Top of the line Mac notebook costs $3,200. I got next notch down at $2,900. Top of the line IBM ThinkPad, the only brand I would buy, is $3600.... Add Apple Airport wireless hub for $285, so all computers in house can share same cable modem..... Add MS Office bloatware and minimalist other utilities and applications--of which IBM ViaVoice for Mac OSX is superb--and you're close to $4K..... Add reconditioned HP G85 $499 multifunction color injet bought for $349.... Add $94 ethernet/localtalk adapter box (since new Mac can't communicate with old laser--another scam, new devices cant even talk to old ones that are perfectly good). .... Add optical mouse and some other minor accessories. Over 4K easy. .... All items were purchased at the best available prices anyhwhere. Even got the $450 Office bloat for $199 at Apple Education Store, using my son's student status. Just did same today for Office XP 2002 for $150 with his student ID. .... I'll say one good thing about MS: they have education prices on some of their software......Why am I buying PC Office when I just bought Mac Office? Because the Mac Powerpoint cant open the PC Powerpoint presentations I need for my practice, and my old firm offered to give me my old ThinkPad-- right after I fork out all this dough for Mac..... Now I need an external CD burner to back up the Mac and IBM notebooks: $250 at least for a good one.....Took out a so-called Apple loan to pay pay for it all: no payments for 6 months and 4 years to pay after that. Not a bad deal. The theory is I'll have some money in 6 months, and have actually just convinced a new client to pay for half my computer expenditures.....Desktops are much cheaper than laptops if you get a CRT. However, desktops and CRT's are dinosaurs in my book. I'm willing to pay a premium for a quality brand, light weight, and portability. And, boy, did I. Then you find out it's slow, and it cant even do carriage returns on Apple-nonoptimized TBN..... However, Apples are aesthetic and cool. Titanium Powrbook with glowing Apple on the back... Oh, I forgot, had to buy a new $100 leather briefcase on closeout at Staples, etc, etc.... New Nokia cell phone with infra red communication ability to uplink the Powerbook, so I can log on to TBN in while floating in the Oozama Ver Boten.
