I agree, having a tax break on repairing old PC's wont make one iota of difference when the labour incurred in performing even the standard virus removal/updates/windows repair totals about a quarter the cost of a new netbook or atom-based brand name PC.
In my experience I would say in 70% of cases if a major hardware component for a job >2years old - eg mainboard - then its' a total loss leaving the technical bay with a dead PC that will never be claimed (a nominal fee owing for inspecting the machine) but can't be recycled/resold as it still legally belongs to a customer.
Then you should go talk to the manufacturer which only guarantees' the laptop for 12 months. Since you've just forced the retailer to eat $200-$300 on what was most likely only a $800 laptop and the sale came with a net profit of something like $100. Retailer doesn't make the unit, only sells them. Manufacturer would have charged easily 200-300 for the board, and if PC World has an in-store technical bay, a good hours' labour probably went into swapping it over.
Referring to your earlier example of your iMac; Apple, the manufacturer, has huge markups on their hardware (because they have full control over the platform) and can afford to have warehouses full of spares sitting around collecting dust. I highly doubt your Windows based laptop made even a quarter of the profit that apple does on a basic mac book. Of course, if you're happy to pay the premium that is incorporated into every piece of Apple hardware made & sold (including the iPhone), then you get the extra level of service that goes with it.
Laptops' have highly specialized components and its' not like you can just buy a laptop main board off the shelf that will exactly fit that particular unit unless they are an authorised service agent for that particular laptop brand that you have purchased. If you ever purchase a laptop and don't intend to throw it out in 12 months time, purchase extended manufacturer warranty (not store warranty - its' a ripoff).
Heh, I had the exact same thought when I was reading the slashdot submission. 5 years too late.
This is something he was working towards for the last years of his life, the ability to regenerate nerve endings and methods of recovering from spinal injuries and campaigned hard against the ban of stem cell research (to no avail).
There are about 2-3 'stages' of Parkinson's medication, depending on just how much advanced the illness is at time of diagnosis. The first line of defence is the best and has good, manageable, results with relatively few side effects. The initial medication (typically L-Dopa tablets) regimen is effective for approximately the first 8-10 years, with the other stages of treatment decreasing rapidly in effectiveness plus worsening physical and mental side effects.
Remember that treating Parkinson's is essentially tampering with brain chemistry.
The current meds can help alleviate the symptoms of the disease, but do nothing to arrest it's progress. Eventually, the disease progresses until the drugs cannot help anymore.
Be aware that this cure won't reverse degeneration that has already occured.
It will merely hault the progression of Parkinson's so that those in the future diganosed with this illness do not have to fear a slow, lingering decrease in their ability to function in society.
Sadly, this news is 20 years too late to help my father.
In Australia the minimum 'broadband' connection speed is 512k down/128k up. The most typical ADSL speed is 1.5Mbps although wireless 3G broadband with its' insanely expensive plans can acheive 7.2Mbps.
Cable internet in Oz is almost unavailable outside of 3 major capital cities due various political shenanningans in our past and the NIMBY effect of having 'cables' with 'dangerous radiation' being laid in full public view.
As an EVE player, I can tell you that the company, CCP, has invested large amounts of money in upgrading and maintaining server capacity. I suspect they merged with White Wolf to continue funding their capacity. Their efforts have recently paid off with large reductions in lag on the busiest trading hubs and the ability to successfully complete large fleet battles with 1000+ participants (used to crash the server thread and do wierd things to player vessels).
Sadly, the EVE Online server thread have a known flaw that poses a limit on performance - each solar system is a single threaded Python application that can only be run on a single CPU core. CCP Dev's have stated that this design flaw (which actually made sense when servers were single core, fast and hot) requires a large rewrite of most of the various subcomponents. The trend for CPU's to be slower clocked and multi-cored actually makes the new servers slower for CCP's purposes.
So yes, EVE can scale by adding more solar systems, but each individual solar system presently has a theoretical limit of about 1500 in the same system based on current hardware.
Heh. When its' a case of a patent troll winning royalties slashdot is full of condemnation and arguments.
This is a case of a company that genuinely did put the effort in and was not recompensed for their efforts and involving a non-US company. Barely a peep from Slashdot in comparison. CSIRO has invented many many technologies in its' time, the Cochlear ear being the most well-known example and a decent portion of its' funding now comes from licencing due to the steady erosion of govt funding.
I'd expect more support for a genuine research company from slashdot in the past. A sad reflection on what it has become.
Uh no. If you start stringing cables along utility poles you get residents worried about the 'radiation' being 'emitted' by the coaxial line. Appearing on TV. Demanding the cable be buried in the ground. But Not In Their Backyard.
I started playing an adult themed mud called Edge of Midnight in 2000 and I still play there today. MUDs have an advantage over MMO's in that they can be accessed from any computer on the internet and has telnet, no need to pay subscriptions or download gigabyte game patches and can even be done over pokey ol dialup.
How many years have you been using PC-based hardware and how many exploding capacitors have you encountered?
I'll start: ~20 years, 0 exploding caps.
Okay, I'll bite.
Working in a retail computer store for 2 1/2 years which fixes PC's for the general public, I regularly get computers which have copped a power surge, lightning strike or other power-related issue and taken out their cheap caps.
I also regularly see swollen and leaking caps from 3-4 year old PC's
The real issue WRT set prices is the fact that people in general don't replace their TV sets until their existing set caffs and they have a genuine need to. With modern sets lasting upwards of 5-10 years it's just going to take a while before HD sets become as ubiquitous as SD sets once were but they're slowly, steadily gaining.
My old CRT television actually carked it last week and I am still without a replacement.
Reason? You simply can't buy a CRT TV anymore - they seem to have disappeared from stores. Any LCD or plasma TV that is bigger than a puny 26" costs at least $1000.00 True HD LCD TV's are more like $1200. When I purchased my CRT TV 5 years ago it cost just $300.00.
So I guess I'll be without a set until prices for decent sized screens (think 28 or 32") comes close to $500.
Wasn't anything that good on it anyway and I can watch DVD movies on my computer.
When you have compulsory voting politicians are forced to address issues that matter to their electorate (rather than just the subset who are voters) and people who otherwise would cynically ignore elections are forced to pay attention to their choices and how they will be affected by them.
Speaking from experience living in a country that has compulsory voting your opinion is incorrect. Just like non-compulsory voting you have blocs who are dedicated to one party or another and rarely change based on the issues raised at election. Indeed this steady bloc who are forced to vote makes it much harder for a seat to change hands as the candidate or party has to really tick off the electorate for those rusted-on supporters to change their mind and help tumble the incumbent out of power. (Also known as a protest vote). Hence with compulsory voting apart from the protest vote, the other way for change to occur is for the demographic of the electorate to change. Eg, for agricultural seats to acquire a more cosmpolitan community.
Non compulsory elections seem to be won by those who can encourage the largest number of people to get out there and vote.
Actually it is illegal to import Restricted Classification items into Australia. Importing your average Hentai or a RC computer game will get you spanked by Customs officials and the police.
Reading the linked article, I have to agree with its' assesment and indeed many of the outcomes it details towards the end can be applied to myself and even some of my friends.
After turning 18 and going to university (college for you yanks) I entered the developmental no mans land described in the linked artcle. Frankly it wasn't until I moved away from my parents that I matured into a true adult.
Food for thought indeed for anyone who is a parent.
No, Microsoft have re-arranged the places for many options and it generally takes more mouse clicks to get something done under Vistan than XP. Vista has a new 'Network and Sharing Center', the interface is confusing and difficult to utilise.
UAC is incredibly annoying and not a real safety feature as the average user will become so frustrated by the popups' frequency those warnings will not be read, the end user will simply click 'continue' so he or she can use the damn thing. UAC isnt about improved security, its about Microsoft being able to say 'oh, well its' the user's fault for clicking continue'.
I give you an example of Vista's 'improved' interface design - changing the date and/or time. Under XP its simple - double click the clock in the lower right hand corner of the screen and presto! you can change the date-time.
Under Vista, you need to click on the clock, then click on a lick 'change date and time'. Which opens up another dialog box.... which has a button labelled 'change date/time'.... clicking on this button.... brings up a UAC dialog. Click continue. Hurray! I can change the date and time!.
XP to Vista - a double click to 4 mouse clicks. Nuff said.
I encountered Slashdot.org in my university days, around the 1998 mark actually. Before I stumbled upon Netscape Navigator I was using good ol lynx through my universities' unix shell account and Kermit through a 2400baud modem. Anyone still remember Kermit? Or 2400baud modems:P.
Long and long time reader, rare poster.
And now, once again, slashdot has made me late for work.
their highest caps (100-150gig depending where you go) I'm not sure what ISP in Australia you're referring to. At most Australia ISP's have a monthly 40gb cap for consumer level DSL connections and they are typically expensive and only available as a DSL+phone service telecom bundle. Oh and after our 'generous' limits are breached, almost without exception we are either charged 15c/mb or throttled back to 64kpbs.
Should copyright just be abolished because we want free access to tv shows and movie clips?
YES! Copyright in its' current form does not in any way shape or form encourage creative expression or production. With copyright law as it stands, if you make 1 song or work thats' a hit, you have a revenue stream for life. Not just your life, but your childrens' children.
I actually work at a store thats part of a chain of white box computer builders. I can tell you without a doubt that the Vista vs XP sales figures are actually reversed. Almost every customer wants XP, very very few (80% XP vs 20%), want Vista installed on their shiny new system or as a with-hardware OEM purchase.
Additionally, despite manufacturers having received the RTM at the beginning of 2006, driver support for mobo chipset, audio and networking products from certain manufactuerrs remain exceptionally poor and flaky causing no end of headaches for users and our technicians alike. I'm not naming specific manufactuers but at least one of them is a Tier-1 component maker.
Additionally after using Vista in-store I can attest that its not just the graphics side of the new O/S is slower. I do not know if its DRM or driver issues but file I/O under Vista is also horirbly slow.
Even after the patches and addition of the Chase Cam I too found the camera to be aggravating in the extreme. I ended up uninstalling NWN2 and deleting its' folders within the same day of purchase. Money down the drain. I owned the first NWN and actually quite enjoyed the original (the expansions were 'meh').
My system is certainly no slouch (X2-4600+, 1Gb RAM, 7900GT) yet I find the game sluggish and unresponsive to input.
Slashdot Mirror
Could I get an invite at cornwelj(atat)gmail.com ? Cheers
I agree, having a tax break on repairing old PC's wont make one iota of difference when the labour incurred in performing even the standard virus removal/updates/windows repair totals about a quarter the cost of a new netbook or atom-based brand name PC.
In my experience I would say in 70% of cases if a major hardware component for a job >2years old - eg mainboard - then its' a total loss leaving the technical bay with a dead PC that will never be claimed (a nominal fee owing for inspecting the machine) but can't be recycled/resold as it still legally belongs to a customer.
Then you should go talk to the manufacturer which only guarantees' the laptop for 12 months. Since you've just forced the retailer to eat $200-$300 on what was most likely only a $800 laptop and the sale came with a net profit of something like $100. Retailer doesn't make the unit, only sells them. Manufacturer would have charged easily 200-300 for the board, and if PC World has an in-store technical bay, a good hours' labour probably went into swapping it over.
Referring to your earlier example of your iMac; Apple, the manufacturer, has huge markups on their hardware (because they have full control over the platform) and can afford to have warehouses full of spares sitting around collecting dust. I highly doubt your Windows based laptop made even a quarter of the profit that apple does on a basic mac book. Of course, if you're happy to pay the premium that is incorporated into every piece of Apple hardware made & sold (including the iPhone), then you get the extra level of service that goes with it.
Laptops' have highly specialized components and its' not like you can just buy a laptop main board off the shelf that will exactly fit that particular unit unless they are an authorised service agent for that particular laptop brand that you have purchased. If you ever purchase a laptop and don't intend to throw it out in 12 months time, purchase extended manufacturer warranty (not store warranty - its' a ripoff).
Heh, I had the exact same thought when I was reading the slashdot submission. 5 years too late.
This is something he was working towards for the last years of his life, the ability to regenerate nerve endings and methods of recovering from spinal injuries and campaigned hard against the ban of stem cell research (to no avail).
There are about 2-3 'stages' of Parkinson's medication, depending on just how much advanced the illness is at time of diagnosis. The first line of defence is the best and has good, manageable, results with relatively few side effects. The initial medication (typically L-Dopa tablets) regimen is effective for approximately the first 8-10 years, with the other stages of treatment decreasing rapidly in effectiveness plus worsening physical and mental side effects.
Remember that treating Parkinson's is essentially tampering with brain chemistry.
The current meds can help alleviate the symptoms of the disease, but do nothing to arrest it's progress. Eventually, the disease progresses until the drugs cannot help anymore.
Be aware that this cure won't reverse degeneration that has already occured.
It will merely hault the progression of Parkinson's so that those in the future diganosed with this illness do not have to fear a slow, lingering decrease in their ability to function in society.
Sadly, this news is 20 years too late to help my father.
Only for the USA
In Australia the minimum 'broadband' connection speed is 512k down/128k up. The most typical ADSL speed is 1.5Mbps although wireless 3G broadband with its' insanely expensive plans can acheive 7.2Mbps.
Cable internet in Oz is almost unavailable outside of 3 major capital cities due various political shenanningans in our past and the NIMBY effect of having 'cables' with 'dangerous radiation' being laid in full public view.
But that is for another post.
As an EVE player, I can tell you that the company, CCP, has invested large amounts of money in upgrading and maintaining server capacity. I suspect they merged with White Wolf to continue funding their capacity. Their efforts have recently paid off with large reductions in lag on the busiest trading hubs and the ability to successfully complete large fleet battles with 1000+ participants (used to crash the server thread and do wierd things to player vessels).
Sadly, the EVE Online server thread have a known flaw that poses a limit on performance - each solar system is a single threaded Python application that can only be run on a single CPU core. CCP Dev's have stated that this design flaw (which actually made sense when servers were single core, fast and hot) requires a large rewrite of most of the various subcomponents. The trend for CPU's to be slower clocked and multi-cored actually makes the new servers slower for CCP's purposes.
So yes, EVE can scale by adding more solar systems, but each individual solar system presently has a theoretical limit of about 1500 in the same system based on current hardware.
Heh. When its' a case of a patent troll winning royalties slashdot is full of condemnation and arguments.
This is a case of a company that genuinely did put the effort in and was not recompensed for their efforts and involving a non-US company. Barely a peep from Slashdot in comparison. CSIRO has invented many many technologies in its' time, the Cochlear ear being the most well-known example and a decent portion of its' funding now comes from licencing due to the steady erosion of govt funding.
I'd expect more support for a genuine research company from slashdot in the past. A sad reflection on what it has become.
Uh no. If you start stringing cables along utility poles you get residents worried about the 'radiation' being 'emitted' by the coaxial line. Appearing on TV. Demanding the cable be buried in the ground. But Not In Their Backyard.
People are stupid.
Unfortunately, this is an idea that all three major political parties approve of. 'Someone PLEASE think of the children!' indeed.
I started playing an adult themed mud called Edge of Midnight in 2000 and I still play there today. MUDs have an advantage over MMO's in that they can be accessed from any computer on the internet and has telnet, no need to pay subscriptions or download gigabyte game patches and can even be done over pokey ol dialup.
Quick straw poll for slashdotters:
How many years have you been using PC-based hardware and how many exploding capacitors have you encountered?
I'll start: ~20 years, 0 exploding caps.
Okay, I'll bite.
Working in a retail computer store for 2 1/2 years which fixes PC's for the general public, I regularly get computers which have copped a power surge, lightning strike or other power-related issue and taken out their cheap caps.
I also regularly see swollen and leaking caps from 3-4 year old PC's
Where on earth can you sell/trade used PC games? Most places that sell 2nd hand games only take consoles.
The real issue WRT set prices is the fact that people in general don't replace their TV sets until their existing set caffs and they have a genuine need to. With modern sets lasting upwards of 5-10 years it's just going to take a while before HD sets become as ubiquitous as SD sets once were but they're slowly, steadily gaining.
My old CRT television actually carked it last week and I am still without a replacement.
Reason? You simply can't buy a CRT TV anymore - they seem to have disappeared from stores. Any LCD or plasma TV that is bigger than a puny 26" costs at least $1000.00 True HD LCD TV's are more like $1200. When I purchased my CRT TV 5 years ago it cost just $300.00.
So I guess I'll be without a set until prices for decent sized screens (think 28 or 32") comes close to $500.
Wasn't anything that good on it anyway and I can watch DVD movies on my computer.
When you have compulsory voting politicians are forced to address issues that matter to their electorate (rather than just the subset who are voters) and people who otherwise would cynically ignore elections are forced to pay attention to their choices and how they will be affected by them.
Speaking from experience living in a country that has compulsory voting your opinion is incorrect. Just like non-compulsory voting you have blocs who are dedicated to one party or another and rarely change based on the issues raised at election. Indeed this steady bloc who are forced to vote makes it much harder for a seat to change hands as the candidate or party has to really tick off the electorate for those rusted-on supporters to change their mind and help tumble the incumbent out of power. (Also known as a protest vote). Hence with compulsory voting apart from the protest vote, the other way for change to occur is for the demographic of the electorate to change. Eg, for agricultural seats to acquire a more cosmpolitan community.
Non compulsory elections seem to be won by those who can encourage the largest number of people to get out there and vote.
I'm not sure which system is better.
Actually it is illegal to import Restricted Classification items into Australia. Importing your average Hentai or a RC computer game will get you spanked by Customs officials and the police.
Reading the linked article, I have to agree with its' assesment and indeed many of the outcomes it details towards the end can be applied to myself and even some of my friends.
After turning 18 and going to university (college for you yanks) I entered the developmental no mans land described in the linked artcle. Frankly it wasn't until I moved away from my parents that I matured into a true adult.
Food for thought indeed for anyone who is a parent.
No, Microsoft have re-arranged the places for many options and it generally takes more mouse clicks to get something done under Vistan than XP. Vista has a new 'Network and Sharing Center', the interface is confusing and difficult to utilise.
UAC is incredibly annoying and not a real safety feature as the average user will become so frustrated by the popups' frequency those warnings will not be read, the end user will simply click 'continue' so he or she can use the damn thing. UAC isnt about improved security, its about Microsoft being able to say 'oh, well its' the user's fault for clicking continue'.
I give you an example of Vista's 'improved' interface design - changing the date and/or time. Under XP its simple - double click the clock in the lower right hand corner of the screen and presto! you can change the date-time.
Under Vista, you need to click on the clock, then click on a lick 'change date and time'. Which opens up another dialog box.... which has a button labelled 'change date/time'.... clicking on this button.... brings up a UAC dialog. Click continue. Hurray! I can change the date and time!.
XP to Vista - a double click to 4 mouse clicks. Nuff said.
I encountered Slashdot.org in my university days, around the 1998 mark actually. Before I stumbled upon Netscape Navigator I was using good ol lynx through my universities' unix shell account and Kermit through a 2400baud modem. Anyone still remember Kermit? Or 2400baud modems :P.
Long and long time reader, rare poster.
And now, once again, slashdot has made me late for work.
Actually... NO. I've NEVER EVER had a social drink and then got into a car unless it was at least 5 hours after I last consumed alcohol.
Australia.... living in the dark ages.
YES! Copyright in its' current form does not in any way shape or form encourage creative expression or production. With copyright law as it stands, if you make 1 song or work thats' a hit, you have a revenue stream for life. Not just your life, but your childrens' children.
Wheres' the incentive to create more?
I actually work at a store thats part of a chain of white box computer builders. I can tell you without a doubt that the Vista vs XP sales figures are actually reversed. Almost every customer wants XP, very very few (80% XP vs 20%), want Vista installed on their shiny new system or as a with-hardware OEM purchase.
Additionally, despite manufacturers having received the RTM at the beginning of 2006, driver support for mobo chipset, audio and networking products from certain manufactuerrs remain exceptionally poor and flaky causing no end of headaches for users and our technicians alike. I'm not naming specific manufactuers but at least one of them is a Tier-1 component maker.
Additionally after using Vista in-store I can attest that its not just the graphics side of the new O/S is slower. I do not know if its DRM or driver issues but file I/O under Vista is also horirbly slow.
My 5 cents.
Even after the patches and addition of the Chase Cam I too found the camera to be aggravating in the extreme. I ended up uninstalling NWN2 and deleting its' folders within the same day of purchase. Money down the drain. I owned the first NWN and actually quite enjoyed the original (the expansions were 'meh').
My system is certainly no slouch (X2-4600+, 1Gb RAM, 7900GT) yet I find the game sluggish and unresponsive to input.
Give me the original NWN any day.