xkcd

This blag has been hacked.  Sorry.

As those reading by RSS may have noticed, there are ads being inserted periodically into the bottom of xkcd blag posts.  They’re hidden from the web view.  This is due to a security hole in Wordpress 2.7.x and 2.8 (and possibly others).  davean is watching packet flow and trying to figure out exactly how it happens, but in the meantime, sorry for the annoyance.  One way or another, it should be solved soon.

I just had extremely minor surgery this morning (removing a lipoma from my right arm).  I’m fine; it’s just a paranoid better-safe-than-sorry thing. But I’m writing this under the influence of the lingering anesthetics and my first-ever Vicodin.  No interesting side effects so far other than dizziness, a higher rate of typing errors, and the tendency to zoom images all the way in and stare at them for several minutes at a time.  Why *is* that cat in the ceiling, anyway?  Hello, internet.

I’ve been busy these past few weeks on a variety of things, but a quick note: I decided on a new laptop, concluding my February agonizing.  I’m replacing my Fujitsu Lifebook P1610 with a Lenovo Thinkpad x200s.  Thank you to everyone who suggested it.

My Lifebook isn’t quite dead yet (though this morning it was refusing to charge until I jabbed the power port with a mechanical pencil a few times), but three things motivated my choice.  First, I got a chance to play with a friend’s x200s and she gave a good general report of it.  Second they’re on a pretty steep sale right now (especially with the friends and family employee discount sent by a kind reader — thank you!).  And third, I finally got a G1 (my first smartphone!).  The G1 means that I have ssh and a browser in my pocket, so I don’t need my laptop to be quite so pocketable as I used to.  By the way — I’m very happy with the G1 so far.  I left Verizon to get a G1, and the T-Mobile ccoverage is actually a lot better than I was warned; so far it hasn’t been a problem at all, even on various road trips.

If you are still one of those crazy people who needs an optical drive, the x301 is basically a slightly larger x200 with an optical drive bay.  And the Toshiba R600 looks like another good option for high-end ultraportables, though I’ve never had a chance to see one in person.

P.S. The Lenovo site layout is pretty wonky — the tech spec sheets for the x200s and x301 are tricky to find.