New Laptop

This post is brought to you by a new laptop, the Acer Aspire 5315-2713, running Ubuntu (Hardy).

I had been saving for a new laptop when I was driving down the highway and I saw a sign advertising laptops for $379. Immediately after getting home I researched whether I could get Linux running on this model and the only documented problems are with the sound and wireless. There were workarounds though so I ran out and bought it. Woo hoo!

For the record, the sound issue was resolved in Hardy and the wireless worked without too much pain thanks to these directions. Thank you UbuntuGeek!

ETA: The directions I linked to are a little outdated. When you open the gzip/tar file you see just a README that points to a newer version. I followed the same instructions, just with a newer version of the file.

Too Many Installment Accounts Lowering Credit Score

The credit score sites have a wizard that attempts to tell the customer what is lowering their credit score. The big one on mine appears to be my student loans. For some reason my student loans were broken up into 10 installment accounts. Different kinds of loans I guess, but still. I’ve been paying them off using the Dave Ramsey method of paying the smallest ones first but I still have 7 loans. Now, I don’t really need a higher credit score right now but if I did, I would either have to pay off some more of those loans or consolidate. The last time I looked into consolidation, it looked like some of the benefits of student loans would be erased, such as the ability to easily defer and loan forgiveness in case of death or permanent disability.

I should look into consolidation again.