Is this computer worth $1500?
D400 Thin and Light w/ NIC/Modem/Wireless
Featured at
$2,066
(ON SALE FOR) $1,478
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 725 (1.60GHz) w/ 12.1in XGA Display
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, SP1, with media
512MB, Shared, DDR SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
30GB, HD, 9.5MM, 4200RPM
Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) miniPCI Card
Internal 56K Modem
24X max/10X min CD-ROM Drive
6 Cell Primary Battery
Microsoft ™ Office ® 2003 Professional Academic RW
3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year NBD On-site Service and CompleteCare
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I ask because Seattle U, assuming they let me in, which I do *not* at this point, says I have to have the following (I tried to fix the formatting by MT is gobbling up the spaces), and they recommend the computer above.
Minimum Requirements Recommended Requirements
Intel Pentium III running at 1.0 GHz Intel Pentium M or P IV
256 MB of RAM 512 MB of RAM or more
20 Gigabyte Hard Drive 30 Gigabyte Hard Drive
One PCMCIA Card Slot One PCMCIA Card Slot
56K V90 Modem Internal 56K V90 Modem
Ethernet 10/100 Internal Ethernet 10/100 + WiFi networking
Windows XP** Professional Operating System (SAME)
CD-ROM or DVD CD-ROM drive CDRW/DVD Combination drive
Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Microsoft Office 2003 Professional
Given that I use a happy little iBook to surf the internet and word process and have NO idea what the going neato thing is or what it should cost, can someone tell me what I should be looking for/spending?
I'm a music snob.
I find, in most cases, that the only kinds of music worth listening to are jazz, blues, and classical. The rest is boring and, honestly, rather insulting to my intelligence. If you've heard one pop song you've heard them all. If you've heard Britney you've hear Christina, and if you've heard Kelly you've heard all the other women that sound just like her. If you're not enamored with broken hearts and general angst there's nothing in pop for you to latch onto. Most pop songs use the same 20 words and the same 4 to 8-bar melody (if you can call it that) over and over and freaking over. Have you noticed how most songs end with the same sentence being sung 10-50 times? Yeah, that's because they couldn't come up with any more material but can only whore their goods if they are over 2.5 minutes. And instruments? Who needs 'em! Something that sounds like an angry guitar, an overbeaten drum set, and a keyed instrument that doesn't require tuning should do the trick. It's just a lot clatter that simultaneously bores and overloads me.
Frim Fram Sauce is where it's at. Goddess bless real musicians and public radio.
"If Gov. Bush wants to be the man that his brother is, he needs to step up to the plate like President Bush did when the United Nations told him not to go into Iraq," Randall Terry, a protest organizer, said of the governor. "Be a man. Put politics aside."
Oh. Good. God. There are so many things wrong with this sentence, this notion, this diarrhea of the mouth, that I hardly know where to begin. Random guy interviewed for the AP thinks the following:
-Jeb Bush wants to - or should want to- be like his brother. God help the innocent men, women, and children dying in the Middle East if we have another Georgie on our hands.
-Jeb Bush should go against the better judgment of most people with whom he has an agreement/contract/obligation to consult and act multi-laterally (his constituents and the other two branches of government). That's the way to win friends and influence people. Oh, but wait, that's not what we're trying to do, we're trying to SAVE TERRY!! Because we all know that her quality of life demands she spend another 40 years eating and crapping through tubes while enjoying bed sores and the riveting scenery that is the ceiling of her hospice room.
-Jeb Bush should put politics aside. Oh Christ. Politics aside = not touching this case with a 100-foot pole. EVAR. This case is *pure* politics. There is nothing left here that is not politics. Anyone who says otherwise is delusional or lying.
This is the ultimate act of sucking up to the uber religious right, and while those folks are happy, pretty much everyone else in the country realizes that Florida, Congress, the Bushes, etc. have way overstepped their bounds. Mind you, there are always going to be folks like Randall who aren't happy until God himself if sitting in the oval office and striking down offenders with bolts of lightening that send them directly to the lake of fire. If the governor (who you voted for, Randall, we know) can't storm the hospital and meddle in someone's life for *you* then something is amiss with the government. But hold up a minute . . . what if liberal candidate x was the next governor and stormed a hospital with the intention of helping someone "die with dignity". Would that be okay? Is that the right balance of power? "Hell no", says Randall!! God doesn't like assisted suicide any better than he likes people dying a natural death! Funny how God can't vote, though. Oh, but we know, he votes through you, and that's nice. But now that you've voted and Jeb has exhausted his legal options, sit back and have a beer, because Jesus was all about laws. Go ahead, crack the Good Book open to the New Testament. Jesus had no "break laws you don't like" message, or even a "break laws in my name" message. Sure you say, there was a lot of stuff in both testaments about being a good citizen and what not, but never mind that, this woman who would have been dead 15 years ago had she lived in the time of Jesus is thirsty! God wants her to have water, dammit! How do we know this? Because the uber religious right called on the phone and told us so! Saying the Separation of Powers politics is faulty. Calling for the temporary elimination of the Separation of Powers so you look good on the 700 Club is politics.
-Be a man. If I hear "be a man" one more fucking time in relation to doing something that is Bush-era Brave I may just scratch out the eyes of the latest offender. He's saying "Jeb, be a cowboy, grow some nads, do the gutsy thing that is illegal because you're the big man on campus and God is on your side." That is apparently what "being a man" is to Randall. Forget good sense, forget compassion for Terry whose soul has been tied to this useless body instead of frolicking in heaven with her Lord and Savior, forget laws, forget the Constitution, just be a man already!!
That is all. For now.
I just thought I would let you all know that I think my tax dollars are going to excellent use in allowing Congress to hear hours of testimony from baseball players and engage in sick political games centering around a woman who has been brain dead for 15 years. Let me tell you, this is a proud moment for me as an American. Never has our money been so well spent. Regulating the millionaire sweethearts of America's One True Sport and pandering to the right-to-a-feeding-tube groups *kicks ass*.
I'm glad that we've set aside time in Congress to discuss the eradication of poverty, the education crisis, and a real solution to our upcoming Social Security woes. Or have we?
One thing that always seems to happen to me and Kara when we're driving is that Kara's always having to turn the volume on the radio down, and the other day I finally figured why that was.
Anytime we get on the freeway, the road noise drowns out the radio, so I end up turning the volume up. When we get off the freeway, though, I kind of just tune out how loud the radio is and leave it, and she's the one that always has to correct it.
It seems like this is an easily solvable problem for car manufacturers - you don't even have to do the smart thing and put in audio sensors to figure out how much road noise there is at any given moment - you can just scale the volume slightly to match your current speed.
Why isn't this a standard feature yet?
--Nick
So recently on the radio, there have been a bunch of new ads from Fred Meyer about their new rewards card. Now, based on the advertising I've heard in the past, it sounds like these things are both really useful to the stores and really hated by customers, since one by one the stores have all gone from being proud that they don't have one to caving and trying to sell people on why theirs is great.
Fred Meyer's strategy? Oh, our prices are the same if you don't have a card, you just get a rebate if you use one!
WTF? Does anyone really fall for this crap?
--Nick
I try not to blatantly toot my own horn too much on here, but I'm going to allow myself an indulgence. My e-mail signature is changing slightly:
DCI Certified Level 23 Judge for Magic: The Gathering.
Whee!
--Nick
Nick is out uber-geeking and I'm contemplating my deep lonliness. What usually happens when Nick uber-geeks and I contemplate my deep lonliness is the following: I buy a pet. First time, rat. Second time, rat. Now I'm thinking I'll upgrade. I was planning to go to Portland for the weekend. Should I bring back my cat or go for something more exotic? Marc suggested a tarantiala, which I apparently don't know how to spell, but they really aren't companion animals. Snakes are right out - Nick's not a fan. Dogs require far too much effort and bunnies and rather mean. I'm thinking it's time for Bailey to visit/move in. What do you think?
If I fed diet coke to our little house plant would it die? And if it did, wouldn't that indicate something? I mean, sure, I have a liver, but still. If it kills a plant I probably shouldn't consume it either, right?
I've now been working out regularly for 2 months, and I just have to debunk a couple of myths.
I've been told consistently that:
1) After the first few weeks, you really don't get that sore - just tired - and by the next day you should be fine.
2) After a few weeks, it becomes routine and you look forward to going to work out and feel bad when you miss it.
To both of those, I call shenanigans.
Let me be the one to buck conventional wisdom - if you're going to get into exercising, just know that it is going to suck, it is going to continue to suck, and you're just going to have to suck it up and not expect it to get any easier.
Blah.
--Nick
So, I get a call from Erin this morning because her car battery is dead and trying to jump start it hasn't worked, so she needs help getting to the store to get a new battery.
When I get there, she decides she's going to try and jump it one more time. So I pull my car up next to hers and she hooks up the jumper cables - her positive , then my positive and negative, and then finally ground.
As soon as she connects ground, her car gets pissed and blares its horn at us (while I continue to maintain that the dog crap on the ground was in fact from a dog, I can't prove that it wasn't from me in a moment of startledness). Strange. We try it again, and it's fine, for about 20 seconds. Then it starts honking, on and off, again and again, almost like a car alarm.
The kicker is that Erin is pretty sure she doesn't have a car alarm.
So, is it the case that she bought a car with a feature that she doesn't know about? Or is there some other explanation for WTF here?
--Nick
(Yes, I'm going to try and get into the habit of posting regularly, yet again. And trying to refrain from making all the posts about politics and games. Not sure what all else there is, though. :P)
In an unprecedented turn of events a man from Seattle has died of signaling. Many people have long suspected that this was a high-risk behavior, and therefore avoided it, while others were skeptical and pointed to lack of empirical evidence to support this claim.
On March 1st, 2005, Joe Clemmens, 39, was traversing the risky area between the intersection of I-405 with 520 and the 108th Street exit. As locals know, this is a high-speed crossing of on-and off-ramps. Mr. Clemmens, in an effort to abide by federal laws, drive defensively, and alert other drivers to his intentions, turned on his left “blinker” in preparation for the merge.
Unfortunately, folklore was out to make a point – it wanted to be more than just lore. Joe suffered an instant and fatal signal-induced heart attack. Fortunately, other drivers knew that he was intending to merge left, and gave him the appropriate room to do so. His collision with the median was unexpected, yet didn’t cause harm to any other motorists due to Mr. Clemmen's altruistic manner.