h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*gets out his 2.2GHz laptop.. the one with the large hard drive full of mp3s and divx rips, with a nice graphics card and a posh screen.. all for a reduced price and no vat*

...look.. wireless internet connection.. world's biggest library.

Oh, piffle! While my address is readily available to anyone who knows what they're doing, Ming's isn't. You'd have to find out where she lives first, then find out her RL surname, and then use a phone directory.
You don't have a domain name yet, do you Ming?

*Has an entire library - full of big heavy books, not bits - brought over in trucks. *

Me paranoid.

*sticks her fingers in her ears and hums loudly*
*realises that's rather a stupid thing to do*
OK Njan, I know you're longing to talk about it, so where did you get that laptop?

¦M¦

Oh! Give in, would you?

Dammit, yes, but I want one.
Still, I don't believe I'll get one...

¦M¦

Neither do I... Yowzer, it'll cost a fair bit.

www.dell.co.uk

(hint: if you build it yourself, you'll end up with something which isn't as well spec'd, for about £3500. On the other hand, just buy the SmartPC 250N (my laptop) and you get nice specification for £1100 (not including a proper warranty).. add the 3 year accidental damage / collect&return warranty (£260) and you get what I have, not including the reduction I got because I'm a return buyer, a student, and sweettalked my sales rep. )

No, her address isn't. That doesn't mean I can't find it.

*remembers when bludragon went missing and he tracked her down and called her up to see if she was ok. *

(I think I scared the life out of the poor creature. )

*sighs*
Might as well go back to contemplating 1GHz desktops advertised second-hand for £290...



So how would you find it?

¦M¦

I'm not giving away trade secrets. .. ingenuity and resourcefulness.

You can get some pretty good deals nowadays if you know where to look.

One manufacturor, I forget who, make a board for about £70 which has an integrated 1GHz chip, video, and sound card. Nice if you like that sort of thing.

A second hand system would be altogether nicer, though. *nod*

I'll just have to sit here being paranoid then...

I know you can, I've had a look around. And I would prefer a second-hand system. But I'm not going to do anything about it until next year.

¦M¦

Sensible.. get it just before Uni.

If I might make some other suggestions, you might want to start thinking about approaching / making moves towards approaching your head of IT/ICT/Computing at school.. when I was in the U6th, we had a rather friendly head of computing who let us buy computers through the school (eg. through dell), which has the end result that you get an educational discount. (if, as with our school, the school already buys dell, you get a hefty repeat buyer deal, as well. Dell are wonderfully amenable.. as for other manufacturers, I'm not sure of specifics, but companies such as RM do educational deals).

*doesn't even start on RM.. heh*

Or, you could reclaim VAT and/or tax off the laptop, which would - in theory - get you even more off it, if you happen to know a business, work for one, or have a parent who runs a small business.

Yep, that's what I figured.
And that's not a bad idea... though our admin guys aren't particularly nice... last time I wandered in I was definitely talked down to. The only person in the IT department who I think would have let me left last year... still, I could try it.

Nope, I don't...

¦M¦

admin guys aren't the guys you wanna talk to.. you want to find whoever's in charge of buying (usually an egotistical bureaucrat or teacher with more power than he deserves to have, and wastes money on technotoys and 'educational packages' .. not a hint of bias here..)

laptop arrives tomorrow. (today).

Well, you never know. It could easily be the head admin guy that does it... but, as you say, it could just as easily be on of the teachers. Not that any of ours seem particularly keen on computers. More where their next cup of coffee is coming from. Or where their next A-student is coming from. Still, I don't know. I will have to look into it.

Grr.

¦M¦

If you told me, surreptitiously and in a manner not accessible to the world and his uncle who read h2g2, which school you went to, I could equally surreptitiously find out for you. *mentions something to do with the company he's working for until friday*

(this new laptop's simply gorgeous, btw. )

I'm sure I mentioned it in one of our very early conversations... however, it may not yet be back from moderation hell, so I'll wander off and find your e-mail address.

(grr )

¦M¦

anything at listie dot screaming.net will get to me.

Okey dokey then.
*tries to figure out which of her own addresses to use...*

¦M¦

you have mail. (or.. you had mail about 8 hours ago. )

Received, thanks!

¦M¦