The website of Tate Johnson
"Welcome to tatey.com, the transmission belt for my random (and sometimes communist) propaganda. Please, grab a beer and poke around, you may even find something interesting – Cheers, Tate"
Over the previous six months I have been pondering over the thought of purchasing a laptop of my own. Before this, I had been borrowing a rather low spec’d Gateway laptop from a family friend. I think it’s great to have a portable computer that I can take anywhere. More importantly, I can access zingers from anywhere in the world, provided that I have internet. I’ve never liked the idea of using public terminals as I’ve always preferred to use my own computer. It’s been configured the way I like it and I can assure myself that some snotty grub hasn’t previously used it. Therefore, I present Nuggets the iBook!
After much discussion with various people I concluded that a Macintosh laptop would be suitable. Originally, I had anticipated purchasing the Dell Inspiron 6400 for around $1500. Undoubtedly, it would outperform my iBook and I could at least run Arch Linux on it. However, after seeing a fair few 12″ screen laptops at uni I quickly become attracted to them. They’re tiny screens meant ultra portability, perfect for fitting into my backup and riding on the motorbike. At the same time, I’ve always been captivated by Mac OS X and it’s beauty. Having owned a PowerMac before I’d like to continue owning or at least, have interaction with a Mac. While I’d prefer to use Linux on anything, having Mac OS X provides me with a greater understanding of alternative operating systems. I will not deny that Mac OS X is very nice, it works out of the box and it works well. It’s better than Windows, but I still feel restricted by it which ultimately holds me back. In comparison, my favourite image editing application, Adobe Photoshop operates natively on Mac OS X. This means I can finally use Photoshop without having to use Windows, a big plus. The inter-semester break draws closer and this will provide me with ample time to load Linux on to the iBook and dual boot Mac OS X and Ubuntu.
I managed to purchase the iBook for $750 from the OCAU For Sale forums. It’s specifications are a G4 800MHz, 256MB DDR266, 30GB 4200RPM HDD, ATi Radeon 9200, Airport Extreme (Wireless), 12″ Screen. A rather good price relative to eBay, don’t you think? I’ve since upgraded it to 512MB of RAM and a 40GB 5400RPM HDD which has significantly increased its “speed”. All in all, this is about half the price of the Dell and it’s suitable for web browsing, IM, IRC and word processing. Maybe when I have some more money to my name I can resell the iBook and purchase one of those fancy Macbooks (Similar spec’d and priced the the 6400). That would be awesome.
June 7th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Gotta hand it to Apple for making the shmickest looking hardware out there.
Might have to get myself one.
June 8th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
I’m using nuggets now.
June 8th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Hello, my entire comment disappeared. :-/
June 8th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
It’s pretty.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
I want one.
June 12th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Yea… my Inspiron 6400 is kicking ass. I haven’t bothered about the SD card reader or the hibernate functions yet but other than that things are working as they should.
Duo cores are rad.
June 14th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
It’s a pity that there’s so much useless marketing hype surrounding the dual core CPUs at the moment; it’s more a gimmick than anything (much like the 64-bit CPU advertising from AMD in 2003).
“AMAZING DUAL CORE!!!! IT HAS NO EFFECT WHAT-SO-EVER ON DAY TO DAY OFFICE AND PRODUCTIVITY APPLICATIONS!!! BUT BUY IT ANYWAY!!!”
June 14th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Interesting enough, if you’re using a SMP kernel in linux, you should be able to take advantage of dual cores. However, I’m not sure any applications are taking advantage of it.
June 18th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Interesting enough, if you’re using this particular technology, you should be able to take advantage of this other piece of technology. However, I’m not sure any particular technologies are taking advantage of it.
June 18th, 2006 at 3:45 pm