Damn! I was just about to invite you to visit my comment-enabled website too!
Maybe a better way to put it would be to say it should be up to the person that controls the content then? You kids and your new age "websites" and "comment-enabled" and "inter-webs." As on old timer I was thinking of more of word processing and reports, etc.
This is somewhat a pointless argument in my opinion. It should be whatever I, as the writer, want it to be. Same as line spacing, indents on paragraphs, how much space between paragraphs, etc. I personally think that 2 spaces helps to separate sentences better. Just like anything, I hate it when things like this are dictated by the software package or by HTML. If I want 2 fsking spaces, give me my 2 spaces!
Very good point. I get tired of hearing how Linux needs to be more like Windows. If you want Windows, use Windows. Linux is not Windows and should not aspire to be Windows. Just like the grandparents point on the Android and iPhone. I don't own an Android because it is similar to the iPhone, I own it because it is different.
Mod parent up even though it is already at 5.
This post is spot on. I am an avid Linux user (Slackware) and for the vast majority of what I do and how I like to do it I use Linux. However, I have come to learn that Linux is definitely not for everyone and in my opinion it shouldn't strive to be like Windows. Ubuntu please take note.
Yeah, I've got a 1920x1200 screen and scaling is a bit of an issue on these, but not as much as you may think. There is some proportional issues, but they are mainly due to being accustomed to seeing the same game in the more standard screen sizes.
The clarity and the speed of the laptop display is IMO amazing.
Features are more important than stability to many people.
I think that the only group of people that think that features are more important than stability is the quasi-geeks.
Every normal business user that I know, doesn't give a sh*t about features. They just want to do their job and get on with their lifes. If they can do their job on product 98, they don't want to learn product XP.
The distrubution that I am using is Slackware 9.0. It is not greatly customized, but I have commented out script files to not load things I don't need, ie sendmail, apache, etc, etc.
I don't want to give you the wrong idea either. It may be that my XP could be made more efficient, but I have noticed this with several installs of XP as well as 2000.
I think Microsoft has worked hard on boot up times in 2000/XP. But, I also think that some of it is appearances. The logon screen comes up extremely quick. But it is still loading services for quite some time after that. If I log on to quick, it does not map my drives, because the networking drivers/protocols are not loaded by the time it comes up. I then have to map them individually by hand.
Out of the box, I think that XP is pretty quick, but as you add applications, etc., it seems to get slower and slower.
Anyway, I have never held a stop watch to them. It is hard to measure, because I can have XP up, but the services are still initializing and even clicking on a start menu has about a 5-10 second delay before I see the menu.
I use XP on a daily basis. And I really don't have anything bad to say about it from a stability standpoint. In fact, I think XP is a huge step in the right direction from what was the NT nightmare for me.
I use a laptop, that I haul from work to home each night with dual boot. At work it is almost always Windows, at home almost always Linux w/KDE. And I must disagree with your statement that Windows comes up faster that Linux. Maybe the login comes up faster in Windows, but from power on to where I can actually do something is just as long in Windows as it is in KDE.
And beyond that, I have an older system that I couldn't even get XP installed onto that is running Linux/KDE. Granted, boot up time is about 2:45 but it boots and is useable. (On a side note, the exact same machine boots to xFCe in about 1:45)
I just read the link to the stealth advertising that you gave. I actually don't find this type of advertising objectionable. While it is slightly devious it is better than trying to con me into thinking that all women that drink Miller Lite beer have big boobs...
Anyone that has set up a dvd player such as xine in *nix knows who this guy his. Anyone who hasn't really doesn't care about what he has done or that he was getting sued for it.
I really think his motive in this case was to watch a freaking DVD that he had paid money for on the platform of his choosing.
I wouldn't be able to stand 1900x1600 on a 15.4" screen, BTW.
You haven't seen 1900x1600 on a 15.4" screen then. I run both Linux and Windows on a laptop with this configuration and I have never had a clearer display.
My comment about 512 barely being enough for XP may have been a bit off, but I guess it depends upon your application. Try opening a large autocad drawing with 512MB of memory. As soon as your computer starts paging you may as well go get a cup of coffee cause your gonna be there a while. I have old P3 750s with 1GB of memory that still perform decently in Autocad. It is all about the memory.
Second, the sound card in all laptops are pathetic. I do some basic MIDI and home studio stuff, but even for playback these cards don't give me what I want. I do have very nice headphones and I get okay quality with these.
Finally, laptops are about whatever you want them to be. You want portability? Go get a Sony Viao. You want a desktop replacement? They are available for a price. I've had four laptops that are basic portable desktops. These are almost as powerful as any desktop at the time.
Besides, this whole discussion is about putting a top of the line powerful 64-bit processor in a laptop and then shipping it with XP-home. What good are you getting out of that processor? Then they sorround it with mid-level components. It just doesn't make sense.
Anyway, you make some good arguments. But I will take better sorrounding components than that 64-bit processor.
The price is excellent I have to admit. But the specs seem lagging in areas that to me are just as important as the processor.
A 15.4" display with 1280x800 resolution? Coupled with a ATI 9600 video card.
512MB Memory - This is barely enough to run XP now days.
AC/97 Audio - Actually the sound is the last frontier for all Laptops. I have yet to see a laptop that offers a high quality sound card. I go external.
Anyway, I love seeing the 64-bit processor being put into laptops. But I will wait until I can get one with other high end components to go along with it... and yes, I know I will be paying more than $1500.00 for it.
Just like Chevy vs. Ford it all comes down to personal experience with a product. One bad experience is enough to drive consumers away.
Contrary to your bad experience (and many others from what I have read) with Dell, I have bought quite a few machines from Dell. I have found there support and offerings quite good for my business.
Loyalty or none, if I found a job doing what I do for:
1. A little more
2. Opportunity
I'd interview.
Yeah, I tried to imply that loyalty is a two-way street, but maybe that didn't come across. But I have seen a lot of people work a job for 6 months, find out that it is not 100% perfect and start looking elsewhere. You'd better have a damn good reason for each of those stints that you took. Six years OTOH shows that you at least are trying to keep up with your side of the bargain.
I should also clarify that I own a small business with app. 50 employees. There is a world of difference between my small-beans organization and a public corporation. I can keep tabs on people and it is quite easy to make sure that there are no "ceilings."
I have interviewed alot of people in the past years. Some of these people have worked for competitors that I have had little to no respect for. That does not matted though. What I think hurts more is having job durations of six months at a dozen locations.
The items I look for in hiring are:
Attitude - People can aqcuire knowledge and skills, as long as they have a decent attitude.
Loyalty - If your previous employer was involved in something illegal or you were seriously underappreciated at your old job that is one thing, but to leave a decent job for a bit of a raise shows where your loyalties lie.
Skills - Depending upon the job a certain set of skills is going to be required. But I would let this item slide a tad in return for a positive attitude.
If you are honestly doing your job and have nothing to do with any corrupt or questionable business practices, would you really want to work for a place that blacklists you based upon your commited work to a percieved "unethical" orginization?
It would be nice to see a review of this extent at least mention a few laptop video cards. Laptops video cards have really progressed, but how do they compare to their desktop counterparts?
Obviously, the desktop cards are always going to be ahead of the curve considerably, but does the 4200GO perform similar to the 4200 cards? For everything I do, this seems to be a pretty solid card, but I always wonder what kind of power I am giving up by going to a laptop only setup.
I also have the Dell 8200 which I would not recommend for this use. The 8200 is a true desktop replacement and probably draws as much power as most desktops sans the monitor.
I do think a laptop would be the best approach however. Just look for a more power conservative model. Sony makes a viao (sp?) model that probably is pretty easy on the power, because almost every thing is a peripheral.
Slashdot Mirror
Excellent point. Hopefully it is something that Google is thinking about. Out of curiosity, I wonder how Bing does for this?
Damn! I was just about to invite you to visit my comment-enabled website too! Maybe a better way to put it would be to say it should be up to the person that controls the content then? You kids and your new age "websites" and "comment-enabled" and "inter-webs." As on old timer I was thinking of more of word processing and reports, etc.
This is somewhat a pointless argument in my opinion. It should be whatever I, as the writer, want it to be. Same as line spacing, indents on paragraphs, how much space between paragraphs, etc. I personally think that 2 spaces helps to separate sentences better. Just like anything, I hate it when things like this are dictated by the software package or by HTML. If I want 2 fsking spaces, give me my 2 spaces!
Very good point. I get tired of hearing how Linux needs to be more like Windows. If you want Windows, use Windows. Linux is not Windows and should not aspire to be Windows. Just like the grandparents point on the Android and iPhone. I don't own an Android because it is similar to the iPhone, I own it because it is different.
Mod parent up even though it is already at 5. This post is spot on. I am an avid Linux user (Slackware) and for the vast majority of what I do and how I like to do it I use Linux. However, I have come to learn that Linux is definitely not for everyone and in my opinion it shouldn't strive to be like Windows. Ubuntu please take note.
Very well said. They need to have the basic skills, but personality and overall mesh into the company can't be overvalued.
The clarity and the speed of the laptop display is IMO amazing.
I took the liberty of posting a link to this entry to Slashdot... enjoy the traffic :-)
Why not add an dr. evil laugh onto the end of that...
Like you said the only mention of linux was #5 and then they quote the CEO of the company!? Good stuff...
I think that the only group of people that think that features are more important than stability is the quasi-geeks.
Every normal business user that I know, doesn't give a sh*t about features. They just want to do their job and get on with their lifes. If they can do their job on product 98, they don't want to learn product XP.
The distrubution that I am using is Slackware 9.0. It is not greatly customized, but I have commented out script files to not load things I don't need, ie sendmail, apache, etc, etc.
I don't want to give you the wrong idea either. It may be that my XP could be made more efficient, but I have noticed this with several installs of XP as well as 2000.
I think Microsoft has worked hard on boot up times in 2000/XP. But, I also think that some of it is appearances. The logon screen comes up extremely quick. But it is still loading services for quite some time after that. If I log on to quick, it does not map my drives, because the networking drivers/protocols are not loaded by the time it comes up. I then have to map them individually by hand.
Out of the box, I think that XP is pretty quick, but as you add applications, etc., it seems to get slower and slower.
Anyway, I have never held a stop watch to them. It is hard to measure, because I can have XP up, but the services are still initializing and even clicking on a start menu has about a 5-10 second delay before I see the menu.
I use a laptop, that I haul from work to home each night with dual boot. At work it is almost always Windows, at home almost always Linux w/KDE. And I must disagree with your statement that Windows comes up faster that Linux. Maybe the login comes up faster in Windows, but from power on to where I can actually do something is just as long in Windows as it is in KDE.
And beyond that, I have an older system that I couldn't even get XP installed onto that is running Linux/KDE. Granted, boot up time is about 2:45 but it boots and is useable. (On a side note, the exact same machine boots to xFCe in about 1:45)
I just read the link to the stealth advertising that you gave. I actually don't find this type of advertising objectionable. While it is slightly devious it is better than trying to con me into thinking that all women that drink Miller Lite beer have big boobs...
I really think his motive in this case was to watch a freaking DVD that he had paid money for on the platform of his choosing.
All hail DVD-Jon
You haven't seen 1900x1600 on a 15.4" screen then. I run both Linux and Windows on a laptop with this configuration and I have never had a clearer display.
Second, the sound card in all laptops are pathetic. I do some basic MIDI and home studio stuff, but even for playback these cards don't give me what I want. I do have very nice headphones and I get okay quality with these.
Finally, laptops are about whatever you want them to be. You want portability? Go get a Sony Viao. You want a desktop replacement? They are available for a price. I've had four laptops that are basic portable desktops. These are almost as powerful as any desktop at the time.
Besides, this whole discussion is about putting a top of the line powerful 64-bit processor in a laptop and then shipping it with XP-home. What good are you getting out of that processor? Then they sorround it with mid-level components. It just doesn't make sense.
Anyway, you make some good arguments. But I will take better sorrounding components than that 64-bit processor.
A 15.4" display with 1280x800 resolution? Coupled with a ATI 9600 video card.
512MB Memory - This is barely enough to run XP now days.
AC/97 Audio - Actually the sound is the last frontier for all Laptops. I have yet to see a laptop that offers a high quality sound card. I go external.
Anyway, I love seeing the 64-bit processor being put into laptops. But I will wait until I can get one with other high end components to go along with it... and yes, I know I will be paying more than $1500.00 for it.
Contrary to your bad experience (and many others from what I have read) with Dell, I have bought quite a few machines from Dell. I have found there support and offerings quite good for my business.
Yeah, I tried to imply that loyalty is a two-way street, but maybe that didn't come across. But I have seen a lot of people work a job for 6 months, find out that it is not 100% perfect and start looking elsewhere. You'd better have a damn good reason for each of those stints that you took. Six years OTOH shows that you at least are trying to keep up with your side of the bargain.
I should also clarify that I own a small business with app. 50 employees. There is a world of difference between my small-beans organization and a public corporation. I can keep tabs on people and it is quite easy to make sure that there are no "ceilings."
Anyhow, I appreciate your view point
The items I look for in hiring are:
If you are honestly doing your job and have nothing to do with any corrupt or questionable business practices, would you really want to work for a place that blacklists you based upon your commited work to a percieved "unethical" orginization?
Obviously, the desktop cards are always going to be ahead of the curve considerably, but does the 4200GO perform similar to the 4200 cards? For everything I do, this seems to be a pretty solid card, but I always wonder what kind of power I am giving up by going to a laptop only setup.
Uh... did you look at the G-spot add?
I do think a laptop would be the best approach however. Just look for a more power conservative model. Sony makes a viao (sp?) model that probably is pretty easy on the power, because almost every thing is a peripheral.
Okay, your comment is kind of funny, but your sig is great! I was thinking the same thing the other day when I saw the ad for the slashdot personnels.
Thanks for the link. This looks to be exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully, I will get some time over the holidays to try this out.