Yesterday was shaping up to be a really lousy day, what with me being totally laid low with a cold for the holiday. But, like a ray of hope late in the day, my new laptop arrived.

I ended up getting a Dell Latitutde D610. This is a step for me, because I’ve been anti-Dell based on anecdotes from friends, but more detailed research seemed to indicate that they weren’t better or worse than other manufacturers — as always, it depends a lot on the model.

I was worried that a slightly smaller screen (14.1″ this time around) would seem smaller, but it doesn’t. Keyboard ergonomics are fine. And the fact that it’s two pounds lighter than either of my previous laptops makes a big difference — especially when it’s in my backpack along with a book or two and assorted Ella-gear.

PCs have come a long way in the past decade. After my laptop had booted, the first thing I did was find my wireless network, and in about thirty seconds, I was online, downloading Firefox and Thunderbird, migrating my settings from the desktop, and transferring files at 802.11g speeds. And it all happened without any settings adjustments or manual consultations or editing of .ini files. In ten minutes I was all set to go. I know — that’s what we should _expect_ from computers. It’s just nice that it actually happens once in a while, and more often than it used to.