People are working to put Debian on the ProGear. ($500 on eBay) When the usual issues with the power management and touchscreen are resolved it should be a snap.
>I swear they just assume that people fall over themselves to grab the latest $300(AU) or so upgrade for windows so they can keep up to date.
Sorry, but 95% of people I know fall into this category. They're afraid of computers, and just "want it to work" because their time is too precious to actually spend a moment learning about alternatives. Whatever microshaft demands, they'll pay. (Interesting how everyone I know with Macintoshes all use MS Office, MS Outlook and MS IExplorer...just call it Macdows, already) Even the most "liberal" people I know buy microshaft without complaint. The rest of us, who fight "the system", will eventually be marginalized into irrelevance. This battle is lost. We can continue to enjoy *nix as a hobby, but in the wider world it is doomed without a champion with deep pockets.
Who needs a new board - my HP Vectra XU/200 is still running strong! Oh wait...winders users have to buy a new computer every two years to keep up with M$ bloatware. BWWAAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAH!!!!
My progear is more durable than any clamshell laptop I've seen, largely because there's no hinged screen to bust. It also has magnesium shell and rubber bumpered ends to protect it. It's extremely tight and solid. Being light helps prevent damage, too.
On mine you can tap on the on-screen keyboard, use the handwriting recognition, or plug in a USB keyboard. On-screen keyboard isn't as fast, but it works fine.
bkr
How many ppl "need" more power these days? (to run linux things) How much power do you need to run VIM and a bit of code? A lot of us are still doing great work with 200MHz PPro machines. I got my tablet for $550 with a better screen than my real laptop has, and half the weight. I can use it while standing or walking around, which the laptop can't do. I just wish it had 2 PCMCIA slots instead of 1. Otherwise it's very convenient.
Computer parts are not expected to last these days. I expect my computers to run flawlessly for about 10 years, but I guarantee that the company that designed them only expects the "service life" to be about 5 years at most. Computers are just so much "junk electronics" - designed to be cheap short-lifetime commodity products. They don't see a reason to design them to last.
For a serious text, if you can do math, I liked Eisberg & Resnick's "Quantum Physics" OK. It was the text for our 2nd year "modern physics" courses. This is a course text, and not some fluffy gee-wiz technobabble pop-literature crap about black holes and alternate universes and such. How it will help you with Slashdot news postings is unclear. It's about atoms, spectroscopy, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, elementary particles and such. Broad, basic and wordy, which makes it a nice intro.
What the hell are they thinking? The floppy is the easiest way to transport data, because you know you'll be able to use it everywhere. That's golden! I can take data on the spectrum analyzer, save it to floppy and drop it in my pocket, go to the coffee shop and load it on my laptop to process and make plots, write those to floppy and bring it to the office to pop in the Sun and post the results to the lab weblog. Hell I could even take that floppy to the public library and post the data to the weblog from there! Kill the floppy and that flexibility will dissapear.
heh - I got a hub that way. It was a great price. What I got wasn't what the auction listed, but I wasn't too put out because it was still worth the money.
Ebay has great deals - if you're patient, careful, hold your bid until the last 8 seconds of the auction, never bid more than say $250, and don't insist on winning every auction you want. Older computer equipment often sells for ultra-cheap. Solid dual-ppro computers for $50 make great *nix workstations. Hubs for $10. Hard drives for $6. Video cards for $5. That includes shipping right to your door. Even if every 4th person fucks you over you a smart buyer will still get a net deal.
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ProGear claims 6 hours
People are working to put Debian on the ProGear. ($500 on eBay) When the usual issues with the power management and touchscreen are resolved it should be a snap.
>I swear they just assume that people fall over themselves to grab the latest $300(AU) or so upgrade for windows so they can keep up to date.
Sorry, but 95% of people I know fall into this category. They're afraid of computers, and just "want it to work" because their time is too precious to actually spend a moment learning about alternatives. Whatever microshaft demands, they'll pay. (Interesting how everyone I know with Macintoshes all use MS Office, MS Outlook and MS IExplorer...just call it Macdows, already) Even the most "liberal" people I know buy microshaft without complaint. The rest of us, who fight "the system", will eventually be marginalized into irrelevance. This battle is lost. We can continue to enjoy *nix as a hobby, but in the wider world it is doomed without a champion with deep pockets.
bkr
Star Micronics NX-1000 - $100 in 1988 and still going strong....
Why are surveys and charities exempt? They're no less annoying, and have no right to call you out of the blue either.
bkr
Who needs a new board - my HP Vectra XU/200 is still running strong! Oh wait...winders users have to buy a new computer every two years to keep up with M$ bloatware. BWWAAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAH!!!!
My progear is more durable than any clamshell laptop I've seen, largely because there's no hinged screen to bust. It also has magnesium shell and rubber bumpered ends to protect it. It's extremely tight and solid. Being light helps prevent damage, too.
bkr
yow!
You are correct, sir! I much preferred the classic Ultima 3-5 interfaces, myself. Left more to the imagination.
bkr
Telemarketers calling you anywhere, anytime...pphphpttt!!!!
On mine you can tap on the on-screen keyboard, use the handwriting recognition, or plug in a USB keyboard. On-screen keyboard isn't as fast, but it works fine. bkr
How many ppl "need" more power these days? (to run linux things) How much power do you need to run VIM and a bit of code? A lot of us are still doing great work with 200MHz PPro machines. I got my tablet for $550 with a better screen than my real laptop has, and half the weight. I can use it while standing or walking around, which the laptop can't do. I just wish it had 2 PCMCIA slots instead of 1. Otherwise it's very convenient.
Computer parts are not expected to last these days. I expect my computers to run flawlessly for about 10 years, but I guarantee that the company that designed them only expects the "service life" to be about 5 years at most. Computers are just so much "junk electronics" - designed to be cheap short-lifetime commodity products. They don't see a reason to design them to last.
(nm)
For a serious text, if you can do math, I liked Eisberg & Resnick's "Quantum Physics" OK. It was the text for our 2nd year "modern physics" courses. This is a course text, and not some fluffy gee-wiz technobabble pop-literature crap about black holes and alternate universes and such. How it will help you with Slashdot news postings is unclear. It's about atoms, spectroscopy, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, elementary particles and such. Broad, basic and wordy, which makes it a nice intro.
What the hell are they thinking? The floppy is the easiest way to transport data, because you know you'll be able to use it everywhere. That's golden! I can take data on the spectrum analyzer, save it to floppy and drop it in my pocket, go to the coffee shop and load it on my laptop to process and make plots, write those to floppy and bring it to the office to pop in the Sun and post the results to the lab weblog. Hell I could even take that floppy to the public library and post the data to the weblog from there! Kill the floppy and that flexibility will dissapear.
Parts of Hawaii are a damn lot like Mars....
bkr
Word processor: VIM
Spreadsheet: VIM
Presentation Software: VIM
etc...: VIM
...
bkr
heh - I got a hub that way. It was a great price. What I got wasn't what the auction listed, but I wasn't too put out because it was still worth the money.
bkr
Ebay has great deals - if you're patient, careful, hold your bid until the last 8 seconds of the auction, never bid more than say $250, and don't insist on winning every auction you want. Older computer equipment often sells for ultra-cheap. Solid dual-ppro computers for $50 make great *nix workstations. Hubs for $10. Hard drives for $6. Video cards for $5. That includes shipping right to your door. Even if every 4th person fucks you over you a smart buyer will still get a net deal.
bkr