The Importance of Good Tools

I kept LaptopJenny the HP ZE4430US going as long as I could. The inevitable demise last week marked an end of a series of struggles that had HP on my shit list, until I got a look inside, and saw just how much she really had been through. That changed my mind.

In looking for a new laptop, I had a few criteria:

• 1 GB RAM (or more)
• SEPARATE Video RAM
• BRIGHT display
• Dual Layer DVD burner
• WiFi G

Noran added one requirement:

• Don't settle
  

I found the model I wanted, the HP dv5030US, it's got a 15" widescreen (1280*800 pixels), with 128 MB of dedicated DDR on the ATI Radeon Express 200M. The display is bright and crisp. I've got all of the other specs met. I definitely didn't settle!

It's like being able to breath again... I've got a tool I can use to create or recreate. It plays Civ4 in real time, without stutter or any delay. It's almost flawless in going through the intro movie... just amazing!

Having good tools gives you so much more capability than merely settling for adequate. I've got more than sufficient power and speed to do what I want. I don't have to find the one seat on the train near an outlet any more. Ahhh, the true taste of freedom!

A surprise over the weekend was the truly massive extent of my digital photo collection. I've got something like 120 Gigabytes of photos! I thought it was more like 45 Gb... Which means I really have to buckle down and prune.

I'll be putting some of them up in my Flickr account that I feel are suitable for the public. I'll be using ThumbsPlus 7 from Cerious to keep them organized, and allow fast keyword searches.

WoW, it's soooo good to have good tools!

I'm free!