroom late at night.

APIAD wrote:

I couldnt do it.  I go in my backyard in my underwear.  I probably shouldnt but I am kind of a "what the hell" kind of guy. 

Why would you be able to see in the bathroom?  You have to be a sick fuck to not put blinds in your bathroom.

I'm not sure he knows he has neighbors. This is the same guy who when he moved in put a pair of zillion watt spot lights on the back of his house and let them burn all night long. When I asked him to turn the lights off after 9 p.m. so my son could sleep, he gave me some bullshit line about the lights being beyond his control because the electrician he hired screwed up.
There's a great deal of entitlement in my town among people who were born here versus the people who moved here. And when I say born here, I mean they have to be able to trace their roots to the fucking Puritans. My wife's family doesn't count because they've only been living here for three generations. It permeates everything, from politics to youth sports to getting a low number on your beach sticker, which for reasons I don't understand is some sort of status symbol in town.

artie_fufkin wrote:

APIAD wrote:

I couldnt do it.  I go in my backyard in my underwear.  I probably shouldnt but I am kind of a "what the hell" kind of guy. 

Why would you be able to see in the bathroom?  You have to be a sick fuck to not put blinds in your bathroom.

I'm not sure he knows he has neighbors. This is the same guy who when he moved in put a pair of zillion watt spot lights on the back of his house and let them burn all night long. When I asked him to turn the lights off after 9 p.m. so my son could sleep, he gave me some bullshit line about the lights being beyond his control because the electrician he hired screwed up.
There's a great deal of entitlement in my town among people who were born here versus the people who moved here. And when I say born here, I mean they have to be able to trace their roots to the fucking Puritans. My wife's family doesn't count because they've only been living here for three generations. It permeates everything, from politics to youth sports to getting a low number on your beach sticker, which for reasons I don't understand is some sort of status symbol in town.

"And this is good old Boston
The home of the bean and the cod
Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots
And the Cabots talk only to God."

FWIW, the Puritans were Johnny Come Lately's, and my ancestors beat them here by about ten years, not that I would have any cache in Boston society these days.

Last edited by Max (1/06/2013 10:41 pm)

artie_fufkin wrote:

"Is your area one of those that the houses are arm lenghts apart and the windows pretty much look into eachother houses."

Yep. We have to be careful not to walk around the kitchen in our underwear because their big window faces our big window. The Cub Fans on the other side are even closer. In the summer time when the windows are open, we'll see them setting their table and ask them what time we should come over for dinner.
And don't even get me started on the state cop who lives in back of us who likes to flex in front of the mirror in his bathroom late at night.

Years ago I lived in Beverly Hills, on a street where two story apartment buildings, with 8 apartments apiece, built on the same floor plan, had a side clearance of maybe 3-6 feet. So the buildings were maybe 6-12 feet apart.  Built to the same floor plan, all one BR apartments, all four of the apartments on one side of the building had bedroom windows that were within a few feet of each other, and those four all faced the four that were 6-12 feet away.  Each bedroom had two large windows.  That's 8 bedrooms all close enough to hear your neighbor fart--and maybe smell it--if the windows are open.  Now, since it West LA, "you don't need air conditioning" and none of the apartments had it.  But BH is far enough inland that it routinely gets into the 80's and 90's, and that makes for some sultry evenings, everyone's windows open, everyone doing the things they do in bedrooms.

A new neighbor moved in, a singer, apparently living with her producer boyfriend.  They were recording a cheesy lounge/disco version of "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and each night they'd come home at 12:30 am, play the mixdown from their day's work, and then make passionate and loud love, calling out each other's name loudly as they reached orgasm.  It's been 25 years now, and I think the sound of their voices has finally receded far enough that I have forgotten their names, and mostly forgotten their cheesy version of a nice song.  Come to think of it, the dude's name might have been "David."  That was a long summer.