So what's it missing? All the tools you need are available for free on the Mac (at least it used to be) and Linux. There's a Professional Edition, and like Microsoft's marketing genius, an "Ultimate Edition" (which I assume has everything and the kitchen sink...heh.) but I can't see a feature comparison against Express v. the paid versions.
5 years ago it was a CLI compiler that had plenty of shortcomings (compared to the paid version). It appears they're getting better, but they still have a TON of way to go... As always YMMV, etc etc.
I hate to be "one of them", but you're doing it wrong. I haven't run into dependency issues, well, ever. I didn't half-install, self-install, check somewhere else... I let the package manager do the heavy lifting for me. I have a couple of from-source apps I install, but for the rest... apt. You could do that just as easily with rpm... or you can go the whole source route and as long as you following the distro's packaging rules, you shouldn't have dependency issues, even in the "cooker" version (or "unstable" depending upon what distro you choose.) It's not as difficult as it sounds... and there are a myriad of graphical tools to help if the command line is too archaic for you (I personally love the terminal... the command line's where the power's at....)
I chose Debian Squeeze when I migrated to 64-bit machines simply because it was the most stable for my taste. Sure it's not bleeding edge, but I use the Firefox (iceweasel) repository for late-breaking Firefox installs and things work just fine. I changed the power supply and video card of my primary Debian machine, otherwise it'd have an uptime of over 100 days...
As for mainstream applications, there are equivalents to most mainstream applications. If you're a hardcore graphic artist or whatnot, certainly there aren't any apps that compare with the very expensive commercial offerings, though for quite a bit of their functionality, the Gimp isn't terrible. I use Abiword and gnumeric (no need for a full fledged office application)... and other than iTunes (which can be duplicated with more than one app in the Linux world), I can't think of any app that isn't available. But if there is, that's the beauty of it all... there are a myriad of free tools to roll one's own. I rather like the free developer tools.:) Microsoft could go a long way if they just stopped selling Visual Studio.... give it away so you can get the dev tools in the hands of those who need it (and have the most time to make apps for you...):)
One word: Fluxbox. Highly customizable, but not so cluttered that the options get in the way. The configuration is simple to understand and even if you don't change a thing, it works "out of the box"....
But you probably won't listen to me because I'm a rabid Linux fan...
It's always funny that positive anecdotal evidence trumps negative anecdotal evidence... I forget the ratio, though. The truth is, Toshiba, like every other computer manufacturer, has its ups and downs (and its lemons), but consistent quality is lacking these days in Toshiba products. They used to be better. Factual data accumulated over many years proves that fact. Not "I got a laptop I shit on daily and it still works, even though it smells like burnt shit." Get over it yourself, AC troll.
For me, I have been converted to the dual analog stick for FPSes.:) And I think the speed at which you have to react in an RTS is made much easier with a trackball... My KVM (alas, only 4 port) is a USB one.:) I caught a sale @ amazon.com....
I'm going to have to try Doom 2 with a trackball.:)
It's 20% now, because the EU is picking up the slack to being China's biggest export market. We used to be 25% upwards of 30% in the past... while we are not their top market at the moment, if they lost our market, it would still be a significant problem for China. Even 20% is nothing to sneeze at. Thank goodness they only hold 8% of our debt.:)
The Government (under Clinton) provided the groundwork for the subprime crisis to begin with by rewriting the CRA and reapplying it to REQUIRE a certain percentage of loans to go to those who would otherwise not qualify. Remember, the CRA was signed into law by Carter. The rules and regulations of the CRA were tweaked by successive administrations to reel it in, or in the case of Clinton, to let more line out so the artificial bubble he rode during his 2nd term was intact (by perception) when he left office. That plus the 2004 SEC allowing these banks to borrow against 30x their working capital did a number on the economy. To say the Shrub was solely responsible is just like Obama saying Shrub caused him to run up the deficit at 4x the rate Shrub did. The concepts of the subprime crisis cross party lines, because most of the regulatory response to the Progressives' mis-characterization of Wall Street "being above the law" have done and will do nothing to fix the underlying problem that government meddling in the banking system is never for the reasons stated.
It works great for Civilization, Warcraft, Total Annihilation... but then again, I haven't ever tried it on an FPS. (Playing Morrowind on this trackball's grandaddy was pleasant enough, though.) I'm left handed too.:) I have been unimpressed with mice since the old logitech cordless ones (with real balls... heh.)
Good. Gridlock keeps them from fucking it up more than they already have. Obama had two years of majority support and look where that got us. Too bad the Senate is leaning more Blue than Red... because I'd rather see filibusters and tabling of bills than any more legislation from the entire lot of these bums.
Just because he doesn't wear "magic underpants" doesn't mean he won't bomb the shit out of every brown person he can with his "wonderfully successful" drone attack program that he touts as "precision strikes"... And I don't give two shits what the slashdot crowd thinks, he murdered two American citizens in Yemen. The President doesn't get to decide who lives and dies...
Nope... Syria or Iran. Or Libya. But not Iraq. So, 6 in one hand, half-dozen in the other. I think Al Gore would've been just like Clinton was in Bosnia... shoot first, ask permission later. Why would there be any debate about this, considering Al Gore's pre-movie career policies and stated platforms?
Yes. Because quite frankly the entire business is horse shit. I'm not singling out the two US citizens because I think other people aren't entitled to these rights. I am singling them out because it is a concrete example of the gross violations of the US government's power and a symptom of a much larger problem in the US. Respect for the Constitution.
You seem to be generally misinformed on this matter, so here are a few things. The Congress passed the resolution noted in the following document: Authorization For Use Of Military Force in Response to the 9/11 Attacks [fas.org]. The Supreme Court of the United States has held this type of Congressional authorization to be equivalent to a declaration of war.
No, it is you who is misinformed. The Supreme Court did not say it was equivalent to the declaration of war, but that it satisfied the War Powers Act that the President required Congressional approval to use military force. Nothing about that means it is a formal declaration of war (against who? A group of people? We generally don't declare war on some folks... usually it's a nation, and yes, we destroyed the Barbary Pirates, but that could be argued was a "nation" of itself, operating in a certain area... not this nebulous nonsense of "Al Qaeda" everywhere...)
And incidentally even in a formal declaration of war, the government is NOT allowed to violate anyone's 5th Amendment Rights. (“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”) This is not "unless we're at war", or "unless we're attacking some bad people." It means NEVER. The US government usurped its authority and Obama violated the Constitutional Rights of two American citizens. The fact that you can continue to argue otherwise makes me sad for America. You have no idea what you're blathering about when it comes to government authority, and I suspect you will continue to claim the government is in its right to upend the bill of rights when we're "fighting the enemy". Nope. Never. Not even on a dare. I don't see how you can't grasp this. I don't care if he raped babies in the name of Allah, his Constitutional Rights are not up for sale so we can wipe him out.
As for surrender, considering the current vigor with which the current (and previous) administration goes after "bad guys"... do you think his approach to the Embassy would have been peaceful? Yeah... that'd work. I am not defending what these people did. I am pointing out that our government doesn't have the right to take away citizens' constitutional rights simply because they are "bad people." Sorry... the government doesn't get exceptions or free passes when it comes to the Constitution.
Let me repeat one thing for the cheap seats (and you, since you're so thick-headed) the government is NOT allowed to violate anyone's 5th Amendment Rights. (“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”). Get it?
Oh and that "not surrender" shit? How can you surrender to a drone? We didn't try to arrest him with the help of Yemen. We targeted him and his son and blew them away. Sorry... that argument holds NO water either.
Most Americans aren't. And that is a shame. First, let's just break this down. How do we know he took arms up against the US? Did he start shooting troops and bombing buildings in the US? If he did, how do we know he did? Because the President said he did? Or because he is an asshole who spouted shit? Whether or not the person is a militant asswipe or a blustering fool is not for the President to decide, precisely since there IS NO WAR declared here. So how can this person take up arms against the US? Did I miss the Congressional approval and declaration of war? I don't think I did. Remember that army doctor who opened fire at Fort Hood? Why was he not taken to the woods and shot... or hanged for "taking up arms against the US?" Because he is a CITIZEN and entitled to a fair trial, no matter how stupidly guilty we think he is. I can't believe you're ACTUALLY arguing these people deserved it and their rights can be taken away by the President... It boggles the mind what idiots troll Slashdot.
I don't give a shit how stupid this guy was, or how fucking sick in the head he was for believing the shit he spouted. He did not deserve to have his Constitutional rights as a citizen trampled like they were. Pure and simple, the Obama administration wanted to try fucking non-citizens in US courts... yet he bombs the shit out of a citizen?
Whatever he did, purported to do, thought about doing, tried to do, doesn't matter. Neither we nor the President has the power to rob him of his due process under the Constitution. How is this not bothering you? Sure, he was a jerk and the world is better off now that he's dead, but when does it stop?
Oh let me repeat this... there has been NO declaration of war. None. Congress has not declared war. Period. So you can try and weasel that in all you want, but it's not legal. Remember Jane Fonda? Why was she not arrested during Vietnam? Oh that's right. NO WAR was declared. So the powers available to the government during wartime were not in effect. What the President did was wrong and he should stand trial for it. Period. Is this too hard for you? Maybe I should draw it in crayon so you can see which rights the President violated..... Would that help? I'm sorry, but you amaze the shit out of me... I didn't think there were otherwise intelligent people siding with Obama on this murder. Sorry, it's murder. And with the NDAA, you could be next... or at least left to rot in prison forever... or I could be next, because I'm critical of his highness. People blasted Bush for the expansion of executive power, but I haven't heard a fucking PEEP about it when Obama doesn't just do the same stuff. He EXPANDS it. Bush never ordered the drone assassination of a citizen. Guess "change" means for the worse... not for the better.
Do any of you believe that any of these "third-party" candidates are particularly impressive all-around?
I'd love to see more 3rd party candidates in local elections, but these parties (Libertarian, Green, Constitution) are putting the platforms out there the best they can, using the Presidential election as the stage. Once the platforms are clarified, people hopefully will start to listen and see if these alternatives are actually good, or just a bunch of hot air. We get that going, perhaps we'll see more local and state races fielding third party candidates.
I guess I'm saying "you have to start somewhere" and the local races will come when the message gets out to the most people. Is there a chance the messages are rejected? Sure, because there are some misconceptions about Libertarians and Greens (Libertarians aren't all anarcho-capitalists), and not all Greens want you to live in tents and eat bark. Just like not all Democrats are total wealth-redistributors, and not all Republicans are neo-cons. I want the Libertarian and Green party to take enough of the cake that makes the major parties unable to get "by" with the bullshit we currently have. Sure it's a pipe dream now, but you have to have a dream.:)
I'm in a "Romney-lock" state, and I gave Gary Johnson my vote. I shudder at 4 more years of Obama (why is no one fuming over Obama's killing of two American citizens with drones?), but I am not under any delusion that Romney would be different.
I don't get the idea that my vote is wasted. It sends a message. If enough of us sent the message.... well, we'd let them know we're still in charge.
Thanks for the support. I sometimes get blank stares when people hear what I do with computers in my spare time.:) My only weakness is my desire to find the perfect keyboard.:) I had one once... but I traded it for some other parts many moons ago.
Really, that's what I did with the Dell. I wanted a 64-bit machine on the cheap that had decent hard drive space out of the box, but was standard enough to upgrade when I need it (I've had this Dell now for about 2 years or so.) I also check barebone bundle prices from time to time just to see if there's a great deal I can't live without (so far, my price ceiling is about $400.):) I know there are a few bundles I am keeping my eye on, but I haven't found a need for an 8-core Athlon with 16GB of memory.:) At least not yet, of course....
I love to tinker, too. Proprietary cases annoy me... they have to be pretty cheap to be worth my time.:)
Ever since I swore off Apple products (thank you OS X Lion for that revelation...), I've been repurposing and having a blast.
I spent $300 on a scratch and dent Dell Athlon (from the Dell Outlet, with surprisingly few scratches), put Debian on it, added 2GB of RAM (for a total of 6), a $35 power supply upgrade and a $20 video card off eBay.:) My secondary machine is an original Athlon XP I got for $40 off eBay, also running Squeeze. (It needs more RAM though.)
I always have a distant plan to build another system in the near future (something with oodles of RAM and enough processor cores to choke a horse), but in reality, my machines are running fabulously... Even my $70 Dell optiplex I bought from a friend so I could make it my "GOG.com game machine".:) I find goofing around with these older machines fun. And with Debian Squeeze (and fluxbox)... I could still be using a Pentium III 800mhz (which I plan to repurpose as a NAS for my LAN...) Old PCs have plenty of life left in them...
I was reading a Debian developer's blog a while back (the name of the blog and the developer escape me at the moment), but he wrote a great piece about keeping hardware and getting the most out of what you already have, rather than going into debt to be "cutting edge" for 15 minutes. I am not doing this because I'm some sort of eco-terrorist who wants to blow up SUV dealerships and live in a tree. Rather, I'm a person who likes to get his money's worth. And with my computers I have now, I get the most bang for my buck, and with low margin PC sales dominating... I can do it without breaking the bank.:)
This was not to say that those folks on the bleeding edge are somehow idiots and have too much money... I just found a neat way to continue my hobby and keep costs to a minimum.:)
But how is "the cloud" not like say, a post office box, or a key-locker in a bus station or whatnot? There is no precedent that while you're paying for the space, the property becomes the Post Office's or the Bus company's, so why when it turns to "bits", everyone wants to treat it differently?
They want to treat IP like property.... but only if you're not an individual citizen. That's reserved for paying members of the crony club.:)
Slashdot Mirror
So what's it missing? All the tools you need are available for free on the Mac (at least it used to be) and Linux. There's a Professional Edition, and like Microsoft's marketing genius, an "Ultimate Edition" (which I assume has everything and the kitchen sink...heh.) but I can't see a feature comparison against Express v. the paid versions.
5 years ago it was a CLI compiler that had plenty of shortcomings (compared to the paid version). It appears they're getting better, but they still have a TON of way to go... As always YMMV, etc etc.
For fuck's sake... the words "Recreational" and "suppositories" should not be used in the same sentence... it just shouldn't.
No, hardcore gamers play Nethack.
Give ME a fucking break...
I hate to be "one of them", but you're doing it wrong. I haven't run into dependency issues, well, ever. I didn't half-install, self-install, check somewhere else... I let the package manager do the heavy lifting for me. I have a couple of from-source apps I install, but for the rest... apt. You could do that just as easily with rpm... or you can go the whole source route and as long as you following the distro's packaging rules, you shouldn't have dependency issues, even in the "cooker" version (or "unstable" depending upon what distro you choose.) It's not as difficult as it sounds... and there are a myriad of graphical tools to help if the command line is too archaic for you (I personally love the terminal... the command line's where the power's at....)
I chose Debian Squeeze when I migrated to 64-bit machines simply because it was the most stable for my taste. Sure it's not bleeding edge, but I use the Firefox (iceweasel) repository for late-breaking Firefox installs and things work just fine. I changed the power supply and video card of my primary Debian machine, otherwise it'd have an uptime of over 100 days...
As for mainstream applications, there are equivalents to most mainstream applications. If you're a hardcore graphic artist or whatnot, certainly there aren't any apps that compare with the very expensive commercial offerings, though for quite a bit of their functionality, the Gimp isn't terrible. I use Abiword and gnumeric (no need for a full fledged office application)... and other than iTunes (which can be duplicated with more than one app in the Linux world), I can't think of any app that isn't available. But if there is, that's the beauty of it all... there are a myriad of free tools to roll one's own. I rather like the free developer tools. :) Microsoft could go a long way if they just stopped selling Visual Studio.... give it away so you can get the dev tools in the hands of those who need it (and have the most time to make apps for you...) :)
One word: Fluxbox. Highly customizable, but not so cluttered that the options get in the way. The configuration is simple to understand and even if you don't change a thing, it works "out of the box"....
But you probably won't listen to me because I'm a rabid Linux fan...
It's always funny that positive anecdotal evidence trumps negative anecdotal evidence... I forget the ratio, though. The truth is, Toshiba, like every other computer manufacturer, has its ups and downs (and its lemons), but consistent quality is lacking these days in Toshiba products. They used to be better. Factual data accumulated over many years proves that fact. Not "I got a laptop I shit on daily and it still works, even though it smells like burnt shit." Get over it yourself, AC troll.
For me, I have been converted to the dual analog stick for FPSes. :) And I think the speed at which you have to react in an RTS is made much easier with a trackball... My KVM (alas, only 4 port) is a USB one. :) I caught a sale @ amazon.com....
I'm going to have to try Doom 2 with a trackball. :)
It's 20% now, because the EU is picking up the slack to being China's biggest export market. We used to be 25% upwards of 30% in the past... while we are not their top market at the moment, if they lost our market, it would still be a significant problem for China. Even 20% is nothing to sneeze at. Thank goodness they only hold 8% of our debt. :)
You mean Great Britain? No, France. Oh, wait... you meant Germany, surely.....
The Government (under Clinton) provided the groundwork for the subprime crisis to begin with by rewriting the CRA and reapplying it to REQUIRE a certain percentage of loans to go to those who would otherwise not qualify. Remember, the CRA was signed into law by Carter. The rules and regulations of the CRA were tweaked by successive administrations to reel it in, or in the case of Clinton, to let more line out so the artificial bubble he rode during his 2nd term was intact (by perception) when he left office. That plus the 2004 SEC allowing these banks to borrow against 30x their working capital did a number on the economy. To say the Shrub was solely responsible is just like Obama saying Shrub caused him to run up the deficit at 4x the rate Shrub did. The concepts of the subprime crisis cross party lines, because most of the regulatory response to the Progressives' mis-characterization of Wall Street "being above the law" have done and will do nothing to fix the underlying problem that government meddling in the banking system is never for the reasons stated.
I use this one:
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/trackballs/wireless-trackball-m570
It works great for Civilization, Warcraft, Total Annihilation... but then again, I haven't ever tried it on an FPS. (Playing Morrowind on this trackball's grandaddy was pleasant enough, though.) I'm left handed too. :) I have been unimpressed with mice since the old logitech cordless ones (with real balls... heh.)
Good. Gridlock keeps them from fucking it up more than they already have. Obama had two years of majority support and look where that got us. Too bad the Senate is leaning more Blue than Red... because I'd rather see filibusters and tabling of bills than any more legislation from the entire lot of these bums.
Just because he doesn't wear "magic underpants" doesn't mean he won't bomb the shit out of every brown person he can with his "wonderfully successful" drone attack program that he touts as "precision strikes"... And I don't give two shits what the slashdot crowd thinks, he murdered two American citizens in Yemen. The President doesn't get to decide who lives and dies...
Welcome to the new world...
Nope... Syria or Iran. Or Libya. But not Iraq. So, 6 in one hand, half-dozen in the other. I think Al Gore would've been just like Clinton was in Bosnia... shoot first, ask permission later. Why would there be any debate about this, considering Al Gore's pre-movie career policies and stated platforms?
Sure.. the right to vote for one, the part where you have to be a native born citizen to become President... that sort of thing.
The Bill of Rights applies to all humans. I never argued otherwise.
Yes. Because quite frankly the entire business is horse shit. I'm not singling out the two US citizens because I think other people aren't entitled to these rights. I am singling them out because it is a concrete example of the gross violations of the US government's power and a symptom of a much larger problem in the US. Respect for the Constitution.
You seem to be generally misinformed on this matter, so here are a few things. The Congress passed the resolution noted in the following document: Authorization For Use Of Military Force in Response to the 9/11 Attacks [fas.org]. The Supreme Court of the United States has held this type of Congressional authorization to be equivalent to a declaration of war.
No, it is you who is misinformed. The Supreme Court did not say it was equivalent to the declaration of war, but that it satisfied the War Powers Act that the President required Congressional approval to use military force. Nothing about that means it is a formal declaration of war (against who? A group of people? We generally don't declare war on some folks... usually it's a nation, and yes, we destroyed the Barbary Pirates, but that could be argued was a "nation" of itself, operating in a certain area... not this nebulous nonsense of "Al Qaeda" everywhere...)
And incidentally even in a formal declaration of war, the government is NOT allowed to violate anyone's 5th Amendment Rights. (“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”) This is not "unless we're at war", or "unless we're attacking some bad people." It means NEVER. The US government usurped its authority and Obama violated the Constitutional Rights of two American citizens. The fact that you can continue to argue otherwise makes me sad for America. You have no idea what you're blathering about when it comes to government authority, and I suspect you will continue to claim the government is in its right to upend the bill of rights when we're "fighting the enemy". Nope. Never. Not even on a dare. I don't see how you can't grasp this. I don't care if he raped babies in the name of Allah, his Constitutional Rights are not up for sale so we can wipe him out.
As for surrender, considering the current vigor with which the current (and previous) administration goes after "bad guys"... do you think his approach to the Embassy would have been peaceful? Yeah... that'd work. I am not defending what these people did. I am pointing out that our government doesn't have the right to take away citizens' constitutional rights simply because they are "bad people." Sorry... the government doesn't get exceptions or free passes when it comes to the Constitution.
Let me repeat one thing for the cheap seats (and you, since you're so thick-headed) the government is NOT allowed to violate anyone's 5th Amendment Rights. (“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”). Get it?
Oh and that "not surrender" shit? How can you surrender to a drone? We didn't try to arrest him with the help of Yemen. We targeted him and his son and blew them away. Sorry... that argument holds NO water either.
Most Americans aren't.
And that is a shame. First, let's just break this down. How do we know he took arms up against the US? Did he start shooting troops and bombing buildings in the US? If he did, how do we know he did? Because the President said he did? Or because he is an asshole who spouted shit? Whether or not the person is a militant asswipe or a blustering fool is not for the President to decide, precisely since there IS NO WAR declared here. So how can this person take up arms against the US? Did I miss the Congressional approval and declaration of war? I don't think I did. Remember that army doctor who opened fire at Fort Hood? Why was he not taken to the woods and shot... or hanged for "taking up arms against the US?" Because he is a CITIZEN and entitled to a fair trial, no matter how stupidly guilty we think he is. I can't believe you're ACTUALLY arguing these people deserved it and their rights can be taken away by the President... It boggles the mind what idiots troll Slashdot.
I don't give a shit how stupid this guy was, or how fucking sick in the head he was for believing the shit he spouted. He did not deserve to have his Constitutional rights as a citizen trampled like they were. Pure and simple, the Obama administration wanted to try fucking non-citizens in US courts... yet he bombs the shit out of a citizen?
Whatever he did, purported to do, thought about doing, tried to do, doesn't matter. Neither we nor the President has the power to rob him of his due process under the Constitution. How is this not bothering you? Sure, he was a jerk and the world is better off now that he's dead, but when does it stop?
Oh let me repeat this... there has been NO declaration of war. None. Congress has not declared war. Period. So you can try and weasel that in all you want, but it's not legal. Remember Jane Fonda? Why was she not arrested during Vietnam? Oh that's right. NO WAR was declared. So the powers available to the government during wartime were not in effect. What the President did was wrong and he should stand trial for it. Period. Is this too hard for you? Maybe I should draw it in crayon so you can see which rights the President violated..... Would that help? I'm sorry, but you amaze the shit out of me... I didn't think there were otherwise intelligent people siding with Obama on this murder. Sorry, it's murder. And with the NDAA, you could be next... or at least left to rot in prison forever... or I could be next, because I'm critical of his highness. People blasted Bush for the expansion of executive power, but I haven't heard a fucking PEEP about it when Obama doesn't just do the same stuff. He EXPANDS it. Bush never ordered the drone assassination of a citizen. Guess "change" means for the worse... not for the better.
Do any of you believe that any of these "third-party" candidates are particularly impressive all-around?
I'd love to see more 3rd party candidates in local elections, but these parties (Libertarian, Green, Constitution) are putting the platforms out there the best they can, using the Presidential election as the stage. Once the platforms are clarified, people hopefully will start to listen and see if these alternatives are actually good, or just a bunch of hot air. We get that going, perhaps we'll see more local and state races fielding third party candidates.
I guess I'm saying "you have to start somewhere" and the local races will come when the message gets out to the most people. Is there a chance the messages are rejected? Sure, because there are some misconceptions about Libertarians and Greens (Libertarians aren't all anarcho-capitalists), and not all Greens want you to live in tents and eat bark. Just like not all Democrats are total wealth-redistributors, and not all Republicans are neo-cons. I want the Libertarian and Green party to take enough of the cake that makes the major parties unable to get "by" with the bullshit we currently have. Sure it's a pipe dream now, but you have to have a dream. :)
I'm in a "Romney-lock" state, and I gave Gary Johnson my vote. I shudder at 4 more years of Obama (why is no one fuming over Obama's killing of two American citizens with drones?), but I am not under any delusion that Romney would be different.
I don't get the idea that my vote is wasted. It sends a message. If enough of us sent the message.... well, we'd let them know we're still in charge.
Thanks for the support. I sometimes get blank stares when people hear what I do with computers in my spare time. :) My only weakness is my desire to find the perfect keyboard. :) I had one once... but I traded it for some other parts many moons ago.
Really, that's what I did with the Dell. I wanted a 64-bit machine on the cheap that had decent hard drive space out of the box, but was standard enough to upgrade when I need it (I've had this Dell now for about 2 years or so.) I also check barebone bundle prices from time to time just to see if there's a great deal I can't live without (so far, my price ceiling is about $400.) :) I know there are a few bundles I am keeping my eye on, but I haven't found a need for an 8-core Athlon with 16GB of memory. :) At least not yet, of course....
I love to tinker, too. Proprietary cases annoy me... they have to be pretty cheap to be worth my time. :)
Ever since I swore off Apple products (thank you OS X Lion for that revelation...), I've been repurposing and having a blast.
I spent $300 on a scratch and dent Dell Athlon (from the Dell Outlet, with surprisingly few scratches), put Debian on it, added 2GB of RAM (for a total of 6), a $35 power supply upgrade and a $20 video card off eBay. :) My secondary machine is an original Athlon XP I got for $40 off eBay, also running Squeeze. (It needs more RAM though.)
I always have a distant plan to build another system in the near future (something with oodles of RAM and enough processor cores to choke a horse), but in reality, my machines are running fabulously... Even my $70 Dell optiplex I bought from a friend so I could make it my "GOG.com game machine". :) I find goofing around with these older machines fun. And with Debian Squeeze (and fluxbox)... I could still be using a Pentium III 800mhz (which I plan to repurpose as a NAS for my LAN...) Old PCs have plenty of life left in them...
I was reading a Debian developer's blog a while back (the name of the blog and the developer escape me at the moment), but he wrote a great piece about keeping hardware and getting the most out of what you already have, rather than going into debt to be "cutting edge" for 15 minutes. I am not doing this because I'm some sort of eco-terrorist who wants to blow up SUV dealerships and live in a tree. Rather, I'm a person who likes to get his money's worth. And with my computers I have now, I get the most bang for my buck, and with low margin PC sales dominating... I can do it without breaking the bank. :)
This was not to say that those folks on the bleeding edge are somehow idiots and have too much money... I just found a neat way to continue my hobby and keep costs to a minimum. :)
But how is "the cloud" not like say, a post office box, or a key-locker in a bus station or whatnot? There is no precedent that while you're paying for the space, the property becomes the Post Office's or the Bus company's, so why when it turns to "bits", everyone wants to treat it differently?
They want to treat IP like property.... but only if you're not an individual citizen. That's reserved for paying members of the crony club. :)