You sir are obviously a terrorist as that is ingenious, and as such, information of that nature should not be disseminated. Therefor I propose a secret flight to secret places for you and your family! So he wins the all-expenses-paid trip to our lovely resort GITMO in sunny Cuba?
Dell sources its laptops from many different manufacturers. The ones it sourced from Samsung (one of which is the 700m) tend to be pretty durable.
A little bit of research can usually reveal who built what Dell. In my expereince, you're best off skipping the Compal and Sager built units (like the old XPS notebooks) and looking for the Sammys.
It's not like they've never done this before. Although given that it's Apple, I'm sure this new iteration on their previous idea will still be both a commercial and design success.
Speaking of eee support, does anyone out there have any trench stories to tell about ASUS notebook support? The eee is my first non-component ASUS purchase, and I'd like to know what I'm getting into.
Speaking as a Toshiba owner, the grass ain't any greener.
FWIW, my experience was much improved after I quit dealing with Toshiba's support directly, and went down to the local authorized service provider. As they're merely 10 minutes from where I live, that wasn't much of a hardship, but your mileage may vary.
So those of us who have legitimate use for a desktop replacement notebook should just throw our hands up and say "Oh well, I guess I'll go back to being chained to a desk..."?
I'm currently using a eee and a tablet, but I've had a succession of desktop replacements, either for gaming or business purposes. Some applications really do need that much power. Desktop replacements are a compromise, just like any other computer. If you need the levels of power that one provides, then you must be willing to take into account the drawbacks you mentioned. (Weight, cost, etc.)
But flat out saying that laptops are not for desktop power apps or gaming is arrogant and more than a little offensive, you insensitive clod.:-) Don't try to tell me what my needs are. I'll decide that, and purchase accordingly. To that end, I'm glad Lenovo is diversifying their notebook lines. More designs means more specialization, and more choices.
As for the QUALITY of the desktop replacements I've seen, well having worked as a notebook technician, I'm actually inclined to agree with you. For users who keep up with the maintenance, (which is sadly, a minuscule group) they generally perform fine. But if you don't regularly clean those vents and check those fans, the machine will die a premature death, much like any other piece of high performance equipment.
If we could buy blackjack and hookers of the old school craftsman quality at Sears, I think most slashdotters would be willing to overlook a little bit of spyware here and there.:-)
A Little late now, but FWIW, there is not a standard RS232 on the EEE. Like you said, they're rare on modern laptops.
Oddly, I did find an RS232 header on the motherboard for the HTPC that I built on new year's day. (An Nvidia 630i board for those so interested.) But it was pins only, and the requisite port and backplane were not included in the package.
Well, you've summed up the minimalist school of notebook design pretty well. And for my day to day use, that's pretty close to where I stand too really. When I was still in university, my tablet got a lot more use, but right now, the EEE is getting far more of the love.
Still, that monster gaming notebook has its purpose too. I've debated picking up a gaming notebook, just to avoid having to haul my desktop around to lan parties. But again, a purpose built device. They build 'em to run modern games, so you pay the price in weight, and wallet. Do I *NEED* it? Probably not, but if you've got the money, why not?
Different beasts, different purposes, right?
On a related note, I feel you on that Parallel port thingy. I actually ended up purchasing a cheap "USB port replicator" (thank you woot.com!) to get a parallel port to do JP1 remote control programming, and basic stamp work. Neither of my current notebooks had a parallel or serial port.
But really, that's an improvement too. Given that this is the only application I've had for either of these ports since I purchased the notebooks, I'm rather glad they've put the space to other uses. I don't do either of those tasks often... why carry the hardware around for occasional use?
By way of comparison, I wasn't thrilled at paying a "premium" for the integrated SD card slot when I first got my tablet. Now I'm not sure I'd consider a notebook without an SD card slot!
And you have a 9 y/o hardware package, with a 9 y/o CPU (and the processing power to go with it.) You can enjoy the wonders of the battery life of a 9 y/o ultra-portable's power management. Don't even get me started on 9 y/o hard drives, or yellowed 9 y/o LCD screens. I'm not sure I'd wanna run even DSL on 64mb with that kinda speed, much less Xandros or any reasonably modern distro. (XP is completely out of the question.) I refurbed a bunch of 3010s for a non-profit I volunteer with. They didn't sell terribly well, even though we gave them a 1 year warranty!
But for the sake of argument, you've been able to make a workable unit out of the 3010. How much time, and effort did you have to expend? More to the point, do you really think Joe Average is going to be able to duplicate your efforts? Or will be willing to?
As for being stuck in time, bear in mind the cost of the 3010. You paid blood money to get one of these when they were new. The EEE is reasonable money for most folks, and practically pocket cash for the more well-heeled geeks. The magic is the combination of form-factor and price. This is the first time we've been able to get something this small, this cheaply.
That said, the OP should be commended for saving another machine from the scrap pile. Did you manage to score a unit with the port-replicator and intact keyboard? Those were the most common problems I ended up seeing.
I'm doing an nLited XP on the EEE. Boot time is less tha 30 seconds. You'll need a valid XP license, and the XP installation files. You'll run nLite, select which packages you want to include in your XP install, and nLite copies only the files you need to a target device or ISO file.
From there, you create your own install media (a CD in my case) and do a plain vanilla XP install.
It's probably possible to dual boot Xandros, but I wasn't pleased enough with Xandros to bother. What really kills this though is the small storage size of anything but the 8G unit. The default Xandros left very little disc space on my 4G. Certainly not enough to put XP next to it.
I've done an N810, and a EEE. The EEE wins for me hands down. Larger screen, and keyboard instead of a thumb board. I'll take a thumb board over T9 predictive entry, but I'll take a touch type-able keyboard (even one as cramped as the EEE's) over a thumb board any day.
I can text message with my phone (ATT Tilt), but the EEE makes slashdot doable, and the web in general a lot more pleasant than it was on the 810.
Can't speak for everyone, but mine is the laptop I actually USE on a regular basis. I'm hesitant to whip out my Toshiba R15 tablet, since it's heavy, and slow to boot. The EE is up in 30 seconds, and thanks to the SSD doesn't balk at being tossed around a bit.
I'll grab it on the way out of the house and just drag it with me like my camera. I've used it in conjunction with my cellphone to check mail on the road, research products, or do a quick wiki lookup when conversation requires. It's also pretty hand for doing photo previews in the field. The SD slot makes reading my casual camera's card easy.
With screen rotation, I can hold it vertically and read e-books and manga scanlations like I would with a paperback.
I've done some coding and remote work with it, but I wouldn't recommend it. Keyboard is way too small for that sort of thing.
About the only thing I haven't done on my EEE is gaming, which is clearly beyond the intent of the unit. That said, I'll bet it'd make a great classic game / emulator platform.
Now that's not to say I don't have my gripes. As I mentioned, the keyboard is just a tad too small. I've had to learn to type with six finger and a thumb. The right shift STILL stymies me 4 weeks after my purchase. There's no capslock indicator, which has caused me no end of trouble when entering passwords. Can't do a middle button emulation click with the rocker style mouse button.
But none of these are game enders. Annoyances yes, but given what ASUS is charging for this little beastie, I'm not expecting perfection. I'm expecting usable, with minor compromises, and that's exactly what I got. Really, the EEE was probably the most satisfying notebook purchase I've ever made.
The last time Slashdot featured this topic, IIRC it was started that the amount of mercury contained in a CFL was far less than the equivalent mercury released to the atmosphere by coal-powered energy produced to light an incandescent of equivalent brightness.
Speaking as a sport fisherman, you can take your hydro and shove it. Dams have done as much damage to migratory fish populations as commercial overfishing and pollution combined.
Lesse if I can get the quote tags right this time.:-)
Um, sorry, we've signed that treaty, but we haven't _ratified_ it. Just like the Kyoto protocol. When any government of Canada decides to take steps to ratify Kyoto, talk to me about the WIPO treaty. Canada HAS ratified the original Berne treaty, which is where most of the meat lays. But forget that. I ought to be quoting Canadian law instead.
27. (1) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to do, without the consent of the owner of the copyright, anything that by this Act only the owner of the copyright has the right to do.
Secondary infringement (2) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to
(a) sell or rent out,
(b) distribute to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright,
(c) by way of trade distribute, expose or offer for sale or rental, or exhibit in public,
(d) possess for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c), or
(e) import into Canada for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c),
a copy of a work, sound recording or fixation of a performer's performance or of a communication signal that the person knows or should have known infringes copyright or would infringe copyright if it had been made in Canada by the person who made it. On a side note, (a) and (e) really scare me... There's no right of first sale in Canada? That aside, we still have this:
All your discussion of broadcasters and exclusive rights seems a bit sophistic to me, sort of a 'how many angels can dance on the head of a pin' argument. That little bit of sophistry holds weight if you're going to rely on a Levy as your moral defense. If you're going to claim that "The law protects me!" (currently untrue in this case) you've got to respect the law. And that law currently says that the rights-holder gets to pick how his work is redistributed.
All I'm saying is, in terms of the actual consequences, I can download a show, and have a private, non-commercial-use copy of it, or I can have essentially the same thing by downloading it. I'm gonna assume you meant:
"All I'm saying is, in terms of the actual consequences, I can record a show from the broadcast, and have a private, non-commercial-use copy of it, or I can have essentially the same thing by downloading it."
In which case you're probably right. You as an individual don't really hurt the bottom line too much. And again, it's not like there's any sort of moral imperative (or legal compulsion) to watch the advertising that really drives these TV shows.
But that doesn't make it any more moral or legal to redistribute the copy of the show, and violate the rights-holder's rights. And with a torrent, that distribution occurs. You might have an argument if the download was one-way, but it isn't by far.
The levy doesn't cover me RIGHT NOW for tv/video, the copyright board has never addressed the question, so one might make the argument the jury's still out. They made no reference to tv/video at all, yay or nay.
I think they'll eventually address that question, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm prepared to eat some crow if they answer 'nay'.
Which means right now, you'll have to fall back on exiting canadian copyright law, which if they're properly enforcing their Berne Convention/WIPO treaty signatory status, means you are NOT authorized to make unauthorized copies for others. If I'm reading canadian copyright law correctly, you are still entitled to a personal use copy. (We've got differing "fair use" standards here in states than y'all up north, so I could well be wrong)
So go crazy grabbing them off the network sites. Tape them all you want. Stick em on the DVR. Strip the commercials if you like. It's your copy, and your business.
But, again, I ask you - what's the difference between me downloading a TV show vs me recording it on my VCR? Movies, different story, but I fail to see the substantive difference. But torrenting is redistribution, which IIRC is still strictly prohibited. With torrents you UPLOAD while you download.
As far as personally recording vs. downloading, assuming we're talking about broadcast, commercially supported work, there's a pretty big difference, you're ignoring the publishers/boradcasters rights.
The broadcasters have usually contracted to be the exclusive distributors of the media in question. They're granted the explicit say in who, and under what conditions, (In this case, with advertisements) a particular work is released. You're subverting the creator's, (or in this case, his appointed representative's) will.
Really this is no different than the GPL licensing waffles that slashdot gets so riled up about. If the distributor says "No, you can't redistribute my show!" then you can't do it. If you don't LIKE the license, you're free to walk. When they show that little "All Rights Reserved" notice, they mean it. ALL RIGHTS.
Fansubs do generate some buzz for a show. But they're a far cry from the "Necessary Evil" in the days of 2 Episode VHS releases. Frankly at this point I'd drop necessary from that descriptor, but that's just my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
Dell sources its laptops from many different manufacturers. The ones it sourced from Samsung (one of which is the 700m) tend to be pretty durable.
A little bit of research can usually reveal who built what Dell. In my expereince, you're best off skipping the Compal and Sager built units (like the old XPS notebooks) and looking for the Sammys.
You mean like the old powerbook duo w/ the duo dock?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo
It's not like they've never done this before. Although given that it's Apple, I'm sure this new iteration on their previous idea will still be both a commercial and design success.
Speaking of eee support, does anyone out there have any trench stories to tell about ASUS notebook support? The eee is my first non-component ASUS purchase, and I'd like to know what I'm getting into.
Speaking as a Toshiba owner, the grass ain't any greener.
FWIW, my experience was much improved after I quit dealing with Toshiba's support directly, and went down to the local authorized service provider. As they're merely 10 minutes from where I live, that wasn't much of a hardship, but your mileage may vary.
So those of us who have legitimate use for a desktop replacement notebook should just throw our hands up and say "Oh well, I guess I'll go back to being chained to a desk..."?
:-) Don't try to tell me what my needs are. I'll decide that, and purchase accordingly. To that end, I'm glad Lenovo is diversifying their notebook lines. More designs means more specialization, and more choices.
I'm currently using a eee and a tablet, but I've had a succession of desktop replacements, either for gaming or business purposes. Some applications really do need that much power. Desktop replacements are a compromise, just like any other computer. If you need the levels of power that one provides, then you must be willing to take into account the drawbacks you mentioned. (Weight, cost, etc.)
But flat out saying that laptops are not for desktop power apps or gaming is arrogant and more than a little offensive, you insensitive clod.
As for the QUALITY of the desktop replacements I've seen, well having worked as a notebook technician, I'm actually inclined to agree with you. For users who keep up with the maintenance, (which is sadly, a minuscule group) they generally perform fine. But if you don't regularly clean those vents and check those fans, the machine will die a premature death, much like any other piece of high performance equipment.
If we could buy blackjack and hookers of the old school craftsman quality at Sears, I think most slashdotters would be willing to overlook a little bit of spyware here and there. :-)
A Little late now, but FWIW, there is not a standard RS232 on the EEE. Like you said, they're rare on modern laptops.
Oddly, I did find an RS232 header on the motherboard for the HTPC that I built on new year's day. (An Nvidia 630i board for those so interested.) But it was pins only, and the requisite port and backplane were not included in the package.
That said, USB to serial isn't at all uncommon.
Well, you've summed up the minimalist school of notebook design pretty well. And for my day to day use, that's pretty close to where I stand too really. When I was still in university, my tablet got a lot more use, but right now, the EEE is getting far more of the love.
Still, that monster gaming notebook has its purpose too. I've debated picking up a gaming notebook, just to avoid having to haul my desktop around to lan parties. But again, a purpose built device. They build 'em to run modern games, so you pay the price in weight, and wallet. Do I *NEED* it? Probably not, but if you've got the money, why not?
Different beasts, different purposes, right?
On a related note, I feel you on that Parallel port thingy. I actually ended up purchasing a cheap "USB port replicator" (thank you woot.com!) to get a parallel port to do JP1 remote control programming, and basic stamp work. Neither of my current notebooks had a parallel or serial port.
But really, that's an improvement too. Given that this is the only application I've had for either of these ports since I purchased the notebooks, I'm rather glad they've put the space to other uses. I don't do either of those tasks often... why carry the hardware around for occasional use?
By way of comparison, I wasn't thrilled at paying a "premium" for the integrated SD card slot when I first got my tablet. Now I'm not sure I'd consider a notebook without an SD card slot!
And you have a 9 y/o hardware package, with a 9 y/o CPU (and the processing power to go with it.) You can enjoy the wonders of the battery life of a 9 y/o ultra-portable's power management. Don't even get me started on 9 y/o hard drives, or yellowed 9 y/o LCD screens. I'm not sure I'd wanna run even DSL on 64mb with that kinda speed, much less Xandros or any reasonably modern distro. (XP is completely out of the question.) I refurbed a bunch of 3010s for a non-profit I volunteer with. They didn't sell terribly well, even though we gave them a 1 year warranty!
But for the sake of argument, you've been able to make a workable unit out of the 3010. How much time, and effort did you have to expend? More to the point, do you really think Joe Average is going to be able to duplicate your efforts? Or will be willing to?
As for being stuck in time, bear in mind the cost of the 3010. You paid blood money to get one of these when they were new. The EEE is reasonable money for most folks, and practically pocket cash for the more well-heeled geeks. The magic is the combination of form-factor and price. This is the first time we've been able to get something this small, this cheaply.
That said, the OP should be commended for saving another machine from the scrap pile. Did you manage to score a unit with the port-replicator and intact keyboard? Those were the most common problems I ended up seeing.
Someone please mod parent up. This is useful!
Glad to see that an extended life battery exists. Do you happen to have a link to an e-tailer taht is actually selling it?
FYI: I'm not the OP.
http://www.nliteos.com/
I'm doing an nLited XP on the EEE. Boot time is less tha 30 seconds. You'll need a valid XP license, and the XP installation files. You'll run nLite, select which packages you want to include in your XP install, and nLite copies only the files you need to a target device or ISO file.
From there, you create your own install media (a CD in my case) and do a plain vanilla XP install.
It's probably possible to dual boot Xandros, but I wasn't pleased enough with Xandros to bother. What really kills this though is the small storage size of anything but the 8G unit. The default Xandros left very little disc space on my 4G. Certainly not enough to put XP next to it.
I've done an N810, and a EEE. The EEE wins for me hands down. Larger screen, and keyboard instead of a thumb board. I'll take a thumb board over T9 predictive entry, but I'll take a touch type-able keyboard (even one as cramped as the EEE's) over a thumb board any day.
I can text message with my phone (ATT Tilt), but the EEE makes slashdot doable, and the web in general a lot more pleasant than it was on the 810.
I picked up a 4G surf model.
Can't speak for everyone, but mine is the laptop I actually USE on a regular basis. I'm hesitant to whip out my Toshiba R15 tablet, since it's heavy, and slow to boot. The EE is up in 30 seconds, and thanks to the SSD doesn't balk at being tossed around a bit.
I'll grab it on the way out of the house and just drag it with me like my camera. I've used it in conjunction with my cellphone to check mail on the road, research products, or do a quick wiki lookup when conversation requires. It's also pretty hand for doing photo previews in the field. The SD slot makes reading my casual camera's card easy.
With screen rotation, I can hold it vertically and read e-books and manga scanlations like I would with a paperback.
I've done some coding and remote work with it, but I wouldn't recommend it. Keyboard is way too small for that sort of thing.
About the only thing I haven't done on my EEE is gaming, which is clearly beyond the intent of the unit. That said, I'll bet it'd make a great classic game / emulator platform.
Now that's not to say I don't have my gripes. As I mentioned, the keyboard is just a tad too small. I've had to learn to type with six finger and a thumb. The right shift STILL stymies me 4 weeks after my purchase. There's no capslock indicator, which has caused me no end of trouble when entering passwords. Can't do a middle button emulation click with the rocker style mouse button.
But none of these are game enders. Annoyances yes, but given what ASUS is charging for this little beastie, I'm not expecting perfection. I'm expecting usable, with minor compromises, and that's exactly what I got. Really, the EEE was probably the most satisfying notebook purchase I've ever made.
The last time Slashdot featured this topic, IIRC it was started that the amount of mercury contained in a CFL was far less than the equivalent mercury released to the atmosphere by coal-powered energy produced to light an incandescent of equivalent brightness.
It's like the British version of Tokyo Tower!
Speaking as a sport fisherman, you can take your hydro and shove it. Dams have done as much damage to migratory fish populations as commercial overfishing and pollution combined.
I'm not familiar with the technology that Toshiba is using. Is this an honest to goodness fission reactor, or just an upscaled RTG?
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-42 Infringement generally
27. (1) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to do, without the consent of the owner of the copyright, anything that by this Act only the owner of the copyright has the right to do.
Secondary infringement
(2) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to
(a) sell or rent out,
(b) distribute to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright,
(c) by way of trade distribute, expose or offer for sale or rental, or exhibit in public,
(d) possess for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c), or
(e) import into Canada for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c),
a copy of a work, sound recording or fixation of a performer's performance or of a communication signal that the person knows or should have known infringes copyright or would infringe copyright if it had been made in Canada by the person who made it. On a side note, (a) and (e) really scare me... There's no right of first sale in Canada?
That aside, we still have this: All your discussion of broadcasters and exclusive rights seems a bit sophistic to me, sort of a 'how many angels can dance on the head of a pin' argument. That little bit of sophistry holds weight if you're going to rely on a Levy as your moral defense. If you're going to claim that "The law protects me!" (currently untrue in this case) you've got to respect the law. And that law currently says that the rights-holder gets to pick how his work is redistributed. All I'm saying is, in terms of the actual consequences, I can download a show, and have a private, non-commercial-use copy of it, or I can have essentially the same thing by downloading it. I'm gonna assume you meant:
"All I'm saying is, in terms of the actual consequences, I can record a show from the broadcast, and have a private, non-commercial-use copy of it, or I can have essentially the same thing by downloading it."
In which case you're probably right. You as an individual don't really hurt the bottom line too much. And again, it's not like there's any sort of moral imperative (or legal compulsion) to watch the advertising that really drives these TV shows.
But that doesn't make it any more moral or legal to redistribute the copy of the show, and violate the rights-holder's rights. And with a torrent, that distribution occurs. You might have an argument if the download was one-way, but it isn't by far.
I think they'll eventually address that question, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm prepared to eat some crow if they answer 'nay'. Which means right now, you'll have to fall back on exiting canadian copyright law, which if they're properly enforcing their Berne Convention/WIPO treaty signatory status, means you are NOT authorized to make unauthorized copies for others. If I'm reading canadian copyright law correctly, you are still entitled to a personal use copy. (We've got differing "fair use" standards here in states than y'all up north, so I could well be wrong)
So go crazy grabbing them off the network sites. Tape them all you want. Stick em on the DVR. Strip the commercials if you like. It's your copy, and your business. But, again, I ask you - what's the difference between me downloading a TV show vs me recording it on my VCR? Movies, different story, but I fail to see the substantive difference. But torrenting is redistribution, which IIRC is still strictly prohibited. With torrents you UPLOAD while you download.
As far as personally recording vs. downloading, assuming we're talking about broadcast, commercially supported work, there's a pretty big difference, you're ignoring the publishers/boradcasters rights.
The broadcasters have usually contracted to be the exclusive distributors of the media in question. They're granted the explicit say in who, and under what conditions, (In this case, with advertisements) a particular work is released. You're subverting the creator's, (or in this case, his appointed representative's) will.
Really this is no different than the GPL licensing waffles that slashdot gets so riled up about. If the distributor says "No, you can't redistribute my show!" then you can't do it. If you don't LIKE the license, you're free to walk. When they show that little "All Rights Reserved" notice, they mean it. ALL RIGHTS.
And according to that same industry, said torrenting is killing them.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2007-11-25
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/industry-comments/arthur-smith-open-letter-on-fansubbing
Fansubs do generate some buzz for a show. But they're a far cry from the "Necessary Evil" in the days of 2 Episode VHS releases. Frankly at this point I'd drop necessary from that descriptor, but that's just my opinion.
That Levy covers your for AUDIO recordings for personal use. No more, no less. Certainly not TV/Video.
And it doesn't cover redistribution at all. (Redistribution being a necessary process in most torrents.)
Spiral you say? Now where did I put the keys to my Ganmen...