The main reasons oem (not just dell but sony, hp etc...) tend to be much slower than one might expect.
1) Integrated graphics chips that share memory bandwidth with the system. Many (possibly MOST, I haven't checked the sales figures) Dells were sold in the last 5 years that had no AGP slot, just 3 PCI slots. Buying any cheap ( $50) PCI Videocard usually solves this... If you aren't already using the slots and if the bios allows you to disable the integrated graphics. There are a few integrated options that don't suck (the life out of your system), but Dell never used them until recently.
2) Slow memory. Early on, P4 systems were commonly equiped (because it was much cheaper)with single channel sdr-sdram (1GBPS) instead of dual channel "pc800"RDRAM(3GBPS). Woe unto the poor slob that wound up with a p4 running SDR memory and integrated graphics. Mid gen P4 cheapy systems usually (i845) came with single channel ddr266 or if you were lucky DDR333 and these weren't too bad for day to day use, tho' they were pretty weak compared to top of the line i850E or better chipset. The P4's performance "feel" (as well as benchmark scores) is closely tied to memory speed; much moreso than P3, PM, or Athlons of any stripe.
3) Crappy initial BIOS issues. I couldn't tell you how many systems I've worked on that started behaving like real computers once they recieved a bios update that was released 6 months after the system was sold to the customer. However most of those were HP/Compaq or momandpopbrand. Intel often has a bios update that will work better with a standard intel spec'd mobo than anything the OEM delivers.
4) Craptastic drivers, particularly IDE controller drivers that let the system fall back to PIO mode. This is oftem fixed with an update issued months into the model's run. Intel's own drivers sometimes fix this better than anything issued by the OEM.
I wouldn't say that every Dell I've worked on is slow. I would say that the majority of Dells I've worked on has an economy level motherboard, and below average performance parts that cost the owner less than $600 shipped. They paid for a crap level system and they got it. Congratulations. Here's your sign.
Yeah, the advantage of China is everygoddamnthing is already illegal. So everyone just does what they think they can get away with and then bribes officials to shut up about it. Sounds like the the goal for the future USA. So if you can figure out what works there you've got a long term buisness model for the USA of 2016. Brilliant!
I got an ATi HDTV Wonder. Pulls HDTV straight out of the air. Ignores the broadcast flag and timeshifts/records too. I can't recommend it as anything but a $100 novelty, but it exists. There's a couple of other pci HDTV cards that do the same thing.
Rocks and molotovs' fall, in effectiveness of violent resistance, on either side of the scale that hurled DVRs fall on. Guns are much more effective, but if you are in a post-ban region of the global community i guess you have to make do. Of course if your personal welfare isn't of concern, rocks and flaming bottles of petrol might make a stronger political statement, but then even better would be dousing yourself in gas and going pyro buddist style.
Funny thing, I went to a garage sale friday and the guy was selling a homemade pvc hairspray cannon (2m long x ~50mm bore with electronic ignitition). Admitedly this would be considered a toy by most local folk (guess what quadrant of the USA I live in) but it would easily meet the needs of a nepal insurrectionist. Better than a rock anyways. Do they have a Home Depot there? I think they have them in France...
Most of the buisness systems I deal with consist of little more than a WXP/W2k install, Office (usually office2000), less than a Gig of special apps and a few hundred megs of "my documents" and saved email. A Ghost image of the drive is usually under 10GB.
I think Monarch must do a lot of Cali business as they usualy stock the latest great CPU, are competitive with their pricing, and are out of state. Since they are local to me, I usually newegg it. Fry's and Microcenter also both opened stores between my home and Monarch, so I don't get over their much anymore.
Re: The Hornet Case's Size
This case is a Micro ATX enclosure (~ 1 cu.ft.) with a little more room to breath and a standard ATX PSU. It isn't tiny like a shuttle but ANY uATX mobo will fit, and none of the parts require a special order from Shanghai. It's as small as you can get without sacrificing usabiity and air flow. However, I don't go for the windowed, modder look. I favor a more descrete design.
The independant contractor that came out to "set up" my Comcast service kept offering to install software on my computer. Idiots in white pickups don't touch my systems and ISPs don't get past the modem. That's what DOCSIS is for. I said no thanks and called the 800# myself. I gave them the MAC of the cable modem and a NIC (cloned to the router). No software was needed for anything.
However even the thickly accented CSR on the phone kept trying to get me to install software. It was really irritating, but if you stay polite, give them the info they actually NEED, and run out their job clock they prettymuch have to give in.
Since some jackhole moded you troll, let me be the second to say it, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"
I like lots of the crap that's on TV, even BSG. But it's still crap and there is much better crap available. This guy didn't list Deadwood OR Rome. Project Runway? For shame.
FTA "Note the hole in the bottom of the keyboard - this is where I intended my "Cursor Mushroom Button Knob" to go. In the olden days we didn't have "mice" to move the cursor around the screen, no sir-ee! We had to use KEYS, and sometime we'd have to press a couple keys even! (Then walk to school barefoot uphill through the snow fighting dinosaurs) With the Atari you had to hold "Control" then press one of the direction keys (which are normally +, -, etc) This worked but was clunky."
This has to be one of (if not the best) mod articles I've seen to date. This mod addresses tons of issues that occur with many other "turn a clunky dinosaur into a shiney portable" mods. Like the LCD. I have always wanted to be able to convert old notebook lcds, but long ago gave up the notion because of the the way notebook lcds are controlled. It is (as he notes) far easier and more economical to just reuse the guts of a modern lowrez (something with a composite input) lcd monitor. At the same time he knew which parts of the A800 circuitboard were ok to saw off. While I'm not a fan of sandblasted aluminum and laminate burlwood; it is well done, professional, and has that retro "Atari" look.
Re:It's not "What's New" without Phil & Dixie
on
Best of What's New 2005
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I would mod you funny (I am an old PF fan) but alas lost all my mod points to a clahd in dragon poker.
... and those auctioneers who currently have a licence should have to go back and take the online auctioning class. No grandfathering allowed. I would further posit that the 21st century auctioneering licence should include proof of web authoring literacy such as something simple like http://www.mccc.edu/programs_noncreditcert_html.sh tml as this should be considered at least as important as talking fast.
What's really going on here (probably) is the owner of an auction house has bitched and donated to his congressman. New buisnesses run into this sort of thing all the time. Successfuly fighting this usually involves doing the same. Form an organsation, collect funds, and throw money at a more powerful politician. Since you are now an influential group, you can make a set of rules that benifits your buisiness model restricting new entries to the market, including old style auction houses that lack a web presence(rare) or appropriately certified employees(not so rare, they seem to like to hire family.) Even better it can help stop fly-by night scumbags operating without a buisness licence from undercutting your fees.
But seriously,
I cannot, quite frankly, imagine that running an e-bay listing service has anything to do with being an auction house. EBAY is the auctioneer, not the lister. The lister is offering their expertise in giving the auctioneer provinance, acurate information regarding the history of the object. This same service is offered to people that want to put an item up for auction at Sotheby's. They are called seller's agents.
This just makes the parent's post more insightful. Any unsupervised, publicly accessable computer should be considered comprimised by default. It doesn't matter much if you VPN into your banking sight if some asshat has plugged an undetectable keylogging keyboard into the system
I think it's funny that the PROPELLOR powerered aircraft (modified P-51 fighters and such) that I watched at the Reno airraces 15 years ago, were considerably faster than the proposed rocket planes for this sport.
Any cost to a buisness is either passed on to the customer or taken as a loss of profit to the company. There is no such thing as "free" shiping, and door to door shiping costs a lot more than warehouse to store. Small, high dollar items are advantageous to sell on the internet. Cheap heavy items are not.
I don't accept the presumption that I, as a non-subject of their state, doing buisness outside of their demesne, should play policeman for their subjects. If they want to give me a cut of the action I'd consider it. Molochi the Tax Mercenary kinda has a ring to it. If they want their citizens to not do buisness in my state, or with me, they can just set up a "Great Firewall of Circlejerk Tax States" and keep their citizens out my server. I don't give a rat's ass.
Now if California wanted to levee a tax on Newegg's sales, that wouldn't bother me at all. They're California based and can handle their own congress. I could just shop in another state. If my state wanted to institute this kind of Corporate Income Tax on my buisness, I'll be involved in the letter writing campaign. Fortunately it doesn't seem to want to. It also isn't on that list of states supporting a circlejerk tax.
It wasn't freon though, Walmart would be facing a HUGE lawsuit if they sold it. Freon (R-11 & R-12) has been banned since the mid 1990's . Does the can say HFC-134a? That's one of those OTHER (reread my post) rerigerants you CAN buy. It isn't Freon.
I've noticed that almost ALL of the "retail" watercooling solutions use crap pumps. You'd think that for what they're charging they'd spring for an Eheim or sumthin. They don't tho'... I guess they're working on Thermaltake's buisness model; "Fancy crap for n00bs."
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Doesn't pretty much every notebook made already support dual monitors? Or did you mean dual external monitors?
The main reasons oem (not just dell but sony, hp etc...) tend to be much slower than one might expect.
1) Integrated graphics chips that share memory bandwidth with the system. Many (possibly MOST, I haven't checked the sales figures) Dells were sold in the last 5 years that had no AGP slot, just 3 PCI slots. Buying any cheap ( $50) PCI Videocard usually solves this... If you aren't already using the slots and if the bios allows you to disable the integrated graphics. There are a few integrated options that don't suck (the life out of your system), but Dell never used them until recently.
2) Slow memory. Early on, P4 systems were commonly equiped (because it was much cheaper)with single channel sdr-sdram (1GBPS) instead of dual channel "pc800"RDRAM(3GBPS). Woe unto the poor slob that wound up with a p4 running SDR memory and integrated graphics. Mid gen P4 cheapy systems usually (i845) came with single channel ddr266 or if you were lucky DDR333 and these weren't too bad for day to day use, tho' they were pretty weak compared to top of the line i850E or better chipset. The P4's performance "feel" (as well as benchmark scores) is closely tied to memory speed; much moreso than P3, PM, or Athlons of any stripe.
3) Crappy initial BIOS issues. I couldn't tell you how many systems I've worked on that started behaving like real computers once they recieved a bios update that was released 6 months after the system was sold to the customer. However most of those were HP/Compaq or momandpopbrand. Intel often has a bios update that will work better with a standard intel spec'd mobo than anything the OEM delivers.
4) Craptastic drivers, particularly IDE controller drivers that let the system fall back to PIO mode. This is oftem fixed with an update issued months into the model's run. Intel's own drivers sometimes fix this better than anything issued by the OEM.
I wouldn't say that every Dell I've worked on is slow. I would say that the majority of Dells I've worked on has an economy level motherboard, and below average performance parts that cost the owner less than $600 shipped. They paid for a crap level system and they got it. Congratulations. Here's your sign.
404 Not Found The requested URL /essays/pentagontrap.html does not exist.
Yeah, the advantage of China is everygoddamnthing is already illegal. So everyone just does what they think they can get away with and then bribes officials to shut up about it. Sounds like the the goal for the future USA. So if you can figure out what works there you've got a long term buisness model for the USA of 2016. Brilliant!
I got an ATi HDTV Wonder. Pulls HDTV straight out of the air. Ignores the broadcast flag and timeshifts/records too. I can't recommend it as anything but a $100 novelty, but it exists. There's a couple of other pci HDTV cards that do the same thing.
Rocks and molotovs' fall, in effectiveness of violent resistance, on either side of the scale that hurled DVRs fall on. Guns are much more effective, but if you are in a post-ban region of the global community i guess you have to make do. Of course if your personal welfare isn't of concern, rocks and flaming bottles of petrol might make a stronger political statement, but then even better would be dousing yourself in gas and going pyro buddist style.
Funny thing, I went to a garage sale friday and the guy was selling a homemade pvc hairspray cannon (2m long x ~50mm bore with electronic ignitition). Admitedly this would be considered a toy by most local folk (guess what quadrant of the USA I live in) but it would easily meet the needs of a nepal insurrectionist. Better than a rock anyways. Do they have a Home Depot there? I think they have them in France...
The Corvette and the Ferrari are both stupid. But if I'm going to be stupid I'll buy the Ferrari.
Absofricinlutely.
Most of the buisness systems I deal with consist of little more than a WXP/W2k install, Office (usually office2000), less than a Gig of special apps and a few hundred megs of "my documents" and saved email. A Ghost image of the drive is usually under 10GB.
Your work machine is a typewriter, not a TV.
I think Monarch must do a lot of Cali business as they usualy stock the latest great CPU, are competitive with their pricing, and are out of state. Since they are local to me, I usually newegg it. Fry's and Microcenter also both opened stores between my home and Monarch, so I don't get over their much anymore. Re: The Hornet Case's Size This case is a Micro ATX enclosure (~ 1 cu.ft.) with a little more room to breath and a standard ATX PSU. It isn't tiny like a shuttle but ANY uATX mobo will fit, and none of the parts require a special order from Shanghai. It's as small as you can get without sacrificing usabiity and air flow. However, I don't go for the windowed, modder look. I favor a more descrete design.
The independant contractor that came out to "set up" my Comcast service kept offering to install software on my computer. Idiots in white pickups don't touch my systems and ISPs don't get past the modem. That's what DOCSIS is for. I said no thanks and called the 800# myself. I gave them the MAC of the cable modem and a NIC (cloned to the router). No software was needed for anything.
However even the thickly accented CSR on the phone kept trying to get me to install software. It was really irritating, but if you stay polite, give them the info they actually NEED, and run out their job clock they prettymuch have to give in.
"Yaaaaaaaay! I got mail! And a window on my Hard Drive! And sound activated lights on my memory! Yaaaaaaaay!"
In my experience, malicious users aren't hired. They are created by the company that employs them.
Since some jackhole moded you troll, let me be the second to say it, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"
I like lots of the crap that's on TV, even BSG. But it's still crap and there is much better crap available. This guy didn't list Deadwood OR Rome. Project Runway? For shame.
1. Rome
2. Deadwood
3. House
4. Boston Legal
BSG is good enough that I will record it. It is not as horribly stupid as the origonal children's show. It is still pretty stupid.
Little known fact, House MD was origonally titled House BOFH. Network execs didn't get it tho' so ....
Unless it's a dreadnaught ;)
FTA "Note the hole in the bottom of the keyboard - this is where I intended my "Cursor Mushroom Button Knob" to go. In the olden days we didn't have "mice" to move the cursor around the screen, no sir-ee! We had to use KEYS, and sometime we'd have to press a couple keys even! (Then walk to school barefoot uphill through the snow fighting dinosaurs) With the Atari you had to hold "Control" then press one of the direction keys (which are normally +, -, etc) This worked but was clunky."
This has to be one of (if not the best) mod articles I've seen to date. This mod addresses tons of issues that occur with many other "turn a clunky dinosaur into a shiney portable" mods. Like the LCD. I have always wanted to be able to convert old notebook lcds, but long ago gave up the notion because of the the way notebook lcds are controlled. It is (as he notes) far easier and more economical to just reuse the guts of a modern lowrez (something with a composite input) lcd monitor. At the same time he knew which parts of the A800 circuitboard were ok to saw off. While I'm not a fan of sandblasted aluminum and laminate burlwood; it is well done, professional, and has that retro "Atari" look.
I would mod you funny (I am an old PF fan) but alas lost all my mod points to a clahd in dragon poker.
... and those auctioneers who currently have a licence should have to go back and take the online auctioning class. No grandfathering allowed. I would further posit that the 21st century auctioneering licence should include proof of web authoring literacy such as something simple like http://www.mccc.edu/programs_noncreditcert_html.sh tml as this should be considered at least as important as talking fast.
What's really going on here (probably) is the owner of an auction house has bitched and donated to his congressman. New buisnesses run into this sort of thing all the time. Successfuly fighting this usually involves doing the same. Form an organsation, collect funds, and throw money at a more powerful politician. Since you are now an influential group, you can make a set of rules that benifits your buisiness model restricting new entries to the market, including old style auction houses that lack a web presence(rare) or appropriately certified employees(not so rare, they seem to like to hire family.) Even better it can help stop fly-by night scumbags operating without a buisness licence from undercutting your fees.
But seriously,
I cannot, quite frankly, imagine that running an e-bay listing service has anything to do with being an auction house. EBAY is the auctioneer, not the lister. The lister is offering their expertise in giving the auctioneer provinance, acurate information regarding the history of the object. This same service is offered to people that want to put an item up for auction at Sotheby's. They are called seller's agents.
This just makes the parent's post more insightful. Any unsupervised, publicly accessable computer should be considered comprimised by default. It doesn't matter much if you VPN into your banking sight if some asshat has plugged an undetectable keylogging keyboard into the system
I think it's funny that the PROPELLOR powerered aircraft (modified P-51 fighters and such) that I watched at the Reno airraces 15 years ago, were considerably faster than the proposed rocket planes for this sport.
Any cost to a buisness is either passed on to the customer or taken as a loss of profit to the company. There is no such thing as "free" shiping, and door to door shiping costs a lot more than warehouse to store. Small, high dollar items are advantageous to sell on the internet. Cheap heavy items are not.
I don't accept the presumption that I, as a non-subject of their state, doing buisness outside of their demesne, should play policeman for their subjects. If they want to give me a cut of the action I'd consider it. Molochi the Tax Mercenary kinda has a ring to it. If they want their citizens to not do buisness in my state, or with me, they can just set up a "Great Firewall of Circlejerk Tax States" and keep their citizens out my server. I don't give a rat's ass.
Now if California wanted to levee a tax on Newegg's sales, that wouldn't bother me at all. They're California based and can handle their own congress. I could just shop in another state. If my state wanted to institute this kind of Corporate Income Tax on my buisness, I'll be involved in the letter writing campaign. Fortunately it doesn't seem to want to. It also isn't on that list of states supporting a circlejerk tax.
It wasn't freon though, Walmart would be facing a HUGE lawsuit if they sold it. Freon (R-11 & R-12) has been banned since the mid 1990's . Does the can say HFC-134a? That's one of those OTHER (reread my post) rerigerants you CAN buy. It isn't Freon.
I've noticed that almost ALL of the "retail" watercooling solutions use crap pumps. You'd think that for what they're charging they'd spring for an Eheim or sumthin. They don't tho'... I guess they're working on Thermaltake's buisness model; "Fancy crap for n00bs."