Okay guys, not funny... "Microsoft, Oldsmobile team up on new Vista Cruiser".

The Vista is a pretty cool wagon, man. How you could do this to Olds, poor dead nameplate that it is? Sure, there are more attractive models of the Vista Cruiser than the 1965 they've got posted there, but picking on the '65 is just another way the Fool is doing the wagon wrong.

But even on the '65, lookit them cool windows up on the top. Sweet. To think I let a '67 Vista Cruiser get past me on eBay a year or more ago. I still lament that day, though others who share my bank account don't.

In other random, useless news, I just got a flyer showing me Dell's got a nice range of AMD laptops with two big pluses over their similarly spec'd line of Intels -- the price (AMDs about $100 less) and the integrated video solution. I understand the Intel Duo is apparently much faster than the current AMDs, but I've found that there's really only one hardware item that makes a hill of beans for what I do, including programming, which is the video card when gaming. Past a certain point, the processor doesn't matter. Heck, I can still get by on an old Libretto Pentium 90 MHz or so for VB 6 in a pinch (though I wouldn't even try to run Eclipse there).

Cheap, Intel-powered Dell laptops use the Intel 950 integrated video solution, which from all reports is horrible, and the AMDs use ATi's Xpress 1150. I can and have reported the Xpress' predecessor is a pretty good solution if you have to go integrated. I've yet to add a dedicated video card for gaming to my tower that uses Xpress 200 integrated video (apparently a pretty similar setup), and I've had it for nearly two years.

It's going to be hard to convince myself to spend another $400 for a Macbook over these AMD Dells when the Macbooks also use that Intel 950 integrated crud. We all know I likely will once the time's right, but man, a good $600 laptop (and an excellent, dual core AMD at $800) is tempting.