electricpaladin

Thanks to the generocity of Abby's parents, who wanted to celebrate my new career, I am the proud owner of an Acer Aspire One, one of those new tiny little PCs to hit the market. It's adorable!

Anyway, the specifications are:

533MHz of RAM, 2GB of System Memory
166 GB of storage

And a lot of other nifty stuff, but it's not what's important for my question. The question is this: my computer comes all set to run Windows XP Home and Windows Vista, but I've heard terrible, terrible things about those operating systems. I'd like to gear this little guy up with something more cool, more stable, and more customizable. My friends all seem to like Linux.

So, friends: can I do this? How do I do this? Links and instructions would be most awesome.

Thanks!

Current Mood: full

Just wanted to let you all know... I'm on Skype as (of course) ElectricPaladin.

Skype, by the way, is awesome.

Come talk to me!

Current Mood: pleased

Can anyone recommend a good book for learning HTML?

I've got only the barest familiarity with the topic - what you'd get from writing a livejournal and a blogger blog - and I'd like to learn more.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Home

I'm on twitter as electricpaladin.

I'm not sure entirely why. Right now I'm blaming work.

Current Mood: feeling slightly ill
Current Location: Work

I'm in the mood for a new computer (read: the laptop Jon gave me is on its last tentacles). I was originally going to make the conversion back to a mac, but I have been prevailed upon to consider something else.

Specifically, I have been advised to check out the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. It's a tiny little thing complete with a tiny little pricetag. While I prefer macs (I don't make a holy war out of it - I just want to stick with what I'm used to) I've been surviving fine on Jon's old hp machine and the rugged solid state construction, $349 price, portable construction, enormous battery life, and $349 price of the Mini 9 are compelling (did I mention that it only costs $349?).

So, I have a few questions for you computer savvy folks

What else should I know about this machine other than that it's small, cute, and cheap? Are there any other perks that might sweeten the pot or hidden flaws that might convince me to look elsewhere?
For an extra $10 I can have them set the thing up with Ubuntu. Uh... what's that, and should I be interested?
My friend also recommended I consider the Lenovo Ideapad. At $1000, it's more cute, less tiny, and not full of funky solid state no-moving-parts goodness. Should this machine be in the running?

I'm aware that the tiny isn't entirely a good thing. My plan involves heading to Best Buy to try actually playing with a Mini 9, and if I can't stand typing on it, it's out, period. I'm a writer, and I need a machine I can write on. But, if it passes the too tiny to type test, should I be considering making my next computer a Mini 9?

Thanks a bunch.

EDIT: Someone pointed out that the basic, $349 version has a tiny, tiny hard drive (4 gigs). However, for $449 I could get a version with 16 gigs of memory. at that point, building it with Ubuntu reduces the cost to $409. Computers are weird.

Current Mood: curious
Current Location: Home

And... I totally forgot to post about what I actually wanted to post about!

I'm doing a lot better. Thanks for all the support everyone gave, and thanks to all of you who have been my friend through this, whether or not you've been commenting on my lj. I think I'm through the worst of it, but it remains to be seen for sure, and I'm sure I'll have bad nights and lousy days. This is going to be a process, and it hurts like hell, but eventually it ends.

In unrelated news, Abby has finally gotten me into eBay. Right now, I'm bidding on a copy of Wraith: the Oblivion. I've been wanting a copy of that game for so long. If I manage to get my hands on it, I'll have at least the corebook for every White Wolf game I'm really at all interested in right now (that is, from the oWoD: Changeling, Mage, Werewolf, and Wraith; and from the nWoD: Mage and Promethean; and of course, every Exalted 2 book published except the Blessed Isle, which Abby and I will trek up to Gator Games to pick up one of these days).

So, if I win, who's up for a celebratory Wraith one-shot? Now that's an oxymoron: celebratory wraith. Anyway, I think my chances are pretty good. People with greater eBay experience than I feel free to burst my bubble, but I've done some research, and it looks as if the two other people interested in Wraith are bidding on the other two books for sale. One is going to win each of them for something like $10 apiece, leaving me to win the one I'm bidding on for $7!

In other knews, Abby has taken up knitting again, and made me an Exalted-style dice bag! It's really neat. It's red with yellow caste marks - all five of them - and a yellow drawstring.

[Hey, life turned on its head here. I reserve the right to be perky about silly things.]

I've taken up knitting, too. I'm working on a green scarf. It's gotten very wide, somehow. I managed to add stitches. I didn't even know that was possible, but I managed it.

Current Mood: perky
Current Location: Home
Current Music: iTunes

This morning, my computer said to me, "Mark, connecting to the internet is for other computers."

And then it stopped.

I said "why, little machine, why?"

It didn't answer.

Then I left for work.

We have internet. Wireless internet. Awesome.

Migraine 2, cured by two hours of sleep, two Advil, and a cup of coffee. It lingers yet, but fades fast.

A long day of doing yard work for my aunt. Rotting wood smells bad.

Also, I will probably be getting a new computer in the next few days. A Mac Mini, small enough to cart to Israel, good enough for my purposes, cheap enough for me to afford, and a mac, so I more or less understand it.

I'll post a real entry soon.

Current Mood: sleepy

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June 2012

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