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"That's one small step for (a) man..."
Dec. 24th, 2006 09:22 pmI'm writing this in our living room.
I can do that because, after almost a year (I think... long enough I don't remember how long) I have a notebook computer again.
It's been a heck of a week for tech bargains. I went to UW Surplus on Tuesday, looking for an inexpensive notebook, but with a Plan B of finding an upgrade for Ulrika's desktop. Despite showing up half-an-hour before opening, I was deep enough in the line that all the notebooks were gone by when I got in. But for Ulrika, I was able to get her a 1.5GHz P4 from Gateway for $125 -- notching her up from a 800MHz P3. Lots more room for memory expansion, too -- her new system maxes out at 2GB, the old one at 512MB.
I've been keeping an eye on the Seattle Craig's List, and I saw an ad later in the week for an IBM T22 ThinkPad for $225. My old notebook was a T21, and getting one in the same series would mean I could swap over a lot of accessories -- AC adapters, WiFi cards, a battery, memory, port replicator, etc. The seller turned out to be a small store about by Rainier and I-90 called Tech Lab. I came on in, shot the shit with them for about an hour, and... yeah. Good people. They knocked off $25 when I told them I'd just blow off their OEM copy of XP for a full retail one I had available.
So, for a net of $325, Ulrika has a new desktop for Christmas, and I have a working notebook.
ZBS has an audio series (that started out on radio) called Ruby: A Galactic Gumshoe. Part of the Rubyverse is a group of techies who wander about called the Digital Circus. Every one of their shows begins with Nikola Tesla being shown in a chair, giving his blessing (in Romanian accent, of course): "Free electricity for everybody!"
This Christmas, for us: "New computing for everybody!"
I can do that because, after almost a year (I think... long enough I don't remember how long) I have a notebook computer again.
It's been a heck of a week for tech bargains. I went to UW Surplus on Tuesday, looking for an inexpensive notebook, but with a Plan B of finding an upgrade for Ulrika's desktop. Despite showing up half-an-hour before opening, I was deep enough in the line that all the notebooks were gone by when I got in. But for Ulrika, I was able to get her a 1.5GHz P4 from Gateway for $125 -- notching her up from a 800MHz P3. Lots more room for memory expansion, too -- her new system maxes out at 2GB, the old one at 512MB.
I've been keeping an eye on the Seattle Craig's List, and I saw an ad later in the week for an IBM T22 ThinkPad for $225. My old notebook was a T21, and getting one in the same series would mean I could swap over a lot of accessories -- AC adapters, WiFi cards, a battery, memory, port replicator, etc. The seller turned out to be a small store about by Rainier and I-90 called Tech Lab. I came on in, shot the shit with them for about an hour, and... yeah. Good people. They knocked off $25 when I told them I'd just blow off their OEM copy of XP for a full retail one I had available.
So, for a net of $325, Ulrika has a new desktop for Christmas, and I have a working notebook.
ZBS has an audio series (that started out on radio) called Ruby: A Galactic Gumshoe. Part of the Rubyverse is a group of techies who wander about called the Digital Circus. Every one of their shows begins with Nikola Tesla being shown in a chair, giving his blessing (in Romanian accent, of course): "Free electricity for everybody!"
This Christmas, for us: "New computing for everybody!"
