Stephen wrote:
>> Heh, I probably wouldn't use an Alienware laptop if one were given to me 
>> (well, I might use it, but I probably wouldn't enjoy it).  Last 
>> Alienware laptop I used got so hot it hurt my legs and its battery life 
>> was so horrid that they should have just left the battery out of the design.
> 
> We must read different books but I do remember that laptop :)

Ohhhh yes, it was a monster.

I got to take my friend's apart once.  He was having serious issues with 
heat dissipation (as in, it wasn't happening at all and his processor 
was hitting temperatures of well over 70C in minutes) so we ripped it 
open, cleaned the dust out of the heatpipe system, cleaned the vents, 
put on some Arctic Silver 5, and threw it back together.  I found out 
that they have an actual socket 478 motherboard in them, at least in the 
earlier designs (they might have switched to a mobile socket type by 
now, who knows).  That thing had a full hyperthreaded Northwood Pentium 
4 3.2GHz in it...completely ridiculous.

The thing completely died a few months after we did that, only lasting 
two years.  I sincerely hope that the newer ones are better than that.

>> My laptop is rather large (hurray, 17" screen!), but it doesn't have a 
>> full-sized keyboard and all.  That would just be excessive. :P
> 
> I don't know about that. It makes a big difference to me.

Oh yeah, no doubt.

I rather like the previous keyboard the Dell used.  My favorite part 
about it is that it puts ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn in the same 
arrangement as they are on a standard PS/2-style keyboard, using 
half-height keys, above the backspace key.  They also have larger arrows 
than most laptops -- almost full-sized but not quite.  All three of the 
Dells that I use regularly -- my personal machine, my work machine, and 
my mother's machine -- all use that keyboard.

Unfortunately, Dell wound up switching to a different keyboard for their 
newer notebooks (at least the newer Inspirons).  Ah well...

>> Also, pics please.  I'd like to see your little goliath.
> 
> Sorry, no can do. It is a K8T800 motherboard if that helps?

K8T800 is the chipset on the board, actually; it's probably used in both 
mobile and desktop applications.

It does tell me that it's you're using a 64-bit AMD processor, though, 
probably a single-core Athlon 64. :)

> Thanks for that. I think I lost track when they went to 16 bit :)

No problem. :)

I love talking about geeky stuff.

> And the lens don't forget the lens.

That was included with my camera.  $550 paid for a kit containing the 
camera, a lens, some software, USB->mini-USB cable, a battery, a battery 
charger, and the manual.

All I had to buy was the SD card and a bag.

>> Ah well, I'm still going to be in Tampa for about a month and a week, so 
>> it's all good.
> 
> It sounds so exotic :)

The appeal wore off already. :)

Tampa reminds me a lot of Boardman, OH, in a lot of ways.  Even so, I'm 
not about to complain about the weather down here.

Let's just say, my parents are dealing with this:
http://tinyurl.com/yq9alg

I'm "suffering" through this:
http://tinyurl.com/23espb

(both TinyURLs point to accuweather.com)

> That is a long course it must cover a lot?

Yeah, we go over quite a bit.  They also drill a lot of stuff into our 
heads.  Lots of hands-on stuff, soldering to TVs, VCRs, and such, making 
sure our equipment isn't too obvious, doing a little bit of quick 
paperwork...it's kinda fun, really.

We're also covering two different systems, hence the eight week training 
time.

I've only shocked myself twice so far (low voltage, low amperage...no 
worries). ;]

> Is it a campus and do you get out at night? :)

Yessir, and oh yes.

I'm in the campus in Oldsmar, FL.  Here's a night shot of it:

http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek04/tw1119/1119aiafl_6nielsen_b.jpg

The part that's sort of rough is that my class hours are 5pm-2am.  Very eww.

Ah well, I have but five weeks left. =)

-- 
-Ian

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