To be fair, I did know about the short battery run time before the purchse it, so I have no complaints about it.

I got a 15" Oryx Pro a couple of years ago to replace a 2012 Macbook Pro that was showing its age. The Oryx Pro doesn't feel as solid as the MBP, but it's handled the everyday abuse I put on it over the past two years. It travels in a backpack that's frequently tossed around into the back seat of the car or a chair at the office or house. None of the parts feel loose or worn on it at this point. I guess a bonus that comes from it not having as solid of a feel to it is that it does not show dents and dings like the MBP. Pros: Got it with 32GB of Ram and 2TB SSD storage space for less than the cost of a current MBP (64GB Ram was available at the time). It also has a very nice video and audio card. I got it with a matte screen, which Apple dropped from their linup years ago. Cons: Doesn't jump between network settings as easily as the MBP and only has about two hours of battery life. I still use the MBP for testing wireless setups and it still has a battery life of about four hours on it. Another drawback is that it runs very hot when it's under load.

Yep, I've wound up with a TI99-4/A because Bill Cosby sold them. My parents probably thought that this guy does Fat Albert, Capt. Kangaroo, and Sesame Street, so he's got to be a great guy.

The Shat sells Commodore equipment, not Apple.

There was a time for typing classes back when everything was a standard IBM Selectric-style keyboard, but that time is long gone. Look around you now at all of the different keyboard layouts. Even different brand PC keyboards have slightly different layouts on them. Then you add into the mix the laptops, tablet, and phones these kids use and you will be teaching them a skill that will not server them well. Recently I've seen kids setting up the small bluetooth keyboards when using iPads or Apple brand computers. They would prefer the phone-style keyboards over the onscreen or full-sized keyboards and can knock out a page of text quickly with it, but their spelling and grammar are a different story. -JM

Apple's going to sell a ton of iPads because of this and the book manufacturer's are going to make a lot of money reselling the books each year instead on one large sell to the schools every six or seven years. If each book my kid's books used was available next year I would save enough to buy an iPad each year. I don't see a reason not to like this. I save money to the tune of about $600 a year on books if the school's adapt to it by next year, Apple makes money selling new iPads, and then the book publisher also makes money.

Not only that but there are a lot of people restoring the older machines and building home arcades. I know more than a few people doing this and because of this I think there are more working classic arcade games today than there was ten years ago. They are just in private collections these days since all of the arcades are gone. -JM

I've got it for the PC and it was still working the last time I tested it. I have been meaning to get it out and see if I can make a "backup copy" to the hard drive or something other than the 5.25 disk that it's on. I think it had a bad sector and would copy up to the point of hitting it. When it would get to it then the copy would fail. I may see if I can put something together and see if it still works, if I've got a drive that is still working. - gg

Believe it or not, there are several companies out there that have started to reproduce a lot of the hard to find items. With things like artwork there will only be a short run every few years for some of the more rare titles, but the more popular games have reproduction parts available from many vendors.

There's a company that has actually reproduced the yoke for the Star Wars games and they are also looking into having the vector tubes reproduced for the old X-Y games. So the rare stuff is getting easier to find in some cases. It'll be expensive, but at least it's available.

I picked up a Dragon's Lair cabinet a couple of weeks ago that has been converted to some generic 1990's era game. The area where the marquee mounted had been cut to allow a generic marquee to be installed. I can buy the replacement wood panels, marquee brackets, marquee plexi, and the repro marquee itself to restore the cabinet back to its original shape. So a few months of work and a few hundred dollars in parts will get this classic back into working shape.

Videotopia is a museum display that travels. They currently have a setup in Tallahassee, Florida. I saw it last Friday while passing through there. They have everything from the first commercial video game (Computer Space) through some late 1990's era games.

There are more working classic video games today than there were ten years ago. It's not cost effective to refurbish and keep them running commercially, but there are hundreds of home arcades where people collect, restore, and share their games with their friends. I have a home arcade with 60 video games and 5 pinball machines. My collection is small compared to many of the others. So the arcades and games are not gone, just no longer in public.

Do a search online and you may be able to find someone locally with a nice arcade in their home that has an occasional game night open to everyone.

The Xandros on the 701 is spot on for school use. It limits the computer to an appliance that the student can use to type, print, and browse on in a classroom setting. We remove everything not related to the appliance type use from the desktop so that there's nothing to play with on it or that will allow them to change the settings. Sixty of these machines were purchased to test this year and the teachers prefer them to the full-sized laptops. We're looking to buy several hundred of them for next year, but only if the small-sized ASUS is still available. If not, can an off-the-shelf copy of Xandros be modified to look and feel the same on an Aspire One? Thanks, -JM