Hmmm, a GeForce 6200 isn't exactly an up-to-date model. I was thinking more along the lines of something like the lowest models on ATi's and nVidias _current_ product lines.
GeForce 9400 would be the current product of interest when it comes to nVidia, as far as I can tell. Just selected the cheapest one I could find over here(This one), and it's got Dual Link DVI... As for ATi, absolutely no idea:)
TBH I'm rather surprised that there are still cards on the market with single link DVI ports, what with 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 resolutions slowly becoming mainstream. Hell, back when 1024x768 and 1280x1024 were the standard resolutions, most video cards were capable of 2048x1536...
I dunno, I just got a Radeon 4670 as a replacement for my old 7800GTX (crappiest 450 Euro paperweight I ever bought), and I'm pretty surprised for the price. This thing cost me 70 Euros and plays pretty much everything at medium details and native res (1680x1050)...
I'll be getting one of these each year (instead of a $500 card every 3 years) from now on, thank you very much...
It's just less of a hassle to rent/buy/download a DVD/BluRay and curl up on the couch... the experience is similar in terms of sound and picture quality these days.
Why run down to the local Cineplex and wait in line for half an hour (15 for tickets, 15 for popcorn etc.), then share a cinema with loud, drunk, obnoxious idiots or ill-mannered teenagers, and then find out that you can't even hit pause to go empty your bladder of the overpriced beer you just bought at the concession stand...
No thanks, I'll take my living room any day of the week.
This "recurring bank draft" thing sounds a lot like a recurring transfer...
1. Get a bank account 2. Either log into your online-banking or walk into the actual bank 3. Fill out a form (bank account numbers and so forth, how often you want the transfer, how much you want to transfer each time etc.) 4. Finished
Takes about 10 seconds with online-banking and doesn't cost a thing...
"I like their idea of having more vertical bar, as the wide screen form is being widely adopted, it will be a better way to use our screen real estate."
To be honest, that's actually the only real problem I have with Office 2007's ribbon interface. With older Office versions, reconfiguring the UI to free up vertical screen real estate wasn't a problem. If I could move the ribbon to a vertical strip on the side of the screen, I wouldn't mind it at all...
Now when someone sells me a 4:3 netbook, I promise to stop complaining about the ribbon:)
You are aware of the fact that optical drives and USB hard drives or flash drives work on XP and newer without any third party drivers whatsoever, right?
Have you NEVER done a Windows install from the ground up?
What have you been SMOKING? Every laptop manufacturer worth buying from provides a page with XP/W2K/Vista drivers for EVERY one of their components.
Just head to the manufacturer's webpage (usually $manufacturer.com), and click on one of the following: "Downloads", "Support" or "Driver Downloads". Usually located right on the front page...
For instance, I just tried out asus.com. Click on Asus global, hit Support, and you're on a page that provides a huge link that reads:
"DOWNLOAD
Download product BIOS, Drivers , User Manuals and Utilities here."
Let's try msi.com... same thing. Big fat DOWNLOADS link right on the main menu.
Now Lenovo.com - no global page, so US. Hey, would you look at that, there's a "Downloads and drivers" link right on the front page.
Over the past few years, I must've installed Windows (XP & Vista, in standard non-customized versions) on at least 30 different laptops (my friends and family are very computer-retarded), and the only ones I've had trouble with are ones from crappy unreputable vendors - stuff like "Medion" and UltraCyberPower. Anything name-brand that a consumer is likely to find at the mall is no problem at all...
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the battery life. A full 8-hour day of lectures is possible (on the stock battery!) if you turn off the screen when you're not using it, and put it on standby in during lunch breaks etc...
I was pretty much just happy that netbooks made the subnotebook form-factor more affordable. My EeePC 1000H is everything I need when I'm on the go, and it does so much that I've actually started using it as my main system.
The multi-core desktop only gets fired up for transcoding DVDs and stuff like photo editing or CAD, where I need higher resolutions and a roomier monitor...
I've also got a smartphone (WM6.1 right now), and there are a lot of problems with those.
1. Crappy browsers. Take Opera Mobile 9.x for instance - very buggy, slow, doesn't play nice with AJAX or Javascript-heavy pages. The iPhone browser was a bit better, but still problematic...
2. Input options. Who the fuck wants to type out an e-mail with a software touchscreen keyboard? When I check my mail on the go, I want to actually be able to write a reply and send it right away... a netbook with a 3G connection makes that possible.
3. Extremely difficult to find certain apps that find on your platform. For instance, there's a schedules app available for the local mass transit system - for x86 and Windows Mobile. If you've got an iPhone or a Blackberry, you're SOL. Not to mention that the x86 version is the only one of the two that actually works without crashing every few minutes... Sure, you say "code it yourself", but as a consumer I just want to be able to put software on _all_ my devices and have it just work - without having to worry about architecture or OS differences.
Netbooks are small laptops that don't weigh a lot, but are still fully functional. You can put them in your backpack or messenger bag and hardly feel the extra weight, and take them _everywhere_. Back when I had a 15.4" laptop, I hardly ever took it anywhere because it weighed half a ton - which meant I hardly ever actually used it as a laptop.
The netbook, on the other hand... hell, I can't remember the last time I left that at home.
See, the slowness of voice mail ("Welcome to **** voice mail! This call costs xx.xx per minute. You may access the voice mail service at any time by dialing xxxx-xxxx-xxxx. You have x new messages. For new messages, press 1. For older messages, press 2. For voicemail settings, press 3.") caused me to stop using it about... oh... 3 seconds after I got my first mobile phone (must've been when I was about 13, so 8 years ago). Guess I missed out on all the technological advancement since then;)
I'd be a lot more inclined to actually listen to that crap if I didn't have to dial through 4 keypad activated menus before I got to the actual message. Put it on the phone so you can listen to it as quickly as you would an SMS, and make sure there's a time limit on there that makes sure they can only explain who they are and why they're calling. 15 Seconds sounds about right...
And stop wasting my time with automated voice crap - whether it be voice mail or service hotlines. If you're gonna charge me a Euro a minute, you'd better put an actual person on the other end of the line.
1. The father doesn't want your help 2. The kids don't want your help 3. They're all too stupid to stop going on warez and porn sites 4. The father seems to be a bit of a deviant 5. They're stupid enough that they repeatedly cancel virus scans even though you've told them they're important and will get rid of (some or most of) the virus infections
Now why would you want to keep fixing their crap? Okay, they're relatives, but... who cares? These days, when someone comes along with a question like that for the 50th time (and I know that there isn't a chance in hell they'll understand my explanation), I just feign ignorance and say I have no idea what's going on.
My advice... Tell them something similar to this:
If you're too stupid to use a computer, too ***ing bad, live with being part of a botnet and losing an hour of your life every time you try to boot up your computer... If you're smart enough to educate yourself, congrats and welcome to a world with one less idiot...
They've actually been debating whether or not to ban so-called "killer games" (pretty much any FPS qualifies...) for a while now. Same thing, a few dumbass politicians assume that the kids who go around shooting classmates or passers by probably used 'em for weapons training...
This is the sort of thing that makes me want to move away from Germany - I could deal with all the holocaust aftermath pseudo-guilt, but this kind of incredible stupidity is just too much..
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Hmmm, a GeForce 6200 isn't exactly an up-to-date model. I was thinking more along the lines of something like the lowest models on ATi's and nVidias _current_ product lines.
GeForce 9400 would be the current product of interest when it comes to nVidia, as far as I can tell. Just selected the cheapest one I could find over here(This one), and it's got Dual Link DVI... As for ATi, absolutely no idea :)
Ooops, that's HD4670. ATi model numbers are too confusing...
Coming from nVidia to a HD3670, I can't complain. The ATi drivers are just fine.
TBH I'm rather surprised that there are still cards on the market with single link DVI ports, what with 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 resolutions slowly becoming mainstream. Hell, back when 1024x768 and 1280x1024 were the standard resolutions, most video cards were capable of 2048x1536...
Are you sure this is the case these days?
I can second that... just got one myself, and I'm surprised at the amount of power this thing has. Uses very little power and was very inexpensive...
The only thing I'm missing is a TV-In for capturing... :)
I dunno, I just got a Radeon 4670 as a replacement for my old 7800GTX (crappiest 450 Euro paperweight I ever bought), and I'm pretty surprised for the price. This thing cost me 70 Euros and plays pretty much everything at medium details and native res (1680x1050)...
I'll be getting one of these each year (instead of a $500 card every 3 years) from now on, thank you very much...
It's just less of a hassle to rent/buy/download a DVD/BluRay and curl up on the couch... the experience is similar in terms of sound and picture quality these days.
Why run down to the local Cineplex and wait in line for half an hour (15 for tickets, 15 for popcorn etc.), then share a cinema with loud, drunk, obnoxious idiots or ill-mannered teenagers, and then find out that you can't even hit pause to go empty your bladder of the overpriced beer you just bought at the concession stand...
No thanks, I'll take my living room any day of the week.
That's it, I'm never having kids. Maybe I'll adopt a 5-year-old...
That looks frackin awesome. That makes me sad :(
AutoGK default settings work fine over here (~70 rips so far)...
Strange. Sure you're installing XP or newer, and not something like Windows 3.11 for Workgroups?
I truly can't remember the last time something like a USB hub has required a driver... or a CD-ROM drive.
This "recurring bank draft" thing sounds a lot like a recurring transfer...
1. Get a bank account
2. Either log into your online-banking or walk into the actual bank
3. Fill out a form (bank account numbers and so forth, how often you want the transfer, how much you want to transfer each time etc.)
4. Finished
Takes about 10 seconds with online-banking and doesn't cost a thing...
"I like their idea of having more vertical bar, as the wide screen form is being widely adopted, it will be a better way to use our screen real estate."
To be honest, that's actually the only real problem I have with Office 2007's ribbon interface. With older Office versions, reconfiguring the UI to free up vertical screen real estate wasn't a problem. If I could move the ribbon to a vertical strip on the side of the screen, I wouldn't mind it at all...
Now when someone sells me a 4:3 netbook, I promise to stop complaining about the ribbon :)
You are aware of the fact that optical drives and USB hard drives or flash drives work on XP and newer without any third party drivers whatsoever, right?
Have you NEVER done a Windows install from the ground up?
What have you been SMOKING? Every laptop manufacturer worth buying from provides a page with XP/W2K/Vista drivers for EVERY one of their components.
Just head to the manufacturer's webpage (usually $manufacturer.com), and click on one of the following: "Downloads", "Support" or "Driver Downloads". Usually located right on the front page...
For instance, I just tried out asus.com. Click on Asus global, hit Support, and you're on a page that provides a huge link that reads:
"DOWNLOAD
Download product BIOS, Drivers , User Manuals and Utilities here."
Let's try msi.com... same thing. Big fat DOWNLOADS link right on the main menu.
Now Lenovo.com - no global page, so US. Hey, would you look at that, there's a "Downloads and drivers" link right on the front page.
Over the past few years, I must've installed Windows (XP & Vista, in standard non-customized versions) on at least 30 different laptops (my friends and family are very computer-retarded), and the only ones I've had trouble with are ones from crappy unreputable vendors - stuff like "Medion" and UltraCyberPower. Anything name-brand that a consumer is likely to find at the mall is no problem at all...
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the battery life. A full 8-hour day of lectures is possible (on the stock battery!) if you turn off the screen when you're not using it, and put it on standby in during lunch breaks etc...
I was pretty much just happy that netbooks made the subnotebook form-factor more affordable. My EeePC 1000H is everything I need when I'm on the go, and it does so much that I've actually started using it as my main system.
The multi-core desktop only gets fired up for transcoding DVDs and stuff like photo editing or CAD, where I need higher resolutions and a roomier monitor...
I've also got a smartphone (WM6.1 right now), and there are a lot of problems with those.
1. Crappy browsers. Take Opera Mobile 9.x for instance - very buggy, slow, doesn't play nice with AJAX or Javascript-heavy pages. The iPhone browser was a bit better, but still problematic...
2. Input options. Who the fuck wants to type out an e-mail with a software touchscreen keyboard? When I check my mail on the go, I want to actually be able to write a reply and send it right away... a netbook with a 3G connection makes that possible.
3. Extremely difficult to find certain apps that find on your platform. For instance, there's a schedules app available for the local mass transit system - for x86 and Windows Mobile. If you've got an iPhone or a Blackberry, you're SOL. Not to mention that the x86 version is the only one of the two that actually works without crashing every few minutes... Sure, you say "code it yourself", but as a consumer I just want to be able to put software on _all_ my devices and have it just work - without having to worry about architecture or OS differences.
Netbooks are small laptops that don't weigh a lot, but are still fully functional. You can put them in your backpack or messenger bag and hardly feel the extra weight, and take them _everywhere_. Back when I had a 15.4" laptop, I hardly ever took it anywhere because it weighed half a ton - which meant I hardly ever actually used it as a laptop.
The netbook, on the other hand... hell, I can't remember the last time I left that at home.
See, the slowness of voice mail ("Welcome to **** voice mail! This call costs xx.xx per minute. You may access the voice mail service at any time by dialing xxxx-xxxx-xxxx. You have x new messages. For new messages, press 1. For older messages, press 2. For voicemail settings, press 3.") caused me to stop using it about... oh... 3 seconds after I got my first mobile phone (must've been when I was about 13, so 8 years ago). Guess I missed out on all the technological advancement since then ;)
And why shouldn't those suburbs be included in any decent mass transit system? Isn't that where most people live who go to work in the city every day?
I'd be a lot more inclined to actually listen to that crap if I didn't have to dial through 4 keypad activated menus before I got to the actual message. Put it on the phone so you can listen to it as quickly as you would an SMS, and make sure there's a time limit on there that makes sure they can only explain who they are and why they're calling. 15 Seconds sounds about right...
And stop wasting my time with automated voice crap - whether it be voice mail or service hotlines. If you're gonna charge me a Euro a minute, you'd better put an actual person on the other end of the line.
So let me get this straight:
1. The father doesn't want your help
2. The kids don't want your help
3. They're all too stupid to stop going on warez and porn sites
4. The father seems to be a bit of a deviant
5. They're stupid enough that they repeatedly cancel virus scans even though you've told them they're important and will get rid of (some or most of) the virus infections
Now why would you want to keep fixing their crap? Okay, they're relatives, but... who cares? These days, when someone comes along with a question like that for the 50th time (and I know that there isn't a chance in hell they'll understand my explanation), I just feign ignorance and say I have no idea what's going on.
My advice... Tell them something similar to this:
If you're too stupid to use a computer, too ***ing bad, live with being part of a botnet and losing an hour of your life every time you try to boot up your computer... If you're smart enough to educate yourself, congrats and welcome to a world with one less idiot...
They've actually been debating whether or not to ban so-called "killer games" (pretty much any FPS qualifies...) for a while now. Same thing, a few dumbass politicians assume that the kids who go around shooting classmates or passers by probably used 'em for weapons training...
This is the sort of thing that makes me want to move away from Germany - I could deal with all the holocaust aftermath pseudo-guilt, but this kind of incredible stupidity is just too much..
Isohunt, Isohunt, Isohunt...
Wow. This series of comments has seriously made me contemplate never visiting Slashdot again, before I end up talking to myself over the internet... :|
So you think that, because you fried two badly designed machines, some laptops aren't meant to be run with the lid closed?
That's like saying cars aren't meant to be driven because you totalled your convertible when the wheels fell off...