My only complaint is with how the plugin handles errors. When something goes wrong, an error message pops up and the entire export process is aborted. While I can understand this when serious errors occur, I wish there was some sort of timeout-and-retry-before-aborting mechanism in place, especially in the case of not getting a response from Flickr, due to, say, your network connection going out temporarily. It’s a bit frustrating to leave Lightroom running overnight to backup several hundred photos, only to wake up in the morning and finding out that the export process aborted after the 10th image.

But again, a very solid plugin overall and I highly recommend it. And while it started as just a backup tool, I’ve begun to use it for publishing my public photos to Flickr as well. Based on subjective experience (I don’t plan to test for actual numbers), it seems as though Uploadr throttles the upload speed, with Jeffrey’s plugin pushing photos to Flickr at least three times faster, a speed boost which is more than welcome.

Note that all the laptops in Dell Outlet are refurbished – but as a result of this, you can find some truly amazing deals with enough effort (their search interface is completely inadequate for anything beyond simple searches). I myself have no qualms with refurbished laptops, not having run into any issues with my previous refurbished Dell Inspiron 700m. Some even argue that refurbished laptops are better quality products, as a technician has gone through to ensure a defect-free product. New products, on the other hand, will likely only have a small number tested for defects.

The specs of the laptop I picked up were as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 (2.53GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• 160 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200RPM)
• 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)
• NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M With PC-Card
• 14.1 inch WXGA+ LED Laptop Screen
• 8X DVD +/- RW w/Double Layer Write Capability
• 9 Cell Battery, Primary
• Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
• Back-lit Keyboard
• Fingerprint Reader Internal
• 0.3 Megapixel Integrated Webcam with Digital Microphone
• Genuine Windows XP Pro with Vista Business License

Which, with the 15% off, came out to $796.38. A similarly specced e6400 goes for a little over $1700 right now – more than double the cost of mine. All that was left was to decide if a MacBook Pro MB134LL/A, available for about $1300 at the UCLA student store, was worth an extra $500. (Note that all these prices are after California tax)

Having used the e6400 for about a month now, I can safely say that I’m satisfied with my decision in keeping the Dell. Being a Scratch & Dent from the Outlet, it came with some minor cosmetic defects on the lid and near the touchpad, as well as a slightly bent chassis, but the latter was easily fixed by applying slight pressure to straighten it. The quality of the webcam, which I had doubts about with it being such low resolution, was acceptable and not as bad as I’d feared. Noise isn’t much of an issue either during normal use, but be warned that the optical drive is rather loud. Heat dissipation is better than the MBP, with temperatures generally around 44-50°C per core, 45°C for the GPU, and 55-60°C for the chipset in Windows, while the GPU runs around 55-60°C in Ubuntu, since I have all the eye candy turned on. What this translates to is that your palms might feel a bit warm, and you probably won’t want to keep it on your lap either, but it’s no different from my experience with the MBP.

It’s not without its flaws though. The touchpad is a bit small, and the presence of vertical and horizontal scrolls restricts the space even further. They can also be frustrating to use at times, with the touchpad not always picking up my scroll attempts. I do miss the MBP’s Multi-Touch trackpad, which is probably the best touchpad I’ve used to date. The built-in speakers can also sound a bit harsh at times, though I acclimated quickly. Also, while the LED screen looks great, its slightly bluish tint might be an issue to those concerned with color accuracy – it may be possible to color calibrate though. Lastly, and I feel this is true of most mass-manufactured laptops, the Dell comes pretty bloated with what I feel is a lot of unnecessary software. My next post will cover the process I went through to reformat and dual boot Windows XP and Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex.

For those looking for more information, either before or after getting a e6400, check out the Latitude e6400 Owners Lounge over at NotebookReview.com. And if you’re looking for photographs, I’ll be adding them to this post when I’m back in the States – I’m not able to get proper shots without my photo equipment.

With this being my first official site, I wasn’t looking for much. The three hosts I considered, Dreamhost, Lunarpages, and Bluehost, all have the basic features I was looking for: support of multiple languages (PHP, Perl, Python, Rails, etc), shell access, plenty of storage and bandwidth, and a free domain name. It was only later that uptime came up, with user comments suggesting that Lunarpages is the best of the three, while Dreamhost is the worst, with large variations in uptime depending on the other users on your shared server.

However, with shell access being an additional cost at Lunarpages, I had originally decided to go with Bluehost. It wasn’t until a Dreamhost deal came out at $22 for 2 years that I figured I could take a gamble, with no plans to have a site where uptime would be mission critical. Deals aside, as of this post, Bluehost and Lunarpages both charge $6.95/month for their 1-year plans, while Dreamhost charges $9.95.

Some resources that one might consider looking at are:

• Web Hosting Talk – A forum about hosting and running your sites, with a good repository of posts, and lots of active members
• Host Hideout – Another forum similar to Web Hosting Talk, but with slightly less content
• Web Hosting Reviews – For those who like to see numbers, this site lists hundreds of hosts along with user ratings and reviews
• Web Hosting Rebates – Useful when looking for cheaper hosting, this site lists the rebates available for various hosts