The Rabbit Hole

...but yeah, that's how my test went.

Either this professor has mastered a heretofore unrealized goal in my academic experience to date--the perfectly timed test that fills the allotted time perfectly--or that test was like assault. Made worse because before I could be good and violated by it, I had to sit and listen to him drone on about stuff not on our exam. (And that's the last I make of that metaphor because it's creeping me out.) Because we only have one class a week, we can't actually afford to spend a whole class just on a test. So we had more lecture. Then a test. Because a room full of people anxious about their first midterm are totally going to pay attention to anything he's saying that's not related to test material.

Know what else doesn't help? The strange requirement that we fill out an index card with our names and general info during our testing interval. After, before, fine, but using test time for that shit? Really? And the TA? Coming by and TAPPING ON THE EMPTY CARD SO WE FILL IT OUT RIGHT THAT SECOND? Suuuuper helpful. Passive aggressive much?

I have to let it go. I'll have time to fret about how this class will destroy my GPA later. In the mean time, I've got a new iPad to play with, a trip to The Colbert Report with my lab mates tomorrow, and I've had "Bad Romance" stuck in my head for, like, a week, at this point.

Is it Friday yet?

Having bought a netbook to handle most of the things the iPad wants to do for me, I'm a little annoyed at the iPad's second coming. I say "second coming" because the lackluster response to it at first seems to have been eradicated now that people are starting to get their hands on them. For every person who goes, "I like Flash, actually, and would like to be able to use 99% of the internet that seems to require it these days," or grouses about a 64 GB hard drive computer costing them $900, or who might not want to sell their entire multimedia-consuming soul to Apple, you get articles like this one saying THE iPAD IS THE JESUS CHRIST OF MEDIA. WELCOME BACK, SAVIOR. I get why a magazine would be excited--they really do have to hope the hype is true because they are otherwise fucked as a medium.

I generally expect the hype to fall short at Consumer Reports, though. So I'm reading this and not only am I pissed about the credulous, easily-swayed author basically writing hundreds of words to express an emotion easily summarized in one (that word is "shiny"), but this guy isn't even getting anything...right. It's supposed to be a cogent argument about how the iPad isn't $499, it's easily twice that or more to get out of it the RESURRECTION OF MEDIA MACHINE that Steve Jobs promised you.

( Le sigh. )

::rolls eyes::

The apps are a big problem financially speaking, but Apple owning your ass is just not acceptable. Some people, as noted in the Newsweek article, will like Apple streamlining everything for them. I use iTunes myself--it is great for pod-collecting--but iTunes keeps its fucking hands off my everything else. No, you can't play my movies. Stop trying to get me to buy TV series at $2 an episode when I can DVR or Hulu it. If I want to read comics on a computer screen (not my reading method of choice, I assure you), I can do it with any number of programs or, the way I've been doing it 'cause I'm lazy, which is by setting a slide show in fucking Windows Preview. (WORKS JUST FINE.) Thing is, iTunes, you are NOT the best thing for my media browsing. You, in fact, do not please me in my media browsing. You do stupid things like interrupt movies for songs when I just want to check things. Perhaps I can learn to turn that off, BUT I DON'T WANT TO. You don't even support my non-iTunes movies. Why do you want them so badly? Fuck off, I'm using VLC...GAWD, iTUNES, I AM A GROWN WOMAN, I CAN MAKE MY OWN DECISIONS...

And that, in a nutshell, is why being against the iPad makes you look like a crazy person. Because it's crazy not to want something to decide everything for you. (I love you, Google. Let's get married.) I'll take my 250 GB, 3-lb netbook over that damn iPad. Is it weird and a little awkward to carry down the street, reading comics? Yeah, but it's weird (apparently) to read walking down the street regardless, and I have hefted heavier books. You know what my netbook will do, though, that the iPad won't unless you buy a gadget for it? It will let me put it down on table and the screen will stay perpendicular to said table. Isn't that amazing?

ETA: Forgot to mention: Apple is using its bullying power to get rid of Flash-only stuff, btw. So soon that will be taken care of and then you can't object to their shit any more. WE ARE MAKING THE INTERNET IN OUR IMAGE. IT SHALL NOT EAT FROM THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE...

I've been eyeing a netbook for the past couple of weeks. Last weekend, when I wasn't able to fix the cable problem my parents were having, I did manage to get out to Best Buy to play with netbooks and confirm I wanted the one I thought I did. (In fact, I discovered that I wanted the same model but in a different color. Go me.) Regardless of the particular machine, I'll still probably install XP over it. I hear good things about Windows 7. When I get a full PC at a later date, I'll switch over then. But Windows 7 Starter is a non-starter for me.

Anyway, thanks to having some Reward Zone points to use up, I've gone ahead and ordered said netbook. I will pick it up this weekend. (Always crossing my fingers that they don't try to do the "optimization" bait-and-switch--read more about that brand of fail here.) Originally, I intended to get this machine in white and name it Ahab. Now, it's coming to me in a beautiful brownish-red, I'll need a new name.

Thanks to moonlightalice and darkling1 for their aide, recommendations, and the like. I look forward to joining the actually-portable-isn't-that-novel laptop crowd.

(For any who may be concerned, no, I'm not spending money I haven't earned after learning I got a new job. I've been wanting to do this for a while now. Ambrose, my 15" laptop, turns 4 this year. After his recent hard drive failure, it was just made clear to me that I needed to have a backup. Ambrose lives, thanks to my having a nice long warranty on him from back when. But he could use a little help.)

If you happened to have noticed my tweet the other day, I mentioned that I got a random e-mail over the weekend saying that I had to move from my bench to one further back along the room of which our lab is a part.

I have done so, mostly. All of my various cubicle-like decorations--photos, random calendar pages I've held onto, maps, lists, and charts of information and the like--all are moved with me. I've also had to switch over to the former post-doc's computer, which entailed wiping it and re-installing just about everything (this LJ client I'm using right now, for example). Six hours later, and I'm just about moved over in all but the minor things (like copying files from the old computer to the new, wiping the files from the old computer).

I've set up my e-mail client (never did that on a Mac before--I was using web-based mail mostly), run anti-virus scans on everything just in case (the post-doc who used the computer before me had had some trouble with viruses in her two years here, so all this is just paranoid precaution on my part), and set up everything as best as I can mimic my old settings.

Now all I have to do is some real work. Off I get, then.

...is 2.66GHz really that much better than 2.4? As in at leat $200 better?

But help?

I have these old, old games from back in the day, and, in a fit of nostalgia, I tried to throw on Amazon Trail II last night to monkey around with (to, you know, beat the low, low scores I got as a twelve-year-old). I'm just not having any luck getting the picture to show. Anyone, help?

And, yes, I've tried changing compatibility in XP. I've tried to set the thing to 256 colors and see if it was happy. Next, I suppose, I could try just copying files over from the CD to my computer (copy protection? From 1995!? I think not!). But I'm like losing already to this stupid game, and that shit won't stand, goddamnit.

HELP!

Although Phineas technically won the plurality of votes, there were plenty of good reasons given not to name my new USB key Phineas. So, Kendrick it shall be. Now all I have to do is remember that it's Kendrick, not Schmendrick which is what I keep hearing in my brain every time.

Everyone, I'd like you to meet Horatio.

Horatio came home with me when I went to Office Depot and he was on sale for like $80. I was there to buy laminating sheets for my mother (she's working on preserving the papers from the sodden basement bins), and I passed every aisle looking for them only to discover that the hard drives by Western Digital were on sale with a mail-in-rebate (and, 'cause I'm cheap, I always fill in rebate forms immediately; it's already in the mail). I picked up two, one for my family and one for myself (why not? they were cheap!). The one for my family I meant to get since my younger sister called me all in tears saying she turned on her laptop and couldn't find any of her files--docs, pics, or mp3s. She got them back when she took it to my dad's office to have their tech guys look it over, but I told her she needed to back up her files herself to prevent that from ruining her should, in the future, the files prove more resistant to retrieval. Since her laptop's disc writer is only for CDs and it's broken anyway, I suggested getting an external hard drive.

So, now she has one, and one that's super easy--plug in and use, no backup software for her to worry about syncing with (also good if she needs to share the drive among several computers, like, say, if she gets a new laptop).

And now I have one, too. Horatio wasn't even my idea for a name. My mother came up with it. I told her that the naming of hard ware is as sacred a thing as the naming of cats.. I told her about my lovely computer, Ambrose; my other, first external hard drive, Webley; and my USB key, Eustace (ooh, come to think of it, I haven't named my first USB key--must do so). She came up with Horatio--"Horatio Hard Drive."

She's very cute and terribly clever, my mum.

You know, I was gonna be all huffy about Dell possibly not shipping my computer out until next Wednesday (I will probably still be sorta huffy), but I have to say they do their best to explain why this should be. I wish I'd known that it wasn't going through to my credit card ahead of time so I could have used it yesterday on the money I spent for my Dad's birthday gift, too.

But I forsee a new internet wasting-time-type diversion: constantly refreshing my order status to see if the computer checklist gets to "Boxing" any time soon. Dell breaks it up as "Order Processing," followed by "Pre-production," which is then subdivided into the "In Production" categories: Kitting, Build, Testing, and Boxing. I assume "Boxing" is actually packaging the machine to ship to me versus putting it in its casing, as it doesn't do much good to test a machine without all of its parts assembled and covered as they are to be used.

But then there is the "Shipping Prep" part of this, too...mmm, puzzling. Maybe I should refresh the page...

There is an article in the NYT about Zombies. My day has come! It even has "ZOMBIES" in the URL. I win at life!

*

Also, just because I haven't commented on them doesn't mean I don't appreciate all the laptop suggestions and speculations people left on my journal last week. I am perusing them and keeping things in mind, so THANK YOU for whatever advice you had to offer. At this point, I'm still just working out what I need vs what I can afford.

The number one thing I need, I've decided, is a laptop that will last longer than 4 years. I'm thinking 5-6 year territory, and that would be worth paying extra for (I assume I'll be paying extra for warranties and the like, but as I've proven with my last two laptops, I can use a machine just fine for about a year after the warranty ends, so three-year warranties aren't very helpful if the machine only lasts as long).

Really, I hate having to move my shit to new computers. Hate it. New computer, ooooh shiny! But moving all my files? MURDERDEATHKILL. I've had to do it often enough when getting my HP notebook back from the nth fix it got. So, bearing that in mind, any other revelations about laptops for me?