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Alienware's Star Wars PCs
CptnKirk writes "Alienware is now offering their high-end PCs pre-pimped with Star Wars themes. These systems have the usual assortment of configuration options. They're then additionally modded with your choice of Light Side or Dark Side themes. External decals, light kit and desktop theme. They even throw in a membership to the official Star Wars online fan club. I admit, booting the system to "what is your bidding my master", sounds appealing."
thanks for the advertisement, Slashy. The extra large ones at the top of the page just weren't getting me off.
I'm not here. This isn't happening.
I thought Alienware was going to be kinda creative and maybe make the case out of the shape of a Millenium Falcon, instead of copping out like the bunch of uncreative money grubbers they are and throwing a crappy graphic on the side of their standard case.
I'm sure fanboys everywhere are rejoicing right now.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
am I the only person who thinks that those look exactly like standard alienware PC's with pretty pictures featuring starwars characters on the side?
FGD 135
Pre-pimped rigs are a stupid person's way to 'customize' their computer.
It's like legos...legos are a toy of creativity. When they start including pre-built shapes to look like spaceships, forts, or castles, it is all over. Who would want pre-built legos?
Well this is the same sort of thing.
No reason to lie.
They look like toys for an 8-year-old.
This is getting a bit ridiculous. I've been reading slashdot for at least five years now. WTF is up with all these bought-and-paid-for media placements that have shown up recently? My respect for Slashdot is rapidly dwindeling and I want an offical answer.
This is the number one reason why I refuse to subscribe.
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
I admit, booting the system to "what is your bidding my master", sounds appealing."
If that's all you need to complete your Star Wars experience, I can set you up for just a few hundred dollars. No need to shell out thousands for some overpriced computer system!
It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
and you think posting here will get you an official answer?
Given the situation, I'm amazed slashdot has held up this long. However - when the student is ready, the master will appear... There are a lot of places out now that are good alternatives to the retro-slashdot years, back when they were "cool." The masses keep slashdot popular, but it's the popularity that makes it lose the real community feel. There's no cohesion here anymore.
On the other hand, if you go back 5 (or more, for some of us...) years, you'll find that many of the stories were just like this one - case mods, etc. It wasn't until the slashdot crowd all decided that they were biologists, physicists, chemists, economists, and lawyers that the community started going insane. Personally, I welcome the return to silly stories about things nerds would be interested in...like nerdy case mods.
Exactly why I'm keeping on to all my Lego from days past. I'm not doing anything with it myself but as soon as I have some kids, they'll get the REAL Lego to work with, not the crappy pre-fab stuff.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
They're not necessarily stupid, they're just lazy or have better things to do with the time that it would take. I would never take the time to do lots of things (yard work, fix my refrigerator, drive several hours when a flight will get me there in two hours, etc..). Paying people saves me time and effort - it has nothing to do with stupidity.
From Boing Boing
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Computer mods are supposed to be something to make your rig unique, to be something to show off and say that you did yourself. Why call these custom cases? Someone else did the design, someone else did the assembly. Sure, it looks nice, but all it says is that you can plop down some cash for a computer! It's like the use of leetspeak or netspeak or whatever...hackers used to use it to get around newsgroup text filters. Now people use it to sound cool. "Custom" cases....just another group jumping on a different bandwagon.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
It wasn't until the slashdot crowd all decided that they were biologists, physicists, chemists, economists, and lawyers that the community started going insane.
;-)
What, us physcists can't be nerds too? Some would say that scientists are the ultimate in nerdiness, even beating you johnny-come-lately CS types with your high uids...
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Since when does this crap count as a "pimped out rig"? Really, from the look of it, it's a stock alienware case (which, nowadays, I can do down to my local IT vendor and get something remarkably close for $75CDN) with a graphic on the side. Oooooh, wow, check out the l33t rig! Oh, my GAWD, you PREINSTALLED the STAR WARS DESKTOP THEME too? I'm totally sold! Can I please give you my money and wait 4-6 weeks for delivery??? Can I buy 10, in case they become a collectors item?
Worst. "Mod". Ever.
I'd have some respect for it if it was something a little more hardcore. Light sabre that shoots out from the 5 1/4" bay if your biometric doesn't scan right. A nice custom case shaped like a stormtroopers helmet. Hell, even a nicely cut out side panel with back lighting. This? This is a fuckin ironed-on graphic. Ooooh, wow.
Of course, we all know the best Star Wars mod ever was the Millenium Falcon PC. Now, we know what the lamest was too.
Thanks Slashdot.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
If you have the money to buy pretty things, then by all means, buy pretty things.
I've never understood this additude that among certain circles of geeks where not having the time to devote your life to building your own equates to being required to live without.
Is building your own rewarding to some? Damn straight it is.
Is building your own sometimes less expensive? Yes, more often than not.
Is building your own a better way to get the look YOU want? Only if you happen to have that creative streak in you that lets you be both geek and artist.
Is building your own the ONLY way to do? HELL NO!
Look, doctors, dentists, and other people with money enough to throw away on pretty things typcially have better things to do with their time than spend it mucking around building their own version of every pretty toy they can afford. Usually, this better thing happens to be MAKING MONEY.
Yes, it's nice that you spent your life building everything you own, from the misshappen, mangled shirt on your back to the chair your butt is resting on.
But the rest of us, those of us with lives, happen to only find building our own stuff fun if it's being done as a hobby. Which means, the rest of the stuff we own we BUY.
Get off the high horse and join the rest of civilization.
Computer cases should be hidden out of the way. I built my PC in a rack-mount chassis, which fits right into my Middle Atlantic studio furniture desk. This way, it takes up zero desk and floor space. The USB 2.0 CD-RW sits on the desk near the monitors, and I've got USB cables plugged into the back of the machine and brought up as a little bundle. There's no need to even look at the front panel, except maybe to turn it off.
I'd say it's fairly important for those religious people to realize thou is the familiar form, since that would change the tone of the ten commandments significantly. Also, it seems important that people in the new testament refer to god with thou, indicating they had a familiar relationship with him.
So, while language may be continually evolving, there's something to be said for knowing its history, since so many works that are a part of our culture take on an entirely different meaning otherwise. How else to do that than point out when people are wrong?
It's nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.
Languages are living, mutating things. They aren't static, and what was true in 1500 by and large isn't true today.
That's correct. And today, the use of the familiar form at all is largely gone. So, using it as an honorific is still technically incorrect, because in modern usage, it's use at all is just wierd:) I wouldn't say that 'thy' and 'your' have reversed meanings... they're just used so rarely that nobody understands their use anymore. I would argue that in the KJV of the bible (the version that most popularized the use of the familiar form) it was intended to actually show that while God is greater than Man, Man's relationship with God is a personal one. Besides, poetically, it often works better. Nor would I say that the meanings have reversed because of their use by the religious; I would argue that Victorian formality and American linguistic laziness had more to do with it than religion. As society became more and more impersonal, there was less and less need for a separate familiar form, so people became accustomed to simply addressing everyone using the honorific, and the familiar form simply fell out of usage. Once the separation between familiar and unfamiliar was effectively gone, the familiar form was restricted to usage in older texts (like the KJV, or for a more secular example, in Shakespeare) where it seemed to be a more formal use of language (because it made a distinction between the two forms). So, in fact, since 'thee', 'thy', and 'thou' are now effectively no longer a part of Modern English, using them incorrectly really is a sign of ignorance of how they should be used in the style of language the speaker is trying to evoke.
It's not a question of pedantry. Like I said, the familiar form is effectively dead, so if you're using it, you're trying to evoke an earlier version of the language, and so, you should use it correctly within that earlier version. Otherwise, more educated people (who actually care about history, as opposed to most people who seem to pretty much ignore it) will laugh at your ignorance.