Wow.. it came this morning at 10:30 AM. It was 4 working days early? WTF?

According to the Dell sales person I exchanged emails with, the notebooks are constructed in Malaysia (this is also where the Dell teleworkers are too). The notebook has to be constructured, because (for those that are unsure), when you order a Dell notebook, you can make all these customisations.. i.e. different CPU, memory, Video Card, TFT screen type, etc. Just about every component was different to stock with my order.. so you’d think it would be a bit longer. But no, it took 5 working days to construct, package, ship, courier, and deliver. Very efficient! Well done Dell.

Anyway, I’ve been fiddling with it for most of the day, and I hope to setup an encrypted partition soon using Truecrypt. I’ll store thunderbird and firefox profiles on there, along with my work, just incase the notebook is stolen and gets into the wrong hands!

I’ve also been planning what to get next - an anti-theft cable, a notebook desktop cooler and maybe an external hard drive enclosure (to leech and store stuff at lans, etc).

Included with the laptop was the Google desktop software, which is free, but until now, I’ve never installed it on anything.. I can’t believe how useful it is though, the todo list, weather, email, winamp and system monitor gadgets is what I have installed at the moment, but this will probably change in the future.

Also, given, I’m running in an unusual resolution (1680×1050), you wouldn’t think there would be any desktop backgrounds available ? Well after a quick google I found this really cool site: InterfaceLIFT which has wallpaper for this res, and just about everything else !

Cross my fingers, the laptop continues to keep me happy!

The Dell notebook I purchased a few months back off ebay, had some issues with it, i.e. the video card component was different to the advertised card (ATI x1300 64MB instead of ATI x1400 128MB), and hibernation mode seemed to be stuffed. So after a few emails and doing some tests, the seller agreed with me, to send it back, and fortunately he was able to refund me (minus the courier costs of course ~$100).

So anyway, last week, after getting the money back, I went direct to Dell and got what I wanted, specifically. It ended up costing me almost double, but I got a hec of a lot more, plus warrenty, and service etc.

• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83 Ghz Processor T5600
• Windows XP Professional with Vista Upgrade free
• 120 GB Sata HD
• 15.4″ Ultrasharp Wind Screen SXGA+ TFT Display (1680×1050)
• 1GB 667Mhz DDR2 Memory
• 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
• 8X DVD +/- RW Drive
• 10/100 Fast Ethernet, Intel Wireless Dual Band 802.11b, Bluetooth Module, 56K Modem,

According to the Dell Order status, the notebook is on its way, and will get here next week.. I really can’t wait !! And I’m actually looking forward to NYE being over, so I can get the notebook.

When it arrives, I’ll probably do what I did to the ebay one - that is, install Ubuntu, ZDE, and a few other things, and then start moving all my work onto it, and selling my current Desktop computer. Will also get some HDD enclosures for my existing desktop disks, so I can store data, etc.

To my surprise, the business cards that I had been trying to organise for over a month now, were finally ready for pickup.

I got them done at Expo Copy down the road, and after some delays with tweaking the layout and getting the right file format to their graphic design guys, I have to say, I am very impressed with them.

I designed them myself, but needed some assistance getting them in the right format.. and obviously choosing the material, etc. They are printed on 310gsm gloss to give a good colour and thickness, with a matt-laminate on both sides to take off the shine.

I tried to taking a photo of it on my phone to put on here.. but having trouble with the data connection.

Edit (2PM 27/12/06): Ok, photo’s now attached.

Time and time again, I forget the proper syntax for applying a patch!

i.e. applying a Linux kernel patch, or a drupal module patch.

So I am making a note of it here, and embarressing myself in the same process (since this is something every nerd should know by heart):

patch -p0 < patch-file-name-here

Also here’s a handy link for creating a CVS respository of the Drupal Codebase, so you can write your own patches, and submit them back to the community: creating drupal patches.

– If your ever patching a linux kernel use:

patch -p1 < patch-file-name-here