I had Dell come and replace parts on this laptop about 9 months ago when similar symptoms developped. I originally purchased this unit while I was in the UK, around January 2010 I think it was. I was hoping to get 3 years out of it. Sadly, at around 20 months old, I’m getting too frustrated to put up with it. I’m now living in Australia, and having any PC multi-national company honour their warranty internationally is a challenge. Heck, worse offender in this scenario is Sony, who want £20 to answer the phone!

Now that I’m no longer living in a flat with a very transient lifestyle (lots of travel having gone, and replaced by a 1 year old boy), I’m much more rooted to my home office desk. So, in light of this, I’m thinking of getting a desktop with a reasonable screen. I saw Russell Coker’s post about a 27″ whopper from Dell for AU$899 or so, and was wondering what to pair that with, or if to go for a slightly smaller screen. Then comes the questions of the all-in-ones, and the touchscreens that are around.

What I’d like is something thats got a few (2?) USB 3 ports for the next few years of my accessory usage, SATA 3 so I can throw in a fast SSD. I’d potentially run Debian on this, so possibly don’t want a Windows license.4 GB RAM minimum, possibly 8.

So looking around its a quagmire of detaisl that 15 years ago I used to thrive on. Do I care about UEFI instead of a traditional BIOS. DO I really need SATA 3 instead of 2? What about legacy (!) 1394? HDMI connector – yes please – do I still want a VGA port? What about a second HDMI? Hm. That 27″ screen’s native res is more than most on-board graphics can drive… perhaps drop to a 24″ screen. What size should this be: ATX, mini ITX, smaller?

Then comes the pre-built or custom built. Dell, pretty I’m upset about your product quality right now. HP, you’ve (a) killed my DreamScreen recently, and (b) put your entire business in up the creek with indications that the PC business is going away/sold off. Lenovo? Acer?

So I’m at a computing crossroads. I can’t be bothered to build my own PC again – I’ve been living on laptops for almost a decade now. But they are expensive, and when something goes wrong, the there’s very little to salvage. Laptops suck, but do desktops suck less. Vendors suck, but then so does the time waste on building your own? I think Tablets suck for doing lots of data input (programming). All in ones – not sure. Touchscreens – probably a gimmick.

• USD$80.88, 1 USD = 0.99 AUD = AUD$80.07
• GBP£44.88, 1 GBP = 1.63 AUD = AUD$73.15
• AUD$89.88

So If I purchase this in Australian dollars I am paying an extra $16.72 than if I buy in Sterling. Hey, USA, looks like you’re paying more as well – an extra $9.81 than the UK!

Now, USA, that may seem a bit wrong, but the rest of the world has had this for years. Australia’s been paying a surcharge on iTunes content for years; there’s been a hot trade in US iTunes Store gift cards to Australia to help avoid the Australian price.

It appears that this is no longer a problem, ever since the Gingerbread update was installed. Yay! Thanks for the fix, Google Mobile team.

I can only imagine that the local cell tower is handing out the wrong time zone information (Melville, 6153 area). This was fine yesterday. Let’s see how long this takes for Optus, the carrier I am with,  to realise. Either that, or ther’s been a strong cell site thats just done nearly 3000 kilometres, or we’ve had some major techtonic plate movement.

I think Mark took a lot of flack for this, but the message of the presentation is good. This coverage will hopefully bring more focus on the content of this keynote.

So, if you’re a balanced and forward thinking mature individual, see the video here; if you’re not, look here.

The furore that this has sparked has oveshadowed much of this, and put enormous pressure on the LCA and LA teams. Numerous apologies for the graphic content have been given. So now its not time to harp on about this issue again, but to look at the message within.

Freedom ain’t free. Freedom costs more than free.

This same issue goes for all “cloud” services that you’re being advertised right now. It’s not magic. It’s handing your data to someone else; it’s making sacrafices for your ability to control your information. Offloading your infrastrucutre to a 3rd party is easy, flexible, but you’re at the whim of a third party. Imagine trying to open a large bookstore application on Amazon EC2? How long until Amazon decide that they don’t want you competing with them?

Please place an order by October 12, 2010 or you risk losing your photos. Lastly, remember you can also preserve your photos with a photo CD.

Thanks HP; you’ll delete my content since I havent purchased prints from you. How else can I display an album online to the display I purchased from you? Can I get an app for Flickr, Picasa, or perhaps access to boot and run my own code on here yet? The platform appears to be stagnant now for some time….

Nothing but idle watching as two narrow boats go down a lock under the DLR at Limehouse.