Slashdot Mirror

IPMI remote management security is worrisome.

There are Linux utilities for IPMI. It's definitely worthwhile running "ipmiutil discover" on any LAN you control, to find out if anything out there speaks IPMI. It's also worthwhile monitoring your data center's networks for anything happening on UDP ports 663 and 664. If you're not using IPMI, make sure no one else is.

A big problem with IPMI is that the shipped hardware defaults really matter. If someone ships you a NIC card with IPMI enabled and the password known, you are 0wned at a very low level. IPMI boards offer various levels of authentication, some of which offer good cryptographic security. But one of the options is "no authentication".

A deeper problem is the possibility that NIC chips might have a default backdoor password built in. Many NIC chips now are designed in China.

Understand how much you can do via IPMI. You can turn the machine on and off remotely. You can force a reboot. You can change the boot settings. You can change the MAC address. You can override the front panel power and reset switches.(!) You can lock out the keyboard, blank the screen, set up a connection which the computer sees as a hard-wired keyboard, and boot from the LAN. The operating system isn't involved in any of this; it's taking place at a level below that of the main CPU.

Dell's guidance on IPMI is terrifying. See Figure 3, where IPMI over LAN is being enabled with username "root", no password. This sort of thing is common. The default password on Dell PowerEdge servers is "calvin", on Sun Fire servers its "changeme", in both cases the user is "root"."

If you try to do it right, turning on all the crypto and using unique random keys for each chassis, someone has to manually type in the encryption key in hex on each new server. Then you need a remote management program which securely holds all the keys. How many shops really do that?

The iPad comment was a joke and it is just not built for the outside. It's barely meant for a kitchen with a tile floor.

If you don't want to touch the toughbook, maybe the Dell Latitude E6400 XFR http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-latitude-xfr-e6400?c=us&l=en&s=bsd

Dell XFRs start around $1,600 from the Outlet, with Core 2 Duos, no webcam, and designed to operate in the conditions you describe. I don't think they're quite as rugged as the Panasonic Toughbooks, but you can just buy two XFRs for the same price and switch the hard drives out if one breaks.

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=28&l=en&s=dfb

1. Something is very rotten in the state of Australia and their recent Think of the Children campaign has gone to new lengths to prevent people from transmitting sexy audio.
2. You are very adept at selecting some models of computers that have no line-in jacks from a sea of computers with line-in jacks.
3. You actually have a line-in jack, you just are confused with the colors (please don't take this as an insult, I've helped family members through this before). You also might have better drivers allowing you to make one of the jacks a line-in jack but you don't realize it.
4. Look closer at your sound card. Does it say "Sorny" or "Panaphonics" on it? Buying computers from a kangaroo in an alleyway will get you what you pay for.
5. Your tinfoil hat is on so tight you can't see the back ports on your computer.

Look, if you could give us more information like what operating system you use and what motherboards you're using, I'd be willing to track down the manuals on them and verify there's no line-in jack and take a boomerang to the head if I'm mistaken. But couldn't this problem have been solved with a couple bucks? My eeePC netbook has a line-in. I really don't see them disappearing at all.

P.S. If you're looking for something a little more professional, external Audigys and M-Audio Pre USBs are useful for what you're doing though they are pricey ($200 USD).

1. Something is very rotten in the state of Australia and their recent Think of the Children campaign has gone to new lengths to prevent people from transmitting sexy audio.
2. You are very adept at selecting some models of computers that have no line-in jacks from a sea of computers with line-in jacks.
3. You actually have a line-in jack, you just are confused with the colors (please don't take this as an insult, I've helped family members through this before). You also might have better drivers allowing you to make one of the jacks a line-in jack but you don't realize it.
4. Look closer at your sound card. Does it say "Sorny" or "Panaphonics" on it? Buying computers from a kangaroo in an alleyway will get you what you pay for.
5. Your tinfoil hat is on so tight you can't see the back ports on your computer.

Look, if you could give us more information like what operating system you use and what motherboards you're using, I'd be willing to track down the manuals on them and verify there's no line-in jack and take a boomerang to the head if I'm mistaken. But couldn't this problem have been solved with a couple bucks? My eeePC netbook has a line-in. I really don't see them disappearing at all.

P.S. If you're looking for something a little more professional, external Audigys and M-Audio Pre USBs are useful for what you're doing though they are pricey ($200 USD).

The buyers in this case are OEMs like Dell, HP, and Asus. They can't buy OS X to preinstall on their machines, so it is not part of the market when the courts examine how much power Microsoft has over them.

But they can buy a desktop GNU/Linux distribution such as Ubuntu or Fedora, which have a "Wine" toolkit that can run many applications designed for Windows. In fact, Dell sells a few token Linux boxes in some markets. How does Linux fail to break Microsoft's market power?

But that is the point.
The 747 is a great plane for the price but it is very expensive as a way to fly 100 people $500 miles.
Yes if you want a machine that fits in the segments that apple offers then they are priced about right.
But they leave huge segments unaddressed.
My desktop doesn't need wifi.
I don't need a Xeon.
So lets take a look at some configurations and see what Apple can offer.
Here is a dell I built. Not perfect but an machine that will play a lot of games.
Cost $816 http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bv2hv9c2&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&kc=desktop-vostro-220mt
Yes a Mac Pro is much more powerful.
An iMac is an all in one and takes up less room.
A MacMini is smaller and cheaper.
But this machine is a better game machine than the iMac or the MacMini and cheaper than the MacPro.
Apple just doesn't offer anything in the middle of the road meat and potatoes desktop.
They also fail to offer anything in the $600 range of notebooks.
In many ways they remind me of Roll Royce or Ferrari. If you are going to buy a car in the class they make they are world beaters.
But they don't make minivans for taking your kids to school or compact cars for commuters.
There products are not over priced they just don't offer products in certain segments. If you are interested in that segment then you are out of luck.

:)

Outside the US this is a different matter. I can get something pretty much equivalent to the 17" macbook Pro from dell (the dell will have a better screen RGBLED) for about half the price of the macbook, as Apple plays funny games with the exchange rate..

http://store.apple.com/au/configure/MC226X/A?mco=MTM3NzYzNjY
http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=s541210au&c=au&l=en&s=dhs&cs=audhs1

Yet again Apple is heralded on Slashdot for "inventing" something the rest of the business has been doing for years. See EICC or Dell's involvement in it which started in 2004. Apple has been criticized for many years for the sweatshop suppliers they use for the iPod and iPhone. And now all is forgiven because of empty ceremonial lip service?

"Trailing edge"?

Apple led the charge of SCSI, USB, FireWire, Bluetooth, integrated webcams, multitouch, WiFi, sudden motion sensors, new battery technologies, unibody construction, DVD burners...

TO start with, USB was developed by Microsoft amongst other company's according to Wikipedia, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus ) so I'm not believing that they led the charge of it. FireWire is made by Apple ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire ), yet isn't the standard option with iPods, iPhones or other major Apple products, USB is. And if a company won't stand by it's own standards with its highest standing products, I wouldn't call that leading the charge. As for your other 'facts', they would take a lot of effort to figure out the truth, and with you blunt mis-understanding of USB alone makes me lean towards you talking whatever you feel without wanting/needing facts.

Current Macs all have Core2Duo or better. That is by *no* reckoning "trailing edge".

Since the Core2Duo was made in 2007, and most PC makers use the i3/5/7 chips that are new and faster... that would be considered trailing edge ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors#Core_2_Duo )

Backlit keyboards, mini displayport, magsafe--these, or similar features, are by no means even *remotely* common.

Mini DisplayPort are Apple tech, so thats more of a 'force upon' then leading edge ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_Display_Port ) Similar to how a lot of Sony products use a Memory Stick. Its not forward thinking, its forward 'pushing'.

As for a premium, that's absurd. Macs cost similar, and often cheaper, than equivalently specced PCs.

I always do love this one. Total BS because all Apple users pray to god no one will check. So lets check. I'll compare the best 15 inch MacBook Pro to a Dell Alienware laptop of as similar spec's as I can: (and before I hear the 'Apple makes top quality hardware claims, this PDF comparing laptop hareware: http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf )

Apple MacBook Pro: 15 inch ( http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MB985LL/A?mco=MTM3NDczMDg )

CPU: 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (only option)

RAM: 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB

HD: 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm

Display: 1440-by-900-pixel LED-backlit display

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB

Alienware 15.6 inch laptop: ( http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DKCWFW1&s=dhs )

CPU (best I could match, Dell doesn't use the older Core 2 Duo): Intel® Core i7-620M 2.66GHz (3.33Ghz Turbo Mode, 4M cache)

RAM: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz

HD: 500GB SATAII 7,200RPM

Display: WideHD+ 1600x900

Graphics card: 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M (new gen card)

Apple doesn't state it's battery size, so assumed 9 cell, the best

Both have wi-fi cards (Apple doesn;t say with one), backlit keyboards.

Now the Apple, with a smaller screen (pixel size), slower CPU, slower/older graphics card, older gen HD will set you back $2,749.00. The Faster Alienware with a faster CPU, newer graphics card, new gen HD, larger (pixel count) screen will set you back $2,024. Saving more then $700 for a faster laptop over the Apple... I don't see how your last claim works... But pl

incidentally what other computer has a humidity limit?

Just about any? Want examples? http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins700m/en/OM/G74722LRs.pdf Relative humidity (maximum): Operating 10% to 90% (noncondensing) Storage 5% to 95% (noncondensing). http://docs.hp.com/en/A5191-96018/apbs06.html Operating Humidity 15 to 80% Relative humidity (Non-condensing) at 35oC (95oF) 40 to 60% Relative humidity (Non-condensing) 30% Per hour Relative humidity (Non-condensing) 90% Relative humidity (Non-condensing) at 65oC (149oF)

Note that they keep repeating Non-condensing so everybody gets it.

You can get a decent balance though. Have you seen the new alienware? C2D 1.3 CULV, GT335M,
say 3 hours with a midrange card. Or more with switchable, like macbook pro.

The Asus U30Jc looks particularly tasty for the lighter option + with the new optimus switchable feature from Nvidia (supposed to be seamless, no need to manually toggle). Hopefully more models with powerful GPUs are on the way
http://zedomax.com/blog/2010/01/08/asus-u30jc-hands-on-review-at-ces-2010/

If cash is no issue and you want small/light the new Alienware looks wicked. 11" but proper midrange card! They claim over 6 hours battery life when not running games.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/alienware-m11x/pd.aspx?refid=alienware-m11x&cs=19&s=dhs

A lot of hardcopy is only read/used once or twice and then recycled. Sounds like a great idea to me.

If you're printing stuff out to only read it once, maybe you should ask yourself if it wouldn't be better to just read it on the screen instead.

Because most business managers buy the cheapest possible 15" monitors for their employees, the ones with the analog inputs only, and then they say things like "I don't like reading on computer screens".

Meanwhile, DELL will sell a 24" high resolution LCD with good contrast and deliver it for $189, which is about the equivalent of 60 sheets of this magic reusable paper. Think of the monitor as super-magic paper that can be reused an almost infinite number of times!

I work as a consultant, and have to process or generate enormous amounts of written material, but I print only a few pages a year, and wouldn't need to do that either if digital projectors were more common in meeting rooms.

#1 it's not about computers with Microsoft it's OS... that is... you can buy any PC you want... as long as it has windows.

Well you had better tell that to all the companies that sell PC's with Linux. In fact, I bought a Asus netbook just a little over a year ago with Linux pre-installed. Even long-standing Windows stalwart Dell offers Linux on at least some models.

With Windows, you have all the choice in the world--install it or don't on just about anything. With OS X you have exactly two choices--Apple or nothing. And "marketshare" has nothing to do with anti-competitive behavior. MS wasn't charged by the EU and others with having too much marketshare, they were accused of anti-competitive behavior. I think that charge was unfair. And, if that ruling wasn't unfair, then the EU and the MS critics are certainly being unfair in not applying the same standards to Apple that they applied to MS.

Wait, you lost me at the third sentence:

So you're telling me I'm going to spend at minimum $500 on a device that is just as locked down as an iPod Touch or iPhone? I'm going to have to hack the damn thing just so I can run an unapproved application? Great. Thanks for that, Apple.

Who, exactly, is telling you that you MUST buy this device? Is Apple ORDERING you to buy one, like a mom orders a kid to finish his lima beans? Without that foundation, the rest of your argument pretty much falls apart. You want a general-purpose tablet, buy one. There have been locked-down tablets before. There will be more in the future. This is Apple's. There will always be a need for, and a supply of, general-purpose computers.

Basically, this COULD have been an amazing device...but regardless of what they did right, Apple made some unbelievably stupid decisions that puts it firmly in the "what's the point" category for me. [emphasis mine]

And there's the key point. Taco called the original iPod "lame" and Apple went on to sell 250,000,000 of them. They don't care what some geek on Slashdot--you, me, or him--thinks.

they decided to put on a velvet glove and slap the shit out of their customers

Really? They aren't trying to put anything past their customers. Apple makes it VERY CLEAR that this is not a general purpose computer. People will buy it, or not, and like it, or not. Just like any other device.

Yeah. Because Apple doesn't tend to use higher quality caps and fans and other components than HP or Dell.

Apple has a higher failure rate then Toshiba, Lenovo or Asus, lower then HP and about the same as Dell. Almost all Apple components are assembled by FoxConn, if you know anything about building your own PC you avoid FoxConn boards like the plague, go for something like Asustek or Gigabyte boards which are better manufactured. Sorry but Apple use the same off the self components as HP, Dell et al and they are assembled in that haven of competent manufacturing, China just like HP and Dell.

Apple leaves the decision on what cap's and copper to use to the manufacturer as they are responsible for acquiring the components. Oddly enough just like Dell except Dell will QA their laptops properly. Given the trouble Apple has with things like the 27" imac screens their QA must be asleep.

Apple doesn't use Intel's high-end processors

The 13" macbook has a P7570 2.26 GHz C2D and starts at A$1300, the Dell Vostro 13 has the same proc and more RAM for less then A$950. If I hit the customise button on the dell site I can go up to a P8700 (2.53 Ghz C2D) and still have a the laptop priced under the Mac with more RAM. The brilliant thing about Dell is that I can scale back the proc to a T series to save money if I don't need the power.

I'm sorry but Apple really do use the same internal components, the rest is aesthetic bunk. there really is no difference between a Lenovo power connector and a Apple power connector in terms of functionality but there is a world of difference between the Lenovo keyboard, trackpad and nub mouse and the Apple one button track pad (shock horror, other companies design their own input dev's as well) If you are serious about using a laptop, the Lenovo input dev's are superior to anything else. I've used Dell's, Levono's, Acer's, Asus's Toshiba's and Mac's and the only laptop I'd recommend less then a Mac is the Acer, yes Acer are that bad.

Exactly. Those of us who live in Europe know the exchange rate applies only to banks, not to consumer purchases. Apparently $250 equates to 379€ here in France

I haven't seen any computer with 3G ram for 175 Euro, much less with Windows.

Then you've apparently not looked very hard.

Could you give me a pointer to the products you have in mind?

Sure. It's more powerful than this "Open-PC" and costs equivalent to 175 Euro.

the dell studio hybrid is $200 less, has a 2.1GHz core duo processor, and includes MS windows. i am sure there are other examples. really folks if anything this is an anti-linux desktop advertisement.

Is it a lack of engineering foresight, or is it a cable war with companies jockeying for position?

I've noticed that new Dells are now coming with DisplayPort, and discovered that Dell was one of the instigators.

Another unrelated observation: this could obsolete USB, and thus USB thumb drives, and thus yet another data storage format becomes oprhaned. This was inevitable. USB has had a good 14 year run so far. It couldn't last forever, despite what people thought about USB "being different this time" regarding being able to access old data -- that somehow it was going to be different from floppies and tapes.

Did some ore playing to match the specs better.

$1,132.00 Mac Mini: http://store.apple.com/ca/configure/MC238LL/A?mco=MTM3NTAwOTE
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
320GB Serial ATA Drive
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Apple Mouse
Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad

$559 Dell Inspiron: http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=di545s_r_1e&c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&kc=desktop-inspiron-545s
Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo E7300 (3MB L2, 2.66GHz, 1066FSB)
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2 DIMMs
320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache(TM)
Dell Mouse / Keyboard

"A new Mac mini goes for $599 and a MacBook is $999. This is hardly "house and children" figures. Pick a reasonable Mac then go to Dell and spec out a similar machine. The PC prices will be in a close neighborhood."

Ok I'll take that challenge. Im Canadian so priced in CAD.

$649 Mac Mini: http://store.apple.com/ca/configure/MC238LL/A?mco=MTM3NTAwOTE
2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x1GB
160GB Serial ATA Drive

$409 Dell Inspiron http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=di545s_r_1e&c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&kc=desktop-inspiron-545s
2.4Ghz Intel E2220
2GB Ram
320GB HD

The dell also gets you a mouse and keyboard for $140 less. Upgrade any of the parts and you save more versus the apple.

Microsoft is a company that cannot "let go" of anything. Take .NET for example -- it is a miserable failure that they won't let die.

A few web sites that use .NET technology:

Costco - http://www.costco.com/
Crate & Barrel - http://www.crateandbarrel.com/
Home Shopping Network - http://www.hsn.com/
Buy.com - http://www.buy.com/
Dell - http://www.dell.com/
Nasdaq - http://www.nasdaq.com/
Virgin - http://www.virgin.com/
7-Eleven - http://www.7-eleven.com/
Carnival Cruise Lines - http://www.carnival.com/
L'Oreal - http://www.loreal.com/
Remax - http://www.remax.com/
Monster Jobs - http://www.monster.com/
USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/
ComputerJobs.com - http://computerjobs.com/
Match.com - http://www.match.com/
National Health Services (UK) - http://www.nhs.uk/
CarrerBuilder.com - http://www.careerbuilder.com/
Newegg http://newegg.com/
Geico http://geico.com/
Capital One http://capitalone.com/
Zecco http://zecco.com/

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Maybe you should tell all those sites that .NET is a miserable failure? Or if you were just (successfully) karmawhoring, I am sorry to interrupt the circle jerk on here.

Ummm, did you look at those items? Only the first one is a thin client, the others are just very small computers running regular windows.

HP's offering: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/12454-12454-321959-338927-3640405-4063703.html - $199
This is ARM-based mind.

From Dell:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/inspiron-zino-hd/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-zino-hd&s=dhs&cs=19
$250 right now, but was about $200 during black friday

From Acer:
http://www.frys.com/product/6054148

It is however very nice that we now can use the space that was take up by the standard size pc for additional storage space in the information points on the sales floor where we deploy them. They are also much easier to move around when we re-decorate since they are fixed to the back of the monitor.

Dell has "standard" PCs with that exact same form factor, as well as ones that are more like an iMac (i.e., all you see is a keyboard and display, but it's an entire computer).

This link should get you there. If not, go to the Dell business site, and under desktop PCs, click "All-In-Ones".

HP's offering: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/12454-12454-321959-338927-3640405-4063703.html - $199
This is ARM-based mind.

From Dell:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/inspiron-zino-hd/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-zino-hd&s=dhs&cs=19
$250 right now, but was about $200 during black friday

From Acer:
http://www.frys.com/product/6054148

$200, has been $180.
To be fair, all these products are very recent, and I wouldn't expect anyone to be aware of them.
There are others too, but they tend to cost more.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Laptops/ct.aspx?refid=notebooks&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs#subcats=&navla=&a=65235~0~399477

If that does not work you just have to type Linux in the search box in Dell's UK website.

Response on the Direct2Dell community blog.

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/12/02/dell-on-laptops-and-throttling.aspx

Actually they do.

http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml

The third link: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19256129/19427660.aspx Appears to discuss a different issue. Yes freeze/lockups, but not due to throttling. Rather it's pointing to bad RAM as the eventual culprit. The other two links discuss throttling.

Here's a post on Dell's forums describing the issue

From the link:

Some key points from the report (keep in mind this is specifically for the E6500 with the NVIDIA graphics option, but much of this likely applies to the E6400 and/or the Intel integrated graphics option):

1. The problem is NOT an overheating problem - the system simply does not overheat. It is due to premature and overly aggressive attempts at thermal control, invoked at what are NORMAL processor operating temperatures (65-80 Celsius), possibly due to faulty ACPI "passive cooling" parameter definitions and/or control methods.
2. The problem is substantially more pronounced when the system is docked.
3. The problem is aggravated somewhat by the use of dual monitors when docked as opposed to a single monitor.
4. Since the problem is all about temperature, the higher the surrounding ambient temperature in the room, the sooner and the greater the performance loss.
5. The symptoms are much more highly correlated to elevated NVIDIA GPU temperature than elevated CPU core temperatures.

Some miscellaneous corollaries:

1. Any blockage of air inlets or outlets (including, of course, dust) will aggravate the problem.
2. The reason people report shockingly high percent CPU utilization statistics when their system slows down is that the overall capacity of their processor is degraded by the throttling mechanisms. The same processes running on a CPU that is subsequently throttled necessarily will demand a higher percentage of the processor's remaining capacity.
3. The reason some folks report persistent slowness even after installing software to prevent CPU downclocking is that more than one throttling mechanism is in play here. In particular, Software-controlled Clock Modulation (also called On-Demand Clock Modulation) occurs in an almost completely invisible manner, as opposed to performance state changes (which are usually monitored by common utilities). Another often-invisible throttling mechanism is Dynamic FSB Frequency Switching (where the FSB frequency is slashed in half), though if you prevent performance state changes, that takes care of preventing this too (since it's part of state P3).
4. The reason there aren't more complaints (though many are accumulating these days) is that users who experience this problem simply have no way of knowing what the cause is and are likely to blame the wrong thing (Windows, recently installed software, cooling hardware, etc.). Untold masses may be adversely affected by this problem, but nearly all of them wouldn't know it because there's no way for them to tell. Also, the problem is at its worst only when in a docked configuration, which may not be common.
5. The reason complaints are escalating now more than before is that this is the first summer that people have had this system (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway). I think it's safe to say that ambient temperatures are higher for most E6400/E6500 users now.
6. The problem can be substantially mitigated by pointing an external fan at the system.
7. The problem can also be mitigated by software, such as RMClock, that can override the throttling mechanisms in question, at the expense of negating all passive thermal management (though critical temperature shutdown mechanisms may remain in place).

If I don't want OS X why should I have to pay for it simple as that.

You don't have to pay for OS X, you only pay if you buy a Mac. And haven't you heard Macs are overpriced?

when I get a new laptops, I hate have to dodge the windows tax

What? Do you hate dodging the Windows Tax? You don't have to, just buy a laptop with Windows. Or do you mean you have to buy another laptop so you avoid paying for Window when you buy a laptop? There are a number of laptops with Linux not Windows. For instance Dell sells them.

Falcon

It is (i^2)*R actually, and for a typical computer power cable we are looking at 18 gauge wire which is 6.5/1000 feet, http://www.interfacebus.com/Copper_Wire_AWG_SIze.html (i hate the customary system but god dammit I hate mixed units even more) and at 1030 watts, http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/servers/server-poweredge-r900/pd.aspx?refid=server-poweredge-r900&s=bsd&cs=04, which will vary from server to server. The line voltage to the servers will all be the same so the resistive losses will increase exponentially relative current or linearly relative to the line length. So when you need to run on backup power, having the backup power supply immediately next to the server will either allow you to buy relatively less powerful units and or just get equally powerful units and run longer in case of a power outage.
For the sake of argument lets say its only 100 feet between the servers and backup power units, which at 120volts on the power cable(assuming its the same as desktop computers) we have ~8.6 amps. Which at 100ft and 6.5/1000 ft we get ~48 watts of power losses which is a 4.6% loss before you get any power to the actually server which Im sure will take at least another 15% loss.

I don't like some of what Apple does. Nah, let me rephrase that, I wish Apple would do some things Steve Jobs refuses to let the company do. Such as make and sell a mid-range expandable Mac.

I've been a Mac user for more than 15 years, but this month I'll be switching to an ordinary PC with Ubuntu on it.

After using Windows PCs almost exclusively for more than 10 years I switched. I first got a desktop, er Tower, PC with Linux preinstalled. When I get around to it I'll rebuild it into a server. And when I got a new laptop I got a MacBook Pro. Right now it's running Leopard however when I'm ready I'll install Snow Leopard, the DVD is in arms reach, as well as Ubuntu. I'm not sure if I'll install Jaunty or Karmic though. I'm still researching so I can lay out an upgrade plan. Once I have the plan I'll dualboot Snow Leopard and Ubuntu.

You cannot upgrade the graphics card on iMacs.

Can you upgrade the graphics card in other all-in-ones? Looking at Dell's XPS One I don't see where its graphics is upgradeable either. Their Studio One 19 isn't either. I bet if I looked more I'll come up with more all-in-ones without upgradeable graphics.

Apple only sells new iMacs with old and already outdated graphics cards

iMacs come with different cards. The 21.5" model has the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and the GeForce 9 Series came out in 2008. The technical summary says the 9400 GT came out in August 2008, that makes it all of 15 months old. The 27" iMac comes with a card from 2008 as well.

Falcon

I don't like some of what Apple does. Nah, let me rephrase that, I wish Apple would do some things Steve Jobs refuses to let the company do. Such as make and sell a mid-range expandable Mac.

I've been a Mac user for more than 15 years, but this month I'll be switching to an ordinary PC with Ubuntu on it.

After using Windows PCs almost exclusively for more than 10 years I switched. I first got a desktop, er Tower, PC with Linux preinstalled. When I get around to it I'll rebuild it into a server. And when I got a new laptop I got a MacBook Pro. Right now it's running Leopard however when I'm ready I'll install Snow Leopard, the DVD is in arms reach, as well as Ubuntu. I'm not sure if I'll install Jaunty or Karmic though. I'm still researching so I can lay out an upgrade plan. Once I have the plan I'll dualboot Snow Leopard and Ubuntu.

You cannot upgrade the graphics card on iMacs.

Can you upgrade the graphics card in other all-in-ones? Looking at Dell's XPS One I don't see where its graphics is upgradeable either. Their Studio One 19 isn't either. I bet if I looked more I'll come up with more all-in-ones without upgradeable graphics.

Apple only sells new iMacs with old and already outdated graphics cards

iMacs come with different cards. The 21.5" model has the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and the GeForce 9 Series came out in 2008. The technical summary says the 9400 GT came out in August 2008, that makes it all of 15 months old. The 27" iMac comes with a card from 2008 as well.

Falcon

Good point.

FWIW, I was approaching the issue from the point of view of a consumer. A quick and dirty search on Dell's web site (an admittedly small sample size, so don't take these numbers as gospel truth) shows netbooks to be between 25% and 50% cheaper than low-end laptops (Dell Mini-10s start at $279 and go up to $349; Inspiron laptops start at $379 go over and go to $549, http://www.dell.com/home/laptops). So, if the difference between a netbook's failure rate and a laptop's failure rate is only 1%, the netbooks are significantly cheaper than a laptop, and either a laptop or a netbook will meet my needs, I'll probably accept the very slightly greater failure rate of a netbook for the enhanced portability and lower cost of a netbook.

I'm not familiar with the Zino, so I read the specs then clicked the gallery link to get a look at the machine. Then I read the captions. Seems they need to get some things in order on their site. According to the gallery captions, there's an HDMI port, optional Blu-ray drive, integrated HD3200 graphics, and an AMD Athlon dual-core processor. Of course, none of those are available on the Zino. But if all of those actually were options, it would be a nice little machine worth considering...

I agree the website isn't clear, it's the Zino HD that has those options and it is too expensive IMO. http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Desktops/inspiron-zino-hd/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-zino-hd&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

I wonder if the recently launched Dell Zino could have been a motivator? http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Desktops/inspiron-zino/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-zino&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

So surely this thing must be available from Amazon, or NewEgg, or Tiger Direct or from the manufacturer's own website like the Haupauge 1212 was when it was first released? What about those links?

Okay.

• Amazon
• Dell
• ATI doesn't have them for sale, but that's not surprising since ATI's actually trying to get out of the digital cable tuner market.
• Newegg doesn't sell CableCard tuners. Yet. As the market picks up with mulitple players (Hauppauge and Ceton for starters), I expect Newegg to start selling something.

We're currently in a chicken-and-egg situation. CableCard tuners have been available for the past couple of years, but CableLabs were being retarded and required a special BIOS in order for the tuners to work so only ATI bothered with the market. At CEDIA 2009, that changed and new manufacturers have decided to enter the market, but it takes time to develop, test, and manufacture a product. Ask this question again in March of 2010 and there should be several tuners available on the market.

Like I said... vaporware that has no real connection with reality. It is just something that Windows Lemming trolls like to bring up in some sort of vain attempt to knock down any non-Microsoft alternative.

You can buy actual tuners right now and use them on any Win7 machine that fits the requirements (dual core CPU, 2GB RAM, HDCP-compliant GPU). The old requirement of a special bias is now gone, as I said, and the market for these tuners is spinning up. So yeah, sounds like vaporware to me ...

I can (and have) connected an HD-PVR to a $200 ION box.

Not anywhere near the same. HD-PVR is just a component video capture system and requires re-encoding the video, and still requires a STB with IR blaster. A CableCard tuner skips all of that, avoids re-encoding, and can have multiple tuners in a single package (see the Ceton card using M-card CableCards). And external USB CableCard tuners will work just fine on an ION box like the Aspire Revo 3600 (dual-core Atom, 2GB RAM).

Of course a device that has hoops that NO ONE wants to jump through won't be terribly interesting.

Those hoops are now gone. That's why other companies are starting to get into that market.

If CableCard PC devices were out there in the wild in significant numbers than they might get hacked for all sorts of reasons (the least of which is Linux support).

Back that up? ATI CableCard tuners are easily available. Buy one. Hack it. Make it work with Linux.

You can buy those machines pre built for around the same price from many dealers.

But if you want something comparable, Dell has allinones too.

http://www1.ap.dell.com/au/en/business/vostrodt/desktop-vostro-320/pd.aspx?refid=desktop-vostro-320&s=bsd&cs=aubsd1

I personally run/have run many huge enterprise apps on .NET. It's actually a pretty good platform if you know what you're doing.

Don't take my word for it, though.

When I googled for what you asked to google, I found this list of sites running ASP.NET.

Costco - http://www.costco.com/
Crate & Barrel - http://www.crateandbarrel.com/
Home Shopping Network - http://www.hsn.com/
Buy.com - http://www.buy.com/
Dell - http://www.dell.com/
Nasdaq - http://www.nasdaq.com/
Virgin - http://www.virgin.com/
7-Eleven - http://www.7-eleven.com/
Carnival Cruise Lines - http://www.carnival.com/
L'Oreal - http://www.loreal.com/
The White House - http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Remax - http://www.remax.com/
Monster Jobs - http://www.monster.com/
USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/
ComputerJobs.com - http://computerjobs.com/
Match.com - http://www.match.com/
National Health Services (UK) - http://www.nhs.uk/
CarrerBuilder.com - http://www.careerbuilder.com/
Newegg http://newegg.com/
Geico http://geico.com/
Capital One http://capitalone.com/
Zecco http://zecco.com/

Maybe you should tell those sites that .NET is a unproven technology? Or will you try to argue that these are not huge enterprise apps? Just because you want something to be true(or maybe you were just karma whoring) doesn't make it true. C# is a better language than Java, though each one has it's strengths. And even conceding your point(I don't) that Java is faster, speed is not everything. Or we would all be coding in assembly or machine code.

Some manufacturers have a warranty option where you don't have to return the drive.

Even Dell: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/services/prosupport/en/us/Keep_Your_Hard_Drive.pdf

http://system76.com/
http://www.zareason.com/shop/home.php
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

There are a few :-)

I don't know how it is now, but I checked into a Dell netbook with Ubuntu pre-installed. It costs the same as getting a Windows license with the machine.

That's BS! Not what you say but Dell selling netbooks with Ubuntu for the same price as netbooks with Windows. With the same configurations, maybe there's a difference in them, the Ubuntu netbook should be cheaper. Wait,... Dell shows mini netbooks, what's that?, with Windows XP Home Edition or Ubuntu Linux for the same price. Now if XP doesn't require Activation, I'd get one with XP. Actually I'd try to get both.

On another page though Dell shows a netbook with either Ubuntu or XP or Vista. With Ubuntu installed it's $30 cheaper.

Falcon

I don't know how it is now, but I checked into a Dell netbook with Ubuntu pre-installed. It costs the same as getting a Windows license with the machine.

That's BS! Not what you say but Dell selling netbooks with Ubuntu for the same price as netbooks with Windows. With the same configurations, maybe there's a difference in them, the Ubuntu netbook should be cheaper. Wait,... Dell shows mini netbooks, what's that?, with Windows XP Home Edition or Ubuntu Linux for the same price. Now if XP doesn't require Activation, I'd get one with XP. Actually I'd try to get both.

On another page though Dell shows a netbook with either Ubuntu or XP or Vista. With Ubuntu installed it's $30 cheaper.

Falcon

actually this would be the dell equivalent:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/desktop-studio-hybrid/pd.aspx?refid=desktop-studio-hybrid&s=dhs&cs=19&~ck=mn

and i hacked one to hold two hdd's easily.

Someone should tell MS that their fiance hasn't been entirely faithful.

ok, lol for that

Someone should tell MS that their fiance hasn't been entirely faithful.

Who cares she's just an empty box that does what she's told. IBM didn't want to shut up and let Bill drive.