Flight to USA and a stop to SevenForums

Ponmayilal · 01 Apr 2011

Thanks everyone. I landed at Atlanta on 29th A/N as scheduled and with a running nose, a rare affliction to me and much uncomfortable. Whereas I had expected a warm and sunny weather, what greeted me was a cloudy and cold weather. The saving grace was I did not have any jetlag and went to bed that night as if I were in India.

I statrted using my friend's Gateway laptop with Vista - of course with a USB mouse attached :) given my aversion to the touch pad. I then realised how useful it could be to have one myself instead of sharing one. I put my Mac mini in my mind on the back-burner and started my quest for my own netbook. I hadn't done any homework before and so it was a fresh search.

I first zeroed on the ASUS Eee PC 1215n with a dual core Intel Atom 550 and nvidia NG Ion, the same drivers I have on my Zotac Mini PC. I then read the users review that it had a very fragile pin in the power socket which breaks, that left many users in the lurch.

Next I stumbled upon the DELL M101z with the following specs.AMD Athlon™ II Neo K325 (Dual Core,1.3GHz,2MB Cache), 4GB DDR3 SoDIMM at 1333MHz, 2x2GB DIMM, 320GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM), AMD RS880 Integrated Graphics (Radeon HD 4225), 11.6'' High Definition Truelife™ WLED (1366x786), Combo 802.11n 1x1 with Bluetooth 3.0 HMC, Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam with facial recognition, Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit, 56WHr Lithium-Ion Battery (6-cell).

Available only from DELL online store, out went my order. With a $99 instant rebate and $9 shipping (instead of usual $39) plus tax, I am poorer by $590. The deciding factor was that I can count on paid support and service back home where DELL has an established presence and manufacturing facility. (The one year warranty here will not be applicable in India).

Hmmm... I envy bigmck who got his DELL 600D for $109. :)

Ponmayilal · 02 Apr 2011

Finally bought my Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket camcorder for $79.99 + tax at the brick and mortar OfficeMax. Searched the web after I saw it in the nearby Target at $130. Rushed to Officemax just next to it this morning and brought it home. Considering that the list price is $180, I couldn't have asked for more. Whether it is true or not, was informed at Officemax that the promotional offer ends today. In India it costs Rs. 9000. (approx. $180)

All that said, my own presumption is that Kodak is phasing out this model and may come up with a new model as it is not available on the online Kodak store at the moment.

Hmmm....... I haven't tried it out yet as I have put it on charge. Also bought a SanDisk 4GB SDHC card but I think I should have gone for a faster card like SanDisk Ultra or extreme. Lemme check whether the standard card can record in HD without interruption.

bigmck · 02 Apr 2011

When you are in Atlanta, be sure and see "Underground Atlanta". It is a whole downtown that is located underground. They have stores, night clubs, restaurants, you name it. The actual underground area was built as a way for slaves to escape back in the 1800's. I think it was about the 1960's that they decided to take the area and do something with it. It is really nice, be sure and check it out. You can ask anyone where it is and they will know.

Ponmayilal · 03 Apr 2011

Ya, thanks bigmck, and we shall, when we drive to downtown Atlanta next. Hope you will be back at home in a few more days, fit as a fiddle and younger than before and enjoy your DELL lappy.:)

Ponmayilal · 04 Apr 2011

Ponmayilal said:

....... bought my Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket camcorder for $79.99 + tax at the brick and mortar OfficeMax. ....... Considering that the list price is $180, I couldn't have asked for more. Whether it is true or not, was informed at Officemax that the promotional offer ends today.....

Wrong information. I found out from OfficeMax website the offer price for the current week is $69.99. So I went to OfficeMax and they still did not have the current price. They checked the official website confirmed that it is $ 10 down and matched the price. Got $10.06 (.06 tax:)) credited back into my account. For $70, it is a steal. Go get it.

Ponmayilal · 12 Apr 2011

Flight to USA - yes it happened. Stop to SevenForums - hmmmm......it did not happen.

While leaving India, I said I shall not touch anything Technology and also stay away from Seven Forums. At that point I knew very well that I was just one rep away from being badged a Seven Guru, but was reconciled to the fact that it may have to wait till my return to India in July and become active in Seven Forums again.

But then. my addiction to Seven Forums was so overwhelming that I continued my rantings from my friend's laptop and in the process within ten days I had become a Seven Guru. Ya, I couldn't have been much happier.:)

Also gone with the wind, my resolve not to touch a laptop but then my dream Mac Mini got buried deep and out went an order for the Dell Laptop just within two days of my landing in U.S.A.

Now on the topic of the laptop, it took ten days for them to ship it but even as the communication said shipped, FedEx tracking showed that it was yet to be picked by them. It just got me curious to know wherefrom Dell lappies are shipped. A little research and the results were astounding and astonishing.

Here is an extract from a 2005 blog.

" Six days a week Dell charters a China Airlines 747 out of Taiwan and flies it from Penang to Nashville via Taipei. Each 747 leaves with 25,000 Dell notebooks that weigh altogether 110,000kg. It is the only 747 that ever lands in Nashville, except for Air Force One, when the president visits."

Read the full story here: Here is How Dell Notebooks Are Made Step By Step - NotebookForums.com Community

Finally its just 54 miles away from me and I shall be getting it in a few hours from now. So busy days ahead.

To end this post, a few pictures that I took with the Kodak Zi8 Pocket HD Camcorder. ( It is not a digicam and so the known fact that pristine quality cannot be expected.)

At the Georgia Aquarium - the world's largest

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Is it real or carved out of marble?

On the banks of river Babylon - nay, Tennessee

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The Smokey Mountains

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The tub mill at Cades Cove. More pictures here: MillPictures.com - John Cable Grist Mill, Tennessee, Blount Co.

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A view inside the Chattanooga Choo Choo Rail Terminal - now a hotel

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EDIT: My new Dell Laptop m101z was delivered today around 0930hrs ET. It was manufactured in China and not Malaysia. I am yet to come to terms with my lappy.:)

Ponmayilal · 08 May 2011

The world of Coca-Cola:

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At the CNN HQ: ( I am not putting up the shot of CNN Breaking News as you would have already seen it on CNN )

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At the Laguna Beach, Orange County, CA

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bigmck said:

When you are in Atlanta, be sure and see "Underground Atlanta". It is a whole downtown that is located underground. They have stores, night clubs, restaurants, you name it. The actual underground area was built as a way for slaves to escape back in the 1800's. I think it was about the 1960's that they decided to take the area and do something with it. It is really nice, be sure and check it out. You can ask anyone where it is and they will know.

When queried, a woman cop at the Coca-Cola site, advised as to skip it. In case we still wanted to make it "Take care of your belongings" she said. It was also getting late for us. So we decided to skip it.:)

Ponmayilal · 29 May 2011

Not good at writing travelogues, I shall be content with a few snaps before reverting to Technology. Incidentally my stop to SevenForums happened only for six days during this period when I did not touch a computer.:)

Back to School @ St.Augustine

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@Half Moon Cay, the private island.

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@ Nassau, the Bahamas.

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The Waving Girl @ Savannah. See the story here .

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Back in Atlanta, I was casually looking at various external blu-ray writers and this one at Newegg Newegg.com - ASUS 8X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 4X DVD+R DL 8X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 8X DVD-ROM 24X CD-R 16X CD-RW 24X CD-ROM 8MB Cache USB 2.0 External Slim Blu-ray Burner Model SBW-06C1S-U/DBLU/G caught my attention.

The user reviews there were not favourable since most users were disappointed that BD Player software is not supplied with it. Hmmm....it suited me best since I already have it all.

The only difference between the ASUS SBW-06C1S-U (Black) and SBW-06C1S-U/DBLU/G (DBLU standing for Diamond Blue) is that it is blue in colour (obviously), does not come with a vertical stand (flat placement only) and is supplied only with Cyberlink Power2Go burning application. ( the Black version includes a full-pledged Cyberlink BD solution that includes Power DVD to play BD movies).

At $126.66 (after a $20 mail-in-rebate and a free five-pack Optical Quantum 25 GB BD-R discs valued at $6.99 ) it was a steal. Compare it with Sony External Portable BD writer BDX-S500U @ $208.

Since newegg requires that the shipping address should be the same as the billing address (card address), I could not place the order with my Indian credit card - amazon does not have this condition - my friend ordered it and it is already coupled with my lappie. Newegg has this offer till 31 May @ $6.99 less. ( No free BD-R discs)

I have since ordered a Logitech M305 Mobile wireless mouse and a Verbatim Dual layer (50GB) BD-RE disc on Amazon.

With that my lappie will have its full complement to read, write, store and save both on optical media and external HDD. (And ya, I have already got a 750GB Seagate GoFlex external USB 3 HDD from Officemax after a $50 rebate on regular price -my friend having taken away the 1TB drive I got for her.)

DocBrown · 29 May 2011

Sounds like an enjoyable & rewarding trip

profdlp · 29 May 2011

Nice pictures - thanks for sharing them! :)

Flight to USA and a stop to SevenForums

Is it a netbook or lappy !!!!!

Deal of the day

So far.................

Coca-Cola 125 today and CNN breaking news

back to school, the cruise, the waving girl and ASUS takes my pie :)