“Inspiron” ?

First of all, I never ever ever post to this blog anymore. Maybe it’s because school just started, I made new friends, I’m busy studying and playing Magic: The Gathering after school for three hours nearly every day, or maybe it’s because I’m just tired from going to the gym every morning. Either way, I have gone into a blog-lull. Lucky for you readers though, I have to post here now. It’s manditory. It’s for school! In the 4th module of English 10 (last one, very short) 30 of the 100 marks you get are from keeping a journal, so I talked with le teachers, etc, and it turns out I can just make a daily post here about … my day, and get credit for it. Internet..huzzah!

Anyway, I’ve gotten back into playing Magic: The Gathering in a big way. Like.. super-o-bigga. It’s le fun, Coldsnap rocks, Time Spiral looks great, w00t for old mechanics, w00t for Urza. But on a more serious note, the courses I’m taking thus far this year are…:

  • Science 10
  • English 10 (for about a week to a month, just finishing it off)
  • Beginner’s German 11
  • Social Studies 10
  • Photography
  • Planning 10/11
  • Physical Education 10/11
  • And, if time permits, Math 9.

Because these courses vary so much, and because of the fact that I have a very hard time writing (penmanship-wise, not English-wise), and also because of the fact that the computers at school are on so much of a lock down that you can’t install Firefox, new virus definitions, or windows updates, and the last update was done in June 2005… I’ve decided to get a laptop. Only a cheap one, but one not so cruddy and without battery life that I can’t do anything on it. The laptop I chose?

The Dell Inspiron 1300.

Yes, a Dell. Yes, they explode, yes they come bundled with spyware and ass-gaskets, and yes it requires a lot of work to get it running normally. But I don’t care, it was cheap, and more powerful than the Lenovo C100 or N100. Specs posted below (taken from Dell website):

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 735 (1.70GHz/2MB Cache/400MHz FSB)
15.4in WXGA Display
1GB DDR2 SDRAM (2 512MB Dimms)
80GB 5400rpm PATA Hard Drive
48x/8x CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW)
Intel® PRO 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)
Integrated Intel® Media Accelerator 900 Graphics (Comparable to an NVIDIA GeForce 5900 or an ATI Radeon 9600)
Genuine Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (Dell recommends Microsoft Windows XP Professional)

It’s a nice li’l machine, and I think it will serve me well.

For now, it has no name other than lappy. Why? Because frankly, I’m getting really tired of the Norse mythological naming convention. It’s hard to choose a good name for it. My router is Yggdrasil, my computer is Mjolnir, my old computer is Freya, and my PSP is Loki. But that’s it. I’m done. It’s just going to be lappy, or some weird Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, or … anything else with star in the title reference. Why? Because I’m a geek, damnit. When I get it, I’m going to check and see if I’ve got backup CDs for any software I want to keep, download all the drivers from the Dell and Intel websites, download the Office 2007 Beta for it, and then just wipe the damn thing and install Windows XP Home with the included $19 backup disc. Why? Because it will be faster. I’m also planning on dual-booting a distribution of Linux, but right now I’m deciding between Ubuntu and Gentoo. Debian = slow to update and outdated, Ubuntu couldn’t exist without Debian, and Gentoo takes for FREAKING ever to compile. Bottom line, no SuSe or Fedora Core. I like .debs or emerging things from source.

Anyway, this post has gotten long, and I have homework to do (well, I have a choice of either writing an autobiography sketch for English 10, or studying some German. Welches wählt man ich…?

September 12, 2006 · Filed Under Announcements, Freya, Journal, Linux, Magic, Mjolnir, Projects, School

Comments

One Response to ““Inspiron” ?”

  1. sp on October 17th, 2006 10:13 pm

    ok. so you got the inspiron. nasir.

    but do your teacher’s dock points for misspelling mandatory as manditory? manditory reminded me of mandibles.

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