Do you take your laptop with you when you go away on holiday?

[Cindy Ellis]

I've been in school for the past couple of years (yes, I'm pretty old for that ), so even though I may have a vacation from work, there's no vacation from school. So...the laptop has travelled with me on all so-called vacations since the beginning of 2009. I've studied for a calculus final in the back seat of a van on the 5 hour drive to a bridal shower for my daughter-in-law, driven 45 minutes to the nearest internet connection to "meet" virtually with a school project team, and verified that an overseas flight had AC power at my seat so I could work on homework during the flight!
Pretty pathetic...

 

[Domski]

So far what is interesting is how laptops are either used exclusively for work, or are associated very strongly with work

They won't buy me one at work even though my desktop is about 6 years old and is slowly dying. I look forward to them trying to get Office 2010 and Windows 7 working on it.

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

I still don't have a single client on win7 office 14. One of my clients is upgrading to office 12.

 

[RoryA]

That's not an upgrade.

 

[Domski]

I find it hard to believe they're not inflicting that on us to be honest. Would be par for the course for our ICT. They're just moving us onto XP SP3 this month so I'm not holding my breath.

Dom

 

[arkusM]

I've been in school for the past couple of years (yes, I'm pretty old for that ), so even though I may have a vacation from work, there's no vacation from school. So...the laptop has travelled with me on all so-called vacations since the beginning of 2009. I've studied for a calculus final in the back seat of a van on the 5 hour drive to a bridal shower for my daughter-in-law, driven 45 minutes to the nearest internet connection to "meet" virtually with a school project team, and verified that an overseas flight had AC power at my seat so I could work on homework during the flight!
Pretty pathetic...

Cindy, I hear yah. I just finished my bachelor degree after being out of the post-secondary world for a few years, took me 5 years to complete it. You touched on the aspect that I hated, you just can't get away from it, it is like a dark cloud hanging over everything you do...

They won't buy me one at work even though my desktop is about 6 years old and is slowly dying. I look forward to them trying to get Office 2010 and Windows 7 working on it.

So I'm not the only one running a relic. At least there is a snowballs chance that we will upgrade to Win7 or Office2010 anytime in my lifetime. LOL


As too Jon's question I take my laptop everytime. It is not a work one (that idea is laughable, see comment on relic computers) and I do some post-prod on my photos on there, also it allows me to check out things online that I just don't have time to research normally.

But I agree with TinaP's comments and it is good to see there are still people out there that covet and are jealous of there vacation time and personal/family space. It deeply bothers me that there is a cultural shift to bring work blackberry/smartphones on vacation, or even just the concept of always being able to get a hold of me. I have a iPhone, but if I don't want to answer it/check the text(rather respond to the txt) I won't. Just cause I have a phone does not mean I have given up my right to decide what distractions I will respond to. In my job nobody has the risk of dying if I don't answer the phone/email/txt, so **** off, I say.

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

What's a vacation?

It's when people take some time off work to do things they enjoy, like, I don't know, climbing mountains and getting terribly sunburned

 

[Greg Truby]

What's a vacation?

Shooooot, buddy. You, like me, are self-employed. Vacation is any time you want for as long as you can afford. Now, what's paid vacation? That's what we used ta have, but we ain't gots no mo'.

 

[Taul]

My wife informed me that a holiday (translation=vacation) is more enjoyable without a laptop, and she is always right, so she says.
Actually a laptop is surprisingly heavy, so maybe she is right after all and I can’t be arsed to carry the flippin thing around anyway.

I find that an Internet Cafe is ok for the occasional “fix”.

 

[diddi]

laptop yes, but phone no. one doesnt have to use a laptop for work when on holidays.