Pavilion

HP Pavilion DV6-1354US 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 4 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)
$799.99
I purchased model DV6-1354US with 500gb hard drive and 6 cell battery. I use this laptop for editing photos with Adobe Photoshop CS4, as well as editing audio with Adobe Audition 2.0.

I have a five year old HP laptop running XP and it is still going strong. Despite outsourced Indian phone support, I was able to communicate support issues effectively. I am confident in future hardware performance and support from HP.

Transition from XP to Windows 7 was intuitive. The new taskbar is my favorite improvement. Followed by much better graphic interface and widgets. Some of my XP software causes Windows 7 to turn off Aero mode. I feel that windows has caught up with Apple in terms of graphics and workflow.

As far as laptop is concerned, Dave from Portland has a great review comparing the different models available on Amazon. The DV6-1354US is sufficient for me to use Adobe Photoshop and Audition, as well as multitask.

I will never go to a laptop again without a numeric keypad, this was an unexpected plus. I do miss the old HP media controls above the keyboard. They are replaced now by a volume and wireless control. I like that they are no longer buttons but touch sensitive surfaces above the keyboard.

The DV6 is quieter and cooler than my old HP. The power cord is beefier, which was always a problem with my old HP. Although I would prefer a magnetic power cord like Apple offers. Compared to other manufacturers, I would have to say that HP has the best price for great, reliable hardware.

Everything is a wonderful improvement except for the sound. Frequently, friends would ask where the music was coming from when I used my old DV1000. I felt that the sound was very rich for such a small system. I find the DV6 to have a much shallower, smaller sound that finds trouble filling a bedroom. For this reason, I drop the DV6 to four stars.

Also, the DV6 doesn't come with recovery disks. You need 3 DVD+R or -R (not RW) disks to create your own.

Overall, I really enjoy this computer, and probably will continue to enjoy it for another 5 to 7 years until RAM is in petabytes and laptops cook dinners. If I had to do it again I would still choose it over an Acer, Asus, Dell, Mac, or Sony.

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
$19.00
This isn't my usual type of novel, and I probably will move on to other authors. An earlier reviewer commented on the similarities to Dostojevski, and in retrospect, I agree, especially when recalling a scene involving a non-Dostojevski book entitled nevertheless, "Crime and Punishment" near the end of the novel. The novel shares some similarities with that of FD. The book is serious and well written, and will have appeal to some readers. I recently toured Tokyo and the nearby temples at Kamakura. That trip enhanced this novel very much for me. I've much to learn about Japanese culture and Buddhism; reading this novel was an enjoyable step in that direction. That said, relative to my favorite tasty Western novels, for me, this represented a kind of bland oatmeal: it was sturdy and good, but somehow lacking. Another reviewer noted the Catholic projection of the translator onto elements of Buddhism; I too found this distracting in the translation.

HP Pavilion DV4-1433US 14.1-Inch Laptop
$799.00
I am very pleased with the style and performance of my new lap top. I highly recommend this HP product.

HP Pavilion DV6-1230US 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop
$1,022.00
I bought this laptop close to four months ago. While I am not disappointed with this laptop, I would not call it a good deal either. The images are completely misleading.

1. The extra laptop battery [12 CELL] adds to the weight and also adds a incline while you type( some people like this, but I dont) . I used a 14 inch laptop earlier and the battery makes this laptop a lot heavier. This is not shown in the image either.

2. There is no FIREWIRE.

3. The heat - I have run windows vista for 2 months and have used windows 7 (early edition) for 2 months with this laptop. I also dual boot with ubuntu. The laptop heats up a lot when running windows (its better with windows 7). You cannot have it on your lap for even 10 minutes. The cooling system literally does not even exist.

4. The noise - When running multiple processes and heavy applications, it screams out. It is kind of annoying when you open photoshop and you will see a dozen eyes looking your way, thanks to the sound.

5. CD Drive - pathetic and slow. And it screams a lot too.

6. Graphics memory - i really do not see any difference with and without this, when I play games. The processor is no where near good.

7. The webcam could have been a lot better.

8. Its 4 months, and the keys are already feeling aged. Durability is not good.

9. I called the customer support for the keyboard. I do not even want to talk about it. Horrible service.

I jumped back to my 14" HP laptop 2.2 GHz processor - [ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ONCDKG?ie=UTF8&tag=mama0f-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002ONCDKG ], it runs a better processor and does not have most of the defects listed above.

On the other hand, I am satisfied with RAM, harddisk and trackpad. Value for money? NO!