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How a Computer Case Is Built
mtxmorph writes "Ever wondered how that pretty case on your desk came to be? Tom's Hardware Guide recently took a trip to China to see the production process for the Chenbro XSpider/Gaming Bomb case. Lots of interesting pictures in this detailed article." I must admit, this is far more intriguing than I'd initially thought, if only for the subtle differences in corporate culture. Chenbro employees have the option of living "on campus" in employee housing.
Shouldn't all literate people know how something simple like this is designed, tested, and constructed? If you can read this sentence but don't know how to fashion a trivial metal box, ask for a refund on your education.
Over and over again, this writeup seemed like it came from a FUD factory. I'm sure that these cases are outstanding -- however, statements like
unless you buy a quality product you are wasting your money.
are pure drivel. Buying a $100 case for middle-of-the-road or lower requirements is a waste of money. A machine used to run your OS and assorted apps, with generic HD, motherboard, processor, and drive components does not require a high quality case. Spending $100 on one is simply a waste of dough... and not the converse, as the Tom's journalist -- or Ken -- would have you believe.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Microserfs was fiction, of course, and the housing was actually the privatized suburban 'strip housing' that springs up around economic centers. (I'm living in a similar house in an old factory town right now.)
That said, this shows how far China has come, and how far it has to go. It's the same thing everyone went through during the industrial revolution - unskilled labor arrives from across the country to work in less-than-wonderful conditions, try to make a buck, start families, create new enterprise and so on. (Viva technology; whether or not they do have safety gear when the cameras aren't around, it's not much worse than the average US factory of the '60s-'80s; chances are, they're using machinery that used to be ours (or based on designs of ours) during that era. Beats using RBMK reactors just to be different.)
Now, if they can go on to give everyone the perqs of "middle class" life without compromising their nationalist principles -- and making US geeks happy with cheap goods and GPL-shared intellectual property -- more power to 'em. (Ever heard of the "American Dream?") The question is whether the new leadership can be confident enough to reform civil rights and basic principles of government (free elections?), or if they'll "take the money and run," using the influx to benefit the state (leverage in standoffs with the US, Taiwan, etc) without improving the lot of its people.
And whether new regimes 50 or 100 years down the road will keep the momentum going, or become throwbacks to the "Confucian"/Maoist methodologies. That's an obvious problem in the US, too, but we have strong enough founding principles that they at least moderate the damage. (USA PATRIOT sucks a lot -- words fail -- but on the other hand, even with it, we're conducting fewer wiretaps than Australia, where society never canonized a 4th Amendment right in the first place.)
So hey, let's cross our fingers, and hope we can lead by example instead of with sticks. Everyone anywhere wants the basics - food, shelter, clean water, power - and the comforts - Comedy Central, a Playstation, good beer, fast cars with nice seats and MP3 players in the dash. It's the fringes who can feel the drives for *more* - be the need for a presence in space (mostly good?), or the invasion/overthrow of other nations (mostly bad?). Those fringes tend to make good leaders, whatever your economic model; the problem in any society is to make sure the "mostly good" ideas win out over the "mostly bad" ones.
How would "all literate people know how something simple like this is designed, tested, and constructed" if articles such as this didn't exist to tell them?
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Or plasma cutters. No retooling and every case can be completely custom.
Hammer of Truth
No wonder all the manufacturing is moving out of the US. If the company is responsible for such an obvious neglect on part of the worker, I won't want to do manufacturing in the US either. Maybe the cause is our neglected public education system.
On the other hand, it's interesting that while GM and Ford are moving manufacturing out of the US, the Japanese and German auto manufacturerers are opening more auto plants in the US. Which leads me to think that it's not the workers that's the blame, but wasteful management.
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!