This place feels expensive...*

SFB is coming to you live from a new-bought laptop.  It's an Asus U36SG-RX138SS.  These were new perhaps 12 months ago, and are now being cleared out at a discount to make room for the next gen of ultrabooks.  I considered some other options, but concluded I would save some money - partly because we are getting the house re-stumped and it keeps getting more expensive (there were some concrete stumps in place on the only exposed side, so I thought it likely it had been professionally restumped, which would mean all the stumps were done.  But no, after the restumpers dug around it turned out that almost all the stumps were still the original 1930 red gum. Shenanigans.)


Intel core i5 - 2430M (2.4GHz up to 3+GHz with 'turbo-boost')
750GB HDD with ~4GB of NAND Flash as cache, which means some things are supposed to be fast and low power. It has seemed extremely fast.
8cell, 83 Whr battery, claimed good for 10hrs, in reality good for 5+ hrs.
1.7kg - nice and light.
White - actually incredibly similar to my previous laptop that died in colour, although the new surface coating doesn't mark as easily.
3 USB ports, VGA and HDMI, gigabit LAN, a SD/MMC card reader.
Allegedly it gets hot when gaming,but its nothing compared to my old ASUS laptop.
Bundled with a USB DVD burner & Home&Student Office
Screen is 13.3" 1376 * 768, but really poor - noticeably grainy. The illuminated space of each pixel is isolated - you can see the fine pattern of the grid, and the 'gamma' changes wildly with viewing angle.
The touchpad has some multitouch and I'm getting used to it.

$800 from MSY. My last laptop (in addition to being this colour, rather light, and prone to overheating to the point that I remember swearing to buy Apple next) was also bought somewhat reduced as it was superceded.  Here is a very good review.

I don't have buyers remorse, but I am reminded of a pair of proverbs that used to be translated:
If a fool persists in his folly he will become wise.
Though a fool persists in his folly, he will never become wise.

* Homer Simpson reference

MythTV

Running the MythTV computer all the time uses some power, and generates a noticeable amount of heat.  It also provides data storage - it houses and shares my iTunes library and backups. I think this idea* of Microsoft's would** have potential, because most of the Cloud I want immediate access to - not mediated by patchy internet services.  I want it to be 'the Cloud' for occasions: accessing my data when I happen to be in France, or when my house burns down.  I don't want to have to talk to the US every time I clean out my email, or my iTunes library.  Would I be willing to store someone else's data on a reciprocal basis, and have the cloud in my home? Maybe***.


* Data Furnaces - 'Cloud' servers as the heat source for the hot water service and perhaps home heating.
** except power consumption / per electronic utility is on its way down and down.
*** THE LORD occupies his home (the Temple) by means of a Cloud - see 1 Kings 8:10 -

¹⁰And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, ¹¹so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.