Yeah, it is a little confusing. For that matter I have no idea what difference it makes if my memory is ECC registered/unregistered, parity or non-parity, gold-tipped or not, etc. I just match up the numbers I recognize and hope for the best.

Daniel, aren't those RAM 184 PIN? I think the laptop needs 200 PIN if I'm reading stuff right.

You are. As noted at the bottom, DDR266 for laptops comes in a standard 200-pin SO-DIMM package.

That should be a fine laptop for word processing and browsing, though only if you get more memory.

From my dealnews newsletter, some of these have expired, but including the whole thing for the impact of my jaw dropping:

In-store hard drive deals: 160GB for $30, more (updated)** - 9:04 am

Today's best: the Western Digital 160GB IDE 8MB cache 7200 rpm hard drive, model no. WD1600JBRTL, costs $119.99 before $90 in mail-in rebates, $29.99 after, at Best Buy stores. That's 19 cents per GB. Offer ends today at noon. Also of note: The Maxtor Ultra 160GB IDE 7200 rpm internal hard drive with 8MB cache, model no. L01P160, costs $74.98 before a $35 mail-in rebate, $39.94 after, at Staples stores. That's 25 cents per GB. Offer ends today at 10 am. The Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 250GB IDE 8MB cache 7200 rpm hard drive, model no. WD2500JBRTL, costs $179.99 at Circuit City stores. $100 in mail-in rebates slashes it to $79.99. That's 32 cents per GB. Offer ends tomorrow. The Maxtor DiamondMax 60GB IDE 7200 rpm internal hard drive with 8MB cache, model no. L01J060G, costs $64.97 before a mail-in rebate of $40, $24.97 after at Office Depot stores. That's 42 cents per GB. Offer ends tomorrow. The Iomega 160GB USB 2.0 7200 rpm external hard drive, (sku no. 2085-2837), for $129.99 before a $40 mail-in rebate, $89.99 after at Office Max stores. That's 56 cents per GB. Offer ends tomorrow

[link]

Plus?

Wolfram's Wal-Mart laptop made the dealnews.com list of good deals.

I am suddenly quite pessimistic about Opera. Bath and Body Works refuses to let me in with it (and the response to my e-mail was that only .05% of the people that hit their front page do so with Opera), and Netflix has started complaining (although it works fine).

I'm a sentimental old biddy. Me and Opera -- we go way back. Don't want to break up.

$119.99 before $90 in mail-in rebates, $29.99 after, at Best Buy stores.

Is it time for my "mail-in rebates suck" rant? OK, I just leanred that companies generally contract out the fulfilment of rebate checks. These contracters sometimes promise that they will not refund more than a certain percentage of rebates that come to them. They do this by dragging their feet, or not sending rebates until the customer complains, or whatever.

Yeah, v. against the mail-in rebate--even if I remember to do it, I'll likely forget I was supposed to get the money back. So I highly distrust.

I've only had one been refused, so I have nothing against them. And even if I don't get the $30 back, it was the cheapest one in the store anyway.

I've probably collected about $300 in rebates since I started paying attention.

I have a question about editing MP3s. Beau wants to create MP3s from some CDs where the artists don't have clean breaks between songs. I.e. the songs flow between the song breaks and he needs to edit the mp3s so that the songs have clean breaks.

He does not want to do anything illegal, btw. He's making mixed CDs for his car.

Anyone recommend any good mp3 editing software? Free is preferable, but if he has to, he will pay for such.

ND recommended "audacity" to me, and it worked quite well for me--I was taking out bits in the middle of a song. (Edit: I think you can get it at audacity.com, but if you google, you should find it)