They Finally Here! Unboxing PICS!!!!!!!! (56K UNFRIENDLY)

As promised (though late), here are the unboxing pics:

Here's the box. They really do put A LOT of information on that label. It even had my phone number on it!



Hm, Malaysia . . .



The whole top . . .



Beginning the incision:



If the leaves were cubes, it'd be a 4th dimensional cube.



Opening the first inner box. That's allll you get.



Here's the all important second box containing the laptop proper:



Dell really makes sure it's yours!!!!



. . . and here are all the inner boxes and their stuff . . .



Pretty, ain't she?



Here's the bios load screen. It's a bit too glossy for my liking, but easy to work around it I guess.



And here's Dells' EULA:



. . . loading Ubuntu 8.04 / Hardy Heron.



The setup is pretty self-explanatory, even this part:



. . . and that's better!



Word of warning: If you order a Dell laptop, I think this cord is standard. I think I remember hearing that you can get a longer cord though.



Here we are at the login screen. After this is the password screen.



And here's the standard Dell/Ubuntu desktop.



And the homepage when you open Firefox.



And that's pretty much it! There were a few more photos, but I didn't think they were needed. I believe I may have bogged down enough of your system with this set.

GD

Leave me ALONE!!!

I know, I know . . .

I promised unboxing pics and I've still to do it.

Here's my excuse: I recently decided to change the theme of my setup to Ubuntu: Satanic Edition. I'm not some crazy evil bastard or anything, I just like the whole look of the thing. Click on the link. The front page is NSFW for the nekkid lady on there. It's the only page she is displayed prominently.

Well anyway, the problem occurred when I finally finished setting up the theme. For some reason I had lost both the restart and the shut down options. After a day or so, I finally quit and went to Ubuntuforums.org.

I posted my problem, some misunderstandings occurred and all hell broke loose (pun intended). If you read through the post, it was a fairly simple problem with a simple fix But being that I'm a n00b and even some more experienced users didn't quite understand what was going on, it took a while to fix.

Now that THAT problem is fixed, I have another problem before I had even installed Ubuntu:SE. I have DSL through AT&T. I've had it a few years and it's good enough for what I do. The problem now is that the DSL package that I opted for came with a 2Wire modem/wireless router. Every time I try to connect to the router, the router crashes, knocking everyone off, including the wired connection.Now, apparently after googling Ubuntu, 2Wire and 1000HW (2wire model) , I found that a lot of people have a problem hooking up to the router. I've found a fix for it, but I have to find a couple of drivers to use ndiswrapper with. I've never used that before, so I don't even know if I can use that fix. And to add to aggravation, I don't have the original disk that came with the DSL package which happens to contain the drivers for the router!

Anywhere else I go, I have wireless access. The only other option I have (and I don't know if it'll work) is to buy a separate wireless router/switch and plug that in to the 2Wire. It sounds logical to me, but I'll try it out and hope it works.

In the meantime, I use the wireless at work or at Rollicks Internet Coffee Shop (decent coffee). I hope some Uber-Ubuntu wizard figures it out soon before I drop some more cash on the problem.

GD

p.s.
I WILL have the unboxing pics up tomorrow evening . . . promise.

Summa ma bitch!!!!

Ok. Sorry for the kiddie cursin'. But, summa ma bitch, my router don't like my new 1525n!

I also want to apologize for not havin' the unboxing pics up yet. They're done, but I've got to resize them to make them viewable on a typical screen. As they are now, they are HUGE and wouldn't fit on my 19" moniter.

I may have them up late tonight, but most likely not until tomorrow afternoon. I've gotta hit up a coffee shop and download a whole mess of updates for the 1525.

FYI, the first night I had it I was completely frustrated with Ubuntu. But that was the n00b in me. After about four or five hours messin' with it yesterday, I must say I'm very much surprised. I know I'll rankle a few hides with this next comment, but it's very windoze'ish. Well, not too very. But very enough for a tech-geek to work his way around.

AND, when you have a compatible router that'll actually cooperate, it's very much plug'n'play. Ubuntu found the wireless, I entered it's WEP-hex key and I was up'n'runnin'! That's when I found out I have a "whole mess of updates" that I have to download. Where I work the connection is comparable to my DSL connection at home, which is to say not very fast . . . or less than 600kbps down and 300kbps up.

That's why I've gotta hit up a good coffee shop to download about 700mb of Ubuntu updates to my new Dell 1525n! Hopefully with those updates I'll be able to hook up to my home router so I can edit and update my unboxing pics so I can post them up and ALL you billions of readers can see what pulling a laptop out of a box looks like . . .

Wish me luck!

GD

Wedge "Ubuntu" Antilles: "Almost there . . ."

I apologize for the Star Wars trivia quote, but that's what I thought when I saw that Dell had shipped my lappy yesterday and will be arriving sometime today. It's almost a full week early, which is AWESOME! I can't wait to get my hands on that thing.

I'll post again later this evening when I get home.

You know what? Seeing as how popular unboxing posts are, that's what I'll do!

Keep your feelers on this blog folks. I'm calling the next post . . .

Dell / Ubuntu 1525N: THE UNBOXING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By gosh golly! What's that?!

I'll be keeping my old posts up for now, just for laziness sake.

Just want to give a quick update for ANYONE who may have read the previous post on some type of regular basis. This blog will change. Read the title all the way at the top and you'll see what it'll be about.

Anyway . . .

So last weekend, I got home after a bit of alcoholic binge-ing (i.e. heavily buzzed) and I logged on to check out my mail. I wandered the interwebs for a bit and decided to do a bit of a search on Ubuntu. Earlier in the week I had become obsessively curious about Dell's and Linux. The obsession really kick in that night!

Back in '02 or '03, I had graduated from Heald (hey, stop laughing I actually got something out of it!) with an AS in Computer tech. During the program we had a to do a senior project with a group. I really pushed my group into making a bombproof server. In other words, a linux box. I busted my ass on that project and swore to myself "Never AGAIN!!!". But hey, that was the young me and now I'm bored at work and need to play with something that I can learn all over again.

By the way, I'm gonna be 35 come August.

Back to Saturday night:

So there I was, reading up on the latest stuff about Hardy Heron and I remember that Dell was only pre-loading Gutsy Gibbon. But I Googled Dell and 8.04 and lo-and-behold! Do my eyes deceive me? Dell was now offering a few select pc's and laptops with Hardy Heron!!!

I hit the link and there were three options available: A tower, an Inspiron lappy and an XPS lappy.

Since I hadn't touched Linux since I was in school, I decided to pick the Inspiron lappy. Below are the specs

Inspiron 1525
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache
fancy, dancy, black shell
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz, 2 Dimm
15.4" Widescreen WXGA LCDTrueLife
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
120GB 7200 RPM SATA with Free Fall Sensor (better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it)
Ubuntu 8.04 with DVD Playback
Integrated 10/100 NIC
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer
Integrated High Def Audio (2.0)
Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11 a/g) Mini-card
Six cell battery

There weren't that many upgrade options available, but I upgraded what I could. Except the webcam and Harddrive. Don't need the webcam, and I plan to use external storage anyway.

Backup all the time and backup your backup. You can NEVER backup enough.

Oh, and for those of you considering this or any Dell pc (or HP, Gateway . . .), search for coupon codes. Needless to say, in my inebriated state I purchased the damn thing. This set up would've run me about $1100, but using one of the Dell codes available with a quick search saved me 25%. It came out to about $870, shipped!

Keep and eye on here, I plan to post up my experiences. Constructive comments and suggestions will be appreciated. This is a whole new game for me. I'll need the help.

GD

p.s.
Don't expect anything here for a bit about the laptop. I have an estimated delivery for the first week of August.

Motorcycles

It's time for my yearly update!!!

As I once posted before, I appear to have some type of OCD (comics, recumbent bikes, razors . . .). Now I appear to have moved on to motorcycles.

The first weekend of January, I took the MSF (motorcycle safety . . .something-or-other) course. Highly recommended if you are considering motorcycling! With the type of commute I have now, I'm pretty sure I would've killed myself by now without the training I had in the class.

Since then, I've accomplished getting my Class C/M1 drivers license and getting insured. My dads Boulevard C50 has been sitting for a couple of months because it's been too cold for him to ride. Not for me!

I've been using his bike to ride to work and have had some pretty good "oh-sh!t" moments. I've learned from them and have been reading the forums to absorb more information to think about for my conditions. I've also been researching what type of bike I want in the long run. I think I've decided on the 2006 Kawasaki 650R.

If anyone reads this and has an opinion, let me know what you think.

GD

p.s.
i'm just posting. not checking on grammar or spelling right now. maybe later . . .