Domain: tigerdirect.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to tigerdirect.com.
Comments · 600
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Re:What the summary didn't include
CompUSA is now http://www.tigerdirect.com/
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Tiger Direct bailing out as well, $130 player.
Right here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=T24-9148+&AffiliateID=isIkAyUyNbM-mPW6QR9OW.eqd9j6oPmXsQ
And if you can't copy and paste, bite me. -
USB Drive connectors
I have a handy tool I found at a local computer store. It is a SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 adapter.
Here is one from TigerDirect:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2329300&CatId=470
This operates just like plugging in a memory stick. Great for parsing through old drives for data quickly. :) -
No PCI Express slot.
that is a bad move as you can get systems with slots and a bigger case for not much more and you can get much better parts
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3517104&CatId=2328
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2948208&sku=TSD-80AS6
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2967707&CatId=2264
for about $40 more you can get a much better cpu, better on board video with pci-e x16 and x4 slots + pci slots, 2gb of 2x1gb 4-4-4-12 ddr2 800, 80gb 7200, 8MB, SATA-300 HD.
Just add any matx / atx case and psu. -
No PCI Express slot.
that is a bad move as you can get systems with slots and a bigger case for not much more and you can get much better parts
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3517104&CatId=2328
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2948208&sku=TSD-80AS6
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2967707&CatId=2264
for about $40 more you can get a much better cpu, better on board video with pci-e x16 and x4 slots + pci slots, 2gb of 2x1gb 4-4-4-12 ddr2 800, 80gb 7200, 8MB, SATA-300 HD.
Just add any matx / atx case and psu. -
No PCI Express slot.
that is a bad move as you can get systems with slots and a bigger case for not much more and you can get much better parts
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3517104&CatId=2328
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2948208&sku=TSD-80AS6
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2967707&CatId=2264
for about $40 more you can get a much better cpu, better on board video with pci-e x16 and x4 slots + pci slots, 2gb of 2x1gb 4-4-4-12 ddr2 800, 80gb 7200, 8MB, SATA-300 HD.
Just add any matx / atx case and psu. -
Re:face recognition
Some recent ThinkPads have face recognition as well. I recently purchased this one, and it has this feature. For those of you that are interested, it recognizes me with or without glasses, right after waking up and right before stepping out for New Years' Eve. We tried fooling it with a 4x6 photo held close to the web cam, and it didn't work. YMMV.
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Re:Wow!there is no rewritable, removable, bootable media that you can use for recovery You're right.
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Vs the N810Hmm, fork over my cash to a company doing all they can to stifle open source contributions to their device OR Support the open company to community atmosphere of the Maemo project with my $300.
Decisions, decisions.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to go Nokia on this one. $299.00 n800
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Re:Where the fuck...
$140 is not cheap compared to the near identical 'electronic picture frames' that are selling for 1/3rd that price.
Electronic picture frame: Reads SD cards. Can parse image files and display them. Has a 5.6 inch color LCD. Has a few controls. Does not have a battery. Has speakers for some reason. $50
Ebook reader: Reads SD cards. Can parse text files and display them. Has a 5.5 inch B&W LCD. Has a few controls. Has a battery. $140
You seeing my problem now?
Now, that's being unfair to the ebookwise people. They also have a modem built in, but, more to the point, the reason it's so damn expensive is that they are incredibly old. I have nothing against them. If it wasn't for them the damn market would be completely empty.
The problem is that no one actually appears willing to actually manufacture a new device, which with modern engineering should cost about 60 dollars. (The added expense being the battery system. OTOH, B&W LCDs might cancel that out.)
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Re:All Pau...
best buy will price match others stores and they where able to match http://www.tigerdirect.com/ price on a item that cost $50 more at bestbuy.
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Some options
I'm currently considering one of these little boxes for non-NAS backup:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716051
Or this puppy, which looks fricken sweet, on-line array expansion, and does NAS as well as direct-connect:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3143432&Sku=D162-1000
Just add hard drives. -
Re:Too much wire/cable BS
Except that I don't "download" my movie soundtracks from my DVD player to my receiver and then to my speakers before pressing "play" - this has to happen in real-time and reach each of my six speakers in the proper order and without interference at any level.
The data is traveling over dedicated circuits with short runs. It's not even a high speed data link shows the max speed of data transmission of 3Mhz, with a 6Mhz clock. An appropriate length of Cat3 could handle that, much less a $5 cat 6 cable.
People consider cables to be unimportant with digital signals because they confuse ages old analog "snow" with a series of digital 1s and 0s. The "snow" doesn't go away when you convert to digital, instead it turns into pixelization or blocky bits on the screen, motion blur, etc. As for the sound arena it turns into hums, pops, crackles or gaps in the sound
IE Digital bit errors are MORE visible and hearable than analogue distortion. People don't worry about cable as much with digital data for the reason I mentioned - As long as the distortions don't start flipping bits, you're getting the same signal out as you put in.
when the signal is interrupted by any of the hundreds of sources of RFI / EMI in a residential setting. (That, or the power shifting as a major appliance is turned on/off during the viewing period).
Like these aren't present in businesses? If it was such a bit deal, why does my UTP network work at speeds 100X that of audio traffic?
People like to jump on the "Monster is evil!" bandwagon because the cables are horrifically over priced. I'll admit that their margins are absurd, but to compare a proper THX grade monster cable to a $10-15 store-bought jobbie? Please.
I have. I prefered the $10 RCA cables I got from Radioshack a while back over the $40 Monster equivalent. I think you're confusing the <$5 bargain basement cables with 'decent generics'. The problem I have with stores like best buy and walmart is that they often jump directly from the ultra-cheaply built yumcha brand to decent quality but highly priced monsters.
Let's look a bit of the spectrum:
$6.99 Gold Plated!
$14.99 Oxygen Free!
$16.99 Copper Shield
Now, is there anybody here who believes that they'd be able to hear the difference between these three cables when used to transmit digital data? -
Re:Too much wire/cable BS
Except that I don't "download" my movie soundtracks from my DVD player to my receiver and then to my speakers before pressing "play" - this has to happen in real-time and reach each of my six speakers in the proper order and without interference at any level.
The data is traveling over dedicated circuits with short runs. It's not even a high speed data link shows the max speed of data transmission of 3Mhz, with a 6Mhz clock. An appropriate length of Cat3 could handle that, much less a $5 cat 6 cable.
People consider cables to be unimportant with digital signals because they confuse ages old analog "snow" with a series of digital 1s and 0s. The "snow" doesn't go away when you convert to digital, instead it turns into pixelization or blocky bits on the screen, motion blur, etc. As for the sound arena it turns into hums, pops, crackles or gaps in the sound
IE Digital bit errors are MORE visible and hearable than analogue distortion. People don't worry about cable as much with digital data for the reason I mentioned - As long as the distortions don't start flipping bits, you're getting the same signal out as you put in.
when the signal is interrupted by any of the hundreds of sources of RFI / EMI in a residential setting. (That, or the power shifting as a major appliance is turned on/off during the viewing period).
Like these aren't present in businesses? If it was such a bit deal, why does my UTP network work at speeds 100X that of audio traffic?
People like to jump on the "Monster is evil!" bandwagon because the cables are horrifically over priced. I'll admit that their margins are absurd, but to compare a proper THX grade monster cable to a $10-15 store-bought jobbie? Please.
I have. I prefered the $10 RCA cables I got from Radioshack a while back over the $40 Monster equivalent. I think you're confusing the <$5 bargain basement cables with 'decent generics'. The problem I have with stores like best buy and walmart is that they often jump directly from the ultra-cheaply built yumcha brand to decent quality but highly priced monsters.
Let's look a bit of the spectrum:
$6.99 Gold Plated!
$14.99 Oxygen Free!
$16.99 Copper Shield
Now, is there anybody here who believes that they'd be able to hear the difference between these three cables when used to transmit digital data? -
Re:Too much wire/cable BS
Except that I don't "download" my movie soundtracks from my DVD player to my receiver and then to my speakers before pressing "play" - this has to happen in real-time and reach each of my six speakers in the proper order and without interference at any level.
The data is traveling over dedicated circuits with short runs. It's not even a high speed data link shows the max speed of data transmission of 3Mhz, with a 6Mhz clock. An appropriate length of Cat3 could handle that, much less a $5 cat 6 cable.
People consider cables to be unimportant with digital signals because they confuse ages old analog "snow" with a series of digital 1s and 0s. The "snow" doesn't go away when you convert to digital, instead it turns into pixelization or blocky bits on the screen, motion blur, etc. As for the sound arena it turns into hums, pops, crackles or gaps in the sound
IE Digital bit errors are MORE visible and hearable than analogue distortion. People don't worry about cable as much with digital data for the reason I mentioned - As long as the distortions don't start flipping bits, you're getting the same signal out as you put in.
when the signal is interrupted by any of the hundreds of sources of RFI / EMI in a residential setting. (That, or the power shifting as a major appliance is turned on/off during the viewing period).
Like these aren't present in businesses? If it was such a bit deal, why does my UTP network work at speeds 100X that of audio traffic?
People like to jump on the "Monster is evil!" bandwagon because the cables are horrifically over priced. I'll admit that their margins are absurd, but to compare a proper THX grade monster cable to a $10-15 store-bought jobbie? Please.
I have. I prefered the $10 RCA cables I got from Radioshack a while back over the $40 Monster equivalent. I think you're confusing the <$5 bargain basement cables with 'decent generics'. The problem I have with stores like best buy and walmart is that they often jump directly from the ultra-cheaply built yumcha brand to decent quality but highly priced monsters.
Let's look a bit of the spectrum:
$6.99 Gold Plated!
$14.99 Oxygen Free!
$16.99 Copper Shield
Now, is there anybody here who believes that they'd be able to hear the difference between these three cables when used to transmit digital data? -
Still too expensive in market cycle
A standard 1080p digital HDTV set of 42 inches is still around $950 to $1200 USD on tigerdirect and other similar sites.
When the consumer electronics market cycle drops the cost down to around $300 per set, you will see wide adoption of HDTV.
Classic electronics marketing 101 (and, yes, this is information from a literal marketing course I took as part of a Business Management degree with a core of Sales and Marketing). Sure, you'll still be able to spend $2000 for a fancy set, but it's not until the price point drops below $500 for the baseline standard unit that the curve flattens, and it's at the $300 level that you can expect 50 percent adoption rate.
This should intersect with the curve around February 2009, which is about when the US market will be forced to switch over to HDTV as well.
So, unless you really need to spend as much as a new Mac OS Tiger laptop to be first in line, just wait a bit. -
Re:No point in this. Get a laptop!
This device would actually make a decent firewall. Likely your laptop doesn't have two ethernet ports.
For $10 is does.And if I just need to plug in my cable modem, I could save my $10 and use the USB connector.
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Re:Hey! They got games for Mac too...Ah yes, because you can't buy console games at newegg, or any other online retailer for that matter.
And lets be honest, sales from services like Steam and Direct2Drive are rather insignificant compared to that coming from brick and mortar stores, that is if they ever actually released those numbers.
Not to mention recently you have such time vacuums like World of Warcraft that have been drying up PC gaming dollars that might go elsewhere. Consoles don't really have that problem, yet. -
Re:How many days until someone develops a work aro
This revolutionary new tool allows any audio device with a 3.5mm stereo output jack to dock with any other audio device with a 3.5mm stereo input jack.
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RE; FM Radio cards:
FM Radio cards:
http://www.cel-soft.com/RadioCard.htm
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2905632&CatId=1425
USB radio:
http://www.engadget.com/2004/07/13/usb-radio-dongl e/
http://www.redferret.net/?p=7760
The Tigerdirect link is also a TV tuner card. You can record more than just the radio.
I have one in my Ubuntu box. It's kind of a pain to tune with the command line, but it works well. As an added bonus, it ignores Macrovision for converting your old VHS tapes. (oops is saying that a DMCA violation?) -
Re:Streamripping?
"Recording off the radio onto tape produces a lower fidelity analog copy and subsequent generations of copying of that copy introduces more noise at each generation."
You just time traveled from what decade?
FM Radio cards:
http://www.cel-soft.com/RadioCard.htm
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2905632&CatId=1425
USB radio:
http://www.engadget.com/2004/07/13/usb-radio-dongl e/
http://www.redferret.net/?p=7760
So how is saving a stream off the net any different than recording from one of these?
--
BMO -
I'd better cash in, then...
I bought the PS3 when it was $600, and I got the warranty. I'd better cash in on that before the 60 gig PS3's are gone, because when I can get a 500 gigabyte hard drive for the same price difference between the two PS3's, I can't really justify getting the 80 gig. And who really gives a shit about MotorStorm?
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Two mice
For design work, I actually prefer a regular optical mouse. Reason being that it's easier to keep still. My experience with tablets is hit-or-miss, but I hope I have the money someday to spend on a good one. For gaming, THIS (p) should be all anyone needs.
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WiFi Phones, got OS called "Limux" or something.How about:
Nokia 770 (a little older, slower, cheaper) - about $150
Both run Linux. OK, there are some binary-only driver modules.
Of course, if money is no object, you can always get yourself an $800 Zaurus, too.
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Re:F3 won'r work in the US
Same problem for Canada. I actually bought an F3 for those trips I am planning to take to other continents, but for Canada (and US) I found that Motorola L2 is a very good plain phone, no camera, and it uses USB to charge the battery, which is much better than the normal Motorola port.
I got one from tigerdirect it is unlocked and the docs are in German.
The problems with this phone are that the shortcut button on the right side cannot be reassigned from browser function to anything else. I don't want a browser, so I locked it and I dropped this phone once, the top screen shattered, apparently it is made of glass instead of plastic. The LCD behind the glass screen is OK though, so I am just looking for a piece of transparent plastic to put there instead of glass. -
The $400 32 inch LCD HDTVI just spent $400 on a 32" CRT TV, and I'm not about to go out and spend $700+ on a similarly sized HDTV
Tiger Direct has a $400 special on a 32 inch wide screen LCD. ATSC tuner. 720p. HDMI, component video, etc. Weight 57 pounds.Niko SV3206 32" LCD HDTV Television
Your hernia-in-a-box CRT will need a converter for broadcast reception in two years. You paid $400 for 4:3 video and analog audio and you call this a bargain?
It doesn't add to the plot or production quality, and can often get in the way of it.
The answer in one word: Ratatouille.
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Ah, I missed that memo
Well, I'm glad to know we aren't suppose to have CD Duplication systems, anymore. Someone might want to pass the news on to, for example, Tiger Direct so they can stop selling them.
This sarcasm brought to you by the letter 'Doh!' -
Re:hardware
not only do the iMacs have laptop parts you get riped off in the upgrades prices.
$125 to go from a 7300 to a 7600gt you can buy a 7600gt for $125 or less and $175 to go from 1gb to 2gb of ddr2 667 you can get 2gb of the same ram for $99.99 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2968796&CatId=2453
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/c ategory_slc.asp?CatId=2368&Nav=|c:2261|c:2264|&Sor t=4&Recs=10
or 2gb of high end ddr2 800 desktop ram for $109.99 after rebate
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2206874&CatId=2264 -
Re:hardware
not only do the iMacs have laptop parts you get riped off in the upgrades prices.
$125 to go from a 7300 to a 7600gt you can buy a 7600gt for $125 or less and $175 to go from 1gb to 2gb of ddr2 667 you can get 2gb of the same ram for $99.99 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2968796&CatId=2453
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/c ategory_slc.asp?CatId=2368&Nav=|c:2261|c:2264|&Sor t=4&Recs=10
or 2gb of high end ddr2 800 desktop ram for $109.99 after rebate
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2206874&CatId=2264 -
Re:hardware
not only do the iMacs have laptop parts you get riped off in the upgrades prices.
$125 to go from a 7300 to a 7600gt you can buy a 7600gt for $125 or less and $175 to go from 1gb to 2gb of ddr2 667 you can get 2gb of the same ram for $99.99 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2968796&CatId=2453
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/c ategory_slc.asp?CatId=2368&Nav=|c:2261|c:2264|&Sor t=4&Recs=10
or 2gb of high end ddr2 800 desktop ram for $109.99 after rebate
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2206874&CatId=2264 -
Re:Already done?
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XTENDA
We are looking into the XTENDA X300 solution. It is a card that uses CAT5 to connect to three remote XTENDA boxes that have monitor/keyboard/mouse/sound connections. You can install 2 cards per computer to have up to 7 PC's with one physical box. We like this for the following reasons:
1. Eliminate need for small switches in the classrooms.
2. Only maintain one computer.
3. Upgrades will be easier.
We still have some testing to do, but the preliminary stuff is very promising. -
This should be exactly what you're looking for.
http://biz.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchToo
l s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1870109&CatId=204&CMP=EMC -B2B&SRCCODE=WEDBB382
Allow up to 7 people to use a single Windows PC simultaneously. -
Re:Hardware solution?
You're thinking of nComputing and they're still around: http://www.ncomputing.com/ They have a nice hardware setup that allows up to 30 users on a single PC, and it runs on Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, and Linux. You can also find them on TigerDirect http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchToo
l s/search.asp?keywords=ncomputing&image1.x=0&image1 .y=0 -
Re:Who even still users WEP?
This is the typical Slashdot "I still run Linux on my 386 and KDE should support me" response. That's great if you want to stick to your old equipement, but there's no fundamental reason not to upgrade when the cost of actual equipment is trivial. A new wireless AP/wired router can be had for <$50. A wireless 802.11g USB stick is $15 (and yes, it has WPA if you look in the features). I'm sure you could even find used 802.11g equipement for less, if you were so inclined and/or strapped for cash.
Am I going to spend $1600 for this year's model with two more buttons and WPA support?
If you're at all concerned about security you are, and if you're running a business then that's simply a cost of doing business. If you're not concerned about security, then it's a non-issue.
My original premise stands -- people with the option (which is everyone except the destitute (who can somehow still afford wireless network equipment?!?)) choose WPA. Anyone else who uses WEP is either ignorant or foolish, which is the implication in a "Who still uses..." rhetorical question. -
Re:Many companies are holding backIs there going to be an active market for XP licenses? Will WGA prevent people from buying ne naked PCs and loading old XP licenses?
I'm unsure what you are talking about. There *is* a market of XP licenses already, and it always was, and probably will be for a while. I know because I build XP boxes, and the price of a license is today quite acceptable, just about the cost of a motherboard, or about 1/3 of a decent CPU, or about 15% of the total cost of the hardware. Since these licenses are 100% legitimate the WGA will not stop you.
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Re:You have *got* to be kidding me.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/ was on line only and they they added Retail Outlet Stores and the one near me is part of the warehouse so you can get anything that is stock there.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/retailstores/naperville .asp -
Re:You have *got* to be kidding me.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/ was on line only and they they added Retail Outlet Stores and the one near me is part of the warehouse so you can get anything that is stock there.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/retailstores/naperville .asp -
Re:First boycott Best Buy, now Circuit City?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/ has Retail Outlet Stores and the people working there know what they are talking about.
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Re:Naked PC == Parts
Yup, seen that before. I know several places have barebones kits that come without O/S and something else usually missing. Buy one of these and add a CDROM or whatever.
or
My local shop will build me one with no O/S. Buy local :)
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtool s/configdetails.asp?Base=2371075
I might try this next time, looks like they actually send you a disk to install yourself on a naked PC if i pay for windows. But the ones i just bought with XP were pretty clean (after unchecking a few boxes)
or
Use windows to build a dual-boot out of your Dell/HP to play games during lunch ;) -
Re:No, that's not the same thing.You might be referring to a few low end deals like:
...
The prices were lower, but never much less than Windoze system prices at the same time. No, I think that your parent was referring to the $249 deals from Wintergreen, et. al. As I recall, Lindows (this was before the name change) got down as cheap as $200 ($199) on at least one configuration. People were buying them to install their copies of Microsoft Windows on them. They were in fact about $200 or $300 cheaper. As others have noted, less than $100 of that was software costs. Like you said, crummy hardware.
The same site bottoms out with a $499 Vista PC. However, the specs are much better (e.g. twice as much RAM to meet Vista's minimum).
It's also worth noting that the $500 laptop was also much smaller than most other laptops (about three pounds). If you compared it to other laptops of the same weight, it was a third the price and had similar specs (all the ultralights had last generation CPUs). For example, a modern equivalent is Fujitsu Lifebook P7230 which costs about $1700. -
Tiger direct catalog
Only 300 bucks from tiger direct's catalog this month.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1829799&Sku=H529-0002 -
Best Buy will price match other on line stores ...
like http://www.tigerdirect.com/ and others.
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Re:"how they improve system performance"
I got my start during a time when 64K RAM was adequate for most things....but it just seems to me that we've really fallen far in the last decade or so, when someone can use a phrase like "only 512MB of RAM" in a sentence, as if that's really such a tiny amount.
It helps if you do not refer to memory in terms of KB and MB, but instead in terms of dollars and cents. That way 512MB looks smaller than 64KB.
Prediction: The cost for 128 kilobytes of memory will fall below U$100 in the near future.
Creative Computing magazine, December 1981, page 6Today, you can buy 1GB for $70.
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How bad of a coder do you have to be?
Does he mean $4Gb? Four GigaBucks?
Yes, if you dump $4,096 on a top-of-the-line machine, you too can boot up WordPad.
What is Vista written in, Visual COBOL?
Why is it I can get All These Applications,
and the Whole Operating System, in under 90MB,
but Vista can't boot up until you empty your bank account?
Puppy Linux - your system on a stick.
OS, Apps, Data, Songs, Videos - just plop them all on a flash drive.
1. Download the Live Puppy Linux CD here.
2. Burn .iso file to a CD and Reboot - booting up from the CD.
3. Run the Install to USB Flash Drive,
4. Reboot setting your BIOS to boot from the flash drive.
5. Enjoy running your whole system without needing a hard drive!
PROFIT! (Invest the money you saved by NOT buying into the Vista Cabal.)
(Puppy Linux runs Fast on any Windows XP computer, lightening fast on any computer that is 'Vista Ready' - 4 GB of RAM -or $4000 - Not Needed.) -
But for $600 I can just buy a gaming PC
For the price of a PS3 -- it had better *be* PC quality graphics.
Why does it only "approach" PC quality graphics.
There are tons of low end gaming PC's that you can hook up to your
TV with a USB wireless keyboard and mouse -- and play Oblivion
to your hearts content. (With the 100's of user mods available). -
Re:Non-repro?
A picked up a PCI slot Fan for one of my old graphics cards (Voodoo 3500) that didn't come with a fan but got extremely hot. It never caused a crash, but I didn't think that the silicon would last very long without a little extra cooling. When playing games, it often got too hot to touch.
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Not too late.
Luckily there are still USB floppy drives available, so even if your mobo lacks a "real" FD controller, you can still read the disks.
I wouldn't waste too much time before you archive them, though; drives are only going to get harder to find, and the media itself that you have stuff stored on ain't getting any younger.
A slight bit of irony, though: years ago, when I first got an Iomega Zip disk, I was sure that it was going to replace floppies completely. (And for a while it seemed like it; there were some Macs in the late 90s that shipped with Zips in place of the FD drive.) So I dutifully backed up all my old floppies onto Zip disks. Not that long ago, when I decided it was time to retire the Zip for good, I went to pull the data off of its cartridges and back them up on CD-R...only to find that the disks were plagued with the "clicks." I had to go back to the floppies to get the old stuff again.
Taught me two good lessons: 1) always roll backups onto new media whenever possible (I should have backed those Zips up to CD-R as soon as I got a disc burner), but more importantly 2) don't ever trust that the new media will be more robust than the old. Even now, I still have the floppies stored along with the CDs (and now DVD+Rs), because I'm not sure which will last longer. Might as well cover all the bases. -
I got one a while back
January 26, 2004 to be exact, just after the first time this story was posted, that I'm aware of. It was shortly after Microsoft started its Get the Facts campaign. I think it cost more than the Windows variant though. It wasn't as Linux compatible as one would like. There was a bios issue (according to devs) that made 3D acceleration slightly unstable in xfree86, though a workaround was eventually added to x.org. This was probably the only affected Dell model not to get a firmware update to fix the issue. They fixed it in the Dimension 2500C, but not the Dimension 2500 which mine was based on. I went though about a year of just having to avoid 3D, but it all works today.
I've seen worse though. In 2005 I bought a Linspire system that had an entirely unsupported (at the time) via unichrome video chipset, so 3D acceleration wasn't even a possibility. But at that price, I figured something had to be wrong with it and chose to accept the risk anyway.
I'm not sure what it is with Linux PC sellers shipping systems with linux-incompatible hardware. I also bought a no-OS IBM NetVista that would randomly freeze unless I booted Linux with the noapic kernel option. -
Re:My Kids
Good luck. As my younger brother knows, the computer is only secure if you can't get physical access to it. My parents experimented with setting bios passwords, removing power cables, and the like. None of it worked. Eventually, they bought one of these. My brother picked the crappy lock on the cabinet with a coathanger. So, they got a great, thick chain to keep the thing shut, as well as a real lock. But even a good lock won't do you any good if you can't keep the keys secure. And so on. And, frankly, I don't see how you could block porn effectively in software. Sure, you can block IPs, URLs, and web content. But what about IRC, ssh tunneling, proxies, and that sort of thing? Or do you just plan to setup firefox in kiosk mode and firewall the crap out of everything else?