Marcster

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If I recall correctly, the coupon was good through August 1st, or while supplies last. The Inspiron 6400 was a discontinued model, hence the blowout pricing and lack of Vista availability. As with all Dell deals on this site, if you see it and you want it, hurry up and buy it! Even their coupons are for a limited number of redemptions.

You would need to call Dell to confirm. No, not according to this review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3137&review=Dell+Inspiron+6400

The Inspiron 6400 is a 15.4" widescreen laptop. The Vostro 1700 is a 17" widescreen laptop. The Inspiron 6400 has more similarities with the Vostro 1500. All of the Vostro laptops come in magnesium-alloy cases vs. plastic. They're also a little thinner than their Inspiron counterparts. The Vostro laptops come with discrete video cards when paired with Intel Core 2 Duo processors (this is better than shared video if you are a gamer or need a lot of graphics power). A typical computer user may not notice the difference between a discrete video card and shared video. The Vostro line has a 30-day return policy and a special support # to call with small-business technicians. The Dell small business sales person I spoke to yesterday would not say that the Vostro line was the same as the Inspiron line physically though...

Not through this special offer that Brad posted -- this deal is limited to WinXP Home or WinXP Professional.

If you work are moving back and forth from your desk to some other location a lot, an extra AC adapter and a dock would be very handy. An additional Dell 90-watt AC adapter is $62 in the accessories section of your order. A Kensington Expansion dock is $59 from Dell, but you can get it from Amazon.com for $53.62 (free ship). That way when you get back to your desk you only have one USB and one power connection to make. The dock has 5 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Ethernet port (10/100Mbps), 1 stereo out port (3.5mm), and 1 microphone port (3.5mm) and they all connect to the laptop (any laptop, actually) through 1 USB cable. http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/411M3DL7z9L._AA280_.jpg

Remember that this laptop comes with a Core 2 Duo (instead of an AMD Turion). That means that you can download NBC programming through their exclusive content deal: http://vipaccess.nbc.com http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Happy/94b40016.gif

You may want to bite the bullet and go with XP Professional ($99 upgrade) or plan on having to upgrade the OS at some point in the future to Vista or XP Professional... According to this article, Microsoft will only support XP Home with updates and patches through February 2009 (or so): http://windows.about.com/od/updatingupgrading/a/xp_home_prof.htm The differences between XP Home and Pro are outlined in detail here: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp (But the article was written back in 2001, so it isn't recommending XP Pro since Vista was just a glimmer in a programmer's eye vs. the About.com article I posted above).

Sam's Club... I'm sure that Costco and BJs have them cheap too.

Just ordered mine! If they offer the same coupon for the grocery store we frequent ($10 off of $50), the book will be better than free! http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Happy/94b40016.gif

Not to mention that 512mb of Ram is below the Microsoft recommendation for running Vista (they recommend 1GB+). This laptop probably wouldn't even play DVDs nicely or play streaming audio/video. I'd recommend buying a used laptop with better components from ebay or a place like http://www.clearanceclub.com (never dealt with Clearance Club, there are tons of places out there like that).

Another $200 would buy a decent Compaq: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8404158&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat103700050014&id=1180743304365 Dual-core Pentium, twice the ram, burns DVDs and CDs, and Windows Vista Premium.

Sony isn't known for making reliable computers, especially laptops: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/11258/ http://www.physik.uni-freiburg.de/~zwerger/cip/Vaio/indexeng.htm http://leflaw.com/sony/ http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/sony.htm If you insist on a Sony Vaio, make sure you get the extended warranty. It may be worth it's weight in gold.

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LOL... I must've just missed it again...

Sold out....

www.cheaptickets.com www.priceline.com www.orbitz.com Also, try going right to the individual airline's web sites for airlines that fly out of your starting airport.

The miracles of duct tape: http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/duct2.jpghttp://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/ducttape.jpg And many more here: http://www.ducktapeclub.com/contests/prom/entries.asp http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/LOL/gigglegirl.gif

Wal-mart has a decent selection too: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=49943

Do you belong to Sam's? They have a sweet charcoal grill for like $199. Edit: here's the Sam's Club grill: http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=351742&pCatg=3996

Propane, charcoal or electric? Did you have a price range in mind? http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Food/Barbeque.gif If you have a Boscov's near you, they have some propane grills on sale this week. Sears usually has some on sale too.

Oh, and I almost forgot... Welcome to GottaDeal! http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t197/laiesken/WELCOME-2.gif

I've bought all of our fans from Wal-Mart -- they do some killer blow-outs at the end of the season (August or so, when they get ready for Back to School). I bought three with remote controls and timers for like $15.00 each. But, if you can't wait till then, their reg. prices are reasonable. Make sure you are happy with the sound level of the fan you buy, if you aren't exchange it for another model. I had to do that -- the first fan I bought was way too noisy.

I http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Love/hb1.gif my Keen Sandals! At $99/pair or so, they aren't the cheapest, but I have extremely flat feet and these are comfortable all day all Summer. (And they hide my ugly toes, too). http://www.wise4living.com/fsandal/images/keen-sandals.jpg http://www.keenfootwear.com Here are some reviews of various Keen styles: http://www.backpackgeartest.org/mfr_reviews/Keen Keen does make some odd looking flip flops too: http://mirror.altrec.com/images/shop/photos/KEE/22316_m.jpg

Sears.com allows people to post reviews of their appliances, but it's a matter of whether or not someone reviews the appliance you are interested in (and whether Sears carries it to begin with).