It's funny that you should mention it - has this gotten better on Win7? I never kept it on my system long enough to test that particular bit.
Even on my nearly brand new Thinkpad, XP sometimes still locks up (completely, i.e. even the mouse pointer freezes) for a few seconds when the DVD drive's trying to recognize a new disc. That's the only place whatsoever that I still get freezes on XP...
Check out Dell Precisions, Thinkpads, HP EliteBooks... just a few that offer WUXGA @ 15.4".
Personally, I'm not sure if WUXGA might not be cutting it a little too closely. I'm on WSXGA+ (1680x1050) @ 15.4" right now, and I couldn't be happier.
Actually, I'm talking about Youtube. They have an HD mode (the little button that says "HD"), which isn't really HD, but rather somewhere around DVD resolution (SD on Youtube is something like 200x150:P). My old EeePC 1000H used to run those videos at about a frame per second - if that. I was wondering if that's been fixed with newer netbooks...
Regular SD DVD rips in XVid/DivX or even H264 weren't a problem.
It's not the kids I wouldn't trust - it's people I entrust them to. It's still years away from me, but I don't think homeschooling is an option.
Just imagine... what if the babysitter is a complete dumbass? Or the teacher? Or the chaperone on the kid's first out-of-state field trip? If the kid's too young to fend for him/herself, most parents would probably (and should!) welcome any additional way to keep track of their kids.
I actually read all of those support pages and wrote a few e-mails to Blizzard before coming here to complain;)...
As for the comment about the CD key generators - are you sure? Are companies actually dumb enough to generate their keys with such an easily duplicated algorithm? I find that a bit hard to believe.
"Blizzard has 2500+ people working POORLY in customer support related jobs. They make decisions based on hearsay and ban without even doing a thorough investigation into the matters at hand. It's beginning to cost them in playerbase (I know, they still have a lot of players) just as it did with SOE and EverQuest when WoW was initially released."
I can confirm that. Bought a copy of Diablo II LOD about a month ago, played for two weeks, tried to log on again today, and found out my CD key's been disabled/banned. The funny thing is, I actually have no idea what's going on - unless "Third party applications and/or hacks" includes Winamp, my account should be clean as a whistle.
Conclusion: Whoever's in charge of bans at Blizzard is a f***ing idiot.
Hmmm, I thought this was the norm these days. My bank does it, my mobile phone operator does it, my ISP does it... the only ones that don't are the power/water/heating companies, but they only send like a bill a year.
Actually, IIRC the N280 has a slight FSB boost over the N270, which makes a lot more difference than the slight clock speed bump. I just find it hard to believe that a higher FSB is making the difference between unwatchable and butter-smooth.
How're "HQ" Youtube videos on the 1000HE? As stutter-free as non-HQ? Is HD almost watchable (say, 10fps), or still 1 or 2 fps?
I don't know what other people are thinking, but when I see someone using an iPhone or iPod touch, I usually think, "Ooooh, shiny!". That's pretty much it...
Two things occur to me: Either Adobe has released a version of Flash that's 10x faster than the one they had back in June, or everyone saying that an N270 will play back most or even all Flash video smoothly are all full of shit. The main reason I sold my N270-based netbook was the stuttering in Flash video. Sure, it was usually watchable, but definitely not smooth. I had a cut down version of XP Pro SP3 on there, all nice and updated, no unnecessary background processes... and strangely enough, at the time, everyone (even on slashdot!) was complaining about stuttering flash video. So what changed between then and now? Did the N270 mutate?
As for plugging in vs. not, of course. Even overclocked to N280 levels (SuperHybridEngine's Super Performance mode), the N270 just had no chance with a lot of videos. Task manager showed pegged CPU at these times, so I'm guessing that was the cause. The N270 based Toshiba NB100 I got my girlfriend has similar symptoms, whether plugged in or not.
Some Flash worked fine, but other stuff shows blocky video where my C2D shows everything smooth, and this is on fairly low-res stuff. HD just doesn't work, and a lot of other video isn't that smooth either. Hell, my girlfriend watches stuff online a lot, so I get to see an N270 in action every night - they're fine for web surfing and DivX/XVid, but proper Flash video (especially when encoded with H264) is too taxing for those little things, IMO. Sometimes watchable, depending on bitrates etc. but often also not...
Dunno about Ubunut, but if that fails you can always slap Windows on there for video viewing... If you can afford CoreAVC, X264/H264 are usually OK for up to 720p. My X264 transcoded DVDs (all done via Handbrake on the Film preset, usually between 1800 and 2500kbps) all play flawlessly on my girlfriend's Toshiba NB100, which is also powered by an N270. DivX/XviD are guaranteed to work in pretty much every case.
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It's funny that you should mention it - has this gotten better on Win7? I never kept it on my system long enough to test that particular bit.
Even on my nearly brand new Thinkpad, XP sometimes still locks up (completely, i.e. even the mouse pointer freezes) for a few seconds when the DVD drive's trying to recognize a new disc. That's the only place whatsoever that I still get freezes on XP...
No, there aren't. Get a proper keyboard or stick to Twitter.
Having posted on Slashdot quite a bit using a smartphone, I have a recommendation:
http://www.amazon.com/Stowaway-Ultra-Slim-Bluetooth-Blackberry-Handhelds/dp/B0002OKCXE
That way, we won't have to make allowances for idiots trying to type out 500-word posts on thumbboards or, God forbid, onscreen keyboards...
So European and Asian cars don't count as modern? Not everyone in the world drives automatics, you know ;)
Check out Dell Precisions, Thinkpads, HP EliteBooks... just a few that offer WUXGA @ 15.4".
Personally, I'm not sure if WUXGA might not be cutting it a little too closely. I'm on WSXGA+ (1680x1050) @ 15.4" right now, and I couldn't be happier.
Actually, I'm talking about Youtube. They have an HD mode (the little button that says "HD"), which isn't really HD, but rather somewhere around DVD resolution (SD on Youtube is something like 200x150 :P). My old EeePC 1000H used to run those videos at about a frame per second - if that. I was wondering if that's been fixed with newer netbooks...
Regular SD DVD rips in XVid/DivX or even H264 weren't a problem.
It can handle 480p just fine, or it can handle Youtube HD just fine? Regular non-Flash 480p is a lot less taxing :)
HD on Youtube is like 480p, which is like 850px wide... :)
It's not the kids I wouldn't trust - it's people I entrust them to. It's still years away from me, but I don't think homeschooling is an option.
Just imagine... what if the babysitter is a complete dumbass? Or the teacher? Or the chaperone on the kid's first out-of-state field trip? If the kid's too young to fend for him/herself, most parents would probably (and should!) welcome any additional way to keep track of their kids.
I actually read all of those support pages and wrote a few e-mails to Blizzard before coming here to complain ;)...
As for the comment about the CD key generators - are you sure? Are companies actually dumb enough to generate their keys with such an easily duplicated algorithm? I find that a bit hard to believe.
As far as I can tell, Blizzard screwed up.
"Blizzard has 2500+ people working POORLY in customer support related jobs. They make decisions based on hearsay and ban without even doing a thorough investigation into the matters at hand. It's beginning to cost them in playerbase (I know, they still have a lot of players) just as it did with SOE and EverQuest when WoW was initially released."
I can confirm that. Bought a copy of Diablo II LOD about a month ago, played for two weeks, tried to log on again today, and found out my CD key's been disabled/banned. The funny thing is, I actually have no idea what's going on - unless "Third party applications and/or hacks" includes Winamp, my account should be clean as a whistle.
Conclusion: Whoever's in charge of bans at Blizzard is a f***ing idiot.
Bhahahah, I can't wait until the first people start showing up in tech support forums complaining about mold...
I have to agree - I'm pretty sure the bazillion novels I read as a kid helped my vocab and grammar along very nicely.
Hmmm, I thought this was the norm these days. My bank does it, my mobile phone operator does it, my ISP does it... the only ones that don't are the power/water/heating companies, but they only send like a bill a year.
Perfectly agree. I have no idea why people think touchscreens would preclude the use of a mouse and keyboard...
However, I'm not sure why everyone's buying into this capacitive fad... Are people writing and painting with their fingers these days?
Actually, IIRC the N280 has a slight FSB boost over the N270, which makes a lot more difference than the slight clock speed bump. I just find it hard to believe that a higher FSB is making the difference between unwatchable and butter-smooth.
How're "HQ" Youtube videos on the 1000HE? As stutter-free as non-HQ? Is HD almost watchable (say, 10fps), or still 1 or 2 fps?
I don't know what other people are thinking, but when I see someone using an iPhone or iPod touch, I usually think, "Ooooh, shiny!". That's pretty much it...
Two things occur to me: Either Adobe has released a version of Flash that's 10x faster than the one they had back in June, or everyone saying that an N270 will play back most or even all Flash video smoothly are all full of shit. The main reason I sold my N270-based netbook was the stuttering in Flash video. Sure, it was usually watchable, but definitely not smooth. I had a cut down version of XP Pro SP3 on there, all nice and updated, no unnecessary background processes... and strangely enough, at the time, everyone (even on slashdot!) was complaining about stuttering flash video. So what changed between then and now? Did the N270 mutate?
As for plugging in vs. not, of course. Even overclocked to N280 levels (SuperHybridEngine's Super Performance mode), the N270 just had no chance with a lot of videos. Task manager showed pegged CPU at these times, so I'm guessing that was the cause. The N270 based Toshiba NB100 I got my girlfriend has similar symptoms, whether plugged in or not.
Some Flash worked fine, but other stuff shows blocky video where my C2D shows everything smooth, and this is on fairly low-res stuff. HD just doesn't work, and a lot of other video isn't that smooth either. Hell, my girlfriend watches stuff online a lot, so I get to see an N270 in action every night - they're fine for web surfing and DivX/XVid, but proper Flash video (especially when encoded with H264) is too taxing for those little things, IMO. Sometimes watchable, depending on bitrates etc. but often also not...
Maybe Youtube and Youporn are just especially taxing ;)
Thank you.
Dunno about Ubunut, but if that fails you can always slap Windows on there for video viewing... If you can afford CoreAVC, X264/H264 are usually OK for up to 720p. My X264 transcoded DVDs (all done via Handbrake on the Film preset, usually between 1800 and 2500kbps) all play flawlessly on my girlfriend's Toshiba NB100, which is also powered by an N270. DivX/XviD are guaranteed to work in pretty much every case.
Porn = video, which on the web = Flash.
Oh, and I've seen YouPorn and the like ;)
Thanks for the info. :)
Good point, I'll be more careful in the future :D