UtterlyBoring.com

I’m in the process of getting a technology quote together for a new athletic facility they’re building out here in Sunriver, and to save myself time and trouble, I’m just probably going to order through Dell (generally, if I had more time, I might build them all myself, but at this point, it’s going to be cheaper and easier to manage if I buy them all from a single point, and Dell is the cheapest). I’ve heard you can get the best deals on multiple system purchases (I need four desktops and a server) if you call in an order.

Does anybody have somebody there that they’ve dealt with a bunch in the past that’s been easy to work with so I have an extension? Basically, here’s what I need:

Desktops:

-512 Megs of RAM

-Celeron 2400 (at least)

-CD/Floppy

-15″ LCD (might by that at NewEgg.com, as it’s cheaper)

-Windows XP Pro

-Office 2003 Small Business Edition

Server:

-At least a 2.5ghz Celeron

-2x80gig Hard Drives in RAID 1 Config

-Windows 2003 Small Business Server with 5 CAL

-Tape Backup System

Anybody have any ideas on who to deal with? Or just call their number and have at it?

Update at 11:41 Talked to a Dell rep earlier today. She didn’t speak very good English, but after answering a few of her questions, I’m apparently being transferred to a higher-level account rep who can work with my budget a bit. Hopefully he/she will speak better English.

Update on 5/21: HP ended up giving me a great deal, and the sales rep I talked to was American and actually spoke good English. I never even heard back from Dell, so screw ’em — I’m getting an HP.

Several of the girls in our office here are planning a mom’s weekend at one of our bigger houses. Some of the guys (and a couple of the girls who have to work) are thinking about playing a practical joke on them. Anybody have any ideas? We were thinking along the lines of a male stripper calling the house, asking for directions, but none of us could do it because all the women there would recognize us (or even hiring a really BAD stripper show up at the door — I’m sure I could get some money from folks here to pay somebody for that). Anybody up to the task or have any other great ideas? E-mail me (jake at orty dot com).

While I managed to get some links posted yesterday, that was primarily because I was waiting for about a dozen high-quality PDF jobs to be spat from our printer at work so I figured I’d clear out my inbox. Otherwise, still working my butt off, not finding time for anything — so pretty much like two days ago. My wife had a tooth pulled today, so I’ve been taking care of her and the kids. I’m also completely re-writing my music for a piece in the band because it’s written very poorly and we don’t have enough people to cover all the parts on all the sheets of music (some composers just don’t know how to write percussion parts properly, in my opinion). Re-writing that part is taking up any free time I have, because our concerts are in a few weeks, the piece is a mess, and it needs to get done (my dad is doing the same with his parts). All in all, free time is at a minimal, but will try to get some great links sitting flagged in my RSS reader posted tomorrow.