Computers and random shite

Not much to report really. Cold though as there's a big hole in my roof where a builder is repairing it after it leaked a lot. It's been doing it for years where it meets the chimney.

Sold a lot more crap on Ebay and reshuffled my computers again. My main machine is now a Dell Latitude D630 with a 2ghz Core 2 Duo and 4gb RAM. Still using the Inspiron 9400 for games and things that need a graphics card. The Eee 900 and the Dell Mini 9 are gone, never used them as the keyboards were crap. The desktop PC I built a while back is going too, I find laptops much more suitable. There's also a Latitude D800 with a 1920x1200 display being gradually rebuilt and a Precision M65 with a random shutdown issue.

So yeah, Dell stuff. I know the stories about Dell, and I used to be a hater. But my rationale is that I like tinkering with machines, stripping them down and rebuilding them, and Dell stuff is plentiful and cheap. The consumer stuff is a bit crap but the business machines are much better and those are what I get. It does what I need it to, and when Windows pisses me off I can switch to Linux.

I did consider a MacBook but they hold their prices too well, and I can't bring myself to buy a machine that would cost a lot more, probably have inferior hardware, and a smaller glossy screen. I mean people are still paying £200 for old iBooks with 600mhz processors, which seems ludicrous to me. Yeah, there's the nice feeling that comes with owning an Apple machine, seeing how beautifully it's designed and thought out but that's not enough any more. Reliability? Yeah, well, my old iMac ran hot and my iBook had a hard drive failure. Also, I'm really not liking the way modern Apple stuff tends to be designed as sealed units, for example iPods and the MacBook Air.

Of course I'm approaching this with my probably rather specialist 'buy broken ones and make a working machine out of them' approach but it works for me. Buying a Latitude with a faulty motherboard and getting a new motherboard and rebuilding it is probably a silly way to get a laptop but I enjoy the challenge especially if it can be upgraded and hot-rodded at the same time.

Other things, the Focus is still leaking water in, but I think I know where, just need to have a look at it, and it needs a set of tyres. Work is meh, life in general a bit depressing. Despite feeling a lot better, haven't been to the gym properly yet, and when I played badminton last night it nearly killed me, so not quite there yet. Got bollocked by the dentist again for the state of my gums today, thought I was brushing right but apparently not.

Just finished watching Gavin and Stacey all the way through on DVD, thought I was going to hate it but it's actually pretty good, well written.

Sick of Christmas already, bah humbug.