New Addition

I'm finally going to have to admit it in a short entry.  I have another one.  I'm typing on it now.

When the T60 came in, and I fell in love with it, I decided I ought to grab a backup for it.  So I went searching the 'Bay, and I finally found one for an acceptable (ie, fairly low) price.

I ended up snagging two of them.  One's not here yet, so  I won't talk about it.  But one is, and I've been playing with it all evening, and it's wonderful.

It's a Thinkpad T61.  Looking at the images, reading the seller's description, and basing it on the price asked, I wasn't really looking for much.  The photos seemed to show a roughed up system.  The hard drive was wiped, the battery probably shaky, and an older install of Ubuntu was on it.  But I went ahead and pulled the trigger.

Pulling it out of the box today, I thought my initial reaction was correct.  The lid is horrendously scratched.  There must've been a logo/sticker/something on the lid at one time, because someone almost violently scratched it off, right dead center on the lid.

But...

On a closer look, the scratches weren't quite as visible as they'd been in the pictures.  Still bad, but...  Hmmm...

I opened the screen, and was stunned.  They keyboard, palm rest, and bezel looked impeccable.  Not even any wear visible.  The famous "tactile feel" is perfect.  The screen shows some slight scratching when shut off, but when on is great.  Even the ThinkLight works!

 The system came with Ubuntu 11.04, "Natty Narwhal" installed.  I briefly thought about keeping it on the system, but changed my mind when I saw the upgrade system offering me the upgrade to 12.04 "Precise Pangolin."  The upgrade process was fast and painless, my only regret being that I stupidly did not back up the beautiful wallpaper photo that had been installed.  However, once the upgrade was complete, I did find a suitable replacement.

Beyond the lid scarring, the only weak spot is the battery, which is showing its age.  It still gives about 2 +/- hours of life, which will do till it's replacement arrives.

I absolutely fell in love with this computer.  I think the T60 may become something of the backup system now.  This one is just too good to let sit for any period of time.

Right now, I'm searching for something to stick on the lid to hide the scratching.  I really need something bumper sticker sized, but the only thing I have that might work is a "Timmy the ThinkGeek Monkey" sticker.  Not really sure I want to go that route.  (And, no, I am NOT putting an Apple sticker on it.  I'd do it to almost any other laptop, just from a pure sense of ornery-ness, but not a Thinkpad.  They're the only laptop that rates on the same coolness scale with a Macbook...)

No pictures yet.  I did actually do a quick video on the iPhone of me kicking the upgrader on.  But nothing postable.

Maybe later.  I'm having too much fun playing right now...