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For computer parts:

PCPartPicker.

PriceWatch

Price Watch seems good also.

You might want to tone down your insults. Furthermore, I took a look at http://www.pricewatch.com/syst... and prices are roughly double what you claimed. Next time please provide concrete links instead of insulting for the sake of insulting.

Sure, but it won't fit in my laptop.

Oh really?

And it sure as hell won't fit in my SSD-based EeePC.

For your Eee PC, here's 120GB mSATA drives for $75. No, it isn't 1TB, but that's not what the Eee was about. If you need that capacity, don't buy a netbook.

Sure, but it won't fit in my laptop.

Oh really?

And it sure as hell won't fit in my SSD-based EeePC.

For your Eee PC, here's 120GB mSATA drives for $75. No, it isn't 1TB, but that's not what the Eee was about. If you need that capacity, don't buy a netbook.

I'm not just railing senselessly again the free market. I accept that like Democracy, a Regulated Free Market is the worst solution ever.

Except for all the others (we've tried).

Time was when most people worried about paying "a fair wage for a fair days work".
And others worried about and charging a fair amount for the work done / product provided.

The transaction was one of meeting one's obligations to the other.

Not everyone, but the average person.

The fact is that Communism is a wonderful idea and a commendable ideal.
The problem with Communism is that enough people are greedy, are often more than happy to live off the work of others, and are willing to lie, cheat, steal and even kill to do it, to ruin it for everyone else. Making a "share-and-share-alike" economy impossible among large groups of humans.

The free market is a horrible and deeply cynical idea that depends on the worst human impulses to function.
The good part of the free market idea is that even though it depends on morally reprehensible impulses, it works better than anything else devised by humans thus far.

That is why the free market is a myth

It's not a myth; it's an ideal. Some markets are closer to it than others. None will probably ever meet it perfectly.

I speak of the mythical "free market", where all decisions are rational, all transactions are fair, and everyone is informed of the truth. Where no-one deliberately spreads disinformation to cloud the issue with bogus facts like "Smoking is Good for you", and "We do not use Slave Labor". Then hide behind the ideal of "Free Speech" when caught in their lies.

The free-market will be a myth as long as people act and speak as if the ideal does or even can exist in real life. Especially those that speak of a "free and unfettered" market.

The free market is a description of natural forces, and how those forces can be tapped

"Natural Forces". You make it sound like you are describing weather patterns.

Please speak plainly, it's a description of how human greed can be harnessed, rather than relying on our "better natures".

It's a sad statement about humanity that there are always those willing to take undeserved advantage, or steal from others.

The concept of the free market been corrupted by those like Ayn Rand (the philosopher and Science Fiction writer) and has been twisted into the belief that good is evil and evil is good. That the quest for ever more wealth is an absolute good, always, no matter who pays the price. And that charity is an evil because the poor are lazy and evil and deserving of no better than their lot in life. And probably should be punished.

This is how Republicans can justify to themselves their positions on suppressing the vote of those poorer than themselves.

That's why Romney's characterization of the 47% got applause, and still get's re-affirmed by Republicans brave enough to say what they mean.

to provide the best possible outcomes for vendors and consumers.

I'm not sure that vendors would consider a well informed consumer and a competitive market as even a desirable outcome, let alone "the best possible outcome".

For instance, do you remember http://pricewatch.com/ ?

For several years, pricewatch allowed consumers to compare comparable products, including computer parts. This was a great boon to the home-brewer and small computer resellers. The problem was that it forced the participating vendors to competitively offer their products at a lower and lower profit.

Eventually, Pricewatch was made aware of the fact that their customers were the vendors, and not their users, and began to remove the users ability to search for and compare the prices and features of specific products. The last time I checked, the products advertised on PriceWatch were priced the same as (or higher than) pro

Then you're just as stuck as the next guy with his CPU soldered onto the motherboard

I mean yea, its so hard to find older CPUs, and older RAM types like RDRAM and DDR2, and older drive standards like IDE...

You should recheck your facts. Finding replacement parts and upgrades for older sockets is stupidly easy.

Errm, that was his point: you are stuck with old CPUs and old RAM - you may make your machine a little faster, but buying a machine two years younger will likely get you much more performance.

Then you're just as stuck as the next guy with his CPU soldered onto the motherboard

I mean yea, its so hard to find older CPUs, and older RAM types like RDRAM and DDR2, and older drive standards like IDE...

You should recheck your facts. Finding replacement parts and upgrades for older sockets is stupidly easy.

as always, pricewatch.com is the place to go to..watch..for.. prices..

http://www.pricewatch.com/browse/monitors/1920x1200

Last I checked you can get a DVD-RW for $19.98 and go Blu-ray for $10 more.

When I look at the back of my PC I see about half a dozen different types of connectors, so, yeah, you never really replace anything, you just enable new things.

It took an easy decade for USB to make the PS2 connectors go away. And if you shop, you can still find mobos with them.

Given that most things that use USB don't even need the BW it gives us now, Thunderbolt is overkill for basic usage. USB will be around for a long time, and will probably end up replaced by Bluetooth when it does finally go away.

"A new videocard (unless you go commodity) is going to run you $300 to $750."

Whet ripoff shit shop do you buy your shit from?

http://www.pricewatch.com/video_cards/

$160 460GTX.

The 450GTS is only $110 and is barely under the 460 in performance. Still runs everything pretty much smoothly at maximum detail.

exactly. I have been trying to find a cheap version of windows 7 for a while. I have even hunted down some wholesalers, and I can't seem to find it for less than retail, unless I am part of some ultra special group.

You used to be able to buy XP OEM disks from certain builders but I can't even do that anymore.

Check out Pricewatch. They have reasonable prices ($70 - 80) for Win 7. That's for a full install, not an upgrade.

"You can still buy these? I wouldn't be surprised if an 80GB drive costs more than a 320 or 500 at this point in time."

Yes you can still buy them, and a 80gb is about $10 cheaper than a 500gb

"You can still buy these? I wouldn't be surprised if an 80GB drive costs more than a 320 or 500 at this point in time."

Yes you can still buy them, and a 80gb is about $10 cheaper than a 500gb

You missed the point. He has shatty hardware. Best advice is to buy another one. price watch?

Math for the day:

Without compression, all tweets in human history will fit on a single hard drive costing less than $100.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=a (to find the latest tweet number)
http://twitter.com/about (character limit)
http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/ (1.5TB drive)Delete

http://www.google.com/buzz/fulldecent/18tfNfPHSBp/Math-for-the-day-Without-compression-all-tweets-in

I believe this adds a whole new dimension to the compatibility and benchmark question...

That's a good reason to use Firefox's multiple profiles feature. Use one profile for development (with Firebug, etc. installed) and another for general browsing.

Then again, you could always run 64-bit and stock up on memory. If you haven't noticed, memory is cheap, with prices running around US $20/gigabyte.

Actually, forget that. You might create a temporal causality loop if you do that. Instead: Buy a cheap CRT. Problem solved. http://www.pricewatch.com/monitors/

Problem solved. http://www.pricewatch.com/monitors/

Slashdot ate my 2nd link. I will have to be more careful.

There is another factor.

Flash is faster and more energy efficient than spinning disks. This creates a demand for flash which reduces the incentive of manufacturers to drop the price per GB.

Also try to understand the gap we are dealing with.
Flash is around $1.87 per GB while Hard drives are closer to 7c per GB.

That's 26 times the price. Sure SSDs are getting cheaper every day but so are hard drives. I am sure they will get so close that the price gap becomes less important than all the other features which separate them. Some time after that, SSDs may even become cheaper, or both SSDs and hard drives will be supplanted by some other technology. It just won't happen right away.

Is one more decade too pessimistic an estimate? Only time will tell. What I do know is that where SSD's advantages are more important the change has already started. You can buy a portable computer with only SSD storage today.

This is really a disingenuous rebuttal.

Most users would get Windows 7 Home Premium with their computer which is heavily discounted since its an OEM version. Those who have existing RETAIL Windows licenses can simply get "Upgrade" versions and shift license to new machine. If you are upgrading an OEM license, that just make sure you're computer has a decent harddrive and 2GB RAM. A Pentium 4 or any dual-core machine will give great performance.

If you goto http://pricewatch.com/software_oper_system/
you will clearly see that Windows 7 home premium can be ordered for as little as $99 and professional for $139.

Regarding Nehalem, you will find that Windows 7 runs FANTASTIC, not good, on Pentium Dual Core E5200 or even CULV Core 2 Duo at 1.4ghz. You don't need an i5/i7 chip to have a top experience. I am using a Lenovo T61p that has a T9300 Core2Duo.

As far as Office, most home users will be fine using the "Home and Student" edition that is usually available for about $100. But even if you don't want to pay for Microsoft Office, Microsoft is releasing an Ad-supported version of Office for FREE! Worse-case scenario, there is always OpenOffice.

Almost any $500 laptop or $400 desktop will run Windows 7 extremely well. Just make sure that the minimum graphics processor is Intel 4500.

Pricewatch has 64GB usb sticks at $150 at cheapest (happens to be a kingston now too):
http://www.pricewatch.com/browse/flash_card_memory/usb_64gb

and that's not even the sweetspot of GB/$$ because the 32GB usb sticks are around $60, much less than half that despite being only half the capacity.

Also, a 2.5" 256 SSD drive that can be put into most notebooks starts at $608:
http://www.pricewatch.com/browse/hard_removable_drives/ssd_256gb

So why would anyone buy a more expensive USB stick to "extend their notebook" when they can do so internal to the notebook, for cheaper, and have all the benefits of a SSD drive?

Pricewatch has 64GB usb sticks at $150 at cheapest (happens to be a kingston now too):
http://www.pricewatch.com/browse/flash_card_memory/usb_64gb

and that's not even the sweetspot of GB/$$ because the 32GB usb sticks are around $60, much less than half that despite being only half the capacity.

Also, a 2.5" 256 SSD drive that can be put into most notebooks starts at $608:
http://www.pricewatch.com/browse/hard_removable_drives/ssd_256gb

So why would anyone buy a more expensive USB stick to "extend their notebook" when they can do so internal to the notebook, for cheaper, and have all the benefits of a SSD drive?

From TFA, we are talking about 2,500 pixels per frame at 6.1 megahertz framerate. Let's guesstimate 1 byte/pixel * 2,500 pixels * 6,100,000 frames = 15,000,000,000 bytes/second = ~14 Gigabytes/second.

If you're only looking to capture a few seconds, just put it in RAM and write it to long-term storage later. Write speeds for high-end consumer RAM are in that neighborhood. DDR3 1800 can write just over 14GB/s. For a research project, 128 GB of RAM is certainly feasible. That will give you a full 9 seconds of video.

If you need more pixels you can line up arrays in parallel to capture several seconds from each array at the same time. They can all use the same clock so everything stays synchronized.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

my sister helped me get one, and we're both DIRT poor.iboog4. they are just needed. and im "just" atruckdriver.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

my sister helped me get one, and we're both DIRT poor.iboog4. they are just needed. and im "just" atruckdriver.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

my sister helped me get one, and we're both DIRT poor.iboog4. they are just needed. and im "just" atruckdriver.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

my sister helped me get one, and we're both DIRT poor.iboog4. they are just needed. and im "just" atruckdriver.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

my sister helped me get one, and we're both DIRT poor.iboog4. they are just needed. and im "just" atruckdriver.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

my sister helped me get one, and we're both DIRT poor.iboog4. they are just needed. and im "just" atruckdriver.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

Are you going to buy me a Wifi modem for my laptop, Mr. Silver Spoon?

No. You can do it yourself for the back breaking price of $10. Never mind that even the cheapest laptops have wifi built in these days so the wifi adaptor would likely be redundant.

For that matter, are you going to buy me a laptop?

Nope. You'll have to do what I did and take out school loans to buy one. Then you pay for it once you are out of college and gainfully employed. If the extra $300 to buy a low end laptop is going to break you, perhaps you need to reconsider your college financing options.

All I could afford was a minimal desktop PC for $300.

Bullshit. Either you're lying or you didn't look hard enough. If you are that strapped for cash you could even have gotten something used or second hand. Even a brand new laptop can be had for under $300 these days.

You see not everyone is rich, or drives themselves deep-into-credit debt to buy these types of toys.

A laptop isn't a "toy" anymore and you don't have to be rich to own one. $300 isn't going to bankrupt you or if it does you were already near bankruptcy for other reasons.

require you to turn off your firewall and pop-up blocker. Why they cannot write web software to work without needing pop-ups and can work with firewalls is beyond me.

Virtual PC 2007 is free. Use Pricewatch's operating system price search to find a version of Windows to run under it. Windows XP can be bought in OEM version for under $100.

Run all college web sites in a virtual machine.

Use Avast Home for Antivirus as it is free for home and non-profit use.

require you to turn off your firewall and pop-up blocker. Why they cannot write web software to work without needing pop-ups and can work with firewalls is beyond me.

Virtual PC 2007 is free. Use Pricewatch's operating system price search to find a version of Windows to run under it. Windows XP can be bought in OEM version for under $100.

Run all college web sites in a virtual machine.

Use Avast Home for Antivirus as it is free for home and non-profit use.

No ball dropped, just optimized for your platform. Really now - that 300 MB of RAM apparently sets you back about $6. Is that exorbitant? Firefox USES that RAM to speed up performance, and this can be fairly easily tweaked if the $6 is more than you can stomach.

For example, Skyfire is Mozilla based, and is quite usable on my 400 Mhz, 64 MB RAM Windows Mobile Pocket-PC phone.

That's not what I want. I don't want to have to buy the fastest, most expensive RAM available just to use as a RAM disk. I'd prefer cheaper RAM, maybe two or three generations old, that I can get in massive quantities.

Except that you can't get two or three gen old RAM in massive quantities. At least, not for as cheap as the new stuff. See for yourself: 1 GB of PC 133 RAM is more expensive than 1 GB of DDR or DDR2 RAM. There's a very short window of "cheaper" just behind the bleeding edge that's cheaper than the very latest (DDR3) but new motherboards support this type of RAM too, negating the "two or three gen old" situation that you state.

Most people think that the older the technology, the cheaper it gets. But this is only true for a very small time window, at which point the older technology gets phased out (not profitable, anymore) at which point it becomes a "niche" marketplace with very low volume and very high prices.

Example: A PC-133 RAM stick needed to keep a $12,000 vertical-market weaving loom operational, where the cost of the additional RAM pales compared to the cost of the entire integrated system. If you need that extra 512k of RAM in your $12,000 loom, paying $100 for it isn't such a bad deal.

But there aren't many people stuck with $12,000 looms, so the price of the older technology skyrockets until it's simply not available anymore. (Ever try buying a *NEW* Cx 6x86 processor in the last year or so?)

I have a 6 MP digital camera, with a 4 GB card in it. I also have an old 1GB card, but I almost never use it - 4 GB is enough for me to take hundreds of pics and a few hours of VHS-quality video with no complaints. So I download my pics and stuff to my laptop every month or so, and it takes about 3 minutes - less than it takes to drive to my local Rite-Aid photo booth. (which is about 1.5 miles away!)

I think a 4 GB card costs about $10 nowadays, if even that much. And I say "buy big" but 4 GB is pretty ho-hum nowadays. 4x the space costs just $25.

Seriously, who cares? How many pictures do you TAKE?

You can buy 1TB USB disk drives for $120?

You betcha!

Even cheaper if you get them sans enclosure.

http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/
32gb 76.00
64gb 136.00
transcend and ritek are the lowest prices

Um, you can get a 1TB drive for around $90, your prices are off.
http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/sata_1tb.htm

But the analysis also ignoring general trends in SSD.

"`0 cents is pushing it, I'd say more around 13 cents per gigabyte,"

Welcome to /.!

actually i'm wrong, it's 8.7 cents a gigabyte, with 1 terabyte drives selling for $87

and while dvds might be 3 cents cheaper per gigabyte when purchased in bulk online, transferring that 430 gigabytes by burning 100 DVDs would take hours of swapping DVDs, vs drag n drop with a hard drive.

I'd think most people would spend the 3 extra cents.

Frys.com has some affordable solutions. Pricewatch seems to have a scant selection, although very unique.

the cheapest solution is a $10 usb 2.0 controller. http://www1.pricewatch.com/public/info2.aspx?i=44&z=2988&ro=2&aid=32983822&u=http%3A%2F%2F3btech.net%2Fadaufopousb2.html

since the motherboards usb is buggy, this $10 fix will solve the problem.

Let's say it's 1Tb of data (doubt it is even .1% of that, but lets just say)

http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/sata_1tb.htm

An extra $120 isn't a big deal on a car.

False.

Did you just write "False" in red pen across my entire posting?

Imagine what would happen if, under the guise of "public information," the Democrats and Republicans tracked each other's movements.

What would happen, that has not already happened?

Or realtors with connections tracked the movements of other realtors, only to make counter-offers on all of their good finds.

The customers would benefit — just as they did from pricewatch or Froogle (to name just a few).

But these are all off-topic, because they exemplify non-governmental (ab)use of the cameras.

Ever been to a friend's birthday party at a strip club? You can give up on your goal of becoming a teacher now: it's public.

Nope, not if everyone's behavior is up for a similar review.

What would the cost be if a senator in the pocket of Boeing could smear Northrup out of a bidding war before it happened?

Our entire system — separation of powers, markets, prosecution vs. defense et al. — is based on pitching people (along with their flaws) against each other. These cameras will not represent anything revolutionary new — companies and people already hire private investigators to "smear" others. The proposed cameras would be just the next evolutionary step — and they may equalize us — they would've recorded Ted Kennedy's drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident just as scrupulously, as a policeman investigates such allegations against an ordinary citizen.

Seriously, I think, you "oversuspect" the technlogy approach. For example, I always argue, that automatic toll-payment systems should be routinely used to issue speeding citations — based on the distance between the vehicle's entrance and exit and the time in between. This would slow everybody down and quickly cause the speeding limits to be raised to reasonable levels or eliminated altogether... As things stand, the policemen's discretion leads inevitably to selective enforcement...

http://www.pricewatch.com/

There is no better place.