I bought a new IBM Thinkpad X31 today, in theory. I write in theory because I can't get any status on the order (the IBM order status page times out with a server error 400 after about 30 seconds). The receipt I received was misclassified as spam ('cause it looks like spam) so I didn't even see it initially, and it took me three tries to buy it in the first place.

Good thing IBM pushed a bunch of us through the paces in 1999 with the "bullseye" redesign.

Anyway....it's a Thinkpad X31 with 1024Mb of memory and 40Gb of dasd. Built in wifi and bluetooth. I should have seen if I could buy more mouse button thingamajigs since that's the major problem with my current stinkpad.

When I placed the order everything was listed as "in stock". The receipt I received in mail made it clear that in IBM lingo, "in stock" doesn't mean "in stock". I'm not sure what it means, however my system won't ship until January 2004. Funny thing is, if it doesn't ship before the end of the year I might as well cancel the order since the whole point was to get a tax writeoff this year (and based on past experience, IBM won't charge the card until they ship the system, which is the right thing to do, except not what I need).