The other day, I decided it was time to get rid of my Core Duo-based Dell D620. It's a fine laptop, and plenty speedy, but the battery was shot and it's two years old. A shiny new x86_64 system would be nice.
The only companies I trust to build a laptop that's not total junk are Apple, Dell, and IBM. Apple's laptops aren't particularly exciting, and are too expensive anyway, so those are out. (Also, no docking station, although I don't really care anymore since I work at home now.) Dell has some nice laptops, but their ultra-portable XPS is on the rather-expensive side (more expensive than a comparable ThinkPad, actually), and their regular laptops just aren't very nice to look at or very featureful. I need DVI. It's not 1990 anymore.
I've always wanted a ThinkPad, so although I looked at other laptop lines, it was pretty much decided that I was going to go for a ThinkPad :) I was going to get an X61s (I had wanted one since I saw Rolsky's at YAPC::Asia), the 12" ultra-portable variety. Unfortunately, the thing isn't compatible with the normal ThinkPad docks, and that basically translates to no DVI. That's right. 1999 called; it wants its 15" CRT displays back.
Since the machine is going to be my primary computer, compromising on size side of size vs. features just didn't make much sense after I thought about it some more. Small would be nice, but I only travel 5 or 6 times a year. Ever other day, I have the laptop sitting on my desk, connected to a big LCD. On that note, I ended up with a T61s. It's the best ThinkPad; x86_64, 1920x1200 display, 2G of RAM, 160G disk, nVidia Quadro (OH HAI, wobbly windows :) with DVI, etc. It also supposedly lasts for 4 hours on a charge, which should handle pretty much any flight I'm on acceptably, as long as the jerk in front of me doesn't recline too much. Actually, that doesn't affect the battery life, but it makes it impossible to open the screen all the way, rendering the machine completely unusable. The last time I had that problem was with a 4:3 ThinkPad, though. This one is wide-screen and is therefore not quite as tall. I think that will help. (I hear it's easy to get weapons past the TSA these days, so maybe it will be easier to persuade the person in front of me to not recline. Just kidding. I'm a Good Citizen.)
OK, so that was ordered. The ship time was listed as 1-2 weeks, which I was hoping actually meant 1-2 days. I was right; I ordered it on Friday and I had a tracking number the next Wednesday. And that's where the problems begin. The UPS shipment caused a variety of "exceptions"... when googling for these, all the results are on ThinkPad forums.
On Thursday, the tracking information said that the package was in Louisville, KY, with the exception:
LOUISVILLE, KY, US 11/01/2007 4:07 P.M. THE SHIPMENT IS BEING HELD BY BROKERAGE FOR REASONS BEYOND UPS' CONTROL
Great.
Then, half-a-day later, they change their mind on where the package is:
GUANGZHOU, CN 11/01/2007 9:03 P.M. THE AIRLINE OFF-LOADED PACKAGES CAUSING A DELAY
OK, so it's not in the US yet? Great. At this point, I get an email saying that the package is delayed because of the off-loading. Here's an idea, DON'T FUCKING DO THAT.
Anyway, that's not the end.
GUANGZHOU, CN 11/02/2007 6:44 P.M. THE AIRLINE OFF-LOADED PACKAGES CAUSING A DELAY / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
A day later, and the same thing happens again? At this point the shipment is delayed indefinitely.
However, later in the day, the message changes to:
LOUISVILLE, KY, US IN TRANSIT TO
Yay. This is about 9am my time on Friday. Figuring the Guangzhou to Louisville flight is about 18 hours max, I should definitely have my laptop on Monday. I wait 18 hours, and check the tracking information again. (Actually I reloaded the page all day... but let's not dwell on that.)
12 hours later, it says:
INCHEON, KR 11/02/2007 9:18 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
Are you fucking kidding me? It took 12 hours to fly from China to Korea? Next time, I'll just walk it there in half the time.
Fortunately, this time the package gets a DEPARTURE SCAN and it on its way to Louisville again. Oh wait, no. 12 more hours, and it says:
ANCHORAGE, AK, US 11/03/2007 3:25 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
It's in Alaska now? After waiting about 16 hours, the status is:
LOUISVILLE, KY, US 11/04/2007 5:38 A.M. IMPORT SCAN
11/04/2007 10:15 A.M. THIS SHIPMENT IS WAREHOUSED UNTIL IT IS RELEASED BY CLEARING AGENCY
11/04/2007 10:22 A.M. IMPORT SCAN
So I think my laptop is in the continental US now.
The amusing part about all of this is that when you Google the various "exceptions" that are listed on the tracking site, all you get back are ThinkPad forums. These problems apparently only happen to Lenovo. Not any other company on the planet. Nice.
FWIW, this is why people whined that IBM moved ThinkPad production to a Chinese company. Importing stuff is just a lot of red tape to deal with. (Not to mention that Lenovo is slowly killing the ThinkPad... according to their blog, "Lenovo" is a more famous brand than "IBM", so they're going to start removing the IBM logo and replacing it with a big Lenovo logo. What fucking planet are these twits from? Do they really think that they have a better rep than IBM, one of the largest companies in the world? Morons.)
Well, I feel a little better now. We'll see if I ever get my laptop. Next time I'm just going to fly to China, pick up the laptop, and carry it back with me. Much less stressful, I reckon.
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