Windows schmindows
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Almost reached an all time low of 1 post / month. I never wanted it to get that bad. But it happened, what can I say.
Anyways, the big news is that I bought a laptop. Notice I didn’t say macbook, or macbook pro. I bought an ordinary laptop. Ordinary. Plain jane Dell Latitude. Common as dirt. Dell Latitude D600. Some of you are probably going, “What a fucking hypocrite you are, Raishad!”
Well hear me out, give me a chance.
At work I use a Windows machine. I could almost get away with using a Mac, but the program I use for the ui/framework stuff is Windows only. Everything else is Java stuff that I could run with no trouble on MacOS or Linux. The end result is I have to use Windows at work.
Around 5pm or so, I start thinking – could I do this at home? Sure I could, I’ll just go home, remote desktop in and finish. No big deal. So I head home and return to my Mac and use remote desktop. But you know what’d be great, if I could lay in bed and watch tv AND continue working. No trouble, I’ll just take my powerbook and go on the bed. BUT WAIT! I have to unplug all these cables. I guess I’ll just stay at my desk and listen to the tv.
or
You know what’d be great, if I could head downstairs and watch some Supernatural and fix some bugs.
or
I want to do something that involves me leaving my desk and using a computer, that’d be great.
So basically I wanted something portable that I could use to remote desktop into my machine at work/run eclipse.
I could buy a new macbook, but you know what would happen – it would be so AWESOME that I’ll use it as my main computer, and my powerbook will start gathering dust. Oh but couldn’t I use the powerbook as my work machine? No, it only has a 1024×768 screen. I run my work machine at 1600×1200. Some of the stuff I use is impossible at 1024×768.
So basically I wanted something portable that I could use to remote desktop into my machine at work/run eclipse and has a resolution greater than 1024×768.
I guess maybe I could buy a Windows laptop. They’re cheap and it would get the job done. Let’s head over to Dell/Toshiba/HP.com and see what’s out there. Hmm, $500 is kinda high especially for a “spare” laptop. Especially with something with a low resolution and a celeron (No speedstep). Maybe eBay? Sure why not.
Turns out there are tons of Dell Latitudes on eBay. Tons! So I fired up JBidwatcher and scoped me out a few Dell Latitude D600s. Next thing you know, I won one. For an astonishingly low price. Guess. Guess and then knock $50 off.
And you know the great part. The D600 was one of the laptops I was cross-shopping when I ended up deciding to buy my powerbook. Fun stuff.
