Diana and her mom are sharing a PC, and they’re starting to have “roommate problems”. (Judy doesn’t like the apps I install for Diana, etc.) Since it’s Judy’s PC anyway, Diana was going to be the one kicked off. Time to do something.

We’re on a tight budget, I set up an eBay automated search to find cheap laptops. To avoid being outbid all the time, I configured it to only report auctions ending in less than an hour.

The problem with that, I have since figured out, is that it leads to impulse purchases. We got a laptop for a measly 80 bucks (shipped), but it’s only a Pentium, so I doubt it can run anything later than Windows 95. Not only that, it has no Ethernet port. I have to hunt around and see if anyone still sells adapter cards.

I think I may have just wasted 80 bucks, and the thing hasn’t even arrived yet. Now I have to decide if I’ll waste even more of my time trying to make it work (Linux? Thin clients?), or if I’ll bite the bullet and go buy her a real PC. Lenny might be getting a laptop for his birthday.