Dave Reid

Ok, so my four-year-old laptop that I use for development is officially dying. The insides of the hinges connecting the screen to the laptop are crumbling apart inside, and the screen is no longer able to hold itself up. I have a nice big stack of books holding the screen up right now, but it kind of defeats the purpose of being a laptop. Plus my hard drive is getting more and more click-y each day. I haven't been able to be in #drupal IRC or working on code as much as I've wanted to recently.

I'm trying to find a good replacement on Dell Outlet but it's a hit-and-miss type of site where the good configurations tend to disappear fast. If I can't get a replacement quick enough, I'm probably going to have to cancel my trip to Boston for the Drupal.org upgrade sprints and will no doubt put me behind on keeping my contrib modules up to date (it already has). Now more than ever, it would be greatly appreciated if you use/like any of my Drupal modules, to help and contribute to my replacement laptop fund.

This really kinda stinks, but it's not like I wasn't expecting this anytime soon. :/ Read more

My current laptop, a Dell Inspiron 8600, is nearing it's 3rd birthday, (about 80 in human years) and it is definitely showing its age. We've treated each other with the utmost respect but its warranty has expired and I have a gut feeling that it will probably die soon. There's a myriad of issues, including multiple cracks in the case, troublesome suspend/hibernate, troublesome screen, clicky hard drive, non-working LED indicators, and hotter and hotter running temperature. Since my laptop is my primary development computer, I'm looking to replace it soon. I've narrowed it down to two choices, either a MSI Wind or a Dell XPS 1330.

So here's where you come in... if you like my work (well, mostly the Drupal FeedBurner module) or just think I'm a nice guy, any kind of donation is greatly appriciated and will help me be even more efficient and put out even better work! It's a win-win situation I think! Click on the widget below, or if you don't see it, you can visit http://davereid.chipin.com/laptop-fund to put in a donation. If you want to view the gruesome details, you can see some pictures of my current laptop below. Read more

Ok so I'm going to try and dedicated myself to keeping this site current every day or two, even if I have to make small entries. I need to keep writing to keep myself sane, as always. Here goes...

Since my computer is a laptop (Dell Inspiron 8600), I like to keep it running happy with a CPU clock speed control. Basically it helps keep my CPU at a managable/reasonable speed compared to the amount of work it needs to handle. For instance, when I'm on battery or when I'm really not doing much besides checking e-mail or surfing, I don't need my CPU to run at the full 1.8 GHz, it can calm down and not have to overexert itself (and make my lap really really hot). But when I'm playing games or doing intensive tasks, I need to be able to run at full speed, heat be damned. I've used three different clock speed control programs in the almost 3 years I've owned my laptop, and I've written a brief review for each one.