But they can afford iPods, cellphones, PSPs, Nintendo DS, and I skip the tons of other expensive stuff that I couldn't afford back in the day.
I'm one of the "old-uns" too, but mainly because I don't download music and don't buy CDs. I consider I have the music I like on CDs, I ripped those and well, that's it. (I'm a guy that spent his first paycheck on buying *all* Pink Floyd CDs that I could get... now that was way more than your meager 70$ example)
Again me, I just realised that in New Zealand one would use New Zealand Dollars. So, according to xe.com, 69.95 NZD = 36.9151 EUR....
Pretty much what I pay, isn't it? So, I'm in the middle of continental Europe paying as much as someone in on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Ask yourself who is less well off considering the geographical context.
I don't think I even use up 15GB per month, but okay... My choice is "unlimited" for 33.8€ or 29.90€ for the same speed with a 5GByte cap. Evidently, the "unlimited" option is the better choice. I did say that I was not sure about the rest of the world.
We're not ADSL2 either... At least: I'm most certainly not. My ADSL modem was bought before ADSL2 was standardized and nobody told me to upgrade. Highest ADSL speed in the country is 3Mbps, which is well below ADSL2 speeds.
Besides, is 69.95$ = AUD or USD? Thing is, it becomes pretty much close to what I pay if it's AUD, except that you have the 15GB limit. Still, you do have to realise that 15GB is the equivalent of about 1 Linux ISO per day. I'm not saying it's enough for your needs, I think it would most certainly cover mine. (I'm not into filesharing/bittorrent)
Well, I prefer the corporate snoozers over the powerpoints with pictures of shark attack victims, traffic accidents or that guy with his hand in a mincer. Urks... Who makes these things? At least the puppies and kittens, I can understand.
Cool idea! Hey, just a question: what software do you use to author DVDs? I've been thinking of doing something similar, but I'm not familiar with these things. Preferably software that runs on Linux and doesn't cost much (or at least is cheap). My wifes machine runs XP, so, well, that would be acceptable too. I'd just have to hog her machine for a while;-/
but most countries (apart from U.S.) still have fast Internet connection fees assessed by the amount of downloaded/uploaded content.
We do? Hey, I live in Europe and actually in a country where fast internet connections are expensive compared to the neighbouring countries. (Mainly because our market is so small) Now, I pay about 30€/month for unlimited Internet. While it's not exactly cheap, you get unlimited internet for much much less in countries like Belgium, France, and Germany....
I do realise that "the rest of the world" is more than just Europe, so, I might be wrong....
I know my trackcar would ground itself once you'd driven it into the ramps
I just watched the "Original Stolzer Parkhaus video - 3:25" video on that site. What ramps? The only "ramp" I have seen is the slight depression the tires of the red BMW are in. That's 3cm or so.... If you don't have 3cm clearance under your car you'll have other problems than parking your car. Just driving around would damage it.
I don't claim that my Audi TT is a supercar (it clearly isn't), but that "ramp" is not a problem at all. I've seen a Lamborghini take a speedbump once (+/-20cm high, I guess) and it had to slow to a crawl, but it didn't seem to be a problem getting over it.
The picture you think is fake is an actual "garage" at VW. It's not something where you park your car, but it's where new cars are stored awaiting the customers. (You had a hint in the text, plus all cars in the picture are clearly VWs) It's in "Autostad" near Wolfsburg.
Apparently there is a widget that you can download that activates it. I need to look into that, because just bought a new computer with Win XP on it (was on sale) and it has Media Center Edition, which is in the same boat as Home. I think... (I didn't use that machine as much as I wanted)
I do believe that, but.... If you need more RAM than 512Meg to do some actual work, it means that Vista has doubled memory requirements. A P-IV (any +1GHz speed) with 512Meg RAM flies with Windows XP while running stuff like Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes, and OpenOffice.org 2.1 simultaneously. (Heck, I've done it myself on a P-III 600MHz/512Meg RAM laptop... and while it didn't fly it was comfortable) It would run acceptably with 256Meg, but then you shouldn't tax it.
I'm still in the camp that Vista doesn't bring me any advantage over XP.... I've seen the Wikipedia article with the improvements, but none of them interests me or is even capable of running on my machines. When XP came out, the hardware requirements were steeper, but you could run it fine on a 2 year old computer without any loss of functionality. My dad runs his P-III 733MHz/512Meg RAM laptop to this day (upgraded it from 256Meg to 512Meg just yesterday) and it runs XP fine. That machine came with a sticker "Designed for Windows ME" (sticker has been long removed), so one can safely assume that it was also "Designed for Windows 2000". Any computer with that could run Win2000 comfortably, could run WinXP in an acceptable way with all options turned on. The problem with Vista is that this is not true. A computer designed to run WinXP is in no way sure to handle Vista comfortably.
Heck, I bought a new laptop (Dual Core/1Gig RAM) just last week and it says "Vista Capable" with a whole bunch of fine print that says that "Vista Capable" means "Will run Vista Home Basic, but with the advanced options disabled... like Aero". Sure, the machine was on sale and that's why I bought it but frankly.... A new OS should run with all stuff activated on a PC bought in the same month that OS comes out.
Yes, I don't understand that either. It's not exactly something I need often at my workplace, but it has forced me to stay in a "Workgroup" at home instead of implementing my own Domain.
Frankly, I'd like to know too.... My work XP Machine reports 1.22Gigs used right now, but I do have a lot of stuff open;-)
In Linux, at least I know that superfluous RAM (="unused by programs") is used for caching. Which means: if you add another 256Meg of RAM, your Fedora/KDE machine will feel much better because the harddisk will be accessed less. The CPU usage could be explained by too much swapping (swapping both affects the CPU and the harddisk) Try it, RAM does miracles to overall system performance. Sure upgrading from 1Gig to 4Gig does a lot less, but I'm sure that 256Meg to 512Meg or 768Meg will help you greatly.
I haven't used Remote Desktop that much. Only once to help someone on a dial-up line. I know about VNC, I like it but it is slower than remote desktop. (Okay, remote desktop was painful too, but I didn't have to explain to the person I was helping how to download and install VNC....) For my own needs it's ssh all the way.;-)
Fast user switching is nice in a family setting. Example: I'm working on a project in Eclipse, browsing slashdot and have documentation open in OpenOffice and my wife comes along and simply wants to check her mail, I don't have to save/close everything. I press Win-L, let login, go make some coffee and when I'm back she's finished and I can continue where I left out.
Well, okay, if her mail would be web-based, I could just open a new tab and let her do her stuff, but we're IMAP/Thunderbird based. Besides, what if she starts looking around and finds my pr0n stash, eh?;-)
I didn't see the use at first either, but it was extremely welcomed in the family. Still, I don't see why they couldn't have added this feature to Win2k.
I know you mean this funny, but a 7 year old computer with 1Gig of RAM is believable. I bought a mid-range P-III 800MHz/256Meg RAM in beginning 2000 (that would make it 7 years old) I know for sure that it only supports 3x256Meg PC133 sticks because that is what it has now and it plays my parents server just fine. Not running Windows of course. Since, I know that WinXP runs okay on P-III 600MHz/512Meg machines, I can assume the poster to which you reply is not lying.
I think it is perfectly possible to run WinXP on a 7 year old machine with only the RAM upgraded (and possibly a harddisk... but 30Gig, which my computer came with, isn't all that bad for normal computer usage)
Well, I was going to reply the same, but I would have formulated it with a bit less capitalization.
The problem with Vista is that, as far as I have seen, will be exactly like XP when you do not have the hardware to take advantage of Aero (which is the category machines I was talking about). As far as I have seen, Vista doesn't offer anything more than Aero in the eyes of the end-user.
Sure, there are new indexing techniques and search capabilities which should give the feel of a faster computer... but I fear it will be nullified by the extra RAM overhead. A 512Meg RAM machine is not enough for Vista (if you want to do anything useful) as far as I have heard. A 512Meg RAM machine works perfectly fine with XP, and flies on Win2000.
There was one feature that made XP interesting: Fast user switching. Again, from the perspective of an end-user.... As an IT guy, I also liked Remote Desktop.
With Vista, I just don't know.... After all, I don't care about interfaces: I still use the classic theme on XP. I sure hope that I can use the classic theme on Vista the day I have to upgrade on the workplace.
You're right: the best way to get a Vista is a with new PC, but it's a bit too early to get a budget PC to run Vista. I took the opportunity to buy a new PC just a week ago with XP Media Center edition. Why? Because PC's that are only "Vista Capable" are pretty much all on sale. 800€ for a Dual Core laptop with 1Gig RAM isn't all that bad. It is rated "Vista Capable".
"Vista Capable" means "runs vista like shit, don't even try".... So, wait till those have disappeared from the shelves and that "Vista Ready" machines are in the sub-500€ range (for desktops)
You must have been unlucky with the RAM though: last time RAM died on me was in an IBM PS/2 model 50
Well, it will probably work... It probably helps to be masochistic. Lowest acceptable I have experienced was a P-III 500MHz/256Meg RAM. It's okay, for running Firefox and OpenOffice.org 2.0, but don't try to do too much together.
I ran Windows 2000 on a P-Pro 200MHz with 256Meg RAM and that really did work fine. Of course that was years ago, and the other software was "lighter" too.
Two year old isn't really old, is it? My main desktop is from beginning 2003 and it's still a nice machine.
I found a perfectly functional P-IV 1.9GHz/512Meg RAM/40Gig HD/Dual-headed-matrox in the dumpster at the recycling centre. Booted it up, and a spyware infested Win2000 popped up in my face. That was fixed with a Linux install. How old is the machine I just described? It's perfectly capable of running WinXP. Vista, probably not all that much....
People throw away the nicest machines if for them it "behaves broken" or "because a newer version is out".
Those greenies may have a point, but I foresee golden times for dumpster divers....
Well, it's obvious, isn't it? Sex sells, and nerdy boys don't need much because they only know girls from.jpg anyway. So, she is perfect for appealing the high school nerds. That, and dirty old men, like me;-)
True, and perhaps the better name for a "personal computer" is "home computer" (according to wikipedia, it is indeed an alternative name). The name is just wrong, that was my point. You shouldn't call it "personal" if it really isn't. My workstation at work is more personal (because I'm the only one to use it) than my computer at home because I share it with my wife.
Oh, and unless you have a high-end-unix workstation at work, I can assure you that a workstation these days is exactly the same as a home computer. Now, for clusters, supercomputers and mainframes, your right, but to the average person those machines do not exist. Ever tried to explain what a server is to a neophyte? The only way to do it is to stay abstract and use the real-life example of server/client, but you cannot show them a picture and say "this is a server".... Because, well, my "server" is a normal desktop computer....
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Young people cant afford that stuff,
But they can afford iPods, cellphones, PSPs, Nintendo DS, and I skip the tons of other expensive stuff that I couldn't afford back in the day.
I'm one of the "old-uns" too, but mainly because I don't download music and don't buy CDs. I consider I have the music I like on CDs, I ripped those and well, that's it. (I'm a guy that spent his first paycheck on buying *all* Pink Floyd CDs that I could get... now that was way more than your meager 70$ example)
Again me, I just realised that in New Zealand one would use New Zealand Dollars. So, according to xe.com, 69.95 NZD = 36.9151 EUR....
Pretty much what I pay, isn't it? So, I'm in the middle of continental Europe paying as much as someone in on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Ask yourself who is less well off considering the geographical context.
I don't think I even use up 15GB per month, but okay... My choice is "unlimited" for 33.8€ or 29.90€ for the same speed with a 5GByte cap. Evidently, the "unlimited" option is the better choice. I did say that I was not sure about the rest of the world.
We're not ADSL2 either... At least: I'm most certainly not. My ADSL modem was bought before ADSL2 was standardized and nobody told me to upgrade. Highest ADSL speed in the country is 3Mbps, which is well below ADSL2 speeds.
Besides, is 69.95$ = AUD or USD? Thing is, it becomes pretty much close to what I pay if it's AUD, except that you have the 15GB limit. Still, you do have to realise that 15GB is the equivalent of about 1 Linux ISO per day. I'm not saying it's enough for your needs, I think it would most certainly cover mine. (I'm not into filesharing/bittorrent)
Well, I prefer the corporate snoozers over the powerpoints with pictures of shark attack victims, traffic accidents or that guy with his hand in a mincer. Urks... Who makes these things? At least the puppies and kittens, I can understand.
Cool idea! Hey, just a question: what software do you use to author DVDs? I've been thinking of doing something similar, but I'm not familiar with these things. Preferably software that runs on Linux and doesn't cost much (or at least is cheap). My wifes machine runs XP, so, well, that would be acceptable too. I'd just have to hog her machine for a while ;-/
but most countries (apart from U.S.) still have fast Internet connection fees assessed by the amount of downloaded/uploaded content.
We do? Hey, I live in Europe and actually in a country where fast internet connections are expensive compared to the neighbouring countries. (Mainly because our market is so small) Now, I pay about 30€/month for unlimited Internet. While it's not exactly cheap, you get unlimited internet for much much less in countries like Belgium, France, and Germany....
I do realise that "the rest of the world" is more than just Europe, so, I might be wrong....
I know my trackcar would ground itself once you'd driven it into the ramps
I just watched the "Original Stolzer Parkhaus video - 3:25" video on that site. What ramps? The only "ramp" I have seen is the slight depression the tires of the red BMW are in. That's 3cm or so.... If you don't have 3cm clearance under your car you'll have other problems than parking your car. Just driving around would damage it.
I don't claim that my Audi TT is a supercar (it clearly isn't), but that "ramp" is not a problem at all. I've seen a Lamborghini take a speedbump once (+/-20cm high, I guess) and it had to slow to a crawl, but it didn't seem to be a problem getting over it.
The picture you think is fake is an actual "garage" at VW. It's not something where you park your car, but it's where new cars are stored awaiting the customers. (You had a hint in the text, plus all cars in the picture are clearly VWs) It's in "Autostad" near Wolfsburg.
It saves a bit space and is a nice to show off ;-)
He probably didn't know how to without paying Symantec.... Of course, you don't need to these days.
An absolute must on every USB key is Truecrypt
Apparently there is a widget that you can download that activates it. I need to look into that, because just bought a new computer with Win XP on it (was on sale) and it has Media Center Edition, which is in the same boat as Home. I think... (I didn't use that machine as much as I wanted)
Alas, I do not remember where to download it.
Alas, I have only a second gen console and I'm not planning to buy one. I'll probably have no luck.
While reading the wikipedia article on Portals, I stumbled upon this . Interesting...
Apparently there is a free predecessor to Portals (again according to wikipedia)...
Wow, that game looks cool. Hope it won't be PC only :-/
I do believe that, but.... If you need more RAM than 512Meg to do some actual work, it means that Vista has doubled memory requirements. A P-IV (any +1GHz speed) with 512Meg RAM flies with Windows XP while running stuff like Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes, and OpenOffice.org 2.1 simultaneously. (Heck, I've done it myself on a P-III 600MHz/512Meg RAM laptop... and while it didn't fly it was comfortable) It would run acceptably with 256Meg, but then you shouldn't tax it.
I'm still in the camp that Vista doesn't bring me any advantage over XP.... I've seen the Wikipedia article with the improvements, but none of them interests me or is even capable of running on my machines. When XP came out, the hardware requirements were steeper, but you could run it fine on a 2 year old computer without any loss of functionality. My dad runs his P-III 733MHz/512Meg RAM laptop to this day (upgraded it from 256Meg to 512Meg just yesterday) and it runs XP fine. That machine came with a sticker "Designed for Windows ME" (sticker has been long removed), so one can safely assume that it was also "Designed for Windows 2000". Any computer with that could run Win2000 comfortably, could run WinXP in an acceptable way with all options turned on. The problem with Vista is that this is not true. A computer designed to run WinXP is in no way sure to handle Vista comfortably.
Heck, I bought a new laptop (Dual Core/1Gig RAM) just last week and it says "Vista Capable" with a whole bunch of fine print that says that "Vista Capable" means "Will run Vista Home Basic, but with the advanced options disabled... like Aero". Sure, the machine was on sale and that's why I bought it but frankly.... A new OS should run with all stuff activated on a PC bought in the same month that OS comes out.
Yes, I don't understand that either. It's not exactly something I need often at my workplace, but it has forced me to stay in a "Workgroup" at home instead of implementing my own Domain.
Frankly, I'd like to know too.... My work XP Machine reports 1.22Gigs used right now, but I do have a lot of stuff open ;-)
In Linux, at least I know that superfluous RAM (="unused by programs") is used for caching. Which means: if you add another 256Meg of RAM, your Fedora/KDE machine will feel much better because the harddisk will be accessed less. The CPU usage could be explained by too much swapping (swapping both affects the CPU and the harddisk) Try it, RAM does miracles to overall system performance. Sure upgrading from 1Gig to 4Gig does a lot less, but I'm sure that 256Meg to 512Meg or 768Meg will help you greatly.
I haven't used Remote Desktop that much. Only once to help someone on a dial-up line. I know about VNC, I like it but it is slower than remote desktop. (Okay, remote desktop was painful too, but I didn't have to explain to the person I was helping how to download and install VNC....) For my own needs it's ssh all the way. ;-)
Fast user switching is nice in a family setting. Example: I'm working on a project in Eclipse, browsing slashdot and have documentation open in OpenOffice and my wife comes along and simply wants to check her mail, I don't have to save/close everything. I press Win-L, let login, go make some coffee and when I'm back she's finished and I can continue where I left out.
Well, okay, if her mail would be web-based, I could just open a new tab and let her do her stuff, but we're IMAP/Thunderbird based. Besides, what if she starts looking around and finds my pr0n stash, eh? ;-)
I didn't see the use at first either, but it was extremely welcomed in the family. Still, I don't see why they couldn't have added this feature to Win2k.
I know you mean this funny, but a 7 year old computer with 1Gig of RAM is believable. I bought a mid-range P-III 800MHz/256Meg RAM in beginning 2000 (that would make it 7 years old) I know for sure that it only supports 3x256Meg PC133 sticks because that is what it has now and it plays my parents server just fine. Not running Windows of course. Since, I know that WinXP runs okay on P-III 600MHz/512Meg machines, I can assume the poster to which you reply is not lying.
I think it is perfectly possible to run WinXP on a 7 year old machine with only the RAM upgraded (and possibly a harddisk... but 30Gig, which my computer came with, isn't all that bad for normal computer usage)
Damnit! Those Google people always take my ideas ;-)
Well, I was going to reply the same, but I would have formulated it with a bit less capitalization.
The problem with Vista is that, as far as I have seen, will be exactly like XP when you do not have the hardware to take advantage of Aero (which is the category machines I was talking about). As far as I have seen, Vista doesn't offer anything more than Aero in the eyes of the end-user.
Sure, there are new indexing techniques and search capabilities which should give the feel of a faster computer... but I fear it will be nullified by the extra RAM overhead. A 512Meg RAM machine is not enough for Vista (if you want to do anything useful) as far as I have heard. A 512Meg RAM machine works perfectly fine with XP, and flies on Win2000.
There was one feature that made XP interesting: Fast user switching. Again, from the perspective of an end-user.... As an IT guy, I also liked Remote Desktop.
With Vista, I just don't know.... After all, I don't care about interfaces: I still use the classic theme on XP. I sure hope that I can use the classic theme on Vista the day I have to upgrade on the workplace.
You're right: the best way to get a Vista is a with new PC, but it's a bit too early to get a budget PC to run Vista. I took the opportunity to buy a new PC just a week ago with XP Media Center edition. Why? Because PC's that are only "Vista Capable" are pretty much all on sale. 800€ for a Dual Core laptop with 1Gig RAM isn't all that bad. It is rated "Vista Capable".
"Vista Capable" means "runs vista like shit, don't even try".... So, wait till those have disappeared from the shelves and that "Vista Ready" machines are in the sub-500€ range (for desktops)
You must have been unlucky with the RAM though: last time RAM died on me was in an IBM PS/2 model 50
Well, it will probably work... It probably helps to be masochistic. Lowest acceptable I have experienced was a P-III 500MHz/256Meg RAM. It's okay, for running Firefox and OpenOffice.org 2.0, but don't try to do too much together.
I ran Windows 2000 on a P-Pro 200MHz with 256Meg RAM and that really did work fine. Of course that was years ago, and the other software was "lighter" too.
Two year old isn't really old, is it? My main desktop is from beginning 2003 and it's still a nice machine.
I found a perfectly functional P-IV 1.9GHz/512Meg RAM/40Gig HD/Dual-headed-matrox in the dumpster at the recycling centre. Booted it up, and a spyware infested Win2000 popped up in my face. That was fixed with a Linux install. How old is the machine I just described? It's perfectly capable of running WinXP. Vista, probably not all that much....
People throw away the nicest machines if for them it "behaves broken" or "because a newer version is out".
Those greenies may have a point, but I foresee golden times for dumpster divers....
Well, it's obvious, isn't it? Sex sells, and nerdy boys don't need much because they only know girls from .jpg anyway. So, she is perfect for appealing the high school nerds. That, and dirty old men, like me ;-)
I'm not a fanboy, but I do think she's cute...
True, and perhaps the better name for a "personal computer" is "home computer" (according to wikipedia, it is indeed an alternative name). The name is just wrong, that was my point. You shouldn't call it "personal" if it really isn't. My workstation at work is more personal (because I'm the only one to use it) than my computer at home because I share it with my wife.
Oh, and unless you have a high-end-unix workstation at work, I can assure you that a workstation these days is exactly the same as a home computer. Now, for clusters, supercomputers and mainframes, your right, but to the average person those machines do not exist. Ever tried to explain what a server is to a neophyte? The only way to do it is to stay abstract and use the real-life example of server/client, but you cannot show them a picture and say "this is a server".... Because, well, my "server" is a normal desktop computer....