I wonder how often the working ones were powered up over the years? Generally speaking, electrolytic capacitors will last longer if they are used occasionally.
Just curious, what did you find bad about the UI in Windows ME? It was basically the Windows 2000 interface back-ported to Win9X line, which wasn't really too terribly different than the Windows 98SE interface. About the only complaint I had was that they went out of their way to try and hide the fact that ME was still based upon DOS. Granted ME had a lot of other problems, but I didn't really remember anything terrible about the interface.
The Atom may be one thing, but Microsoft's decision to not support processors without the NX bit means a lot of older computers that could otherwise run Windows 8 now can no longer install it. Granted, we're talking Socket 478 Pentium 4's and the Socket A Athlon XPs here so it's not like the hardware is not dated, but I still found it annoying that my Windows 8 test machine (a 3 GHz P4) that ran the consumer preview just fine is now locked out of running Windows 8.
Depends on what you mean by "service". On many brands of laptops adding more ram, replacing the hard drive, or changing the battery doesn't require tearing the laptop apart either.
Well, if you pay the $10 to replace the gear in the old one, you can probably count on another couple of decades of reliable service out of it. My guess is that the cheap $13 one that is almost certainly all plastic would be lucky to last more than 2-3 years.
If you think about it, the Thinkpad actually wins in battery life, as you have the option of swapping to a fresh battery when the one in the laptop runs out, something Apple doesn't think is important.
On the other hand, if there's a bad pixel on a cheap $130 low resolution display, many people would be like "oh well". If there's a bad pixel on my $2000 high end display, I'd be pissed.
The actual contrast on the screen is just fine. It just dates back before the contrast ratio became a marketing game so it doesn't have some hugely inflated meaningless number.
Fortunately, you can buy many (most?) TVs with 1:1 pixel mapping these days. Sometimes you'll see it described as computer mode, or something like that.
Unfortunately, for many TVs that's only if you use the "PC" input, which in TV-speak is a VGA port. So you can either enjoy your fuzzy analog picture, or the overscan on the HDMI port.
Now, I know all TVs aren't that way, but its difficult to know exactly what the TV will do without until you hook it up and try it.
That's only because of undue paranoia. There is absolutely zero evidence that anyone can recover anything after a single random wipe, let alone a DoD-3 wipe.
The higher end the hotel, the less likely the internet will be free. The worst is probably Vegas, where they entice you in with low rates, then try to nickel and dime you to death.
Actually you would need a grammar checker. 'Sine' is a perfectly cromulent word so it would get past the spell checker. It's the grammar checker that would flag the sentence as not making sense.
The tape deck in my car has a 5 way button (I do not know the proper term, but it is like a small joystic - you can move it up/down (controls volume), left/right (searches for radio stations or ff/rw the tape) and press it (mute/pause)). While all buttons on the tape deck can be found just by touch, that one is the easiest and it should be.
I've driven a car with a control like that and I hated it. It's fine when the car is not moving or perhaps on a very smooth road, but otherwise it was very hard to manipulate the control while moving because the movement of the car kept on making me activate the wrong feature. And forget about using it on a bumpy road.
The net effect of those is just that everyone talks louder. So you have the same office background noise, just now overlayed on top of a bunch of static. Or you can crank the thing up so it actually masks noise, but then it sounds like your working in an airplane all day, every workday. We had one in the office where I worked for a few weeks, and everyone ended up hating it.
Hey, there is the cost of dead components from heat-related deaths, both in terms of your pocketbook and to the environment. Of course, by turning the PC off when you're not using it helps keep it from getting clogged up with dust so fast.
I think a lot depends on how fast the DHCP server assigns the computer an address when it wakes up and requests one. At home it's nearly instant, but at work it can take something like 15 seconds to obtain an address, meanwhile things that depend on network connectivity start freaking out.
A modern version of that drive would be appealing. With current data density you could probably pack something like 15TB into that form factor easily. It would still be slow but for what I would use it for I really wouldn't care.
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I wonder how often the working ones were powered up over the years? Generally speaking, electrolytic capacitors will last longer if they are used occasionally.
Just curious, what did you find bad about the UI in Windows ME? It was basically the Windows 2000 interface back-ported to Win9X line, which wasn't really too terribly different than the Windows 98SE interface. About the only complaint I had was that they went out of their way to try and hide the fact that ME was still based upon DOS. Granted ME had a lot of other problems, but I didn't really remember anything terrible about the interface.
The Atom may be one thing, but Microsoft's decision to not support processors without the NX bit means a lot of older computers that could otherwise run Windows 8 now can no longer install it. Granted, we're talking Socket 478 Pentium 4's and the Socket A Athlon XPs here so it's not like the hardware is not dated, but I still found it annoying that my Windows 8 test machine (a 3 GHz P4) that ran the consumer preview just fine is now locked out of running Windows 8.
Even so, it doesn't have a FireWire port anyway so that's out. (and no Ethernet, and only 2 USB. WTF Apple?)
Even so, IBM was also shipping 2048x1536 in a 15" laptop several years ago.
Depends on what you mean by "service". On many brands of laptops adding more ram, replacing the hard drive, or changing the battery doesn't require tearing the laptop apart either.
Well, if you pay the $10 to replace the gear in the old one, you can probably count on another couple of decades of reliable service out of it. My guess is that the cheap $13 one that is almost certainly all plastic would be lucky to last more than 2-3 years.
If you think about it, the Thinkpad actually wins in battery life, as you have the option of swapping to a fresh battery when the one in the laptop runs out, something Apple doesn't think is important.
Why not? They need to come up with something to get everyone to buy new TVs all over again, and this whole 3D thing isn't working out.
In many ways, it was ahead of its time*. If you were to do something like it today, it wouldn't have most of those problems.
*sadly, it's time is still yet to come.
On the other hand, if there's a bad pixel on a cheap $130 low resolution display, many people would be like "oh well". If there's a bad pixel on my $2000 high end display, I'd be pissed.
The actual contrast on the screen is just fine. It just dates back before the contrast ratio became a marketing game so it doesn't have some hugely inflated meaningless number.
How about this one?
Unfortunately, for many TVs that's only if you use the "PC" input, which in TV-speak is a VGA port. So you can either enjoy your fuzzy analog picture, or the overscan on the HDMI port.
Now, I know all TVs aren't that way, but its difficult to know exactly what the TV will do without until you hook it up and try it.
That's only because of undue paranoia. There is absolutely zero evidence that anyone can recover anything after a single random wipe, let alone a DoD-3 wipe.
The higher end the hotel, the less likely the internet will be free. The worst is probably Vegas, where they entice you in with low rates, then try to nickel and dime you to death.
Actually you would need a grammar checker. 'Sine' is a perfectly cromulent word so it would get past the spell checker. It's the grammar checker that would flag the sentence as not making sense.
I've driven a car with a control like that and I hated it. It's fine when the car is not moving or perhaps on a very smooth road, but otherwise it was very hard to manipulate the control while moving because the movement of the car kept on making me activate the wrong feature. And forget about using it on a bumpy road.
The net effect of those is just that everyone talks louder. So you have the same office background noise, just now overlayed on top of a bunch of static. Or you can crank the thing up so it actually masks noise, but then it sounds like your working in an airplane all day, every workday. We had one in the office where I worked for a few weeks, and everyone ended up hating it.
Above 1080p you have a handful of laptops with 1920x1200 and that's it. Oh, and they are all 17" or larger models.
Hey, there is the cost of dead components from heat-related deaths, both in terms of your pocketbook and to the environment. Of course, by turning the PC off when you're not using it helps keep it from getting clogged up with dust so fast.
I think a lot depends on how fast the DHCP server assigns the computer an address when it wakes up and requests one. At home it's nearly instant, but at work it can take something like 15 seconds to obtain an address, meanwhile things that depend on network connectivity start freaking out.
I suggest you watch Moore's "Canadian Bacon".
Same reason why in high density areas of the US like New York City you can get fast internet really cheap too.
Oh, wait...
A modern version of that drive would be appealing. With current data density you could probably pack something like 15TB into that form factor easily. It would still be slow but for what I would use it for I really wouldn't care.