Drupalcon SF: Preparation
Today is exactly one week before I leave for San Francisco for Drupalcon, and so I decided I needed to go by MicroCenter and pick up a few supplies.
For one, when I'd been typing up some notes in Open Atrium the other day, my house's power blinked, and my computer shut down, and restarted. I almost had a heart attack, and the waited on the edge of my seat to see if the browser (Google Chrome) would somehow magically remember what I'd been typing. Happily it had, and I quickly saved the entry before finishing it up. But that really taught me that I need to have a UPS if I"m working from home.
For two, my KVM switch had been dying slowly recently and this morning it had taken three successive restarts of my computer for the switch to work. That was pretty much the end of the line for me - I suspect that's why it wasn't working with my Mac recently either.
And for three, I decided that I wanted to pick up a cheap netbook to take easy notes while I was of at drupalcon. So, once I'd removed the KVM and rewired my wires, I looked around and picked out which netbook I wanted and what supplementary items I wanted with it - for instance, I decided on the ASUS 1001P, which generally sells for $200.
Finally having chosen what I wanted, we hit the road, stopping off at the Original Pancake House for waffles and bacon. (They have such good bacon there.) The bacon waffle was a little disappointing, I think I should stick with the fruit waffles. (I'm really fond of the strawberry one. Doesn't really need syrup if the strawberries are fresh enough.)
Nice and full with waffly goodness, we headed into MicroCenter. Finding the KVM switch, check. Finding the UPS, check. Finding the netbook... well, they have one on display - and then the lady who volunteered to help me went and found the last one for me. Joy! She went to go leave it up front, and we bought a few other items. And then we returned to the front of the store, and my netbook was gone. I was well and truly pissed. They really didn't have anymore. They offered me a different one - an Acer One, I think - with a little discount, and since I'd already been through all my shopping I accepted the replacement, although I wasn't very happy about it all.
Once we'd gotten on our way, I suggested to Tammy that we try Best Buy, both to see if they had the 1001P, and also to see if they had the new Totoro Disc. So, we stopped in there and I looked around, finding a 1005PE instead - closer to what I wanted, and only $329. So I picked that one up, along with a bunch of DVDs, and then we returned back to Microcenter where I gave back the Acer and the warrenty plan they'd sold me on, which was about the same price as the Best Buy netbook!
And now I"m home, and I'm really glad I did switch. The Asus 1001PE has two power switches - one turns on Windows 7, and the other turns on a specialized Linux install with Web browsing, Skype, and Pidgin... which loads quickly and is really cool to have. So, while in an airport, I can boot into the linux and just play around without having to deal with all of the windows.
Plus, the small size is _so_ cute. And it apparently lasts 10-11 hours on a charge. How can I not love this?
