The Product Review Center

That’s the experience with the Inspiron 910 Mini not the mini-experience! Well I am in website design and have been toying with the idea of getting a more portable laptop as my old Dell Inspiron from 2003 is as heavy as a brick. My step dad just bought a top of the range Toshiba Portege at around £1,200, but he’s at that time in life where 1,200 quid is affordable, where as I’m still in financial recovery from my last divorce (yes there was more than one!)! So I happened across the Dell Inspiron 910 Mini on the Dell website whilst looking at specs of normal laptops to use when out and about demonstrating our CMS system to potential clients, wow £299 inc VAT and delivery that is a bargain!

There I was credit card at the ready, wrist twitching, hang on I thought, why am I buying this, do I really need it? No, I don’t NEED it I just WANT ONE . [Puts credit card away]

The next day I happen to have to work on my step Dads’ ultra lightweight Toshiba , wow this is lush, so light, I wish I could afford one.

The next day I had to go to a clients with my laptop, and about put my back out trying to put it in the car passenger foot well whilst sitting in the drivers’ seat, hmm decided I do have a NEED for the new dell Inspiron mini after all! It only weights around 1kg. So as I had a management meeting that afternoon I informed my finance manager I would be ordering one and that was that. So Friday October 3rd I placed the order on the Dell website, and on the 8th I got back from a client meeting at Softcat the Microsoft SPLA Reseller to find a Dell cardboard box on my desk, I thought it couldn’t possibly be the new mini as the confirmation email I got said it would arrive on or around the 20th October, but sure enough it really had arrived.

Well I was ecstatic and got it out and started setting it up straight away, you know remove Dell Support Centre and install Avast Anti Virus, that kind of thing. As it has an integrated web cam I also downloaded Windows Live Messenger and had a quick video chat with my girlfriend whilst she was doing her ironing, fantastic!

So I googled ‘mobile broadband suppliers’ and toyed with ordering the USB dongle from Three, as their 5GB monthly allowance is only 15 quid a month so the best looking deal, providing those coverage stories you hear about Three Mobile are not really the case!

Anyway, it was soon time to go and get my daughter from school so I thought yeah I’ll take it with me and even though I don’t have the mobile broadband USB Modem yet I can continue configuring it in car park if I’m early. I was early, so I turned it on, it said:

Windows could not start because of an error in the software.
Please report this problem as :
load needed DLLs for kernel.
Please contact your support person to report this problem

As we say in England “Computer says no…”

Ah dear, it was great fun whilst it lasted, then followed a 2 and a half hour telethon with Dell support in India Apparently they were so quick to ship it to me that my service tag isn’t on their system yet. They suggested I called back in 24-48 hours, well I explained to them exactly what I thought of their suggestion as I’m sure you can image, but to no avail. I did indeed have to call back today and they have agreed to send me a replacement unit as it is within 7 days of delivery.

I hope the replacement arrives as promptly as the original unit did…

So conclusion? Apart from the fact it doesn’t work (a faulty drive in my opinion) and for the life of me I can’t get it to boot from an external drive or USB key (it doesn’t have a CD or DVD drive you know) it feels really solid, looks lovely, and is nice to handle (sounds a bit like the ideal companion to an i-phone 2.0 doesn’t it!).

Like most reviewers have stated , the keys are small (but blackberry users manage and they are larger than those keys) and the right shift key is tiny and means you can’t type an @ in the usual fashion. But the screen is nice, 3 USB slots, a monitor connector, Ethernet and earphones and mic connectors although it has both speakers and mic internally so you can Live Messenger without having to plug anything in.

On the whole, I would recommend it, providing you get one that boots up! I am also yet to try it with LogMeIn which is my preferred way of dealing with how to access emails, lots of passwords, specialist software and all that kind of thing when you are out and about. Possibly the screen is going to be too small to be able to work with for extended periods of time, but I’ll let you know when the replacement arrives and I have had chance to give it a proper testing, assuming that one doesn’t break on me as soon as I start urm ‘configuring’ it!

If you’re like most golfers, you’re always trying to find that “perfect” golf swing. I know I am. You know you can do it, because you’ve hit some of those great shots before. Doesn’t it feel great to hit that effortless shot? Don’t you wish you could do it every time? That would be a similar feeling of what the pro’s have most of the time. It would make golf so much more enjoyable!

So what’s keeping you from this goal? Will camping out at the range and beating balls hour after hour help? Or, are you already hitting several buckets every week? If you’re reading this, my guess is that’s not working too well. So, do you need more golf lessons? Or, have you had a ton of golf instruction but not seen improvement? If it’s none of the above, then what?

I can tell you what it is almost 100% for sure — it’s your MIND!
Your mind dictates your golf swing. Your body can do the proper thing — you’ve hit good shots before. The problem is not that your body is incapable, it’s that your mind is not sending the right messages to your body. The way you build a repeatable swing is to lock in the proper swing feel into your mind so that your mind can tell your body what to do on a subconscious level. To get your mind into such a state, you have to repeatedly practice the right motions. If you don’t practice the right motions, your mind never gets to the point of subconsciously controlling your swing. Hitting more balls or taking more golf lessons will not do anything good for you unless you are practicing something consistently.

You could try to buy one of those bizarre contraptions that force you to swing on a perfect plane. They actually do work, but who has room for a 8 foot tall by 6 foot wide tubular steel swing aid. I sure don’t. Fortunately, you don’t need one. There are many innovative golf training aids that work just as well and are much smaller. The best training aid I’ve found is the Medicus Driver. You’d be amazed at how quickly you can improve your golf swing and game using this hittable dual-hinged club. I like the driver because that is the club most people have trouble hitting.

But if you really want to get a well-rounded and consistent swing with your irons, too, be sure to also check out the Medicus 5 iron or the Medicus 7 iron. They will definitely improve your iron play, because they force you to swing the club in a consistent, proper motion, enabling your mind to “lock” that motion into the subconscious. The nice thig is that if you consistently practice with the Medicus clubs just a little bit each week, it will keep your swing in great shape and prevent you from getting some of those subtle errors creeping in.

Don’t keep looking for the silver bullet. The answer is in your head. You just need the right tool to unlock the potential. Now do something about it!