As incidental as 99% of Windows usage. People buy laptops, not the Windows that comes preloaded, right?
What's your point? That 99% of laptops come preloaded with Windows?
If you're challenging the fact that the Asus EEE sells because of its form factor as opposed to its OS you'll need to make a significantly better argument.
With Microsoft still dominating the market not merely in sales but in basic distribution (throw a stick, hit a Windows machine) the choices are limited. Add in the fact that most *average* consumers buy from retail giants that only stock the major, recognized brand names, and it's no wonder people wind up with Windows. What's more important to that point is that this has been the case for so long, the *average* consumer only knows about Windows or Mac, and again because of market share, they're going to continue to opt for Windows. (Due to familiarity with the OS, nothing more)
Asus, however, created a really nifty mini-laptop with a decent Linux distro on it that isn't so terribly different that any Windows or Mac user would feel comfortable using it.
As I initially said: They're buying the LAPTOP not the OS. It's incidental that the laptop has a Linux distro on it.
There's a few issues that I didn't see commented on yet, so consider this food for thought.
Regarding Customer Service reps not being able to give estimates on bills: It has less to do with poor Customer Management Systems(CMS) than it has to do with legal paranoia. Consider it a form a plausible deniability; If you never make a claim about how much the bill will be, no client can claim you misrepresented the charges. That's really the core reason phone reps are expressly told NOT to give estimates and do not have such functionality built into their CMS systems. It's merely a way to avoid potential legal entanglements. Now, underneath it all, there are many "clever" ways to go about creative accounting, and the most troubling aspect of that is that our federal and state governments are as responsible as the businesses that engage in such practices. For example: FCC Line Subscriber Fee. EVERY telco charges this fee as it is mandated by the FCC. What isn't so commonly known is that the telcos are allowed to charge a certain percentage ABOVE what the FCC actually demands. (I haven't been able to find details on what that percentage is or how it is calculated unfortunately.) It may seem like a small fee, usually less than a couple dollars, but when you look at how many LINES (not customers, but LINES) a giant like AT&T has, the monthly revenue generated by just this one fee is staggering. As for the monthly fluctuation of your bill, we can thank both the telcos and our government for that as well. The laws and fees and surcharges change as frequently as daily in some cases. Ultimately, I agree that it is absurd that you can't expect the exact same bill each month (assuming you remain within your plan'spackage.) I absolutely never use even half my included airtime, and never use any features that generate charges, yet every month my bill varies by a few cents. Not a big deal, admittedly, but it does cause one to wonder: Why are these fees and taxes fluctuating constantly? The answer is that it is designed to perform this way.
is there even such a thing as PCs with opensource BIOS?
Within the performance/gaming/enthusiast community, self-compiled BIOS with all manner of code tweaks to optimize performance are fairly common.
I haven't ventured into that realm as more than a casual observer (yet), but I would imagine there's a mixture of Open-Source, Reverse-Engineering and Full Scratch Building going on.
I'm a network admin for an ISP, and we've been recommending UPSs for the frequent-reboot routers that our customers have. We've found that routers (especially Linksys) have a real problem with power fluctuations that most other systems and devices don't notice. A decent line-conditioning UPS might solve your problems, but a cheap one will suffice.
Also, could be the device is running out of memory, if your ISP is changing the properties of your connection a lot, or you might have a duplex issue causing a lot of retransmissions. ..
Just a couple of thoughts:)
All excellent points, to which I'd like to add another:
My employer uses consumer grade routers from Motorola, Linksys and DLink. (One of which is a special version of the WRT54G)
Each manufacturer has its own set of quirks; some are more troublesome than others. But in each and every case, without exception, those quirks are a direct result of shoddy firmware.
The current mindset among hardware manufacturers is "Release a new version as quickly as possible and fix all the bugs with firmware updates."
Aside from the obvious flaw to that kind of thinking, they typically introduce new bugs and/or break things that previously functioned correctly.
It never ceases to amaze me how little quality control is applied to pretty much anything today...
Since the Asus EEE mini laptops actually come with a Linux distro pre-installed, I'd have to say your theory is critically flawed. They're buying the LAPTOP not the OS. It's incidental that the laptop has a Linux distro on it.
That's actually the one thing I never understood about Windows: Why have MS never created a proper package management system? It's the killer feature for any corporate environment.
They do. They're called.MSI files and are almost exclusively used in the corporate environment.
You're approaching this too much from a geek's perspective. Updating "the system" is too esoteric for the majority of users.
100% Correct. The average user of any Windows or Apple platform is neither familiar nor interested in package managers, updates, maintenance or any of the things that are required to maintain a healthy operating system these days. They are often confused and even frightened when the computer does something they haven't seen or experienced before. For these users (which are the target demographic for virtually all the main players in the arena) the computer should simply work without any maintenance on their part. In their minds, the computer is similar to a car: they can operate it, but are not at all comfortable performing any maintenance on it, regardless of how simple it may be. This isn't to say that these people are "dumb". They have been sold an idea that it's very easy to use a computer and access the internet (Apple and AOL make this their biggest selling point) and that the machine itself opens up new worlds of exploration. Most of which is true, but ultimately, the underlying complexities are never mentioned for fear of driving away customers. Seriously, could you imagine an 80 year old grandmother performing shell commands to install the latest drivers for her video camera? Not that she couldn't do it, but rather she would not be interested in doing it. Too many of us who are "in the know" seem to forget that we are in fact the minority of users. We view technology through eyes that WANT to see the man behind the curtain. The overwhelming majority of users do not. (And who can blame them?)
But the most relevant part was that they shot fireworks off the pier into the mar, sea, which exploded off of the water, something I doubt they would do in America...
In New york, the fireworks display is directly on the East River. It used to be on the Hudson River.
I know there are practical reasons for backward compatibility, but we need to get off our love affair with it. Keep it in enterprise hardware, but for consumers, make a clean break.
While I agree with your statement in principle, the unfortunate reality is that the *average* consumer wants both the backward compatibility and low price/cost of ownership. Removing that backward compatibility eliminates any compelling reason for the average consumer to upgrade. John Q. Public doesn't want to have to invest in an entire new network every time he upgrades a single component of that network. So, when he spends that Economic Stimulus check on a new laptop, he makes sure it will connect to his aging WRT54G. It's not that he wouldn't like to take advantage of the -n spec., it's that he doesn't want to spend the extra money to replace the router and all the NICs in his home that don't support it.
This poorly worded excuse for a hidden agenda is what I find most worrisome:
"The text of the [Louisiana Science Education Act] suggests that it's intended to foster critical thinking, calling on the state Board of Education to 'assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories."
If you want to teach critical thinking, logic, basic analytical concepts, then simply teach critical thinking, logic and basic analytical concepts.
Calling this nonsense anything other than a faith-based political agenda is an insult and utter lie.
If you're experiencing that significant of a problem, then you may want to consider a different ISP, if that's a possibility.
There is absolutely no reason a quality broadband connection cannot manage VOIP, Torrents and assorted other traffic simultaneously.
Vonage uses 90kbps per second at default settings. This is such a small fraction of any current broadband connection it should be negligible. You can adjust this setting in your Vonage web account, and reduce it to as low as 30kbps/sec, but that often produces a tinny, less natural sound.
What you're describing, however, indicates either a very low-end package, such as with bargain basement DSL lines or more likely, you're not getting the bandwidth and/or stability on that connection that you're paying for.
Do some trace route tests before, during and after you place calls and run your torrent application. Choppy audio with VOIP is a result of dropped packets. I wager you'll see a number of lost packets as you saturate your connection.
I highly doubt any QoS attempts on your end will make a difference. Throttling your own traffic isn't the underlying problem. Most likely you're ISP isn't giving you the reliable connection you're paying for. It's also possible that they're monitoring certain known ports, or sniffing packets for VOIP and/or torrents.
I am also a Vonage customer. I run 2 game servers, a web server, my Vonage line and uTorrent all simultaneously with absolutely no degradation of call quality or other problems.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
The Wii continues to dominate the console market in numbers sold. Couple that with the massive sales of the DS and it's quite apparent that Nintendo is utterly crushing the competition. =)
http://www.vgchartz.com/
Hmm, I often find it amazing how people refer to god as a He That's probably because virtually all English-language translations of the Bible all refer to god as being male. (I imagine there might be some that define god as female, but I am unaware of those versions.)
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The XP versions were rolled out after the Linux ones. There's also a matter of availability, although now that may be less significant if at all.
As incidental as 99% of Windows usage. People buy laptops, not the Windows that comes preloaded, right?
What's your point? That 99% of laptops come preloaded with Windows? If you're challenging the fact that the Asus EEE sells because of its form factor as opposed to its OS you'll need to make a significantly better argument. With Microsoft still dominating the market not merely in sales but in basic distribution (throw a stick, hit a Windows machine) the choices are limited. Add in the fact that most *average* consumers buy from retail giants that only stock the major, recognized brand names, and it's no wonder people wind up with Windows. What's more important to that point is that this has been the case for so long, the *average* consumer only knows about Windows or Mac, and again because of market share, they're going to continue to opt for Windows. (Due to familiarity with the OS, nothing more) Asus, however, created a really nifty mini-laptop with a decent Linux distro on it that isn't so terribly different that any Windows or Mac user would feel comfortable using it. As I initially said: They're buying the LAPTOP not the OS. It's incidental that the laptop has a Linux distro on it.
There's a few issues that I didn't see commented on yet, so consider this food for thought. Regarding Customer Service reps not being able to give estimates on bills: It has less to do with poor Customer Management Systems(CMS) than it has to do with legal paranoia. Consider it a form a plausible deniability; If you never make a claim about how much the bill will be, no client can claim you misrepresented the charges. That's really the core reason phone reps are expressly told NOT to give estimates and do not have such functionality built into their CMS systems. It's merely a way to avoid potential legal entanglements. Now, underneath it all, there are many "clever" ways to go about creative accounting, and the most troubling aspect of that is that our federal and state governments are as responsible as the businesses that engage in such practices. For example: FCC Line Subscriber Fee. EVERY telco charges this fee as it is mandated by the FCC. What isn't so commonly known is that the telcos are allowed to charge a certain percentage ABOVE what the FCC actually demands. (I haven't been able to find details on what that percentage is or how it is calculated unfortunately.) It may seem like a small fee, usually less than a couple dollars, but when you look at how many LINES (not customers, but LINES) a giant like AT&T has, the monthly revenue generated by just this one fee is staggering. As for the monthly fluctuation of your bill, we can thank both the telcos and our government for that as well. The laws and fees and surcharges change as frequently as daily in some cases. Ultimately, I agree that it is absurd that you can't expect the exact same bill each month (assuming you remain within your plan'spackage.) I absolutely never use even half my included airtime, and never use any features that generate charges, yet every month my bill varies by a few cents. Not a big deal, admittedly, but it does cause one to wonder: Why are these fees and taxes fluctuating constantly? The answer is that it is designed to perform this way.
With them child predators runnin' around? You can count me out, man.
is there even such a thing as PCs with opensource BIOS?
Within the performance/gaming/enthusiast community, self-compiled BIOS with all manner of code tweaks to optimize performance are fairly common. I haven't ventured into that realm as more than a casual observer (yet), but I would imagine there's a mixture of Open-Source, Reverse-Engineering and Full Scratch Building going on.
I'm a network admin for an ISP, and we've been recommending UPSs for the frequent-reboot routers that our customers have. We've found that routers (especially Linksys) have a real problem with power fluctuations that most other systems and devices don't notice. A decent line-conditioning UPS might solve your problems, but a cheap one will suffice.
Also, could be the device is running out of memory, if your ISP is changing the properties of your connection a lot, or you might have a duplex issue causing a lot of retransmissions. . .
Just a couple of thoughts :)
All excellent points, to which I'd like to add another: My employer uses consumer grade routers from Motorola, Linksys and DLink. (One of which is a special version of the WRT54G) Each manufacturer has its own set of quirks; some are more troublesome than others. But in each and every case, without exception, those quirks are a direct result of shoddy firmware. The current mindset among hardware manufacturers is "Release a new version as quickly as possible and fix all the bugs with firmware updates." Aside from the obvious flaw to that kind of thinking, they typically introduce new bugs and/or break things that previously functioned correctly. It never ceases to amaze me how little quality control is applied to pretty much anything today...
Since the Asus EEE mini laptops actually come with a Linux distro pre-installed, I'd have to say your theory is critically flawed. They're buying the LAPTOP not the OS. It's incidental that the laptop has a Linux distro on it.
That's actually the one thing I never understood about Windows: Why have MS never created a proper package management system? It's the killer feature for any corporate environment.
They do. They're called .MSI files and are almost exclusively used in the corporate environment.
You're approaching this too much from a geek's perspective. Updating "the system" is too esoteric for the majority of users.
100% Correct. The average user of any Windows or Apple platform is neither familiar nor interested in package managers, updates, maintenance or any of the things that are required to maintain a healthy operating system these days. They are often confused and even frightened when the computer does something they haven't seen or experienced before. For these users (which are the target demographic for virtually all the main players in the arena) the computer should simply work without any maintenance on their part. In their minds, the computer is similar to a car: they can operate it, but are not at all comfortable performing any maintenance on it, regardless of how simple it may be. This isn't to say that these people are "dumb". They have been sold an idea that it's very easy to use a computer and access the internet (Apple and AOL make this their biggest selling point) and that the machine itself opens up new worlds of exploration. Most of which is true, but ultimately, the underlying complexities are never mentioned for fear of driving away customers. Seriously, could you imagine an 80 year old grandmother performing shell commands to install the latest drivers for her video camera? Not that she couldn't do it, but rather she would not be interested in doing it. Too many of us who are "in the know" seem to forget that we are in fact the minority of users. We view technology through eyes that WANT to see the man behind the curtain. The overwhelming majority of users do not. (And who can blame them?)
So you're saying, that it isn't?
Citations. Desperately. Needed.
But the most relevant part was that they shot fireworks off the pier into the mar, sea, which exploded off of the water, something I doubt they would do in America...
In New york, the fireworks display is directly on the East River. It used to be on the Hudson River.
802.11n operates on 5Ghz as well.
I know there are practical reasons for backward compatibility, but we need to get off our love affair with it. Keep it in enterprise hardware, but for consumers, make a clean break.
While I agree with your statement in principle, the unfortunate reality is that the *average* consumer wants both the backward compatibility and low price/cost of ownership. Removing that backward compatibility eliminates any compelling reason for the average consumer to upgrade. John Q. Public doesn't want to have to invest in an entire new network every time he upgrades a single component of that network. So, when he spends that Economic Stimulus check on a new laptop, he makes sure it will connect to his aging WRT54G. It's not that he wouldn't like to take advantage of the -n spec., it's that he doesn't want to spend the extra money to replace the router and all the NICs in his home that don't support it.
This poorly worded excuse for a hidden agenda is what I find most worrisome: "The text of the [Louisiana Science Education Act] suggests that it's intended to foster critical thinking, calling on the state Board of Education to 'assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories." If you want to teach critical thinking, logic, basic analytical concepts, then simply teach critical thinking, logic and basic analytical concepts. Calling this nonsense anything other than a faith-based political agenda is an insult and utter lie.
If you're experiencing that significant of a problem, then you may want to consider a different ISP, if that's a possibility. There is absolutely no reason a quality broadband connection cannot manage VOIP, Torrents and assorted other traffic simultaneously. Vonage uses 90kbps per second at default settings. This is such a small fraction of any current broadband connection it should be negligible. You can adjust this setting in your Vonage web account, and reduce it to as low as 30kbps/sec, but that often produces a tinny, less natural sound. What you're describing, however, indicates either a very low-end package, such as with bargain basement DSL lines or more likely, you're not getting the bandwidth and/or stability on that connection that you're paying for. Do some trace route tests before, during and after you place calls and run your torrent application. Choppy audio with VOIP is a result of dropped packets. I wager you'll see a number of lost packets as you saturate your connection. I highly doubt any QoS attempts on your end will make a difference. Throttling your own traffic isn't the underlying problem. Most likely you're ISP isn't giving you the reliable connection you're paying for. It's also possible that they're monitoring certain known ports, or sniffing packets for VOIP and/or torrents. I am also a Vonage customer. I run 2 game servers, a web server, my Vonage line and uTorrent all simultaneously with absolutely no degradation of call quality or other problems. I hope this information is helpful to you.
The Wii continues to dominate the console market in numbers sold. Couple that with the massive sales of the DS and it's quite apparent that Nintendo is utterly crushing the competition. =) http://www.vgchartz.com/
+1000 Troll to this article in general