Ditto! Laptop is where it's at! We have two, and can't imagine ever going back to a desktop. Laptops are waaay more versatile... esp. when paired with a wifi network. Some things I routinely do with my laptop that one could never do with a desktop include: I bring it in the kitchen when I cook. I can take my laptop out to the hammock with me in the summer. When we visit my parents, we bring our laptops with us and we can answer work emails without using their computer, which would be awkward. Most laptops have DVD players... Ever wish you could entertain LF on a long car ride, or ever wish you could watch a movie somewhere other than in your living room? Laptops take up less room, and it's easier to tidy up your desk when someone is coming over... we put ours in the cabinet for parties and the desk becomes a buffet... this would be a pain in the butt to do if we had a bulky desktop. Laptop keyboards are easy to use, but if you want a big one, you can always plug a standard keyboard in through a USB port. There are some pro-desktop reasons, but I suggest they all have "yeah-buts" attached: You can get a bigger screen with a desktop (yeah, but who needs that big of a screen anyway). Many desktops have more storage capacity (yeah, but you could always use a portable hard drive if you ever managed to fill up a laptop). Many desktops can be used with more peripherals because they have more cable ports (yeah, but who buys a laptop without first ensuring it has enough ports to meet their present and probably future needs anyway). I've never had a laptop overheat, but one of my coworkers did have a desktop overheat because it was bulky and she crammed it in too narrow a space for the fan to work properly. (She's sort of an idiot, so I don't know if this counts.) I can't imagine a reason in the world that I would ever buy a desktop computer again...

Do you have a simple basic wired handset telephone available? If so, plug the same cable you would plug into the laptop, into the telephone. Pick it up - do you hear a dial tone? If not, work your way back by using another telephone-to-wall jack cable. Try other jacks in the house and note the results. Still no tone, or only on some jacks, and your normal telephone works? Then you have in-home telephone wiring problems and may need to call someone - and it doesn't have to be the telephone company. If you hear a lot of static during the tests, you may also wish to check the NID (network interface device) where you can unplug your house wiring (it uses a standard telephone jack/plug) and connect directly to the telephone company wiring. Static and noise can sometimes cause a modem to report "no dial tone" errors. Sometimes, simply unplugging and reinstalling, can clean up oxidized connectors which could be a cause of static/noise. The NID is the gray box usually mounted on the outside of the house and is where the telephone company wiring ends, and your in-home wiring begins. If you do have static/noise when plugged into the NID, however, then it's a telephone company problem and you should contact them.

Virtually all of the books I have read in the last few years have been recommended here. Just a few stand-outs, ones I certainly would not have discovered on my own: The Far Pavillions - M.M. Kaye Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner Cloud Atlas - I had tried to read it, put it down as inpenetrable, tried again for a discussion here and now it one of my all-time favorites Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - like many people, I was not going to read it because of the hopelessly twee title. Have read it twice and am busy looking up the many literary references in this beautiful work. Harry Potter series - another work I wouldn't have read if RP hadn't liked it. Just about everything by George MacDonald Fraser, particularly his MacAuslan stories PG Wodehouse - his work needs no commentary from me! A great deal of poetry that has been posted over the years Paul Gallico - I would not have run across his work on my own. I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of great stuff. It's fun to think back and remember.

Always glad to help! BTW, your small setup there looks pretty nice. I've got this huge L-shaped Glass Desk and a Huge Box sitting down on the Floor (oh, that's the computer)! There just isn't enough room in my computer room for the things I have in there. I did have another small Glass Desk that was on rollers (use to have 3 complete computer systems set up in that room). I should have kept the smaller desk and got rid of the L-Shaped Desk. Still would have had that Huge Box.