Model Number: US-VGNFW590-LBOM
VGN-FW590 Configure-to-Order

Customization Details:

• Large Capacity Battery (VGP-BPL13)
• CD/DVD playback/burning
• 4GB (2GBx2) DDR2-SDRAM-800
• ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4650 graphics with 1GB dedicated video RAM
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8800 (2.66GHz)
• 16.4″ VAIO Display (1600×900)
• Genuine Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional
• 500GB SATA Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm)
• Black
• FreshStart™
• No additional AntiVirus Software
• No additional Photo Editing Software
• No additional Office Software
• No additional Finance Software
• No additional Video Editing Software

It’s supposed to ship November 30 and take 5-7 days to arrive.

The Nebula color is nice, but it’s backordered and I thought I’d get tired of looking at it. I got the highest specs I could afford. My favorite feature in the Configure-to-Order may be the “FreshStart” choice: no crapware! Not even Norton, which I planned to spend the first couple of hours removing.

Can’t wait!

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Lapping it up

At last someone noticed! All the teens I know positively swoon when they see my HP Mini. Why? Because they live on their various smartphones. To them a netbook has a big screen and keyboard, a fast processor and is very comfortable.

Yesterday I went through the netbook or smartphone debate again when I held the Motorola Droid in my hands and fell in love.

The Droid would be smaller to carry around.
My netbook fits in my pocketbook, but only if I carry a large one, and it makes the pocketbook heavy.

I would have almost universal service.
My ISP offers free wifi in most places here but there are blank areas, and free wifi is spotty or non-existent when I travel or go to another state. With the Droid I would have coverage anywhere Verizon is. And where I live Verizon coverage is universal.

The Droid is faster and easier to use than my netbook.
With the netbook I have to stop, sit or find a place to set it down, then wait for it to boot. And wait. Then wait for the browser to open. Then either maneuver on the small trackpad or carry a mouse with me. And the battery lasts less than two hours.

Droiiiiiiiid!!!

If I could afford the monthly bill I would get the Droid. (Health insurance went up, income is down). Annoying because if I traded in my current phone the Droid phone itself would only cost $99. Maybe in 2010.

Reading the netbook vs smartphone article again to remind myself that there are pluses to having a netbook…

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Netbook or Smartphone. Again

I was logged into #CNETFans on WyldRyde as usual, when a Global announcement popped on: the network had been sold. A few seconds later, a second Global: there was a new owner. An instant after that, a Global appeared that we were now on the GeekShed IRC network. The network name in X-Chat had changed! There we were, all of us, the channel, channel modes, access list and registered nicks all perfectly intact.

Yes there is still a WyldRyde IRC network with a couple of servers and Administrators. But we (#CNETfans) are all on GeekShed. So are all but two of the former WyldRyde staff.

This transition was extraordinary. Yes I call it a transition, because that was how it appeared to those of us who were present.

Congratulations Phil, Allan, Pierce, Mist, Atri, Corey, Kat, Admiral_Justin, therock247uk, PurPle_Teddy, Ryan, SubWolf and crrj – that was Awesome.

Bravo!

Thank you for all your hard work.

#CNETFans is now proud to be on irc.geekshed.net

For more info, see:
GeekShed Notice of move
Wyldryde Statement of change
IRC Report
Pirillo’s Blog

Follow GeekShed on Twitter

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

GeekShed IRC

Some people can simply minimize their client or app, walk away and live their life. I could not. Obsession seems to be my middle name. I love my Twitter and IRC friends, but sometimes I just need to be alone; to read a book, or listen to music, or sit in silence, or even get out of the house.

I love Twitter. Usually. I get most of my breaking news from there now, both silly and serious. And it’s wonderful to keep up with my friend’s lives and moods; it gives me a real feeling of community. But sometimes it starts to feel just a bit oppressive to keep up with. Or maybe it was because I kept it open on my desktop and hit refresh every five minutes. Time to log out.

IRC can be great, but after more than a year without a break, I just didn’t want to say ‘hi’ to dozens (or hundreds) of people any more, or answer the same questions over and over. For fifteen hours a day. I also find the multiple tabs for channels (chat rooms) and PMs stressful. Carrying on conversations with more than one person at a time is at best unsatisfying. My preference tends to be either to connect with someone or be left alone. Introvert thy name is Jeannie. And I was so obsessed with keeping up and not missing anything that I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was failing to eat, drink water, take breaks or do any work. Even my sleep was being effected. Time to log out.

I also needed a break from keeping up with so many podcasts. Some people complain that they’ll have nothing to listen to and nothing to do if they “run out of” podcasts. I love the podcasts I listen to and the people who record them, but I also wanted time to hear music I haven’t heard in over a year. I wanted to just sit or lie on my couch without a laptop or netbook. I wanted to watch movies or tv shows without also being on the computer, obsessively checking social sites.

So I took a little holiday. And it was goood.

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Logging Out or: Leave me alooooone!

This cracked me up. Too true.

But Twitter is fun at this moment in time.

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Twouble With Twitters

Then he escaped

and went on a trip around the world.

Until he got arrested for mugging.

Now he’s home.

Until next time.

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Mug Around The World

This morning I could not upload an image to a post. I always uploaded them before, but suddenly, no.

Here is the error I got when I tried:

Unable to create directory /home/.blot/name/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02. Is its parent directory writable by the server?

After Googling and reading I found this solution. What worked was going to Settings, Miscellaneous Settings, Store uploads to this folder, and changing

/home/.blot/name/blog/wp-content/uploads

to simply

wp-content/uploads

Why?

I wonder what will fail to work next time I attempt a post.

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Apps I Used to Like: Wordpress

I had a problem with WordPress today, which turned out to be due to the server being moved and the ftp address changing. Which I did not find out until about four hours after tearing my hair out.

But some good came of it.

While troubleshooting, I discovered a solution to a really irritating issue I’d been having with some of the themes I uploaded. When I would go to ‘Manage Themes’ and click a few of the theme titles to preview how my blog would look using them, it would just show a blank, white page. I had to activate the theme in order to see how it looked.

Turns out, that if a theme title has a space or a dash in it, the preview does not work. When I go in and remove the space or dash from the theme title, the preview works.

One less annoyance in my world.

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Apps I Like: Update

I tried half a dozen Twitter apps and hated them all. Twirl (ugly blue), Spaz and Alert Thingie were the last I tried. All were buggy and hard to read. Alert Thingie actually appeared with the bottom of the interface off the edge of my Mini’s screen and i couldn’t resize it! I uninstalled all of them.

Then someone recommended TweetDeck on Twitter. The white-on-black interface gives it enough contrast to be easily readable. (Why are so many apps blue?) The default is three columns: All Friends, Replies and Direct Messages. You can add, delete and rearrange columns. It’s easy to add a favorite column or organize your Twitter friends into groups. TweetDeck updates itself with a little woodpecker sound I find very enjoyable. (I love downy woodpeckers and all birds). The post field turns red when you go over 140 characters. It has several other features as well, notably URL shortening and Twit Scoop which shows you a tag cloud of what’s “buzzing”.

I’m thrilled to find this as my machines are getting old (need to replace this year). Not having a browser open all day is wonderful.

Prism

Prism is another app I use rather than have a browser open. I can place a link to any streaming video on my desktop and just click it when I want to watch. (In Firefox you can grab uStream links in Page Info). I can move it wherever i want on my screen. Best of all I can resize it. I simply cannot see a tiny video on a site or in a proprietary popout that can’t be made larger. I use this every day.

Jungle Disk

pb30 recommended Jungle Disk for online storage and it’s been great. It’s an Amazon S3 Service. The Jungle Disk software is a $20 one-time fee, then you pay for the amount of data transfer and what you store. No subscription charge. I put Jungle Disk on all of my machines. It appears as another drive and you can also access it via a web interface. I need to back up raw video, audio and image files for our business and Jungle Disk will take any file type. It was easy to install and easy to use. I’ve had no problems with it.

WordPress

This is so easy to use, I want to think of something to blog so I can come back here. I’d never blogged before and was nervous about setting it up. But now it couldn’t be simpler. Last week when I saw the 2.7.1 update saying I should backup first I got nervous. But I found WordPress Database Backup and backed up and updated without a hitch. I haunt the WordPress site for the latest themes and change several times a week. There are endless widgets and plugins to add. The Dashboard is so easy to use I put my drafts up here instead of working on them in Notepad then Word as I normally do. I love WordPress.J

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Apps I Like

Flashback

I had moved back in with my parents. They lived in a nowhere suburb. Nothing but single family homes with parents and kids. No single guys or any singles at all. No way to get anywhere except to drive and driving terrified me. Plus I wasn’t someone who would go to a singles group online or off. In desperation, I looked at some singles ads in a small, local paper. It was set up so you could reply to a mailbox number, anonymously. No need to use your name, address or phone number. I replied to five ads. Three of the recipients wrote back. One was barely semi-literate, one had more muscle than brain, and one was way too old.

A week or so later on a friday, I heard back from another one. He was a musician, lived about an hour away, did not sound like a jerk and had provided his phone number so i could call him. His letter said he usually was out performing on weekends, so I waited until the next week to call, figuring I’d just hang up if it was uncomfortable. We talked for a bit and he wanted to meet. That made me uncomfortable and I started to hang up. He said, “wait!” and we talked some more until I was a little less uncomfortable. His idea: the next saturday he had an hour or two before he had to go to a gig. He’d come out to my parent’s house, pick me up and we would go to lunch at a place about five minutes away. I agreed.

I didn’t have an airplane barf bag around, so i made one out of a paper lunch bag. As he walked up to the house, I stuck it out the door in case he needed it when he saw me. The first thing he said was, “put that away”. We went to lunch. he had also been “desperate” and did the singles ad because he got a free listing. His mailbox filled up with replies but mine was the only one he liked. He said my letter actually sounded like someone talking. The others provided complete info (including revealing pictures), but mine had no way of contacting me unless I called him. He was depressed when I didn’t call right away – but his letter had said weeknights were better!

After that, we talked on the phone for hours every night. Each weekend he drove out to my parent’s house and stayed in the spare bedroom. My parents loved him. One of the saddest things about his “desperate” situation was that whenever he’d make a funny comment to a girl, she’d give him a puzzled look and say, “what do you mean by that?”. Pathetic, considering how hysterically funny he is. Every week by the time he left my parent’s house I had pain in my stomach and face from laughing so hard.

We got engaged on Halloween and married February 11. I designed my dress and the wedding invitation. When his family and friends received the invitation, they all thought he had done it. When he informed them that it was all me, they smiled and said, “ahhhhh”.

He’s my best friend. No one is perfect and wonderful 100% of the time, least of all me. But he has more integrity, honesty and loyalty than anyone I’ve ever known. He’s caring and compassionate, outwardly almost pensive and reserved, yet hilariously funny. Plus he has an uncanny ability to understand and tolerate difficult people. Ahem. The biggest laugh during our wedding ceremony was when the pastor referred to us as “two unique people”. And we still are.

Post from: Jeannie's Brain

Barf Bag or: How I Met My Husband