Laptops aren't really built to be effectively cleaned out. Sure, you can blow compressed air into the vents. Maybe that'll work, or maybe it'll just blow the dust further into the laptop. I've taken apart mine and cleaned it. It wasn't too bad as I had the service manual handy, but it would have taken me forever to figure out how to get it apart without the service manual to tell me all the non-obvious places they put the tiny screws that held it together.
Most the the analysis I saw with the clunkers program had to do with energy costs/savings. It didn't take into account other factors, such as the waste generated. Each car that is recycled usually results in 200-300 pounds of stuff that gets tossed into a landfill (things like the seats, carpet, dashboard, plastics, glass, etc.) In my mind, once you factor stuff like that in, it pushes the program from a wash to a loser territory, as far as the environment is concerned.
I'd suggest a second computer for that kind of thing. I have an old P3-based Celeron that runs headless for that kind of stuff. Draws about 50-60W normally, and is fast enough for what I use it for.
On the other hand, if you're considering a pump failure versus an air conditioner failure, you have to consider that with an A/C failure the individual fans in each of the servers will keep moving air through the systems, which will keep them relatively cool until the ambient air temperature in the room gets too warm. With a pump failure, presumably the oil in all the servers will immediately stop moving which would probably lead to them all overheating faster than with the air cooled servers. I guess the lesson would be to have multiple redundant pumps.
Yeah, too bad he didn't do something like unplug the hard drive cable. Then they could be all like "Oh-no! It doesn't boot! I need a new one!" (nudge nudge wink wink). Then later, it could mysteriously start working again....
Of course, this being 2001 then maybe we're talking about 386's here.
I would think eventually, it would end up costing the companies. I would think the IT costs would skyrocket, with each system being different, and having to support all kinds of various cheap hardware purchased at Best Buy intended for home use. Not to mention a significant portion of your workbase would probably balk at spending any money and would respond by hauling it whatever is sitting in their closets for free.
Then you have the problem of confidential data. What happens when an employee leaves the company, and takes their hardware with them? What happens when an employee decides to replace their work system, then takes their old one home and sells it in a garage sale without cleaning it first?
Granted, I would like the ability to be able to spec my own system, and if I had some kind of stipend to purchase the computer then I would be all for the system. But I just don't see how it would work on a large scale.
P4's are still perfectly fine for many uses. Like the parent, I have a P4 HT 3.0 Ghz 2GB system that runs Vista, and the performance is perfectly acceptable for Office, browsing the web, downloading torrents, and other tasks like that. It was even fine when it still had 1GB of ram in it. It's not so good at playing back 1080P videos, and compiling on it is noticeably slower than a Core 2 Duo, but a lot of people probably don't need to do those kind of things.
Looking at their benchmarks, I'd have to say it's a tossup. A P4 is faster than the Atom for some things, for other things the Atom is faster. So if you already have a functional P4, I don't see any real reason to go out and spend hundreds on a new Atom system for very similar performance. Sure, the power savings will eventually add up, but you're talking years, especially if the computer is powered off when it's not being used.
Actually, they tried stuff like that. Remember the very first iPod which only worked with Macs? They soon figured out that they wouldn't be able to take over the world like that.
It could kind of sting a little if you had a high end AGP card and there wasn't really a good upgrade path for. Though I thought it was more annoying the other way around - a perfectly good, but older AGP computer and no good way to drop in a better graphics card (without paying through the nose, especially if you wanted 2x DVI, and even then you had to deal with potential compatibility issues with chipsets that were shoehorned onto AGP which natively did not support it). Granted it doesn't seem so bad now, as anything AGP is getting old, but it kind of stung a bit back in the day.
Also, I'm kind of in the same boat with regards to video cards - I have a pile of old computer hardware, but the only PCIe graphics card I have* is in my main PC. And many Socket AM3 boards don't have onboard video either.
*Actually I do have some old first generation PCIe nVidia card I got from the trash at work that would probably be okay if I ever get around to resoldering the cheap Chinese caps.
Well, basically all you need is breeder reactor, made with Uranium 238 and a neutron emitter. Pure Uranium metal can be hard to come by, but you can buy items that contain Uranium, like chunks of Uranium ore (usually sold as novelty items), or some kinds of antique glass amongst other things. In some parts of the country there are chunks of the ore laying on the ground if you know what to look for. Then you need to build a neutron emitter, which can also be built by harvesting radioactive materials out of somewhat common objects (like smoke detectors). The "Radioactive Boyscout" had pretty much everything you would need to make small amounts of Plutonium, and I believe had actually done so before he was discovered. The most difficult part would be making enough of it without being noticed and coming under scrutiny.
Well, having built-in networking and a TCP/IP stack in the original Windows 95 release was huge compared to previous versions of Windows. Otherwise, back in those days it was more or less expected that you would have to pay for a web browser.
The original concept of a netbook is pretty much dead. They kept on getting larger and cramming more stuff into them until what poses for a netbook now is basically an underpowered, but inexpensive laptop.
Citation, please. That's not what I hear from Lenovo owners, especially.
Why? Even if the Mac hardware lasts as long, it will become useless for running Mac OS as Apple will cutoff the support for it. You can always then install Linux (or Windows!) but then its no different than the PC.
Well, part of the problem with power supplies is that most of them aren't really capable of providing the power they claim they can. That's why people buy a 500W power supply for a 200W computer. Because if you tried to put a 300W power supply in that computer, it would probably catch fire.
Most of the common red LED alarm clock/clock radios that use a 9 V battery as a back up power source also use the line frequency as the power source. It's kind of obvious as when operating on battery power, they don't have access to the line frequency and therefore rely on some kind of internal oscillator that is horribly inaccurate. At least they seem to run fast on battery power, so you don't end up late for work when the power goes out.
As a side note, it's kind of amazing to me that those clocks with that design are still being made. The battery backup circuit was probably designed in the 1970's. In 2011 surely they could design a better battery backup system that is a lot more accurate, not to mention doesn't eat through a fresh 9V battery in about one and a half days.
So, should you be driving if you can't handle a manual choke? The point is to remove some of the minor distractions so that the driver can concentrate on actually driving.
Wrong? How is that wrong? So you have a drive that lasted longer than its projected lifespan? So what?
Besides, they don't make drives like they used to. I have that same drive (purchased in 1988) and it still works. But I seriously doubt any of the 1.5-2TB drives I've bought recently will still function in 23 years.
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Laptops aren't really built to be effectively cleaned out. Sure, you can blow compressed air into the vents. Maybe that'll work, or maybe it'll just blow the dust further into the laptop. I've taken apart mine and cleaned it. It wasn't too bad as I had the service manual handy, but it would have taken me forever to figure out how to get it apart without the service manual to tell me all the non-obvious places they put the tiny screws that held it together.
Most the the analysis I saw with the clunkers program had to do with energy costs/savings. It didn't take into account other factors, such as the waste generated. Each car that is recycled usually results in 200-300 pounds of stuff that gets tossed into a landfill (things like the seats, carpet, dashboard, plastics, glass, etc.) In my mind, once you factor stuff like that in, it pushes the program from a wash to a loser territory, as far as the environment is concerned.
I'd suggest a second computer for that kind of thing. I have an old P3-based Celeron that runs headless for that kind of stuff. Draws about 50-60W normally, and is fast enough for what I use it for.
On the other hand, if you're considering a pump failure versus an air conditioner failure, you have to consider that with an A/C failure the individual fans in each of the servers will keep moving air through the systems, which will keep them relatively cool until the ambient air temperature in the room gets too warm. With a pump failure, presumably the oil in all the servers will immediately stop moving which would probably lead to them all overheating faster than with the air cooled servers. I guess the lesson would be to have multiple redundant pumps.
Even if you could, I don't think DVI/HDMI has enough bandwidth to do 120 Hz except at low resolutions. I suppose you could use analog.
As far as I can tell the 120/240 Hz thing is just marketing buzzwords, kind of like the ridiculous contrast ratios.
Yeah, too bad he didn't do something like unplug the hard drive cable. Then they could be all like "Oh-no! It doesn't boot! I need a new one!" (nudge nudge wink wink). Then later, it could mysteriously start working again....
Of course, this being 2001 then maybe we're talking about 386's here.
I would think eventually, it would end up costing the companies. I would think the IT costs would skyrocket, with each system being different, and having to support all kinds of various cheap hardware purchased at Best Buy intended for home use. Not to mention a significant portion of your workbase would probably balk at spending any money and would respond by hauling it whatever is sitting in their closets for free.
Then you have the problem of confidential data. What happens when an employee leaves the company, and takes their hardware with them? What happens when an employee decides to replace their work system, then takes their old one home and sells it in a garage sale without cleaning it first?
Granted, I would like the ability to be able to spec my own system, and if I had some kind of stipend to purchase the computer then I would be all for the system. But I just don't see how it would work on a large scale.
P4's are still perfectly fine for many uses. Like the parent, I have a P4 HT 3.0 Ghz 2GB system that runs Vista, and the performance is perfectly acceptable for Office, browsing the web, downloading torrents, and other tasks like that. It was even fine when it still had 1GB of ram in it. It's not so good at playing back 1080P videos, and compiling on it is noticeably slower than a Core 2 Duo, but a lot of people probably don't need to do those kind of things.
Looking at their benchmarks, I'd have to say it's a tossup. A P4 is faster than the Atom for some things, for other things the Atom is faster. So if you already have a functional P4, I don't see any real reason to go out and spend hundreds on a new Atom system for very similar performance. Sure, the power savings will eventually add up, but you're talking years, especially if the computer is powered off when it's not being used.
Actually, they tried stuff like that. Remember the very first iPod which only worked with Macs? They soon figured out that they wouldn't be able to take over the world like that.
Mario Kart 64 with the obnoxious rubber-band AI players? Bah. I'm still partial to Super Mario Kart myself.
It could kind of sting a little if you had a high end AGP card and there wasn't really a good upgrade path for. Though I thought it was more annoying the other way around - a perfectly good, but older AGP computer and no good way to drop in a better graphics card (without paying through the nose, especially if you wanted 2x DVI, and even then you had to deal with potential compatibility issues with chipsets that were shoehorned onto AGP which natively did not support it). Granted it doesn't seem so bad now, as anything AGP is getting old, but it kind of stung a bit back in the day.
Also, I'm kind of in the same boat with regards to video cards - I have a pile of old computer hardware, but the only PCIe graphics card I have* is in my main PC. And many Socket AM3 boards don't have onboard video either.
*Actually I do have some old first generation PCIe nVidia card I got from the trash at work that would probably be okay if I ever get around to resoldering the cheap Chinese caps.
...And of course, the Apple fanboys will come out of the woodwork to explain how not being able to plot your own route is actually a feature.
There's really no point in coming here on April 1st, as the is basically completely useless that day.
Well, basically all you need is breeder reactor, made with Uranium 238 and a neutron emitter. Pure Uranium metal can be hard to come by, but you can buy items that contain Uranium, like chunks of Uranium ore (usually sold as novelty items), or some kinds of antique glass amongst other things. In some parts of the country there are chunks of the ore laying on the ground if you know what to look for. Then you need to build a neutron emitter, which can also be built by harvesting radioactive materials out of somewhat common objects (like smoke detectors). The "Radioactive Boyscout" had pretty much everything you would need to make small amounts of Plutonium, and I believe had actually done so before he was discovered. The most difficult part would be making enough of it without being noticed and coming under scrutiny.
A lot of netbooks and low power PCs omit the gigabit, as apparently the gigabit chipsets use close to a watt of power which can be significant.
Most people would probably use it sitting down, you know? The only idiot here is you.
Well, having built-in networking and a TCP/IP stack in the original Windows 95 release was huge compared to previous versions of Windows. Otherwise, back in those days it was more or less expected that you would have to pay for a web browser.
The original concept of a netbook is pretty much dead. They kept on getting larger and cramming more stuff into them until what poses for a netbook now is basically an underpowered, but inexpensive laptop.
Why? Even if the Mac hardware lasts as long, it will become useless for running Mac OS as Apple will cutoff the support for it. You can always then install Linux (or Windows!) but then its no different than the PC.
You probably don't need the 8GB sticks. Most boards seem to only accept the 4GB sticks as it is.
Well, part of the problem with power supplies is that most of them aren't really capable of providing the power they claim they can. That's why people buy a 500W power supply for a 200W computer. Because if you tried to put a 300W power supply in that computer, it would probably catch fire.
He probably tried to get fancy and insert a unicode 'mu' and of course slashdot ate the character.
Most of the common red LED alarm clock/clock radios that use a 9 V battery as a back up power source also use the line frequency as the power source. It's kind of obvious as when operating on battery power, they don't have access to the line frequency and therefore rely on some kind of internal oscillator that is horribly inaccurate. At least they seem to run fast on battery power, so you don't end up late for work when the power goes out.
As a side note, it's kind of amazing to me that those clocks with that design are still being made. The battery backup circuit was probably designed in the 1970's. In 2011 surely they could design a better battery backup system that is a lot more accurate, not to mention doesn't eat through a fresh 9V battery in about one and a half days.
So, should you be driving if you can't handle a manual choke? The point is to remove some of the minor distractions so that the driver can concentrate on actually driving.
Wrong? How is that wrong? So you have a drive that lasted longer than its projected lifespan? So what?
Besides, they don't make drives like they used to. I have that same drive (purchased in 1988) and it still works. But I seriously doubt any of the 1.5-2TB drives I've bought recently will still function in 23 years.