How do I know that I'm a geek at heart? I lust after pretty hardware. Sad. I know. But there it is.

Example? A friend sent me a link to his newest gear acquisition today: a Origen case that houses his home entertainment system. Onto which he's currently slapping the Linux distro Ubuntu (thanks to Jake and Jon for the tip ...).

Alu case. Blue power button. Touch screen! This - coupled with a projector and a huge slide screen - promises to be one of the most rockin' movie-watching systems. Ever. I have a case of major gear envy right now.

Drool.

Plus - this comes on the heels of watching Stay Alive last night - a sort of "Ring"-esque teenager horror movie. Substitute the vidoe tape with a video game, and the creepy girl with a demented countess, and you have the basic plot. Not too terrible of a movie too, actually.

Fun thing though: all the gamer characters in the movie used AlienWare hardware. Which is oh so damn pretty. And it made me drool, as I've been lusting after an AlienWare case for a while now (if only they weren't so damn expensive ... grumble ...).



And the total kicker in the movie? The main character defeats the evil-video-game-countess-come-alive by pointing his super-shiny AlienWare laptop at her, in substitution for a mirror. How cool is that? I knew hardware like that can come in handy ...

Alienwares are made by the same company that makes Sager Laptops -- at least they used to be -- and their prettiness will cost you quite a bit more than another brand of laptop. Most laptops out there are made and remarked by just a few companies, and Clevo makes a great deal of them.