An excuse to procrastinate from research

Got a replacement laptop — a loaner from the department for when I am away. Hate using computers that I cannot customize. This laptop is also afflicted with a clit mouse, which I’m sure will drive me crazy. I am used to using a touchpad. Also not sure about the build quality of it. The battery rattles around quite a bit. At least it does not have a loose screen hinge like my old laptop did. It would move 10 degrees which was annoying when it would suddenly rock forward on you if you moved slightly while it was in your lap.

For the first 20 minutes of having it home I could not get it to connect on either the ethernet or wireless. I then remembered that I have set the router at home to only accept connections from known MAC addresses. Must remember that! But now Internet Explorer seems to not want to accept any URL that I give it. So currently using Firefox on the Scientific Linux that runs under VMWare on this computer. Not too bad really, but still cannot work out why my connection is running rather slowly.

On the plus side for this laptop is its size. It is ultra-portable but with a decent sized screen. Will do me nicely for my time in Melbourne. The keyboard I am finding very easy to type on. Its keys must be similarly spaced to my old laptop.