Archive for May, 2007

Windows schmindows

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Almost 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.

Running over Baby Foxes since 2006

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Why doesn’t my RAV4 have cool ass backup mirrors?

4Runner Backup Mirrors