The only other non-ruggedised laptops to consistently survive 1m drop test that were pre-merger Compaqs (HP does not). Most other non-ruggedised systems do not survive through that (and that is not a lot).
What about Macs? I've heard stories about Powerbooks surviving drops like that, and the polycarbonate cases on iBooks seem pretty durable...
Hey, thanks -- I was wondering if something like that existed! I'm actually about to start working on a computer vision-related research project that might be well-suited to running on a GPU, and was trying to figure out what technology to use to write it. I think Brook might be it.
Yes, you could have.odt documents sent internally, but what if someone has to send a document to someone outside the company?
We're talking about government offices here, not companies. The answer to your question in this case is (or at least, should be) "we compel the outside person to get an ODT-compatible program by government fiat."
Even if Nvidia's CUDA is as hard as the Ars Technica article suggests, I still hope AMD either makes their chips binary compatible, or makes a compiler that works for CUDA code.
As in, do these laws also include stuff like CAD drawings, which currently get stored in Autodesk's proprietary format? That would certainly make me extremely happy, since AutoCAD's monopoly on the CAD industry is as bad or worse than Microsoft's monopoly on office applications.
I whole heartedly agree; the people selling merchandise typically don't know what they are selling. But I disagree about their extended warranties. Their extended warranty (after the factory expires for computers) is one of the best things about the store. Now, I've heard the PDA warranty has changed: you no longer get store credit and I think you have to mail the device off or something, so that's a negative. For other things that can be handled in the store though, they seemed OK.
Believe it or not, I can say the same thing about Best Buy. My family has owned a series of computers from there, starting in 1995 with a refurbished Packard Bell 486 and currently with a 20" iMac Core Duo, which were all the result of free replacements due to the extended warranty. In other words, the total cost of all that over the years was (price of iMac) + (Best Buy "performance service plan") * 4.
In Duluth (a suburb of Atlanta, GA) We have a Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, Fry's, MicroCenter, Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max within about a 1-mile radius around the mall. I don't know whether to be happy about the selection or depressed about the sprawl. :/
A friend of mine used to work at the Gwinnett Fry's. He told me that, apparently, their strategy is to build a store in each cardinal direction around a city, so we can possibly expect two more: one near the airport, and one out towards Six Flags.
Then again, south and west Atlanta are relatively bad areas, so it's also possible they might just stop at two.
After having gone back and watched all of ENT (in order), I've actually come to the conclusion that it didn't suck after all. Perhaps it's still not quite up to DS9 or later-TNG standards, but I think it gives TOS a run for its money (that could also be due to the fact that I'm young, so I'm not viewing TOS through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia).
At the end of the series, they dismantled basically the entire crew (Sisko ended up in the celestial temple/wormhole, Odo went to join the great link, Garek stayed on Cardassia, Dukat died, etc. They'd need to either use a different cast (which would suck) or come up with an excuse to reunite everyone (which would most likely seem ridiculously contrived), which makes a DS9 movie relatively unlikely.
You know, up to this point I wouldn't even slightly consider Dell either (IMO, the only decent laptops are MacBooks and Thinkpads), but if Dell follows through it might be enough to make me change my mind. Who says the OP isn't allowed to change his mind, too?
So outsource the support! Let Dell make a deal with Novell (or better yet, RedHat or Canonical) for that company to support Linux on Dells, with the support contract included in the purchase of the computer.
Oh, I don't bother with that -- I just use Firefox instead.
Incidentally, that still doesn't match the functionality of Firefox, since you lose the ability to search from the address bar. The only way to really fix it would be to not have a URL for the error "page."
Well, I learned (or most likely, relearned) something today. Thanks. There is, however, one thing about your post that I'd like to dispute:
Macro-evolution isn't testable either, because the time scales are too long (an average of around around 3 million years for a full speciation event).
The fact that the average is 3 million years doesn't mean that you can't test it with something that reproduces much more quickly, like bacteria. (Or maybe the next higher organism than bacteria, since "speciation" is the point at which members of the two groups can't breed with each other, which requires sexual reproduction.) Anyway, the point is that the shortest possible speciation is probably a lot quicker than 3 million years.
Compared to leaving it in the address like Firefox does, IE's practice of forcing me to copy and paste it back from the search field is incredibly (and needlessly!) annoying.
Jeez, posting Onion articles That agree with the real article is happening so often now that it's almost becoming a meme! How fucked up can society get?
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Fuck that! Why would I want to replace my nice, general-purpose, hackable PC with DRM-infested proprietary crap?
(Note: I'm not going to be playing games on Vista, either.)
What about Macs? I've heard stories about Powerbooks surviving drops like that, and the polycarbonate cases on iBooks seem pretty durable...
Hey, thanks -- I was wondering if something like that existed! I'm actually about to start working on a computer vision-related research project that might be well-suited to running on a GPU, and was trying to figure out what technology to use to write it. I think Brook might be it.
You're right that it went (and still is) whooshing over my head, because I don't understand why "having to deal with XML" is a problem.
We're talking about government offices here, not companies. The answer to your question in this case is (or at least, should be) "we compel the outside person to get an ODT-compatible program by government fiat."
I keep seeing that quote posted, but what exactly are those two problems?
Even if Nvidia's CUDA is as hard as the Ars Technica article suggests, I still hope AMD either makes their chips binary compatible, or makes a compiler that works for CUDA code.
As in, do these laws also include stuff like CAD drawings, which currently get stored in Autodesk's proprietary format? That would certainly make me extremely happy, since AutoCAD's monopoly on the CAD industry is as bad or worse than Microsoft's monopoly on office applications.
No it's not - it's the best zero cost graphics program, but it's not "freeware." It's "Free Software," which is very different.
And that's why the proper course of action is not to try to hack proprietary shit, but bur rather to boycott it in-the first place!
Believe it or not, I can say the same thing about Best Buy. My family has owned a series of computers from there, starting in 1995 with a refurbished Packard Bell 486 and currently with a 20" iMac Core Duo, which were all the result of free replacements due to the extended warranty. In other words, the total cost of all that over the years was (price of iMac) + (Best Buy "performance service plan") * 4.
In Duluth (a suburb of Atlanta, GA) We have a Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, Fry's, MicroCenter, Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max within about a 1-mile radius around the mall. I don't know whether to be happy about the selection or depressed about the sprawl. : /
A friend of mine used to work at the Gwinnett Fry's. He told me that, apparently, their strategy is to build a store in each cardinal direction around a city, so we can possibly expect two more: one near the airport, and one out towards Six Flags.
Then again, south and west Atlanta are relatively bad areas, so it's also possible they might just stop at two.
Which Dax: Curzon, Jadzia, Ezri, or whatever host lived at the time of Kirk?
(If you just want to see Terry Farrell (the actress who played Jadzia), you ought to just hope she's in it as a different character.)
After having gone back and watched all of ENT (in order), I've actually come to the conclusion that it didn't suck after all. Perhaps it's still not quite up to DS9 or later-TNG standards, but I think it gives TOS a run for its money (that could also be due to the fact that I'm young, so I'm not viewing TOS through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia).
(Warning: spoilers)
At the end of the series, they dismantled basically the entire crew (Sisko ended up in the celestial temple/wormhole, Odo went to join the great link, Garek stayed on Cardassia, Dukat died, etc. They'd need to either use a different cast (which would suck) or come up with an excuse to reunite everyone (which would most likely seem ridiculously contrived), which makes a DS9 movie relatively unlikely.
Hasn't Ballmer lost his mind already?
You know, up to this point I wouldn't even slightly consider Dell either (IMO, the only decent laptops are MacBooks and Thinkpads), but if Dell follows through it might be enough to make me change my mind. Who says the OP isn't allowed to change his mind, too?
Cost, apparently. Try re-reading his post more carefully.
So outsource the support! Let Dell make a deal with Novell (or better yet, RedHat or Canonical) for that company to support Linux on Dells, with the support contract included in the purchase of the computer.
Oh, I don't bother with that -- I just use Firefox instead.
Incidentally, that still doesn't match the functionality of Firefox, since you lose the ability to search from the address bar. The only way to really fix it would be to not have a URL for the error "page."
Well, I learned (or most likely, relearned) something today. Thanks. There is, however, one thing about your post that I'd like to dispute:
The fact that the average is 3 million years doesn't mean that you can't test it with something that reproduces much more quickly, like bacteria. (Or maybe the next higher organism than bacteria, since "speciation" is the point at which members of the two groups can't breed with each other, which requires sexual reproduction.) Anyway, the point is that the shortest possible speciation is probably a lot quicker than 3 million years.
Compared to leaving it in the address like Firefox does, IE's practice of forcing me to copy and paste it back from the search field is incredibly (and needlessly!) annoying.
No, Firefox is not doing this! When you type in a domain name that doesn't exist, you get the following:
(Note: "domain name" means something in the form foo.TLD, not just a word. Words get interpreted as search terms, which do get sent to Google.)
Jeez, posting Onion articles That agree with the real article is happening so often now that it's almost becoming a meme! How fucked up can society get?