Kinda makes you wonder why people even both trying to give a budget estimate. I mean, when the person in charge of the project comes in, does his presentation for the project, and says the project will cost $X dollars, does everyone around the table just look at eachother while trying to hold in a laugh? Does the presenter then say "Hold on a sec guys, we're also going to have it done by $date. Ok now you can laugh." I don't think I've even heard of a project that a government has undertaken that was even close to budget and/or on time. I mean, thee budgets are usually overshot by several hundred percent. These are the people that think/know they can run an entire country, yet they always have the worst track records. This is offtopic for sure, but can anyone actually RUN an government? Is it even possible to run a responsible government without HUGE waste? Why do we keep trying? What benefits do we receive from these governments?
We have a mailserver with about 25,000 email account on it. We don't back it up. You can't just do a nightly backup, as what if I got an email at 2:00pm and my mail client checked and deleted the email from the POP server at 2:07pm... where is the backup for that? You have to do constant backups, as the content comes and goes every minute. We don't bother. If a business REALLY needs to keep all of their email, they can back it up in-house, same for residential customers. Plus, in all my years of working here, I have probably been asked to restore someones email less than 5 times.
That's the cost of running an empire. The more that the USA expands and tried to "heal the world, and make it safe for democracy," the more cutbacks are going to be felt back in the "homeland." The USA is borrowing far more money than ever, and it is using that money in foreign lands, not at home. You people are also paying for this. Your money leaves your country as fast as you make it. You live in an empire, but don't worry, it won't be an empire for too much longer. Empires never last.
I've had customers phone up and complain that they don't want to pay the same rate for February because it is a short month. I just tell them that we define a month as having 30 days. We don't charge more for all the 31's, and we don't charge less for the 28.
(but yes, I realize your joking about actually doing this -- or are you?;P )
It's not just that its easier, its that its better. Your saying better as in easier - I'm saying better as in more accurate and faster. It's also easier on your hand. Your not losin' it with your thumbs, your moving your whole hand. You seem to be defending this issue seriously - we are just saying that we'd rather have a mouse to play with. It's not because we're whiners, its not because we're not good enough to "master the analog stick," it's just far superior to have a mouse. You can't aim for crap with the analog, and I don't care if you say your awesome at it. I will whip you with a mouse any day. In order to get half-ass accuracy on an analog stick, you have to move it gently, and slowly. This is obviously not optimal in a FPS. You can fight close up, but what if someone is far away? You see the analog fail miserably.
This doesn't mean analog is useless. Hey you could rewire the controller to make it even LESS efficient and then learn that method. That's fine if you want to do that, but I still want to use my mouse.
If the goal of a game is to be stealthy, aim as quick as possible, and shoot your opponents as accurately as possible, then I want a tool that best suits the job. I haven't played Goldeneye in many years, and I'm not a huge fan, but I generally dislike FPSs on consoles based on what we're discussing here.
Mine still works, I have the ADAM and Coleco Vision. I'm not sure if they were sold as different versions. Mine has the tape drive (Buck Rogers anyone?) as well as cartidges (Donkey Kong - phear). I also have a 300 baud modem in it with a free subscription to Compuserve from like 1980. I believe it has some BASIC compiler in it as well. I can still remember what it sounds like, though I haven't hooked it up on more than 5 years. I also had an old WANG. It was a server/dumb terminal type computer. Sounded like 2 industrial air conditioners when it started up. It was about 130lbs and the terminal was 65-70lbs. Goodtimes;)
I'm not saying your not absolutely amazing. You could be the best in the world at whatever it is you do.
You just haven't mentioned what that is.
I'm really good with networks and linux/unix systems. Not all UNIX systems, but some. Im also not good with each and every network device out there, but I'm pretty good with Foundry, Alcatel, Cisco, etc. I can program, but only in some languages, and I'm not an expert programmer. I'm a systems/network admin, and I rock at my job, but I'm not the best in North America, or Canada, or Ontario. Am I the best at what I do within 50mi of where I am? Probably. 100mi? Probably not, but I would be in the top few percent (or so I think). I wouldn't even know how to explain what I do in just a few sentences. Everyone thinks I'm an absolute genious, but that is because they don't fully understand what I'm doing day-to-day. I realize I am not a genious - I happen to know a lot of information that most of society doesn't know - that's it. I realize that I know a bunch of information, techniques, etc about the equipment and systems that I happen to work with. I can easily be stumped though. An issue could come up that a first year college student might be able to solve faster than me. I don't know what that issue would be, but it's entirely possible.
What exactly do you do that your so good at? What is it specifically that most of us (save the 10,000 that you mentioned) will probably never glimpse, let alone reach? Honestly, I am interested.
2GHz, 1GB RAM, Geforce Go7800.... goodtimes in a laptop
Re:Conservation of energy revoked?
on
Obesity Contagious?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I also think that this has to do with will power.
I will entertain the thought that I might just "be lucky enough not to experience the overpowering food cravings," but there is more to it than that.
Now, I have always been on the opposite end of this spectrum. I played a lot of sports when I was younger, I hiked, I spent all day every day outside. I was always active. I had a MAD appetite for food, but my metabolism was so fast that I couldn't put on any weight, even when I would each huge amounts of fatty foods.
Throughout highschool I got jobs, as well as more homework. I didn't play on the school sports teams anymore. I started working with computers (read: sitting around a lot more). Work was busy, so I would only have time to get food quickly (McDonalds, Harveys, etc). In 1 year of doing this, I gained 60lbs. Now... it is fairly logical to assume that if I continued to do that, I would gain more weight the next year, more the year after, etc. I wasn't necessarily eating a lot more (I ate a lot to begin with though), but I was doing FAR less activity. I was now becoming obese. I actually had a spare tire, whereas before I had an 8-pack.
I had metabolism tests regularly, and my body was going through a major change. It would speed up very quickly - almost dangerously. It would then slow way down - again, almost dangerously.
I went to college a lot bigger than I had ever been before. My mind didn't really catch up though. I still thought I was pretty skinny because I had been used to it for my entire life. It took awhile for me to catch on that my weight really was getting out of hand. College can pretty a pretty big party, as I'm sure 1 or 2 Slashdotters may have experienced, so it can be a big hassle to eat healthy. I didn't. I gained more weight until I was about 210lbs.. 6'2". It was a fatty 210lbs.
Second year of college I straightend up. I jogged a bit, rode my mountain bike again, and was eating better food (I wasn't in residence any more). My weight quickly dropped down to around 185lbs, which is where it is today.
I can see fluctuations in my weight happen very quickly. If I am very inactive and eat a bunch of crap, I will easily gain 5 lbs. If I straighten out, I have more energy and my weight is around 185lbs.
Now... everything I have said so far is pretty much common sense - or so I believe. Pretty much everyone I know that is a larger person grew up not playing around and being active, but sitting inside and hanging out with the TV/video games/food. Perhaps thats what their parents did, and so they see life as chilling out doing nothing when your not busy. Perhaps they didn't eat healthy when they were young, and so that's just what their comfortable with. They talk about being active, but they're not. They have stories about how they used to be active, but they are from years earlier. My larger friends do eat a lot more crap than my thinner friends, but they also have WAY LESS exercise as well.
This is where being obese gets very difficult. This is where "will power" steps in. For an obese person, going out and playing volleyball isn't fun. It isn't fun because it seems like hard work. You can't just go out and jump around having a good time because your breathing heavily 30 seconds into the game, and you just want to sit down. Your sweating twice as much as everyone else around you, so you stand out. Its much more fun to go sit down and have a chilidog.
It seems to me that your body really does what your mind wants it to do. You ignore activity for a long time, and start to enjoy fatty foods, and your mind creates this body that make its pleasurable for these activities. After you cross a certain threshold, it is very difficult to change back because you have to WORK to change. Someone who is mildy out of shape (like myself), wouldn't find it hard to go for a bike ride - it might even be fun. If I was 100 lbs overweight and hadn't taken a walk further than my driveway in
... and I just ordered a Duo laptop about 2 hours ago from here
(I know these bugs probably won't affect my system all that much, but its just funny spending $3k on a laptop, only to read about "issues" a couple of hours later).
This is crazy, if content providers want to reach customers quicker, they have alternatives such as Akamai. ISPs generally get Akamai servers FOR FREE (they pay for hydro), and Akamai updates the servers for them. When local users go to Microsoft.com for example, they end up hitting a local machine on the ISPs network. There is no need to go "on the internet," so theoretically, the user can take advantage of the full bandwidth of their modem. This works out for the ISP because they can offer faster downloads to popular sites without having to increase bandwidth to end users, or the pipe to the internet, and content producers receive less local traffic and can deliver content faster. The content provider makes that choice without being forced, and this is usually welcomed by the ISP.
I just hope that BS customers have some alternatives in their area. I hope they can show Bell South that they will not be bullied. This goes for content providers as well.
You're never better off with single core vs. dual core.
Not to nitpick, but if price is your main concern, then you are better off with a single core. If your looking for performance, and cost is no object, then yes, you are correct.
I agree, we find this at work too. Most people only do a few big downloads a month, some never do. Giving them 5MB (or whatever) is a nice thing because it lets them get their work done faster. They don't use more, they just burst and then lay dormant for awhile. Yes, sometimes people DO use mad bandwidth, and that's why its a risk for ISPs to offer 5MB across the board when you only have a T3 to the internet. Some people will sit at home and download TONNES of stuff that they don't need. People will collect programs they won't use, PDFs they won't read, download music and movies they don't watch or listen to, but these people are generally a pretty small percentile. Also, giving more bandwidth allows for viruses to spread faster, which can add problems.
While over-consumption of most natural resources will likely lead to the eventual death of all species who depend on those resources, running out of oil and uranium will not.
Death will result if we don't have clean energy in place before we run out of oil. If people (governments) keep fighting over oil when it really starts to run low, a lot of people will die.
Further, while it is also true that the waste produced by over-consumation is often toxic, the amount of waste produced by uranium and oil used in electricity production is not a significant danger.
Some would disagree. Oil is basically toxic any way you look at it. Nuclear waste is a big issue as well.
Ironically, it is the so-called environmentalists who are forcing electric power companies to use more wasteful technologies to meet a rapidly increasing demand for electric power.
Yeah I'm sure all those environmentalists are out to ruin the environment.
The sad fact is, that we should be building nukes all over the US, and enjoying cheap plentiful electricity throughout the country.
Indeed. The test performed to check that a Mersenne number is prime consists of repeated squaring, followed by the addition of an offset, using modular arithmetic. The number of iterations of the algorithm is equal to the value of the exponent of 2. If the final result is zero, the number is prime.
This only works due to the Mersenne prime being one less than a number with many known factors.
Superb 17.1-inch WUXGA 1920-by-1200 pixels with Super Clear Glossy Surface - Fully 64-bit capable supernotebook - Processor: socket based, fully upgradeable, single or dual core, 64-bit * up to 4800+ AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core; 939-pin; 1MB cache * up to 4000+ AMD Athlon 64 FX57; 939-pin; 1MB cache; single core - Memory: up to 2GB DDR400 SODIMM; 2 sockets - Choice of Video with EUROCOM upgradeable VGA technology: * 256MB GDDR3 Nvidia Quadro FX 1400 with OpenGL * 256MB GDDR3 Nvidia 6800 Ultra * 256MB GDDR3 Nvidia GeForce Go 7800GTX * 256MB GDDR3 ATi Mobility Radeon x800 * 256MB GDDR3 ATi Mobility Radeon x800 XT Platinum Edition - up to 240GB of HDD space with 2 physical PATA or SATA HDDs and RAID 0,1 - 2 physical Optical Drives; up to 8x Dual Layer Multi DVD-RAM/+-RW; 2nd DVD Burner optional - Internal MCE TV Tuner available - Virtual 8-channel audio output; SRS WOW support; 7.1 Surround Sound Output - Standard DVI-I port; 4 x USB 2.0; 2x IEEE1394a ports - Standard 10-in-1 card reader - Integrated WebCam for video conferencing
I don't think you've been shopping recently. I am looking for a new laptop right now and I would say I have the option to upgrade the HD on 95% of the models I have looked at. Yes, there are some base models where you can't choose, but most offer 3 or 4 storage sizes, and several speeds to boot.
Slashdot Mirror
Or SchnozBerry
These Schnozberries taste like schnozberries!
26ms - 24yrs old. I don't really know how this benefits me though.
Kinda makes you wonder why people even both trying to give a budget estimate. I mean, when the person in charge of the project comes in, does his presentation for the project, and says the project will cost $X dollars, does everyone around the table just look at eachother while trying to hold in a laugh? Does the presenter then say "Hold on a sec guys, we're also going to have it done by $date. Ok now you can laugh." I don't think I've even heard of a project that a government has undertaken that was even close to budget and/or on time. I mean, thee budgets are usually overshot by several hundred percent. These are the people that think/know they can run an entire country, yet they always have the worst track records. This is offtopic for sure, but can anyone actually RUN an government? Is it even possible to run a responsible government without HUGE waste? Why do we keep trying? What benefits do we receive from these governments?
We have a mailserver with about 25,000 email account on it. We don't back it up. You can't just do a nightly backup, as what if I got an email at 2:00pm and my mail client checked and deleted the email from the POP server at 2:07pm... where is the backup for that? You have to do constant backups, as the content comes and goes every minute. We don't bother. If a business REALLY needs to keep all of their email, they can back it up in-house, same for residential customers. Plus, in all my years of working here, I have probably been asked to restore someones email less than 5 times.
That's the cost of running an empire. The more that the USA expands and tried to "heal the world, and make it safe for democracy," the more cutbacks are going to be felt back in the "homeland." The USA is borrowing far more money than ever, and it is using that money in foreign lands, not at home. You people are also paying for this. Your money leaves your country as fast as you make it. You live in an empire, but don't worry, it won't be an empire for too much longer. Empires never last.
I've had customers phone up and complain that they don't want to pay the same rate for February because it is a short month. I just tell them that we define a month as having 30 days. We don't charge more for all the 31's, and we don't charge less for the 28.
;P )
(but yes, I realize your joking about actually doing this -- or are you?
Note to Google: Put a bunch of These: http://web.archive.org/web/20030418044709/http://w ww.boeing.com/assocproducts/energy/powertower.html all over the place. Stop the world from relying on Oil for electricity. Cheap to maintain, cheap to build.
Just my two cents.
It's not just that its easier, its that its better. Your saying better as in easier - I'm saying better as in more accurate and faster. It's also easier on your hand. Your not losin' it with your thumbs, your moving your whole hand. You seem to be defending this issue seriously - we are just saying that we'd rather have a mouse to play with. It's not because we're whiners, its not because we're not good enough to "master the analog stick," it's just far superior to have a mouse. You can't aim for crap with the analog, and I don't care if you say your awesome at it. I will whip you with a mouse any day. In order to get half-ass accuracy on an analog stick, you have to move it gently, and slowly. This is obviously not optimal in a FPS. You can fight close up, but what if someone is far away? You see the analog fail miserably.
This doesn't mean analog is useless. Hey you could rewire the controller to make it even LESS efficient and then learn that method. That's fine if you want to do that, but I still want to use my mouse.
If the goal of a game is to be stealthy, aim as quick as possible, and shoot your opponents as accurately as possible, then I want a tool that best suits the job. I haven't played Goldeneye in many years, and I'm not a huge fan, but I generally dislike FPSs on consoles based on what we're discussing here.
Mine still works, I have the ADAM and Coleco Vision. I'm not sure if they were sold as different versions. Mine has the tape drive (Buck Rogers anyone?) as well as cartidges (Donkey Kong - phear). I also have a 300 baud modem in it with a free subscription to Compuserve from like 1980. I believe it has some BASIC compiler in it as well. I can still remember what it sounds like, though I haven't hooked it up on more than 5 years. I also had an old WANG. It was a server/dumb terminal type computer. Sounded like 2 industrial air conditioners when it started up. It was about 130lbs and the terminal was 65-70lbs. Goodtimes ;)
Better at what?
I'm not saying your not absolutely amazing. You could be the best in the world at whatever it is you do.
You just haven't mentioned what that is.
I'm really good with networks and linux/unix systems. Not all UNIX systems, but some. Im also not good with each and every network device out there, but I'm pretty good with Foundry, Alcatel, Cisco, etc. I can program, but only in some languages, and I'm not an expert programmer. I'm a systems/network admin, and I rock at my job, but I'm not the best in North America, or Canada, or Ontario. Am I the best at what I do within 50mi of where I am? Probably. 100mi? Probably not, but I would be in the top few percent (or so I think). I wouldn't even know how to explain what I do in just a few sentences. Everyone thinks I'm an absolute genious, but that is because they don't fully understand what I'm doing day-to-day. I realize I am not a genious - I happen to know a lot of information that most of society doesn't know - that's it. I realize that I know a bunch of information, techniques, etc about the equipment and systems that I happen to work with. I can easily be stumped though. An issue could come up that a first year college student might be able to solve faster than me. I don't know what that issue would be, but it's entirely possible.
What exactly do you do that your so good at? What is it specifically that most of us (save the 10,000 that you mentioned) will probably never glimpse, let alone reach? Honestly, I am interested.
That's why we should put up a bunch of these towers. They can power the world, and we can use oil for toothbrushes.
/ www.boeing.com/assocproducts/energy/powertower.htm l)
(http://web.archive.org/web/20030418044709/http:/
Me too! I just got my 9400 today.
2GHz, 1GB RAM, Geforce Go7800.... goodtimes in a laptop
I also think that this has to do with will power.
I will entertain the thought that I might just "be lucky enough not to experience the overpowering food cravings," but there is more to it than that.
Now, I have always been on the opposite end of this spectrum. I played a lot of sports when I was younger, I hiked, I spent all day every day outside. I was always active. I had a MAD appetite for food, but my metabolism was so fast that I couldn't put on any weight, even when I would each huge amounts of fatty foods.
Throughout highschool I got jobs, as well as more homework. I didn't play on the school sports teams anymore. I started working with computers (read: sitting around a lot more). Work was busy, so I would only have time to get food quickly (McDonalds, Harveys, etc). In 1 year of doing this, I gained 60lbs. Now... it is fairly logical to assume that if I continued to do that, I would gain more weight the next year, more the year after, etc. I wasn't necessarily eating a lot more (I ate a lot to begin with though), but I was doing FAR less activity. I was now becoming obese. I actually had a spare tire, whereas before I had an 8-pack.
I had metabolism tests regularly, and my body was going through a major change. It would speed up very quickly - almost dangerously. It would then slow way down - again, almost dangerously.
I went to college a lot bigger than I had ever been before. My mind didn't really catch up though. I still thought I was pretty skinny because I had been used to it for my entire life. It took awhile for me to catch on that my weight really was getting out of hand. College can pretty a pretty big party, as I'm sure 1 or 2 Slashdotters may have experienced, so it can be a big hassle to eat healthy. I didn't. I gained more weight until I was about 210lbs.. 6'2". It was a fatty 210lbs.
Second year of college I straightend up. I jogged a bit, rode my mountain bike again, and was eating better food (I wasn't in residence any more). My weight quickly dropped down to around 185lbs, which is where it is today.
I can see fluctuations in my weight happen very quickly. If I am very inactive and eat a bunch of crap, I will easily gain 5 lbs. If I straighten out, I have more energy and my weight is around 185lbs.
Now... everything I have said so far is pretty much common sense - or so I believe. Pretty much everyone I know that is a larger person grew up not playing around and being active, but sitting inside and hanging out with the TV/video games/food. Perhaps thats what their parents did, and so they see life as chilling out doing nothing when your not busy. Perhaps they didn't eat healthy when they were young, and so that's just what their comfortable with. They talk about being active, but they're not. They have stories about how they used to be active, but they are from years earlier. My larger friends do eat a lot more crap than my thinner friends, but they also have WAY LESS exercise as well.
This is where being obese gets very difficult. This is where "will power" steps in. For an obese person, going out and playing volleyball isn't fun. It isn't fun because it seems like hard work. You can't just go out and jump around having a good time because your breathing heavily 30 seconds into the game, and you just want to sit down. Your sweating twice as much as everyone else around you, so you stand out. Its much more fun to go sit down and have a chilidog.
It seems to me that your body really does what your mind wants it to do. You ignore activity for a long time, and start to enjoy fatty foods, and your mind creates this body that make its pleasurable for these activities. After you cross a certain threshold, it is very difficult to change back because you have to WORK to change. Someone who is mildy out of shape (like myself), wouldn't find it hard to go for a bike ride - it might even be fun. If I was 100 lbs overweight and hadn't taken a walk further than my driveway in
... and I just ordered a Duo laptop about 2 hours ago from here
(I know these bugs probably won't affect my system all that much, but its just funny spending $3k on a laptop, only to read about "issues" a couple of hours later).
pwnz you!
IP: 3.1.33.7
This is crazy, if content providers want to reach customers quicker, they have alternatives such as Akamai. ISPs generally get Akamai servers FOR FREE (they pay for hydro), and Akamai updates the servers for them. When local users go to Microsoft.com for example, they end up hitting a local machine on the ISPs network. There is no need to go "on the internet," so theoretically, the user can take advantage of the full bandwidth of their modem. This works out for the ISP because they can offer faster downloads to popular sites without having to increase bandwidth to end users, or the pipe to the internet, and content producers receive less local traffic and can deliver content faster. The content provider makes that choice without being forced, and this is usually welcomed by the ISP.
I just hope that BS customers have some alternatives in their area. I hope they can show Bell South that they will not be bullied. This goes for content providers as well.
You're never better off with single core vs. dual core.
Not to nitpick, but if price is your main concern, then you are better off with a single core. If your looking for performance, and cost is no object, then yes, you are correct.
Here you go
I create an strong-encrypted virtual disk image with banking, internet login, software key, and (un)related information.
Pr0n...
So, as New Year's Eve is coming, remember to use only tall glasses for your party!!!
;)
Surely you mean short glasses?
I agree, we find this at work too. Most people only do a few big downloads a month, some never do. Giving them 5MB (or whatever) is a nice thing because it lets them get their work done faster. They don't use more, they just burst and then lay dormant for awhile. Yes, sometimes people DO use mad bandwidth, and that's why its a risk for ISPs to offer 5MB across the board when you only have a T3 to the internet. Some people will sit at home and download TONNES of stuff that they don't need. People will collect programs they won't use, PDFs they won't read, download music and movies they don't watch or listen to, but these people are generally a pretty small percentile. Also, giving more bandwidth allows for viruses to spread faster, which can add problems.
uhhh, no?
/ www.boeing.com/assocproducts/energy/powertower.htm l) instead - you've already paid taxes developing this technology. You also have the space to put it into action.
w ww.boeing.com/assocproducts/energy/powertower.html
So, you don't know?
While over-consumption of most natural resources will likely lead to the eventual death of all species who depend on those resources, running out of oil and uranium will not.
Death will result if we don't have clean energy in place before we run out of oil. If people (governments) keep fighting over oil when it really starts to run low, a lot of people will die.
Further, while it is also true that the waste produced by over-consumation is often toxic, the amount of waste produced by uranium and oil used in electricity production is not a significant danger.
Some would disagree. Oil is basically toxic any way you look at it. Nuclear waste is a big issue as well.
Ironically, it is the so-called environmentalists who are forcing electric power companies to use more wasteful technologies to meet a rapidly increasing demand for electric power.
Yeah I'm sure all those environmentalists are out to ruin the environment.
The sad fact is, that we should be building nukes all over the US, and enjoying cheap plentiful electricity throughout the country.
How about you build some of these (http://web.archive.org/web/20050306021056/http:/
http://web.archive.org/web/20050306021056/http://
Indeed. The test performed to check that a Mersenne number is prime consists of repeated squaring, followed by the addition of an offset, using modular arithmetic. The number of iterations of the algorithm is equal to the value of the exponent of 2. If the final result is zero, the number is prime.
This only works due to the Mersenne prime being one less than a number with many known factors.
Lemme guess, your a real hit with the ladies, eh?
Psssh, I guess that laptop is... OK ;)
Check THIS out.
Its a Eurocom F-Bomb. Here are some specs:
Superb 17.1-inch WUXGA 1920-by-1200 pixels with Super Clear Glossy Surface
- Fully 64-bit capable supernotebook
- Processor: socket based, fully upgradeable, single or dual core, 64-bit
* up to 4800+ AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core; 939-pin; 1MB cache
* up to 4000+ AMD Athlon 64 FX57; 939-pin; 1MB cache; single core
- Memory: up to 2GB DDR400 SODIMM; 2 sockets
- Choice of Video with EUROCOM upgradeable VGA technology:
* 256MB GDDR3 Nvidia Quadro FX 1400 with OpenGL
* 256MB GDDR3 Nvidia 6800 Ultra
* 256MB GDDR3 Nvidia GeForce Go 7800GTX
* 256MB GDDR3 ATi Mobility Radeon x800
* 256MB GDDR3 ATi Mobility Radeon x800 XT Platinum Edition
- up to 240GB of HDD space with 2 physical PATA or SATA HDDs and RAID 0,1
- 2 physical Optical Drives; up to 8x Dual Layer Multi DVD-RAM/+-RW; 2nd DVD Burner optional
- Internal MCE TV Tuner available
- Virtual 8-channel audio output; SRS WOW support; 7.1 Surround Sound Output
- Standard DVI-I port; 4 x USB 2.0; 2x IEEE1394a ports
- Standard 10-in-1 card reader
- Integrated WebCam for video conferencing
I don't think you've been shopping recently. I am looking for a new laptop right now and I would say I have the option to upgrade the HD on 95% of the models I have looked at. Yes, there are some base models where you can't choose, but most offer 3 or 4 storage sizes, and several speeds to boot.
Check Toshiba, Sony, Eurocom, Dell, etc.