Finally joining the 1990s?

[lance_sibley]

I can haz laptop!

My father came down from Emsdale today to meet me for lunch at the Granite Brewery. For some reason he wanted my mother to join us, even though we both knew that she would spend the whole time complaining about one thing or another. (I really need to memorize Professor Plum's "fear of silences" speech from Clue - msvu20 no doubt knows exactly which one I mean.)

However, this isn't a rant about my mother... it's to show everyone the late birthday/early Christmas present my father got for me:



It's a Toshiba L300D-01N with the following specs:

• AMD Athlon™ 64X2 Dual-Core Processor QL-60 1.9 GHz


• 2GB RAM


• 160GB hard drive


• 15.4" WXGA screen


• Atheros 802.11 b/g wireless


• Integrated webcam and microphone


• Windows Vista Home Premium


• Veriface protection

"Veriface protection" apparently means that it doesn't require a password - the webcam recognizes the face of its user. (Wow. I'm envisioning Admiral Kirk's retinal scan to view the Project Genesis presentation...)

I haven't actually taken it out of the box yet because I was desperate to do laundry when I got home (somehow I ran out of clean socks - I have no idea how, since I seem to own all of the socks in the world) and didn't finish until it was time to make dinner, then I was watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

Anyway, according to the people I work with, this is a pretty good laptop. I kind of wish it didn't have Vista, but since that's all that's available on new computers now, I guess I don't have much choice. (And I can't complain, since it is a gift, after all. Well, I could complain, but it wouldn't be nice... it would make me sound like my mother. ;) )

In other life news, this might be the first time in five years I haven't gone to SFX (or whatever it's called this year). I wouldn't have minded seeing Kate Mulgrew and Edward James Olmos, but given what I heard about how much they were charging for autographs ($50-60) and the fact that neither was personalizing, it's probably just as well. Buzz Aldrin was there as well, but he was charging $200. (WTF???) I saw him speak a few years ago at another event, anyway. I just couldn't justify spending that much money two weeks after Worldcon and a week before Dragon*Con. And since Lisa and Irwin had their annual pool party/barbecue yesterday, and I was having lunch with my parents today, I didn't really have any time anyway.

Comments

[msvu20.livejournal.com]

*ahem*

Well, someone's got to break the ice, and it might as well be me. I mean, I'm used to being a hostess, it's part of my husband's work. And it's always difficult when a group of new friends meets together for the first time to get acquainted. So I'm perfectly prepared to start the ball rolling. I mean, I have absolutely no idea what we're doing here or what I'm doing here or what this place is about, but I am determined to enjoy myself and I'm very intrigued and oh my this soup's delicious, isn't it?

...

Well, I'm sure I don't know but if I wasn't trying to keep the conversation going then we would just be sitting here in an embarrassed silence.
Are you afraid of silence, Mrs. Peacock?
Yes, what, no, what, why?
You seem to suffer from what we call pressure of speech.
We? Who's we? Are you a shrink?
I do know a little bit about psychological medicine, yes.


You're welcome.

(I can haz life?)

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Yay! I knew I could count on you.

[msvu20.livejournal.com]

We're like the mounties, we always get our man.
Mrs. Peacock was a man?!

...would anyone care for fruit, or dessert?

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

We're like the mounties, we always get our man.
Mrs. Peacock was a man?!

*THWAP!!!*

Are you a cop?
No, I'm a plant.
A plant? I thought men like you were usually called a fruit.

[msvu20.livejournal.com]

Well played.

[mencc1701.livejournal.com]

Looks pretty nice. That Veriface thing sounds pretty cool, too... it's always weird when reality catches up with science-fiction faster than you expect.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Next thing you know, we'll have teleportation (http://www.xkcd.com/465/) and I won't have to ride the bus to work. ;)

[ghstlght74.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, Spiffy. New toys to play with.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'll be bringing it with me next weekend, though... I'm a little nervous about the whole border-crossing-with-electronics thing. Apparently Customs can now confiscate laptops (or iPods, or PDAs, etc.) if they even suspect there might be something on it that's not completely legal.

OTOH, it might be a good opportunity to spend some time playing with Vista, since I've never used it and I will, after all, have time to kill at the airport, on the plane, etc.

[crusherdisciple.livejournal.com]

I luv it. Be sure to stuff it with plenty of porn.

[evil-admiral.livejournal.com]

That's not necessarily a bad laptop right there Lance. I mean its a Toshiba, but other than that it looks fairly nice.

If you give me a couple of hours Lance, I could down-grade that sucker for you. I mean I'd have to install all three service packs for XP Pro, but I could down-grade you...

[alpinemaps.livejournal.com]

Funny...I only buy Toshibas. I'm on my third Toshiba. I bought my father one, and my mother-in-law one, besides the one that I have. All three of them have been fantastic. They've all been around for 2-3 years now, and have worked without a hitch (knock on wood!).

Congrats!

[thegrandepoobah.livejournal.com]

Anyway, according to the people I work with, this is a pretty good laptop. I kind of wish it didn't have Vista, but since that's all that's available on new computers now...

Yeah. It looks okay. Wireless N would have been nice, I got a laptop last year and wanted to get it, but Dell would only sell that with Vista (I was getting XP) -- a driver thing they claimed. Speaking of which, Dell will still preinstall XP on some of their laptops if you select the 'downgrade' option. Apparently there are a couple you can even get running Ubuntu. So no, not quite all that's available on new computers.

Still, it is getting pretty hard to find any alternatives to Vista.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

I thought about getting a laptop, but then I'd want to take it everywhere, and I'd put it down and forget it and someone would steal it and I wouldn't have a laptop anymore.

I had fun at SFX (still called that, though the whole thing is FanExpo) but didn't get any of the autographs you mentioned. The ones I did get were reasonably priced. I did find it interesting that some of the photo sessions cost less than the autographs.

[gurudata.livejournal.com]

Hiho,

If it helps, I've come to the conclusion that Vista is ok for laptops. Most of the actual issues (as opposed to mere annoyances) that Vista seems to have is with interfacing with other devices - and with a laptop, you don't really do as much of that as you would with a desktop. I've actually come to prefer the Vista explorer to the XP one, because of tiny little long-overdue Mac-like touches.

And hey, now you'll be able to compute and watch TV at the same time! Look at that, multitasking! :)

CU,
Andrew

[elizard100.livejournal.com]

Sweet laptop. Oh and btw, I asked briankit about the buttsqueezins' you said you were disappointed about not getting at Polaris and he said you could have come and found him and that he missed them too. Ah well, there's always Con*Cept.