The Finite

In case you’re wondering, I have a naming scheme for all my computers. My desktops are named after hostile science fiction artificial intelligences. (Skynet) My laptops are named after homicidal androids (B166ER, Bender). My external hard drives are named after non-homicidal artificial intelligences. (Deep Thought, Cortana) My flash drives are named after models of Terminator from the film franchise. (T-1000, Cameron)

Bender is an MSi A6000-030US. And he belongs to me. I could sit here and type out all the stats. But you can see even in the picture above that he has a crapload of stickers on him that tell you everything you need to know. I’ll just say two things.

• The specs are decent.
• Geforce 8200M G

And I don’t even know what that last one means; the discrete video card was beyond my requirements. I set my expectations on an Intel GMA 4500MHD. Same goes for the BLU-Ray drive and the HDMI output.

The USB ports are so tight, and he smells like a department store.

The keyboard takes some getting used to, but I saw that one coming. The numpad changes things a lot. The “Home” and “End” keys are only accessible through the function key which is to the left of left control, which I don’t like for hot key related reasons. The enter and arrow keys are crammed in between the numpad and everything else and there’s no reference to know which one I’m touching.

I’m going to install Ubuntu on a separate partition. But first I’m going to give Windows 7 a chance. Just using the native install. (I am happy to mention that I skipped over Vista completely.) Hell, I’ll even give Windows Live Mail a shot for RSS feeds and Gmail. I can always fall back on Thunderbird.

And IE8 can’t be as bad as its predecessors, right? Firefox is getting less and less appealing lately after I switched over to Opera. But it’s about time I try Google Chrome as a fallback. Hopefully neither of them let me get pwned.

I’m trying to take advantage of many of the new features of Windows 7 before I totally disparage it. The introductory videos I keep seeing mention that “You may remember [$old_feature] from Windows XP. Well, in Windows 7…” Are they not supposed to mention Vista? Is Vista like Voldemort over at Redmond? Whoever says “You-Know-What” is detected and is immediately accosted by large men?

I have 60 days before my Norton antivirus trial ends. Ditto for Windows Office. I’ll need luck. And Openoffice.

Day 2

So far things are okay. I’m using the new taskbar okay. Response is not lightning quick but it’s MUCH peppier than my last laptop. And gadgets are especially useful for Twitter and weather and calendar functions.

But the following piss me off.

• Windows Live Mail won’t show certain webcomics or not completely.
• Webcam bloatware is pointless, but I should know better.
• I’ve set up Windows Media Player, like, 6 times now.
• start up errors: it tries to repair itself, fails, then starts up normally.
• Silverlight doesn’t do anything for me.

It gets worse.

Due to the low market share of MSI laptops, the Ubuntu installation won’t recognize my card reader or webcam or wireless card without a kernel recompile. This effectively cripples it. I am so so sorry.

With single-minded determination for several weeks now, I have decided that a new laptop shall be mine before this is all over. I’d like a laptop that doesn’t slow down when I enable javascript. My requirements are a Core 2 Duo processor at least and a >15 inch screen.

The plan for a week now has been to take advantage of a Best Buy doorbuster. A $399 Toshiba L505-5S984. (Yes, I memorized the model number.) Sales start thanksgiving day on bestbuy.com and I was there at 3AM Wednesday night. Miserly, I waited while some pencil pusher somewhere was rapidly updating pricing and availability information for bestbuy.com’s listings. I finally fell asleep around 3:30 to be woken up at 9:00AM by a “SOLD OUT ONLINE” placard where the “Add to cart” should have been. I cursed the tubes, the best buy executives and the internet gods before I started frantically looking for a deal that was in stock. (SPLURGE!)

Enter a $549 Toshiba L505-5S990. I immediately ordered before I even left my room. I go downstairs to read the paper and open up a two-page spread in the Fry’s ad for a $479 MSI A6000-030US. Basically, the same specs, but it has a Blu-ray drive. I don’t really need one, but my inner materialist is drooling on himself.

It is worth mentioning how fortuitous it is, that a camp-out at Fry’s has been planned for a week now. I had just been planning to grab rebated minor items as I was unaware of the laptop doorbuster, but oh, what blessed happenstance!

The cold, I expected; a cold, not so much. I was still Capt Phlegmbucket by the time we set up the tent. And my headache returned whenever I punched myself in the head, which is unusual and slightly distressing.

The cast this year, included Kurt, Junyong and myself. Same old tent, same spot in line. Difference being that Junyong is here to buy a new laptop hard drive so we can’t watch another Judd Apatow comedy. So we played Risk. I ended up with Oceania, the Southeast US, and East and South Asia; making sure all were places whose accents I could do. Because trash-talking in an Indian accent is fun. Try it. I couldn’t stop once I started.

Junyong meanwhile continues to show a incorrigible need to defeat me at whatever we do and tried to hustle us into believing he wasn’t good at Risk. He would not rest while I controlled Australia, even after losing 5 men to my one who kept quipping things in an Australian accent like “Thanks for standing still, wanker!” and “I’m not a crazed gunman, I’m a sniper!”

After I was pincered, Kurt and Junyong rolled it out until the reluctant Korean was the only one left on the board. By then it was closer to 4AM and we rolled up the tent after a brief session of Apples to Apples.

And so it begins. The line compresses toward the door. The dead hoboes and motionless blanket heaps come alive as the employees handed out entry tickets. Junyong’s prepared his shurikens for any line-jumpers and the interminable last half-hour began. I tried to Pai Mei my way through what I thought was a particularly weak spot of brick but was unsuccessful.

The doors open at 4:54AM. I head in and immediately head for the far right corner of the store, where I know the laptops are. Lo and behold: another line. Fifteen minutes later, I emerge with a print out form with my name on it. I rush to pick up whatever else I can get, which turns out to just a wireless keyboard/mouse, and a power strip. The free-after-rebate 2GB flash drive turned out to be impossible to find. And so I come away with it, one laptop richer and a half-grand poorer. And with a newly-worsened cold that is just raping me.

If the economy is not kick-started, I’ll be seriously pissed off.