I was not really much of a fan of the previous generation either, but that was mostly because I don't like the "altezza style" lights which was the fashion at the time. I guess as Japanese manufacturers go, Mazda's styling isn't too bad when compared to Toyota and Honda, but overall I guess I just don't get modern car design.
50-100W for the motherboard, 10W for each stick of ram, 20W for each of the hard drives, a few more watts here and there for the fans, optical drive, any expansion cards, and peripherals.
Outside the computer, don't forget 50-100W for the sound system. A large LCD is closer to 100W than 60W.
A high-end gaming machine can draw close to 1kW when everything is up and running.
Kind of hard to add one after the fact, but I would assume that if you care about that kind of thing you'll buy a laptop with a discrete chip. Would kind of suck though to buy one with the integrated then have a need for the discrete graphics 6 months later.
So what? Anyone serious about graphics is going to get a discrete card. You can mix and match your CPU and discrete graphics all you want, including using an ATI (AMD) card with an Intel chipset/CPU.
Working with Dell server-class hardware from years past can be extremely infuriating. It's a bunch of propriety, non-standard stuff that Windows doesn't recognize out of the box, and Dell seems more interested in selling you a new server instead of helping you get that dual Xeon 1.5 running again. So yeah, good luck finding the drivers and utilities you need for it.
On the other hand, everything supports your standard home/office Dell PC. I put Vista on a 2004-era Dell P4, and didn't even have to install a single driver.
All you would need is both cars to have the same aftermarket system installed on them. Go to Wal-mart, head over to the automotive section, and grab the cheapest aftermarket keyless kit they have. The one that comes in a big bubble package and costs about $39.88. Yeah, that one. Given their overall build quality and how flaky those systems are (your electrical system will never be the same again!), it wouldn't surprise me in the least if their security was a bit lacking.
With Toyota's system, you only need the key to start the car. After that, it will run until it is shut off. If the car senses the key is gone, it will beep at you, but you can still drive it across the country if you felt like it.
Many automatic cars have a shift-lock override. Usually it's a small slot, often with a plastic cover on it, near the shifter. Stick a screwdriver or a key or similar object in there and you can shift the transmission. This can usually be found on cars where the shifter is still mechanically connected to the transmission. Newer cars where it is all electronic are less certain - many of those are impossible to get out of park if the battery is flat.
Well, situation A is kind of worrying. If the car is in the driveway, and keys are in the house by the door, just put one gizmo near the car, and the other gizmo by the front door, and car starts.
Granted, keeping the keys near the front door is already unwise as thieves will break into the house to grab the keys. But now they wouldn't have to.
It could be that the cars had aftermarket keyless entry systems installed, especially if these were 90's model Civics that probably didn't have it from the factory. While the OEM keyfob security is pretty good, the cheap aftermarket stuff is kind of spotty.
However, adding all the crypto in the world won't protect against an attack where an amplifier is used to boost the signals to/from the car. You basically need a way to determine how far away the key is from the car independent of signal strength. The only sure-thing I can think of is timing, but since you're dealing with distances of a few meters and the speed of light this just doesn't seem practical. I can think of a few other games you can play - for example you could have some kind of rolling frequency channel scheme, so that the thief would not know what channel the car is expecting the key to respond on, but the thief could get around this by amplifying the entire frequency range.
The only difference between the 101 and the 104/105 is the windows keys. That and apparently you can't get the 104/105 in beige. So it basically boils down to whether you find the Windows keys useful or an annoyance. I hate the Windows key between the Ctrl and Alt keys so if it was up to me I'd get the 101.
I have an SSD, and while it does help with a lot of things, I get this too occasionally and it is rather mysterious, though I have a sneaking suspicion that it has to do with my secondary 1.5 TB Seagate drives. One thing to check with Vista and Windows 7 in task manager is to make sure you press the "Show processes from all users", otherwise if it's a system process that's hogging all the CPU time you may not see it. Also, if you have Readyboost enabled check that it is not thrashing the USB drive.
Windows 7 Starter (common on netbooks, rare elsewhere) doesn't allow the desktop to be changed. I couldn't believe it either, but that's the way it is.
I don't see how SSDs would make sense in a business environment. The speed won't make a difference on most business PCs, and they cost more. An extra $100 per workstation starts to add up. Sure some users can take advantage of them, but for most they'd never notice. You'd be better off taking that $100 and buying better monitors.
Of course, the cost is the real factor. Once you get an SSD that's good enough (say 40-80GB) for cheaper than the spinning disk (less than $50) they'll completely take over.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually Sony bought Minolta, so that's where at least some of their technology came from.
I was not really much of a fan of the previous generation either, but that was mostly because I don't like the "altezza style" lights which was the fashion at the time. I guess as Japanese manufacturers go, Mazda's styling isn't too bad when compared to Toyota and Honda, but overall I guess I just don't get modern car design.
Too bad all the Mazdas are also butt-ugly.
50-100W for the motherboard, 10W for each stick of ram, 20W for each of the hard drives, a few more watts here and there for the fans, optical drive, any expansion cards, and peripherals.
Outside the computer, don't forget 50-100W for the sound system. A large LCD is closer to 100W than 60W.
A high-end gaming machine can draw close to 1kW when everything is up and running.
Kind of hard to add one after the fact, but I would assume that if you care about that kind of thing you'll buy a laptop with a discrete chip. Would kind of suck though to buy one with the integrated then have a need for the discrete graphics 6 months later.
So what? Anyone serious about graphics is going to get a discrete card. You can mix and match your CPU and discrete graphics all you want, including using an ATI (AMD) card with an Intel chipset/CPU.
Oh, Finally it's out! That's the "movie" I've been anticipating the most the last few months!
Working with Dell server-class hardware from years past can be extremely infuriating. It's a bunch of propriety, non-standard stuff that Windows doesn't recognize out of the box, and Dell seems more interested in selling you a new server instead of helping you get that dual Xeon 1.5 running again. So yeah, good luck finding the drivers and utilities you need for it.
On the other hand, everything supports your standard home/office Dell PC. I put Vista on a 2004-era Dell P4, and didn't even have to install a single driver.
Interesting thing though is that while gop.org just redirects to gop.com, democrats.com and democrats.org appear to be two different sites.
All you would need is both cars to have the same aftermarket system installed on them. Go to Wal-mart, head over to the automotive section, and grab the cheapest aftermarket keyless kit they have. The one that comes in a big bubble package and costs about $39.88. Yeah, that one. Given their overall build quality and how flaky those systems are (your electrical system will never be the same again!), it wouldn't surprise me in the least if their security was a bit lacking.
With Toyota's system, you only need the key to start the car. After that, it will run until it is shut off. If the car senses the key is gone, it will beep at you, but you can still drive it across the country if you felt like it.
Many automatic cars have a shift-lock override. Usually it's a small slot, often with a plastic cover on it, near the shifter. Stick a screwdriver or a key or similar object in there and you can shift the transmission. This can usually be found on cars where the shifter is still mechanically connected to the transmission. Newer cars where it is all electronic are less certain - many of those are impossible to get out of park if the battery is flat.
Well, situation A is kind of worrying. If the car is in the driveway, and keys are in the house by the door, just put one gizmo near the car, and the other gizmo by the front door, and car starts.
Granted, keeping the keys near the front door is already unwise as thieves will break into the house to grab the keys. But now they wouldn't have to.
If the intent is to take the car to a chop shop and reduce it to parts, they may not much care.
It could be that the cars had aftermarket keyless entry systems installed, especially if these were 90's model Civics that probably didn't have it from the factory. While the OEM keyfob security is pretty good, the cheap aftermarket stuff is kind of spotty.
However, adding all the crypto in the world won't protect against an attack where an amplifier is used to boost the signals to/from the car. You basically need a way to determine how far away the key is from the car independent of signal strength. The only sure-thing I can think of is timing, but since you're dealing with distances of a few meters and the speed of light this just doesn't seem practical. I can think of a few other games you can play - for example you could have some kind of rolling frequency channel scheme, so that the thief would not know what channel the car is expecting the key to respond on, but the thief could get around this by amplifying the entire frequency range.
I considered that, but the cost of replacing the keyfobs was just too expensive.
If it's like the Prius it will lock/unlock the door. However, it can't be used in place of the fob to start the car.
The only difference between the 101 and the 104/105 is the windows keys. That and apparently you can't get the 104/105 in beige. So it basically boils down to whether you find the Windows keys useful or an annoyance. I hate the Windows key between the Ctrl and Alt keys so if it was up to me I'd get the 101.
I have an SSD, and while it does help with a lot of things, I get this too occasionally and it is rather mysterious, though I have a sneaking suspicion that it has to do with my secondary 1.5 TB Seagate drives. One thing to check with Vista and Windows 7 in task manager is to make sure you press the "Show processes from all users", otherwise if it's a system process that's hogging all the CPU time you may not see it. Also, if you have Readyboost enabled check that it is not thrashing the USB drive.
Maybe he's saying that DST exists to purposely add an error to our time keeping system?
Virtually no USB harddrives are formatted FAT32. Even if you wanted to format it as FAT32 as a Windows user, you'd really have to go out of your way.
I actually ran Vista on a yellowing socket 423 1.5Ghz P4 with RAMBUS memory. As a bonus, it's also a Carly-era HP.
It's currently in my parts pile, still intact, as there really isn't anything worth taking from it.
Windows 7 Starter (common on netbooks, rare elsewhere) doesn't allow the desktop to be changed. I couldn't believe it either, but that's the way it is.
I don't see how SSDs would make sense in a business environment. The speed won't make a difference on most business PCs, and they cost more. An extra $100 per workstation starts to add up. Sure some users can take advantage of them, but for most they'd never notice. You'd be better off taking that $100 and buying better monitors.
Of course, the cost is the real factor. Once you get an SSD that's good enough (say 40-80GB) for cheaper than the spinning disk (less than $50) they'll completely take over.