I don’t want to get all ‘teacherly’ on you or anything, but if you are wondering how to avoid flashes on glossy surfaces, it has to do with the angle of the light. The basic rule of thumb is that you want to position the light so it doesn’t reflect back at the camera. Or have a light big and diffuse enough (like sunlight through a window, for example) that it diffuses the reflection. But in the case of the laptop screen, since the sunlight is directly behind you (instead of at an angle), the screen acts like a mirror. To get the screen without the reflection you could try shooting it with the light coming from the side.

I hope that is helpful! I’m still a newbie at this too, but I found a great book that explains it all really well.
Jade @ Tasting Grace´s last blog ..you capture – journeys