I ordered the Gateway P-7805u FX online and then left to work. While on my way there, I got a phone call from them telling me that the laptop I had ordered was not in stock anymore. I asked the operator to e-mail me any other P-78 series Gateway laptops they have on stock so that I can decide upon one of them. She sent me an e-mail which contained links to the P-7807u FX model and the P-7809u FX, telling me that they have them on stock and they can ship it to me immediately. After realizing that the P-7809u is not worth the price, I replied with an e-mail saying that I would go with the first choice they offered me. The reply I got was crushing: “We do not have the item on stock”. This was 30 minutes after they had made me that offer. Fair enough, I said, maybe someone bought them all in 30 minutes. I sent another e-mail asking for the more expensive model and there was no answer.

Half an hour later, they called me telling me that there was a slight error and that they told me the item was not on stock because it was reserved for me. You do the math, I can’t divide by zero.

Next day, my laptop came through the courier. I was expecting the box to be bigger but anyway, it was ok. The first thing that shocked me was that inside the box there was only the laptop, the battery and the 2 chargers (European model and American). Hmm, no manuals, no anything? (Not that I need any). The second thing that shocked me were the fingerprints present on the screen. I immediately thought the laptop was already used but when I turned it on, I did get the first Windows screen you get when you get a new laptop. That being said, the whereabouts of those fingerprints will always be unknown.

The laptop behaved pretty nicely in Windows Vista but I decided to install Windows 7 because.. well, because I hate Vista and I love 7. Good enough reason, I know.

I tested the computer with the Windows Experience Index and got an overall grade of 5.8 (maximum of 7.9) because of the hdd but I was amazed by the grade I got in the 3D and game section: 6.7 ! It seems like that GF 9800M GTS does it job nicely. I also tested it on several extremely demanding games while on extremely high quality and it never even thought about not giving a good reply. I did have some problems with 1080p HD videos but I think it must have been because of the player I was using. I have to dig more into this issue.

What’s odd is that the laptop froze twice while in the browser but it didn’t show any sign of freezing into those well demanding games. This is another issue I have to look into

Overall, I am extremely satisfied by my laptop so far. I do need to buy a car now so I can carry it everywhere I like. Those 4.1 kgs it weights are a little bit too much for my back to handle. Oh, I also have to buy a new backpack, for sure.

Here is the configuration and a random pic of the laptop which I found online since I’m too lazy to take a picture of it.

17”(WXGA), Core2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz, NVIDIA GF 9800M GTS (1GB DEDICATED), 4GB DDR3, 320GB 7200RPM, SATA, DVD+/ -RW, Gigabit LAN, WIR, 1.3 MP Camera, eSATA, HDMI, DVI-D, 9CELL

Say you have variable a = ‘2′ and b = 2 and you want to compare them. The way I did it was adding the same value to both variables, thus changing the string variable into an integer by adding a filter. Might not be the best solution in the world but it worked.

Not working:
{% ifequal a b %}
HTML stuff 'round here
{% endifequal%}

Working:
{% ifequal a|add:"2" b|add:"2" %}
HTML stuff 'round here
{% endifequal %}

It does look a little bit silly but it might do the trick if you’re too lazy to change your views/models.

Datorită faptului că toți cei din lista mea de Yahoo! Messenger au primit un e-mail de la mine ce conținea un link și subiectul “Buna! Ce-i cu pozele astea? :-O” și am primit și reply-uri, am decis să scriu acest articol și să explic cum stă situația:

Am primit un e-mail la fel ca și voi ceilalți. Mi-am dat seama instant că expeditorul nu avea nici o treabă cu e-mailul primit și am recunoscut un tip de virus (asemănător spam-ului zilnic pe care îl primesc de la câțiva indivizi din lista de messenger). Având în vedere faptul că eram conectat la rețeaua Yahoo! cu ajutorul Trillian-ului și că folosesc un browser bunicel din punct de vedere al securității (Firefox), am considerat că ar fi interesant să dau click pe acel link, încercând să aflu metoda folosită de spammeri pentru a trimite e-mailurile respective.

Dând click pe link, Firefox-ul mi-a spus că pentru a vizualiza pagina respectivă, era nevoie de instalarea unui plugin pe care l-am refuzat. În seara aceea, am plecat către Constanța iar în seara următoare, verificându-mi contul de e-mail, am observat o sumedenie de reply-uri de la persoane aflate în lista mea de contacte care mă întrebau ce este cu e-mailul respectiv.

Recunosc că greșeala mea a fost curiozitatea de a accesa acel link și naivitatea de a crede că Firefox-ul își face datoria în a mă proteja. Îmi cer scuze pentru deranjul produs de acele e-mailuri și vă rog, nu le accesați !!!

În speranța că veți înțelege,
Victor

I find myself in between job, internships and freelancing and I have to prioritize them as needed but I assume it’s going to constantly be a temporary prioritization.

And just when I thought I managed to regulate my sleeping hours, this shit happens: after waking up at 6:30 in the morning and going to bed at 12:30 in the night, I wake up at 2 AM being more awaken than I ever was. Might be because of all those tiny details that cross my mind every now and then.

Hope it’s gonna get warmer in Bucharest when I get there. Not that I would be hot or anything…

Denmark, see you on your national holiday, the Ascension day, on the 13th of May.

So, now that I am confident that you guys understood what life is like (fuck, if that doesn’t help you, just make a comparison between this picture and this other picture), you can read the other bla bla that I am going to post around here like:

• I’ll be in Romania between the 28th of January and the 13th of May, doing my internship at an awesome company (I might try to make a trip for a Hypocrisy concert in either Vienna or Sofia)
• Advanced Photoshop Techniques that you may not be aware of
• Thousands of Photoshop Brush Collections
• Got a 10 at the 3rd semester project exam and I’m waiting for the 3rd semester subject exam (it’s either I get a 2 or a 12, depending on which subject I draw from the hat)
• I miss my girl.
• I’m just waiting for things to go on their usual downward path. I literally know that I am at the peak of the quality of my life so that’s why I ain’t so happy about it. I am usually an optimistic dude but you have to know where you stand and not get over excited.

And to my few readers: I’m sorry for the lack of posts in the recent time. Meh, there’s no particular reason for that: I still care about the 2 of you, it’s just that I realized that this blog doesn’t help me improve my personal life nor my professional life and I assigned it a smaller number in the huge queue of my priority list.

I did not get to meet with everyone whom I wanted to and I fully apologize for that! I sincerely hope we will get a chance to get together sometime between February and May. I did not get to see some people as much as I wanted to, as well. It made me feel like shit.

I also feel sick. Don’t know exactly what’s wrong with me but God damn, I hope I will manage to fix myself. It just ain’t right to feel like this and it gets me worried as hell.

And yeah, leaving Romania hurts like shit. I so wish I could combine 80% of the Danish life I’ve been spending for the last year and a half with the 20% that I am still interested over here. And yeah, I fell for HER! Sue me!