I don't care about my PC's boot time, it boots about once a week. The rest is Deep Sleep, and I go fetch a coffee in the mean time anyway. I don't care about my phone's boot time, it boots about once a month, and is in light Sleep the rest of the time. I care a little about my netbook's boot time. Usually Deep Sleep though, but I'm usually waiting on it to be ready, so faster is better. I'm incensed by my cheap Android tablet boot time. It takes long (1 min ?) and switches off daily due to sucky battery. And sleep mode doesn't seem to work, either.
In the end, current boot times are OK with me, technical glitches notwithstanding. I'm getting tired of the boot time dick size comparison, and I'm actually selling my SSD, 'coz I just don't care enough.
I'm not so sure. My current E-350 is reportedly (passmark) only thrice as fast as a 2001 P4, and it handles browsing while watching videos, with remoting, Civ4, and a handful of other stuff, just fine. Graphics and hard disks have probably progressed faster than that, though.
I never said anything about portable, which a nettop is not ? It's VESA-mounted behind one of my screens.
As far as easily connecting stuff to a portable thing (laptop/netbook/tablet/phone), I'm hoping the industry will standardize on Thunderbolt as that should give us cheap, standard docks, but this is not certain yet.
most of what you didn't like is peripherals-related. My nettop has dual (26 and 21") screens, a "Natural" keyboard, a trackball 'coz I prefer those, is connected to my midrange Stereo, plus it doesn't get hot even though it's passive, has 4Gig of RAM which seems to be plenty (Win7 reports less than 2/3rd used, with a full screen video, civ4, 2 browsers for a total of 30-ish tabs, a remote connexion to my server... only 150 gigs of HD since I have a NAS, though, but 1TB would have been possible. The CPU is indeed weak, but I barely notice it.
What new software has appeared in the mean time ? Especially for use at home ? Apart from games and video editing; I can't think of anything ? What "demanding software" do people use at home ?
I don't take that as a troll. But, I've never actually seen an attractive PC case. I've seen less ugly ones, more discreet ones... but none I'd actually value for decorative purposes if there wasn't a PC inside. If push comes to shove, the Mac mini is nice, but mainly because it's small, and it wouldn't have fitted my system anyway. As it is, I had a Silverstone SG something (micro-atx, squarish front, black), with no CPU fan (nitrogon NT-06), a quiet-ish PSU, a quiet-ish vidcard... still a lot more ugly and noisy than my current fully passive, invisible PC. More powerful in theory.. apparently, I was wasting all that power before, 'coz I'm not noticing it much.
This is were French shines: we have the word "informatique", which means "to do with automation and information" and covers from number crunching to watching youtube and twitter/facebook. Time for "informatics", you English speakers.
Actually, I saw a study a long while (10 yrs ?) back that stated that most f the productivity gains seen during the PC explosion were to be found... at the PC producing companies. Weird as it sounds, their customers saw very little gains.
Things may be better nowadays with IT being used better...
People were doing what you say 10 years ago, with computers less powerful than your smartphone/tablet is today. Yes, a big screen or two and mouse+keyboard are required... but they can be connected to a phone, taken home with you to continue working (which may be good or bad ^^).
With companies moving back to dumb terminals (cloud version) to save on licensing and admin costs, the reasons to have a fat x86+Win client on each desk are weakening.
Everything you say is true: people still want a keyboard, mouse, and productivity apps. But... they also want the extreme portability, and the price is bound to come down.
Android is poised to be for tablets what Wintel was for the PCs: a big equalizing factor that will put the focus on price more than features, and commoditize the whole segment. We're already seeing HP losing its nerve and going for price advantage (though with Palm OS), Asus Acer Dell have never been shy about going cheap... even peripherals can be cheap today, if you forgo cutesy branded stuff: I got a foldable BT keyboard for $15, a mouse for $10, a USB hub for $5...
The industry has been taken by surprise by the tablets' success. As soon as IPS capacitive screen production (and maybe batteries ?) catches up, prices will align with netbooks: $200 for a serviceable one, $300 for a nice one.
look at that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi $40, add keyboard, mouse, HDD, and you've got a NAS/FTP/Torrent server to get and hole content for your tablet. rsync will work.
I'm actually not sure when or even if I'll be buying my next PC. And I'm the tech guy to my family and friends .
yep. Soon people will also realize it's stoooopid to spent hundreds of bucks upfront and/or tens of bucks monthly for a small phone when they have a perfectly serviceable, more reliable, bigger, clearer,... one at home !
I recently upgraded from an Athlon II x2 to an E-350: my PC is now silent,hidden behind my monitor, slower but still does what I need it to (Civ4, Internet, Office, dual-screen with SD video on the second one)... and I got rid of an ugly, noisy box in the process.
My next planned upgrade is the $35 Raspberry Pi, the Deluxe version with 256 Megs RAM and ethernet, I'll use it as a headless NAS/FTP/Torrent server. Then a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet will probably replace my netbook and el-cheapo chines tablets; and if ruors are right a 5;3" Galaxy Q will replace my HTC HD2.
When is my next x86 PC purchase planned ? Not planned yet... which means 3-4 years... things can happen in that time, both in how how use/need tech, and what tech can offer. The first ARM smarttops are here (Slimfit PC, DreamPlug, Efika MX, Raspberry Pi), I'm doing ever less with my PC... see the trend ?
Suuuure. Like having a fun teacher is not important when you're a kid: what counts is having a total nerd that can spew unintelligible formulas for hours.
1- make it not crash: I've got Chrome, IE 9, Opera, and Firefox. Firefox is the only browser that can't go a day without crashing. 2- make it work without addons: Firefox code don't run too well... but it still runs better than addons, and addons create headaches at upgrade time. So, instead of dreaming up a cloud-based quasi OS with a laundry list of sci-fi features, how about they just put mouse gestures, ad blocking... in it ? You know, as if it were a browser ?
I'm getting the same vibe from Firefox as I am from the Linux UI guys: devs have taken over and are working towards nerdgasm be working on stuff that nobody but they and their buddies care about. Real, unglamorous users' needs, such as reliability, usability, compatibility have fallen by the wayside.
this is what makes throttling and metering necessary: since everybody doing that would take the networks down, nobody (in the name of fairness) can be allowed to do it.
Slashdot Mirror
probably not, and you're forgetting the side effect of better health.
than the blood splatter with ancillary innards.
I don't care about my PC's boot time, it boots about once a week. The rest is Deep Sleep, and I go fetch a coffee in the mean time anyway.
I don't care about my phone's boot time, it boots about once a month, and is in light Sleep the rest of the time.
I care a little about my netbook's boot time. Usually Deep Sleep though, but I'm usually waiting on it to be ready, so faster is better.
I'm incensed by my cheap Android tablet boot time. It takes long (1 min ?) and switches off daily due to sucky battery. And sleep mode doesn't seem to work, either.
In the end, current boot times are OK with me, technical glitches notwithstanding. I'm getting tired of the boot time dick size comparison, and I'm actually selling my SSD, 'coz I just don't care enough.
it's not doing it to me. typing gctrl-V in Opera's adress bar does tkae me to"united states weather radar" results, no "did you mean"
"screen" has "src" in it ?
I'm not so sure. My current E-350 is reportedly (passmark) only thrice as fast as a 2001 P4, and it handles browsing while watching videos, with remoting, Civ4, and a handful of other stuff, just fine. Graphics and hard disks have probably progressed faster than that, though.
Is that an airbag in your pocket ?
whoosh ?
I never said anything about portable, which a nettop is not ? It's VESA-mounted behind one of my screens.
As far as easily connecting stuff to a portable thing (laptop/netbook/tablet/phone), I'm hoping the industry will standardize on Thunderbolt as that should give us cheap, standard docks, but this is not certain yet.
most of what you didn't like is peripherals-related. My nettop has dual (26 and 21") screens, a "Natural" keyboard, a trackball 'coz I prefer those, is connected to my midrange Stereo, plus it doesn't get hot even though it's passive, has 4Gig of RAM which seems to be plenty (Win7 reports less than 2/3rd used, with a full screen video, civ4, 2 browsers for a total of 30-ish tabs, a remote connexion to my server... only 150 gigs of HD since I have a NAS, though, but 1TB would have been possible. The CPU is indeed weak, but I barely notice it.
What new software has appeared in the mean time ? Especially for use at home ? Apart from games and video editing; I can't think of anything ? What "demanding software" do people use at home ?
I don't take that as a troll. But, I've never actually seen an attractive PC case. I've seen less ugly ones, more discreet ones... but none I'd actually value for decorative purposes if there wasn't a PC inside. If push comes to shove, the Mac mini is nice, but mainly because it's small, and it wouldn't have fitted my system anyway. As it is, I had a Silverstone SG something (micro-atx, squarish front, black), with no CPU fan (nitrogon NT-06), a quiet-ish PSU, a quiet-ish vidcard... still a lot more ugly and noisy than my current fully passive, invisible PC. More powerful in theory.. apparently, I was wasting all that power before, 'coz I'm not noticing it much.
This is were French shines: we have the word "informatique", which means "to do with automation and information" and covers from number crunching to watching youtube and twitter/facebook. Time for "informatics", you English speakers.
Actually, I saw a study a long while (10 yrs ?) back that stated that most f the productivity gains seen during the PC explosion were to be found... at the PC producing companies. Weird as it sounds, their customers saw very little gains.
Things may be better nowadays with IT being used better...
People were doing what you say 10 years ago, with computers less powerful than your smartphone/tablet is today. Yes, a big screen or two and mouse+keyboard are required... but they can be connected to a phone, taken home with you to continue working (which may be good or bad ^^).
With companies moving back to dumb terminals (cloud version) to save on licensing and admin costs, the reasons to have a fat x86+Win client on each desk are weakening.
Everything you say is true: people still want a keyboard, mouse, and productivity apps. But... they also want the extreme portability, and the price is bound to come down.
Android is poised to be for tablets what Wintel was for the PCs: a big equalizing factor that will put the focus on price more than features, and commoditize the whole segment. We're already seeing HP losing its nerve and going for price advantage (though with Palm OS), Asus Acer Dell have never been shy about going cheap... even peripherals can be cheap today, if you forgo cutesy branded stuff: I got a foldable BT keyboard for $15, a mouse for $10, a USB hub for $5...
The industry has been taken by surprise by the tablets' success. As soon as IPS capacitive screen production (and maybe batteries ?) catches up, prices will align with netbooks: $200 for a serviceable one, $300 for a nice one.
look at that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi $40, add keyboard, mouse, HDD, and you've got a NAS/FTP/Torrent server to get and hole content for your tablet. rsync will work.
I'm actually not sure when or even if I'll be buying my next PC. And I'm the tech guy to my family and friends .
yep. Soon people will also realize it's stoooopid to spent hundreds of bucks upfront and/or tens of bucks monthly for a small phone when they have a perfectly serviceable, more reliable, bigger, clearer, ... one at home !
I recently upgraded from an Athlon II x2 to an E-350: my PC is now silent,hidden behind my monitor, slower but still does what I need it to (Civ4, Internet, Office, dual-screen with SD video on the second one)... and I got rid of an ugly, noisy box in the process.
My next planned upgrade is the $35 Raspberry Pi, the Deluxe version with 256 Megs RAM and ethernet, I'll use it as a headless NAS/FTP/Torrent server. Then a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet will probably replace my netbook and el-cheapo chines tablets; and if ruors are right a 5;3" Galaxy Q will replace my HTC HD2.
When is my next x86 PC purchase planned ? Not planned yet... which means 3-4 years... things can happen in that time, both in how how use/need tech, and what tech can offer. The first ARM smarttops are here (Slimfit PC, DreamPlug, Efika MX, Raspberry Pi), I'm doing ever less with my PC... see the trend ?
especially with those gold-plated, polarity-optimized ethernet cables !
Suuuure. Like having a fun teacher is not important when you're a kid: what counts is having a total nerd that can spew unintelligible formulas for hours.
1- make it not crash: I've got Chrome, IE 9, Opera, and Firefox. Firefox is the only browser that can't go a day without crashing.
2- make it work without addons: Firefox code don't run too well... but it still runs better than addons, and addons create headaches at upgrade time. So, instead of dreaming up a cloud-based quasi OS with a laundry list of sci-fi features, how about they just put mouse gestures, ad blocking... in it ? You know, as if it were a browser ?
I'm getting the same vibe from Firefox as I am from the Linux UI guys: devs have taken over and are working towards nerdgasm be working on stuff that nobody but they and their buddies care about. Real, unglamorous users' needs, such as reliability, usability, compatibility have fallen by the wayside.
this is what makes throttling and metering necessary: since everybody doing that would take the networks down, nobody (in the name of fairness) can be allowed to do it.
2011 will be the year of the desktops on linux !
have you tried submitting a story ?