New Laptop
Months after replacing its hard disk, my trusty old Thinkpad finally gave out last month (blown solder on the motherboard). Figuring that it wasn't worth sinking any more money into the poor old sinking ship, I decided to get a new laptop (normally I'd wait and just continue using my desktop, but present circumstances necessitate frequent travel).
Following pcolijn's earlier advice, I decided to go the Dell route and bought a wonderful D620. It's a pretty nifty machine and (depending on how you configure it) doesn't require any binary drivers on Linux. An install of Debian unstable went exceedingly smoothly. Apparently some people were complaining about the quality of the LCD panel a while back, but I noticed no issues whatsoever.
If anyone wants spare parts for a Thinkpad r32, let me know...
AlumNit News
I have made the executive decision that the official mascot shall be a rooster.
Nutrition
ncm seems to have a nose for interesting articles and books. The article he just linked to on nutrition is well worth reading. Not surprised that the author served as the executive editor of Harper's: his essay reads like one of the better articles from that magazine.