It’s my opinion that everyone should own a laptop. Two years ago I couldn’t say this because the price point wasn’t low enough. But with the netbooks quickly becoming the new norm of laptops, I can say now that yes, you should own one.

And if you needed a reason why, here are 10 good ones.

1. Better resale value.

PCs hold little resale value – but laptops hold a lot more. Even if you own a Mac, the Macbook will always sell later for more than the desktop version.

2. Portable.

When I say portable I’m not necessarily referring to sitting in a Panera Bread click-clacking away with their free wi-fi (although you could). Portable can be as simple as bringing it elsewhere in your house or apartment/flat. Sit down in your easy chair or couch, watch the game and surf the ‘net? Sure, why not?

3. Space-saver.

One does not know the joy of owning a laptop until you put it on the computer desk and then realize all the space you get back. All you have is the laptop and possibly an external mouse and pad. That’s it.

4. Energy-saver.

Laptops use far less energy than desktop PCs do.

5. Easier keyboards.

Laptops use short profile keys with a scissor-style spring underneath. Your typing speed will increase almost instantly. And after using one for a while, going back to the desktop feels old and clunky compared to the super-easy laptop keys. Additionally, the place where the trackpad is serves as a built-in wrist rest, so it’s also ergonomically sound.

6. Better LCD screen.

More often than not the LCD screen on a laptop is far superior to your desktop LCD monitor. The colors look more true, gradients don’t "fuzz" and it has a more crisp picture.

7. Easier to work on.

Most laptops only require one screw to remove the hard drive or RAM. After that it’s literally pop in/pop out to upgrade. It doesn’t get any easier.

8. Proprietary architecture means everything works better.

The vast majority of laptops are very proprietary. This means there is no guesswork as to whether the unit will function properly or not. Even Linux "likes" laptops better because it absolutely knows what to expect, so to speak.

9. Easy-access USB.

Most laptops have 4 USB ports (two on the side, two on the back) and are in easy reach.

10. It’s not a throw-away computer.

This goes back to point 1. The laptop is more or less the only type of computer you can buy where you know it will sell later when it’s time to get rid of it. Even if you have an older laptop with a busted optical drive, someone will still buy it because of what it is. Older desktop PCs on the other hand turn into paperweights that you can’t sell for a decent price no matter what.

So go ahead, get that laptop. You’ll be happy you did.

While it’s true we see a ton of innovation on the internet (it’s what drives it to begin with) there’s been some stuff that was just nothing but a miserable failure from the word go.

Here’s 5 of them. Some are old, some current.

WebRing

The concept: To "join" web sites together in a circular structure (the "ring")

The reality: A bunch of crappy web sites that don’t relate to each other at all desperately trying to whore each other out for the sole purpose of generating web traffic.

WebRing actually still exists and it still sucks. Granted, this was one of the first attempts to connect web sites with common interests, but it ended up being nothing but a big ball of fail.

Tag cloud

A tag cloud is a "weighted list" of a jumble of words where visually bigger words are discussed more while smaller words are discussed less. See examples here.

The concept: Visually bigger words (like bike instead of bike) mean people are talking about that particular whatever-it-is more often.

The reality: These words when clicked lead to articles/sites/pages that usually have nothing to do with that word whatsoever – OR – the words presented are so unbelievably generic that it never leads to any useful you were looking for.

The tag cloud is one of those Web 2.0 things that just doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter if you have it enabled on your personal blog or use a big-site way of doing it because tag clouds suck.

LinkExchange

This, much like WebRing, was a failed attempt at connecting web sites with similar interests by putting "badges" somewhere in your web page/site. The only difference is that it was more corporate and required cash.

It didn’t work.

Microsoft bought this, realized it sucked and changed it to be part of Microsoft Office Live. In its current form it has absolutely zero resemblance (thank God) to the old LinkExchange.

Badges

The original "internet button" was a 88×31 graphic.

Remember these? 

In the Web 2.0 version this was made smaller into an 80×15 "badge".

Badges look like this:

For whatever reason someone thought it was good that with ever-increasing resolutions on computer monitors to make graphics smaller and harder to read.

Stupid? Yes.

"Splash" pages

This is more of a web usability thing than anything else but it bears mentioning because it still happens today.

"Splash" pages, a.k.a. the "skipintro", is some dopey Flash-based "introduction" to a web site. This has been widely panned on web pages like Web Pages That Suck because it serves absolutely no purpose other than to annoy people. It’s not "cool" or "hip" or anything like that whatsoever.

If you have your own web site, I have three words of advice for you concerning the intro page: Don’t do it.

A domain in relation to the internet is [Domain Name].[TLD], such as PCMECH.COM. The domain name itself is PCMECH. The TLD, a.k.a. Top Level Domain is the dot com. Or moreover, just com.

Generally speaking you can have up to 60 characters in a domain name before the TLD, so if you wanted..

Hi-There-This-Is-My-Domain-Name-and-I-Really-Like-It.com

..you could get it.

And by the way, the above is a 52-character domain name because the dashes do count as characters.

5 quick tips on domain names

1. Watch where you search.

Have you ever searched for a domain name to purchase and it’s snapped up FIVE SECONDS before you buy it? It’s probably because where you were searching was broadcasted out somewhere, a bot picked it up and auto-registered the domain name.

You can avoid this very annoying situation by using a domain search site that does not broadcast the search results, such as DomainTools.com.

2. Don’t use dashes.

If your domain name contains dashes it’s most likely true that you’ll have to deal with people mistyping your domain all the time. Try to avoid this.

3. If stuck for ideas, use your business name + location.

If your business name is taken as a dot-com (and it most likely is), just add your business’ location. So instead of ExampleBusiness.com it could be ExampleBusinessFlorida.com or ExampleBusinessUSA.com or ExampleBusinessUK.com and so on. You get the idea.

4. Stick with dot-com.

The internet revolves around dot-com. If you have dot-net, dot-org or dot-whatever it will not be as easy to remember.

5. When you get your domain name, register every single type of free service possible for easiest communication.

Register with AIM, Yahoo, MSN/Live, Skype, eBay, Google, MySpace, FaceBook and anything else you can think of with your newly registered name. By doing this you are branding yourself in a good way.

Granted, there is a distinct possibility you won’t be able to get them all, but try your best. Even if you never use them, register with the services regardless. You may encounter a customer, friend or what-have-you that wants to communicate in a specific way, and guess what – you’re covered.