Hold on a second, how do I know whether you answered this or one of your cats answered it? If you're being held hostage by them and you want help, blink once for yes and twice for no.
What the heck are you talking about, I'm using one right now (it is 3.49am and I'm in bed - what else would I be doing at this ungodly hour but reclining in bed with my laptop.) The laptop is a very smart-looking fresh, clean, white, should that be of any relevance.
I don't need one. The Ipad will do, and I can transform it into a laptop for when I can't go upstairs.
This post was edited by Element 99 at December 23, 2020 1:08 PM MST
Right now. My laptop (MacBook Pro) is my primary computer. I also have a gaming desktop but I use it less (primarily for gaming but also when I need to do something processor-intensive like video editing).
Worst was when I was handed a lap-top loaded with a n enormous 'Excel' spreadsheet in which I had to enter the citation details of hundreds of company documents.
That was a physically exhausting and uncomfortable task, taking about three weeks, though eased a little by propping the horrible thing up on a ring-binder so it was on a slope.
I would never have one by choice, as I not only find them so awkward to use, but some of the software I use needs a full-size screen, not a photo-viewer. ( My monitor has a 19" screen.)
I agree with you about their awkwardness. I can't sit with one on my lap for more than two or three minutes before I have to find a different posture from which to use it. Their sheer weight alone makes them prohibitive beyond that time period. There are other cumbersome ways overall that I find laptops to be also.
Despite being called "lap-tops", I have rarely seen anyone use one on the lap. First choice by most seems to be to put the computer on a table.
I find them awkward due to the small keyboard and the pointed pad. I think some at least also lack a calculator-style numerical keypad, making heavy numerical input and combination-key work hard.
On placing the instrument on a slope, that raises a general curiosity. Many people suffer from arm and wrist problems due to long hours at the computer, irrespective of type, thanks to the unnatural use of the hands on a flat keyboard and with a conventional mouse.
For centuries though, long before electricity let alone computers, it was normal to write on a sloping desk because our ancestors recognised this was the most comfortable way. The Mediaeval monks knew it - they spent hours every day writing Bibles and prayer-books, and the abbey accounts, by hand, and contemporary art shows their scriptoria equipped with steeply-slanted desks.
Later, furniture -makers produced writing-slopes for use on ordinary tables in homes and offices. These were often boxes whose resilient writing-surface was the hinged lid, to hold the stationery. The designers thought of use first but also made them portable for convenient stowage.
Then at some point in the 20C, persons unknown decreed this all wrong, old-fashioned, silly, or whatever was their excuse, and made us all write on level surfaces. At least the typewriter retained tiered keys.
So the PC followed suit, first with a very nominal slope on a separate keyboard then flat, compact instruments with small screens and awkward keypads. The designers think small size and portability important; ease of use unimportant.
Since the introduction of the flat school and office desk, from ball-point pen to iPad, we have invented a fancy word, "ergonomics', to mean designing things for comfortable use... then regressed many centuries, not progressed, in office ergonomics!
I may be wrong but much of the software and equipment retailed now seems aimed at the e-post, "smart"-phone, games and Twitter market whilst ignoring using computers for long spells of serious work. ( The size of the computer itself does not matter to me. I need a large monitor, printers, full keyboard and proper pointer - though not an un-ergonomic mouse - because I wish to use occasional spread-sheets, sizeable documents and especially, CAD.)
This post was edited by Durdle at February 6, 2021 2:25 AM MST
SpunkySenior 