use Perl

Gah, I think I'm too stupid to buy a laptop. Certainly, I've not kept up with the hardware market and I find it incredibly confusing. But after having whittled it down to the lovely, but pricey Sony VGN-S2XP, at which price, getting a Mac PowerBook suddenly seems like quite good value (and yes, they come ridiculously well specified.) I guess, having got used to one set of UI annoyances, I find the Mac's ones more annoying...

But I then came across the HP Pavilion DV1000, which looks more than sufficient for my needs. (Low-end graphics card means crap 3D performance, but on balance, I hardly ever play anything more demanding than Tetris, or maybe that japanese one where you push boxes around). Good battery life and luggability are more important. Oh, and it's more than £500 cheaper which means I can maybe treat myself to a TV tuner and a small graphics tablet. Annoyingly, in the UK of the two models (DV1049ea with 40GB drive and DV1066ea with 60GB drive) only the DV1049ea seems to be widely available, though the 60GB does seem to be on sale at Dixons (yuck) and PC World.

Off to fight the boxing day crowds!