Not much posting lately, but I don’t know that I’m to blame for that, per se – I’m keeping another running list of topics, actually, so things might pick up soon. Anyway, my hosting company had some major upgrades that they rolled into their server farms, which accidentally sent MT into a “confused” state. I eventually had to install Linux on a local machine here and convert some Perl files by hand. After that I pulled the trigger on a Christmas-present-to-myself: a new IBM T41 to replace my Sony Z1A which is my third notebook this year. Eep!
I know that I’m record saying that I loved my Z1A. I believe it might have even been something like “the Z1A is the pinnacle of notebooks” or something like that. Well, that was then – this is now. Also, it’s not my fault that the whole Apple debacle happened (notebook #1) and that I needed to upgrade from the Sony just eight months after I got it… technology moved too quickly.
Basically, when I got the Sony I loaded Visual Studio.NET 2003 onto it and eventually wrote SharpMT 1.0 and 2.0 on it. Never had a speed issue. Ran IE on it – no speed issues. Finished and then edited a 100+ page manuscript on it and never noticed that it was “only” a 1.3GHz Pentium-M. Then I went and started working as a contractor on the last generation compilers: Visual C++ and Visual Basic 6.0 (SP5), eMbedded VC++ 3.0 and 4.0, and InstallSHIELD 6 and 8. This turned my machine into a slow moving deposit of magma. Why does the newer and more complex compiler run faster than the last release? Got me, but it does.
And then the heat kicked in. I can now feel the Z1A getting up to temperatures that are at least twice as hot as when I first started using it. Comes through the plastic slab of a laptop desk that I use when typing. So my “state of the arts machine” is now lagging and melting… sound familiar?
Enter Steve. Steve recently got a 1.5GHz Penitum-M/Centrino IBM T40. The only thing bad that he has to say about it is that he didn’t get it sooner. This threw me for a loop as we’ve both had Sony notebooks for years (and that I always forget that IBM and Dell make notebooks – old habit I guess) and well, it caught me off guard. I went looking for prices, IBM released a new version of the T40 that has a neat little thing that monitors hard drive stability, and there’s a new ThinkPad on my lap that I’m typing on.
Yes, the keyboard is laid out a little weird (compared to other non-IBM notebooks) but not anymore so than the PowerBook was. Yes, it took the better part of a day to format and re-install all of the “desired” drivers and without all the typical notebook pre-installed stuffs. And yes, I have only a 33GB HD instead of the 55GB on the Sony meaning that I won’t be as “free” with my HD memory as I got used to… in fact I had to spend an extra $50 to take the thing up to 512MB RAM like the Z1A.
However, I have a built in keyboard light (Fn+PgUp). I have a gyroscope display that monitors the notebook’s tilt in the Control Panel. I have a TouchPoint back that I can use when the TouchPad pisses me off (once a week). I feel 1/3 of the surface heat that I used to and could dry my hair from the vent on the side (yes, I have that little hair). And the thing is a solid mass of machine. Only .3 pounds heavier than the Sony but it’s got a shit load more ports and features and it just feels like it won’t self destruct like my Z1A feels like it might. There’s only two hiccups in the entire world of this T41: the size of the HD is sorta small compared to what I’m used to and it has an annoying little click that seems to be going on when it’s not being used.
I got it yesterday – I had to call IBM to get a set of recovery CD’s because they stopped including them in the box and I got the discs today; I think they got here an hour after my RAM upgrade did. That is impressive.