The New Daily

It’s been too long for any kind of update. It’s a do-nothing’s excuse, but I haven’t really felt like writing something for the blog. My excuses are:

1 - I’m married to an alcoholic, I accepted those challenges 2 years ago when they were revealed to me. For lack of better words and the sake of levity - things have peaked out with our current approaches tried, and the next phase of attempts to manage this thing includes a separation. So, I am separated from my wife of almost 12 years and the bigger movements that led to this point have happened since my last post.

2 - I’m getting into writing on paper/journaling physically. Main reason this is a bullet point is because as a wagie, I have finite time and writing by hand takes much longer than typing.

But, besides all that, and to bring it back around to the title - I got a new (to me) laptop. It’s been a while since I’ve bought a laptop - mostly relying on desktops of some flavor.

As a Linux enjoyer, I’ve been a big fan of Thinkpads for some time. My most recent laptop was a W540 a friend gave me - I messed up the reassembly after repasting and cleaning it out. I also had a working desktop at the same time so it barely mattered. Worth noting alongside all this I’ve always had at least 1 “server” powered by my 10700k. But before that it was a T480p that had a Klipsch KG-1 fall on it and it was actually done - it was definitely beyond just the screen, I did poke around trying to bring it back a little bit. But yeah, I like ‘em.

Before those (and without digging way back) I’ve had several Macbook Airs (Intel) and a few Microsoft Surfaces. For the Airs, I gravitated towards the 11 inch models. The Surface was only a little bigger in most dimensions. I gave it up a little bit in my more recent laptops, but I really like super compact setups. Just looking at the 11” Air dimensions again: 11.8” x 7.56” x 0.68”… That fits in a really small bag (OR A MANILLA ENVELOPE!), enough power to launch Facebook, and it was released a decade ago.

I’ve always loved litle computers. I worked at Staples, slingin’ extended service plans on Netbooks - which I couldn’t afford/justify not traveling, gaming a bit, and having a desktop.. In 2008…

I’m pretty sure, but can’t confirm, the X220 is when the X2xO series hit my attention first. This was by way of me researching what the S-Tier tiny laptop options were. I know they were pretty expensive for a while, and when the X2x0 was (probably) higher-value, the siren call of an Apple Macbook Air was just too enticing to my normie brain.

Now it’s 2025. The X220 is a collector’s item. The X230 can take the X220 keyboard, so, it isn’t far behind. Not saying it isn’t worth it, I still want a modded out and keyboard swapped X230. But the rest of the series kicks around for nothing.

My X270 came with 8gb of ram (will upgrade just haven’t yet), no drive, no battery for $60. I put a 2tb nvme in it I had laying around, and put a $30 battery on it. Not including the nvme (which is Silicon Power I think, so, pretty cheap) I’m in under $100 in on my lil laptop. It’s pretty small even by todays standards (besides the battery bump) - comparable to 13” ultrabooks sans thickness (it’s not thaaat fat).

Running Arch+Hyprland - I’m good to go. When I need more guts or am gaming I have my server and my Legion Go. For most of my day to day stuff - it’s fine. Also getting some pretty decent battery life, for how old it is. Easily getting 6+ hours. I use it outside of work almost exclusively unplugged and just charge it overnight. Hardly pay attention to it.

Just kind of neat seeing what you can get out of old hardware sometimes.