I wouldn't advise putting it in the dishwasher. How'd you like to have melted plastic from a $30 device in your $750 dishwasher? The windex idea sounds reasonable, nothing to lose to give it a try. Failing that, toss it and buy another, they're cheap. Or, if you drink good wine and offer me some, I might stop by to see what I could do. The only result I can guarantee is that the wine glass will be empty before I leave.

That is the one thing I have noticed since scouring the net and asking everyone and anyone in the know their opinions on who makes the most well put together laptop. It seems that many folks are extreemely loyal to one particular product or brandname, but one brandname doesn't seem to be conclusive over the other. The Imac sure has its very loyal following, as well as Dell and Toshiba and, another brand rapidly picking up steem is HP, especially their DV6000 and DV9000 lines. I am beginning to conclude that at this point, figure out exactly how much of a laptop you need and can afford, paying particular attention to Size of Hard Drive, How much Memory (RAM), and third, how much graphics card, and lastly and most important, the CPU. I have concluded that the duel core processor is important, as it is essentially two processors stapped together, and the OS uses one for certain functions and the other for certain functions, and most importantly, only one is being used and powered when both are not needed, saving battery power and overall electric consumption. Another rule of thumb, to save money, get the base core duo (1.60GHz, I believe), and skip the upgrade on the CPU and get 2G's of RAM, as your CPU runs out of cache space for storage, it will draw from Ram, and adding RAM is much cheaper than adding a high end CPU. Bottom line, I'm waiting for some hot sales. Another thing to think about is size, and yeah, folks, size does matter... Most of the 17" models that I've tried out in the stores just seem too damn big and heavy, especially if your going to use the thing as a LAP top... it's just too damn big for my lap, and I have a big lap at that... the 12" is just too small, especialy for viewing movies, etc. That's the one thing that turned me off from the DELL XPS 1200... hot looking little machine... just too small. 14-15" seems just right for my taste. It seems to me that all these machines (Toshiba, Dell, HP and many others) are all beginning to become clones of one another. Seems they are are made in China nowadays, and no one has yet to convince me overwhelmingly that one is better than the other...

Oh dear :( I spilt milk (A LOT OF IT) all over the keyboard of my mum's laptop. I did exactly what you did, I put it upside down getting what I could off with paper towel...had I had q-tips handy that would have been neat! The laptop was literally dripping, but once it dried a few keys were sticking for probably a couple of weeks. But I'm typing on it now as if it never happened. So I think because you reacted so quickly it should be fine...only worry is those keys not actually working at all. I guess only time will tell. In my opinion I would hold off on the idea of using extra alcohol untill everything has dried, just incase the alcohol becomes the problem. Good luck!!

We generally lounge in the living room with the laptop and iPad while watching tv. I take the iPad with me wherever, be it the kitchen for a recipe, up to the library (I know, sounds grand, but it's just a 9x13 bedroom I converted), or outside. They slide under the couch when not in use. We also have a desktop in the office (another converted bedroom, we only need 1 and have 3). DH mostly uses that for things like paying the bills, photo editing since he is really into that and it needs tons of processing capacity, and I use it when I need to print things. Someday I will updat my iPad software so I can print, but I've got other stuff to do. We also have assorted cords for things on every window sill downstairs. I am trying to find a place for a charging station thanks to GW. I would LOVE to get all that stuff organized and tucked away. I think the above suggestion to think about why you gravitate to the current location will help a lot with where to put a computer area in the new space. For me, since I do not currently have a job that requires me to tote a laptop around, it's not a big issue. Plus between residency and traveling to assorted professional meetings I have become pretty good at balancing a computer at just about any angle. Being tied to a set spot with an actual chair to sit upright in feels a bit boring now. I also like to multitasking my time wasting/procrastinating.