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I needed a new machine at work and wanted to try something else than HP this time. Checking out the specs of the Lenovo Thinkpad T400 convinced me to go for it, it looked like an OK machine for my type of work. It came with Vista, it made me hesitate a bit but I was willing to try – I thought hey if all failes I can upgrade to XP, since it came with a free convertion cd.

It all started out well at the office, I connected it to the dock and started to set it up. Installed my software, configured it and started using it. Suddenly when Vista asked for admin rights and the screen started to flicker it crashed. Blue screen of death. How fun. Then it all began.

I rebooted and ran the Lenovo update, no updates.. I checked out their forum and saw that others were having the same problem and that they were working on it so I thought I should give it a chance.

When I came home I set it up on my private wlan, that worked well. I installed my Nokia Communication software to transfer my photos via bluetooth, it started and began transfering the images. But then I lost connection to the wlan.

I right-clicked to repair but it didn’t help. I disabled the wlan then tried again without success. When the bluetooth transfer were complete I used the hardware switch to turn off all radios on the machine, then on again. There was my wlan! My first thought was that the bluetooth interfered with the wlan but I couldn’t believe that – we’re in 2008 right!? I tested, activated bluetooth and there my wlan went offline again.

Ok, so I can’t use bluetooth at the same time. Then I noticed that after each 15th minute I lost contact with the wlan, the blue circle disappeard over the tiny monitors. I waited 5-6 seconds then it came online again. I shut down the PC and went to bed, lets just say that I was disappointed.

The next day at the office I tried using wlan, the same thing happened there. After 15 minutes it lost contact with the wlan, the blue circle disappeard and then after 5-6 seconds it came back.

I checked the settings, disabled the n-protocol, tcp/ip v6 and rebooted. Same problem.

Later I noticed that the Lenovo connection manager had a copy of my wlan settings, it seemed like the connection manager and the native Vista connection manager were quarreling. They both wanted control of the connections! I tried to uninstall the connection manager but then it all became a mess, I lost other things as well and it didn’t want to connect to anything longer.

I ran recovery and set back the time.

Then I deleted the wlan profile in Lenovo Connection manager, it seemed to help a bit but it was still unstable.

The day after I ran the Lenovo update again, it had a bunch of updates. Awesome I thought and started to download and install them. Rebooted and started to test. It seems that they solved the blue screen of death when Vista flickers the screen but the wlan was not fixed. Except… Now I could use bluetooth and wlan at the same time.

Something else is weird too, when I try to burn or copy files it take ages. I was making a backup of my files and noticed that it was down to 1,5MB per second, I tried to copy to several location, same speed everywhere.

Then I decided… bye bye Vista on a Thinkpad T400. Now I have booted with the Windows XP recovery cd, it is still working on something but I don’t know what. Its been 3 hours since I started it.

Why can’t they do anything right?

I checked out more of the Lenovo forum now and found out that I am not alone, several others have the same problems at me.

I will never again choose a PC without checking out the forums. I would never choose the T400 if I saw what was going on.

Links:
Swedish article about this series
Norwegian article about its sister

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The tragic death of an 8 year old boy in Connecticut provoke me, why did his father chose an Uzi? It is well known that other machine guns like AK-74, AK-47, AG-3 and M16 are much more suitable for children because they have longer barrels.

Armies are also giving these to kids because they are easy to strip, reassemble and they are fairly easy and safe to use. This is common knowledge among armies that use children in war, in Cambodia, Sri-Lanka, Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique, El Salvador and Peru – so I don’t understand why Connecticut chooses Uzi. When the short barrelled gun recoils the gun mostly moves upwards and if the user does not let go of the trigger the weapon will continue until it points at the user. All kids with weapon knows this. Why not the people in Connecticut?

Its very sad for this kid and his family, my thoughts go to them. But we all should respect that this is the way of life, in Connecticut.

Link to the murder.
DB : Dagbladet.

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I wonder what these roses are thinking now, something like “oh no!!! what did we do!, what time is it?”.

I was listening to the Norwegian radiostation P3 the other day and there was an interview with Ingrid Olava, a great singer who grew up in Lillehammer, Norway. She was asked to sing her version of “Her kommer vintern” (Here comes the winter) live, one of my favorite songs written by Joachim Nielsen in Jokke og Valentinerne. He died in 1997 of an overdose. My first thought were “good luck on going for such a great tune” and I hoped she didn’t ruin it, know the feeling?

She sat down at the piano and played this live, for me the song got a new life, I love this version. Here it is but it is in Norwegian. Do you still like it? I found a nice translation of the lyrics.

Here comes the winter, by Joachim Nielsen
Are you the kind of person who never gets a tan, and who neve really bother trying either.

Are you looked upon as a boring coward, cause you mainly avoid going for a swim

Do you have problems being around annoyingly optimistic people?, well, you’re not alone, we are lots who feel the same way

Are you the kind who likes to sit, sit inside and drink some beer, when the sun shines. Are you the type with a weakness for sports, but only on screens, and only when WE’re winning!!

Then you have problems, according to the Peanut-Brain Association , but youre not alone, we are many who feel the same..

People, I have some news for you, I must ask for the greatest silence, the wait is finally over, There’s gonna be snowfall tonight!

Here comes the winter, here comes the cold, wonderful time
Here comes the winter. Finally we can chill

Are you annoyed by people who’s always looking to impress?, If you got a fridge and a TV, then you have all it takes to live.

Here comes the winter, here comes the cold, wonderful time
Here comes the winter. Finally we can chill

I signed up for Zanox the other day, clicked register now for becoming a publisher, filled out some easy forms and then I could add my blog and “ad angine”. Incredible easy. I needed to fill out a spot on my right sidebar and found it via google and Tone’s blog. (Norwegian)

You can add several “ad engines”, that is spots of given format that is getting autofilled by different ads. Otherwise you can find campaigns and easilly add them to your site or blog. There are all kinds of income-types, click, sale, leads etc. Not many are pr click but I guess that is the problem anywhere. =)

I am a bit unsure though how the ad works on my blog, sometimes it disappears, does it that for you too? I am trying to trace it and it seem to be a javascript problem. It might be my OIO tracker that interfere with the js loading. Have you received any errors? I’ve had a nightmare with my sidebar the latest days I am struggling with placing the ads, they wont behave!

I’m going to try this on some of my other blogs for fun, I like Zanox’s wide range of customers in many countries. The interface there is awesome and its very easy to pick up campaigns and add them to blogs and sites. Try it, its fun!

You can also read about Euroads, Adsense, CMF Ads and others here at ads.hoysater.no.