Monday, September 06, 2004

I've pretty much narrowed down the possibilities for a PC laptop to an IBM Thinkpad T42 or a Micron Transport T2200. My requirements are based on some light Photoshop work (in conjunction with the photo printer I keep in my cubicle). I've been getting along just fine with my TiBook, which has an old generation of the ATI Mobility Raydeon video card with 16 MB of VRAM--any current laptop has a better video card than that. Screen resolution needs to be at least as good as that of the TiBook, which basically means an "SXGA" (1400x1050) screen. PC manufacturers seem to prefer cryptic acronyms to just telling you the screen resolution. Other requirements are a Pentium M 1.5 to 1.7 GHz CPU (anything faster adds too much to the price), 512 MB of RAM, and a 60 GB 7200 RPM hard drive. It also needs Airport (which seems to be ubiquitous anyway) and a weight of five to six pounds. The Micron is $200 cheaper, with a better video card. It also has Firewire (the Thinkpad only has USB 2), and a longer warranty. It doesn't have one of those little eraser-joystick things that Thinkpads have, which I consider a plus (the Thinkpad also has a trackpad). It has a fingerprint reader lock, which I'm dubious about. If someone is going to steal my laptop, I'd really prefer that they not find it necessary to steal my finger as well. The Thinkpad's big advantage is that it's a Thinkpad, with a solid reputation as the best laptop you can get. I've been using Micron desktop systems for almost ten years, and my home PC is a Micron, but I don't have any experience with their laptops and couldn't find any reviews outside of computer magazine websites. Micron's return policy includes a 15% restocking fee, while IBM doesn't charge a fee. This is important since I would be buying the Micron sight unseen and could conceivably end up disliking the design. According the IBM's web site, the wait for the Thinkpad I'm considering is "2-4 weeks." That's not good, since I'm stuck relying on my failing Pismo until a replacement drive for my TiBook arrives. Tomorrow I'll be calling Micron to determine how long it would take them to ship a Transport T2200, along with the exact size and weight of the particular system I'm interested in. 2:45:49 PM    comment () # Jerry Pournelle - On Neoconservatism - a short history of Amerika's nazis. [pournelle] The Neocons tend to put international interests first, and believe, I am sure sincerely, that the fate of the US is bound up with the fate of the Middle East; that salvation for the US can come only by saving Israel. One can believe that without supporting the national greatness that the neocons have also espoused; and without supporting Sharon's Greater Israel. There was an uneasy peace for a long time between Israel and the Arab world, until the occupation; and Israel has always had the option of building a fence along the Green Line (with modifications for security) and unilaterally withdrawing. They could have given the land back to Jordan in exchange for a peace treaty. But the settlers and internal Israeli politics have prevented that and it will not happen. But I cannot think that the US has a vital stake in that any longer. For the price of the Iraqi War I could have built 100 1000 megawatt nuclear fission plants fueled with the fissionables recovered from the dismantled weapons (fuel grade is 10% enriched; weapons grade is 90%; you get a Lot of Fuel from a bomb) as well as gone a long way to cheap access to orbit: energy independence. The neocons are terrified of US energy independence because they see rightly that the US not dependent on Middle East Oil will not keep troops over there. ... Neo and old conservatives can agree that the War on Terror needs to be won; we can disagree on tactics, and whether pre-emption is a good idea, and if it is, where (I'd have put the effort into Afghanistan to finish that war before invading Iraq, I would, I would). These are matters for discussion. But compromises on the notion of limited government are something else again. I'm all for national greatness if that means the Congress builds Shakespeare Theater and an Opera House in the District of Columbia (it has the undoubted Constitutional power to do such things) and returns us to a 500+ ship Navy; I am not for National Greatness if it means idiocies like "No Child Left Behind" and the Americans with Disabilities Act and thousands of other intrusions of Washington into the lives of the citizens. From what I read in Weekly Standard, there is no act of "National Greatness" its editors won't agree to. [End the War on Freedom] I'll point out one particular sentence from this article: "The neocons are terrified of US energy independence because they see rightly that the US not dependent on Middle East Oil will not keep troops over there." I hadn't thought of that before, or seen anyone else say it, but I think Pournelle is right about that. 1:15:52 PM    comment ()

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