Thinkpad has only to be better than enough of the competition. They don't need to be vastly better to sell.
The competitors are working hard at sucking too.
BTW if you want quality, spring for a MilSpec Toughbook or Itronix or similar. You can use some of those to smash Thinkpads in your spare time and they'll still work.
The master class own the government and own the institutions.
Class warfare is healthy competition. The elites don't care about lesser humans, and likewise there is NO reason why the mass of peons should not coerce a greater share of the pie from the masters.
There is no good or evil, only self-interest. The rich should damn well pay the rest of us NOT to butcher them and take their stuff, for their wealth and power relies on OUR consent.
I don't have anything against rich or poor, but I do expect my masters to treat me well. Only the wealthy have useful freedom because they have the power to exercise it. If they abuse it, there is no reason the public shouldn't beat them into submission.
The masters will never care unless they have a realistic fear of personal violence. That's why they don't care now, didn't care in the past, and will dole out enough shiny objects to pacify the proles.
The French and Bolshevik Revolutions had mixed results to say the least, but the did the right thing with their masters and slaughtered them with admirable gusto.
Conditions in the US will never get that bad and we are already recovering from the Recession, so don't expect any similar disruptive entertainment here. Nothing to see, move along.
You are right. The purpose of sending humans so VERY, VERY early when they will only ever be able to interact with their totally hostile environment by using machines ANYWAY is not more than entertainment.
When wooden ships and iron men were expendable and routinely expended, one could throw away a ship and crew. Now, humans are a burden to the exploratory process so leave them at home.
"Yes, humans would certainly be a lot better at searching for and finding life in person than any remote robot."
Bullshit. Your asserted conclusion doesn't apply to present tech because supporting humans is so expensive and resource-intensive that they can barely be sent off-earth.
Your asserted conclusion won't apply to future tech because it will continue to improve very quickly since its life-cycle need not be prolonged like the Space Shuttle.
Humans MUST interact with the totally hostile off-earth environment by using machines of varying complexity. The need for an onsite operator is diminishing, so that leaves "tourism" as a reason to send meat into space.
Space "exploration" isn't any different from combat airpower in the respect that putting the operator up-front is an expensive liability entailing a massive logistic tail. It's dull and dangerous, ideal for remotely-operated and eventually autonomous systems.
Your not voting doesn't matter. Your binary choice between candidates doesn't matter much.
Obama understands that political polarization really means you are stuck with him or a Republican.
As for attacks on enemy troops, many Americans are supportive of killing enemy combatants, especially Muslims. I'm liking Obama more in his incarnation as a "moderate Republican", and his work with Panetta is an intelligent way to fight against Jihadists.
Any American who believes in the beastly superstition of Islam merits disposal, and I will continue to vote for laws, interpretations of law, and for candidates who help (lawfully) kill them.
The Muslim is worse by orders of magnitude then even Bible-thumping white trash. I've seen the best that Islam can do with unlimited wealth. Their social influence, anywhere, is bad. The totality of Islam is "submission, and consists of prohibitions.
VAT in the US is inevitable so preparing to evade it is a wise idea.
The Tea Party idea of strangling government by denying it money is good, but we need a Democrat anti-tax movement to attack what the Tea Party will not.
The way to starve the enemy is to cut its funding.
The US doesn't need to lead in these fields. We can route around local obstructions by investing in and buying from foreign companies who produce what we want.
Stop expecting America to be a force for good. That ended a long time ago. The WORLD is a bigger place than this Bible-Thumping Luddite hypocritical shithole.
Why shouldn't the EU and Asia take the lead in tech? The US didn't produce the solar panel I just purchased, CHINA did. I couldn't afford it were it made here.
"I love how "climatologists" are economically driven by grant money (as if a competent scientist couldn't make a better living easier working for private industry than working for government grants!) but oil producers are altruists who clearly have only humanity's best interests at heart."
I need grant money to study if that asserted conclusion is based in fact.
"it's basically albums for marketing purposes with the real revenue product being concerts"
Worth noting is that the Grateful Dead made that model work spectacularly well for decades. Concert-goers got their moneys worth and kept coming back again and again and again. The Dead even encouraged taping concerts to build their fan base. Band and fans fed each other wonderfully.
Like their music or not, the Grateful Dead hammered home the point that you don't need to follow conventional industry revenue models.
Slashdot Mirror
Thinkpad has only to be better than enough of the competition. They don't need to be vastly better to sell.
The competitors are working hard at sucking too.
BTW if you want quality, spring for a MilSpec Toughbook or Itronix or similar. You can use some of those to smash Thinkpads in your spare time and they'll still work.
"Maybe I'm just naive."
Yes. Go read ye some history and you'll know it was ever thus.
The mob dictates that they can only be led in a certain way.
The politicians you know today are the product of public selection.
IBM gained by dumping the Thinkpad line. It's a Lenovo problem now.
What happens to something after you dump it doesn't matter, because you got rid of the problem before it happened.
Products don't matter, profit matters and much as I like old HP test equipment and old Thinkpads, neither company OWES me those things.
Good HP is long dead.
New HP deserves death.
None of this is news.
The master class own the government and own the institutions.
Class warfare is healthy competition. The elites don't care about lesser humans, and likewise there is NO reason why the mass of peons should not coerce a greater share of the pie from the masters.
There is no good or evil, only self-interest. The rich should damn well pay the rest of us NOT to butcher them and take their stuff, for their wealth and power relies on OUR consent.
I don't have anything against rich or poor, but I do expect my masters to treat me well. Only the wealthy have useful freedom because they have the power to exercise it. If they abuse it, there is no reason the public shouldn't beat them into submission.
The masters will never care unless they have a realistic fear of personal violence. That's why they don't care now, didn't care in the past, and will dole out enough shiny objects to pacify the proles.
The French and Bolshevik Revolutions had mixed results to say the least, but the did the right thing with their masters and slaughtered them with admirable gusto.
Conditions in the US will never get that bad and we are already recovering from the Recession, so don't expect any similar disruptive entertainment here. Nothing to see, move along.
Why post AC?
You are right. The purpose of sending humans so VERY, VERY early when they will only ever be able to interact with their totally hostile environment by using machines ANYWAY is not more than entertainment.
When wooden ships and iron men were expendable and routinely expended, one could throw away a ship and crew. Now, humans are a burden to the exploratory process so leave them at home.
First probes, then tourism.
"Yes, humans would certainly be a lot better at searching for and finding life in person than any remote robot."
Bullshit. Your asserted conclusion doesn't apply to present tech because supporting humans is so expensive and resource-intensive that they can barely be sent off-earth.
Your asserted conclusion won't apply to future tech because it will continue to improve very quickly since its life-cycle need not be prolonged like the Space Shuttle.
Humans MUST interact with the totally hostile off-earth environment by using machines of varying complexity. The need for an onsite operator is diminishing, so that leaves "tourism" as a reason to send meat into space.
Space "exploration" isn't any different from combat airpower in the respect that putting the operator up-front is an expensive liability entailing a massive logistic tail. It's dull and dangerous, ideal for remotely-operated and eventually autonomous systems.
If enough different people get pissed, good.
We need populist anger because NOTHING else has ever pressured the elites into behaving themselves.
How any modern man would entertain religion at all is a mystery.
How people who presumably self-identify as modern (Slashdotters) could treat superstition with anything short of disgust is an even greater mystery.
Your not voting doesn't matter. Your binary choice between candidates doesn't matter much.
Obama understands that political polarization really means you are stuck with him or a Republican.
As for attacks on enemy troops, many Americans are supportive of killing enemy combatants, especially Muslims. I'm liking Obama more in his incarnation as a "moderate Republican", and his work with Panetta is an intelligent way to fight against Jihadists.
Any American who believes in the beastly superstition of Islam merits disposal, and I will continue to vote for laws, interpretations of law, and for candidates who help (lawfully) kill them.
The Muslim is worse by orders of magnitude then even Bible-thumping white trash. I've seen the best that Islam can do with unlimited wealth. Their social influence, anywhere, is bad. The totality of Islam is "submission, and consists of prohibitions.
None of these pieces of shit from either party are "charismatic" unless one has extremely low standards for charisma.
Slashdot is essentially dead as a geek/nerd forum (but I'm sure is far more profitable now).
What are some other forums more like what Slashdot once was?
Any why did you post AC? Who gives a fuck?
The NRA and GOA need to run with that ball.
You of course understand that "the masses" will ONLY respond to certain stimuli and THEY impose the rules for interacting with them.
Omney or Robama, either way we get a "moderate Republican"....
Have some George Carlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
That's been good for the South. South Carolina is landing massive industrial investments lately.
VAT in the US is inevitable so preparing to evade it is a wise idea.
The Tea Party idea of strangling government by denying it money is good, but we need a Democrat anti-tax movement to attack what the Tea Party will not.
The way to starve the enemy is to cut its funding.
This. And for fucks sake find a way to show him how to UNDERSTAND social interaction so he can PLAY THE GAME with confidence.
Learning diplomacy and how to read personal cues is important to anyone.
"This is slashdot no one bothers to read the TFA"
tl;dr
"Not having to look your enemy in the eye makes things a lot easier."
From Rome to Rwanda, humans have had no problem getting up close and stabby-hacky.
Japan even cultivated "atrocity" as general policy, including bayonet and edged-weapon practice on captives.
http://blogs.uco.edu/graduate/files/2010/09/Japanese_bayonet_practice_with_dead_Chinese_near_Tianjin.jpg
http://www.war44.com/misc/images/1/Nanjing_Massacre_bayonet.jpg
http://p2.la-img.com/581/17219/5774950_1_l.jpg
http://www.gendercide.org/case_nanking.html
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.12.96/gifs/china2-9650.jpg
http://www.ww2pacific.com/atrocity.html
http://p1.la-img.com/581/17219/5774950_2_l.jpg
http://english.people.com.cn/200412/13/images/n3.jpg
The US doesn't need to lead in these fields. We can route around local obstructions by investing in and buying from foreign companies who produce what we want.
Stop expecting America to be a force for good. That ended a long time ago. The WORLD is a bigger place than this Bible-Thumping Luddite hypocritical shithole.
Why shouldn't the EU and Asia take the lead in tech? The US didn't produce the solar panel I just purchased, CHINA did. I couldn't afford it were it made here.
"we simply can't live how we live now,"
Most of us can't. Don't assume those who can have any logical reason to care about the rest.
For example, desertification of the Middle East can have negative impacts on the superstitionists who live there.
"I love how "climatologists" are economically driven by grant money (as if a competent scientist couldn't make a better living easier working for private industry than working for government grants!) but oil producers are altruists who clearly have only humanity's best interests at heart."
I need grant money to study if that asserted conclusion is based in fact.
"it's basically albums for marketing purposes with the real revenue product being concerts"
Worth noting is that the Grateful Dead made that model work spectacularly well for decades. Concert-goers got their moneys worth and kept coming back again and again and again. The Dead even encouraged taping concerts to build their fan base. Band and fans fed each other wonderfully.
Like their music or not, the Grateful Dead hammered home the point that you don't need to follow conventional industry revenue models.
Switzerland has a different culture than the US, and isn't full of subhumans yet.
If you believe your country belongs to the Swiss, don't permit that to change.