I have sold a few computers with cases that I got from www.colorfulpc.com. These are Sunus Suntek cases and the build quality is excellent. The outer shell is plastic, but the inner frame is all metal. My sole complaint about this case is the power supply that it comes with is generic, although usable for most people.
While we may not have to deal with Packard Bell systems anymore there will always be a market, and a large one at that, for low end systems that sacrifice quality for price.
Let's take a look at the current trends in the cheap hardware arena:
Integrated video
Integrated audio
Bottom of the line Winmodems
Non-intel CPUs
Non-intel chipsets
How much do these cost cutting measures save? I would say about half over a "real" PC, with the big savings coming from the latter three items.
Most consumers will just compare MHz ratings, memory size, storage, and make a decision from that. At half the price for what appears to be the same system, they are not going to pass it up.
BERLIN, Germany -- The Earth's rotation is slowing down -- and at the current rate of deceleration it may come to a complete halt within 30 years, scientists warn.
The effect on human life will be devastating as half the planet will eventually be forced to endure endless sunlight and the other is cast into eternal darkness, leading to agricultural catastrophe.
"We are looking at widespread famine, drastic weather changes and almost unimaginable human suffering," declared physicist Dr. Hans Lutge of Germany's prestigious Brekman Institute for the Study of Science, which submitted its findings at a conference held last month in Berlin.
The length of an Earth day has actually been growing steadily longer for eons, the scientists say.
"Earth's tides cause friction that constantly slows the spinning down," said Dr. Lutge. "For the past several million years, the rotation has slowed at a rate of about two milliseconds per century. We estimate that a billion years ago an Earth day was just 20 hours, instead of 24."
But over the past eight months, Earth has been decelerating much more rapidly, for reasons scientists can't explain. Some experts blame years of nuclear tests or other assaults on nature. Whatever the reason, the possible repercussions are frightening.
"All living things including man have a built-in biological clock based on the 24-hour day," explained Dr. Lutge. "As the days grow noticeably longer, both men and animals will become disoriented. In the animal world, breeding patterns, pollination and the like will be thrown out of whack -- some animals such as rats may mate like crazy, while others could die out altogether.
"Our panel of psychologists say that among humans we will probably see widespread depression, sleeping disorders and an increase in both suicidal and homicidal behaviors."
The lengthening days will also have a dramatic effect on Earth's winds.
"It will likely spawn many hypercanes -- hurricanes with winds greater than 1,000 miles an hour, capable of wiping an entire city the size of New York right off the map," the scientist explained.
But the nightmare will really begin when Earth slows down to a dead halt, the experts warn. Half the planet will be scorched by an unblinking sun and the result will be "almost universal madness" as those caught on the bright side are unable to cope with an unending day, said Dr. Lutge.
But they will be the lucky ones. The other half of the planet will be like the dark side of the moon.
"With no sunlight, growing crops will be an impossibility," the expert said. "It will always be cold and there will be hunger unlike anything the world has ever seen. Billions will starve to death and the others may be forced to resort to cannibalism, reduced to ghouls wandering an eternal night."
U.N. officials promise to take a close look at the scientists' chilling report.
Unfortunately, the Celeron 366 haven't been available for a few months now, save for the few companies that have been hoarding them (and selling tested 366@550 at a premium price).
The Celeron has a fixed multiplier, so the only way to overclock is to increase the multiplier. 400@600 is not unheard of, but it's also not too common. While it's possible to use a bus speed in between 66 and 100, it's not desired because you'll have to overclock (or underclock) your PCI & AGP bus. That's a Good Thing in theory, but a Bad Thing in reality, because there are a good number of add on cards and hard drives that won't take a higher bus.
If I were to build an overclocked Celeron system today, I'd buy a single pretested 366@550.
I think that it's generally accepted that there is (was) some significant sniffing done on the site, leading people to believe they'd be able to use it to track down any bugs.
I think the data that MS gets from this won't be as useful as many people think, if only by the sheer number of crack attempts. When a hundred people are connected at the time the server craps out, is there really someone who will go through every crazy GET request in the last minute to try to reproduce the error?
While I favor the "hack my box" idea in general, MS's implementation of this is not as beneficial as it could be. I'd rather see this on the final release candidate of NT, with something resembling a useful server (POP3, file sharing, etc).
I wonder how much they pay the people who look at sites and determine if they are pornographic or not? Where else can you get a job at involves looking at naked women all day and you can tell people that you save children for a living?
Slashdot Mirror
I have sold a few computers with cases that I got from www.colorfulpc.com. These are Sunus Suntek cases and the build quality is excellent. The outer shell is plastic, but the inner frame is all metal. My sole complaint about this case is the power supply that it comes with is generic, although usable for most people.
Let's take a look at the current trends in the cheap hardware arena:
Integrated video
Integrated audio
Bottom of the line Winmodems
Non-intel CPUs
Non-intel chipsets
How much do these cost cutting measures save? I would say about half over a "real" PC, with the big savings coming from the latter three items.
Most consumers will just compare MHz ratings, memory size, storage, and make a decision from that. At half the price for what appears to be the same system, they are not going to pass it up.
One of the current WWN "Hot Stories"
BERLIN, Germany -- The Earth's rotation is slowing down -- and at the current rate of deceleration it may come to a complete halt within 30 years, scientists warn.
The effect on human life will be devastating as half the planet will eventually be forced to endure endless sunlight and the other is cast into eternal darkness, leading to agricultural catastrophe.
"We are looking at widespread famine, drastic weather changes and almost unimaginable human suffering," declared physicist Dr. Hans Lutge of Germany's prestigious Brekman Institute for the Study of Science, which submitted its findings at a conference held last month in Berlin.
The length of an Earth day has actually been growing steadily longer for eons, the scientists say.
"Earth's tides cause friction that constantly slows the spinning down," said Dr. Lutge. "For the past several million years, the rotation has slowed at a rate of about two milliseconds per century. We estimate that a billion years ago an Earth day was just 20 hours, instead of 24."
But over the past eight months, Earth has been decelerating much more rapidly, for reasons scientists can't explain. Some experts blame years of nuclear tests or other assaults on nature. Whatever the reason, the possible repercussions are frightening.
"All living things including man have a built-in biological clock based on the 24-hour day," explained Dr. Lutge. "As the days grow noticeably longer, both men and animals will become disoriented. In the animal world, breeding patterns, pollination and the like will be thrown out of whack -- some animals such as rats may mate like crazy, while others could die out altogether.
"Our panel of psychologists say that among humans we will probably see widespread depression, sleeping disorders and an increase in both suicidal and homicidal behaviors."
The lengthening days will also have a dramatic effect on Earth's winds.
"It will likely spawn many hypercanes -- hurricanes with winds greater than 1,000 miles an hour, capable of wiping an entire city the size of New York right off the map," the scientist explained.
But the nightmare will really begin when Earth slows down to a dead halt, the experts warn. Half the planet will be scorched by an unblinking sun and the result will be "almost universal madness" as those caught on the bright side are unable to cope with an unending day, said Dr. Lutge.
But they will be the lucky ones. The other half of the planet will be like the dark side of the moon.
"With no sunlight, growing crops will be an impossibility," the expert said. "It will always be cold and there will be hunger unlike anything the world has ever seen. Billions will starve to death and the others may be forced to resort to cannibalism, reduced to ghouls wandering an eternal night."
U.N. officials promise to take a close look at the scientists' chilling report.
Unfortunately, the Celeron 366 haven't been available for a few months now, save for the few companies that have been hoarding them (and selling tested 366@550 at a premium price).
The Celeron has a fixed multiplier, so the only way to overclock is to increase the multiplier. 400@600 is not unheard of, but it's also not too common. While it's possible to use a bus speed in between 66 and 100, it's not desired because you'll have to overclock (or underclock) your PCI & AGP bus. That's a Good Thing in theory, but a Bad Thing in reality, because there are a good number of add on cards and hard drives that won't take a higher bus.
If I were to build an overclocked Celeron system today, I'd buy a single pretested 366@550.
Most newer ATX motherboards support power on with one or more of these features:
Spacebar
Double Click
Enter BIOS Password to turn power on (my fave)
Wake on LAN
Wake on Modem
Wake on RTC (Power on at a certain time)
I think that it's generally accepted that there is (was) some significant sniffing done on the site, leading people to believe they'd be able to use it to track down any bugs.
I think the data that MS gets from this won't be as useful as many people think, if only by the sheer number of crack attempts. When a hundred people are connected at the time the server craps out, is there really someone who will go through every crazy GET request in the last minute to try to reproduce the error?
While I favor the "hack my box" idea in general, MS's implementation of this is not as beneficial as it could be. I'd rather see this on the final release candidate of NT, with something resembling a useful server (POP3, file sharing, etc).
I wonder how much they pay the people who look at sites and determine if they are pornographic or not? Where else can you get a job at involves looking at naked women all day and you can tell people that you save children for a living?
According to http://pages.ebay.com/aw/help/t opics-png-remains.html, it is against eBay's User Agreement to sell your body parts, even if it is for a good charity.