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  • Choosing a Netbook

    So, yes, I’m still in the market for a Netbook but I’ve changed my mind about have an SSD. Now, call me fussy but here is what I’m after…

    1. Windows XP
    2. An Atom processor
    3. At least 16 GB hard drive
    4. 1 GB memory
    5. A resolution of, at least, 1024×600
    6. Small, but with a good keyboard
    7. As close to £200 as possible. £280+ is out of my range
    8. A good case for it – if it doesn’t come with a good one, I need to be able to get one
    9. If it doesn’t have a good battery life I want the option, in future, to buy a larger battery

    Surely that’s not too hard? My wife has an early Asus EEE PC but I don’t get on with the keyboard.

    The Dell is now out of the running due to the cost, but I’m left with the Acer Aspire One and the Advent.

    The Advent 4490, at £230, looked perfect. All the specs were there. BUT. It has average battery life and other than a £70 monstrosity, I can’t find a replacement battery for it.

    Having said, I read that it was the same as the MSI Wind, which does have spares but after some careful comparison I realised that the 4990 is NOT an MSI Wind. And Advents support is poor.

    The more I look into these Netbooks, the more confused I got. They’re all pretty much the same kind of spec, but they all have their pros and cons.

    Now I’m looking at the Acer Aspire One – it doesn’t have the best battery, but at least there are larger capacity ones available.

    Hmmm. Stay tuned – I’m sure I’ll make a decision one day!

  • Dell Customer Service

    Or rather my most recent online chat with them about the Dell Mini 9. Here is, word-for-word (but with personal details removed), how it went (my lines in bold)…

    Initial Question/Comment: Are there any further offers on the XP Mini 9?

    Thank you for contacting Dell Sales Chat. This is xxxxxx xxxxxx, your Sales Advisor. Please give me a moment while I review your query. In order to serve you better, may I have your telephone number & email address, just in case of disconnection I can either call you or email you back. My email address xxxxxx_xxxxxx@dell.com and Dell dial number 0870 9075 128 Ext: xxxxx

    My number is xxxx xxxxxxx, my email xxxxxx

    Thanks for the contact details

    Well David Dell don’t offer any further discount on the products.

    Oh. Ok. The price has gone up recently, and it’s now outside of my budget range

    All right

    Is that it? No attempt to get a sale from me? No offers?

    David i am not suppose to offer any further deals on the system.

    Who can then? Surely you don’t wish me to now go and spend my money elsewhere?

    Dell don’t have the discounting policy any more.

    Do you know why the Mini 9 has shot up in price? A week ago it had a £20 off and was £279. That makes the “full price” £299. However, you’re now selling it for £329, with £10 off. That makes the full price £339 now. With the Mini 10 coming out, I thought you’d be dropping the price, not increasing it.

    Just to let you know we start new promotions on every Thursday morning and the present promotion will be expired.

    Will it be replaced with another?

    I cannot inform you about it as of now as there is no information available.

    Ok. Thanks. You’ve been helpful yet no help at all!! I’ll take my money somewhere else.

    Thank you for contacting Dell Sales Chat and allowing me the opportunity to assist you. Have a wonderful Day.

    And then it came up with a questionnaire for me to fill in. I enjoyed that.

    So, what we’ve learnt. Dell have stopped their discounting policy, so there is no haggling – the price on the site is what it is, even if as a customer you’d rather go elsewhere.

    But that’s the last such chat. I’ve given up with Dell (I became a recent fan because my work laptop, a Dell, is so good. However, even my employer is now going elsewhere).

  • Dell Mini 9

    Even after my recent problems trying to get a decent price out of Dell for one of these, I’m still interested in getting a Mini 9.

    Their £20 off offer has official ended so I was keen to see how they’re selling now.

    I read earlier today about the imminent release of the Mini 10, so I’m thinking that Dell is likely to be wanting to shift their stock of Mini 9’s and this was maybe my chance. Why go for a Mini 9 when the superior Mini 10 will be out? Simple – the Mini 9 has an SSD drive. I can’t see the point in buying a small, robust, netbook that you can throw in a bag, etc, and stick a fragile HD in it. So, a Mini 9 it is.

    And the current selling price for the XP version… £329 with a £10 off offer. Excuse me? It was £279 last week with £20 off. That, in my estimate, made the full price £299. Now it’s £339? What gives? Who the hell is going to buy it now – that’s more than the far, far superior Samsung NC10 is selling for.

    Madness. Total madness.

  • Fish Fingers

    Fish FingersGrowing up I loved fish finger sandwiches. Hmmm. In fact, if I was given a plate of fish fingers, chips and beans most of it would end up between slices of bread.

    After mentioning this last weekend my wife bought some fish fingers so that I could indulge once again. This was something I was looking forward to.

    Some fresh white bread and some Birds Eye fish fingers were assembled. The fish fingers can be grilled or oven cooked… odd, I remember them always being fried. Anyway, I grilled them which didn’t go too well. They stuck to the grill pan and burnt a little. None-the-less I had some cooked fish fingers and some buttered bread.

    It’s such a shame then that the result was disappointment.

    What have Birds Eye done?The fish fingers were tasteless.

    This is probably done to the drive these days to force food into being healthier. Gone is the salt and probably anything else that could be – if eaten in enough quantities – bad for you. Also gone is the taste.

    Maybe the cooking method is another reason – even Wikipedia refers to them being fried.

    Maybe it’s the fish. I’m sure it used to be Cod (hardly the most taste-packed of fish in the first place) but now it’s Alaska Pollock, described as “mild in flavour”.

    Whatever reason, it makes you realise why they’re not as popular these days and kids prefer burgers instead. It’s such a shame (spaghetti hoops in tomato sauce went much the same way).

  • Adding your own WordPress Plugin

    Having just created and submitted my first WordPress plugin, I thought I’d go through the process. And I have to say, WordPress don’t make it easy.

    Assuming you have your plugin written and tested, you first need to submit it to WordPress for them to create a subversion repository (basically an archive where you can store it).

    1. Make sure you’re signed up (and signed in) to WordPress.org and head over to the Developer section within the Plugin Directory.
    2. From here, there’s an option named “Add Your Plugin“.
    3. You need to enter the name and description of your plugin and, optionally, a link to it.

    That’s it for that. Now you need to wait for WordPress to send you a link to your repository.

    Meantime, you need to create a readme.txt file to go with your plugin. This will not only be bundled with your download but will be used for your plugin entry on the WordPress site. What I didn’t know is that these files, although plain text, have a special markup language within them.

    1. WordPress provide an example, and I just took this and modified it appropriately.
    2. There is also complete documentation on the markup language used.
    3. Once you’ve written it, you can validate it.

    So, now you have your plugin, a valid readme.txt and, hopefully, a repository URL from WordPress.Now it all got a lot fuzzier.

    The WordPress instructions lept straight into a load of unexplained commands, not explaining, amonst other things, that you need SVN installed to use these. I came across another blog which recommended installing TortoiseSVN, which has a GUI interface. I did this but soon found the instructions on this alternative blog didn’t match what I was seeing (possibly a different version of TortoiseSVN?).

    What I did was to use the Repo-browser context menu option. This provides you with a drag-and-drop interface to your repository (you use the URL that WordPress supplied plus your WordPress.org username and password). Head back to the WordPress site instructions on ensuring that you place your files in both the “trunk” and create another, versioned, copy under “tags”.

    Once this was done my WordPress plugin page sprang to life, taking its details from my readme.txt file.

    And that was it.