I started and finished this post differently twice – on two different computers – but each time, I was interrupted before I could make up my mind enough to post. One of those interruptions however resulted in me having bought a brand new notebook 😉 so I guess I can’t complain much. It’s an HP Pavilion DV4000 – Centrino 1.7G, 512M shared, a 15.4” widescreen that makes for some wacky resolutions (1280×800), a DVD/CD-Writer Combo, a 5-in-1 card reader, Wireless, Bluetooth, Network card, a dialup modem and more :-). For the price (3600Dhs) it’s the best config Dad and I found, and aside from the very slight niggle of it not having a DVD-Writer, I find it increasingly amazing.

If you haven’t owned a notebook (or I imagine, a manufacturer’s PC) like I have, it’s great to note the increasing level of ties software has with the OS as opposed to a hand assembled PC. I switched it on, and an HP welcome screen popped up, asking me which version of the OS I’d like installed (Arabic or English) and then it proceeded to install not only the OS, but also every other driver required for the myriad of devices bundled. It also popped in Service Pack 2, more updates, Norton Internet Security, and even installed a DVD decoder. In effect, it has a more useable default configuration, but it was a bit bloated, though that was easily remedied by tidying up XP home. 🙂 The other major goodie that I bought was an Aircard PCMCIA card with GPRS/GSM support… I’ll elaborate later the huge plans I have for that baby.

I’m not writing more about Dubai today (LOTS to write). Instead, because of the card reader I have now, I’ll post some of the pictures that I took over here. Go back to my earlier posts, and see them become a wee bit more magical now 🙂