Crash! Boom! Bang!
Posted on 12th March 2008
DanDan might be a little more dynamic than myself or Nicole, but the current state of his laptop does make me wonder whether modern day computer devices are built well enough to withstanding the abuse that a child can inflict on it, especially when more and more of them are aimed at the education market. In several of the games DanDan plays online, he needs to use the arrow keys to get around, particularly the racing games. He has a habit of bashing a little too hard and as a result the left arrow key has fallen off and I can't repair it. I am now looking at buying a 'spares or repairs' item on eBay with which to use as a spare parts machine should anything further go wrong.
With all these cheaper computers being released recently, I wonder just how robust their keyboards are? If they were sturdy enough I might even think about getting a family one so that both DanDan and Ethne can use it for more educational purposes and then let DanDan carry on bashing the hell out of his own laptop until we run out of parts to replace it with. By then hopefully he won't be so eager to break it. The alternative is to get an external USB keyboard, which has keys that are easier and cheaper to replace, but then that won't be so portable.
Gone are the days when things were built to last. If only Tonka would venture into the kids computer market ;)
Comments
Toughbook
Hi Barbie, depending on how much you want to spend, look at the Panasonic Toughbooks on ebay 2nd hand, I bought a cf28 p3 1ghz for about £350, heavy, but extremely well made.Posted by Andrew Stringer on Saturday, 22nd March 2008
