VW sells something call the Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG). Its a dual clutch manumatic. Its available on all their diesel cars and higher end gas cars. Ford and BMW have similar products as well. The Ford Focus and Fiesta are recent products with the new transmission available.
Modern turbo charged gas engine cars have vacuum pumps too. Its still cheaper and more reliable to use a vacuum driven brake booster vs. a hydraulic system. Audi tried hydraulic boosted brakes in their C3 platform cars (Audi 5000/100/200) and it was a disaster here in the US (reliability wise, nothing to do with unintended acceleration).
Its very likely the new Jetta appears smokeless. The US has much stricter limits to the pollution diesel engines can put out, mostly because they have to meet the same EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 or CARB emission limits as petrol cars. Europe's standards are more lax on NOx emissions for example although the new Euro VI standards will likely close most of the gap (I have read it still isn't as strict as EPA regs). The Jetta is the only diesel passenger car here in the US that can meet the strict EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 and CARB requirements without the use of urea (BlueTec) exhaust treatment. The NOx trap it uses however is VERY expensive.
I recall Dell being the first to make the floppy drive optional in their Dimension line.... in 2003. A family member complained that they had to pay extra to add the drive their Dimension 4600... and yes, unlike most, that machine still works.
Every Mac desktop from the Plus released in 1986 to the 1997 (sold to the end of 98) Beige G3 had a SCSI controller onboard. It lasted a little longer on the Powerbooks, the Lombard G3 was the last in 1999. Macs used SCSI hard drives exclusively until 1994 when the Quadra/Performa 630 series came out.
Try $7 per disc back in 1997. Drives were 1X/2X ($600-800 for most models) and SCSI only (add another $150 for a decent controller), burning a CD meant basically not using your computer for 45mins, otherwise one risked a buffer under run and an expensive coaster. Most home computers came with a CD-ROM drive and a soundcard by 1993, business machines usually lacked them.
Check out ADmitMac I have used their lower end DAVE product in the past and it did the job at the time. Apple's built-in solution relies on Samba, but its support for AD is a bit lacking.
I've spent my fair share of $$ for Apple products. Ironically, I never had a problem pairing all kinds of Bluetooth devices with my old Powerbook G4. I do recall having problems with a Logitech BT mouse with a MacBook however, it wouldn't maintain a connection.
There is a reason why HID Bluetooth devices are blocked. Apple sells an overpriced "iPad Keyboard Dock". Mr. Jobs says buy that and make him more money.
Its called "exterior grade" sheet rock, it has a waterproof black coating to it. They seem to like using it on new construction apartment and townhouses around here. Those same buildings seem to be constructed without true firewall breaks too.
Houses in the US generally have the kitchen in the back. I was told it was for privacy reasons. One friends house has it in the front which was considered odd.
Most new housing here in the US is being built with sheet rock on the EXTERIOR walls. Why? Because it meets fire code.... and its cheap. Very few new houses have squared walls, its not uncommon to see walls visibly crooked. I can expect it in a house built 100 years ago, but with today's tools?
HDTV is really holding monitors back. Since everyone is producing 16:9 1920x1080 panels for TV use, everyone is using them in computer monitors to cut costs. I much prefer 16:10 ratio displays (1920x1200), but they are pricey because its now considered a "niche" market.
Back in the 80s, Apple used to pretty much give all their OSes away for free, I think they started charging around System 7 or so. Later on they had a policy to make old versions available for download so people with old hardware can get their machines running. Once Steve Jobs returned, that policy stopped so the latest you can get on Apple's support site is System 7.5.5.
Optical, I've had both DVD and CD bitrot, even on the old Kodak 'gold' discs.
Use good media, and don't fall for the "gold archival" hype, those MAM-A discs (also sold under the Delkin brand) are/were subpar and overpriced. I'm willing to bet most of those bitrot discs were cheapo CMC Magnetics, Princo, or Ritek made discs. Problem is its getting harder to find known good blank media.
Funny, everyone says the 15 year old CD-Rs I have shouldn't work anymore. They all read and verify just fine despite being first generation dyes. DVD-Rs are better then CD-Rs simply because of the added top lacquer coat they all come with. The dyes are also mature and stable and drives universally available, something hasn't been proven with BD-R yet.
I got lucky and managed to recover data off of a DAT tape I made 10 years ago. The key is that you have to have the backup software that created the archive to begin with! Also, tape was NEVER intended to be a long term backup medium. Moisture collection over time is tape's biggest enemy and slowly destroys the binder and lubricant in the tape. Tape also requires contact with a read/write head which adds wear and tear, plus the drives have a lot of moving parts (high rate of failure).
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Nissan hinted as a diesel powered Maxima for the US market too, those plans seem to have disappeared.
VW sells something call the Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG). Its a dual clutch manumatic. Its available on all their diesel cars and higher end gas cars. Ford and BMW have similar products as well. The Ford Focus and Fiesta are recent products with the new transmission available.
Its gets even better, the water pump impeller is usually plastic too.
Modern turbo charged gas engine cars have vacuum pumps too. Its still cheaper and more reliable to use a vacuum driven brake booster vs. a hydraulic system. Audi tried hydraulic boosted brakes in their C3 platform cars (Audi 5000/100/200) and it was a disaster here in the US (reliability wise, nothing to do with unintended acceleration).
Its very likely the new Jetta appears smokeless. The US has much stricter limits to the pollution diesel engines can put out, mostly because they have to meet the same EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 or CARB emission limits as petrol cars. Europe's standards are more lax on NOx emissions for example although the new Euro VI standards will likely close most of the gap (I have read it still isn't as strict as EPA regs). The Jetta is the only diesel passenger car here in the US that can meet the strict EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 and CARB requirements without the use of urea (BlueTec) exhaust treatment. The NOx trap it uses however is VERY expensive.
I recall Dell being the first to make the floppy drive optional in their Dimension line.... in 2003. A family member complained that they had to pay extra to add the drive their Dimension 4600... and yes, unlike most, that machine still works.
Every Mac desktop from the Plus released in 1986 to the 1997 (sold to the end of 98) Beige G3 had a SCSI controller onboard. It lasted a little longer on the Powerbooks, the Lombard G3 was the last in 1999. Macs used SCSI hard drives exclusively until 1994 when the Quadra/Performa 630 series came out.
the B&W G3 was the first tower to drop the floppy, G4s never had them.
Try $7 per disc back in 1997. Drives were 1X/2X ($600-800 for most models) and SCSI only (add another $150 for a decent controller), burning a CD meant basically not using your computer for 45mins, otherwise one risked a buffer under run and an expensive coaster. Most home computers came with a CD-ROM drive and a soundcard by 1993, business machines usually lacked them.
Check out ADmitMac I have used their lower end DAVE product in the past and it did the job at the time. Apple's built-in solution relies on Samba, but its support for AD is a bit lacking.
I've spent my fair share of $$ for Apple products. Ironically, I never had a problem pairing all kinds of Bluetooth devices with my old Powerbook G4. I do recall having problems with a Logitech BT mouse with a MacBook however, it wouldn't maintain a connection.
There is a reason why HID Bluetooth devices are blocked. Apple sells an overpriced "iPad Keyboard Dock". Mr. Jobs says buy that and make him more money.
Its called "exterior grade" sheet rock, it has a waterproof black coating to it. They seem to like using it on new construction apartment and townhouses around here. Those same buildings seem to be constructed without true firewall breaks too.
Houses in the US generally have the kitchen in the back. I was told it was for privacy reasons. One friends house has it in the front which was considered odd.
Most new housing here in the US is being built with sheet rock on the EXTERIOR walls. Why? Because it meets fire code.... and its cheap. Very few new houses have squared walls, its not uncommon to see walls visibly crooked. I can expect it in a house built 100 years ago, but with today's tools?
Chances are a Thunderbolt adapter to a box with PCIe slots will eventually appear on the market.
HDTV is really holding monitors back. Since everyone is producing 16:9 1920x1080 panels for TV use, everyone is using them in computer monitors to cut costs. I much prefer 16:10 ratio displays (1920x1200), but they are pricey because its now considered a "niche" market.
Back in the 80s, Apple used to pretty much give all their OSes away for free, I think they started charging around System 7 or so. Later on they had a policy to make old versions available for download so people with old hardware can get their machines running. Once Steve Jobs returned, that policy stopped so the latest you can get on Apple's support site is System 7.5.5.
Sounds like you had a spindle or two of those infamous white top Princo discs from 2003-04.
Chances are those $329 monitors aren't 2560x1440 IPS panels.
Optical, I've had both DVD and CD bitrot, even on the old Kodak 'gold' discs.
Use good media, and don't fall for the "gold archival" hype, those MAM-A discs (also sold under the Delkin brand) are/were subpar and overpriced. I'm willing to bet most of those bitrot discs were cheapo CMC Magnetics, Princo, or Ritek made discs. Problem is its getting harder to find known good blank media.
Funny, everyone says the 15 year old CD-Rs I have shouldn't work anymore. They all read and verify just fine despite being first generation dyes. DVD-Rs are better then CD-Rs simply because of the added top lacquer coat they all come with. The dyes are also mature and stable and drives universally available, something hasn't been proven with BD-R yet.
Unless its D-VHS. Those store 25GB per DF-240 tape and only takes 2 hours per tape.
I got lucky and managed to recover data off of a DAT tape I made 10 years ago. The key is that you have to have the backup software that created the archive to begin with! Also, tape was NEVER intended to be a long term backup medium. Moisture collection over time is tape's biggest enemy and slowly destroys the binder and lubricant in the tape. Tape also requires contact with a read/write head which adds wear and tear, plus the drives have a lot of moving parts (high rate of failure).
They don't make official 64-bit drivers for them under Windows however.