Avaktavyam

Great news: Dell now sells desktops and laptops with Ubuntu (a distribution of Linux) pre-installed. No MS tax! Hurray!
I’m planing to buy a new laptop this summer but I’ve been unhappy with my last Dell machine. So Dell is not quite high on my list of potential brands. Their move towards [...]

Rewind a few years back at the time when one button mice were standard on Macs. Apple and Apple zealots were foaming at the mouth that multi-button mice like those found on PC’s were just too darn confusing for ordinary people. I’m keeping a friend’s Mac at my house while she’s on the [...]

Well, the 40GB hard drive on my laptop had died! I gotta say, my Dell Inspiron 600m is the least durable machine I’ve ever owned. Dell used to make nice, relatively rugged machines but quality has gone down a few years ago and it shows. This machine had had to have its [...]

I’ve been thinking about how academics often produce fanciful interpretations of artistic works. As I was trying to fashion a patently absurd example, I came up with this:
Alien is really a movie about immigration. Forget the monsters, the gore, the fear. It’s all about the trials and tribulations of a misunderstood alien [...]

May 17th, 2007. Advertisement on the main page of cavalier computers’ web site:

Same computer at Sony’s store:

Cavalier Computers sells it for $1349. Sony sells the same thing for ($1399-$100 = ) $1299. Why should I buy from Cavalier Computers? Every time I compare their prices with other stores, I find that [...]

Ok, I realize that my irritation with the process of buying a new laptop is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I’m not dying of an incurable disease. I’m not dying of starvation. I’m fortunate enough that the problem of buying a new laptop can be a [...]