Since we can't actually afford a new laptop at the moment, I did the next best thing: upgrades. A nice surprise over the weekend was the delivery of the RAM and hard drives. I'm now running a maxxed-out 1GB of RAM and have doubled the drive space to 40GB (hey, I said I'm on a budget). The upgrade was smooth -- just a little bit of tinkering to get the RAM seated properly. The hardest part was reinstalling the new drive into the Powerbook. The little rubber grommets don't like to stay in place.

But now the Powerbook G4 / 550 I bought when I stated grad school feels a bit smoother and faster. My new OS upgrade, Tiger, should be arriving in the next day or two and we'll see what that does.

Oh, I purchased the RAM from Omni Technologies, and the hard drive from NewEgg. Ordered both mid-last week and had them by the weekend. I ordered Tiger from Apple, of course, so I could use my student discount.