Dell Inspiron 9300

To replace my Inspiron 8200, I went back to www.dell.com to see what was out. This was early November 2005.

My top choices were to either go small & light with the Inspiron 700M, or large & powerful with the 9300. Hmm... small & light... or large and powerful. Power wins.

This time I ordered a new model instead of refurbished like I did with the 8200. The prices were decent enough to not have to dig to the bottom of the barrel.

I carefully chose custom features to maximize performance, but went with the lower res 1440x960 screen instead of the 1920x800 version. Several message boards where people complained of sparkles and glare scared me away from the hi-res screen. The screen I got does seem to be not as bright as a typical LCD (neither is the hi-res one).


Here are my 9300's specs:

• 1.86Ghz Pentium M 750
• 17 inch Wide Screen XGA+
• 512MB Dual-channel RAM
• 8X DVD -/+RW
• 256MB GeForce 6800
• 60GB Ultra ATA 7200RPM HD
• Integrated 10/100 NIC
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g)
• Internal Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth
• Windows XP Professional SP2
• 80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (longer life than standard battery)
• 90 Watt Spare AC Adaptor (great for travel)

Total Price (including tax & shipping):
$1,925.62


I had also been looking at Pentium 4 based notebooks, which offerred HyperThreading but weigh over 10lbs and last 20 minutes on battery. So I had to sacrifice the extra power for less stress on my shoulder and more fun on long flights.

The Pentium M is a mixed bag, however. It does last a long time (4 1/2 hours), but performance is not quite what I expected. I use a lot of graphics-intensive applications, and it seems to get choppy too easily with motion on large parts of the screen. I could have gone for the 2Ghz chip, but it was way too expensive for just a few more gigahertz. It's not a total loss, but it could be better.


For its size, the 9300 is surprisingly light. You can lift it up with one hand from the end. The thing looks like a surf board, but it weighs less than my 15" 8200 did.

The 9300 has an excellent array of ports:

• 6 USB 2.0 (why the heck do you need that many?)
• 1 Firewire
• VGA, DVI & S-Video (cool!)
• 1 SD card slot
• Standard audio in/outs
• 1 PCMCIA card slot

Of course right after I got my 9300, Dell came out with the XPS M170 and now the Inspiron 9400 with the new Intel Core Duo. Both reminders that the computer industry is still moving pretty fast and your PC really is obsolete the moment you open the box. :-)


If my 8200 hadn't bit the dust, I would have held on to it a bit longer until the Core Duo units were out. Maybe a bit longer, but hey that's life.

Black Friday Shopping List

Black Friday is the friday following Thanksgiving where stores open really early with limited quantities of great discounted products. Usually it's older models they want to get rid of, but sometimes you'll find some real gems that are too good to pass up. Even if it means waking up at 4:30am.

Here was our itinerary & shopping list:

BEST BUY 5am
$69.99 Insignia 7in Portable DVD (got it)
$287 Hisense 20" LCD TV (didn't bother since we were hoping to get the LCD TV at Staples)
$169.99 Mag 19in LCD 500:1, 16ms (got it)
$379.99 Toshiba Celeron M 370 Notebook 15in screen, 256MB/40GB, DVD/CDRW, 802.11g, NO rebates (would have been an awesome deal, but they sold out before we got in the store)
$3.99 Minority Report DVD (got it)

We arrived at 10 minutes to 5 and the line waiting to get in was already around the front and side of the building. We didn't have a chance on that laptop.

Circuit City also opened at 5, but we chose Best Buy knowing that any great deals at CC would be gone by the time we made it over there. Here's what we would have tried for:

CIRCUIT CITY 5am
$249.99 Sony 19" HS-Series LCD (nice, but didn't get)
$199.99 TOSHIBA Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 notebook (w/AOL
subscription, $449 without AOL), 15" screen, 512MB, 60GB, WiFi (didn't get)
$249 Canon CamcorderZR200 (didn't get)
$9.99 Sandisk 512 SD card (didn't get)
$76.99 Nexxtech 7" Portable DVD (backup if we didn't get the one at Best Buy)

After Best Buy we ran across the street to Staples where a line was starting to form around 5:30am. BTW, we just LOVE living in Woodland Hills, CA where you can walk from one electronics store to another.

STAPLES 6am
$199.94 Samsung 19" LCD (didn't need it after we got the one at Best Buy)
$299.94 Olevia 20" LCD monitor/TV (ran out too soon)
$14.94 512MB SanDisk CF or SD (got it)
$59.94 Logitech® cordless Desktop Laser MX 3000 mouse/keyboard (got it)
$4.98 Logitech® Quickcam Chat (didn't bother)

Staples was a little unprepared for the crowds. I think they've never seen this amount of people before. They were understocked on available USB drives and memory cards, and were running back and forth to their inventory closet bringing out new boxes. Someone stole the vouchers for the premium items, so I have no idea if or when they were sold. Then a fight broke out between two shoppers. Yes, this was Staples. A fight in Staples. Hard to believe.

By the time we finished with Staples, we were pretty tired so we decided to skip any more shopping madness. We could have tried CompUSA (which actually opened at MIDNIGHT), Fry's Electronics (someone said it was like molasses there) or Office Depot (which did have a $29.99 1GB USB drive).

We made a quick stop at SportMart which happened to have some good deals (40-50% off on athletic and outdoor clothing) and no crowds.

I do Black Friday's for the experience as well as the deals. It's fun to research who's selling what and what time to go there. Unfortunately too many other people have the same idea, so unless you bring alot of friends and arrive 2 hours early, you're at a disadvantage. I'll rely on the Internet to find my best deals-- without being a ringside spectator.

Farewell Inspiron 8200

It's time to say goodbye to an old friend.

I ordered my Dell Inspiron 8200 in Jan 2003 (from Dell's Refurb Outlet) before a business trip to the UK and Netherlands. Since then, it's been a constant workhorse for graphics, video and my company's digital signage software where I worked on customer projects & taught training classes (sometimes both at the same time).

I've taken it on countless trips including cross country to Exton,PA, Japan, New Zealand and Chile. It's taken it's fair share of beatings, and has a few missing plastic bits to show for it.

Recently it started behaving strange. First there were sudden crashes and lockups. After checking every wiring connection inside and double-checking the CPU heat sink, I took out one of the RAM chips which seemed to settle things down. Then about 2 weeks later it showed it was running on battery even when plugged in. A day later... dead. No POST. Nothing.

I read a bunch of user forums and found similar issues, but no consistent causes. Some claim theirs was defective out of the box, some said a few weeks. I think after almost 3 years of constant use my reason is just wear and tear.

I'll still keep trying to figure it out, but not at the expense of mobile computing. I've already placed an order for a new (not refurbished) Inspiron 9300. I'll post an update on that after it arrives in the next couple weeks.

R.I.P. Inspiron 8200

Nokia 6820

Got a new phone. Nokia 6820. Looks almost like my 6610, but some big differences: - Flips open to a full set keyboard. - Camera. - BlueTooth (exchange files, phone as a modem). - Built-in email client software. - Now on Cingular network (previously T-Mobile).

The email client is not as good as the one I downloaded to my 6610. That was by a company called Reqwireless. Unfortunately they are no longer selling it and I can't move it to my new phone. Too bad.

I bought the phone directly from Nokia to get a $150 rebate, and to take advantage of number portability. I would have purchased from Amazon, but they don't have a portability arrangement for Cingular.

The downside of buying from Nokia was that the phone came with factory default settings, not set up for any particular provider. I had to go to a web page to install the Cingular settings for email, browsing, messaging, etc. It took a few tries, but I think I got everthing going.

The phone gets reception just about everywhere, just not good reception. I always seem to have just one or two bars.

Overall I really like the phone. It works well and functions perfectly. Recently I was checking email with the phone keyboard open and call came in. I was able to answer it with speaker phone, talk, then hang up and continue reading email. That kind of smooth functionality I have only seen in few products, like Nokia's.

The camera is not high quality, but fine for taking quick snaps when you don't have your real camera handy.

I was seriously considering the Treo, but it's still expensive even with discounts or rebates. Also, I already have a Palm Zire 72. If I didn't have that, I would have been more likely to go for the Treo.

I have both my laptop and Palm able to dial up to the Internet via the phone. That was useful recently when moving offices and our internet was not set up for several days. It's not terribly fast, but it works.

Google Earth

I haven't been impressed with an application or website any time recently as much as I have with Google Earth. Based on the Keyhole application (a commercial product by a company now owned by Google), it lets you fly around a 3D model of the earth, zooming from satellite view to practically street level. It uses satellite photos and GPS information to let you fly just about anywhere.

Combined with Google's search power, you can type in a phrase such as an address, company name or location, and it will fly over the world's landscape, softly coming to rest over your destination.

I especially like the ability to highlight nearby coffee shops. Hmm does it also do WiFi hotspots? That would be cool!

Fry's Electronics

If you haven't heard of Fry's, you either don't live on the West Coast US or just don't qualify for full Geek status. Fry's is a huge store (30+ total) that has everything a techie could want-- computers, AV gear, software, games, etc. Plus home electronics, DVDs, books and appliances just for good measure.

They also have stuff you can't find at the typical consumer home electronics shops like Best Buy and Circuit City. Like a full selection of motherboards, CPUs, cards, cases, fans-- enough to build your own PC. And yes, they have laser pointers.

For such high-tech products, Fry's is surprisingly low tech. Their website is pretty sparse (http://www.frys.com/) and they use little light bulbs to indicate which register is open and a Fry's person stands up front telling you which open register you should go to.

Fry's has a good amount of deals going on. Not much more than other places. Manufacturer rebates and such. You can keep up to date on http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/.

Fry's doesn't have their own online store, per se. They acquired Outpost.com and put their name on that.

Each store has a different "theme" for decorations, ranging from Alice in Wonderland to Dragons and Castles to Las Vegas Casino. It's a cool place to wander around even if you have nothing to buy (but I'm sure you will find something!).

If you're visiting California and happen to see one, stop by. It's definitely a Geek credential to say "Oh yeah, I've been to Fry's."

Nokia 6610

The Nokia 6610 is quite an unremarkable phone compared to the smart-camera-hybrid phones you see alot of these days. Which makes it such a great choice since it does such a good job of being a phone. You can make & answer calls, check messages and even peek at emails without being overwhelmed by an unweildy, clunky device (which is how I see most of the modern smart phones).

It's tri-band GSM, has a color screen and decent battery life. It can go online via GPRS, which is okay but not fast. I've checked email on both my laptop and handheld. The bandwidth is just barely adequate to send and receive basic messages.

It has a nice form factor- slender and efficient. No wasted space or fashionable curves. I really like the interface for dialing, contacts, etc. It's very easy to use, even with one hand. And it's got a speakerphone feature too!

But like all good but unexciting products, the 6610 is old and is no longer available from most phone providers. I had to go to Ebay to find a new faceplate after cracking the original.

If you can get one, I highly recommend it. I'll keep using mine until I can find a new phone with as much usability plus better features (like faster data speed & bluetooth).

I've got my eye on the Palm Treo. I would have gotten one if they had shipped when they said it would originally. I waited month after month, then gave up and got my 6610 on a year's contract.

Dell Inspiron

For over 5 years, a Dell Inspiron has been my laptop of choice. They aren't the lightest, but they are reliable, expandable, reasonably fast and have great graphics.

In '99 I got an Inspiron 7500. Pentium 2 400, 96MB, 4.8GB HD. It did a great job for office work, email and graphics. The ATI chipset had decent graphics but it was a pain getting the S-Video out to turn on when you needed it. Also, the doors on the PCMCIA slots were pretty flimsy. Within a year they both broke off.

In 2003, I upgraded to the 8200. I purchased it on Dell's Refurbished Outlet. This is a great way to find a deal on a recent laptop. Dell does have plenty of sales going on, but it was much more fun searching the available refurb inventory for a model that matched my wish list of CPU, memory, HD, OS, etc. New units would show up, then dissappear as other people snatached them up. You have to be patient to find one close to what you want, but then you have to be decisive to get it.

My model was a 1.7Ghz P4, 256MB and a 40GB HD. I've upgraded some of the components-- more on that later.

The 8200 "improved" the PCMCIA doors by omitting them. Instead you get two fake cards that take up the slots when you're not using them. This time I opted for the NVidia GeForce 440 GO graphics chipset. NVidia is a better choice than ATI for stability and compatibility, but not speed (at least in my experience).

In early '04 I ordered a docking station. This makes it real quick to unpack the laptop after a trip and just plug it in and go. Keyboard, mouse, monitor, network all connected in one place. Initially it shipped with the wrong power supply. I had to show Dell their own FAQ that described how certain power supplies were not compatible with the "older" Inspirons (by that time I think the 8200 wasn't even listed on their site). After sending the same wrong supply TWICE, they finally sent the right one.

Later in the year, I upped the RAM, eventually to 1 GB. But I read online in the Dell Forums that you could also upgrade the CPU and video chipset. Dell even has step by step instructions if you look for them.

Here are some other useful Inspiron websites:

• Inspiron 8200 FAQ
• Bay Wolf's Links Page
• OEM Laptop Support Dept (modded NVidia drives)
• OmegaDrivers (modded ATI drivers)

FYI, you need modded drivers because the Dell "approved" ones are over a year old!

First I got a Mobile P4 2.6 on Ebay. By then, laptops came with the Pentium-M, a more laptop-friendly CPU. Ebay was the only way to get a Mobile P4 without paying a fortune-- with PC technology, sometimes older parts are MORE expensive than new ones. Following Dell's instructions, that worked great. I also installed a fan control utility just in case heat became a problem.

Then I got really adventurous and wanted to swap the NVidia chipset for an ATI. I read on several sites that the Radeon 9000M was just a little better than the NVidia 440 GO. That was all I needed to start looking for how to get the part. I got on the phone with Dell and the order was made. Or so I thought.

About 2 weeks later, I logged on to check the order status and it was cancelled. I called and they re-submitted the order. But it got cancelled again. It turns out the Sales dept was putting in the order, but the Spare Parts dept was cancelling it when they received it. The reason? That part was no longer in stock. So why they heck do they let you order it!!?

But the third time, I was connected to a very helpful guy. He did some digging around and found another part number for the same product. Maybe that would be available? It was worth a try.

Not too long after, he called to let me know that not only was the ATI card on its way, but that it would be FREE of charge!! Wow, what a company! I am a Dell customer for life.

I know there are probably people out there who have horror stories dealing with Dell and sworn to never buy one again. But you could probably find the same for any company. Even Apple. :-)

My experiences with Dell have shown that if you are persistent, polite and patient, they will reciprocate. Everyone I dealt with was very professional and really tried to help even if they didn't know what to do. I think with a company as big as Dell, I had to be lucky to not be stuck with a person who either doesn't care or has an attitude. Until that happens, I'll glady keep using an Inspiron as well as two DJs (both the 20GB and the 5GB versions).

So now my Inspiron 8200 is:

• 2.6 GHz Mobile P4
• 1 GB RAM (PC 2100)
• 40 GB HD (5400 RPM)
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (64MB)

I think I can keep it going through the rest of the year. By then it will be quite outdated, even by an entry level laptop. Not to mention the physical condition-- all that plastic isn't going to hold up forever.

I am taking care of it as much as I can. I found a great backpack recommended by many other Inspiron owners.

Since laptop HDs are so expensive (everything for laptops is more expensive), I purchased a regular 200GB Ultra ATA drive and an external Firewire/USB enclosure. I use it to store large project files as well as backups of the internal drive. I bought the drive and enclosure separately, taking advantage of rebate deals as they came up.

Dude, I have a Dell. :)

Backup Software

I didn't mean to put down Ghost entirely. I've been using it for years to set up PCs at work. We do training classes every month and we re-image the drives before each class. Never had a problem.

At home I'm using Acronis True Image. A friend recommended it so I thought I'd give it a try. I like how it can run directly from Windows instead of having to reboot. It can do incremental backups as well. Since I have a lot of digital photos, I've been doing periodic backups to an external Firewire drive.

Hard drives have become so cheap lately. You can find great deals on Techbargains, NewEgg and if you're lucky enough to live near a Fry's Electronics, you can take advantage of their weekly specials.

Making Backups

You'd think that after my Palm went back to day 0, I'd be more paranoid about backups and such.

Well I learned yet another valuable lesson in this area. It turns out that if your PC hard drive has any errors or the drive you are backing up to has any, Symantec Ghost will happilly make your backup corrupt as well.

It's even a known fact on their website. Once you make a backup, you should test it to make sure it's okay. Otherwise when you try to use it later, you're screwed.

So be careful out there!

Zire 72 - Watch that battery!

What happens when a Palm Zire 72 runs out of battery?

Everything goes away!! You're back to factory defaults and all your memos, contacts, etc. are erased.

That's not like previous Palms that would hold onto files for a week or so until you got around to recharging. And since the 72 goes through power fast, you have to keep an eye on that.

Dell DJ

We've had two Dell DJ's for a few months now. They're cheaper than iPods and have all the same features, except for the "click wheel", whatever that is. They key things we were looking for were easy music import, easy playback controls, and lots of storage.

We have the 20GB and 5GB "mini" models. They connect via USB and can use either the Dell supplied software or Windows Media Player. I use iTunes to rip and organize tracks, and the Dell software to download. WMP is too clunky.

The cool thing about having so much storage is that you can put in dozens of albums, select shuffle and get a variety of music for hours. Highly recommended.

PalmOne Zire 72

I have the Palm Zire 72 PDA.

Cool features

• Decent screen (320x320)
• Bluetooth - Works great for HotSync and Internet Sharing w/your PC.
• All the great PalmOS apps - I love the Calendar, Todo List, Memos, etc. Very elegant and extremely useful.
• MP3 Player - Requires an expansion card. Pretty basic functionality-- this ain't no iPod.
• Camera - A mere 1.2 mpixel. But it's cool that you can associate pics with your contacts.
• Email and Web apps - Very functional. Email supports POP3 and IMAP. Browser mostly works except w/frames.
• Documents to Go - Nice but you have to be careful about sync'ing the wrong direction and losing updates.
• World Clock - Useful when traveling.
• Phone Link - Worked with my Nokia 6610. I can dial numbers from the phone book and log on the Net via T-Mobile GPRS.

My only complaints are that the battery runs out pretty quick and the blue paint scratches off easily. Palm dealt with the paint issue by coming out with a silver "special edition" Zire 72.

I also picked up the WiFi SD Card. Works great at home, office, airports, Starbucks. I only wish T-Mobile would support WEP or some other login method than filling out a web form (which is painful with a stylus).