My Dashboard

I already have a dashboard set up so when I open my browser there are bookmarks at the top, favorites a click away, and recent searches. I personally do not believe I could benefit from this since the only reason I own this laptop (which is slow and has bad graphics) is to do research and write. I check all the other things like sports and weather on my smart phone; and do not turn on this device unless I need to do work. Having non school related things on this would only distract me from my studies so I make damn sure to keep this as an objective computer. Also it is so painfully slow that loading Netvibes may make it worse. Please note the intial start up is like 15 minutes, to get the homepage is another 3, and to actually work is a couple more. I do not need any other things to slow down the essential functions.