Gamgee wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

What exactly is an "off-lease" laptop, and where would you find one?

Companies used to buy laptops every couple of years. For tax purposes,
they were capital expenses that would need to be depreciated against the
cost of the laptop over 3-5 years. That meant, every 3-5 years you had
to plan for an expense to replace them.

Instead, a lot of companies lease their laptops. It changes the cost
from a big hit every 3 years to a monthly cost, which makes it easier to allocate per employee. I can tell departments that each employee will
cost you X$$/month for a laptop and a Microsoft Office 365 license
instead of having them budget $2000 or so every couple of years.

The other nice thing is that after 3 years, you can either buy the
laptop for fair market value, or $1, depending on how you structured the
lease. Or, you can return it. What we do is structure a FMV lease which
costs less, then roll the laptop lease into a new lease after 3 years.
Employee gets a new laptop, costs stay the same, and there's no big
expense every couple of years.

What happens to those laptops that get returned? They get refurbished
and sold to resellers. Most 3-4 year old Lenovo Thinkpads, Dell Latitude laptops and Optiplex laptops you see for sale were business leases that
were returned and sold off.





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Rob Mccart wrote to POINDEXTER FORTRAN <=-

As I said, lower end as far as power goes and such (Celeron) and
it came with just a 64 Gig SSD, but I added 1/4 Terrabyte to that
for $26, and the computer is Military grade so you can drop it or
dump water on it without hurting it, so it seemed a good buy.

I always wondered what people would think if you walked into a coffee
shop and sat down with a Panasonic Toughbook with an external antenna...



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As I said, lower end as far as power goes and such (Celeron) and
it came with just a 64 Gig SSD, but I added 1/4 Terrabyte to that
for $26, and the computer is Military grade so you can drop it or
dump water on it without hurting it, so it seemed a good buy.

I always wondered what people would think if you walked into a coffee
shop and sat down with a Panasonic Toughbook with an external antenna...

I have an older Thinkpad that requires a wireless dongle in order to
connect. Not an external antenna, but something large enough -- with
flashing little lights in its semi translucent case -- that might make some people wonder. ;)


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Re: Re: Framework laptop
By: Dumas Walker to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Tue Nov 25 2025 11:12 am

flashing little lights in its semi translucent case -- that might make some people wonder. ;)

I still want to do the coffee shop thing with an SX-64. I don't have a Kaypro or Osborne, unfortunately.

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Dumas Walker wrote to POINDEXTER FORTRAN <=-

I have an older Thinkpad that requires a wireless dongle in order to connect. Not an external antenna, but something large enough -- with flashing little lights in its semi translucent case -- that might make some people wonder. ;)

yeah, a sticker-bombed 4:3 thinkpad with an external wireless adapter
running Linux got some interesting looks 10 years ago in a all-Mac
coffee shop in a posh downtown area.



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I always wondered what people would think if you walked into a coffee

>shop and sat down with a Panasonic Toughbook with an external antenna...

I didn't even know they had those for Laptops. Is that just a range
extender for WiFi or something else?

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Re: Re: Framework laptop
By: Rob Mccart to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Wed Nov 26 2025 08:05 am

I didn't even know they had those for Laptops. Is that just a range
extender for WiFi or something else?

that's how it was because they were shitty laptops.
dont believe half the stuff that guy says, btw.
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Re: Re: Framework laptop
By: Rob Mccart to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Wed Nov 26 2025 08:05 am

I didn't even know they had those for Laptops. Is that just a range extender for WiFi or something else?

Early WiFi dongles and cards had an antena. I still have a couple of those in my computer graveyard.


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Re: Re: Framework laptop
By: Denn to Rob Mccart on Thu Nov 27 2025 07:55 am

Early WiFi dongles and cards had an antena. I still have a couple of those in my computer graveyard.

How early? I built a computer for someone in 2017 and added a PCI Express wifi card, and it had an antenna. Also I built a new computer for myself in 2019 and the motherboard has wifi built-in, and it has a couple of antennas.

Nightfox

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Rob Mccart wrote to POINDEXTER FORTRAN <=-

I didn't even know they had those for Laptops. Is that just a range extender for WiFi or something else?

No, it's a USB wifi adapter. It's got a USB cable that runs to a desktop antenna base with the adapter inside the base.



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Re: Re: Framework laptop
By: Nightfox to Denn on Thu Nov 27 2025 09:28 am

Early WiFi dongles and cards had an antena. I still have a couple of
those in my computer graveyard.

How early? I built a computer for someone in 2017 and added a PCI Express wifi card, and it had an antenna. Also I built a new computer for myself in 2019 and the motherboard has wifi built-in, and it has a couple of antennas.

Didn't realize they were still making WiFi Cards and dongles with antena'e
most newer computers lik my new laptop have great wifi with no ext antena's.

... Strip mining prevents forest fires.

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Re: Re: Framework laptop
By: Nightfox to Denn on Thu Nov 27 2025 09:28 am

Early WiFi dongles and cards had an antena. I still have a couple of
those in my computer graveyard.

How early? I built a computer for someone in 2017 and added a PCI Express wifi card, and it had an antenna. Also I built a new computer for myself in 2019 and the motherboard has wifi built-in, and it has a couple of antennas.

My actual Main Machine, and old Intel I7one, still working pretty well have also a motherboard Wifi built-in, with a nice space like magnetic antenna. :0))

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Re: Re: Framework laptop
By: Nightfox to Denn on Thu Nov 27 2025 09:28 am

How early? I built a computer for someone in 2017 and added a PCI Express wifi card, and it had an antenna. Also I built a new computer for myself in 2019 and the motherboard has wifi built-in, and it has a couple of antennas.

I remember inheriting some old Orinoco gear in 2004 or so -- a 802.11b AP with no ethernet ports, a handful of Orinoco "silver" cards, which only did 56 bit WEP, or maybe WPA...

One of the cool things I got was a PCI card with a PCMCIA slot - the slot stuck out the back of the card, so the antenna of a wireless card stuck outside of the case.

I remember being excited about 11 mbps. How far we've come...

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Re: Re: Framework laptop
By: Denn to Nightfox on Thu Nov 27 2025 02:51 pm

Didn't realize they were still making WiFi Cards and dongles with antena'e most newer computers lik my new laptop have great wifi with no ext antena's.

I bought a pre-built HP desktop PC in early 2009 that had wifi with an internal antenna (it was basically a wire with an exposed end that was wrapped around internally). I think that was the only PC I had with a wifi antenna like that.

Nightfox

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I didn't even know they had those for Laptops. Is that just a range extender for WiFi or something else?

Early WiFi dongles and cards had an antena. I still have a couple of

>those in my computer graveyard.

I actually have a card with an antenna for a Desktop system, but it's
a little easier to set that up since the card ends are right at the
back of the case. Not quite the same with a Laptop..

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On 12 Nov 2025, Rob Mccart said the following...

looks a little more robust than anything else I've seen other than
the true military laptops you see in use by military and police swat
teams on TV shows.

yeah, our local ambulance company uses these kinds of laptops when they are taking patients to the hopital for information gathering. Pretty nice looking machines.

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looks a little more robust than anything else I've seen other than
the true military laptops you see in use by military and police swat
teams on TV shows.

yeah, our local ambulance company uses these kinds of laptops when

>they are taking patients to the hopital for information gathering.
>Pretty nice looking machines.

Yes, mine isn't nearly as fancy but I figure anything to make it a
little more sturdy than average is a good thing. It doesn't look
too bad but it obviously wasn't designed to be slim and beautiful.

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