Using a Dell Latitude D410

Standard issue Dell Latitude D410 - taken with my G900

Well, my standard issue laptop is with my IT guys (some technical complication / BSODs (blue screen of death) involving Vista which could only be solved by a complete reformat). So, temporarily using my other standard issue laptop, a Dell Latitude D410.

This particular system has a Pentium M 1.73 GHz Processor, which is fast enough to get the job done, provided you're not multitasking. With 1 GB of memory onboard, luckily using Windows XP instead of Vista, otherwise I would imaging productivity would go down hill pretty fast.

Now, the D410, being an ultra-portable, lacks a built-in floppy drive (not that I miss that) and also does not have any optical drive (that means, no CD / DVD). However, it's fairly light and easily carried around to meetings. Just the smallish keyboard takes a little getting used to.

The other thing that I wish for is one additional USB port. The Dell D410 has only 3 - 2 at the rear and 1 on the left side. Now, since my other laptop has the tendency to screw itself up over time, I have all my working files and portable apps on my external hard drive so that I don't have to back up anything. This takes up 2 USB slots - 1 for data and the other for supplementary power. That leaves only 1 free USB for the mouse. So, in order to further connect my USB thumbdrive / phone / camera / card reader etc., I need to disconnect the mouse and temporarily use the touchpad. Ordinarily I like using the touchpad, but the keyboard is already cramped, so it's not so easy on the D410.

A row of dead pixels, with the standard mouse pointer for reference

Last parting comment - dead pixels. Now, I though I'd never see any of these in this day and age. However, there is a whole row of them on the screen, somewhere to the left, halfway between the top and the bottom. I have a zoom out here (hmm, my G900 does macro now?). Relative to the mouse pointer....

Well, overall, a decent system, that I can live with (since it's standard issue) but I wouldn't want to invest in if I had to pay for it myself....