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Entries in laptop (2)

Tuesday
29Dec2009

My other laptop is...

Thanks to my main man Paul I had the opportunity to contribute to the local launch of iTunes U along with a few others. (see here for my paltry contributions) As a "reward" Apple loaned out a MacBook Pro to contributors for about a month and a bit (so generous!) I saw this as pretty ridiculous at the time and wasn't going to bother given we had already created the content (I am already toting a MacBook with Snow Leopard and 2GB of RAM) But I do regular full image backups (love my SuperDuper) so in the end thought what the heck, take it for a spin.
It didn't take long to get the beast set up and I was immediately glad I did. Quicker processor and twice the RAM made it super snappy and I had forgotten how much I liked the backlit keyboard of my old aluminium PowerBook. But it wasn't all spped and nostalgia. The SD/SDHC card reader was probably what I liked the most. I have a Panasonic HDC-SD5 which gets a lot of use. I'm addicted to browsing clips on the card for selective importing (I get stabbing head pains just thinking about tapes now) and the "built-in-ness" made it much quicker than my USB card reader.
I'm due for a new machine in a few months. It will definitely be a MacBook Pro (13 inch). I'm eyeing off one of those 128GB SSD's to slot in as well to see if they live up to the hype.
Rank has some priveleges.

Monday
07Jul2008

No more salary sacrifice laptop?




Laptop
Originally uploaded by sp3ccylad


Did Kevin Rudd kill laptop salary sacrifice?
As such, there's now little incentive for the employer to help you score a salary-sacrificed notebook PC as a tax-saving strategy, since it now costs the business money regardless.

Interesting article in APC magazine.
As someone who has salary sacrificed for a laptop in the past I have not double-dipped (made pre tax payments as well as depreciating the asset) and have only claimed a % of use as "work". Admittedly that is around 90% (sad but true!)
I am not a tax expert so I have no idea how this shakes down for education institutions but it doesn't look particularly promising. I have the good fortune at the moment to be working for an organisation that provides me with a machine to use but that was not the case in the past. It would be a great shame for the Federal government to be trying to put machines in front of students only to make if more difficult for a teacher to get one in front of them.