Ok, you may have heard the AUDIO BOO I did earlier.  If not, it is posted below for your listening enjoyment.  But I just have get this out in a post as there is a bit of elaboration needed.

First of all let me tell you that I am writing this on my Dell Mini 10v and that the blue PARITY ERROR screen pops up only once in a while and only on start up.  After that, I can usually boot into safe mode then restart normally and the problem goes away…usually.  There are two rants I have to make here.

First of all, the Dell tech support.  The positives.  There were many.  Very curtious, very polite, very eager to help and respond.  I have to state that I really do appreciate that.  However, what I soooooo don’t appreciate is that five time, FIVE FREAKIN’ TIMES, they had pushed me to buy MORE warranty coverage.  Everyone, please let me explain something to Dell.  THE TIME TO PUSH AN EXTENDED WARRANTY ON SOMEONE IS NOT, I REPEAT NOT WHEN THEY ARE HAVING PROBLEMS.  ALL YOU WILL DO IS PISS THEM OFF!  There that is off my chest.

Second of all, I STILL don’t have a definitive answer what the problem is.  When I take something to the Apple store 8 times out of 10 they can tell me right away what could be the problem.  If I have to leave it with them overnight I get a response the next day.   But now I have to send it in, be without it for up to 10 days, and THEN find out what the problem is.  All things point to something going wrong with the RAM but we just don’t know.

I know, I know, and I’ve had so many people say “you brought this on yourself” “you should have gotten the Mac?” Yes, and thank you for those warm regards   The point I want to make here is not one of one computer platform over another.   Moreover, I just want to reiterate how much I appreciate having an Apple store withing driving distance.  I can GET things taken care of quite fast and I have been spoiled by that.

Now here we come to a point that we have been kicking around on the show for a bit.  So let’s just say that I have a new Microsoft store nearby.  Will I be able to take a Dell Mini 10v to it and get support?  How is Microsoft going to handle a situation like mine?

I welcome your comments as always.

Rachel and Cal have a spat about the SMACKDOWN netbook purchase.  We also have JEFF POWERS from GEEKAZINE.COM.  We discuss Windows Security Essentials and Netbook Collusion.

This episode sposored by:

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This discovery made my wallet dance.  As some of you may know I am getting a Dell Mini 10 as a writing laptop.  I plan to dual boot it with Ubuntu and Win7.  The Ubuntu side will make a it a lean, mean, writing machine with very little destractions.  The Win7 side will be for the sake of the show to get myself knowledgeable for our discussions.  Low and behold I saw today on Dell’s site that the 10 can now come with Ubuntu installed.  No more sending money to Redmond for the initial purchase.  Oh joy.  Oh Rapture.  (ok. a bit over the top. sorry).

I’ll let you know when mine comes in.

Check out the Dell Mini 10 here.

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It’s the DELL episode.  Yes everything Dell with special guest Mike Hamstra former Dell manager.

My apologies about some of the audio problems.  Skype was not being kind to us tonight.

Episode #87

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Ok folks, I didn’t get a chance to post on this last Thursday but here it is.  The new Dell Mini 10 is now available for preorder. They start at $399 and have almost a full size keyboard.

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Ok, I’m not usually gushing over a PC but a friend of mine tipped me off on this and I have to say I am impressed.  Dell announced last Thursday on QVC about a new Mini 10.  You can’t find a normal link to it on Dell’s website but if you go to the Mini 9 site and scroll all the way down, you will see the link in the mini catagory.  But, hey relax.  Here is the link for you.

Why am I making a fuss over this?  Look at how it is almost a full size keyboard but pushing it out towards the edges.  That is the only thing that was concerning me about netbooks is having a cramped typing space.

There isn’t pricing yet but I am inclined to make this my PC for the show.  Yeah I said it.  I’m going to skip Vista all together and just move to Win 7 Beta for the show.  I know it expires in August but really folks…do you really want me to have to suffer Vista when it is about to get replaced anyway?

I welcome your thoughts.

We read your email and comments on the website and guess who ends up interrupting us…Scoble and Calicanis….sort of.  It does turn out that these twitter invites were indeed spam. But it did make for some really funny stuff…Enjoy!

Episode #76

It’s the start of the holidays and so it’s time to talk about what to give (or not to give) the techie in your life as a gift.

Links to some of the items discussed:

Western Digital Drive $60.00

Dell Inspiron Mini 9

Flip Mino

Xbox 360 (if you like black screens of nothing)

Drobo

Apple Care

JBL OnStage II

Hide-a-pod (this is a joke folks…it’s not real)

Episode #66