I would simply ask the question of how often you upgrade your machine, and how much you pay versus the cost of a new machine with all new components?
I couldnt give you a fixed date the last time a built a computer from scratch, probably 7-8 years ago. it's all just been a stream of small incremental upgrades, slowly replacing every bit of it. i dont think there's a single component in my computer that's been their since the initial build, aside from maybe one of the hdds. mostly it's a result of components becoming faulty, or getting hand-me-downs from friends who game. I'm not a pc gamer anymore so I always by the low to mid range stuff, cutting edge is a waste of money for my needs. I've probably spent AU$200 on it in the past two years and the specs shit all over a mac mini (which would cost me about ~AU$1000). I'd be happy to spend AU$1500-2000 on a headless, properly upgradable mac, but until they offer it I'll just keep on buying mac laptops and keep my desktop hardware compatible with the osx so it can stay a hackintosh. admittedly they'll probably never sell what i want because people like me would buy it and then upgrade it for the next 5-10 years, which means no more income for apple over that period
Corporate emails at my work consist of endless top-posting after re-top-posting that must be read from the bottom to the top to make any sense of the mess.
I hate top posting. the only thing worse than top posting, is when there's one person insisting on using the opposite posting style in reply to an email with many replies already in one style. (ie. top posting in reply to a bottom posted email thread/bottom posting in reply to a top-posted email thread) Then you cant just read bottom to top (or top to bottom), instead you need to jump all over the friggin' place to follow the conversation.
I keep hearing how XYZ's captcha got broken, and the method is used by malicious entities to do A,B and C. why hasn't someone made a Firefox plugin to do these for end users? if the bots dont have to mess around with the annoying distorted images or listening to a soundbite and working out what it says, why do humans still have to?
sure, I want a mac pro. but I'm (thankfully) not one of those idiots that live their lives on credit spending way beyond their means, so instead I built a hackintosh. while we're talking about wants, I want a macbook pro, but again, it's outside my price range so instead I settled for a regular macbook.
now for the second part, you seem to be trying to convince me i want a non-upgradable laptop that looks like a desktop. can I replace the graphics card? nope. can I easily replace the processor with something faster once faster chips are cheap? nope. can I use the monitor for my next pc when the imac is no longer fast enough? nope.
the imac is great for your grandma, and people like her who dont know how their computer works and will never consider upgrading, but this is slashdot. upgrading computer's is something most of us have been doing since high school. I know what I and many others want, and it's not an imac or a mac mini. it's something between the mini and the mac pro.
no matter how you configure it it still has a quad core xeon processor and buffered ECC memory which is overkill for most, and hideously overpriced compared to the consumer grade equivalents.
lets just say that the cheapest configured mac pro with edu discount is $2k (it's more, but lets stick with round numbers), and lets say that the psystar clone is $500 (it's less, but again round numbers). I can handle paying an apple premium, sometimes as much as 30-40% extra for the exact same components because it's from apple, but 300% extra is pushing it a little far. what's that I hear? the specs arent comparable? that's exactly my point. dont want or need a mac pro, it's complete overkill when I just want a graphics card and an extra internal drive. I'd be completely happy with an expandable mini
let us know how installing 4-6 desktop SATA drives and a PCI express video card goes, will ya?
most people interested in this dont want a cheap mac, they want an expandable mac that isnt complete overkill (like he Mac Pro). The number of people who'd install extra hard drives or replace their graphics card easily outnumber the number of people who can actually make use of 8 cores and dual sockets. the Mac Pro may be fan-fucking-tastic value for what it is, but its baseline configuration is ridiculously overspeced for the user who just wants a second internal hdd or an 8800 for bootcamp gaming
The plan involves setting up a habitable environment and maintaining it for the lifetime of the person,
let me know when we're able to do this (i.e. setting up a self-contained habitable environment) on our own planet, let alone on another one over 50,000,000+km away
your reading comprehension could use some work. I stated there was a chance of survival going to the poles, not that it was guaranteed. it's that same chance that's missing from the one way trip to mars proposal and makes it a suicide/kamikaze mission
What is important is this, while the sniping software may 'use' the proxy mechanism (to fence off other snipers doing the exact same thing), it does not appear to actually be telling ebay the snipers maximum price.
you seem pretty damn stubborn about this fallacy, so let me ask you this. what would be the advantage of doing it that way instead of placing the maximum bid you're willing to make at the very last moment? what exact do you think it would achieve? at the end of the auction the game is over, all the cards are on the table. if sniping software failed to place the bid I requested because of some moronic minor bid increments scheme like you've come up with, I can tell you I wouldnt be using it again. It suggests a complete misunderstanding of proxy bidding. sniping isn't trying to bypass proxy bidding, it's taking advantage of the people who dont understand proxy bidding by placing your one and only bid so late in the auction that people who haven't bid what they're really willing to pay dont have time to revise their bids. I can tell you for a fact that every auction I've ever sniped in has had, at most, one bid by me; and each time that has been my maximum bid as entered in the sniping software.
I would put across the idea to you that all of the minor increments you've observed in the final moments of an auction are in fact NOT snipers, but instead the very people that snipers snipe to avoid.
Even though explorers in the past traveled, for example, to the south or north pole, knowing they might never return, and thousands of immigrants moved to the US in the 18- and 1900's, knowing they would never see their homeland again, the human psyche has seemingly changed enough that a one-way ticket off the planet is not acceptable.
the guy sounds like an idiot if he cant see the difference between risking your life/moving to another country and facing certain death. a one-way ticket to mars is setting you up for, at best, a painful death due to starvation or oxygen depletion. going to the south or north pole might have been dangerous, but at least there was a chance of survival involved.
Feedback doesn't matter much unless you drop below the 99.4% range.
do you even realise what you're saying? for 1 negative feedback to only drop your percentage by 0.6% you need to have around 170 transactions. thats fine and dandy for a power seller selling hundreds of items a day, but for your average buyer with somewhere between 0 and 100 transactions that negative is going to cause between a 1% and 100% drop in their feedback score. my own feedback score is around 40 transactions, 100% positive. 1 negative would drop my percentage from 100% to around 97%. buyers "taking the hit" makes them incredibly unattractive to sellers, who can and do refuse to accept bids from people with negative feedback
well the other side of the coin is that when I buy and item off ebay listed as "widget X - official product" but then receive a cheap imitation of widget x, I'm in a position where if I leave accurate (negative) feedback, I know the seller will leave me negative feedback even though I've done nothing wrong. I have the choice of warning other buyers that the guy is a dick and having to explain to future sellers why I have a negative (if they even let me bid at all), or I can leave no feedback and let others fall to the sellers deceit but avoid getting myself a negative.
There are bad sellers and there are bad buyers, and solution they've provided is sub-optimial as it only solves the problem of bad sellers
10 seconds before the auction ends, the software for one user checks the current bid (say $10) and then submits a new bid with the minimum increment ($1) up to their max. This is not $100, but $11 (yes, you can configure the software to use higher increments to avoid the issue of getting a bid rejected because another sniper already put in for $2 rather than $1, but that is a different discussion for a different time)
as others have pointed out you're completely and utterly wrong. if a user tells a sniping service their max bid is $100, the sniping service puts their bid of $100 at the last moment, nothing more. all this bs about the "software" putting in a bid of $11 to only just beat the current highest bid is complete crap, it shows you've never used the said software and is completely illogical to anyone who understands the ebay system (and trust me, snipers do. that's why they snipe).
You really shouldn't try and be an authority on things you dont understand because you'll look like a fool to those who do. I have no idea how you got modded insightful, I guess it was an idiot mod who also had no idea how sniping works.
I see you must be new to having knees. they arent restricted to just 90 and 180 you know? see, if you bend them slightly more in a seated position, your feet move BACKWARDS. I know, I know, it's nearly unbelievable but it really does work. and by moving your feet backwards closer to your own seat, not only can you fit bags under the seat in front, but as a bonus your shins wont be tight against the seat in front either (though your knees still will be).
That said, I always wait till the final call before I board planes and yet I've always been able to stow my bag in the overhead lockers so I see the whole argument as a bit of a non-issue
I had the exact same thing happen so I got it off a torrent site. I dont feel bad because trent's already got my money for it, in fact I guess it's lowering his bandwidth bill a smidgen
the floor in front of you of course. with the seat design in aircrafts todays it's not like you'd be able to stretch out into that space under the seat anyway unless you've got a second reversed knee about halfway down you shin
Except they're not necessarily better at the game, just faster at twitching their fingers.
look, personally I dont enjoy multiplayer fps for the very same reason, but you're only deluding yourself if you dont think it's because they're better than you at it. what you've said is like saying someone who beat you at arm wrestling isn't necessarily better at arm wrestling than you, they're just stronger at twisting your arm.
I would hate to imagine what my teenage years would have been like if I had gotten beaten for growing my hair, or dyeing it, or wearing hippie outfits, or smoking pot, or drinking beer while technically underage (i.e. younger than 16, where I grew up), and what have you
thats a great strawman you have there, mind if I use that to keep the birds out of my veggie garden?
Regardless, snipers are cheats.
why exactly? explain in detail what they're doing that the system doesn't permit? snipers are honest bidders, they leave a single bid and it's what they are prepared to pay. It's how proxy bidding is supposed to work. I snipe and yet I'm often outbid anyway, but it's completely fair since someone else was willing to pay more than me so they won
you're stance sounds like someone having a sook because they lost an auction because they didnt understand the system
reducing the time buyers have to leave feedback has to be the DUMBEST part of these changes. I've bought a number of items from the USA that have taken more than 60 days to arrive here in Australia when it's been something unimportant and I've picked the cheapest mail option. If my window for feedback is running out and I haven't got the item yet what type of feedback do you expect I'll be leaving?
If there's a window that needed changing it's the time the seller had to leave feedback after the buyer had paid. if they said "sellers must leave feedback for the buyer within 7 days of payment, otherwise positive feedback left by the buyer will not add to the sellers feedback rating" I dont think they'd need to abolish negative feedback for the buyer at all. If I've paid for the item my interactions with the seller are over. I hate they way they hold off leaving feedback until you leave them positive feedback as much as the next guy, but removing negative buyer feedback isnt the solution.
Reviewed By: Jehrico76 on 2/2/2008
Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1
Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: Absolutely none. Nada. Zilch. This thing is a total waste of $$$. I would say it would make a good paperweight, but it's not even heavy enough to do that.
Cons: My experience mirrors most of the others above. I installed the product in a regular PC, one I had built and was using as an HTPC, so I wanted an SSD to make the system more quiet. Very quick format, over four hours to install XP. I stuck with it anyways. Anytime I do anything once I'm in XP, it's VERY slow. It takes about 4-5 minutes for any random application to load (like JRiver Media Center, Adobe Reader, Firefox, etc). If I right click on My Computer for the purpose of pulling up the properties to get to the device manager, it'll take anywhere from 6-7 minutes to get into the device manager. If I then take another 3-5 minutes to get into the task manager and then processes, it shows my that the system idle process on the CPU usually sits in the high 90s, so there's nothing else going on in the background. I reinstalled the old fashioned HDD, and the problem went away. This product is an absolute dud, Transcend really needs to issue a prompt recall.
Other Thoughts: I was thinking about exchanging it thinking it was defective. This site and amaz0n's reviews as well show this is the norm, not the exception. I doubt the users who had good reviews had this exact model (maybe a different size, model, brand, etc...), as there's simply too many people reporting this issue for it to just be a bug.
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Low Price
Reviewed By: Axeman on 1/31/2008
Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3
Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Pros: We are finally getting an affordable SSD.
Cons: It is not as fast as advertised and operating systems like Vista have a hard time classifying exactly what it is. In my system it is not a bootable device so not all motherboards will allow it to boot and for me that is a major problem since that is the reason i bought it in the first place.
Other Thoughts: Super Talent really should tell people these things and also should work with Manufacturers and develope software to tackle these shortfalls. The Super Talent site is of no help whatsoever except to tell you they have a higher priced model that will do what you are wanting.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No
Worst Purchase I've Ever Made!
Reviewed By: JIM on 1/14/2008
Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1
Tech Level: average - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Pros: Pros - Ha, there are none as I returned the first unit as it failed immediately after XP loaded. Replacement unit was defective from the start. Attempts to contact Transcend Customer Service was a total waste of time, e-mails go UNANSWERED. Always VERY HAPPY with New Egg service but this item is a lemon - STAY AWAY! New Egg is great, they should drop this company like a hot potato.
Cons: Cons - Well, now that I have said the nice things about this product above, here's what I really think about it: %$#&^(&@*(_)(@&^%%@&^(&**)(@&& !!!!
Other Thoughts: New Egg customer service is superior ! I stay a devoted customer.
Slashdot Mirror
I keep hearing how XYZ's captcha got broken, and the method is used by malicious entities to do A,B and C. why hasn't someone made a Firefox plugin to do these for end users? if the bots dont have to mess around with the annoying distorted images or listening to a soundbite and working out what it says, why do humans still have to?
sure, I want a mac pro. but I'm (thankfully) not one of those idiots that live their lives on credit spending way beyond their means, so instead I built a hackintosh. while we're talking about wants, I want a macbook pro, but again, it's outside my price range so instead I settled for a regular macbook.
now for the second part, you seem to be trying to convince me i want a non-upgradable laptop that looks like a desktop. can I replace the graphics card? nope. can I easily replace the processor with something faster once faster chips are cheap? nope. can I use the monitor for my next pc when the imac is no longer fast enough? nope.
the imac is great for your grandma, and people like her who dont know how their computer works and will never consider upgrading, but this is slashdot. upgrading computer's is something most of us have been doing since high school. I know what I and many others want, and it's not an imac or a mac mini. it's something between the mini and the mac pro.
no matter how you configure it it still has a quad core xeon processor and buffered ECC memory which is overkill for most, and hideously overpriced compared to the consumer grade equivalents.
lets just say that the cheapest configured mac pro with edu discount is $2k (it's more, but lets stick with round numbers), and lets say that the psystar clone is $500 (it's less, but again round numbers). I can handle paying an apple premium, sometimes as much as 30-40% extra for the exact same components because it's from apple, but 300% extra is pushing it a little far. what's that I hear? the specs arent comparable? that's exactly my point. dont want or need a mac pro, it's complete overkill when I just want a graphics card and an extra internal drive. I'd be completely happy with an expandable mini
let us know how installing 4-6 desktop SATA drives and a PCI express video card goes, will ya?
most people interested in this dont want a cheap mac, they want an expandable mac that isnt complete overkill (like he Mac Pro). The number of people who'd install extra hard drives or replace their graphics card easily outnumber the number of people who can actually make use of 8 cores and dual sockets. the Mac Pro may be fan-fucking-tastic value for what it is, but its baseline configuration is ridiculously overspeced for the user who just wants a second internal hdd or an 8800 for bootcamp gaming
your reading comprehension could use some work. I stated there was a chance of survival going to the poles, not that it was guaranteed. it's that same chance that's missing from the one way trip to mars proposal and makes it a suicide/kamikaze mission
I would put across the idea to you that all of the minor increments you've observed in the final moments of an auction are in fact NOT snipers, but instead the very people that snipers snipe to avoid.
well the other side of the coin is that when I buy and item off ebay listed as "widget X - official product" but then receive a cheap imitation of widget x, I'm in a position where if I leave accurate (negative) feedback, I know the seller will leave me negative feedback even though I've done nothing wrong. I have the choice of warning other buyers that the guy is a dick and having to explain to future sellers why I have a negative (if they even let me bid at all), or I can leave no feedback and let others fall to the sellers deceit but avoid getting myself a negative.
There are bad sellers and there are bad buyers, and solution they've provided is sub-optimial as it only solves the problem of bad sellers
You really shouldn't try and be an authority on things you dont understand because you'll look like a fool to those who do. I have no idea how you got modded insightful, I guess it was an idiot mod who also had no idea how sniping works.
signed,
- a regular user of sniping software
I see you must be new to having knees. they arent restricted to just 90 and 180 you know? see, if you bend them slightly more in a seated position, your feet move BACKWARDS. I know, I know, it's nearly unbelievable but it really does work. and by moving your feet backwards closer to your own seat, not only can you fit bags under the seat in front, but as a bonus your shins wont be tight against the seat in front either (though your knees still will be).
That said, I always wait till the final call before I board planes and yet I've always been able to stow my bag in the overhead lockers so I see the whole argument as a bit of a non-issue
I had the exact same thing happen so I got it off a torrent site. I dont feel bad because trent's already got my money for it, in fact I guess it's lowering his bandwidth bill a smidgen
the floor in front of you of course. with the seat design in aircrafts todays it's not like you'd be able to stretch out into that space under the seat anyway unless you've got a second reversed knee about halfway down you shin
how does one scroll with a trackpoint? it always seemed like going back to a mouse without a scroll wheel to me
Regardless, snipers are cheats. why exactly? explain in detail what they're doing that the system doesn't permit? snipers are honest bidders, they leave a single bid and it's what they are prepared to pay. It's how proxy bidding is supposed to work. I snipe and yet I'm often outbid anyway, but it's completely fair since someone else was willing to pay more than me so they won
you're stance sounds like someone having a sook because they lost an auction because they didnt understand the system
reducing the time buyers have to leave feedback has to be the DUMBEST part of these changes. I've bought a number of items from the USA that have taken more than 60 days to arrive here in Australia when it's been something unimportant and I've picked the cheapest mail option. If my window for feedback is running out and I haven't got the item yet what type of feedback do you expect I'll be leaving?
If there's a window that needed changing it's the time the seller had to leave feedback after the buyer had paid. if they said "sellers must leave feedback for the buyer within 7 days of payment, otherwise positive feedback left by the buyer will not add to the sellers feedback rating" I dont think they'd need to abolish negative feedback for the buyer at all. If I've paid for the item my interactions with the seller are over. I hate they way they hold off leaving feedback until you leave them positive feedback as much as the next guy, but removing negative buyer feedback isnt the solution.
Yeah, that one got some GREAT reviews too
Total garbage.
Reviewed By: Jehrico76 on 2/2/2008
Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1
Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: Absolutely none. Nada. Zilch. This thing is a total waste of $$$. I would say it would make a good paperweight, but it's not even heavy enough to do that.
Cons: My experience mirrors most of the others above. I installed the product in a regular PC, one I had built and was using as an HTPC, so I wanted an SSD to make the system more quiet. Very quick format, over four hours to install XP. I stuck with it anyways. Anytime I do anything once I'm in XP, it's VERY slow. It takes about 4-5 minutes for any random application to load (like JRiver Media Center, Adobe Reader, Firefox, etc). If I right click on My Computer for the purpose of pulling up the properties to get to the device manager, it'll take anywhere from 6-7 minutes to get into the device manager. If I then take another 3-5 minutes to get into the task manager and then processes, it shows my that the system idle process on the CPU usually sits in the high 90s, so there's nothing else going on in the background. I reinstalled the old fashioned HDD, and the problem went away. This product is an absolute dud, Transcend really needs to issue a prompt recall.
Other Thoughts: I was thinking about exchanging it thinking it was defective. This site and amaz0n's reviews as well show this is the norm, not the exception. I doubt the users who had good reviews had this exact model (maybe a different size, model, brand, etc...), as there's simply too many people reporting this issue for it to just be a bug.
Did you find this review helpful? Yes No
Low Price
Reviewed By: Axeman on 1/31/2008
Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3
Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Pros: We are finally getting an affordable SSD.
Cons: It is not as fast as advertised and operating systems like Vista have a hard time classifying exactly what it is. In my system it is not a bootable device so not all motherboards will allow it to boot and for me that is a major problem since that is the reason i bought it in the first place.
Other Thoughts: Super Talent really should tell people these things and also should work with Manufacturers and develope software to tackle these shortfalls. The Super Talent site is of no help whatsoever except to tell you they have a higher priced model that will do what you are wanting.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No
Worst Purchase I've Ever Made!
Reviewed By: JIM on 1/14/2008
Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1Rating + 1
Tech Level: average - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Pros: Pros - Ha, there are none as I returned the first unit as it failed immediately after XP loaded. Replacement unit was defective from the start. Attempts to contact Transcend Customer Service was a total waste of time, e-mails go UNANSWERED. Always VERY HAPPY with New Egg service but this item is a lemon - STAY AWAY! New Egg is great, they should drop this company like a hot potato.
Cons: Cons - Well, now that I have said the nice things about this product above, here's what I really think about it: %$#&^(&@*(_)(@&^%%@&^(&**)(@&& !!!!
Other Thoughts: New Egg customer service is superior ! I stay a devoted customer.