Look, I'm an avid dumpster diver and the only reason I do it, is because I get gear for free and it's fun. However, if you calculate in my time? No, not economic. That 2400+ Athlon XP with 1GB RAM I gave to a coworkers daughter? Cleaning it, assembling good parts from different cadavers, installing Ubuntu and "ready" it for normal usage[1]... This took hours... At my "work" rate, this computer is more expensive than a mid-range new machine which includes real warranty. Now, I *like* doing this and I don't ask a dime if I give away "recovered" machines, but this is in no way economical in the real sense of the word.
Also, if they just talk about "replacing" parts... That's good for RAM or a power supply. Still, you need some time to diagnose the problem which easily exceeds the cost of the parts. Heck if the hard disk fails, you're in a whole crapload of trouble. You lost your OS, your data and most likely the recovery partitions. You ain't getting a working system quickly that way. A dead harddisk is economically the same as a "total loss" for a computer, if you consider the working hours needed to repair it. With cheap netbook and nettop machines, which are most likely better than your older system (even though the Atom is really a weak chip as I can tell from my own experience), comparatively repairs are expensive.
[1] Make sure all media plays, make sure Flash works, make sure Java works, make sure that OpenOffice saves to.doc,.xls etc by default so she doesn't get into confusing problems when she starts to share school works, etc, etc, etc...
Ok, that's a lie, but I'm not going to post my real SSID here.
Why not? Mine is "sharks.wireless", my parents one is "jungle.wireless". The one I'm not going to give is the one my brother has, because it's our surname.wireless. I wasn't very imaginative that day it seems. (Our surname is findable online: I just don't routinely post it on forums) The other names just reflect the naming schemes of the network: I use shark species and my parents network uses characters from Kiplings Jungle Book.
They're all encrypted and if for some odd reason, some slashdotter might be close to where I live, he/she will still have to crack that encryption.
The CPU is 64bit and the chipset can do 4GB. I pretty much thought that was enough. That said, you might be right. I do happen to have 2x2GB sticks (Bought for another purpose that turned out to be equally braindead. Just in case you try: Atom CPUs can't address 4GB RAM despite being 64-bit *sigh*) If I stick those in, the resulting RAM is 2.6GB. Which I assume translated to 2.8GB addressable since 256MB is used by the integrated Graphics.
That's with the BIOS currently in it (Latest version from OEM). So perhaps you're onto something. It runs fine with 2GB though... I just thought of getting even more out of it.
See my post here. Also, this means Microsoft contradicts itself: on one hand the XP Mode required (okay, "required") the hardware virtualization to be enabled, but on the other hand it is recommended to disabled it on client machines... where, go figure, XP Mode is most likely to be used!
I still think it's a lame excuse... AMD chips have it enabled by default.
Weird behaviour is the prime symptom of anything "wrong" with your machine. I'd also expect weird device detections as the virtualized hardware is being detected by the now "guest" OS. Also, not sure, but running alternate operating systems might show something's wrong.
I think booting with an alternate OS from CD is pretty much the best was to find such software. To avoid that, the BIOS should be infected and I haven't heard of many (if any) BIOS viruses in the wild.
Heck, if the bad guys found out how to do that for every BIOS, I'd be interested to know how they did it: the BIOS of my laptop is limited to 2GB of RAM, while the chipset allows 4GB of RAM... If I'd be able to circumvent that limitation, I'd be a happy puppy...
As for disabling VT support, it's probably to avoid "blue-pill" type malware from hitching a ride underneath the OS. At least, that's a reasonable explanation if you have the setting
Yes, I heard that lame excuse before too. With so many higher end machines being sold having it enabled (heck, my el cheapo Turion X2 bought in January 2007 has it!) malware should be using it already. I haven't heard of a "blue-pill" type infection in the wild yet. Does it exist?
Just a minor correction... The SX series for the i386 was that the data bus was at half width (16-bit)... The SX for the i486 was indeed a disabled FPU. (Remember the Overdrives? Simply a i486 CPU that disabled the original i486SX)... Aaaah, going down the memory lane.
The "weird" hardware requirements are probably due to the fact that they expected AMD and Intel only to produce CPUs with hardware support for virtualization enabled. The fact that one of the major CPU manufacturers didn't, is most likely what bit Microsoft in the ass. Still, some OEMs also are at fault, I think: Just recently I got to look after a defective laptop (RAM module was broken...) and I looked in the BIOS. The CPU could do hardware virtualization, but by default it was disabled in the BIOS. Why? I have no idea...
This is probably not the reply you expected, but I want all married Geeks/Nerds to heed Tara's words. I too am a married Geek, and I too spent too much time with my computer.
I tell you, better take your wife once more in your arm, tell her once more you love her because they do not see that you do love them unless you show them continually. The fact that you are there, plan the future, make sure she has no worries simply DOES NOT MATTER. It doesn't come up in their mental state. Take them in their arms one more time, give them flowers (even if you know that financialy a very dumb idea), give them chocolates (even if you know you'll hear about her weight for another three months). Do it.
I know... My wife tried to commit suicided a bit over two months ago. The "why" is still unclear, but a big influence seems to be me hanging around the computer too much, not showing that I love her. Personally, I thought I did show, but it wasn't enough. What you think is enough "love", double it... It will probably just be barely enough for what she actually needs.
No... They only modded the original comment.... Not any of my additions. You might just have to accept that Apple isn't the pinnacle of computing. As aaid, I recommend it to beta users, I recommend Wndows to Gamers and Power-Users who cannot get out of the paradigma...... Debian is for those of us, who know, who can learn..... Ubuntu is for those who don't want to bother (me at my work, my mom, my dad... my brother). There is no one solution. You just need someone to evaluate the sutuation and find the best path.
Make it anecdotal... I still recommend Apple to those who have no clue. Better for them. I personally am disappointed of the quality Apple delivers, especially on hardware. (Logic board was the culprit and Apple wouldn't accept it because I was 2 weeks after their extended warranty). I always heard that Apple hardware (NOT TRUE) would live twice as long as PC hardware . I have no problem with Apple.... Just don't think it's the pinnacle of innovation. It's not. If Windows machines last longer than Apple machines, even with their reputation, you've got a problem.... Yes, anecdotal... I know... I recommend Apple, not because of quality because they won't call me... And usually, they'll throw away the machine after 2 years... just like a Windows machine.... Except I didn't get to clean viruses..
Just for the record... I used to use an iBook.... Back in the PPC days. The damned thing died within 3 years... No personal computer did that to me. Sure it was an "exception". Even my Windows machines lasted more than 3 years.... without reinstall, because I know how to handle them.
You know, you're kind of right. I type this on a Atom 330 (4Gig RAM). The machine sucks. I bought it to play around with, but instead it replaced my P-IV 2.6GHz Hyperthreaded machine with 2Gig RAM. The replacement was accidental. I bought the Atom to play around with, when the P-IV blew its caps after six years of faithful service. Having nothing other, I reconverted my "plaything" (Atom 330) to my desktop.
The machine is sub-par.... slow and I have dumpster diven machines that are better than it. The Atom is not worth its money. It might be because I run Linux (Ubuntu 9.10, by now), but if people really think Atom powered laptops are enough, they are mistaken. I have an original Asus EEE 701, and it fares better than the crap I type on now.
You can buy an OS X license retail... you know... Never did... Won't do... Not a Mac user, nor a Hackintosh user. I'm fine with Debian, thank you very much.
No, I read that... but if you have problems losing 24 hours of your work, you should be continually backing up. Like having a USB drive on which you backup additionally when on the road. If you fear losing your data while on the road: find a solution. The solution is backup on USB disk. (Since as I could understand why would have no net access to use rsync)
I remember that it was reported on slashdot ages ago. As far as I know the cause was identified (something to do with parking the heads too often or so) and fixed quickly. I ran Ubuntu for ages on my personal laptop. ("ran" because I borrowed it to a friend in need of a laptop and I reinstalled Win32 for him) I'm still running it on my work laptop. Never had any issues.
Besides, if the GP is so scared he should learn about one word: "Backup".
My dad also has a 1100 and it's hooked up to a print server (small box converting parallel to ethernet). It also had a paper feeding problem. You could get the repair kit for free from HP.
Our dentist also has a 1100, and that one got repaired by my dad with the free repair kit and probably prints waaaay more copies than ours....
With Later models of PC tower units, there would have a couple of LED digits that displayed the clock speed (20/25/33/40/50/60 Mhz).
Actually, they didn't really "display" the speed. They displayed whatever the little jumpers on their back told them to display. Yeah, they were jumper controlled displays. You could set them to anything you wanted. I remember "reprogramming" one into displaying "Hi" and "Lo".
Asus, Intel and Microsoft chose the chip and the OS together.
Microsoft?!? How so? The 701 was the one that came with Linux. I used the stock distro for a very very long time. I needed to switch because Asus can't maintain a repository if their life depended on it.
Now Intel, may or may not been involved in the design process... It doesn't have to be. I think Intel was caught as much by surprise as Asus by the success of the platform.
Most Windows applications are usable at 640x480 â" not all of them, but most.
Not my experience... I have been a developer over years and when I started working 800x600 was still very common and many apps already overflowed.
By contrast, most Linux applications are unusable with less than 800x600.
Not contradicting you there.... It hugely depends on the window manager. The typical ones (KDE, GNome) both overuse window decorations [1]. However, the sober ones like WindowMaker, XFCE or LXDE all do away with that... Do note that the standard 701 interface (The modified Xandros distro) was perfect for the small size.
Apart from that, there is the Alt-Drag trick that is a great workaround, which you don't have on Windows (without 3rd party support). That this is bad UI design, is true.... Then again, I have been a developer for years and users typically want all information on one and the same screen and that screen must be 640x480. An unreachable goal.
let alone WVGA, then you are an incompetent bastard who is putting too much in one window.
Yes... but users won't let us... Believe me, I have gone into this battle many times and always lost.
[1] Compare also Windows XP Luna Theme with the "Classic" theme and see which one wastes more space. Sure, rounded corners and big buttons may look nice... They are not space efficient.
I own a 701 too and it is indeed plenty fast. The thing is, that CPU isn't two years old as you claim. It's from 2001. So, two years ago, it was already 6 years old. It is also Asus who chose the chip and not Intel.
Anyway, that's not my point. I don't think "mlund" was criticizing anything about the CPU. He was most certainly talking about the screen size and only that. As an 701 owner, I must agree with him: it's really too small and pretty much all other netbooks came with 1024x600 resolution which at least is close to 1024x768 form days yonder. 800x480 is really limited. It is usable with a Window Manager like LXDE but you need to tweak applications left and right (Less "To" fields in the Thunderbird compose window, for example). Personally, I think that the Asus 900 series would have been the better choice for me, but I just couldn't wait and had to have my toy.
(I still use my Asus EEE 701 pretty much everyday.... Runs Debian just fine... Application statup times are a bit high, but I guess that's the SSD)
That's funny... I replaced the powersupply of my mother in laws P4 this weekend. Of course, I didn't have compressed air with me to clean it so this is bound to happen soon again in the future. *sigh*
I've rarely seen the ability to manipulate BIOS via serial console on Intel-type hardware.
My Tyan Tiger MPX S2466 can do it... But then, I don't think it boots without a graphics card in it. (I put a very very very old NVidia card in the AGP slot.)
Slashdot Mirror
Look, I'm an avid dumpster diver and the only reason I do it, is because I get gear for free and it's fun. However, if you calculate in my time? No, not economic. That 2400+ Athlon XP with 1GB RAM I gave to a coworkers daughter? Cleaning it, assembling good parts from different cadavers, installing Ubuntu and "ready" it for normal usage[1]... This took hours... At my "work" rate, this computer is more expensive than a mid-range new machine which includes real warranty. Now, I *like* doing this and I don't ask a dime if I give away "recovered" machines, but this is in no way economical in the real sense of the word.
Also, if they just talk about "replacing" parts... That's good for RAM or a power supply. Still, you need some time to diagnose the problem which easily exceeds the cost of the parts. Heck if the hard disk fails, you're in a whole crapload of trouble. You lost your OS, your data and most likely the recovery partitions. You ain't getting a working system quickly that way. A dead harddisk is economically the same as a "total loss" for a computer, if you consider the working hours needed to repair it. With cheap netbook and nettop machines, which are most likely better than your older system (even though the Atom is really a weak chip as I can tell from my own experience), comparatively repairs are expensive.
[1] Make sure all media plays, make sure Flash works, make sure Java works, make sure that OpenOffice saves to .doc, .xls etc by default so she doesn't get into confusing problems when she starts to share school works, etc, etc, etc...
Why not? Mine is "sharks.wireless", my parents one is "jungle.wireless". The one I'm not going to give is the one my brother has, because it's our surname.wireless. I wasn't very imaginative that day it seems. (Our surname is findable online: I just don't routinely post it on forums) The other names just reflect the naming schemes of the network: I use shark species and my parents network uses characters from Kiplings Jungle Book.
They're all encrypted and if for some odd reason, some slashdotter might be close to where I live, he/she will still have to crack that encryption.
That's with the BIOS currently in it (Latest version from OEM). So perhaps you're onto something. It runs fine with 2GB though... I just thought of getting even more out of it.
See my post here. Also, this means Microsoft contradicts itself: on one hand the XP Mode required (okay, "required") the hardware virtualization to be enabled, but on the other hand it is recommended to disabled it on client machines... where, go figure, XP Mode is most likely to be used!
I still think it's a lame excuse... AMD chips have it enabled by default.
Weird behaviour is the prime symptom of anything "wrong" with your machine. I'd also expect weird device detections as the virtualized hardware is being detected by the now "guest" OS. Also, not sure, but running alternate operating systems might show something's wrong.
I think booting with an alternate OS from CD is pretty much the best was to find such software. To avoid that, the BIOS should be infected and I haven't heard of many (if any) BIOS viruses in the wild.
Heck, if the bad guys found out how to do that for every BIOS, I'd be interested to know how they did it: the BIOS of my laptop is limited to 2GB of RAM, while the chipset allows 4GB of RAM... If I'd be able to circumvent that limitation, I'd be a happy puppy...
Yes, I heard that lame excuse before too. With so many higher end machines being sold having it enabled (heck, my el cheapo Turion X2 bought in January 2007 has it!) malware should be using it already. I haven't heard of a "blue-pill" type infection in the wild yet. Does it exist?
Yes, I have known Intel for a long time *sigh*.
Just a minor correction... The SX series for the i386 was that the data bus was at half width (16-bit)... The SX for the i486 was indeed a disabled FPU. (Remember the Overdrives? Simply a i486 CPU that disabled the original i486SX)... Aaaah, going down the memory lane.
The "weird" hardware requirements are probably due to the fact that they expected AMD and Intel only to produce CPUs with hardware support for virtualization enabled. The fact that one of the major CPU manufacturers didn't, is most likely what bit Microsoft in the ass. Still, some OEMs also are at fault, I think: Just recently I got to look after a defective laptop (RAM module was broken...) and I looked in the BIOS. The CPU could do hardware virtualization, but by default it was disabled in the BIOS. Why? I have no idea...
This is probably not the reply you expected, but I want all married Geeks/Nerds to heed Tara's words. I too am a married Geek, and I too spent too much time with my computer.
I tell you, better take your wife once more in your arm, tell her once more you love her because they do not see that you do love them unless you show them continually. The fact that you are there, plan the future, make sure she has no worries simply DOES NOT MATTER. It doesn't come up in their mental state. Take them in their arms one more time, give them flowers (even if you know that financialy a very dumb idea), give them chocolates (even if you know you'll hear about her weight for another three months). Do it.
I know... My wife tried to commit suicided a bit over two months ago. The "why" is still unclear, but a big influence seems to be me hanging around the computer too much, not showing that I love her. Personally, I thought I did show, but it wasn't enough. What you think is enough "love", double it... It will probably just be barely enough for what she actually needs.
No... They only modded the original comment.... Not any of my additions. You might just have to accept that Apple isn't the pinnacle of computing. As aaid, I recommend it to beta users, I recommend Wndows to Gamers and Power-Users who cannot get out of the paradigma...... Debian is for those of us, who know, who can learn..... Ubuntu is for those who don't want to bother (me at my work, my mom, my dad... my brother). There is no one solution. You just need someone to evaluate the sutuation and find the best path.
Make it anecdotal... I still recommend Apple to those who have no clue. Better for them. I personally am disappointed of the quality Apple delivers, especially on hardware. (Logic board was the culprit and Apple wouldn't accept it because I was 2 weeks after their extended warranty). I always heard that Apple hardware (NOT TRUE) would live twice as long as PC hardware . I have no problem with Apple.... Just don't think it's the pinnacle of innovation. It's not. If Windows machines last longer than Apple machines, even with their reputation, you've got a problem.... Yes, anecdotal... I know... I recommend Apple, not because of quality because they won't call me... And usually, they'll throw away the machine after 2 years... just like a Windows machine.... Except I didn't get to clean viruses..
Not going to repeat myself
Just for the record... I used to use an iBook.... Back in the PPC days. The damned thing died within 3 years... No personal computer did that to me. Sure it was an "exception". Even my Windows machines lasted more than 3 years.... without reinstall, because I know how to handle them.
You know, you're kind of right. I type this on a Atom 330 (4Gig RAM). The machine sucks. I bought it to play around with, but instead it replaced my P-IV 2.6GHz Hyperthreaded machine with 2Gig RAM. The replacement was accidental. I bought the Atom to play around with, when the P-IV blew its caps after six years of faithful service. Having nothing other, I reconverted my "plaything" (Atom 330) to my desktop.
The machine is sub-par.... slow and I have dumpster diven machines that are better than it. The Atom is not worth its money. It might be because I run Linux (Ubuntu 9.10, by now), but if people really think Atom powered laptops are enough, they are mistaken. I have an original Asus EEE 701, and it fares better than the crap I type on now.
You can buy an OS X license retail... you know... Never did... Won't do... Not a Mac user, nor a Hackintosh user. I'm fine with Debian, thank you very much.
No, I read that... but if you have problems losing 24 hours of your work, you should be continually backing up. Like having a USB drive on which you backup additionally when on the road. If you fear losing your data while on the road: find a solution. The solution is backup on USB disk. (Since as I could understand why would have no net access to use rsync)
I remember that it was reported on slashdot ages ago. As far as I know the cause was identified (something to do with parking the heads too often or so) and fixed quickly. I ran Ubuntu for ages on my personal laptop. ("ran" because I borrowed it to a friend in need of a laptop and I reinstalled Win32 for him) I'm still running it on my work laptop. Never had any issues.
Besides, if the GP is so scared he should learn about one word: "Backup".
Try using it with IMAP and come back to me.
My dad also has a 1100 and it's hooked up to a print server (small box converting parallel to ethernet). It also had a paper feeding problem. You could get the repair kit for free from HP.
Our dentist also has a 1100, and that one got repaired by my dad with the free repair kit and probably prints waaaay more copies than ours....
Both are still going strong.
Actually, they didn't really "display" the speed. They displayed whatever the little jumpers on their back told them to display. Yeah, they were jumper controlled displays. You could set them to anything you wanted. I remember "reprogramming" one into displaying "Hi" and "Lo".
Microsoft?!? How so? The 701 was the one that came with Linux. I used the stock distro for a very very long time. I needed to switch because Asus can't maintain a repository if their life depended on it.
Now Intel, may or may not been involved in the design process... It doesn't have to be. I think Intel was caught as much by surprise as Asus by the success of the platform.
Not my experience... I have been a developer over years and when I started working 800x600 was still very common and many apps already overflowed.
Not contradicting you there.... It hugely depends on the window manager. The typical ones (KDE, GNome) both overuse window decorations [1]. However, the sober ones like WindowMaker, XFCE or LXDE all do away with that... Do note that the standard 701 interface (The modified Xandros distro) was perfect for the small size.
Apart from that, there is the Alt-Drag trick that is a great workaround, which you don't have on Windows (without 3rd party support). That this is bad UI design, is true.... Then again, I have been a developer for years and users typically want all information on one and the same screen and that screen must be 640x480. An unreachable goal.
Yes... but users won't let us... Believe me, I have gone into this battle many times and always lost.
[1] Compare also Windows XP Luna Theme with the "Classic" theme and see which one wastes more space. Sure, rounded corners and big buttons may look nice... They are not space efficient.
I own a 701 too and it is indeed plenty fast. The thing is, that CPU isn't two years old as you claim. It's from 2001. So, two years ago, it was already 6 years old. It is also Asus who chose the chip and not Intel.
Anyway, that's not my point. I don't think "mlund" was criticizing anything about the CPU. He was most certainly talking about the screen size and only that. As an 701 owner, I must agree with him: it's really too small and pretty much all other netbooks came with 1024x600 resolution which at least is close to 1024x768 form days yonder. 800x480 is really limited. It is usable with a Window Manager like LXDE but you need to tweak applications left and right (Less "To" fields in the Thunderbird compose window, for example). Personally, I think that the Asus 900 series would have been the better choice for me, but I just couldn't wait and had to have my toy.
(I still use my Asus EEE 701 pretty much everyday.... Runs Debian just fine... Application statup times are a bit high, but I guess that's the SSD)
That's funny... I replaced the powersupply of my mother in laws P4 this weekend. Of course, I didn't have compressed air with me to clean it so this is bound to happen soon again in the future. *sigh*
My Tyan Tiger MPX S2466 can do it... But then, I don't think it boots without a graphics card in it. (I put a very very very old NVidia card in the AGP slot.)
I always fancied one of these. Probably just me.