My husband is awesome!!

[paddbear0000]

My husband got me a brand new mini laptop especially for dialysis! It's only about 12 inches by 8 inches and is perfect for carrying in my purese (yes, I have a very big purse full of stuff!). And yet it has enough power that I can use the internet and watch movies!! And the best part is that the battery will last about 3 hours, unlike my other, really old laptop. The battery in that one lasts about 10 minutes. He rocks!! 

[MIbarra]

Yay! Husbands can be good like that sometimes!   

[willieandwinnie]

  What a sweet husband. 

[monrein]

   Good job Mr. Paddbear.

[Rerun]

                          

[Chris]

Good job on his part, those mini ones aren't cheap.

[Tinah1968]

Wow that is so sweet.. 

[Romona]

He is a keeper!

[Sluff]

That's great!   

[bette1]

You're so lucky!  Do you have wi-fi at the center?

[RichardMEL]

that's great! I'd be totally lost without my laptop because I watch the latest tvshows or movies or whatever and it keeps me occupied(and thus sane) for 5 hour sessions. Luckily the staff let me plug my power in next to the chair so battery isn't an issue.

This one you have sounds great and will make sessions go much quicker... that can only be a good thing!

[swramsay]

Nice.
I steal my son's laptop. It's very big and heavy and I've been tempted to get a little one. They are about $300 through Dell & Hewlett Packard for the no frills package. But, I should be doing Home dialysis soon so it won't be an issue. Laptops sure make the time go by faster.

[Brightsky69]

That is sooo sweet. What a great guy!!   

[swramsay]

speaking of which....
I just got an email from DELL offering the 8.9 inch mini for $199. I think I may have to jump on this one.

[Chris]

make sure it has the capability for what you want to do.

[paddbear0000]

Yes, the hospital just started letting patients use their wi-fi, which couldn't have been better timing for me! Now, my question is, where on earth are all of these tv shows that people keep talking about that you can watch online?

Chris--the computer is a windows xp EeePc 1000H (I've never heard of it before), if that means anything to you. It has an Intel Atom processor (again, never heard of it), CPU N270 @ 1.6 GHz with 1 GB RAM. Non of this means anything to me.    I do know it has a web cam and a 1024 x 600 screen. I do know what they mean!  My husband says I can watch movies on it, but  it doesn't have a CD drive, so I'm going to have to ask him how I do that.

[okarol]

  How nice!

[thegrammalady]

 

[openboat]

...where on earth are all of these tv shows that people keep talking about that you can watch online?

I've had fun exploring hulu.com, they have lots of movies and TV shows available.  From what I've seen they're free, but have around 4 commercial breaks during a film.

[kellyt]

 

[paddbear0000]

Thanks openboat. I'd never heard of hulu.com before.

[twirl]

paddbear
do I have to have internet connections at dialysis to use a lap top
they do not have it
or can I use it with batteries
my unit discourages dvds
they want us to only watch pg movies   --- who the heck would bring porn to dialysis
we can not bring r movies to watch on our own

[paddbear0000]

What?! You've got to be kidding! Who the hell cares what you watch on your own private laptop!! Geez.    To watch DVD's, no you don't need the internet. If you want to watch online tv shows and movies you do.

Another question. I tried watching a tv show on hulu.com, but it was kind of jerky and kept freezing. How do I avoid that? It's really annoying.

[xtrememoosetrax]

...where on earth are all of these tv shows that people keep talking about that you can watch online?

I've had fun exploring hulu.com, they have lots of movies and TV shows available.  From what I've seen they're free, but have around 4 commercial breaks during a film.

I've heard about Hulu but haven't tried it yet.  I have, however, watched some old episodes of Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, etc. via the ABC web site.  Don't know for sure, but I assume that the other big networks offer this also.

[Chris]

What?! You've got to be kidding! Who the hell cares what you watch on your own private laptop!! Geez.    To watch DVD's, no you don't need the internet. If you want to watch online tv shows and movies you do.

Another question. I tried watching a tv show on hulu.com, but it was kind of jerky and kept freezing. How do I avoid that? It's really annoying.

I think I know what is going on. I started watching on Hulu and haven't had a problem. What maybe going on is the speed at which it is being downloaded. The speed at which something downloads could have a couple factors to the cause, but the most common is the internet speed where you are at. When you watch something that is jerky, the movie starts playing before the movie is fully loaded, so it may start and stop at times, or freeze till the another sgment is loaded.

I'm sure this is not happening while you are at home though. So the next time you want to watch something without interruption, try this. Open the web page you are going to and   choose the video you want to watch. When the video player comes up, click on the PAUSE button, not The STOP button. Hitting the stop will stop the movie from loading up to the player. Wait a few minutes to let it load. I need to look again on Hulu to see if there is a status bar that shows download progress. SOme show in percentages, some show in percentages with a bar that changes color (usually changes to a darker color), or a slide bar that changes color to show download progress. If it is jerky, just hit pause, slide the progress bar to the begining, wait a minute or so and play it.

Other solution is to download it at home and play later. Not all will allow you to do that though. Just try right clicking and choose save as or add to playlist.