Tag: USD

tech woes

My poor Dell Latitude CPx notebook is out of commission. I came home on Saturday to discover that the power cord is fried. This is my third power cord in four years.

My poor Dell Latitude CPx notebook is out of commission. I came home on Saturday to discover that the power cord is fried. This is my third power cord in four years. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to get a replacement — I couldn’t find it listed on the Dell online store. The library has two laptops that are from a similar line, so I’m going to borrow one and see if I can use it’s power cord long enough to clean off my files.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking of buying a brand spanking new laptop on credit rather than continuing to limp along and make do with this one. So far, my top choice is a Gateway M305X with a Wireless-G card. It’s a couple hundred dollars less than my second choice, a Toshiba Satellite A45 with integrated Wi-Fi. I’m leaning towards the Gateway, even though it doesn’t have integrated Wi-Fi, mainly because their service package is much better and they have a good reputation for service.

My basic criteria for the laptop is that it has Wi-Fi in some way or another (integrated or otherwise), has a minimum of 2GHz processing speed, 20GB hard drive, and an integrated modem and ethernet LAN. I would like for the laptop to have a CD-RW drive and look sleek (as in, not like the old IBM ThinkPad). If you, my fabulous readers, have any recommendations for laptops that fit these criteria and are in the $1,300 or less price range, please let me know.

Update: I tried a power cord that the library has, and I was able to boot up my laptop, but it died after a minute or two. I think it’s truely fried now.

gas prices, part two

We had another over night flip-flop and now most of the gas stations in town are advertising their $1.89/gal prices.

We had another over night flip-flop and now most of the gas stations in town are advertising their $1.89/gal prices. Meanwhile, a mile or two from the edge of town but still in the same zip code, there are two gas stations that have remained at $1.84/gal through all of this. Go figure.

I need to fill up soon, but I think I’ll wait another day or two to see what they’ll do next.

gas prices

Anna rants about gas prices.

I’m starting to get really pissed about gas prices these days. Yesterday, most of the gas stations in town were at $1.84/gal for regular unleaded, which was about average for the state. It’s more than I’d like to be paying, but considering how little pump prices have increased over the past few decades, I’m not going to complain to loudly. However, this morning I woke up to $1.99/gal at just about every station in town and my wallet whimpered. It was at that point that I began to seriously consider advocating for federal (or state) regulation of gas pricing.

I understand that businesses need to stay flexible in order to compete in the market. I’m all for giving business owners the freedom to make decisions regarding their product and sales. I’m even willing to pay more for gas, if that’s what the market requires. However, I’d like to see some consistency in pump prices. The oil market jumps around, and that’s to be expected. But it’s a long process to go from crude to the stuff that’s in my car tank, and there should be a number of factors going into that which would level the pricing and make it more consistent across markets.

The kind of regulation that I’d like to see would affect changes in the pump prices. There would be a percentage increase/decrease limit per day that all gas stations would be required to stick by. For instance, a 2% limit would mean that the local stations who increased their prices over night could not increase (or decrease, but that’s not likely) them again by more than $0.04 in the next 24 hours. If it’s a gradual thing, like the markets over, then I’m more willing to accept that it is a necessary business practice. This overnight price increase of 27% is absurd.

Why is it that we accept that gas prices are going to go up and down daily, sometimes throughout the day? Would we be so accepting of the same for the price of eggs, milk, bread, or other staples of life? I don’t know about you, but I spend a lot of time in my car. There is no public transportation here in Middle America that will take me from home in the county to work in town, or from town to the city, or to even more rural areas that I frequent. Therefore, if I’m going to get where I need to go, I have to drive my car. Thankfully, the old girl still gets 35-41 MPG.

So, inspired by the Librarian in Black, here’s my ransom note:
Lower your gas prices NOW or I will buy an electric car.

oqo

Have you heard of the OQO computer?

There’s already been several years of buzz about OQO, but I somehow missed it until yesterday, when our systems administrator told me about it and directed me to the website. For those like me who have been out of the loop, this is a full-fledged PC that can fit in your pocket. It’s more than the Pocket PCs currently on the market (full Windows XP and Office programs), and it comes with a built-in keyboard. It has WiFi and Bluetooth built in, 1GHz processor, 20GB hard drive, and 256MB DDR RAM. You can easily hook it up to a full-size keyboard and monitor to simulate a desktop experience. I’m impressed! For those who just can’t wait to get their hands on one of these, they’ll be available in the web store this fall. No price is given at this point, but I’m guessing they’ll be several thousand dollars. Considering that it would replace your desktop, laptop, and PDA, the price might actually be reasonable.

TechTV’s Best of CES 2004: Mobile Computing
CNET | Transmeta: Time for PCs to get personal

more librarian t-shirts

New librarian t-shirts.

Jessamyn posted a link to some librarian t-shirts created by SLIS students at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I found one that aptly describes my experiences at the NASIG conference this year. Perhaps if I have an extra $100 before the next conference, I’ll get shirts for all of the posse.

digital Christie

80 of Agatha Christie’s books are being released in digital format this year

I just read in the Powell’s newsletter that 80 of Agatha Christie’s books are being released in digital format this year. They will all be available for download in the Palm Reader, Adobe Reader, and Microsoft Reader formats, and the first five are available now for under $5 each (not bad considering paperback prices these days). Here are the titles currently available:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles – haven’t read it yet
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – read it
The Murder at the Vicarage – read it
The Body in the Library – read it
They Came to Baghdad – haven’t read it yet

pda

I had a lovely birthday (thanks for asking) with family and friends over the weekend, and I took off work for most of this week. It’s been a nice vacation at home, but I think I’m actually ready to go back to work. Dad & I went hunting for the PalmPilot on Saturday. CompUSA had … Continue reading “pda”

I had a lovely birthday (thanks for asking) with family and friends over the weekend, and I took off work for most of this week. It’s been a nice vacation at home, but I think I’m actually ready to go back to work.

Dad & I went hunting for the PalmPilot on Saturday. CompUSA had it on sale for $199, but they were out of stock. The woman at the counter said she has been having trouble getting it re-stocked. A trip to Best Buy enlightened us as to why that might be. Apparently, Palm discontinued the m505 and m515 last year when they came out with the Tungsten models. While at Best Buy, we took a look at the other PDAs they had in stock, and that is where I discovered the Toshiba e355. It’s priced the same as the m515, which was what first caught my eye. I also like the styling, and it fit nicely in my hand. The other good features all add up to a much more robust PDA than what I had originally been looking for, but all for the same amount of money that my Dad was willing to spend on me. So, we went for it. I haven’t had time to really play with it (other than a few rounds of Jawbreaker and Solitare), but I’ll be sure to comment on it as I get more familiar with it. So far, I’m very pleased. Thanks Dad!

origami boulder

Today, a friend sent me a link to the Origami Boulder Company. I find it fascinating that someone is actually making money selling crumpled wads of paper. It doesn’t surprise me that someone would try this business venture, but it does surprise me that anyone would actually pay $10 for it ($15 with haiku). [thanks … Continue reading “origami boulder”

Today, a friend sent me a link to the Origami Boulder Company. I find it fascinating that someone is actually making money selling crumpled wads of paper. It doesn’t surprise me that someone would try this business venture, but it does surprise me that anyone would actually pay $10 for it ($15 with haiku). [thanks aw]

if things don’t get better, i’m selling myself on ebay

I have put quite a few books up for sale on Amazon.com recently in order to raise funds for upcoming conference trips. Feel free to browse and see if there is anything you want. Need to do some research but you want personal assistance? There’s a research librarian for sale on eBay and the bidding … Continue reading “if things don’t get better, i’m selling myself on ebay”

I have put quite a few books up for sale on Amazon.com recently in order to raise funds for upcoming conference trips. Feel free to browse and see if there is anything you want.

Need to do some research but you want personal assistance? There’s a research librarian for sale on eBay and the bidding is still at $0.01!

Would you like to meet some peace activists in your area? Maybe just to chat with some like-minded folks? Check out this MeetUp.

Here’s a resource that allows you to search across “17000 News Sites, Weblogs and RSS feeds for Current Events and Breaking News.”

Wednesday’s Marketplace had an interesting story on the imbalance of pro-war and anti-war songs on the radio. I forgot to post about it earlier…

Holy linkage, Librarian!

That’s right, I’ve been busy collecting all sorts of things to share. Women are striking for peace on November 11. Apparently, the British can’t rap, but I picked up a copy of Ms. Dynamite‘s CD, and it’s pretty good. The military’s homophobia could be a barrier in the War on Terrorism. Seven Arabic linguists were … Continue reading “Holy linkage, Librarian!”

That’s right, I’ve been busy collecting all sorts of things to share.

    Women are striking for peace on November 11.
    Apparently, the British can’t rap, but I picked up a copy of Ms. Dynamite‘s CD, and it’s pretty good.
    The military’s homophobia could be a barrier in the War on Terrorism. Seven Arabic linguists were recently dismissed because they were discovered to be gay.
    An artist is making use of the pictures people were asked to take after 11 September 2001 to prove to airport security that their cameras were not hiding bombs.
    Was there really something going on between Marcia and Jan?
    This one made me smile. Do you think that First Lady Laura Bush is really a Democrat? Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me.
    Lastly, the oldest book in the Purdue University Libraries will turn 500 years old this year.

Remember, if you want to be notified whenever I add a new post, use the signup box on the left.

Continue reading “Holy linkage, Librarian!”

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