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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 27, 2007 / 9 Iyar, 5767

$999 Vista Laptop? Why not?

By Mark Kellner

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Google "Vista laptops" and among the top 'sponsored' (i.e., bought and paid for) links is an one to a mail-order firm offering a Sony Vaio portable with the Windows Vista operating system installed for just under $1,800. Fair enough, but what if you could get a $800.01 discount off that price?


While the two models aren't exactly equivalent - the advertised Sony Vaio has double the RAM and slightly more than four times the hard drive storage - the Systemax Pursuit 4155, list price $999.99, is a good value for the money.


Indeed, some users could benefit from the dollar savings associated with the lower-priced model.


Here's the Systemax skinny: the Fletcher, Ohio-based firm markets mostly via its TigerDirect.com subsidiary. The Pursuit isn't "thin and light," given the 15.4-inch diagonal LCD display it sports, a built-in CD-RW/DVD-ROM optical drive, and a generously sized keyboard which lacks for little but a separate numeric keypad. There's a nice sized "touchpad," which advertises a scrolling feature that is somehow unimplemented.


That deficiency, however, is the only visible one I could find in the Pursuit. Yes, a built-in Web camera would be nice, but the bargain-inclined can add that separately. I'd like a larger hard disk drive, but 60 Gigabytes isn't too shabby; doubling that capacity would add $120 to the price.


Less visible is the slim, but usable, 1 Gigabyte of RAM in the machine. Increasing that to 2GB would add $200 to the price if ordered from Systemax; those unafraid of installing their own memory modules can find equivalent ones for about one-fourth the Systemax price. Personally, I'd rather see 2 Gigabytes of RAM as an official "minimum" requirement for all new computers.


My review unit was shipped as advertised: the 1 Gig of RAM and 60 Gig hard drive, as well as a built-in WiFi radio for easy Internet connections, and a "matte" finish 15.4 inch screen, the only one available. Turn the brightness up, however, and it's certainly acceptable for computer-ish tasks; whether you'd want to watch DVD movie after DVD movie on it is another story.


Battery life seems more than decent, and the Systemax folks offer both a larger battery and extra power adapters as options. One pleasant surprise was seeing a European-style power cord along with one for domestic use; that's a nice touch, and suggests the actual power supply itself can automatically select and switch among different voltages.


Purists will bemoan the lack of this or that feature on the Systemax Pursuit, but if you look at this for what it is - a basic, functional computer for basic, functional work - you won't be too far disappointed. The computer's performance is agile enough for word processing and simple graphics tasks. More complicated work would, as noted, require more memory for optimal results and speed.


Having received the Systemax in the middle of last week, I can't judge the quality of the firm's support, other than to note that they've been around for more than a few years, and - unlike a certain larger firm whose portable arrived a few days earlier - the Pursuit actually worked out of the box. Worse still, the "brand X" PC arrived without an optical drive, making the "system restore" disc utterly useless. Systemax does, it should be noted, include a restore disc with the Pursuit, along with the aforementioned optical drive.


I like this computer and wouldn't hesitate to suggest it to those looking for a low-cost, solidly performing laptop.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.

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