" This can only be construed as GOOD NEWS! Finally, a laptop without the Windows tax! (and reasonably cheap too) --M"
I guess 'tax' is the appropriate term. I mean, if you pay the Windows tax, then you get the benefit of having a platform with a HUGE number of games to play. It's kind of like paying gas taxes to fix roads.
Seeing as how I use my laptop to play games as well as work, I'd say I got a good deal. Afterall, $90 is barely more than a Game Boy Advance.
What I'm saying is: "You might save $90, but you lose more than you think."
"I just spent the afternoon degaussing 130 DLT tapes. You'll forgive me if I don't share in your plight of the hellishness that is Galaxies or Planetside. I'll pray for you tonight."
Aye. I'm the chief of engineering on a starship you've probably heard of. I thouht it'd be all fun and games and tinkering with toys that emit all kinds of pretty particles. But is that what my job is like? Ach, no matey. That beastie of a cap'n we have makes my job a living hell. We can't even stay in our own bloody time-line! Do you know how many clocks on this ship has? Of course NOBODY but me knows how to set the damn things.
Let's run the numbers. $10/hr * 100hr week = $50k/year. Pardon me if I don't shed a tear. Yes, it's hard work. No, it's not as fun as it sounds. If you want to quit, I know a half dozen folks off the top of my head who'd be happy get a $50k job these days.
I wouldn't even look at porn for 14hrs a day 7 days a week for only 50k a year. I'm not joking either, 14 hours is a LONG time to dedicate to something like that. You'd be lucky to get a good night's sleep, never mind you never have a day to yourself.
"Why are these people complaining again??? The rest of the world has long hours and probably less job satisfaction than these "game testers"."
Pick up a football game, go through every single play (over a hundred) in the game, and make sure that what happens on the screen is exactly what's described in the manual. Tell me that wouldn't test your mental endurance.
I'm not a game tester, but I've done a great deal of testing for the software company I work for. It wouldn't matter if I was playing a game, it's still work. It'll always be work.
Besides, it's one thing to play the game and enjoy it, it's entirely another when your job is to test out every little thing and make sure it works as designed.
"Would it help to set the fonts bigger or isn't that an option?"
Yeah, you can. Although my experience with Win2k (my laptop is XP and they MIGHT have fixed that) is that changing the font size can screw things up, especially web browsing. I've noticed that setting the fonts to larger can mangle table sizes on websites and break them. I've also noticed that text doesn't always fit in its buttons like the 'submit' button.
Also for me in particular, this is a problem because I bought my laptop to run Lightwave. The buttons on it are fixed-width fonts, and they do not respond to fonts designated by the Windows theme. I cannot change the font on it that I know of. So for me (I doubt a significant amount of people have this laptop and run Lightwave on it...) that's not an option.
Things might be different in XP, but I wouldn't count on it. Either the text will be the wrong size and break the page, or it'll be too small, thus defeating the purpose of it. Fortunately, I use Opera and it has a true magnification button instead of changing the font size.
"Does anyone know of a decent flat-panel display for the desktop that will do 1600x1200 and not break the bank (say, under $1200)?"
As of a month ago, Dell had an UltraSharp 18' display that performed at that resolution for like $800. It disappeared off their site, though.
P.S. There's a downside to this laptop, at 1900 by 1200 you won't be using it for dual monitor support unless you drop it down to 1600 by 1200. Doubt anybody really cares, but I do because eventually I'm going to buy an LCD screen to go with my laptop so I can have the extended desktop.
"I was thinking of buying an Inspiron 8200, but now I'd rather wait for a bit longer;-) "
I have an 8200 with an UXGA Ultrasharp display (1600 by 1200). Though I'd like the extra pixels, I'm not disappointed.
Im concerned, though, that you'll find that the WUXGA screen will be a bit cramped. I have good vision and the text is VERY small for a 15" area. We have a 20" (approx) LCD Monitor here at 2048 by 1536 and the text is still too small.
I love the number of pixels, but it can reach ludicrous proportions.
What's the reason to upgrade? I mean, even at 200mhz, these machines could (potentially) still be useful to students. If they set up a decent network, these machines would act as terminals.
"Of course, it was absolutely GENIOUS to do this as opposed to, say, making a folder called "pre-delete" and just doing a mv file/pre-delete . Somebody has to spell it out and alias that command to rm for them..."
Wouldn't a 'pre-deleted' file be one that isn't deleted?
"This protects the image that is Apple's trash can, not the function of a trash can on a computer. From the USPTO [uspto.gov]: "
That's a bummer because that trash can was an interesting innovation. Anybody remember the olden days of computers back in the early 80's? People were afraid of them. One of the most voiced fears is "I'm afraid I'll hit the wrong button and wipe out everything!". The "you're putting it there, but it's not your final decision yet" approach was really useful in reducing people's fears that they'll break their computer.
Just because we take it for granted today doesn't mean it's wrong. (Though I do question why this is news and not patented back years ago when it was used...)
"As my professor described it, is a system similar to a power grid. You can plug in anywhere, and use the resources (Disk, Memory, CPU) of the grid for computation. Your resources would be added to the "grid collective" as well."
Anybody else read that and get a vision of the Borg? Are we headed that way?
Heh. Just found that interesting. Lots of stuff talking to lots of other stuff. Emergent properties are bound to appear, right?
"So that's why cellphones need to be loud, and it's also why vibrate is not the answer for everyone."
Unfortunately, the need to have cell phone ringers to be loud will result in them getting banned. It's already happening. There have been lots of articles here on Slashdot about places trying to jam our outlaw cell phones.
You may have very well have to choose between a quiet phone, or no phone at all.
Believe me, I totally understand your point of view. I'm in no way saying you're wrong. Just saying that it may be imposed upon you.
'Heard one of these babies ring. They're currently rubbish - too quiet. The power required to drive a proper speaker capable of playing back WAVs (or in this case, mp3s) is not really appropriate for a device powered as minimally as a mobile phone."
It begs the question: Why does a cell phone need to be loud?
1.) You carry it with you, as opposed to having it bolted to a wall like in the olden days of phones.
2.) If you miss the call, your phone very clearly tells you a.) who called, b.) when, c.) if they left a voice mail or not.
My phone's been on vibrate since December. A quiet.WAV file would be useful, at least to me. I think other people would too if they'd realize they had virtually no need to have it so loud the whole apartment/house can hear it.
"Wake me up when there's a bootable DVD distro that doesn't require any additional hardware. "
Wake me up when there's a reason to even boot into Linux on the PS2. At least the XBOX has a hard drive and an ethernet port, I suppose something interesting could be done then.
"You buy the wrong albums. I enjoy the vast majority of the songs on the albums in my 300+ album collection."
Do you see the fault in your logic? Heh.
I'd argue with it except it's well established here that people have bought a number of CD's with songs they don't like on them. That's exactly why Napster and Kazaa are popular to begin with. Why shuffle through CD's when you can make a playlist populated by only songs you like?
The RIAA's greed in trying to sell those $15 pieces of plastic created the need for Mp3 trading.
So no, I don't agree with you. My own tastes in music, or my ability to appreciate it, is not in question here.
Slashdot Mirror
" This can only be construed as GOOD NEWS! Finally, a laptop without the Windows tax! (and reasonably cheap too) --M"
I guess 'tax' is the appropriate term. I mean, if you pay the Windows tax, then you get the benefit of having a platform with a HUGE number of games to play. It's kind of like paying gas taxes to fix roads.
Seeing as how I use my laptop to play games as well as work, I'd say I got a good deal. Afterall, $90 is barely more than a Game Boy Advance.
What I'm saying is: "You might save $90, but you lose more than you think."
"I just spent the afternoon degaussing 130 DLT tapes. You'll forgive me if I don't share in your plight of the hellishness that is Galaxies or Planetside. I'll pray for you tonight."
Aye. I'm the chief of engineering on a starship you've probably heard of. I thouht it'd be all fun and games and tinkering with toys that emit all kinds of pretty particles. But is that what my job is like? Ach, no matey. That beastie of a cap'n we have makes my job a living hell. We can't even stay in our own bloody time-line! Do you know how many clocks on this ship has? Of course NOBODY but me knows how to set the damn things.
I wouldn't even look at porn for 14hrs a day 7 days a week for only 50k a year. I'm not joking either, 14 hours is a LONG time to dedicate to something like that. You'd be lucky to get a good night's sleep, never mind you never have a day to yourself.
My dad always had a sad look in his eyes when he saw that cartoon.
"Why are these people complaining again??? The rest of the world has long hours and probably less job satisfaction than these "game testers"."
Pick up a football game, go through every single play (over a hundred) in the game, and make sure that what happens on the screen is exactly what's described in the manual. Tell me that wouldn't test your mental endurance.
I'm not a game tester, but I've done a great deal of testing for the software company I work for. It wouldn't matter if I was playing a game, it's still work. It'll always be work.
Besides, it's one thing to play the game and enjoy it, it's entirely another when your job is to test out every little thing and make sure it works as designed.
" Of course the govt could always enforce a "100% document retention policy" ;)"
Here in the digital age, that's a serious possibility. You can fit a lot of 8" x 11" scans in JPG format of documents on a very cheap CD.
"The future is down. A trouble ticket has beens submitted."
@#$&!!! Even in the future nothing works!
"Omigod ... you mean that vacation on Mars was just a brain implant? Quick, get me a JohnnyCab!"
Please state the nature of your transportational emergency.
"You want a flying car with gas prices where they are?"
Mr. Fusion. Duh!
"Would it help to set the fonts bigger or isn't that an option?"
Yeah, you can. Although my experience with Win2k (my laptop is XP and they MIGHT have fixed that) is that changing the font size can screw things up, especially web browsing. I've noticed that setting the fonts to larger can mangle table sizes on websites and break them. I've also noticed that text doesn't always fit in its buttons like the 'submit' button.
Also for me in particular, this is a problem because I bought my laptop to run Lightwave. The buttons on it are fixed-width fonts, and they do not respond to fonts designated by the Windows theme. I cannot change the font on it that I know of. So for me (I doubt a significant amount of people have this laptop and run Lightwave on it...) that's not an option.
Things might be different in XP, but I wouldn't count on it. Either the text will be the wrong size and break the page, or it'll be too small, thus defeating the purpose of it. Fortunately, I use Opera and it has a true magnification button instead of changing the font size.
"Does anyone know of a decent flat-panel display for the desktop that will do 1600x1200 and not break the bank (say, under $1200)?"
As of a month ago, Dell had an UltraSharp 18' display that performed at that resolution for like $800. It disappeared off their site, though.
P.S. There's a downside to this laptop, at 1900 by 1200 you won't be using it for dual monitor support unless you drop it down to 1600 by 1200. Doubt anybody really cares, but I do because eventually I'm going to buy an LCD screen to go with my laptop so I can have the extended desktop.
"I was thinking of buying an Inspiron 8200, but now I'd rather wait for a bit longer ;-) "
I have an 8200 with an UXGA Ultrasharp display (1600 by 1200). Though I'd like the extra pixels, I'm not disappointed.
Im concerned, though, that you'll find that the WUXGA screen will be a bit cramped. I have good vision and the text is VERY small for a 15" area. We have a 20" (approx) LCD Monitor here at 2048 by 1536 and the text is still too small.
I love the number of pixels, but it can reach ludicrous proportions.
"What happens come upgrade time?"
What's the reason to upgrade? I mean, even at 200mhz, these machines could (potentially) still be useful to students. If they set up a decent network, these machines would act as terminals.
It's not like they're playing games here.
"Do you ever just sit here and read slashdot and think, "Man, that's a little too easy to troll."
Not this time, I read the headline and thought one of my suggestions finally got through.
"Where the f*** have you been!!? People are still afraid of computers. There are 20 somethings that refuse to use computers for various reasons."
:eyeroll:
Your right, there's still only a few hundred people in the world using computers. My mistake.
"Of course, it was absolutely GENIOUS to do this as opposed to, say, making a folder called "pre-delete" and just doing a mv file /pre-delete . Somebody has to spell it out and alias that command to rm for them..."
Wouldn't a 'pre-deleted' file be one that isn't deleted?
"This protects the image that is Apple's trash can, not the function of a trash can on a computer. From the USPTO [uspto.gov]: "
That's a bummer because that trash can was an interesting innovation. Anybody remember the olden days of computers back in the early 80's? People were afraid of them. One of the most voiced fears is "I'm afraid I'll hit the wrong button and wipe out everything!". The "you're putting it there, but it's not your final decision yet" approach was really useful in reducing people's fears that they'll break their computer.
Just because we take it for granted today doesn't mean it's wrong. (Though I do question why this is news and not patented back years ago when it was used...)
"As my professor described it, is a system similar to a power grid. You can plug in anywhere, and use the resources (Disk, Memory, CPU) of the grid for computation. Your resources would be added to the "grid collective" as well."
Anybody else read that and get a vision of the Borg? Are we headed that way?
Heh. Just found that interesting. Lots of stuff talking to lots of other stuff. Emergent properties are bound to appear, right?
"The PS2 Linux kit comes with a 40GB HD and Ethernet only Network adapter."
Are you correcting me or answering the parent poster's question?
"So that's why cellphones need to be loud, and it's also why vibrate is not the answer for everyone."
Unfortunately, the need to have cell phone ringers to be loud will result in them getting banned. It's already happening. There have been lots of articles here on Slashdot about places trying to jam our outlaw cell phones.
You may have very well have to choose between a quiet phone, or no phone at all.
Believe me, I totally understand your point of view. I'm in no way saying you're wrong. Just saying that it may be imposed upon you.
...about how the MPAA was DoS'd by Slashdot.
...why aren't the 3 movies animated?
The world of the 'future' in the first prequal was a much richer setting than the live-action movies.
Coulda made for a much more interesting story if they could let their imaginations grow.
'Heard one of these babies ring. They're currently rubbish - too quiet. The power required to drive a proper speaker capable of playing back WAVs (or in this case, mp3s) is not really appropriate for a device powered as minimally as a mobile phone."
.WAV file would be useful, at least to me. I think other people would too if they'd realize they had virtually no need to have it so loud the whole apartment/house can hear it.
It begs the question: Why does a cell phone need to be loud?
1.) You carry it with you, as opposed to having it bolted to a wall like in the olden days of phones.
2.) If you miss the call, your phone very clearly tells you a.) who called, b.) when, c.) if they left a voice mail or not.
My phone's been on vibrate since December. A quiet
"Wake me up when there's a bootable DVD distro that doesn't require any additional hardware. "
Wake me up when there's a reason to even boot into Linux on the PS2. At least the XBOX has a hard drive and an ethernet port, I suppose something interesting could be done then.
"You buy the wrong albums. I enjoy the vast majority of the songs on the albums in my 300+ album collection."
Do you see the fault in your logic? Heh.
I'd argue with it except it's well established here that people have bought a number of CD's with songs they don't like on them. That's exactly why Napster and Kazaa are popular to begin with. Why shuffle through CD's when you can make a playlist populated by only songs you like?
The RIAA's greed in trying to sell those $15 pieces of plastic created the need for Mp3 trading.
So no, I don't agree with you. My own tastes in music, or my ability to appreciate it, is not in question here.