think tank forum

ThinkPad X200s (7465CTO) -- $1,240.16
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor SL9400 (1.86GHz, 6MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)
12.1 WXGA+ LED backlight
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
250GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
ThinkPad b/g/n
ThinkPad X200 Series 9 cell Li-Ion Battery
1 Year Depot Warranty

that's with the educational discount. not a bad price!

what's the spec on battery life?

iirc ~12 hours.

That's soooo tempting...

Prof Stephen Hawking uses a thinkpad!

The computer has been replaced about once per year; it is currently (Jan 2009) running on a Lenovo Thinkpad T60 and the next model will have an X61 at its heart.

http://www.hawking.org.uk/index.php/disability/thecomputer

we got a couple of T400s at work and it is making me want to buy a Thinkpad :\

damn i want one of those so bad.

I'm checking out the refurbished deals right now. there are a lot of T61s for ~500 USD.

to follow the thread...

ThinkPad T61 Refurbished (766L3MM712) -- $516.00
Intel® Core™2 Duo T8100 (2.10 GHz, 3MB L2, 800 MHz FSB)
14.1" WXGA (1280 X 800)
2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory
80GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Drive
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer Ultrabay Slim
Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AG (supporting Centrino Pro)
1 Year Standard Warranty
4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3.3 Hour Run Time)
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

widescreen is crucial. the lack of bluetooth kind of sucks, but I don't really use bluetooth for anything right now anyway.

uh oh, T400 with 1440x900 resolution on the same size screen...

BSD support seems pretty bad for the T400 though :/.

I found some T61's with that res!! I think I'm going to pick one up.

ThinkPad T61 Refurbished (CA7663RB6) -- $647.00
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 NV, (2.2GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista Business 32
14.1" WXGA+ (1440 X 900) TFT
2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory
80GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Drive
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer Ultrabay Slim
Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (11n disabled)
1 Year Warranty
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6.5 Hour Run Time)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
Bluetooth
nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M

just ordered!

Not bad.

6.5 hour run time is bullshit though, I had almost the same laptop (T61, 14" 1440x900 screen, quadro 140M, P8600 CPU, 6-cell battery) and the battery time was out three hours. Maybe more with some tweakers, but definitely nowhere close to 6.5 hours.

Intel 4965 doesn't work with FreeBSD though (Well, only CURRENT), IIRC OpenBSD does support it.

yeah, it looks like OpenBSD and NetBSD both support it with the iwn driver.

did you have any issues with the graphics card? it's supported by x.org's nv driver, but I read about some issues with slowness.

I used the binary nvidia driver on FreeBSD, worked great. I never even tried the nv driver.

hmm, maybe I'll be stuck with FreeBSD -current because of that. hopefully the nv driver works, though, because I'd like to use NetBSD (assuming sleep/suspend/resume don't work on Open).

Do you need fancy graphics support? I used the nv driver occasionally on my old desktop with a FX5200 and it worked ok for a wm like pekwm or fluxbox with apps like opera, xterm, etc.

Blender and UnrealTournament didn't work ... (Which I why I used the nvidia driver).

carpet didnt you have a T61p -- with that quadro

thats a powerful card for a laptop (at the time it came out) and probably sucked up more of the battery. unless asemi's is a T61p i dont think it will have the same card. also should give you more options on the driver you can use too.

nah, I don't care about fancy graphics stuff. the one I ordered comes with the quadro (it's in the last set of specs I posted above).

> carpet didnt you have a T61p -- with that quadro

No, I had a 14.1" T61, there were some problems with it (Long story...) and in the end got a refund, I then bought a 15.4" T61 (With intel graphics btw.) which is what I use today.

i think openbsd on a t400s or an x200, running perfect would be the dream. well that an html5 so i can start not having to have flash for video.

sounds like there are some serious issues with the quadro graphics card: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/142329

I'm going to cancel the order and settle for the one that does 1280x800 (the first one I posted). but hey, at least it's cheaper.

I ordered my T61 in Germany@ebay a few months ago, there were actually quite a few good offers ...
Not sure what shipping costs to the states will be though ...

I thought about trying ebay, but everything seemed kind of expensive and it was tough to find the configuration I want (1440x900 or whatever it is) because people suck at making listings.

my macbook pro 15" is 1440x900 and my macbook pro 13" is 1280x800 (i think yours is too right? 13"). i thought i would dislike the smaller screen and lower resolution but i love it. now the 15" seems so bulky.

do you not like the resolution on your mac?

oh I totally love the resolution on my macbook, but the thinkpad screen is slightly bigger and an extra few hundred pixels would go a long way.

it took me two days, but I finally managed to cancel the initial order and place a new one. looks like they just upgraded their outlet website. the navigation is a lot better now.

ThinkPad is here! the touchpad isn't working for some reason. I tried Fn+F8 and it told me the UltraNav driver wasn't installed, so I'm installing that now. it's not disabled in the BIOS, and it didn't work from my Ubuntu live CD either. hmmmmmmmmmm.

# less -f /dev/psm0

Move touchpad.
See anything?

(psm0 is ps/2 device, which is psm0 on FreeBSD)

You can use livefs from FreeBSD website for this BTW (Download CD1, In sysinstall press F for fixit)

turns out it's the palmrest. I removed it and the ribbon cable going into the bottom of the touchpad is folded in such a way that there is a little rip in it. they're sending out a technician on Thursday to replace it I guess. pretty great service so far.

guy just left. he replaced the palmrest and it works now! I'm backing up all of my documents so I can install OpenBSD on this drive soon.

nice. :)

which is the lesser evil: OpenBSD with no sleep/suspend support or Net- or FreeBSD?

net.

is sleep/suspend that crucial? I don't really want to learn another OS, even if it is remarkably similar.

X shuts of the display when I close it, at least…

I never use sleep/suspend on my Thinkpad, even though OpenBSD does support it. But that is just me.

i think sleep and suspend are very useful if you run around on battery power.

already getting used to vimperator!!

I'm loving vimperator, too.

are you using dwm, phi_? it was a little too intense for me, but I'm trying out wmii right now and it's ok. my only gripe is there's no easy way to automatically start clients in certain columns, only with certain tags.

Ratpoison + vimperator = what mouse?


(And I liked dwm over wmii ... wmii was wayyyy too bloated for my liking.)

lol @ wmii being bloated. everything is bloated compared to dwm.

oh now I remember what I didn't like about dwm. the whole "main window" vs. "stack" thing. my "main window" should be reserved for stuff that needs that much screen real estate like a web browser or something. I never want like an xterm with irssi in the "main window." I guess I could just leave it in the stack but that didn't seem like how they intended dwm to be used.

I use dwm/ratpoison because it allows limited multi-tasking. I like working without distraction when I write, so having full screen windows really helps me cut down on BSing.

OpenBSD sucks for sleep/suspend and Flash. FreeBSD sucks because only -current supports my wifi NIC. NetBSD sucks because it's just annoying and Flash doesn't work much better than on OpenBSD. arghhh.

still no adduser script in NetBSD? do I really have to pull up the thread on bsdnexus from literally almost ten years ago?

yep, totally had to use that thread.

then I set up wpa_supplicant. pain in the ass. then I started setting up pkgsrc and realized the binary packages are wicked out of date.

back to openbsd. passing wpa auth info straight to ifconfig, pkg_add -u to update installed packages, etc. when openbsd does something, they do it right!

nah. just use the command! :p

I pulled up the thread. didn't feel like reading the man page.

mpd is so awesome!

I need a new thread.

I have got a preeeeeeeeeetty badass wmii status bar going on right now.

where the hell is the mute button muting my sound? it works fine, but literally nothing in mixerctl or audioctl changes when I press it. I even ran diffs on the output before and after muting to make sure.

hardware mute seems unlikely but possible.

how would that even work? think there's any way I could see it happen from the OS?

I think you need special drivers to use the Thinkpad volume buttons with a software mixer.

Man, I think I lucked out with my T41. I don't have ANY of these problems. (Well, not sure about suspend resume ... never use 'em, but I think I remember it working just fine.)

the volume buttons control the software mixer settings just fine. it's just the button that mysteriously works without changing any visible setting.

the T41 probably has apm instead of acpi.

i broke two mouse keys while trying to get all six off of my t61.

can you guys recommend the best plastic epoxy?

wait, what were you trying to do?

take off all of the mouse keys to clean under them. they had some little plastic tabs that are pretty delicate. :/

ooh, to clean.

flash on openbsd worked great for me until my x41 died. i wrote that up to remember.

http://fakeempire.com/posts/firefox-flash-vim … r-openbsd/

how did it die?

recently, i've had a problem with osd only displaying a dot. solution

i also posted on forum.thinkpads.com to ask where i can find mouse buttons. link

Lucas, I have a spare German (QWERTZ) keyboard from my T61, it's brand new and the keyboard includes the *TOP* buttons (Intended for the trackpoint).
If this helps you then you can have it.

that would be great! would you mind emailing me so we can discuss this further?

ThinkPad X200s 7465CTO -- $1,101.24
Intel Core 2 Duo processor SU9400 (1.4GHz, 3MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
12.1 WXGA+ (1440x900) LED backlight
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
1 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
TrackPoint
250GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
ThinkPad WiFi (BGN)
9 cell Li-Ion Battery
1 Year Depot Warranty

this is using:
* a limited-time free hdd upgrade
* a limited-time free battery upgrade
* a limited-time coupone code, "USXBIGSAVINGS" (-5% => -$58)
* free shipping
* educational discount

this does not include:
* a cpu upgrade: su9400, 3mb l2, 800mhz -> sl9400, 6mb l2, 1066mhz (adds $64.12 after disc.)
* buying more ram from a retailer
* upgrading to a two-year depot warranty (adds $58.65 after disc.)

gonna get it?

it's only a better deal by 5% compared to the first post in this thread. everything comes to the same amount, it's just 5% off now (about $60). so i guess no amazing savings.

the drive died. when i get to china im gonna get the ssd kingspec drive for it i think.

also why get the x200s? why not save the money and just get the standard x200 -- is it that much lighter/longer batter?

that being said, the price is too high, but the x400s is bad ass.

that res on a widescreen 12" is pretty sweet.

http://is.gd/264Zc

håkon wium lie, the cto of opera and the co-creator of css, with dualie thinkpads.

Another nice tp use:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File :TORU_docking_system.jpg

omg, worst ad ever
http://www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk/2009012212 … -hard.html

yeah. i was hoping we were all done with monster-sized laptops. all of the real heads get x-series models.

You're not a real head, then? :o

nah. i bought a t-series for the resolution (which really helps for web development, my main motivation). that means i was one step away from getting a mbp.

true, mbp are well-built and powerful as well . but the x-series has a size and price advantage.

i've been torturing myself by respecing the x200s like once a week but not ever being able to buy one.

me too, but certainly not weekly.

i'll take the dive as soon as there's a good promotion.

Haha, I was led here by:
http://www.google.com/search?client=opera& … p;oe=utf-8

First result ;-)

x60 is getting the reformat treatment (3 years and going strong)

bringing my x41t back to life!

just bought this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem … 0432211721

Thinkpad T400 7417CTO -- $705.60
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2) 25W]
14.1 WXGA TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD with vPro
2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
160 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
Express Card Slot & PC Card Slot
Intel WiFi Link 5100 (AGN) with My WiFi Technology
6 cell Li-Ion Battery
Country Pack North America with Line cord & 65W AC adapter

maybe?...

or you can have mine for $300 less! :p :D

Seriously? I can send a check over on fairly short order.

sure. can you do $420 to cover the shipping a bit more?

https://www.thinktankforums.com/thread.php?thread_id=2063

I am back in the thinkpad army.

Let's march ahead!

Haha Brain, first it's macbook, then thinkpad, then back to mb, and now tp again ?!

pretty much, haha. I was all over the place for the last couple of weeks. I sold the macbook though, so there's no turning back now!

for lovers:
http://www.acontinuouslean.com/2009/10/01/the … -thinkpad/

cool

check it out

I'm getting a little tired of Windows :/. but the only viable alternative really is Linux. I neeeed Flash 10 support and I don't want to deal with Linux emulation and stuff. maybe I should try Ubuntu server edition? playing with the Ubuntu desktop edition live CD makes me feel like I will be going backwards with configuring it, the same as Windows (disabling stupid stuff like the startup sound, etc.). sigh.

I want the BSD experience (building up a system yourself) with the application support of Linux (Flash, stuff like the Android SDK). I could use a minimal Linux distro, maybe Arch. but I used that on my server for a while and this stupid crap with Arch updating udev and breaking compatibility with older kernels made me go back to Ubuntu on there. I really really hate the Linux model of a kernel with a million tools piled on top.

:(

I think the subtext of that post may be that I want to use OS X again.

or at least that is the best alternative to all of this crap that I can think of.

I love my ThinkPad so much though!

ubuntu is for dirty people; it's for people who don't mind files strewn everywhere ad hoc.

what's so bad about linux emu on bsd?

Flash support on BSD is horrible at best, and nonfunctional at worst.

i got linux-flash working nicely on freebsd in 2003, fwiw.

Yeah ... FreeBSD. I have the same issues with FreeBSD that you do with Ubuntu, larz.

i do too, but to a much lesser extent. freebsd feels messy, but ubuntu is pretty intolerable.

yeah, definitely feel that way about FreeBSD but to an acceptable extent. I don't think the Flash 10 support with Linux emulation is very good. or if it even exists; it might be Flash 9. I'm going to look into this.

then again, there's the annoyance with FreeBSD that I have to use the current branch to get support for my wireless card. I'd be OK with this if it was equivalent to OpenBSD's current branch, but I think it is way more geared toward testing.

think I'm gonna try the RC of 8.0 tonight.

FreeBSD gave some weird disklabel error but still totally screwed my Windows install. so I installed OpenBSD real quick and I'm using that for now.

I'm real tempted to install FreeBSD right now to get full use of their radio packages...

radio packages?

Ham radio packages.

> FreeBSD gave some weird disklabel error but still totally screwed my Windows install
> so I installed OpenBSD real quick and I'm using that for now.

What did you do? I multibooted windows & FreeBSD for years and never had such problems ...

I just saw the x200 in a store here in china. now i want one for real. They start at about US$950 (6499 RMB). I have my x41t and a mbp13 but damn it if I dont have a chubby for that x200.

I just tried to install it, Carpetsmoker. at the disklabel step it gave me some error (I forget what) and refused to label the disk. something about not being able to find ad4s1 in /dev or something.

dannyp, did you assemble that laptop on the lenovo site? i'm really close to buying one with those exact specifications (well, 250gb 5400 rpm hdd), but i can't get it below $929. how did you get it down those extra $220? i would buy it in a heartbeat for that price

r1: maybe you were linking a refurbished model; i found some similar ones for around that price. not sure if i want to go that route. what kind of luck have you all had with the refurbs?

dude, bsdlite, wait for a good sale or coupon code and get an x200s. it's worth the extra couple hundred.

i did use the lenovo site to get the parts together. i was on the student discount site. i don't think it was refurbished. i ended up getting lr's t61 :]

I still want FreeBSD :(. I love my T61 but am dying about an OS right now.

i'd rather have the x200s and would be willing to pay if i can get it closer to $900

what kind of price for the x200s would be good? the student price is $999 right now, but that's for the stock one with 4-cell battery

oh m I got freebd installed. forgot how much I hate it. if flash works I'm sold though. I'm on my phone now but will elaborate later.

> what kind of price for the x200s would be good?

getting the configuration in the first post for $1,100 would be good, i think.


my thoughts on x200s:

make sure you get the 8-cell battery and the led-backlit screen. that screen is higher quality and uses less power for the backlight.

i recommend a 5400rpm hard drive. it's not as fast, but you'll save on power consumption. plus they're cheaper. i prefer larger drives over faster drives in a laptop. the hard drive is becoming less of a bottleneck as web applications are more demanding and computational data is located elsewhere. if you want to edit video, this probably isn't the best solution anyway.

i like getting the larger l2 cache--it generally helps a lot with computational power while not increasing heat or power requirements. but it's a pricey upgrade, so i don't know if it is worth it. if you want your laptop to last three years, then you should make this upgrade.

the thinkpad wireless option is generally regarded as the best option. it's usually an atheros chipset that outperforms intel chipsets. it might use a bit more power, though. i like turning off my wifi radio when not in use. if you get in this habit as well, you won't lose much power to the atheros. it's cheaper than the intel wifi options, too.

i like bluetooth. i think it will only become more widely used in the future. i use a bluetooth mouse, which is great because i don't have some wireless usb adapter sticking out of the side.

if you want this laptop to last three years, upgrade to the three year depot warranty. they'll replace bad batteries, which is absolutely necessary. other things go wrong occasionally as well (just ask dannyp!). i have found lenovo support to be amazing.

openbsd install and setup:

1. sysinst. no big deal. everything works. sets up a user for me, a root password, installs Xorg, asks me if I want to run sshd, ntp, and xdm. awesome.
2. first boot. wifi time. pkg_add the firmware URL in the iwn man page. read the ifconfig man page and run a command nearly identical to one of the examples given. add info to /etc/hostname.iwn0. try startx. it works. play some music, try the volume keys. those work. try the brightness keys. response is a little sluggish, but they work. get bummed that flash doesn't work no matter what you do. feel like you have made a mess of your system trying.

freebsd install and setup:

1. sysinstall. fails on disklabel. cryptic error message.
2. google. find freebsdforums post suggesting a formerly gpt-partitioned disk may cause this issue.
3. ubuntu live cd. relabel disk with non-gpt disklabel.
4. sysinstall. error message when fetching sets. claims to not be able to resolve ftp.freebsd.org.
5. google. nothing.
6. sysinstall. random attempt at changing the hostname of the machine in the dhcp configuration ncurses "window." works. apparently ".domainname.com" messes stuff up. great default, freebsd. realization that Xorg was not included in the freebsd-distributed sets. install xorg-server package. realize that it never asked for a root password, a user, a timezone, etc. manually do relevant stuff on post-install configuration menu. exit this menu and receive no confirmation of successful install. reboot, with hope.
7. first boot. time for wifi. glance at man pages in the hope that they will give me a simple overview. nope. read the handbook. load kernel modules for my wifi card's driver. have to sift through the explanation of what wifi is and find the relevant info. make mistakes in wpa_supplicant.conf because the docs are unclear. fix mistakes by guessing. cryptic error when running /etc/rc.d/netif start. run wpa_supplicant command manually with -dd flag to see error messages. google one of the errors and find nothing relevant. load kernel module for iwn firmware even though the error messages don't seem to be about this. same error. google a different one of the error messages and find this page in russian or something which gives me the idea to use the wlan interface. read the wlan man page to see what this does exactly and how to properly set it up. guess at what to put in rc.conf because the man page has no examples and is unclear. find relevant info in the rc.conf man page after the fact. /etc/rc.d/netif still not working. suspect initial attempts to configure iwn0 are screwing up attempts to configure wlan0. reboot.
8. second boot. wifi works, time for X. install xorg from packages because the xorg-server package quickly grabbed after the install isn't enough. startx hoping I won't need a config file. mouse and keyboard don't work. ctrl+alt+backspace doesn't work. press ctrl+alt+del and for some reason freebsd thinks that means I want to reboot the computer.
9, third boot. X. try xorgconfig because of good experience in the past and find out it doesn't exist anymore. follow procedure in the handbook. enable hal and dbus to auto-detect devices. startx. doesn't work. switch to a virtual console to kill X. try "moused" for the device type in xorg.conf because no man pages list the possible values or even mention moused at all. (I think moused is actually just for the console, so my bad here.) error. change it back. startx. keyboard and mouse work. have no idea what made them work. install flash by procedure in handbook. error on some linux package. open separate section of the handbook and load the linux kernel module. watch a million errors scroll by while fetching rpm's. install lynx to manually fetch rpm's from freebsd's ftp (why isn't this the default?). install firefox. flash works!

I guess this is my reward?

oh wait, it's not over. find out sound doesn't work. open the handbook again. load the snd_driver kernel module. sound works! find out volume buttons don't work. make this post.

I thought it was nothing but FUD before, but freebsd really is kind of effectively linux. going to the handbook instead of manual pages reminds me of reading the ubuntu wiki. the absurd amount of stuff from pkg_info reminds me of seeing "ls" when running dpkg on ubuntu.

openbsd is set up sensibly by default. you can tell whenever you do anything that there was a lot of thought put into how it works. the man pages are unbelievably good and referring to the FAQ is unnecessary unless you have a question like "is there flash support," how do I configure X for this video card, etc.

but freebsd is fast, flash support is working well, and it's bsd. so here I am.

sigh.

aw man, brightness function keys don't work either. I probably have to load an acpi kernel module or something. I want to kill freebsd.

they don't? crazy. mine have always been hardware-based.

wasn't there a *nix on thinkpads thread? or was that thread x60-specific. I couldn't find it last night.

never mind, found it .

you guys probably think I'm totally nuts but I installed openbsd again. hahah. I was all ready to tweak freebsd to my liking when I got home from work today. then firefox took like five minutes to start, the whole system locked up (not just X), and it spontaneously rebooted while doing nothing but ftp'ing from the console. then I decided to install openbsd.

asemi,

did you read this info on flash in openbsd. works good for me (although havent used that laptop in a couple months).

http://fakeempire.com/posts/firefox-flash-vim … r-openbsd/

i would have linked directly to the article but i put a note in my article on a compilation issue i had, so that may be useful to you as well.

I tried that a while back and I forget what the issue I had was. maybe I'll try it again. I've tried opera-flash-plugin though and it didn't work so hot on youtube anyway, so it might not be worth it.

i'm not impressed with the pricing on the x200s at the moment. educational discount:

ThinkPad X200s (7465CTO) -- $1,324.00
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor SL9400 (1.86GHz, 6MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)
12.1" WXGA+ (1440x900) LED backlight
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
320GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
ThinkPad b/g/n
ThinkPad X200 Series 9 cell Li-Ion Battery
1 Year Depot Warranty

it's about $100 less with the 250GB 5400rpm drive, right? still pretty expensive... seems like a lot of the jump comes from that L2 cache :/

i thought the drive upgrade was only a $30 difference. i might be remembering incorrectly.

they should have some kind of promotion or better pricing sometime soon. the world economy is a buyer's market, after all.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/21/lenovo-sla … and-sl510/

not bad :]

THINKPAD SL410 / SL510 -- $529

Processors
• Intel® Core™2 Duo with 1066 MHz FSB (Dual Core Celeron also offered)
Preloaded Operating Systems
• Genuine Windows®7
Displays
• 14.0" HD VibrantView (16:9) (SL410)
• 15.6" HD VibrantView or Antiglare (16:9) (SL510)
• LED Backlit Displays
Graphics Card
• Integrated (Intel® X4500)
System Memory
• DDR3 1067MHz (Up to 8GB)
Hard Drives
• Up to 500 GB 5400 rpm or 320GB 7200 rpm with APS
Ports
• Video output – HDMI, VGA
• Lenovo Enhanced USB Port Replicator
Optical Drives (Fixed Bay)
• 12.7mm Rambo
Wireless Connectivity
• WWAN – Integrated Mobile Broadband
• WLAN – 802.11n draft
• WiMax
• Bluetooth®
• Gigabit Ethernet (10 / 100 / 1000)
Additional Features
• Integrated 2 MP Camera (select models)
• Audio speaker 2W
• Multitouch TouchPad

my sister was thinking about getting one.

don't really like widescreen

my laptop freezes up when I plug in my 4:3 monitor.

I would avoid the ThinkPad SL series. It's not really a thinkpad but a pimped consumer notebook (i.e. Lenovo 3000).

Of course, you pay a bit less for them ... But just don't expect to get a real ThinkPad.

>flash on openbsd worked great for me until my x41 died. i wrote that up to remember.
>
>http://fakeempire.com/posts/firefox-flash-vim … r-openbsd/

... and it works! Thanks!