equipment standard?

[Bex <rebeccaf -at- COMPNEWS -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

I was wondering what kind of hardware most people on this list use.
I am having enormous trouble persuading my boss that the equipment I
have is not adequate for what he is expecting me to do.
I have a 486, 33MHz, 8Meg PC with 14" screen, which doesn't print and
gets very slow when I have more than one package open - which is often
necessary.

I need to create documents (paper and html), graphics, and to
run various packages such as Project.

I am the first and only technical writer that my company has had and
as far as I can tell my equipment is even worse than the secretaries'.
The rest of the company have Mac Quadras, Sparc Stations, ThinkPads and
other fancy get-ups, although a lot of production people use SE30 with
19" screens.

My boss doesn't want to be bothered with it and the technicians can't
buy anything without his say so.
I've had many technicians and self-appointed experts look at my
machine and they all agree that it has many natural inadequacies (small
screen, slow processor, etc.) and some pathological faults (it is the
only PC in the company that won't print).

I've been in this job since September (I transferred internally) and I
am getting very frustrated.

So, anyway, what do you use?  Am I really as badly off as I feel - or
have I been spoilt?  What should I say to my boss?

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