Laptop choices

[David Scheidt]

On Wed, Nov 23, 2005 at 03:36:07PM -0500, Parv wrote:
> in message <20051123185909.GA17696 at thought.org>, wrote Gary Kline
> thusly...
> >
> > I'm looking for a newer laptop (a newer, faster ThinkPad,
> > probably).  There are ' some seriously cheap laptops "on-sale",
> > but they would probably be a bad choice because they have those
> > touch/scratch mouse-pad things that I can't use.  So:: does
> > anybody know of a ThinkPad clone?  Or, can the touch pads be
> > disabled in the bios?
> 
> Yes, yes the touch pad can be disabled in BIOS, at least on IBM
> ThinkPad T41 (my sister dislikes touchpad) & T42 (i noticed the
> option in BIOS to disable touchpad) .

I've got a ThinkPad T42.  The trackpad can be turned off in the bios.
As a truely added bonus, the stick mouse has three buttons; if you
turn the trackpad off in the bios, the stick works like a plain
old-fashioned three-buttoned ps/2 mouse.

I like the sticks, a whole lot.  I hate mice, as I can type, thanks,
muchly.  Using a mouse means that I have to take my hand away from the
keyboard.  With the stick, while I have to displace my hand from the
keys, it's only about half an inch, so it's not much loss of time.  I
really would like one for the desktop, but they're expensive, and I
don't know of one with three buttons.  

Incidently, there are a whole buncy of T41/42/43 models, which have
different features.  The T42s and T43s are available in versions
that will do 1400X1050, with either screen size. 

David