The $60 market was where people who just wanted to run dual head would buy. They didn't care much about the GPU, it's just that the built-in graphics could only drive one monitor. Now, with Intel you can drive up to three and don't even have to use crappy old VGA on any of them either.
Throttling is a big problem for a lot of these mini computers and many laptops. People think you need a lot less cooling because the new chips idle at such low power, but at 100% the higher end chips will put out the same amount of heat as the old chips. The 45W this thing puts out is right around the TDP that a laptop chip would have put out 10 years ago. A desktop i7 at 100% is right there with the P4. I like to be able to run my computers at 100% with no throttling indefinitely, which is why my computers are still ATX towers, because that's the only way to keep them cool and relatively quiet at 100% load.
Suggesting that one of these things is good for gaming is a joke. I mean, they do have their uses. If you need a small, low power computer that doesn't need to do any serious data crunching - sure pick up a NUC with a Celeron or something. But getting an i7 in them is mostly a waste of money because you can only use the i7 in short bursts at best.
Historically, Windows Update won't check free drive space before it starts doing its thing, sometimes with ugly results when it runs out in the middle of installing an update, causing the update to fail, followed by the rollback attempt failing. I wouldn't count on it.
Your processor needs to support the NX bit. Pentium D machines should be able to run it as they all have the NX bit. The later Pentium M chips also have the NX bit, but the earlier ones do not. Generally speaking, if it's EM64T, it will likely have the NX bit (some exceptions), and if it's 32 bit, it probably doesn't (some exceptions, such as some Pentium M and handful of the later Pentium 4's).
Of course, those machines may have other issues, such as other hardware without Windows 10 drivers or lack of drive space.
Windows 7 will install just fine on machines without EFI. In many ways, it can be trickier to get it to run on machines with EFI, unless they have an option to emulate a BIOS.
The problem with Windows 10 is that people don't trust what it's doing or the information it's sending back to Microsoft. The fact that Microsoft is pushing it so hard also is concerning.
Also, the support for multiple keyboard layouts in Windows 10 is just fucking broken. You cannot set a default keyboard layout, and when you switch it to the non-default, it keeps setting it back. To be fair, the way it was done in Windows 7 (and Vista, XP, 2000) was also stupid as the layout was a per-application setting (not global). They actually fixed it in Windows 8, then managed to make it worse in 10.
When did Microsoft ever provide a version of Windows with Internet Explorer removed? You ask to remove Internet Explorer, it just removes the shortcut on the desktop and the start menu, possibly also deleting iexplore.exe. You can do this too, Windows won't care. But that's hardly removing IE from Windows.
You still get the benefits of encryption, which would prevent your employer....err...ISP from knowing what articles you read on slashdot, or whatever. Of course, assuming that they don't run a fake-slashdot and redirect you to it, which is of course idea behind verifying the chain. Which is good for things like online banking, but perhaps is overkill for things like Bob's blog.
Basically, there needs to be a middle ground for browsers and servers to be able to use encryption, but where the user still has to trust that they're connected to the real server*. You can do that now with a self-signed certificate, but every browser out there right now screams bloody murder if it sees one. So you either have to get a signed certificate (which granted, is easier now than it was), or revert back to sending everything plaintext.
This would also help with some other problems, such as two websites now can't share the same IP but use have different certificates (at least not with every browser screaming bloody murder). Of course, IPv6 would also solve that problem.
*Things like the browser warning you if a certificate changes, or allowing users to view and compare them could work here.
How many modern OSes actually let the drive spin down? It seems there's always a constant level of some activity going to the drive which keeps the drive always spun up. I suppose in Linux you might be able to put a stop to it with some effort, but in Windows you have no hope. Yes, I know the setting is still there, but I haven't seen it be useful since Windows 3.1.
Well, for the last issue you can buy a AA to C adapter (basically a C-battery sized hollow tube you stick your AA battery into), so you could use your Lithium L91 if you wanted to. Still, that's a lot of money for a clock given you don't know anything about it. Also, you can buy the real deal online for cheaper. You'd still have to figure out how to set it - you need to somehow provide it a master signal to sync to. Which could be a cool project, using an Ardino and NTP or something like that.
The extremely common 7 segment red LED alarm clock/clock radios (the ones that require a 9V battery for the backup) all keep time using the power line frequency, and around here, they keep excellent time. At least when they aren't on battery power, that is. Of course, that all depends on how consistent the power grid you plug them into, I guess.
Well, one advantage with Linux is if you really wanted to keep using 2.6 for some reason, you have the source code and you could keep patching in for as long as you want to. With your commercial vendors selling closed source software, when it goes out of support you're left hanging.
That's one of things that really amazed me the most about Diablo II and Battle.net is that spammers/bot/cheaters/hackers could pretty do whatever they wanted on there and it seemed Blizzard really didn't give a shit. While totally eliminating it would be impossible, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to identify bots like that as they make themselves extremely obvious, and ban their CD keys.
Then again, I guess Battle.net is free and still supports 16 year old games so they do have that going for them.
Well, there's all the 30" 2560x1600 monitors. Though if you like older games, I wouldn't bother because who wants pixels the size of your thumb? If I was to put together a classic gaming PC, I'd probably use the 19" Sony Trinitron in the closet.
Long division would be an interesting question to ask. When I learned it way back in grade school, they basically taught it to us a series of steps, basically an algorithm you did by hand to crunch out the answer. I don't really remember exactly what they taught me any more, But, I know enough math to figure it out again pretty quickly. So by asking that, you're going to see whether the person can reason out how to do long division again, or if they just throw their hands up in the air and give up (or if the actually still remember how they were taught to do it).
I'd get another insulin pump. I wouldn't trust any smartphone to control something that's critical for me to continue living. Smartphones can crash, lock up, get dropped, lost, have the non-changeable battery go dead, suffer interference over the Bluetooth link, and other countless products.
Well, one advantage to buying the $1500 Dell monitor is that when the computer that it's attached to becomes obsolete, you can replace the computer without having to throw the monitor into trash with it. Or maybe just upgrade the computer, if all it needs is a new GPU or more ram.
The funny thing is though - who does CAD work on a Mac? All the popular CAD software is Windows only. Yeah, I guess you could install Windows on that Mac Pro, but if you're going to do that, just buy a PC.
Well, the problem is that iMac also has to do for people outside that target market, because your other options is the ridiculously expensive Mac Pro, or the underpowered Mac Mini. Well, I suppose you could also buy a Macbook and try to use as your desktop computer, but then you run into the lack of a docking station for it. Or just give up and buy/build a PC.
You haven't been able to build a dual-CPU system with Intel's desktop processors since the Pentium III. If you want dual CPU, you've got to pony up the cash for Xeon. And that's the way Intel likes it.
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The $60 market was where people who just wanted to run dual head would buy. They didn't care much about the GPU, it's just that the built-in graphics could only drive one monitor. Now, with Intel you can drive up to three and don't even have to use crappy old VGA on any of them either.
Throttling is a big problem for a lot of these mini computers and many laptops. People think you need a lot less cooling because the new chips idle at such low power, but at 100% the higher end chips will put out the same amount of heat as the old chips. The 45W this thing puts out is right around the TDP that a laptop chip would have put out 10 years ago. A desktop i7 at 100% is right there with the P4. I like to be able to run my computers at 100% with no throttling indefinitely, which is why my computers are still ATX towers, because that's the only way to keep them cool and relatively quiet at 100% load.
Suggesting that one of these things is good for gaming is a joke. I mean, they do have their uses. If you need a small, low power computer that doesn't need to do any serious data crunching - sure pick up a NUC with a Celeron or something. But getting an i7 in them is mostly a waste of money because you can only use the i7 in short bursts at best.
Historically, Windows Update won't check free drive space before it starts doing its thing, sometimes with ugly results when it runs out in the middle of installing an update, causing the update to fail, followed by the rollback attempt failing. I wouldn't count on it.
Your processor needs to support the NX bit. Pentium D machines should be able to run it as they all have the NX bit. The later Pentium M chips also have the NX bit, but the earlier ones do not. Generally speaking, if it's EM64T, it will likely have the NX bit (some exceptions), and if it's 32 bit, it probably doesn't (some exceptions, such as some Pentium M and handful of the later Pentium 4's).
Of course, those machines may have other issues, such as other hardware without Windows 10 drivers or lack of drive space.
Windows 7 will install just fine on machines without EFI. In many ways, it can be trickier to get it to run on machines with EFI, unless they have an option to emulate a BIOS.
The problem with Windows 10 is that people don't trust what it's doing or the information it's sending back to Microsoft. The fact that Microsoft is pushing it so hard also is concerning.
Also, the support for multiple keyboard layouts in Windows 10 is just fucking broken. You cannot set a default keyboard layout, and when you switch it to the non-default, it keeps setting it back. To be fair, the way it was done in Windows 7 (and Vista, XP, 2000) was also stupid as the layout was a per-application setting (not global). They actually fixed it in Windows 8, then managed to make it worse in 10.
When did Microsoft ever provide a version of Windows with Internet Explorer removed? You ask to remove Internet Explorer, it just removes the shortcut on the desktop and the start menu, possibly also deleting iexplore.exe. You can do this too, Windows won't care. But that's hardly removing IE from Windows.
You still get the benefits of encryption, which would prevent your employer....err...ISP from knowing what articles you read on slashdot, or whatever. Of course, assuming that they don't run a fake-slashdot and redirect you to it, which is of course idea behind verifying the chain. Which is good for things like online banking, but perhaps is overkill for things like Bob's blog.
Basically, there needs to be a middle ground for browsers and servers to be able to use encryption, but where the user still has to trust that they're connected to the real server*. You can do that now with a self-signed certificate, but every browser out there right now screams bloody murder if it sees one. So you either have to get a signed certificate (which granted, is easier now than it was), or revert back to sending everything plaintext.
This would also help with some other problems, such as two websites now can't share the same IP but use have different certificates (at least not with every browser screaming bloody murder). Of course, IPv6 would also solve that problem.
*Things like the browser warning you if a certificate changes, or allowing users to view and compare them could work here.
How many modern OSes actually let the drive spin down? It seems there's always a constant level of some activity going to the drive which keeps the drive always spun up. I suppose in Linux you might be able to put a stop to it with some effort, but in Windows you have no hope. Yes, I know the setting is still there, but I haven't seen it be useful since Windows 3.1.
Well, for the last issue you can buy a AA to C adapter (basically a C-battery sized hollow tube you stick your AA battery into), so you could use your Lithium L91 if you wanted to. Still, that's a lot of money for a clock given you don't know anything about it. Also, you can buy the real deal online for cheaper. You'd still have to figure out how to set it - you need to somehow provide it a master signal to sync to. Which could be a cool project, using an Ardino and NTP or something like that.
I also bet his VCR has been flashing 12:00 since 1993.
The extremely common 7 segment red LED alarm clock/clock radios (the ones that require a 9V battery for the backup) all keep time using the power line frequency, and around here, they keep excellent time. At least when they aren't on battery power, that is. Of course, that all depends on how consistent the power grid you plug them into, I guess.
Well, one advantage with Linux is if you really wanted to keep using 2.6 for some reason, you have the source code and you could keep patching in for as long as you want to. With your commercial vendors selling closed source software, when it goes out of support you're left hanging.
That's one of things that really amazed me the most about Diablo II and Battle.net is that spammers/bot/cheaters/hackers could pretty do whatever they wanted on there and it seemed Blizzard really didn't give a shit. While totally eliminating it would be impossible, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to identify bots like that as they make themselves extremely obvious, and ban their CD keys.
Then again, I guess Battle.net is free and still supports 16 year old games so they do have that going for them.
Well, there's all the 30" 2560x1600 monitors. Though if you like older games, I wouldn't bother because who wants pixels the size of your thumb? If I was to put together a classic gaming PC, I'd probably use the 19" Sony Trinitron in the closet.
Abuse of power is a problem we could have with anyone who's elected president. I'd take my chances with Bernie before any of the other candidates.
No, the obvious solution is to just use an AI to replace the graphics designers entirely.
Long division would be an interesting question to ask. When I learned it way back in grade school, they basically taught it to us a series of steps, basically an algorithm you did by hand to crunch out the answer. I don't really remember exactly what they taught me any more, But, I know enough math to figure it out again pretty quickly. So by asking that, you're going to see whether the person can reason out how to do long division again, or if they just throw their hands up in the air and give up (or if the actually still remember how they were taught to do it).
I would have failed you too. Showing your work is part of the answer. Whether or not you used a calculator to get to the end result is irrelevant.
I'd get another insulin pump. I wouldn't trust any smartphone to control something that's critical for me to continue living. Smartphones can crash, lock up, get dropped, lost, have the non-changeable battery go dead, suffer interference over the Bluetooth link, and other countless products.
Well, one advantage to buying the $1500 Dell monitor is that when the computer that it's attached to becomes obsolete, you can replace the computer without having to throw the monitor into trash with it. Or maybe just upgrade the computer, if all it needs is a new GPU or more ram.
The funny thing is though - who does CAD work on a Mac? All the popular CAD software is Windows only. Yeah, I guess you could install Windows on that Mac Pro, but if you're going to do that, just buy a PC.
Well, the problem is that iMac also has to do for people outside that target market, because your other options is the ridiculously expensive Mac Pro, or the underpowered Mac Mini. Well, I suppose you could also buy a Macbook and try to use as your desktop computer, but then you run into the lack of a docking station for it. Or just give up and buy/build a PC.
Hey, that's not true! You also had the Amiga 2000 with the Video Toaster!
*ducks*
You haven't been able to build a dual-CPU system with Intel's desktop processors since the Pentium III. If you want dual CPU, you've got to pony up the cash for Xeon. And that's the way Intel likes it.