It's alive, alive!!

It being George, my new laptop. :) Which arrived Monday after some FedEx detours. The mouse and carrying case were also detoured via UPS. The shipping experience with Dell this go-round has been...less than ideal. But I don't care...because I have a new computer! A speedy computer. A pretty computer. (Vista may suck down the Ram, but boy oh boy is it pretty.)

And after far more tweaking than I expected, I'm online! There was a brief moment of panic when I feared my Actiontec modem (which George insists is actually a Texas Instruments RNDIS Adapter) wasn't compatible with Vista...but it seems I have 32 bit, not 64 bit Vista so a quick trip to the library to download a driver and I was good to go. Mostly. Ran into some more trouble...as soon as the driver was installed, George started talking to the web, downloading Windows updates...but me, I couldn't get online. To access my connection I needed a "username & password, provided by my ISP". For the record, Qwest tech support was no help at all...but the Qwest community forums were exceedingly helpful and after following a number of posters' suggestions, lo, I am connected to the internet in my living room. Oh frabjous day. At the moment I'm downloading Windows updates and World of Warcraft updates. (Cue the extremely contented sigh--WoW, I've missed you so.)

BTW, for anyone contemplating the joys of "upgrading" to Windows Vista...I highly recommend the book HACKING VISTA by Steve Sinchak. I checked it out of my local library and am loving it so much, I'm probably going to have to break down and buy my own copy. I'm not quite brave enough to alter the registry settings (yet!) but the book is filled with all sorts of simple tweaks designed to make Vista more friendly for the beginning computer user and to make it a bit more...compatible with other software. Vista does not play well with others, no matter what Bill Gates might say differently.

So very soon I should be back on track with the "things" and working on rolling my own search engine. And tackling my online book discussion duties with Eliza Dresang's Jane Addams award contenders. I am so very, very behind. I'd forgotten what a "joy" getting a new PC was. Stay tuned...

Wailey, wailey, wailey.

Have just received notice from Dell that they've shipped my new laptop & mouse! Huzzah! Mouse will arrive earlier than expected (Hooray!) on the 13th. Laptop ... will arrive later than expected (Horrors!) on the 17th. Countdown to George has been re-set accordingly. Cue the pained sighs. And not a few sniffles. Maybe even a tear or two.

Computer Porn

No, not THAT kind of computer porn. THIS kind of computer porn:

I could stare at it all day. Isn't it a thing of beauty & joy? Totally drool-worthy. It's an XPS M1530. I ordered mine from Dell today. (Using the employee purchase program. All you SCLD folks, take note--a 7% discount is nothing to sneeze at!) It should arrive sometime around the 13th. And when it does, I will hug it & squeeze it & call it George.

Just look at what it's got under that "Tuxedo Black" case:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB, 3 MB Cache)
4GB Shared Dual CHannel DDR2 SDRAM at 667 MHz
15.4" LCD
500 GB SATA Hard Drive
Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (BD/DVD/CD read/write)
85 WHR 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 M GT

Yep...that last bit's the video card. I foresee a lot of DOOM and WoW in my immediate future. Cue the blissful and contented sigh.

(Okay, in all honesty--the sigh is neither entirely blissful nor contented. Dell's operating system of choice for the XPS line--Vista. They don't even give you the option of paying through the nose and "downgrading" to XP anymore. Alas. Oh well...at least I'll be better able to empathize with our wireless customers that are using it.)