For a bit under JPY 9000, I picked up an old IBM Thinkpad laptop yesterday. Despite the fact that it only has 24MB of memory and a Pentium 133 processor, it actually feels reasonably fast with the copy of Windows 98 that came on there. That certainly surprised me—I couldn’t believe it was really such a humble beast from its performance. Windows 98 really isn’t that bad after all, is it?

I’m writing this on it now via ssh to my web host (using Putty) and it’s working just fine.

It’s small, light, and pretty indestructible, so I might lug it around with me a bit and make good use of my unlimited wireless internet access. The Li-ion battery is obviously not in its first flush of youth, but still holds a reasonable charge, better than my other laptop’s NiMH battery. The best thing bout this coputer, though, is that it’s practically disposable. If I drop or lose it, I’ll be annoyed, but that’s all.

My cold that rendered me hoarse on Thursday, required me to use a microphone to conduct classes on Friday, and left me speechless on Saturday (and forced to communicate in the supermarket by growling!) seems to be clearing up. Just as well, considering that I have to talk for a living!

And I have to get up even earlier than usual tomorrow, so I’d better sleep soon. Oh, how easy it is to waste time messing around with computers!