And, contrary to proper opinion, it rarely crashes (I've had it since Nov '03, and I honestly can't remember it crashing or locking up) and the battery life is over 2.5 hours, and this certainly beats my previous laptop.
Of course, it is running a centrino, and I turn off wireless whenever I am not using it.
I have a docking station and I use it as my primary desktop at work, where I am a system administrator/departmental manager.
It kicks ass during meetings for writing notes and diagrams. When someone sends me anything in electronic format, I "print" it virtually to the journal writer, and write all over it when I am in meetings with them.
I did a lot of research, and the Acer series are really good, and have a larger screen than the tc1100 by HP that I am using right now. I kinda like the HP series of notebooks, and I read really good reviews about this Tablet. I also read a lot of good reviews about the Acer series, but have heard horror stories about their support.
I think one of the things that has held them back is that there really isn't a "Killer App" for them yet. But it seems like MS may have come up with one-- they came out with this app called "OneNote" and it organizes your notes in a very good way. I friggin love it.
Recommendations from experience: Centrino is the way to go. Get a screen protector. It will work well as your primary pc-- it is just as fast or not faster than my previous PIV 2ghz. The keyboard is definately too small for daily use on this one, but it can be replaced with a USB keyboard for daily use. Right now I wouldn't consider running Linux on it, but there is a project out there to get that all worked out.
I read a lot of complaints from people knocking them in the thread, but I can almost gaurantee that in the future all laptops will be built like this as the technology gets less expensive.
E1ven- Are you sure that the CTO wasn't looking for an opportunity to do this before this happened? Depending on the size of the company, this is a pretty significant investment in time and resources that would be thrown away.
Are there any other factors that are making your CTO want to move to MS? Is the SCO debacle making him nervous?
This just seems really weird. There ARE other Linux distributions out there that could be moved to, and with much less expense, than migrating to Win2k. Sounds like your CTO may be a little loopy.
I agree with you. Make note: The author makes note that this is to backup the operating system. While it costs money, there is this application out there called "Backup Exec" -- this IS a solution, and a good one, for corporations. And yes, you can restore to a different computer if the original is dead. Use tape backups in a corporation. Making a copy of the operating system by copying disk to disk? A real corporation couldn't afford the downtime of the production system while the files aren't accessed so you can do the copy! And NO I don't work for Backup Exec, but JEEZ who hasn't heard of tape backups-- they aren't the only vendor out there. If you want to do a large rollout of systems that are identical (or near so) use Ghost or a hardware disk copying solution and sysprep. I am sure that is exactly (or some form thereof) what Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc use. We just did it on a rollout of 350 systems to Win2k.
I'm not sure if this should be +5 funny. It is a real option for some users.
I have known many people that actually know they have a virus on their computer and don't make it the first priority in using their systems... if it is usable by them, they don't care.
Of course, this sort of person doesn't have the slightest understanding (or care) that their system is causing a variety of problems on other systems.
They only seem to care if it is causing THEM some problem.
I've long since given up trying to explain what is going on to these folks or the urgency of solving their own virus problem in a timely manner. I make sure that their system is as up-to-date as possible and make sure their virus protection software automatically updates as frequently as possible.
And, recently, these are the folks that I have broken my long standing rule on, and configured "Windows to update automatically" and not wait for the user to OK it.
No offense, but I think the fact that MS said "We aren't going to make any more OS's like '9x" anymore forced game developers to start making games that ran under the NT/2000/XP OS's.
I'm actually kinda excited for this book... take care of the major "annoyances" that come up, whatever they are (now we all know!)
A year from now, we get another list... then those get fixed....
Two years from now, instead of reading articles about how "linux ain't ready for the desktop" we read articles about how "My god, Linux is MORE Than ready for the desktop" for everyone (geek and non-geek alike!)
Why this is frontpage news? Is it the size or is it the fact that is records voice as well? I'm not trolling, really honestly trying to figure out what the supercool part is.
I want to say the Heinlein wrote it... but not sure... but it talked about the how the scientists of the day had created a mutate of some sort that had the reflexes and brain power to fly an aircraft/spaceship/etc better than anyone else. The problem was that these things didn't give a rat's hindquarters whether or not humans lived or died. Seems like, although computers can be programmed to make the right decisions all the time and have the reflexes to act on those decisions instantaneously, in a situation where my life depended on decisions made by a computer or an experienced airline pilot... give me the pilot with computer help! (But don't EVER get rid of the pilot!)
Did anyone read that one? While not completely related to the article, it is a story about a group of people who have a vehicle with the ability to hop between universes-- and interestingly enough they start hopping into universes that are actually based on the old stories they read... Oz, the world of John Carter, the warlord of Mars, etc. In the book it turns out the all these great universes either were created by the author who though them up, or the author that though that they had thought them up somehow "knew" about them without ever visting them. In the end they ended up hooking up with Lazarus Long and his cohorts from Methuselah's Children. If some scientist comes up with the device they came up with, think about how cool it would be-- Although I'm not sure if I would want to visit the Spawn universe, or a couple of the other nastier ones...
I agree with you completely that most likely it will be fine. And that on my home system running Win2k, I would immediatly install it.
My point is that when you are in a business environment, and money is on the line, it is not worth the risk to be an early adopter. People need to test, and there is a difference between being on the cutting edge and bleeding edge. And preferably, a good sysadmin is not going to put user uptime on the line when it is completely unnecessary to do so.
I have my job because I calculate risks and choose wisely.
For example, I worked with an admin (side note, also an MCSE) that didn't test his deployment and ended up overwriting the NIC card drivers with the OS provided drivers during a service pack upgrade when deploying using SMS. If he would have tested them in the lab 20% of the company wouldn't have had lost network connectivity after SMS forced the service pack update he ran.
See my point? A sysadmin deploys software updates. A GOOD sysadmin deploys TESTED software updates.
I can't for the life of me understand some of the comments I read in response to this article about SysAdmins who are actually INSTALLING this thing right now to a bunch of users without testing!
This isn't a flame against Microsoft, it makes sense to fully test anything like this, be it OSX, Redhat, Windoze, whatever. Those that are deploying without testing are doing SysAdmin's in general a complete disservice-- it makes us all look bad when something goes wrong.
It just doesn't make any sense to me to even consider deploying before it has been out a while and tested. A service pack is a cumulative rolloup of security fixes and bug fixes and occasionally some enhanced features. Yes, there are additional fixes that haven't been distributed yet, but unless you HAVE to install it, you can wait a couple of weeks and test it in production before deploying it to everyone in your company.
Look at Winnt SP3 and SP3a. They released SP3a shortly after 3 because of some problems with the service pack. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be the sysadmin who installed it on all my clients to discover all the problems! Crazy!
I agree totally. The advertisers will take a note from the movie industry to get their marketing across... Picture this... On Friends, when Joey is getting ready for a date he grabs a box of Trojans... Monica and Rachel start talking seriously about how some days they just don't feel so "fresh..." ('nuff said.) On Star Trek, the guys in red shirts suddenly show up with a Coke logo on their back. Emeril starts using the amazing Ginsu Blade.
The five year product support lifetime really isn't something you upgrade to for your current team. It is for those that come after you leave. Think of it this way: you deploy what the consumer version of Redhat, 3 years from now you and all of your best Admins leave for a new company. Suddenly new admins come in... with a much lower knowledge level of Redhat than you. They come in at the end of the product support from the vendor (and, regardless of the fact you may not need it, they may.) I would recommend that you deploy the most recent stable version that has the longest life left on the support time. Bite the bullet and upgrade everything to lower your cost of ownership in the long haul. Nuances between versions may be insignificant to you, but in the long run it is worth it to lower the knowledge level required for support. In 3-5 years, revisit the decision if you are still there. Don't do it half-ass. Make it a project for your department.
I must be that stupid 'cuz I've actually used Windows Services for Unix-- about 4 years ago. And it looks like they are now up to Version 3. MS may be a monopoly, but they'll never get rid of this with Linux's market share increasing all the time.
Don't believe me? Here's the URL. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/sfu/product info/o verview/default.asp
I would say that this applies to any patch to any OS (or application for that matter.) Any good SA would test before deploying to a production environment.
Everyone knows that if you do something like this that you are going to end up with a moon cracked in half, living in a post-apocolyptic world full of evil sorcerers, and a variety of other evil dudes and moving hungry flowers and mutants and all that jazz. Then, where will we be? I know where. Looking for Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel to pull our asses out of the fire, that's where!
Makes looking for water on the moon kind of trivial, doesn't it?
Possible reasons why she put it in the oven
on
Baked Apple
·
· Score: 1
1. Hopped up on goofballs. 2. While enjoying the thrill of her apple in the kitchen, her husband, an MCSE walks in... 3. While hiding her valuables from possible burglary, she sticks her jewelry in the freezer, her Apple in the oven, and her PC in the middle of the living room floor. 4. "Honey, check out this p0rn site! Its HOT HOT HOT!" 6. She lights her husband's cigars with $100 dollar bills. She lights her oven with an Apple. 7. Goofed up on hop balls.
"Any time a 'newbie' asks for help, it's assumed that they're not worthy of the knowledge or something. I'm not sure of the mentallity of it, but it really makes it difficult."
Right-on, brother! I've seen that too many times, and right now I am struggling through some issues on my laptop and don't want to post anywhere to ask because I am sick of being flamed, or seeing flames, instead of getting guidance. It is assumed that if you post you didn't RTFM... and frankly, I wouldn't ask the question if the man pages had helped...
Shouldn't this be under "It's funny. Laugh."
on
Computer Room Hot?
·
· Score: 1
Cmon, my clothes dryer can't be vented more than x number of feet unless it is through a smooth walled vent. And it isn't restricted down like the fan to hose connection that is on this system.
1. The dust (regardless of how "clean" your room is) is going to collect in the corrugated hose on this system--further restricting airflow. 2. The fan on a computer system like this is NOT designed to do what this is doing- force air through a restricted connection x number of feet. When it can't force the air through he hose, go back to number 1.
All this adds to a hot power supply being made hotter. Hotter power supply creates a hotter chassis. Hotter chassis means more equipment failure. More equipment failure sucks.
Regardless of where the hose is vented, this design is not going to work. You would need a much larger hose so that there would be no restriction of air flow at all. You could vent this thing into a refrigerator if you wanted-- your power supply is still going to heat up and get hotter as time goes by.
Slashdot Mirror
And, contrary to proper opinion, it rarely crashes (I've had it since Nov '03, and I honestly can't remember it crashing or locking up) and the battery life is over 2.5 hours, and this certainly beats my previous laptop.
Of course, it is running a centrino, and I turn off wireless whenever I am not using it.
I have a docking station and I use it as my primary desktop at work, where I am a system administrator/departmental manager.
It kicks ass during meetings for writing notes and diagrams. When someone sends me anything in electronic format, I "print" it virtually to the journal writer, and write all over it when I am in meetings with them.
I did a lot of research, and the Acer series are really good, and have a larger screen than the tc1100 by HP that I am using right now. I kinda like the HP series of notebooks, and I read really good reviews about this Tablet. I also read a lot of good reviews about the Acer series, but have heard horror stories about their support.
I think one of the things that has held them back is that there really isn't a "Killer App" for them yet. But it seems like MS may have come up with one-- they came out with this app called "OneNote" and it organizes your notes in a very good way. I friggin love it.
Recommendations from experience: Centrino is the way to go. Get a screen protector. It will work well as your primary pc-- it is just as fast or not faster than my previous PIV 2ghz. The keyboard is definately too small for daily use on this one, but it can be replaced with a USB keyboard for daily use.
Right now I wouldn't consider running Linux on it, but there is a project out there to get that all worked out.
I read a lot of complaints from people knocking them in the thread, but I can almost gaurantee that in the future all laptops will be built like this as the technology gets less expensive.
The dialogue would actually only be 9 minutes. The pauses would take care of the remaining 81.
E1ven-
Are you sure that the CTO wasn't looking for an opportunity to do this before this happened? Depending on the size of the company, this is a pretty significant investment in time and resources that would be thrown away.
Are there any other factors that are making your CTO want to move to MS? Is the SCO debacle making him nervous?
This just seems really weird. There ARE other Linux distributions out there that could be moved to, and with much less expense, than migrating to Win2k. Sounds like your CTO may be a little loopy.
I agree with you.
Make note: The author makes note that this is to backup the operating system. While it costs money, there is this application out there called "Backup Exec" -- this IS a solution, and a good one, for corporations. And yes, you can restore to a different computer if the original is dead.
Use tape backups in a corporation. Making a copy of the operating system by copying disk to disk? A real corporation couldn't afford the downtime of the production system while the files aren't accessed so you can do the copy!
And NO I don't work for Backup Exec, but JEEZ who hasn't heard of tape backups-- they aren't the only vendor out there.
If you want to do a large rollout of systems that are identical (or near so) use Ghost or a hardware disk copying solution and sysprep. I am sure that is exactly (or some form thereof) what Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc use. We just did it on a rollout of 350 systems to Win2k.
That installing the AOL software on a computer I run may hose up the operating system?
Holy crap!
And I now that I tried uninstalling it, the operating system is hosed up too!
HOLY CRAP!
(Ok, I'm talking about back in the old Win95 days, but you get the point.)
I'm not sure if this should be +5 funny. It is a real option for some users.
I have known many people that actually know they have a virus on their computer and don't make it the first priority in using their systems... if it is usable by them, they don't care.
Of course, this sort of person doesn't have the slightest understanding (or care) that their system is causing a variety of problems on other systems.
They only seem to care if it is causing THEM some problem.
I've long since given up trying to explain what is going on to these folks or the urgency of solving their own virus problem in a timely manner. I make sure that their system is as up-to-date as possible and make sure their virus protection software automatically updates as frequently as possible.
And, recently, these are the folks that I have broken my long standing rule on, and configured "Windows to update automatically" and not wait for the user to OK it.
No offense, but I think the fact that MS said "We aren't going to make any more OS's like '9x" anymore forced game developers to start making games that ran under the NT/2000/XP OS's.
I'm actually kinda excited for this book... take care of the major "annoyances" that come up, whatever they are (now we all know!)
A year from now, we get another list... then those get fixed....
Two years from now, instead of reading articles about how "linux ain't ready for the desktop" we read articles about how "My god, Linux is MORE Than ready for the desktop" for everyone (geek and non-geek alike!)
Why this is frontpage news? Is it the size or is it the fact that is records voice as well? I'm not trolling, really honestly trying to figure out what the supercool part is.
And if they don't it will be a MUTE point!
Get it? Mute point? You can't hear it?
Sorry, had to say it. Sometimes these puns get the better of me.
I want to say the Heinlein wrote it... but not sure... but it talked about the how the scientists of the day had created a mutate of some sort that had the reflexes and brain power to fly an aircraft/spaceship/etc better than anyone else.
The problem was that these things didn't give a rat's hindquarters whether or not humans lived or died.
Seems like, although computers can be programmed to make the right decisions all the time and have the reflexes to act on those decisions instantaneously, in a situation where my life depended on decisions made by a computer or an experienced airline pilot... give me the pilot with computer help! (But don't EVER get rid of the pilot!)
Did anyone read that one? While not completely related to the article, it is a story about a group of people who have a vehicle with the ability to hop between universes-- and interestingly enough they start hopping into universes that are actually based on the old stories they read... Oz, the world of John Carter, the warlord of Mars, etc. In the book it turns out the all these great universes either were created by the author who though them up, or the author that though that they had thought them up somehow "knew" about them without ever visting them.
In the end they ended up hooking up with Lazarus Long and his cohorts from Methuselah's Children.
If some scientist comes up with the device they came up with, think about how cool it would be-- Although I'm not sure if I would want to visit the Spawn universe, or a couple of the other nastier ones...
I agree with you completely that most likely it will be fine. And that on my home system running Win2k, I would immediatly install it. My point is that when you are in a business environment, and money is on the line, it is not worth the risk to be an early adopter. People need to test, and there is a difference between being on the cutting edge and bleeding edge. And preferably, a good sysadmin is not going to put user uptime on the line when it is completely unnecessary to do so. I have my job because I calculate risks and choose wisely. For example, I worked with an admin (side note, also an MCSE) that didn't test his deployment and ended up overwriting the NIC card drivers with the OS provided drivers during a service pack upgrade when deploying using SMS. If he would have tested them in the lab 20% of the company wouldn't have had lost network connectivity after SMS forced the service pack update he ran. See my point? A sysadmin deploys software updates. A GOOD sysadmin deploys TESTED software updates.
I can't for the life of me understand some of the comments I read in response to this article about SysAdmins who are actually INSTALLING this thing right now to a bunch of users without testing!
This isn't a flame against Microsoft, it makes sense to fully test anything like this, be it OSX, Redhat, Windoze, whatever. Those that are deploying without testing are doing SysAdmin's in general a complete disservice-- it makes us all look bad when something goes wrong.
It just doesn't make any sense to me to even consider deploying before it has been out a while and tested. A service pack is a cumulative rolloup of security fixes and bug fixes and occasionally some enhanced features. Yes, there are additional fixes that haven't been distributed yet, but unless you HAVE to install it, you can wait a couple of weeks and test it in production before deploying it to everyone in your company.
Look at Winnt SP3 and SP3a. They released SP3a shortly after 3 because of some problems with the service pack. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be the sysadmin who installed it on all my clients to discover all the problems! Crazy!
I got mod points and for the life of me I wanted to mod this your post "Overrated" 'cuz I thought it was "Funny."
Now I can't do either because I posted! Thanks a lot, Anonymous Coward!
Paramilitary instead of Parliamentary?
For a second there, I was thinking to myself "Man, those Brits take spam SERIOUSLY."
I agree totally. The advertisers will take a note from the movie industry to get their marketing across...
Picture this...
On Friends, when Joey is getting ready for a date he grabs a box of Trojans...
Monica and Rachel start talking seriously about how some days they just don't feel so "fresh..." ('nuff said.)
On Star Trek, the guys in red shirts suddenly show up with a Coke logo on their back.
Emeril starts using the amazing Ginsu Blade.
Think of the possibilities!
The five year product support lifetime really isn't something you upgrade to for your current team. It is for those that come after you leave.
Think of it this way: you deploy what the consumer version of Redhat, 3 years from now you and all of your best Admins leave for a new company. Suddenly new admins come in... with a much lower knowledge level of Redhat than you.
They come in at the end of the product support from the vendor (and, regardless of the fact you may not need it, they may.)
I would recommend that you deploy the most recent stable version that has the longest life left on the support time. Bite the bullet and upgrade everything to lower your cost of ownership in the long haul. Nuances between versions may be insignificant to you, but in the long run it is worth it to lower the knowledge level required for support. In 3-5 years, revisit the decision if you are still there. Don't do it half-ass. Make it a project for your department.
I must be that stupid 'cuz I've actually used Windows Services for Unix-- about 4 years ago. And it looks like they are now up to Version 3. MS may be a monopoly, but they'll never get rid of this with Linux's market share increasing all the time.
t info/o verview/default.asp
Don't believe me? Here's the URL.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/sfu/produc
I would say that this applies to any patch to any OS (or application for that matter.) Any good SA would test before deploying to a production environment.
I can dig it.
Everyone knows that if you do something like this that you are going to end up with a moon cracked in half, living in a post-apocolyptic world full of evil sorcerers, and a variety of other evil dudes and moving hungry flowers and mutants and all that jazz. Then, where will we be? I know where. Looking for Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel to pull our asses out of the fire, that's where!
Makes looking for water on the moon kind of trivial, doesn't it?
1. Hopped up on goofballs.
2. While enjoying the thrill of her apple in the kitchen, her husband, an MCSE walks in...
3. While hiding her valuables from possible burglary, she sticks her jewelry in the freezer, her Apple in the oven, and her PC in the middle of the living room floor.
4. "Honey, check out this p0rn site! Its HOT HOT HOT!"
6. She lights her husband's cigars with $100 dollar bills. She lights her oven with an Apple.
7. Goofed up on hop balls.
"Any time a 'newbie' asks for help, it's assumed that they're not worthy of the knowledge or something. I'm not sure of the mentallity of it, but it really makes it difficult."
Right-on, brother! I've seen that too many times, and right now I am struggling through some issues on my laptop and don't want to post anywhere to ask because I am sick of being flamed, or seeing flames, instead of getting guidance. It is assumed that if you post you didn't RTFM... and frankly, I wouldn't ask the question if the man pages had helped...
Cmon, my clothes dryer can't be vented more than x number of feet unless it is through a smooth walled vent. And it isn't restricted down like the fan to hose connection that is on this system.
1. The dust (regardless of how "clean" your room is) is going to collect in the corrugated hose on this system--further restricting airflow.
2. The fan on a computer system like this is NOT designed to do what this is doing- force air through a restricted connection x number of feet. When it can't force the air through he hose, go back to number 1.
All this adds to a hot power supply being made hotter. Hotter power supply creates a hotter chassis. Hotter chassis means more equipment failure. More equipment failure sucks.
Regardless of where the hose is vented, this design is not going to work. You would need a much larger hose so that there would be no restriction of air flow at all. You could vent this thing into a refrigerator if you wanted-- your power supply is still going to heat up and get hotter as time goes by.