Monday, Mar 5, 2007
Despite having 3 PCs in the house and being heavily into computers (yes, as part of my job too), I've never had a dual core processor machine, a widescreen display or a laptop. All three omissions are about to be corrected in less than a week when my new Core 2 Duo laptop turns up from
Ebuyer (note here: bought as a part of a bundle offer, so comes with another 512MB stick to make 1GB in total).
Yes, US folks might be shocked that such a machine costs close to $1,000, but that's rip-off Britain for you - mind you, I spec'ed up an Apple Macbook (not even the Pro version!) and the equivalent spec was just over 1,000 pounds in the Apple UK store!
One of the main uses of the laptop will be to view my, ahem, downloads of widescreen shows (all US shows now seem to be widescreen, except for Scrubs, South Park and The Simpsons). I'll be installing 64-bit Linux, 32-bit Vista (since 64-bit Vista has "issues") and probably a couple of other test Linuxes to play with. I might even create an encrypted data partition using TrueCrypt (so that it can be decrypted in both Windows and Linux, unlike other solutions), though I'm not saying what's going on that partition
I just ordered a 4GB USB flash stick from Amazon UK (20 pounds with free postage, which isn't bad), which could be useful to transfer stuff, but I might make my main desktop PC an NFS server to the laptop, so that I can download on the main PC and then view the stuff via a wireless connection on the laptop without involving the USB stick.
Yes, I do have a Freecom Freeview USB TV stick, but I never got it to tune in with Linux (and even had to hack around to get it recognised in Linux), despite plugging in a rooftop aerial. I might have another go with the laptop, but I'm not holding out much hope really.
I'll post up another blog entry next week once the laptop has turned up and I've had some time to play with it. I might even make it a "desktop replacement" if it is indeed quicker and quieter than my main PC.
Ebuyer (note here: bought as a part of a bundle offer, so comes with another 512MB stick to make 1GB in total).
Yes, US folks might be shocked that such a machine costs close to $1,000, but that's rip-off Britain for you - mind you, I spec'ed up an Apple Macbook (not even the Pro version!) and the equivalent spec was just over 1,000 pounds in the Apple UK store!
One of the main uses of the laptop will be to view my, ahem, downloads of widescreen shows (all US shows now seem to be widescreen, except for Scrubs, South Park and The Simpsons). I'll be installing 64-bit Linux, 32-bit Vista (since 64-bit Vista has "issues") and probably a couple of other test Linuxes to play with. I might even create an encrypted data partition using TrueCrypt (so that it can be decrypted in both Windows and Linux, unlike other solutions), though I'm not saying what's going on that partition
I just ordered a 4GB USB flash stick from Amazon UK (20 pounds with free postage, which isn't bad), which could be useful to transfer stuff, but I might make my main desktop PC an NFS server to the laptop, so that I can download on the main PC and then view the stuff via a wireless connection on the laptop without involving the USB stick.
Yes, I do have a Freecom Freeview USB TV stick, but I never got it to tune in with Linux (and even had to hack around to get it recognised in Linux), despite plugging in a rooftop aerial. I might have another go with the laptop, but I'm not holding out much hope really.
I'll post up another blog entry next week once the laptop has turned up and I've had some time to play with it. I might even make it a "desktop replacement" if it is indeed quicker and quieter than my main PC.
