Rubbing It In

Before every game in the Major Leagues, workers unwrap 100-200 brand-new, shiny baseballs, each bearing Bud Selig's signature.

You won't believe what they do to them.

A New Toy (Coming Soon)

The hypothetical long-time reader of this blog will recall that when I started it I had a Dell Dimension 2350, aka Hal, running Fedora Core Linux, and another 2350, Hal's Evil Twin, running Windows XP.

Six and a half years later, the only change is that I've converted the evil twin to Linux, and switched to Ubuntu. But I still have the same machines, with some minor upgrades. I'm cheap, what can I say?

The status quo is about to change. Last week Office Depot had an HP Pavilion on sale at a really good price, about $440. 4GB memory, 640GB disk, dual core processor, etc. I was set buy it, until I read the CNET Review (on Best Buy's product page for the HP), which told me that Gateway had a much better computer, the SX2840-01. Dual core, 4 GB, 1 TB disk, HDMI output, etc. About $100 more, but it looks to be worth the price.

Gateway doesn't seem to sell retail anymore. They directed me to JSR, which had the computers in stock when I first looked but quickly ran out, probably because Best Buy had undercut its own sales by posting an honest review. The promise to get in more, though, so I put in my order and am now waiting expectantly. Hopefully the new two will get here about the same time as Ubuntu 10.04.