Again with the music, and another live-in-the-studio performance:
This time with a Thinkpad X61. I've upgraded my music equipment so that I now have a pair of old Thinkpads, which I'll write about at some point. Here they are, with the characteristic Thinklights turned on:
On the right, a Thinkpad X60, which has a 1.83ghz Core Duo; on the left, a Thinkpad X61, with a 2ghz Core 2 Duo. They date from 2006 and 2007 respectively and are now about £100 or so on the used market in decent condition. Which is quite frankly staggering. I can remember when second-hand laptops were either (a) dire rubbish with a memory ceiling of 192mb that could just cope with Windows 2000 or (b) very, very expensive. The Core (2) Duo was a major leap in performance over earlier generations and can still cut the mustard, even though it's a generation old.
By modern standards they're faster than any netbook and not much larger. The 4:3 screens are a refreshing change from ubiquitous modern-day widescreen displays although the 1024x768 resolution is limiting. It's amusing to read contemporary reviews lamenting the lack of a built-in DVD drive! Nowadays of course physical media are old-hat. The X60/X61 have a dock, the X6 Ultrabase, which adds a DVD drive and (intriguingly) support for a second battery, but it's really more sensible to go up a size and buy a used T60 instead.
Here's Audiomulch running with a second monitor on the X61:
I've been trying to think up a "rock name", because Ashley Pomeroy is too square. So far I've come up with Hellflower St Germain and the Very Large Array. Lot more distinctive than bloody U2 anyway. No-one will ever mistake me for a spy plane.
