This is really offtopic, but I haven't figured out what the heck is up with TI lately anyway. Their new calculators boast a whole lot of memory, flashy cases, USB ports, and stuff like that. But when it comes to math, not much has changed. Heck, the latest and greatest TI-84+ SuperDuper Silver Edition (or whatever they have now) still has the crappy 96x64 resolution screen that debuted on the TI-81, and lacks many features that my old TI-85 has. It's like they took the fact that many people in high school used their TI as Gameboys (I admit, I did it too!), and ran with that idea instead of actually trying to make calculators.
Oh well, as long as my trusty TI-85 and HP-48G hang in there, I'll be fine.
If the kid 'makes web pages' then the parent is doing the world a service by not letting him use IE, especially on the Mac. It doesn't render pages correctly, and when you fix them to look right, it breaks them on every other browser.
I've given up testing on IE for Mac because it's not used by many people, and it should be taken out back and shot.
Maybe this kid did want his webpages to be viewable on IE for Mac? And of course the only way to be sure is to fire it up. Heck, I know people who still test for Netscape 4 (ugh). Anyone who still uses NS4 really should be shot!
1. School gets a one shot chance at a pile of money (grant or something like that). 2. School goes out and buys a bunch of computers. 3. School uses said computers for the next ten years until they are hopelessly out of date.
For example, I know of a school that just got a bunch of shiny new P4's. Are they overkill? Maybe right now. But before they got these, the fastest machine in the computer labs was a Pentium 200. The slower lab machines were 486's!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Apple makes some really good software -- even for Windows.
You mean like Quicktime for Windows?
My experience with Apple software for Windows is that it's slow, bloated, and lacks features. Why anyone would choose iTunes over Winamp (or even Windows Media player) is beyond me.
A capable, easy to use, video player with powerful playlist capabilities and dual head support. Global hotkeys. Ability to play just about any format of audio (via plugins). Ability to play just any video format that you can get a windows codec for. Milkdrop. Fast, snappy, familar, easy to use interface.
In comparison to Winamp, iTunes is a steaming pile of bloated crap.
What do I use on XP? Winamp. How is it's interface terrible? True, the majority of the skins for it do simply suck, but the default skin is fine. If that annoys you, surely someone has make a Windows-default like skin for Winamp 5 by now.
But the real beauty of Winamp's interface is all the keyboard shortcuts, plus global hotkeys - which has to be one of the best things yet in Winamp.
I would guess that you would have better luck storing 500GB on one disk, and making 5 copies and putting them in different places, than burning 5 super-redundent disks of 100GB each.
Perhaps you should RAID 5 them. 5 disks would be about 2TB of storage, and you'd still have all your data even if one disk gets totally destroyed.
Just what my roommate needs. Now he'll hog the connection even more for his downloads with unlimited storage space.
As a/.'er, you should know there is no such thing as unlimited storage space. Data always expands to fill all available storage space, no matter how large.
The problem with "free" is that there is no free lunch. The problem with Thermonuclear fusion is that it is producing HEAT. Even used to produce electricity, the end result (at my computer or light bulb or whatever) is HEAT.
That HEAT changes the environment, because it is a net addition of energy. The earth must dissipate that energy (presumably the atmosphere losing heat into space) or the environment will still be changing.
Hmm... maybe we could use wind turbines to remove some of this energy from the air?
I think the average PC user upgrades when the computer gets unusable with spyware and viruses. Its easier to plunk down $2000 instead of wiping the computer clean. PC manufactures should thank spyware and virus writers. The average PC user would never upgrade again because all they are doing is web surfing.
Judging by how fast I have seen clueless PC users can screw up a virgin Windows XP install, you're saying that the average PC user buys a new system every week or so?
Heh, I remember back in the days when I would notice a 33Mhz difference in speed doing everyday tasks. Nowadays, I would be hardpressed to notice a 600Mhz difference in anything other than benchmarks.
In Minnesota, garbage collectors won't take computer monitors in the trash. They won't take TV's either, and generally don't want things like microwaves and other computer hardware either. I don't know if the laws are different up here, or perhaps due to Arizona being a drier state they don't worry about the chemicals leeching out.
By the way, it costs about $15 up here to get a computer monitor recycled.
Are you really so poor that you can't afford $100 (or less) for a used PII/PIII computer that will run far better than what you've got now? Besides, it looks like you're still paying for internet access.
I do, why upgrade? XP SP2 is slower, has even more annoying widgets, and there is a considerable risk that my computer won't boot anymore if I install it. I think the big question is what kind of imbecil still runs IE, even if they have XP SP2?
Of course, now we have elections where the canidates campaign only in the dozen or so "swing" states and blatantly ignore everyone else. Besides, in this election, the winner in both popular and electoral votes won while taking few (any?) of the major cities. Any canidate running would be a moron to ignore the rural areas.
I agree, the Pentium 4's I have used in laptop form weren't really hindered by memory bandwidth (atleast not anymore than their desktop cousins). Another advantage to the P4 is that it's the only chip with hyperthreading, and that's the closest to a dual CPU setup you're going to get in a laptop. However, due to heat and power usage, I still say overall the P4 is a lousy laptop chip.
My college uses bandwidth shaping and other techniques. If bittorrent will even work, it will get about 2 k/s max. Usually about 1 k/s. So yeah, I guess I could say I have it open for days/weeks at a time whenever I decide to download something.
But if you're only uploading 2% of a given file to someone, are you still liable? if 50 people upload 2% of a file each, who gets nailed for sharing?
As far as I understand it, all 50 people are liable for sharing. Now, which one(s) get sued is a function of where they are located, who their ISP is, and a bit of randomness.
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This is really offtopic, but I haven't figured out what the heck is up with TI lately anyway. Their new calculators boast a whole lot of memory, flashy cases, USB ports, and stuff like that. But when it comes to math, not much has changed. Heck, the latest and greatest TI-84+ SuperDuper Silver Edition (or whatever they have now) still has the crappy 96x64 resolution screen that debuted on the TI-81, and lacks many features that my old TI-85 has. It's like they took the fact that many people in high school used their TI as Gameboys (I admit, I did it too!), and ran with that idea instead of actually trying to make calculators.
Oh well, as long as my trusty TI-85 and HP-48G hang in there, I'll be fine.
If the kid 'makes web pages' then the parent is doing the world a service by not letting him use IE, especially on the Mac. It doesn't render pages correctly, and when you fix them to look right, it breaks them on every other browser.
I've given up testing on IE for Mac because it's not used by many people, and it should be taken out back and shot.
Maybe this kid did want his webpages to be viewable on IE for Mac? And of course the only way to be sure is to fire it up. Heck, I know people who still test for Netscape 4 (ugh). Anyone who still uses NS4 really should be shot!
Actually, it's more like:
1. School gets a one shot chance at a pile of money (grant or something like that).
2. School goes out and buys a bunch of computers.
3. School uses said computers for the next ten years until they are hopelessly out of date.
For example, I know of a school that just got a bunch of shiny new P4's. Are they overkill? Maybe right now. But before they got these, the fastest machine in the computer labs was a Pentium 200. The slower lab machines were 486's!
Other than that M4Ps bought on iTMS work only in iTunes?
Well, if the DRM'd files you buy from a online music store are tied to a lousy program, then I would shop elsewhere.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Apple makes some really good software -- even for Windows.
You mean like Quicktime for Windows?
My experience with Apple software for Windows is that it's slow, bloated, and lacks features. Why anyone would choose iTunes over Winamp (or even Windows Media player) is beyond me.
A capable, easy to use, video player with powerful playlist capabilities and dual head support. Global hotkeys. Ability to play just about any format of audio (via plugins). Ability to play just any video format that you can get a windows codec for. Milkdrop. Fast, snappy, familar, easy to use interface.
In comparison to Winamp, iTunes is a steaming pile of bloated crap.
What do I use on XP? Winamp. How is it's interface terrible? True, the majority of the skins for it do simply suck, but the default skin is fine. If that annoys you, surely someone has make a Windows-default like skin for Winamp 5 by now.
But the real beauty of Winamp's interface is all the keyboard shortcuts, plus global hotkeys - which has to be one of the best things yet in Winamp.
Just think, in a year or so it could be the next iTunes killer..
What are you talking about? It already is an iTunes killer. Unless you are talking about porting Winamp over to OSX so it can kill iTunes there.
the + in front of a word means it MUST be included.
without it all words are optional.
Anyone who has done some Googlewhacking knows that is false. But for search engines other than Google, this might be true.
I would guess that you would have better luck storing 500GB on one disk, and making 5 copies and putting them in different places, than burning 5 super-redundent disks of 100GB each.
Perhaps you should RAID 5 them. 5 disks would be about 2TB of storage, and you'd still have all your data even if one disk gets totally destroyed.
Just what my roommate needs. Now he'll hog the connection even more for his downloads with unlimited storage space.
/.'er, you should know there is no such thing as unlimited storage space. Data always expands to fill all available storage space, no matter how large.
As a
The problem with "free" is that there is no free lunch. The problem with Thermonuclear fusion is that it is producing HEAT. Even used to produce electricity, the end result (at my computer or light bulb or whatever) is HEAT.
That HEAT changes the environment, because it is a net addition of energy. The earth must dissipate that energy (presumably the atmosphere losing heat into space) or the environment will still be changing.
Hmm... maybe we could use wind turbines to remove some of this energy from the air?
I think the average PC user upgrades when the computer gets unusable with spyware and viruses. Its easier to plunk down $2000 instead of wiping the computer clean. PC manufactures should thank spyware and virus writers. The average PC user would never upgrade again because all they are doing is web surfing.
Judging by how fast I have seen clueless PC users can screw up a virgin Windows XP install, you're saying that the average PC user buys a new system every week or so?
Heh, I remember back in the days when I would notice a 33Mhz difference in speed doing everyday tasks. Nowadays, I would be hardpressed to notice a 600Mhz difference in anything other than benchmarks.
In Minnesota, garbage collectors won't take computer monitors in the trash. They won't take TV's either, and generally don't want things like microwaves and other computer hardware either. I don't know if the laws are different up here, or perhaps due to Arizona being a drier state they don't worry about the chemicals leeching out.
By the way, it costs about $15 up here to get a computer monitor recycled.
Are you really so poor that you can't afford $100 (or less) for a used PII/PIII computer that will run far better than what you've got now? Besides, it looks like you're still paying for internet access.
I love Opera, and havent tried Firefox. How is firefox superior to Opera?
*It's free, or atleast no banner ad in the corner.
*it's a little better than Opera at rendering mangled webpages.
Otherwise, as a fellow Opera user I see little reason to switch. I got Firefox installed, but don't really use it much.
What kind of imbecil runs XP but not SP2?
I do, why upgrade? XP SP2 is slower, has even more annoying widgets, and there is a considerable risk that my computer won't boot anymore if I install it. I think the big question is what kind of imbecil still runs IE, even if they have XP SP2?
Of course, now we have elections where the canidates campaign only in the dozen or so "swing" states and blatantly ignore everyone else. Besides, in this election, the winner in both popular and electoral votes won while taking few (any?) of the major cities. Any canidate running would be a moron to ignore the rural areas.
Hey, I'm 22, and I say the current popular music just plain sucks. Even compared to what was popular 5 years ago. Now it's just terrible.
I agree, the Pentium 4's I have used in laptop form weren't really hindered by memory bandwidth (atleast not anymore than their desktop cousins). Another advantage to the P4 is that it's the only chip with hyperthreading, and that's the closest to a dual CPU setup you're going to get in a laptop. However, due to heat and power usage, I still say overall the P4 is a lousy laptop chip.
My college uses bandwidth shaping and other techniques. If bittorrent will even work, it will get about 2 k/s max. Usually about 1 k/s. So yeah, I guess I could say I have it open for days/weeks at a time whenever I decide to download something.
But if you're only uploading 2% of a given file to someone, are you still liable? if 50 people upload 2% of a file each, who gets nailed for sharing?
As far as I understand it, all 50 people are liable for sharing. Now, which one(s) get sued is a function of where they are located, who their ISP is, and a bit of randomness.
I'd rather Bin Laden blew up an easily repaired gas pipe than his descendents get their hands on stocks of plutonium.
That's why you build gas pipelines through Afganistan in order to distract the terrorists while you refine Plutonium here in the US!
You're joking, right?