Laptop news..

I wiped Vista with a fresh copy of Fedora 8. I'm normally a Debian & Ubuntu person, but I decided to give Fedora a go for a change. It installed without any major problems. It would've been nice if it had started NetworkManager for me, so I could easily configure my wireless network.

Yesterday I decided to install a copy of Windows XP, which I had lying around. Once again, I'm not a Windows person and booted into Windows maybe twice a year on my old laptop, but since I have a license, I may as well put it on. There were issues with the boot CD and it not going any further. Recommended BIOS tweaks for the HDD to be detected did nothing either. So I am now trying an alternative method. I installed Windows XP under VMWare, installed all the drivers for the laptop that I could, and will try to copy the vmware image to the real partition, resize using ntfsresize, modify the boot sector and the boot.ini, and then see what happens. I will of course document my steps if I'm successful. Sounds neat, no? :-)

— by RobertThomson, created 26th Nov, 2007, last modified 26th Nov, 2007 | Tags: Tech

Laptop Arrived..

It arrived.. I'm generally happy... but I've had some issues with Vista (never played with it before, and decided to download a Linux ISO using it).

I normally like to leave the pre-installed Windows partition in-case I ever need to do Windowsy things.. but I'm seriously considering wiping it. Who would have thought that Microsoft could get such basic things wrong?

The first isn't an issue for most people, because most people never buy computers outside their home country. The second is an issue to a significant number of people. There are various attempts to fix it out there, most involving replacing tcpip.sys ... I tried that one, and discovered the system restore feature of Vista very quickly.

— by RobertThomson, created 22nd Nov, 2007, last modified 22nd Nov, 2007

I've found a place to stay!

It's reasonably priced, in a good location, sharing with nice people. I have my own kitchen and bathroom. It's 3 rooms on the first floor of a two story townhouse. We share the same entrance and stairwell, but that's about it. There's a fourth room which is currently being used for storage, but will become a kind of working room for the girl above. The other tenants are a young couple, and presumably her father owns the building (he lives next door, which is actually downstairs).

The room is 30m², currently unfurnished, but they're going to furnish most of the room, I'll buy a few things, and I already have a few things here. First priorities are a bed and a fridge. Everything else can come later. They have a spare couch that can go in there. I'll just need a bed, working desk, chair, a coffee table, and perhaps a small dining table. I'll probably visit the nearby Kringloop and see what they have. It's a bit like the Aussie garage sale by the look of it. :-)

— by RobertThomson, created 16th Nov, 2007, last modified 16th Nov, 2007 | Tags: Private

Ordered a Dell Inspiron 1520

I just ordered myself a new toy - a Dell Inspiron 1520. The specs are:

My current laptop (Compal PowerNote CL50) has served me well for 4 years now, and I hope that this new laptop will serve me just as well. Choosing a new laptop is a tough decision and unfortunately having to make compromises is par for the course. I think I've made a good choice... not too small, not too big, and powerful enough to last me for a few years. It's hard to find similarly spec'd laptops here with the same resolution.

For a case I ordered the Kensington Contour Cargo Notebook Messenger

For your information, the other main contender was: the Acer Aspire 5920G (mixed review - a few differences in the EU market though)

So.. I bet you're all wondering what I plan to do with a spankin' new laptop, and what I couldn't do on my current beloved laptop. Here's what:

¹ That's a joke, folks. I'll be installing Linux ASAP. :-)

Update - 9 Nov 2007

Still in preproduction. :-( Why, oh why, must I wait so long? Newsflash Dell - it's not Just In Time if you have to wait days or weeks for parts. I'm a child of the Internet age - I want instant satisfaction. Hop Hop.

— by RobertThomson, created 3rd Nov, 2007, last modified 9th Nov, 2007 | Tags: Tech