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Enderle's Ferrari Laptop
deminisma writes "Hilarity abounds as 'analyst' Rob Enderle gushes over his new Ferrari/Acer laptop. The laptop apparently even plays the sound of a car revving up while booting, which Enderle seems to think is all the rage at meetings."
Nothing beats the sleek style of the Apple Titanium PowerBook (old and new). Not even this bucket of bolts, with it's stupid engine sound can change my mind. I'm still not sure I've ever heard a real apple make the sound my TiBook makes when I power it up, but I prefer it none the less.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Add a F.A. Porsche design Lacie drive [http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10032] and a pine tree air freshener and one would be set no?
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
Well at least the CEO of Nissan can't drive this into anyone. :-)
This laptop doesn't seem like it is that good aside from the paint job. IMHO, the Ferrari products that carried the Ferrari name, but were manufactured by someone else just seem tacky and sucky. This joins the Ferrari mountain bike in my mind as a sucky marketing ploy. Fortunately, the Article mentions how this is mainly designed to appeal to PHB's who think that because a company is good (or arguably the best) at making cars, the laptop bearing their name is good, or arguably the best.
Way to go.
GTRacer
- Still, the paint's nice
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
The obvious downsides to haveing a Ferrari computer:
Authorized customer support means having your own personal tech, at the same rate as a car mechanic.
Tech charges same as the Ferrari auto mechanics, speaks only italian and probably dresses sharper than you.
It needs a tune up every other week to keep in top performance condition.
When it's old, it's no classic, it's slow and out of date and looks lame compared to some cheap POS.
In exchange for its eye catching appeal, you have to live in denial of its shortcomings.
One scratch and it's just another laptop.
When it craps out, it's just another piece of dead weight, just like all other laptops.
It looks cool until your boss has one, too.
People accustomed to getting the best bang for the buck have no idea who 'Ferrari' is.
It probably looks really bad when you try to declare this as a business expense on your tax return.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
why the hell are you booting in a meeting? it should already be up and ready to go.
GET YOUR WEAPONS READY! --DR.LIGHT
You mean the bios has a soundcard interface just to play a sound effect? Or they just have the startup sound in windoze set to it?
Hate to break it to you, they're not 'joining the admirers', they're laughing their socks off at your gullibility.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
sigh Maybe I'm wrong...
------------
But my brother's laptop is about as big as a ferrari... and you can always make Windows 3.1 play a sound when it starts up.. can't you?!?!??!
tim
I hope this isn't a new trend where automakers start designing laptops. Imagine a computer designed after something like.. oh... the Gremlin!
Sweet.
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
Am I the only one to ask "What's the point?"? It's very pretty 'n' all, but why bother when you can put your money towards the laptop itself rather than an industrial strength coat of paint. Not to mention the fact that you're paying for the brand too. Maybe it's nice to have it as a status symbol, but that's all it is. And yes, I did RTFA.
And then there is Walter Mondale, who had a Ferraro laptop.
that is terrific what a marketing ploy though all u can see now is all CEO's directors of high paid companies that wont buy them a ferrari for a company car will get Acer ferrari notebooks seeing a ferrari is a penis enlarger is a ferrar notebook a table enlarger?
http://www.thegreynomads.com
Just like John Katz or Al Gore, this Bob Enderle dude seems to erupt with totally unresearched, poorly reported and over-exaggerated stuff that seems todraw everyone's attention.
How does he get to be on eWeek and Slashdot and what not with below average write-ups suitable for personal blog? Is the legend about gay mafia true?
I know that readers submit the stories, but must the editors leave all the obvious trolling by using scare quotes and slanted summaries in the story?
I'd like to thank the submitter for deciding for me that Rob Enderle is no real analyst, so that I may not have the trouble to decide for myself.
It's typical slashdot for you here: Linux, open source = good and infallible. Microsoft, corporations = always evil.
You'd think a professional site would be better than this, but no.
This is the coming of consumer products that have less to do with the tech and more to do with the marketing. Does this mean that laptops are now becoming fashion accesories more than tools? I also wonder if this is a bad thing or a good thing?
Stay tuned for new sig...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
it distorts the space-time-continuum. look at second picture. why can you see the screen both in the actual laptop and in the reflection on the table ???
the most sexp i get is my paren-mode.
are just trying to overcompensate for a sm...
Wait, it's a computer?
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
It's a titanium powerbook painted red. That runs a crappy operating system, and makes vroom vroom noises when it boots up.
.....
Why not just get a Vaio instead ? Or better yet get a real powerbook as one of those would prove to be a much better machine
My powerbook came preloaded with BSD.
Rock!
What can I say other than:
MUST OWN!!!!!
Needless to say, my credit card will shortly no longer feel underutilized...
That's nothing. Wait until he sees my wooden Ferrari!!
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
Look who wrote the article. The guy works for a company who sells as its major product: " Provides consulting services during the review process of a poorly founded negative piece on a vendor or its products and, should it be needed, showcases the research errors, statistical mistakes, and unfounded conclusions that often define such a piece.". May be Acer got some bad press recently and this is how this guy is spinning it? I smell a rat
there's no place like ~
I dunno, where I come from, loud boot sounds are followed by loud sounds of boots, kicking the ass of the shithead who didn't turn off his fucking speakers in the meeting.
http://www.i4u.com/article702.html
The great features on this wonder laptop? A pretty red finish that he apparently spends time worrying about damage to. It plays a revving up sound when it boots (as far as I can tell, this is just the Windows Log In sound), and Ferrari themed background image. This man is a giant dork. Yes, I appreciate good looking hardware and even a nice desktop graphic. But to suggest that those are key purchasing decisions, let alone something to base an article on, is inane.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
"One impressive piece of execution is that when you fire the machine up it plays a WAV file of a Ferrari race car revving its engine. That alone is worth the relatively low $1,899 price of admission."
Hrm...I might have to track this guy down and sell him my outdated Dell laptop. I guess all I have to do is put a race car startup sound and he'll pay anything!
Just wonderful, next thing you know you'll have an "Acer rawkin Neon RT" laptop, or worse yet, some 16 year old goof in history class with his "Acer 2Fast Civic", complete with annoying useless NOZ stickers and an oversized processor fan.
Slashdot sucks
I admit, I stopped reading the article when I hit this paragraph: "One impressive piece of execution is that when you fire the machine up it plays a WAV file of a Ferrari race car revving its engine. That alone is worth the relatively low $1,899 price of admission. (I found it priced as low as $1,725 at PCVideoOnline.) Even when I'm in a meeting, I don't turn the sound off because of the unbridled envy that seems to show up in the eyes of my, granted mostly male, co-attendees. So far no one has complained." Now I feel dirty for having read as much as I did. -Sinter
From Wherever to Whenever.
So I can use this while driving, correct? You know, in addition to talking on my cell phone, shaving, making notes on my PDA, translating various languages for the benefit of my passengers, beating Kasparov at chess over the Internet, and giving advice to NASA and the ESA about how to avoid retaliation on their probes from the native Martian factions.
True story.
We used to use car metaphors to explain to PHBs why to buy/not buy the some piece of equipment ("why buy the ferrari over the sedan when you'll never get over 70?").
Applied to:
WebLogic vs. Tomcat (weblogic has a zillion settings we'd never use)
JSP vs. full J2EE/beans/Jwhatever for a simple site
etc.
Now the PHB will actually demend the Ferrari server...
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
Set phasers to kill.
irb(main):001:0>
Yup, and I'm not trolling, either. Empirically, he *IS* a dork.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
This CEO of Nissan. :-)
In related news, American manufacturer General Motors announced their own *cough* rip-off *cough* version, titled Fiero. Produced in alliance with eMachines, the laptop barely boots, consumers battery 3 times as fast, requires twice as much memory, crashes every now and then, but is only half the price of Ferrari laptop!!!
Based on his columns and viewpoints, I've always thought of Enderle as a poser, at best. This just cements that impression.
--rc
BTW its basicaly an Acer Travelmate 800 with mods. (I know because I am a happy owner of a TM800 :) )
Don't knock Al Gore. He won the election in 2000, and he also invented the Internet. The other day, he also invented the "campaign scream speech".
I guess that's one way of putting it when people start growling and muttering to themselves.
If it had 15 transparent Eterms with a naked chick as the background, then, yeah, it's a screenshot. A JPG of a computer case doesn't cut it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
A loptop that says I have a really small penis
I love Ferrari cars and have since I first saw a Testarossa in a Motor Trend mag. And I used to collect Ferrari stuff to, mostly toys.
Although I stopped doing that 2 minutes ago after I saw what Ferrari agreed to put their name on.
This notebook is just a POS Acer with Ferrari's name stamped on it. He goes on about it's poor battery life but how you have to comprimise for a high proformance machine. This is nothing spectacluar, this is AMD's mobile chip, which I've heard runs pretty hot and sucks the juice down. This machine looks very thick, and is 7lbs, not very light.
Just because this thing has a car companies logo on it and is painted steal me red, doesn't mean it's a good machine.
-Aaron Mitti
Every manager's worst nightmare: stupid employees wasting time by turning their laptops on and off so that they can hear the startup sound.
Actually, both of the properties you listed would imply that he is rather wealthy from making sly Texas oil deals, so yes, he probably is rolling in chicks on his million dollar yacht.
True story.
Is that a squirrel on his face ?
...
That guy put away a thinkpad T-40 for an acer laptop painted red ? Must be selling something, either that or he will soon be back on the Thinkpad me thinks
Asshat with a rodent on his face, nothing to see here.
So basically, because it's red and shiny, it's great? It's heavy, it gets bad battery life, and man, it really actually looks ugly when it's open. Sorry. But hey, the guy also owns a Ferrari watch... there's nothing classier than that.
Talk about tacky and sucky .. That Lola Ferrari was all that.... Lot more under the hood as well ;)
Your powerbook came already loaded with BSD? That gives a whole new meaning to "dead on arrival".
Lets see...
Acer(Shiny Shiny Red ^ Ferarri logo)/CSt
where CSt == Consumer Stupidity
Yeap... the Acer marketing dept was right on the money this time. I read the story last week and I thought it was hilarious that a "tech-savvy" adult would get such a kick out of the PC equivelant of a Dukes of Hazard lunchbox.
Goes to show it's not all about Mhz/RAM/HD... nope not at all. Give anything a paint job, slap on a snazzy logo and damn... if someone wont think it's just the bestest thingy since slicest breaded.
I can just imagine the look on people's faces when I say, "I crashed my Ferrari".
It may be a Ferrari, but it runs like a Pinto when it gets Slashdotted :)
Segfault
Too bad they took the Ferrari thing to such a shallow level. Would would have been REALLY cool would be
- case made of carbon fibre
- billet aluminum trackpoint knob
- "paddle" mouse buttons
- see through area of case above the cpu
- red EVERYWHERE, expect where the black/grey of the cf showed through
- Italian voice sounds by default
- "track" day where all the notebook owners can get together and learn how to properly use their new toys
Oooooooh Shiney!
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
god i hope someone revs one of these up in my next meeting. I'll fall out of my chair laughing at the sound effects...!
And don't forget the speed holes.
No matter how many of my rights are taken away, somehow I still don't feel safe. -Frigid Monkey
So far no one has complained. At least to my face.
From TFA: Since I brought my new purchase home, my IBM T-40 has been hiding in the corner.
I can pick up the T-40 and provide it a nice home with caring parents. Heck, I'll even throw in a free wash & wax job for your ferrari.
"I drive a Ferrari" == "I have a small penis"
"I have a Ferrari laptop" == "I have a small penis, and a small wallet"
This thing looks like a gussied up Fiero to me..
A real Ferrari Laptop would have Carbon fiber pannels, a true performance CPU (battery life is for pussies!) a 19" display and a connely leather keyboard. Nobody would care that it cost $30,00 and has a 30 minute battery life..
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
ps i'm high on this: http://turnpikefilms.com/spots/nutrigrain.html
If I wanted more than a great paint job, I'd go for a Hypersonic laptop... same great red color (among other colors) and I'd get great performance, too.
On the other hand, if I were silly enough to consider a sound effect during startup like the one described "cool", I'd never go for performance if I could get the brand name... Silly.
With Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition preloaded. Isn't this to be top of the line? What about 80 GB??
I guess the specs are more than enough gor some metrics and monitoring the Ferraris cars...
I wonder why there is no ferrari-like niche in the laptop world -- ultimate performance that makes a lot of sacrifices that most people wouldn't make. How hard would it be to slap this dual processor motherboard onto a 20" LCD screen, and add a few SCSI 2.5" drives in a raid? There are people who'd go for it, even though it would weigh 20 pounds.
(related link tadpole sparcbook)
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Handlebar mustache and a Ferrari laptop... This guy is obviously rolling in chicks!
That, sir, is not a handlebar moustache, these are handlebar moustaches. Look on these work, ye mighty, and despair.
Mind you, I agree that Rob must be absolutely up to his eyebrow in chicks.
Sailing over the event horizon
i dont recall ferrari doing this before, but I know porche has been doing it for years. not only can you spent a quarter mil on a cool car, you can buy various watches, leather goods, and best of all, grundig makes at least one model of a shortwave radio.
Zero to Blue Screen of Death in 3.8 seconds!
ah but with a handlebar mustache, is it really the chicks he's after?
m.
Yes, the Ferrari name has cachet, but if given the choice, I'll take a quality product from a company that focuses on the market and the users. It doesn't mean cross-branding can't work, but this seems like an odd pairing.
CC
I own this laptop and aside from the many double-takes I get at the office, the system is a powerhouse:
AMD Athlon XP-M 2500
512M Ram
4 USB 2
DVD+-RW
IR, Bluetooth, and 802.11b/g
15" screen 1400x1050 resolution
4in1 media reader
to name a few things...
Also of note is that even though the website quotes a mono headphone jack and I've seen some message boards that are complaining about it, I can say that it is definitely a stereo headphone jack. You'll have a lot of fun with this system.
I've never keyed a laptop before, but I guess I might be forced to start. Oh well.
Paul Lenhart writes words!
He probably also has an abnormally large penis!
[b] This laptop doesn't seem like it is that good aside from the paint job. IMHO, the Ferrari products that carried the Ferrari name, but were manufactured by someone else just seem tacky and sucky. This joins the Ferrari mountain bike in my mind as a sucky marketing ploy. Fortunately, the Article mentions how this is mainly designed to appeal to PHB's who think that because a company is good (or arguably the best) at making cars, the laptop bearing their name is good, or arguably the best.[/b]
Well said, and way to see through the bullshit. This joins the Corvette DustBuster(tm). Boy did that product placement/union suck.
do() || do_not();
Ferrari will burn in hell.
I'm sure the Latitude can handle it...
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
From the article:
Part of me wishes this notebook was fueled by the Athlon64 rather than the Athlon XP-M chip because, like with the car, I want ultimate performance--but then I take one look at the machine's lustrous coat, and somehow everything else seems trivial.
Something tells me this thing could have been a Pentium 133 laptop and he'd have been happy if it was shiney and played a neat sound at startup.
no comment
And yet, if it had an Apple logo on it it WOULD be newsworthy?
Well, I would like to see if someone tried a Delorian laptop... then lets the geeks get at it and plug in a flux capacitor, someone will have to drive at the correct speed plus with the way Intel are going with the CPU power requirements, it'll be a couple of Pentium revisions before we get to the 1.21Gigawatts that said notebook is needed to supply.
Why would we want to make a time travelling laptop? Why so we can remove any previous dupes /. have done from ever existing... but then we'd have a paradox problem with /. instead.
;)
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
hat, sir, is not a handlebar moustache, these are handlebar moustaches. Look on these work, ye mighty, and despair.
Holy fsck those things are hideous. I will *never* grow that much crap on my face.
Now i wonder if i should ask why you are carrying around links of stodgy old men with loads of facial hair?
do() || do_not();
If I bought this, i'd probably feel the need to arm the alarm whenever I walk away from the desk.
...I have a Ferarri station wagon.
I want to know when they are going to put out a Speed Racer laptop...
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
3 blind mice see how they coo over MS flaws..
see them get their tails cut off by LInux..
3 blind mice
Don't Tread on OpenSource
You know... that next thing that all the unemployed tech people are supposed to do when they lose their jobs. Thanks Rob, now I know that when my job gets shipped off to India, all I have to is slap some shiny stickers, paint, and assorted other crap on top of real technology and sell it to troglodytes like yourself. Then us Americans can make our livings off selling gusseyed up crap to those who think the perfomance of a computer is directly related to its appearance. Again... outsource management, not programmers.
This story isn't informative nor newsworthy and I'm ashamed that I read the whole damn thing.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
- DEC Alpha Romeo
- The Opel Macintosh
- The Munsters' *BSD Hearse
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
He probably doesn't care. This is the kind of guy that makes VROOM noises when he's feeding himself.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
i dont know about ferrari, but i know that porche has been doing this for years. not only can you buy a quarter mil car, you can buy various watches, leather goods, and best of all, there is a porche line of grundig shortwave radios.
"my IBM T-40 has been hiding in the corner, the Toshiba Tablet is putting up a brave front, the 17-inch Gateway is on the shelf looking the other way, and even the new Sony 505 looks abashed next to this stunning red box"
Hmm... it's not what you do with your PC but how many PC's you own???
Mod me down. I bought a refurbished Thinkpad and threw Linux on it. Whatever happened to the concept of value for money?
Next thing you know, this dork is going to buy a Ferrari hammer and worry about scratching the paint on nails.
"I make trite whiny statements about Ferrari owners" = "I can only afford a Pinto"
"I make trite whiny statements about Ferrari owners on slashdot" = "I can only afford a Pinto AND I have no life but yet can't be productive enough to ever be able to own a Ferrari"
So, uh, after reading the article, whats to stop someone from keying it?
Or maybe its not actually worth keying...
Only if you know the private key.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
My brother owns an Aspire 2002, and it's been a great little laptop. Excellent durability, excellent battery life, and a killer WUXGA screen. The biggest bonus is that it comes from the factory as a dual-boot system with an "instant-on" Linux so you can watch DVDs and listen to MP3s without booting into Windows.
/.ers, I'd suspect their philosophy is function before form, both in computers and in style. More power to Acer if a Ferrari logo and an engine sound in the BIOS help it sell more laptops. After all, it is a business.
I can see how most geeks would shun the Ferrari laptop, though. For most
or maybe it was just some nerd browsing the internet at Mugello. Either way, I'd take one, and anyway, there's only a few weeks left before the F1 Season starts. Race fans amuse yourself here For Race Fans
This is not the first time this has happened... After all, who can forget the Pinto/Apple Powerbook - Plug it into the dock too hard and it bursts into flames...
Forbes just did an article about this laptop. The Acer Ferrari laptop retails for $1900-$2000, but laptops with similar hardware retail for $1200-$1300.
So the suits observe, rightly so, that $700 for a logo and a paintjob is a pretty good deal (for them). The Forbes angle is that we should expect to see more of these "dressed up" laptops and other hardware, since consumers are willing to pay disproportionately more for the cache of identifying with their favorite brands.
Interestingly, the same principle explains why ugly-ass autos like the PT Cruiser continue to be marketed and sold: Niche items have higher margins.
Recall that Rob Enderle=Microsoft Apologist /. a couple months back. It surprises me that he should point out the consistency and flexibility of Linux, since his earlier writeup made him look as if he was paid my M$ to mouth major anti-Linux FUD.
by GillBates0 (664202) on Wednesday December 17, @01:30PM (#7746866)
(http://slashdot.org/~GillBates0 | Last Journal: Saturday February 07, @08:37AM)
Note that Rob Enderle is the author of In Defense Of the Microsoft Monoculture [internetwk.com], which was highly debated [slashdot.org] on
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
A valid point, more so, a point of embarrassment if your Ferrari laptop has to be rebooted frequently during meetings.
"Enderle, what the hell is wrong with your laptop?"
"It's italian, sir."
"Well get a japanese one that works and doesn't make all the racket!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
deminisma writes "Hilarity abounds as 'analyst' Rob Enderle gushes over tha dude's new Ferrari/Acer laptop, know what I'm sayin'? The laptop apparently even plays da sound of a hooptie revving up while booting, which Enderle seems think is izzall da rage at meetings n' shit. "
It's part of Apple's permanent "Barely surviving niche player" status. They put too much focus on what the box looks like instead of what appears on the screen.
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - corporate shill Rob Enderle was found dead in his home this morning. There weren't any specific details but rumours of a bright red laptop some salty liquid and a stuffed llama abound. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to unpopular culture. Truly an American icon.
You'd have a hard time buying one, though:
/scripts/inc/nav.asp, line 11
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01fb'
An exception occurred: 'Execute'
They do look pretty nice, though.
That guy was/is not a cybersquatter. His last name happens to be Nissan and he was operating in the US using his name as the name of his company before Nissan changed their US monkier from Datsun.
And it shows just how ignorant some people are to think that Ferrari builds the best cars. They don't, in part because there is no such thing as "the best car". It doesn't help that they're unreliable, grossly under-equipped with features, often handle like a bar of soap, have atrocious build quality, impossible to service(much less find someone TO service them), and grossly, grossly overpriced. Witness the rebirth of supercar/sports car companies in the last 10 years.
Fastest? No. McLaren has had that for quite some time. Best techno-gee-gaws? Nissan Skyline, hands down. Best autobahn machine, aka, groundcoverer? Take your pick between the Audi RS6(450hp) or the BMW M5('only' 400hp), or the Merc S600(then there's also the Bentley Arnage Turbo). Best daily sports car? Porsche 911 twin turbo(AWD, extensive dealership network, loads of creature comforts). Best go-cart type? My personal favorite is the Caterham Super 7, but there's the Lotus Elise and the Noble(which is probably the fastest closed-wheel car around a track you can find). Best "gotta move a bunch of stuff" vehicle? Ask anyone in the UK, it's the Ford Transit(the funny super-tall van that's started to pop up here in the US). So on etc.
Further, all it takes is determination to beat Ferrari; there's absolutely nothing about being Italian that makes you build a better car. Ask Henry Ford- when Ferrari refused to sell out to him no matter what the price, he told his staff "beat Ferrari", and the Ford GT40 was born. It slaughtered Ferrari, and everything else. And just think...it's baaaack!(and you can even buy one yourself now, and they're downright gorgeous. I saw it at the NY auto show a year or two back, and there was a -huge- crowd of people just staring, and staring, and staring...)
Even other Italian companies did Ferrari in handily- the Detomaso is a perfect example. Near identical construction, nice Italian design...but a huge 5.7l big-block chevy V8 in back. So, you could pretty much find anyone to work on it, and there's enough room around the engine that you could practically climb in with it. No "drop the engine to remove the sparkplug" nonsense here.
Whenever I see a newish Ferrari on the road, I yawn. When I see an older one with racing history, that's slightly more interesting, but still somewhat yawn-inspiring.
Please help metamoderate.
And When you crash it at over 1Ghz, you die
From the current list of comments, every one here is, umm, bench racing. No one seems to have actually seen one, much less spent any quality time with one of these things. That said, most of your comments are way off.
0
I have seen and played with them on 2 occasions, and they are rather nice. I was skeptical when I first heard about them, then I saw one at Comdex:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=1278
I saw one again at CES, and talked to the Acer guys. They take this very seriously as do the Ferarri people.
There is a lof of thought that went into this box, and it shows. It really has to be seen to be understood. The paint looks insanely good, I have never seen a laptop that looks this nice.
The laptop itself is pretty nondescript, I think Enderle must be on crack to give up his T40, the nicest laptop I have ever reviewed for it.
Overall, give this thing a chance, it is a really unique laptop that looks damn good. Hunt one down in a store, you will be impressed.
-Charlie
If he was really legit, he would not have been engaging in massive spam campaigns to make his case.
"you don't buy a high-performance car and expect to get good gas mileage."
no, not if you're the kind of wank who can't figure out low fuel consumption takes engineering finesse.
woohoo. so, who's got the Gateway Dukes of Hazzard model, eh? at blue screen it chirps, "how will the boys get out of this fix?"
nothing quite screams pocket intelligence like a ferrari. be the first kid in your frat house to have one.
I'm gonna produce this dope laptop with automotive clearcoat paint, and some panels just covered in primer! It'll have a big wing(handle) on the end of it and sound like a bunch of bumblebees when booting up! It'll have tons of athlon, pentium, and crucial stickers on it, but have absolutley none of those parts inside!!!
Best of all...it'll be cooled by nawwwssss...but when it runs out, you'll still think it's fast!
Oh. If you're really, really desirous of a .wav of a race/luxury car and want to save your $1,899 admission price for something else, go to this page but turn off sound before you do. I warned you.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Laptops seem so sad after only a couple of years. Does Ferrari really want a bunch of embarassingly outmoded laptops laying around with their name all over it?
You mean all these years I've been fixing PCs for peanuts when all I needed to do was spend 10 seconds changing the bootup music for some sucker and he'll fork over $2k?
I just started back to school to get away from IT. Maybe it's time to move back...
this is one of the 'expert' whores that was quoted by SCO as agreeing with their lawsuit, just when the whole SCO thing started months ago. here's a brief history of this asshat http://enderle.iwethey.org/
Mine plays the Underwear Gnomes song. Now that one NEVER gets old. I could just sit here and play it over and over again... that's odd... one of my co-workers just shot himself...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Yeah... they had some intermittent problems... just try to reload the page... That normally resolves the problem. ;-)
Btw, mine's arriving tomorrow.
I'm sitting at a Starbucks now downloading Knoppix 3.4 via BitTorrent. I still use Windows XP on this beastie 'cuz I haven't been real successful with Linux on this yet... Here's hopin'
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
For $1899 you can have (almost) a nice 15" Albook which I would - for looks and ease of use- at all times prefer to the Acer ....except that it will be somewhat slower than the Acer, and only run a tiny fraction of the software available for the Acer. You'll prefer the mac to the acer, except when it comes time to actually use it.
I used to work at Microsoft (no boos, please) and Rob used to claim he had tested software that we had announced but not developed yet. In other words, stuff that wasn't even in existence. He's an idiot.
Not that I would expect anything better from Acer (ugh) but come on, do a little design work.
The thing is red on top with a red stripe on the side and a cheap looking silver everywhere else (I don't know about the back). It looks nasty. They could've integrated the red so much better (think Alienware in Ferrari red).
And the case is a regular old Acer case. It would've been so cool if them Italian engineers could've added a little flare or something, sheesh.
Right now it's just a dorky laptop that looks like it was made with some duct tape and a spray can.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Who would want something like this ?
6 months from now this WAV file playing, industrial automotive painted POS is going to be obsolete.
Who wants to hear an engine reving race car while starting up an outdated, gawdy ass red notebook.
--Tsiangkun
Exactly. It's not about whether or not Ferrari can build a better lap-top than ACER or Dell or Apple or whoever, but rather cross branding, and individualization. The linux community is a great environment for individualization of technology, so the extension of this concept into hardware seems like an appropriate /. story to me!
I'd love to see one of those Toughbooks with a "Jeep" brand on it. I'd think 2ce about getting one because I drive a jeep.
If it's just about function, then why would people ever buy cheques that have a sailboat on them, or different kind of anything? The choice of having a Ferrari laptop will hopefully only be the beginning. Notice things like mini-iPods being offered in several colours, cell phone covers etc, design is important, and people are buying.
he kinda has a point about people taking care of their machines:
A few years ago I was involved in a study to see why some firms experience failure rates that exceed 30 percent for laptop computers, and it came down to the fact that people simply were abusing their machines.
I know a bunch of accounting/business type people who work for big 5 firms and get pretty nice ThinkPads to work with. They treat them like complete sh1t because they look cheap with the boring black square box.
-n-
Apparently Apple users do not have the market cornered on the appearance of the laptop actually being important
Karma means nothing to me, so suck it...
I used to have an old 386 that must have had an unstable system clock. The benchmarks varied wildly, often showing unheard of 400 mhz speeds on a 16 mhz machine.
When you turned it on, the "beep" was often a wail or canary-like warble. The clock speed was so inconstant that it varied even at boot time, affecting the pitch of the beep.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This twat has written so many articles shitting on the Open Source Linux Community it breaks my heart to see his name in lights here on Slashdot.
Just go to www.thescogroup.com and look to the "SCO in The News" section. The 2nd article is from our old buddy and Linux Evangelist....Rob Enderle who proceeds to compare the Linux community as the 9/11 Terrorists.
From his website http://www.enderlegroup.com/profile.htm
"Rob has been ranked #1 since 1995 in press coverage world wide and been captured by the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, CNN, CNBC, the AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, New York Times, LA Times, Mercury News, MSNBC, NPR, and other services and papers world wide."
What else needs to be said about such a visionary. Just ask him he will be the first to tell you.
This may be one of the first OFFICIAL brand tie ins, but people have made unofficial brand tie in laptops before, such as this Hello Kitty laptop.
IMHO, the Ferrari products that carried the Ferrari name, but were manufactured by someone else just seem tacky and sucky.
So I presume you are actually in including Ferrari's road cars in this statement as they are all made and owned by fiat who just license the Ferrari name + symbol from the F1 team. The only true Ferraris left are the F1 cars
company is good (or arguably the best) at making cars
like I said above they don't make road cars anymore, however if you are referring to F1 cars then you would correct
It said "windows 98 or better" so I installed Linux
I mean, you gotta overclock that thing somehow.
I'm glad you don't know how to write proper HTML, it spared me from having to read an entire message in bold.
What's up with all the [] stuff anyway? How did people get the idea that's valid HTML?
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Apparently Apple users do not have the market cornered on the appearance of the laptop actually being important
Usually, this is true. However, at one time Apple was successfully selling Powerbooks that looked like they were modelled after the toilet seats of Graceland.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
...it's probably not for you.
This just in: Rob Enderle, Jim Anchower same person
Dude, you're saying the same thing Enderle said. Incredibly gorgeous beautiful sexy paint job, less than awesome tech.
Dell Inspiron 5150
:)
Processor , Current Processor Speed Genuine Intel(R) CPU 3.06GHz
Total Memory 1024 MB
Model Dell TrueMobile 1300 WLAN Mini-PCI Card [802.11g]
Model Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
Model Conexant D480 MDC V.92 Modem
CD / CD-RW / DVD / DVD+RW
Model QSI CDRW/DVD SBW-242 [didn't want DVD+RW]
Model MOBILITY RADEON 9000
RAM 64 MB
1600x1400
USB Controller Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C2
USB Controller Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C4
USB Controller Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C7
USB Controller Intel(r) 82801DB/DBM USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller - 24CD
1394 Controller Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
"I make trite whiny statements about people who whine about people who have Ferraris" == "I really do have a small penis and self-esteem issues and I'm scared people will realize it's all true!"
This ad has been provided to you by the Shiny Things Network .
Afterwards, the other guy messed about trying to get Windows to recognise the projector, and fired up powerpoint. After every slide, he had to walk to the laptop and press the mouse button to advance it.
Which person do you think made the better impression?
Having a laptop that makes a whoosh sound when you boot does not make a good impression. If the people in the meeting are focusing on the technology you are using then they are not focusing on you.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
They're used to it being valid code for message board postings. /. is similar to a message board. Therefore, [b].
As several readers have mentioned, this is a clear case of form over function. It reminds me of the initial performance reviews of Windows XP, which showed it to be considerably slower than Windows 2000 on a variety of office software benchmarks. However, all the initial product reviews (in e-zines such as eWeek) claimed that it was faster. In a /. story I cannot locate, there was mention of research that showed a strong correlation between visual appeal and perceived OS performance. This is, sadly, not terribly surprising.
Does anyone know of hard research on this topic? It would be fascinating to read up on.
Ha.
Large "Type R" sticker on laptop.
The laptop (as silly as it is) is not about the cars that Ferrari sells to the public, it is about their race cars! (And their Formula One cars are arguably the best out there) Most slashdotters being American proabbly don't realise that Ferrari is one of the biggest sports franchises on the planet. Manchester United is likely the only bigger name in worldwide sports than Ferrari.
F1 is second only to the World Cup and the Olympics in global TV audience. So the tie in is not snob appeal for the expensive road cars (BTW Ferrari only started making and selling cars to the general public to pay for their racing) This is more like having a New York Yankees or Chicago Bulls branded lap top than having a Nissan branded laptop.
Still a silly idea IMO, but its a different silly idea than the one everyone is poking fun at!
Wow, this is the 2nd advertisment "article" I've read this week. WTF?
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
... on sneaking into his house, gluing carpeting over all the outside and attaching a string with a pair of fuzzy dice!
I dunno, did you notice all of the estimated battery lifetimes are 60-90 minutes? I think I'd go for the T40 myself.
erm.. I'm pretty sure the F1 cars are still made in the UK - along with most of the others. I remember almost literally tripping over the wind tunnel test model in the low speed wind tunnel at BAE, Bristol.
:)) Looks and go thats what I need :) (in the week I drive a German car - I'm not totally mad :P)
I don't think financial ownership matters that much in Ferrari's case to be honest - and hey - it's not like Fiat is not Italian too. However - Mr Banana just about summed it up - I agree with every word - Ferrari trade on their name these days - the cars are flimsy, not that well made and some are just too damm ugly man! They handle pretty well on nice smooth roads, but for real world roads - get a rally bred 4 wheel drive machine! On the cost thing though - they are worth what people are prepared to pay, and as long as there are badge snobs out there to be parted from their cash, Ferrari will keep the "exclusivity" up with a large price tag.
If I had $100K to spend on a car - I'd be in the Ford GT queue - it's one beautiful looking car. If I wasn't worried about relaibility and had $60K+, there's plenty of automative art down at the TVR toyshop.
Actually - as it happens, I don't give a stuff about reliability when it comes to performance cars, which is why I keep a Mazda RX-7 R1 in the garage to play with at weekends
...So when this Ferrari laptop crashes, does it come out with a "crunching" / "squealing brakes" sound?
I'm a Ferrari fan. I collect Ferrari stuff. That laptop would look great on the shelves between all my other Ferrari memorabilia. Like all the rest of the stuff there, it's pretty, red, and basically useless.
Wouldn't wanna be seen dead actually using it as a laptop. I'm a nerd, not an idiot.
The guy wore a chartreusse tuxedo and a feathered pimp hat to his wedding.
It could be "irony." It's a form of "humor." Yes, I know that when you're using humor you should litter your writing with a heaping helping of smiley faces so your readers won't have to actually think about it, but professional journalists are language snobs and think that emoticons are beneath them.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I think you got it backwards. Price/performance and dumb-features ratio of that red atrocity tells us it's a managers toy. So, underlings worldwide moan inwardly as their PHBs repeatedly "rev" their Ferrari redtops. I rue the day...
668.5
I would hate to see what happens when this laptop crashes. Does it have airbags for data recovery?
The thing about it, it is still true. It's still 2004, when Mac's still hardly run any software compared to pc's, and they are slower than machines costing hundreds less. But they sure look cool. They always did.
a laptop that has an airfoil, a Type-R sticker and flame decals, so I can tell everyone mine's faster?
Evidently, DeLoreans have been snorting up all the white lines on the roads. (For you young'ens, John DeLorean was busted for putting up $1.8 million to bring 100 kilos of cocaine into the US. It was a funny joke in the '80s, I swear!)
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Does a Fararri laptop need a Fararri driver to obtain ultimate performance while surfing?
... Please ...? Pretty Please???? :-D
Is it's battery life comparible fith a fararris fuel consumption?
Can I just have the Fararri laptop bag?
Worst
Yes, I noticed them... but my use cases are different.
I need the added punch these things pack... but were it not for that, I'd always go for a Thinkpad.
".... I can say that it is definitely a stereo headphone jack. .."
Got news for you there, coach. Just because you get the VROOMVRROOOM noises out of both sides of the headphones - doesn't make it a stereo signal....just mono pumped to both ears.
But hey, you were the one "cool" enough to buy this one, so who am i to tell you about audio?
$5 says this jackass wears a Member's Only jacket and honestly thinks it makes him look cool.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Is currently kind of the Ferreri of the computer world. I'm sure other readers can point to some other venders. Whenever I'm specing out a pc to build I like to take a look at their hardware list. Only top end stuff (whish I could afford that 64!).
Quack, quack.
It's people like him that make people like my dad think this type of thing is "cool" or at the very least acceptable. Can you imagine a classroom full of these things?
-Valiss
As I remember here this not to long ago.
Alienware. Forgot the link...
Quack, quack.
But they have an entire department devoted to doing this kind of stuff for companies (like Grundig). It's not so much a branding situation as "let us help make some aspect of your product better." That's exactly what they do. Best I remember, Porsche just did the chassis for this other laptop, and it was pretty cool (brushed aluminum, I think).
Rob Enderle's role in the industry is a lot like the Cowboy Neal choice in the Slashdot polls...his name gets mentioned a lot, but generally, he doesn't add much substance to the discussion.
uh uh UHHHHH power book oh yea
I don't know Rob Enderle and I don't want to make assumptions, but I can't help but imagine that he spends a lot of money at "The Sharper Image", wears Speedos because they're "European" and decorates his apartment with framed Nagel prints and posters of babes in bikinis straddling Testarossas and Countaches.
But that could just be me.
Porsche building an SUV? Hang on...
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I can't see how that's a better computer; it may have more RAM, but the DVD+RW and highend graphics are biiiig selling points.
Lalala
And you know Enderle-the-Microsoft-shill is running WinXX...
... isn't Ferrari best known for making cheap sunglasses and cut-rate gym bags? Jeeze, I hope this laptop isn't built in that same tradition.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
enderle has fallen even further in my esteem (if that were possible--)
while i realize that yes, branding, appearances, and design are important in the marketing of a device, i for one do not want to have something that plays a loud sound as i boot it up, especially in cramped confines like an airplane.
frankly, that laptop seems more style than substance, and it's a sad state of affairs when people pay more attention to style.
then again, it makes sense when imacs are all the rage instead of powermacs, when tina's boob is more talked about than kid rock's poncho, and when enderle is considered in the know.
It has a custom paint job "31173" the hood,
hydraulic pads so I can raise or lower it depending on the desk height,
and I kitted the fan to make it extra noisy - just so you know I am in the room.
Worship me.
"First you get the Linux, then you get the power, THEN you get the women"
This is hardly a first... VPR Matrix supplied Porsche designed laptops to Best Buy (they still do, I think). They were pretty far from flashy, with a gray/silvery exterior and a staid black interior shell. I owned one for a few months, and it was a wonderful performer, and always caught people's eyes (without the startup sound and bright red paint).
People are mad, because the review is simply poor. Its based on style and no substance, which arguably is more important to the average /.'r.
Moreover, I think this laptop SUCKS. I dont have to own one to think that, I can look at the specs:
Radeon 9200 --- how old school. Thats a video card from essentially 3 yrs ago (read: 8500). The Radeon 9600 mobile, the FX5200 MObile, or even the Radeon 9700 mobile would have turned my head. But an old video card that will barely play any (new) games on a machine that looks like its meant to appeal to gamers is dumb.
When I see a middle aged man with a groomed mustache consciously revving the engine of a bright red Ferrari at an intersection, I assume he's compensating for something. But getting a watch and a laptop that match, not to mention complementing the engine sound, and I really begin to wonder.
Knowing the cheapskates around here...
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
be like buying an Enzo? In order to be considered to be eligable to purchase a Ferrari Enzo, you would have had to owned an F40 and F50 -- so, what two laptops do you need to have owned prior in order to get one of these :)
:-D
I just stick with my powerbook 17", looks more like the amazing Porsche Carerra GT
sad robot making broken music
a) stupid clashing colours (red, blue, or green on silver or black)
b) useless multimedia keys with a whole button dedicated to launching the manufacturers website
c) stupid plastic latches on every edge to get caught on something and broken
d) fucking annoying buttons to control every possible aspect of the computer (CD-ROM play/stop/ff/volume/brightness/power/mute)
e) gaudy decals cheaply stuck all over the machine (intel inside, designed for windows x)
f) big honking colored legacy ports (no, I don't want a parallel port on my notebook, nor a serial port, nor a PS/2 port)
g) ugly protruding latches sticking out of the display
h) ugly two/three tone colour scheme (ooooh let's make the area around the trackpad and keyboard dark grey, and the rest of it silver! And a red eraser nub for the secondary pointing device and random keys blue!)
The scary thing is I have gotten most of these rants by looking at the thinkpad R40e setting next to me, and I generally find thinkpads the least visually offensive of the lot! Also, does anyone else but Apple make slot loading optical drives on notebooks?
P.S.
i)...
j) Profit!
"When I walk into a room with this baby, even the Apple users join the throngs of admirers. "
Sorry, not buying it. I defy Enderle to find a single Apple user who admires any wintel machine.
every time I load CD in it, the CD drive makes some funny noises. I *really* think it sounds like Lambroughini. Or may be Mazerati...
A 5.7 Liter Chevy is the same as a 350 cid which is a small-block. Think a L-89 (TPI 'vett engine), LT-1/4/5, and the LS-1/6 are all 5.7l (350) small blocks. GM big blocks include 396, 400, 427, 454 (7.4L), and the new 8100.
So Ferrari basically got their computing support needs taken care of and a couple of Acer engineers to abuse by letting someone use their brand name? maybe it's not a bad deal.
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
I heard it's a $25.000.000.oo accessory ;)
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
This thing must be a snap to overclock. Just add a wing and a 'Type R' sticker.
But, does it run linux?
Learn something new.
Whats the big deal... why is this story on slashdot? after all its still a PC. I wouldnt pay anything extra for a PC design.
The desktop screen also boasts a unique design, complete with a Ferrari racing motif and active calendar.
How come the screen shot in the "article" has a picture of a canoe? Sure, it's red - but is it a Ferrari Racing Canoe?
anyone know of a McLaren branded laptop or PDA? Id uy it right now.The loser Red is not for moi.
Lord of the Binges.
Metallic grey case. Small and sleek enough that Apple laptop owners inquire because it looks so good. Only three "multimedia" buttons, labeled "A", "B", and with a little envelope icon.
And, oh yeah, runs Linux really nicely and with the second battery swapped in instead of the drive blows Enderle's aspired to 7 hours out of the water.
If you had penis compensation issues, I'm sure you could make it play screeching tire sounds on startup too...
They handle pretty well on nice smooth roads, but for real world roads - get a rally bred 4 wheel drive machine!
Surely the same argument applies, for real world roads you want a normal car, designed to work on real world roads, not a rally car, which are designed to work on rally tracks, which are distinctly not normal roads.
And sorry, but if you had 100K to spend on a car you could do so much better than a Ford GT, Im thinking, Jaguar XKR, Jaguar XJ220, Aston Martin DB7 GT/Vantage, Hell, if it was me id have 2, An BMW M3 for the week and a Noble for the weekends.
Why would we give him hits? Stay away. Or better yet, go there, buyt with images disabled - loads the publisher's server without providing ad revenue.
"that's not encryption - it's a new perl script that I'm working on..." - from some Matrix parody
Man- look at the battery specs. All but one model only gets 60-90 minutes of battery life- and it is inevitable that will hover mostly around 60. An hour of battery life? sheesh!
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
First of all, Formula One dwarfs ALL other broadcasts (save perhaps Olympics), including euro football. It has 380 million viewers in 202 countries every race weekend.
Ferrari do have the best cars on the grid (World Constructors Champions 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003; World Drivers Champions in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003), but Williams and McLaren are catching up.
I have a Ferrari 355. While it is far from junk, its build quality can be considered 'quaint' in a few areas. It's also not that expensive to fix, although I do dread the bill if the engine ever grenades.
If you want to really be shocked, buy a low volume Ferrari with rare options. A 456 with auto trans has been known to give owners strokes when they are confronted with a 40k repair bill for a new TRANSMISSION.
Higher volume cars like the 308, 328, and (somewhat less so)355 have relatively cheap parts because there are so damned many of them. And, they are easy to work on.
Purchasing a Ferrari is never as rational decision as owning a Toyota Camry (which I also own), nor is it sensible at times.
But screw all that. It's about passion and not much else.
Besides, I was just pullin' your chain :)
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
No one is under the impression that those [] tags are valid HTML. They're not HTML nor attempted HTML- it's common markup for a lot of BBS software. Valid in a lot of places- most forums strip HTML because of the potential for abuse. No potential for abuse when you just have a subset of non-HTML markup.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
The typical estimates for Ferraris budget is more on the order of $300 million. They also have external sponsors who cover some of that cost and they basically don't advertise -- F1 is it for them -- to sell very expensive road cars to people who can easily afford them. The waiting list for a new Ferrari is on the order of 1-2 years because the exlusivity of the marque keeps the prices artificially high (and keeps the resale value high). Bottom line, they don't need to sell laptops -- it's just a merchandising opportunity like selling hats and tshirts. Ferrari is already one of the most profitable divisions of Fiat.
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
And this fellow doesn't ONCE mention that this notebook only comes with an AMD Athlon processor. Intel has quite a stranglehold on the press.
This guy looks like his head's being consumed by a giant fungus... and he doesn't mind.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
We have this model at the store where I work. The reving sound is a simple windows sound scheme, and the "calendar desktop" is but a mere active desktop with javascript.
However the laptop itself does _sport_ a nice spec sheet. If you can get past the heinous red casing.
But does it have a hemi?
Note: Requires a large lap.
p g1 .html
http://www.llnl.gov/asci/sc00fliers/asci_white_
Nice mustache. People who get geeked about automobile themed laptops should be drowned in a bucket, especially mustachioed ones. This guy is worried about people 'fondling' his shiny red laptop. Does this piece of crap require $6500+ in maintainance per year? Are it's energy requirements anything like the Ferrari's? It does not appear to have significant performance over any other laptop, how much of a technical challenge was it to paint red and create a desktop theme? The article is a waste of bytes. Nothing about this is even remotely 'cool'. If you still dream like a spoiled teenager of ferraris and other exotic wastes, I hope one runs you over and you die, Enderle.
TallGreen CMS hosting
Because it has crappy battery life, that's why.
Ron Paul 2012
....Big Machine.
I think that would make my jaw drop many a times to think that its a Ferrari driving by instead of a laptop powering up. Hmm.. and for that low, low price of 1800 dollars, I can make other people feel the same. *me snickers*
-Kids in the back seat causes accidents.- -Accidents in the back seat causes kids.-
That's not envy Rob, that's pity.
If you want to do
And any hope you had of being taken seriously went right out the window. Especially when you consider that many database tools are written in Java these days, because JDBC insulates application writers from DB-specific and platform-specific issues. Not to mention the numerous enterprise computing tools and application servers written in Java, etc.
I guess Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL don't count? Seriously, Microsoft SQL Server ain't all that.
The G4 is only a consideration for the current generation of Apple laptops and consumer-grade computers; even so, it's really not that bad a performer, if you load the system with sufficient RAM. Since this Slashdot article is nominally about laptops, it should be noted that G4 Powerbooks are quite serious machines both for developers and power users. The G5 Powerbooks will be nice, and even faster (and probably faster than this Acer/Ferrari laptop being reviewed), but you don't need to wait for a G5 Powerbook to get decent Powerbook performance.
No G4 performs this poorly. So either you're talking about G3 or pre-G3 hardware with insufficient RAM, or you're blowing smoke out of your ass. I'm wagering it's the latter.
And what little credibility you had has disintegrated. This kind of schoolyard name-calling is the last resort of the unenlightened and the insecure. What puzzles me is why people have been parroting this line since 1984, even though the Mac has evolved since then, changing CPU architecture and OS architecture dramatically in the process? Even most diehard Wintel zealots don't say this stuff anymore; I'm just not sure what subset is responsible for keeping this tired old non-argument alive.
If you're the guy in a meeting with me you'd better hope that your rev'ed up notebook will get you as far away from me as quickly as possible.
When talking about products targeted at individuals, I actually see a lot of IT value in the concept. A few years ago I was involved in a study to see why some firms experience failure rates that exceed 30 percent for laptop computers, and it came down to the fact that people simply were abusing their machines. If employees were given a product they were proud of as opposed to one purchased at a bargain basement piece, they took better care of it, particularly if they knew they could buy it after a reasonable two-year service life for a laptop computer.
That is an interesting concept. Not sure I would go for it since employees have the added factor that they didn't have to pay for the computer, and their getting to buy it after 2 years is a different solution altogether that might work just as well with any other machine. Still - it could work I suppose.
Without getting into the eternal battle of Macs vs. PCs, I wonder if the term "paying a premium for style" is really accurate...
Rather, If I enjoy using OS X, and I have no other choice of hardware manufacturer(which I don't decry, mind you), am I paying for 'style' because I buy an Apple laptop, or am I simply buying the 'only' tool for the job, at whatever price it is sold to me?
I know we could argue endlessly what other people thinkI should do with my money, but given that it is no one elses business what I do with my hard-earned cash, am I really buying 'image'?
In order to avoid a 'class-warfare-type statement', I would put it this way... I like a certain green vegetable. Sure there are other green vegetables, but I like this certain green vegitable. You might say, "but you can just eat this other green vegetable..." and I say, "but I like this certain green vegetable." "But that vegetable cost more than this other green vegetable. You must be mad, or overly 'style-conscious' to want that certain green vegetable." "No, I just know what I like and don't like. I've tried that other green vegetable. Don't like it." "What, you think you're better than me, with your fancy green vegetable?" "Whoa, there, friend, I just know what I like..." "Dirty Green Vegetable Zealot!"
And so Slashdot was born...
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
seems to have major penis envy. I mean, he's got a Ferrari latop, a Ferrari watch... I bet he drives a Yugo though ;-)
Not that I'd turn one of these down if offered, you understand!
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
I drive a Dodge Stratus!
Isn't it interesting how you come to recognize posters based solely on their sigs???
It was Hot Wheels underwear. I was seven.
I would be SO embarassed if I owned anything even remotely similar now.
My thoughts exactly, I just got through spending a grand on a 12" iBook G4 so I'd have something that got better battery time than my HP Pavilion ze5285us, which hovers around 45-1:45 battery time depending on if it's idle or in full use.
:-P
Amusingly the iBook had better linux hardware support out of the box (except for the lack of a wireless card and the fact that the official apple wireless card is a broadcom.. DAMN YOU BROADCOM!) Plus it gets 2 or 3 hours under full load at 800 or 600 mhz. Idling I can get about 4.
Plus for 700 less the apple has dedicated video memory, albeit only 32 megs, and a slightly better GPU (Radeon 9200 mobility vs an IGP 345M max 128 shared memory).
Performance-wise and battery-wise I'll probably look at a centrino for my next laptop, but I gotta say for the moment the ibook ain't bad.
Oh yeah, and just to rankle all those maccies out there, when OSX took more than 5 seconds to boot up, I restarted held down C and installed Gentoo linux instead
-- vranash
why the hell are you booting in a meeting? it should already be up and ready to go.
If your car is a piece of crap, you might find yourself restarting it in the middle of an intersection. If your operating system is a piece of crap, you might find yourself restarting it in the middle of a meeting.
Rank Presidents by th
Ehm, Acer BUILT the laptop. Read the article before saying anything about it. Incidentally, Acer makes some damn good laptops.
I assume it was posted as a chance to make fun of Enderle. I like the part where he is afraid someone will fondle his laptop.
I haven't heard any of my machines for months since I haven't had to reboot. 1TiBook, 1 G5, 7 Dual G4s and a pant load of those snowball-looking ones.
It's so nice to take your notebook out at a meeting, flip it open and look around, waiting patiently while everybody else gets ready to work. It's not like they couldn't have done it themselves. Maybe they *like* to listen to their machines make noises or something.
Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development. (Wilde)
that in heaven the plumbing is American.
In Hell it's English.
...why don't they just make a 10" cylindical mp3 player with big round control knobs at the base and get it over with? :-)
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
He has the credibility of Mozillaquest and the keen insight of er...Mozillaquest.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
So he has a Ferrari watch and laptop now. Do you think he's kissing up for them to give him an actual Ferrari car, or do we need to wait for this schmuck to write about his Ferrari briefs and cologne?
You misunderstood the whole point of posting this to Slashdot.
The point is not the red laptop. The point is a hardware reviewer embarassing himself by gushing over a red mouse and an annoying WAV file.
In THAT regard, it was hilarious.
They're not talking about the modern aluminum Powerbooks, but the original 15" Titanium Powerbook, which was made of... Titanium. Which reflects radio waves. My girlfriend has one, and it's very definitely made of Titanium and not the aluminum used in modern Powerbooks.
Another problem with Titanium? It is somewhat flimsy. The case already has a couple of dents and odd-shaped bends in it.
Geez. Yes, they've been using Al for a while now but we're not talking about those!
argh
Sorry to hear about your attention deficit disorder. Maybe try some Ritalin, then you can enjoy jokes longer than five words.
I sent this mail to the author of the article:
_ by _porsche.html
I read your article "My Love Affair with Acer's Ferrari Notebook", and you mention at the end that "Acer gets full credit for applying [unrelated branding] to the PC market." That's not really true. VPR Matrix put sold Porsche designed laptop at Best Buy in 2002. See here:
http://www.hilary.com/reviews/vprmatrix.html
and here:
http://vsbabu.org/mt/archives/2002/10/25/laptop
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
At least your insurance doesn't go up when this Ferrari crashes.
Why doesn't Jaguar make televisions?
The engineers can't figure out how to make them leak oil....
Ba da bum...
ho ho
See subject.
"When talking about products targeted at individuals, I actually see a lot of IT value in the concept."
OMG WTF is this guy on? What marketing prof. failed this guy?
Just in: Ferrari signs deal with M$ to market the red screen of death (RSOD)...
-- Sig meltdown immine...
The laptop style fits the person, and everybody else at the meeting sees right away who they are dealing with. 'Nuff said.
I am about to say something highly flameworthy, followed up by something not.
The flamebait is here: I would not mind one of these laptops purely on aesthetics. I *want* a laptop that sticks out from the throngs without having to paper the backs with a ton of stickers. I *want* people to notice it when I flip it up and start to work, or play a DVD.
The serious bit: The specs are fairly good. It includes a 802.11g card, DVD+-RW drive, 60 GiB removable HD, 1/2 GB RAM, AMD XP-M 2500 processor, 15" screen, ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 128 MB video card, and include coordinated optical mice. Those are not trivial specifications. Granted, it ain't top of the line. I know some gamers that are drooling at the 3d potential of this machine, and for most other work this should be able to handle the load.
And, there are a few people converting these heathen laptops to the One True Path, a little at a time (first link is painfully detailed hardware, second is travails of conversion)
Oh yeah, and the price should be mentioned: They are on par with 12" TiBooks.
I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
Real life is underrated.
you gotta have one to use while the other one's "in the shop" ;) ...and you can only use it on gigabit networks or it breaks down...
-m
I just have to say how happy the occasional civil exchange makes me...
I understand the superficial Microsoft comparison when I hear it, that both companies are monopolists, but I always find that to be facetious...I think of Apple more like Sony...but obviously different in most ways... Consumer Electronics, but not cunsumer as a slur...
Their propreitary-ness is related to the holistic nature of the devices. That is an asset. And they are pretty open in return...everyone -- other than RMS -- could be more open.
*~*
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
I guess you can polish a turd!
Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
I don't recall ever seeing pictures that you could click on to get larger pictures referred to as "screenshots". To me a screenshot is an image produced by capturing an image off of your screen, and theoretically without a lot of editing.
The second of the two pictures _might_ qualify, but the first doesn't. Anyone else notice this? Or care? I thought it sloppy for a professional publication. But I'm often disappointed with them these days.
He was talking about the TiBooks, which did use Titanium in the casing, not the newer Powerbooks made with aluminum.
He probably reads "Men's Health" magazine.
Could you imagine going to a job interview looking like this?
HydroWax :)
The comparison is not quite relative - the bike is made by a premier Italian manufacturer which makes some of the most sought after bikes around (by top racers and normal folk alike), outfitted with top of the line components, while the laptop is an Acer with some paint and a badge stuck to it.
Regardless, even in the case of the bike the whole cross-branding thing is fairly lame, IMHO.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
Which person do you think made the better impression?
The best communicator of course!
You're fixating on sugar coating. You can actually use technical OS flaws to build up a presentation long bond with people. You can also portray yourself as a down to earth person that uses any available technology to bring a message.
A techno-fixation is likely to distract you from the topic and from the audience.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Hmmm. The paintjob. Yes, it is pretty, isn't it. but... I don't know if you've ever noticed, but automotive paint scratches. Really really easily. And you have to wash it with soap and water and wax it to keep the showroom shine. And greasy finger marks look really bad on a fresh waxed surface. Okay, so your laptop's not going to be exposed to some of the dirt and grime a car gets - but over time, laptops do pick up dirt, and get dragged in an out of laptop bags, and slid across desks, and have stuff piled on top of them.
I'm really not sure it's a good idea to paint a laptop with car paint...
Tachy ;-)
god dammit! what's wrong people?
isn't anyone doing serious work
anymore?
this really looks like kindergarden
where the spoil upper-class kids
brings in his new G.I. Joe toy soldier.
post cold war economy = Kindergarden market.
what happend to bring the right tool
for the job...
Although Rob Enderle IS laughable, I fail see the relevance of this article AT ALL. Why the hell is it on the first page of slashdot? It's not news. It's not interesting. It's barely related to technology. It's just a one-page ad for Acer.
Bah! Stupid slashdot!
</rant>
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
It is a bit unnerving when you are fixing something late at night, boot the fixed(sic) server while getting distracted with something else, and suddenly there is a woman just behind your ear saying "Replace the CPU!".
Q.
Insert Signature Here
I think you've completely missed Raven's point. He doesn't have to fumble with his machine to do the presentation.
Since you've suggested that the fumbling is an advantage, I have to ask if you think it's a good idea to take a pratfall on your way to the podium?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
All the polls are assuming that you're on windows, and the question is about whether to go to linux or mac if MS's next idea fails... No "I'll stick with windows" or "I'm already on linux / mac"...
/. as unbiased...
Having seen that, it makes me think of
First things first: Current F1 champions, both driver & constructor. Many racing teams would be over the moon to achieve iether one once. Ferrari has done this more often than any other team. Ferrari also has the most F1 wins, most F1 points, have contested the most F1 races and seasons. Ferrari was, until the advent of Toyota and the buyout of Benneton by Renault, the only team to make both the engine and the chassis for themselves.
Ferrari also has the most uncompromising history of building great sportscars. Initially they were a sideline to fund the racing department, but today cars like the Enzo and 360 Modena are class-leaders - if not in absolute drag-strip times but there are few in their respective classes faster around a racetrack. I would be surprised if the McLaren F1 was consistently faster than the Enzo around a series of tracks.
As for your autobahn machines question, that is a highly competitive class, with the Bentley Continental GT, Mercedes-Benz E,S and SL 55 AMGs and the new Ferrari 612 Scaglietti all right there at the front of the pack.
You mention the Ford GT. The original GT40 did in fact clean up at Le Mans for a period of three or four years. However I have to mention that the project would never had been so successful if Ford did not simply buy Eric Broadley and his Lola GT project and use that as a starting point. Remember too that at that time, Ferrari was consciously moving away from the sports-racing category and into Formula One racing exclusively. The original GT40 though is still an awesome piece of kit, no two ways about that, but one does I feel have to contextualise what transpired.
No other manufacturer ever has a list of production machines that makes the enthusiast drool. From the 250 SWB, 250 TdF, 500 Superfast, 250 GTO - widely regarded as the paragon of sports cars - to the 275 GTB/4, 365 GTB/4 Daytona, the little Dino, the 3x8s, the Testarossa, the 360, the 288 GTO, the F40, F50 and now the Enzo they have always produced something for the enthusiast. All this adds up to Ferrari having the ultimate name in automotive performance.
And, for the record, there is something about the Italian way of producing cars that has produced some of the finest machinery around. Alfa-Romeo, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Abarth, Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Osca, Stanguellini, Bizzarrini, ATS, ASA, ISO, Moretti, Francis Lombardy, and the design houses of Pininfarina, Bertone, Zagato, Touring, Marazzi, Boana, Ghia, Ellena, Vignale, ItalDesign & Giugiaro have between them produced a mind-boggling array of high-performance machines and in most cases utterly gorgeous bodies. The area around Modena in particular has spawned an impressive array of truly amazing sportscars and supercars: Ferrari, Maserati, De Tomaso and Lamborghini all are from around Modena, and the brief resurrection of Bugatti (the EB110 in the early nineties) was also based around there somewhere.
Although the laptops are good and the service also.
Their attitude towards Linux isnt.
The problem is that they have several models
like the 66x Series of their centrino notebooks
which suffer the problematic no bios entry no resoltion in XFree problem. Well Acer has been aware of the problem for almost a year now and Intel has given the correct bios entries to their customers, but Acer refuses to bring out a fixed bios which has the necessary 1400x1500 entry to allow the native resoltution from within XFree on their 66x centrino notebooks.
A simple question on the otherwise excellent Acer support hotline is only answered with "We dont support Linux"!!!!
So all who want to run Linux on a notebook, either get Apple or IBM!
HTH, HAND
In all honesty, the disdain for this laptop "cause its sooo purdy" on slashdot, reminds me of just how petty this community can be. I think the whole point being made in defence of the acer, is that its taken style into account, where as you look at HP's dell's etc... they are still ugly as hell. That said, I kinda like the spartan black look of the ibm series of laptops, but my god, they are frickin expensive... Thats why I replaced my thinkpad with one of these.
:( ) and Bluetooth all built in.
:D
When I was looking for laptops, I had a few criteria's.
1) 2) High resolution screen, at least 1280x1024, preferably higher
3) Enough video power to run 3d Studios max, and some of the games I play ( mostly medievil:Total war ) dont care about supporting the newest version of Quack at 4,231 fps personally.
4) Decent processing power.
5) Builtin wireless
6) Windows based ( sorry, no mac )
You shop around for a laptop that meets those specs. I dont much care for the portable aspect so battery life isnt such a big concern. If im somewhere for > 2 or so hours, I generally just plug the thing in... thats been the case with every laptop ive ever owned. Anytime im at a conference, or a meeting, which ever, I have access to a power outlet. I keep hearing people say you can get a better spec'd machine for the same price, but I have seen exactly ZERO examples of where that is true. I see alot of people point at laptop's with 3000$USD price tags, and saying, hey look at that one, its better! Yeah... sure, compare ables to oranges. Oh, and if you are going to point me at a dell... or any other web order laptop, be accurate and include the 100$ to 150$ in shipping that people like to convienantly forget when they are price comparing.
Thats said, there are a few things I dont like...
* Heat. This thing runs hot. Downside to the Athlon mobiles, they really run hot...
* Very trivial, but the mouse. Its contoured in a way that pinches your fingers together, and in reality isnt that useful.
* One dead pixel. Then again, I think ive encountered this with almost every laptop from almost every manufacturer, I could send it back for replacement, but screw that.
* Driver support. You need to have ACERs drivers. You cant use ATI's drivers for any of their mobile products.
* Hard drive is only 5200 rpm.
* USB ports are all on the left side, which is very annoying as im right handed, so when I plug a mouse in, I have a cable either running across the surface, or tangled around the back. Swap the USB hub location with the DVD location ( the dvd, btw, ejects into the bent AC adapter cable, which is also kinda annoying and would be fixed by this move aswell )
Little things that dont get noticed but I love, is the 4 way joystick that can be programmed to do whatever you want. The fact the hibernating is actually done well. The 4 in 1 reader is kinda nice. 4 usb ports is very cool. Firewire, Infared, 802.11g ( no b sadly
That, and it has a damned cool paint job!
He was talking about the TiBooks, you know, Ti as in Titanium.
The new Powerbooks are made of Al, you know as in Aluminum.
They may have been using aluminum "for awhile now," but they NEVER used it on the TiBooks.
Now go back to school.
You have a jeep? nuff said. They're all about form, and no function. They're consistently poor off-roaders, and they drink the juice like it's going out of style. It's like the kids with the suped-up cars with the neon an' all. Only an idiot thinks it makes it better, but then only an idiot would drive it.
According to your post, Windows machines can't recognise monitors, don't have Instant-On technology, or bluetooth. Wrong on all counts. I know macs look cool, but have you looked at the new Toshiba or Sony notebooks? They have everything you get on a mac (and I do mean everything), and a whole lot more (even a second mouse button!). Did I mention also for a lot less?
I have a dell notebook (old-ass inspiron 3700 P3-500) and a digital projector. You don't have to "get windows to recognise" it - you just plug it in, and away you go. My notebook also has bluetooth, firewire and 54mb wifi. PC notebooks also have suspend modes that they can wake from in 3 seconds or so (and hibernation, so you can close the lid and it suspends to disk in seconds - open the lid and it turns back on just as quickly). Macs have nothing going for them that you can't get on a PC notebook. Nothing.
Again, sorry if I sound like a dick, but this bullshit has to end somewhere. If someone said things like that about a mac notebook, every mac zealot would crawl out of the woodwork and scream blue murder.
You're missing the point. The fact that I had a Mac, and he had a Windows PC is neither here nor there. My point was that if you draw peoples attention to your computer, you are drawing it away from yourself, and if you are trying to communicate something then this is not a good idea.
According to your post, Windows machines can't recognise monitors, don't have Instant-On technology, or bluetooth.
I don't recall saying that. I said that the laptop used in this presentation didn't have any of these features. This made a bad impression, since it kept people in the meeting waiting. I was making the point that a laptop making a `vroom!' sound would do the same thing; draw peoples' attention toward the machine, and away from the person.
Macs have nothing going for them that you can't get on a PC notebook. Nothing.
You've not used OS X, have you?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Can't fault you logic Herulach - so perhaps a bit more explanation is in order - "rally bred" doesn't mean an actual rally car - but they tend to come with more pliant chassis and 4 wheel drive, and will usually run rings around many "supercars" down a real road. Real roads are more like a rally stage than race track (well the tarmac round here is pretty bumpy in places anyway..). A normal road car is built for ride comfort - and are very floppy around the corners which causes the car's mass to shift about. That said - you are right - many "normal" road cars will outrun a "supercar" on a real B road providing it's got enough poke under the bonnet.
As for car choices - well it's all subjective really. I've never driven a Ford GT - it might be a load of pants for all I know, but from what I've read its a decent steer - and it does look fantastic. Wouldn't turn down any of your choices either mind, although I think you'd struggle to find an XJ220 for 100K!
What phone is this?
I prefer a void in conversation to a vacuous one.
In my case it was a T68. A few others are supported by Romeo. I can't recommend Romeo enough to any Mac user with a compatible phone. As well as the mouse emulation mode, it also lets you create arbitrary menus on the phone which trigger AppleScripts, and triggers an AppleScript event whenever your phone (or other bluetooth device) enters or exits range. I have it configured on my machine to pause my music, mute my volume and activate my screensaver when I move out of range, and the reverse this when I return.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Don't know where you got that nugget, as there are engines >360 ci that are small-block engines (the Olds 403 comes to mind as an example...the 400, 425, and 455 Oldses are big-block engines, but not the 403).
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Though these machines are fairly new on the market, there are already installation reports about Linux on the ACER Ferrari series available. As well as installation reports about Linux on other laptops and notebooks with AMD CPUs.
Particularly when you've had one go south (or two, or in my case three).
(green light)
"sigh"
(green light)
"sigh"
"JEEBUS, but I do love that sound!"
Alas, Jeebus is a fickle overlord, and soon we're once again at
"sigh"
(typed on a currently fully-functioning iBook G4, nearly all of whose individual parts have been *completely* replaced right down to the chime-producing small speakers and the rest of the case since buying it late last year - I still believe in you, Jeebus! I mean, Steve)
(let's try that again - so *that's* what the forced preview is for - huh)
Particularly when you've had one go south (or two, or in my case three).
<click>
(green light)
"sigh"
<click>
(green light)
"sigh"
<chime!>
"JEEBUS, but I do love that sound!"
Alas, Jeebus is a fickle overlord, and soon we're once again at
<click>
"sigh"
(typed on a currently fully-functioning iBook G4, whose individual parts have been *completely* replaced right down to the case since buying it late last year - I still believe in you, Jeebus! I mean Steve)