Dell M1730 Laptop Review

As I may have mentioned previously, I have a couple issues with my new Dell laptop. First, I can't use my Sprint PCS Connection card on it. My card has a 54 pin connector and, the laptop uses a 38 pin connector. I visited Sprint's store in Laurel, Maryland and their website store in search of an adapter so I could convert the card to a 38 pin connector. I struck out. So, I ordered a new PCS Connection card. Since, I had to order a new card, I decided to go with their new 4th generation card. This card will be able to take advantage of improvements Sprint is making on their data network. The network will be able to offer Wifi like connection speeds. A minimum of 2 megabytes per second with a maximum of a whopping 16 megabytes! The system upgrade is already available in Baltimore (lucky them). Once I get this new card, I'll be able to continue setting up my new laptop.

Also, I ordered a backpack that will be big enough to hold my new laptop. My order isn't big enough. The M1730 laptop is approximately 3 inches long and a 1/2 inch wider that my old laptop. My old Dell backpack wouldn't be able to hold the new laptop. Thankfully, Dell does offer a really good backpack that will hold up and do a good job of protecting the laptop. The reviews others wrote on it were very good. The downside is the backpack costs approximately $80. As I do want to take the laptop on travels within the U.S., I had to get the backpack. It should arrive within a week or so.

So that's what's happening with my new kick butt Dell laptop. Slowly but surely, it is getting there. It is a very nice machine and, I'm sure I will enjoy it in time. I have learned some lessons I won't forget it i.e. you can't transfer programs from one computer to another. You must install them on the new machine just as you did on the old computer.

Hectic Day

I had a hectic day yesterday. To help my boss out, I clocked in shortly after 6 a.m. at the Post Office where I work. I planned to case most of the mail on the route he'd assigned a sub who had never worked that route. If that sub wanted any chance of hitting the street at a decent time, I was going to have to case most of that route's mail. On top of that, one of our 1 day a week subs called in and said he was sick. Saturday is our worst day people wise. My boss told him he had to come in. He refused. My boss subsequently had to case a lot of that route's mail and delivered half of it himself incredibly. I offered to take a bump on that route and asked repeatedly for a particular part that I knew I could knock out quickly. To my annoyance, he gave that bump to another who didn't do jack to help him. The bump he did give me took me an hour and 40 additional minutes to get done vice the hour at most on the bump I wanted. He really knew how to show his gratitude. Don't expect me to help you out of a jam again boss.

After that, I had to dash home, grab my new motorcycle helmet and have a friend give me a ride to the motorcycle dealership to pick up my new scooter. I get there and, there is a line out the wazoo in their service department. Finally, I asked the salesman I've been dealing with to get the scooter for me. He does. We go over various items on a checklist he had. He shows me how to start the thing as well as how to put the scooter on and off its kickstand. I promptly forget both and have to ask him again how to start the thing and how to raise the kickstand. DUH! Finally, I hit the road with my new scooter and find out the timing is bad on it. It shows a nasty tendency to stall out while idling. Crap! I was nervous enough riding the thing for the 1st time without that problem. I managed to get the thing home and had to dash to my apartment to meet the guy that was going to set up my new laptop.

The technician that Installinc sent ends out being outstanding. He did a fantastic job. However, I got more bad news. The Dell salesperson I dealt with when I ordered my new laptop apparently didn't know what he was talking about. I can't use my present Sprint PCS connection card and the Soundblaster Xtreme soundcard at the same time. There is only 1 PCM1A slot in my laptop so I can only use one of the cards at a time. Aaargh! Worse still, My present connection card won't fit in my new laptop (I believe it had 54 pins and the card slot uses a 38 pin card) so I can't connect to the Internet on it. Damn! So, at a minimum, I'll have to get an adapter from Sprint so the card will fit in the slot. Researching PCS connection cards later, I found out the cards are going to USB ports. I wonder if the Dell salesperson assumed I had one of those even though I mentioned PCM1A specifically. I don't know. I do know I may end up buying a new card as Sprint is coming out with what they call the 4G (4th generation cards) cards which will use improvements they're making on their network. The improvements on the network will offer Wifi like speeds. The minimum download speed will be 2 megs and it has the potential to hit 16 megs! The downside is the new 4G card will set me back over $300 unless I sign a new 2 year contract in which case it will cost me $79. I plan to visit Sprint today after church.

So, I have my new scooter which I plan to ride around the neighborhood tomorrow. Later this week, I'll have to take the scooter back so they can put a brand new tire on it to replace the one they patched. I plan to have them fix the idling problem at the same time. Also, I have my laptop which I can use sort of though I'll have to get a new PCS connection card adapter or just buy one of the new 4G cards. I still have a lot of programs I'll have to download like Mozilla Firefox. It's a bit frustrating that 2 of the things I looked forward greatly to getting and spent big bucks on have been somewhat disappointing. Still, the scooter will get fully fixed in time and, I'll eventually have my new laptop set up the way I want it. In regards to the Post Office, I don't know that things will get better there. I'm getting fed up with being spit in the face after going the extra mile for them. We have some that do the minimum and, nothing is done about it. I big time want to leave there but, my spending ensures I have to stay so I can pay the bills for those items. Any chance I can get a bailout too? Cheers all!

New Laptop

I ordered a new laptop yesterday from Dell. I held off initially because it looked like they weren't offering the 12 months interest free credit. I emailed their financial services folks and, they assured me they were offering that. Once I knew I'd have 12 months to pay the new laptop off, I set about figuring out what I wanted in the thing. My first requirement was a big screen. The M1730 comes with a screen that is 17 inches across diagonally. Second, I wanted a super big hard drive as I'm saving lots of music and photo files on my laptop. My new laptop will have an incredible 500 gigabyte hard drive. When I ordered my current laptop 5 years ago, the best I was able to do was an 87 gigabyte hard drive. Prices on RAM have apparently gone down since I ordered my last laptop as I'll be getting 8 gig of RAM vice the 1.1 I received on my current laptop. I'll also get a 1 gig video card and lojack service with my on site warranty program. An extended warranty was an absolute must. I should be able to extend the warranty on the new laptop another year so I'll be good for 5 years like I have been on my current laptop. Interestingly, with all the dramatically improved bangs and whistles, my new laptop will cost over $500 less than my current one. The amount would be more but, I opted for the service where they come in and transfer all my files and programs from my current laptop to the new laptop. This is especially important with my Sprint PCS card software and card.

I should actually receive my new laptop sometime close to the end of the month. Dell will keep me informed when it actually ships. I'll be excited to get my toy and, I'm curious to see how much better it performs vice my current laptop. To be honest, I think my current one is fast enough. As I stated previously, the main reason I'm replacing it is my fear my current one would go on the fritz. Without a warranty, that could be very expensive to fix and there wouldn't be any guarantee I'd recover all my files. It's taken me some time transferring my music files to my laptop. Also, it would be a royal pain to have to reload my photo files. I do plan on getting an external hard drive so I can move photo files that I don't look much at but want to save electronically. Sam's Club and Costco have good prices on those.

So, that is the latest update on my future laptop. It should be a cool machine. I'll let my readers know when it actually arrives. Cheers all!

Quiet

It's been quiet at my end of the woods. I haven't been doing anything exciting because I've been trying to save the money so I can pay off the scooter I'm in the process of buying. I paid $1,100 on that this past Tuesday. I still owe $1,070. I should have that paid off later this month. I'll be glad to finally get the thing and see what it's like to ride it. I found out that scooters can depreciate just like cars can. If I do decide to trade the thing in down the line for a bigger better scooter, I can expect to lose around $550 in depreciation in the first year (about a 1/4 of its initial value). Crap! Also, to my surprise, there is a value book put out on scooters by NADA. I found out about that from a friend at the Post Office. I didn't know there was such a thing. Scooters are sublisted under motorcycles in the book.

The Post Office continues to be filled with drama. For some reason, upper management has repeatedly visited the Post Office where I work. They seem to be looking for every little possible error. This is annoying as I have enough to worry about with trying to deliver the mail correctly and in time. It's anybody's guess what is going to happen to the Postal Service itself. The upper management folks keep saying we're going to run out of money. They say we're not bringing in enough. That's possible. I have definitely seen a drop in mail volume. Part of it is technology and part of it is the piss poor economy. I repeatedly receive notices from my credit union asking wouldn't I like to go to paperless statements. They even offer to put in for a drawing for a cash prize. I decline in part because of my job at the Post Office and in part because I like receiving a hard copy from them. I'm especially leery of going paperless with bills as it is very easy to forget an email notifying me of an upcoming payment. It's harder for me if I have something in paper I can see reminding me. The bad economy makes me leery of spending the money I earn. Especially, when I'm sure what is going to happen with my job at the Post Office.

I continue to slog away at my stories about my Egypt trip for the Globus exchange travel stories website. To my surprise, my last story which was about the day excursion to Alexandria received a superior rating. I liked that. I suspect I got that because I did some research which I included in the story like when Alexandria was created by Alexander the Great and some of the gods that had been worshipped at the Serapeum (temple complex) in Alexandria. I'm working on my next one about our visit to Saqqara and Old Memphis.

I finally finished off the boneless wings I bought from Cluck-U. I found them good. I'm pretty certain they weren't wings at all but, breasts coated like buffalo wings. While they were more expensive then the regular wings, you do get a LOT more meat with them. I thought the honey hickory flavor was good. I'd like to try the Caribbean jerk flavor and see if that is any good. We'll see on that.

Lastly, I've decided I'm going risk it (see previous comment about job insecurity) and order a new laptop at the end of this month from Dell. My current one is running fine but, it is getting old and the warranty is going to expire on this month. That scares me. I don't want any computer problems which I'd have to pay for. While I haven't had any major ones with my current Dell laptop, I'd like to play it safe and have a computer that is something goes wrong with it, they HAVE to fix it and pick up the tab. I haven't forgotten how expensive ($400) it was to replace the motherboard on my first laptop (a Sager). I plan to go with Dell again as the laptop I bought from them has had so few problems and their tech support has been great when there were glitches. I feel they're reliable. Also, Dell is offering a nice deal on certain models where I can get 12 months interest free credit. I'm certain I can pay the new laptop off in 12 months. I'll be excited to get the new laptop as it'll be a neat new toy I can play with. One thing I have found true is that as I've gotten older, my toys have gotten more expensive. Oh well.

That's all from my end of the woods. I think you can see why I'm not posting much. There isn't anything terribly exciting to blog about. I will have some neat future adventures to blog about in mid-summer. That's when I go on back-to-back tours with Globus. I can't wait to do that. I'm counting the days. I hope all is well with you reader of my blog. Take care and God bless.