Like many, all of a sudden fraudulent credit card charges started appearing on my account.  Bank of America caught it quickly.  I don't know for certain, but I'm fairly confident it has to do with the Heartland Security breach. However, there's no real way for me as a consumer to know what of my information was stolen. The Heartland security breach isn't just some website with your credit card being hacked, but is a credit card transaction clearing house used by Bank of America.  No matter how careful you were with you card numbers, they got it. While the credit card has been canceled and the fraud associated with the credit card has ceased, there's a new issue cropping up.  I've been all of a sudden getting a lot of solicitation phone calls to my cell phone, as if someone took my credit card information (and my address and phone number), and started registering it on a bunch of mailing lists and sites.  A new type of scam for ad revenue?  I don't know, but it's very annoying. I know for a fact that they got my address and phone number because on the day that the credit card fraud started, one Internet retailer called me on my phone trying to confirm an order to my address.  What's irritating about it, is that after I told them it was fraud, they processed the charge to my credit card anyway. What really worries me is the lack of press and the lack of communication from Bank of America about this.  They're hiding something, I'm sure of it.

Being in the market for a new laptop, I thought for sure I was going to go with a Mac Book Pro. I don't mind paying the Apple tax for a beautiful machine and operating system. However, I don't have any issues with Windows. Even on my cheap Dell machines, I've probably only seen a couple Blue screens of Death since 2000, and I'm slightly turned off by Apple fan-boys and Apple Computer themselves every time they bring up Blue Screen of death on PCs (here's Anil Dash's excellent commentary on it). It's like Apple's marketing is still living in 1999.
A computer is a tool to work on for me, not a lifestyle. Though, I recognize that if I spend 10 hours a day using the tool, I'd like the best I can get. I'd love to have one in a pretty form factor. Regardless, here's my present situation.

I'm going to replace my current Dell 700m laptop (which is small, and been my workhorse for a lot of my Flex and AIR development). I think it's great that I can still run the latest Adobe tools this unremarkable machine. I also have a Dell desktop with 3 gigs of memory (I use a lot of Virtual Machines during development) that I'd ideally retire. New laptop to replace both machines.

I'm having a hard time finding the ultimate laptop because of my requirements:
1) I'd prefer a smaller 13.3 inch screen (like the Sony SZ series, beautiful machines, lacking on graphics power) since it's nearly impossible to use a 15.4 inch screen on an airplane. However, just because the screen is smaller, I don't want to sacrifice computing performance, especially on the video side because I most often will work tethered to a big-ass monitor. This means I really want a 2.4 ghz Duo Core, and 256 8600GT or better.
2) ESATA. Why, oh why, don't more laptops, other than the ASUS support eSata? I don't want one of those ugly cards protruding from my laptop, either. The speed gains over FireWire 800 are tremendous, especially when connected to external RAID. And since I usually have my development environments housed by a VM Ware image, I need all the drive performance I can get.
3) I'd prefer something with a DOCKing station to avoid connecting all my devices like: monitor, mouse, printer, eSata external drive, external DVD burnder, iPod, etc...every time I hook it up. Now, I realize some of this can be avoided by using a USB hub, but my previous experience is that not all my USB devices work reliably through an USB HUB. And never mind the high-end monitor hookup. Nonetheless, a dock isn't a deal breaker for me, especially if a computer came with builtin eSATA port!
4) And for the run of the mill that should be supported by most laptops: gigabit ethernet, wireless N, bluetooth.

Some of the interesting laptops I'm looking at are:

• The Sony FZ series. These are beautiful, with great screens. Reminds me a lot of a MacBook Pro, except that I can get one with a BluRay DVD burner in it for about $1500. It seems to sacrifice some graphics power, though. I really like the form factor of the smaller Sony SZ, though, and the SZ has a docking station. No eSATA.

• The new Dell M1530, (and the less powerful, yet smaller M1330). This is a beautiful machine, and Dell's finally starting to come out with some compelling design. However, the resolution sucks (1280x800, which is the same as my present 12" monitor) for now and I'd rather wait until an LED based screen with a higher resolution. No docking station available.
  

• ASUS V2S. This seems like the ultimate for me (after realizing I may have to get a larger monitor). It has eSATA, a dock available. However, the V2S has terrible review regarding it's graphics processor, it seems ASUS has crippled the 8600 in it, probably in the name of battery conservation. I haven't been able to find a local retailer to check this machine out in person, either.
  
• Lenovo. The business power-horse for so many years, but really, I'm so tired of that drab-black plastic finish. They're having a sale and I could get a powerhouse laptop for $1400 or so.
  
• and, of course, The Mac Book Pro. No dock, no eSata, no 13.3 version. And I'm aware of that ugly 3rd party dock. But there's something I like about Macs. The fact that I can run Windows software (like Visual Studio 2008) on this via a VMWare image is huge. I get a real Unixy OS. I wish the Apple store would have some Macs on hand running Windows software so I can see how well they work (I don't trust the blogs that Parallels and VMWare Fusion work totally as advertised). I think if Apple really wanted to boost sales, I should be able to walk in and see Microsoft Outlook running on a Mac Book Pro as I have no doubt in my mind this would cause more Macs to fly off the shelf.
  

Rumor has it that Apple is adding a machine in January, so maybe I'll wait to see that. I can't believe that Apple, who caters to higher end video editors and photographers will continue to ignore the need for eSATA. If I'm dropping $2500 for a laptop, I'm going to expect it to have everything top-of-line. And I'm fully aware of adding eSata through ExpressCard, but it's just one more thing to hookup.

Anyone else out there with some ideas on some machines? I'm in no rush. At this time I just "want" a new computer as opposed to "needing" one. (It would be nice to consolidate everything, though.) Knowing me, I'll probably end up waiting this one out.

 

A little rant here.  I know Adobe AIR is new sexy and everyone's trying to build apps that run naively on the desktop, but please, if you're not making use of local filesystem, native windows, drag-and-drop, SQLLite, native menus, or any other of the useful AIR APIs, you should really consider not releasing it as an AIR application.  I'd prefer to use your application quickly via clicking a URL in my web browser.  I say this after having spent a few minutes uninstalling most of the AIR applications that have been cluttering my desktop that turned out to be remarkably useless, yet still required network connectivity.  There's no need to clutter the desktop with applications that run perfectly well in the browser!  Let's not forget about the great little thing called the World Wide Web, web applications, Web 2.0, AJAX, and regular-old Adobe Flash/Flex!

  This burgeoning Adobe AIR application market space reminds me quite a bit of the Visual Basic 3.0 days when all of a sudden tons of crappy shareware was developed in it.  Unlike those days, however, we already have a better way of running and trying out these applications, the web browser!  The user doesn't need to bother installing/uninstalling your application!

  Here's a technique that I'd love for all AIR/Flex developers to adhere to when creating their applications.  Make it run in both environments: the browser (via Flash), the desktop (via AIR).  Make the web-browser version limited in functionality -- if you desire -- showing the user the essence of your application.  Make the AIR full-blown sexy that a user might want to upgrade to or purchase (maybe the user wants to use their own personal files and data).  Prompt the user using your web-based version to upgrade to the full version at appropriate moments, like when they press the "Save" button.  This allows me to navigate to a URL, use your Flash/Flex application, and if it's worthy, download the full AIR version.  It even allows for a way to monetize your application.

  Now, I fully understand the desire to take your existing Flex apps and port them to the AIR Framework so you can test the installer and see how it behaves on your desktop.  After all, it's a great new tool, and you get that warm-and-fuzzy feeling thinking about all the new desktop applications that you can build.  But if there's something to learn from yesteryear, it's that there's going to be a lot of CRAPPY Air Applications released -- and I don't want to waste the time installing and uninstalling what are essentially demo applications.  Nor should we want to pollute the world with a ton of weak AIR applications so that when they are prompted in the future to install the Adobe AIR Runtime or and .AIR file, they're not going to want to install it because of all the negative association in their head.  (Any of you who've ever installed shareware made with tools like VB 4.0, etc. know what I mean with this.)  This is one reason why Web 2.0 applications are so great:  I navigate to a website, use the app, hate it, never go back.  Nothing further is required from me!  No installing/removing of software.

  Flash/Flex/AIR provides a very unique opportunity that allows people to try your software before purchasing via a web-browser, with nearly zero hassle.  I can't think of any other tools out there that encourage this. 

  I promise you, all my applications, you'll be trying out on the web first.  When it comes time to using your personal data, you'll download the desktop version!

  If you'd like some ideas on how to structure your Flex/AIR projects in Flex Builder so that you can build both web-based and AIR-based applications from the same Eclipse workspace, may I suggest reading my little tid-bit on How to compile both Flex and AIR Application from the same codebase.