Re: my thinkpad beefs

["Eric Trepanier" <etrepani@qc.bell.ca>]

> 
> Did you tell him you wanted to pu the monitor on top of the unit? If not
> how is he supposd to mind read.

Oh come on!  A guy calls a sales rep, and orders a laptop, a monitor and a
docking station.  You really expect him to have to tell the rep "I am going
to put the monitor on top of the docking station"???  

If the sales rep had had any sense of anticipation and knowledge of his
products, he could have told me that I needed something additionnal.  I
agree with you that it is a good idea to look at what's available before
ordering, but there are some things that are just not obvious enough... 
Here is the complete product desciption of the Dock II as it appears on
www.pc.ibm.com.  Tell me, does anything here suggest that you will not be
able to put a monitor on top of the Dock II alone?

Dock II: The feature-rich, full-function desktop unit

When you're away from the office, the portability of your ThinkPad makes
your life easier. When you get back to your desk, portability takes a back
seat to power. No problem -- that's where the ThinkPad Dock II, along with
your choice of supported peripheral devices and expansion cards, comes into
play. The Dock II gives you the right combination of features to convert
your ThinkPad into a powerful desktop system.

The Dock II also offers two full-length 16-bit ISA slots; built-in PCMCIA
card slots; two 5.25-inch storage bays for IDE or SCSI-2 devices such as
CD-ROM or hard disk drives; cable management with a full complement of
ports; multimedia and business audio support with built-in stereo speakers,
audio in/out jacks, a headphone jack and a volume control dial; and
security for your notebook and PCMCIA cards, including a slot for an
optional cable lock.

Dock II is Plug and Play-ready. Dock II offers hot/warm docking and
undocking of your ThinkPad, so you can access SCSI storage, PCMCIA or
attached peripheral devices while in a power-on or suspended
state...usually without rebooting your notebook. With its fail-safe docking
mechanisms, Dock II provides a high degree of data loss protection.

Most likely, you will want to complement your Dock II with an external
keyboard and an external monitor. Dock II, keyboards and monitors are all
available in handsome black.

The IDE Conversion Card (part number 46H5994) lets you use IDE devices in
Dock II when your Dock II is connected to PCI bus systems.

Eric
--
Eric Trepanier (514-391-8126)
Bell Sygma Telecom Solutions
Internet: etrepani@qc.bell.ca