I have a friend with a massive DVD collection, containing over 200 titles, all legally purchased at normal retail prices. This is despite the fact that he downloaded all of those movies as well - he finds something interesting, downloads it, and then goes on to buy the DVD for the higher quality.
He's by no means typical, but it's proof that it can happen.
One of the many reasons I save documents as PDF before I send them on an adventure. I like having my undo history and the like, but I don't really want other people to have it as well. When I save as a PDF, nobody can change my document, most everyone can open it, and I know they are only getting what I want to give them. However, saving as a PDF is a separate step, and one most users won't take.
I don't want my save button taken away, because that's something I'd like to have control over. It's easier for me to save when I want than to write a program to read the user's mind and save appropriately. I'd also like to keep my undo history past a save. So, let's think of it this way. Saving saves a file as well as its undo history. This gives the user complete control. However, if the user tries to exit without saving, the program will sneak a save in without the user knowing, and offer to bring that file up the next time the program is run. Finally, saving as PDF should be offered by more programs. It's a very nice tool to have.
How exactly does this make the computer more secure? Most people won't even go to this level of effort. The issue here is that people ignore that balloon, which happens to be an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT balloon. We don't need to make the thing go away, we need to make the users follow the instructions in it, or make the secure settings default and do away with the balloon altogether.
While it's true that Run As... has been around for some time, the functionality has never worked all that well. You can run your Windows computer as a limited account, but it doesn't provide the same level of functionality as running a limited Linux account. Under Linux, a limited account is allowed to do basically anything but modify system settings. Windows perhaps does the same thing, but this breaks as soon as your program tries to save a setting to the registry. And programs do this. A lot. As a result, a limited account under Windows doesn't only keep you from changing system settings, it prevents a great many programs from running.
Under Windows XP, trying to run as a limited user, I have had everything from games to wireless networking completely fail to work. The Run As doesn't work for some of these things, and you're left with a crippled computer. So, when I work with Windows, I choose to play as Administrator and be very careful with what I do. That's not ideal for most users, however. Windows will be much better when priveledges work properly, and I hope they really have pulled it off in Vista.
You do make some interesting points. However, you also pointed out a move that'll never happen:
Worst case scenario, future PCs will cease to run Linux or any other alternative OS.
This won't happen, for several reasons: 1) Microsoft has escaped serious monopoly charges in the past simply because these alternatives exist. I assume Apple will still be around in the future, but with everything else completely gone, I expect Microsoft would have a lot harder time avoiding a monopoly charge. 2) Linux may not have a massive chunk of the market, but it does have quite a few users, especially once you start looking at servers. If hardware manufacturers start building things that prevent all non-Microsoft programs from running, there will be an uprising, and it'll be bad for the hardware makers. 3) Consider how much of the internet is served by Linux/UNIX systems. If these were all replaced by Windows Server , do you think the internet would function as well as it does?
However, your comment isn't entirely impossible. I see it working, with just a small modification: In the future, you will be able to assemble computers to run Linux, and even a small number of systems will come with Linux preinstalled, just like today. There will be a big change, however: Any system that is sold with Windows will be incapable of running anything else. While all the suppliers who cater to the DIY crowd will continue to make plenty of usable, unlocked products, the companies that supply Dell, HP, and similar will have products heavy with DRM. These products will only run Windows. Perhaps only the version and copy of Windows that came with the computer.
Anyway, all the editions will probably come with everything on the install CD and will solely differ for one or two bytes in the registry...
Did you ever see XP Home and XP Pro on the same CD? Are you crazy? Selling 7 different versions is pointless if they all come on the same CD. If you read the descriptions given by the first poster, you'll find that the Ultimate Edition is expected to combine basically all the features available. If that came on the same CD as all the lower versions, who would install the lower versions?
Though you didn't mention superconductors by that name, you did mention a circuit with absolutely zero resistance. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course, but I always understood that to mean the same thing.
5. DECREASED prices on things that shouldn't be as expensive as they are. For example, why do floppy disks often cost ten times as much as CD-Rs?
The price here isn't related so much to the usefulness of the product as to the complexity. A floppy has two shell halves, a sliding door, retained by a spring, and a moving disk in the center, with a metal hub in the middle of that, and a movable write-protect switch. That's seven parts, most of which move. A CD, on the other hand, is a few layers of plastic.
I'd much rather see CDs that could be written as easily and used in the same situations as floppies, thereby destroying the need for floppies altogether.
Naturally, floppies will still be useful on the old machines which were produced at the height of floppy popularity. The drives on there are still outdated, because the whole computer is outdated.
Sure, the computer is still serviceable, as is the floppy drive. And since you needed floppies when that computer was new, you'll still need them to work on that computer now. But when you look at more modern computers, you see that floppies are truly useless.
There are better alternatives. For yourself, use a USB key. For sharing documents, use a CDR. Even if it's going to waste an entire CD on a 5MB document, the media probably cost less than a floppy, and you weren't going to get the floppy back, either.
Well, I managed to get the video. I will admit, the scene is probably worthy of an AO rating. However, since it's hidden so deeply in the game, I don't think it's justified. If some little kid playing the game could accidentally unlock that scene, then the AO would be fine. However, if you have to download and install something to get the scene, the rating is foolish. Remember when Tomb Raider 2 on PC was popular? As I recall, someone released a hack that allowed you to walk around with a naked Laura Croft. That didn't earn the game an AO rating, because it wasn't really part of the game.
Well, I can't watch the video because the site hosting it is really feeling the slashdot effect. However, from the screenshots, I am inclined to agree with their original rating. Though they are having sex, the characters in the screenshots appear to be fully clothed. The description of the M rating provides for some sexuality, provided there is no nudity. I'm pretty sure clothed sex qualifies as sexuality. Now, if they were naked, then and only then would an AO rating be justified.
A touchscreen probably wouldn't work very well. With physical keys, you can be feel around and locate keys by touch. With a touchscreen, you would have to exactly memorize the layout of your keys, or you would have to keep looking at the board to figure out what you were doing. Especially if you are using it for gaming, this is inefficient. Plus, there's something very nice about tactile feedback, and touchpads just can't provide that.
I've noticed a lot more registration links on Slashdot lately. I wondered if it was maybe because more people are using the BugMeNot extension for FF and don't think much of it.
I put up with the terrible spelling, punctuation, and capitalization from anonymous cowards all the time, don't I? People get mighty opinionated when they have no identity.
Really, though, this falls under my comment that if you don't do anything illegal, they will have no reason to search the apartment. The policy is similar. They aren't going to search my apartment every day, just like they aren't going to read my email every day. However, if they have reason to be suspicious, they can do either. And they won't find anything, so it will be nothing but a small annoyance to me.
Google caching web pages for decades is really an interesting practice. I know I have found sites and images cached in Google that have long since gone from their original locations. They are like ghosts in the night, or like finding an empty treasure chest that wasn't on the map.
As for caching email, though, I don't see why everyone gets so uptight over privacy. Your emails are still quite private. I doubt there are many people at Google with access to the information, and even if they could read all your email I have to think it would be a singularly boring pursuit.
The US Government can still look at your mail, though. So? If you don't do anything illegal it won't matter. These people already know your tax information. They know your social security number. They know all the places you have lived and all the cars you have owned. They know all the crimes you have been convicted for. They know all of this because of services they provide.
If you're doing nothing wrong, it's unlikely the government will request your emails. And even if they do, you're safe. They aren't going to care about personal anecdotes, and they already have most of the information they would find. On the other hand, if you actually are doing something illegal, I would hope you had a better way to communicate about it than email. There are lots of programs which offer encrypted instant messaging. There's a plugin for Gaim to use it, and there are personal network clients like WASTE with encrypted chat capabilities. You could even create a Yahoo account with false information. So be illegal on those, and not on Gmail.
Ok, I'll be nice. To be fair, I don't have any score modifiers set on my relationships, so it doesn't actually do anything but change the color of your dot. Anyway, you're neutral.
Re:Are CRTs on the way out?
on
Are CRTs History?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
250 htz is much more then your 60/72/75/80/100/120 htz your crt does.
Don't try to convert response time into refresh rate. The response time is how long it takes a pixel to change colors, and the refresh rate is how often the monitor gives instructions to a pixel. The two measurements are not related, and you cannot find one given the other.
Refresh rates in Hz are pretty meaningless for LCDs, actually. The measurements on monitors are response time and refresh rate, and they each have their place.
The response time on an LCD is the amount of time it takes a pixel to change color once it's been instructed to do so. This is a meaningless measurement for a CRT, because a CRT pixel is lit only when the electron beam is on it. For this reason, you never see a CRT advertised with a response time.
The refresh rate of a monitor is the number of times a pixel is redrawn per second. On an LCD, the refresh rate is almost always 60 Hz. That's high enough to present smooth visuals to the viewer. However, because the pixels in an LCD keep their color for several milliseconds after each refresh, they don't need to be refreshed any more often than that. On a CRT, on the other hand, the more often a pixel is refreshed, the smoother the image will appear. This is because the pixel only has color when it is being refreshed. If the refresh rate is too low, the pixel and therefore the whole image will appear to flicker.
LCDs are frequently set at a low refresh rate like 60 Hz, because that's all they need to present consistent visuals. For an LCD, a much more important number is the response time.
CRTs are often set to a much higher refresh rate, because that enables a more consistent image. The response time is irrelevant.
No, you seem to be mistaken. That's not a 2.66ghz P4, that's a 2.66ghz Celeron D. Celeron processors are the work of Satan and that computer won't perform nearly as well as even a Mac Mini.
My dad has a Dell with a 2.0ghz Celeron, and my brother has a computer I assembled with an Athlon 1100. Due partly to hardware and partly to all the crap that comes installed and poorly configured on corporate systems, the Athlon is a much faster computer despite being half as fast.
So, sure. You supported the argument by finding a computer with all the peripherals for only a hundred or so more than a Mac Mini. However, you failed to get one which would match or exceed the performance of the Mini.
My post was in direct response to a post which said "for roughly the same amount of money you can get a much faster and all round more powerful pc _with keyboard and LCD monitor_."
32mb vram pretty much rules it out for most games.
Yes, because 32mb of dedicated video memory is so much worse than the shared system memory that integrated video uses. If you hadn't noticed, you have to spend a significant amount of money on a new PC to get away from onboard video.
90% of the additional software that comes with osx (ilife, bleah) is forgettable junk. there are free (or dead cheap) equivalents on linux and win32 for most of that stuff.
True. However, most people won't try Linux because they have preconcieved notions that it's hard. So Grandma doesn't care if there's a Linux equivalent. And sure, there are Windows equivalents, but they cost more. Windows is alone among operating systems in that once you get the operating system, it's still amazingly useless because nothing is bundled.
for roughly the same amount of money you can get a much faster and all round more powerful pc _with keyboard and LCD monitor_.
Then you'll be pirating Windows, I take it. Let's take a look at where you are putting your money, shall we?
Keyboard: $5 Mouse: $5 LCD Monitor: $175 Case with low-quality PSU: $30 256mb PC2700 RAM: $20 Random Motherboard: $45 Athlon XP 3000+: $115 40gb HDD: $30 DVD-ROM/CD-RW: $30
Hmm, I guess we are only up to $455. Then again, it's a pretty useless computer. I mean, it has a nice processor, but Windows will use well over half of that RAM at idle. Then, since we are running off of onboard video, we won't be able to play games, especially with that tiny bit of system memory. Well, let's do some upgrading.
512mb PC3200 RAM: $45 Radeon 9800: $115
Whoopsie! We just hit $595! Yeah, it's not a bad computer at all. Then again, we still don't have any software at all. Just for fun, let's toss on XP Pro and MS Office, since that's what the salesman is going to convince Grandma to buy.
Microsoft XP Pro: $150 Microsoft Office: $130
And here we are, at $875. It's not a great deal at all, is it? Now, to be fair, I talked about Grandma in there, and she won't need some of the things like that nifty video card. She'll probably buy that computer from a major retailer and pay about the same, though. And since you mentioned Linux equivalents, you'll probably be able to stop at our $595.
But did I make my point? The Mac Mini is really pretty nice performance for its price, and is far more attractive than our $595 behemoth. Also, when Grandma buys a Mac Mini, she can just plug it in and go. No extra installations and no worries about viruses and spyware. Did you notice that I didn't even put antivirus software on the Windows computer? That'd push the price even higher. Remember, when you compare things to the Mac Mini, you ought to take into account the software that you'll need to add to the other computer, that's either packaged or unneccessary on OS X.
I just taped my 'pinky' finger to the one next to it (2nd from index) , that way, it puts less stress/stretch on your tendons in your wrists
This solution might work fine for people who don't type enough to need a solution in the first place.
However, if you type enough to have wrist problems, I hope you type properly. My pinky and ring finger are separate entities, each pushing their own set of keys. Combining the two fingers might give them more strength, but it also means you have to relearn how to type with fewer digits.
Also, it's inconvenient to have to add something to yourself in order to type. If your solution is integrated with your keyboard, it's only there when you are typing and therefore need it. It doesn't take extra time to use and doesn't interfere if you get up to get food or use the restroom.
You must not be a parent or a recent high school student/graduate.
When I was in high school, I always ate the relatively healthy meals provided by the cafeteria. My parents gave me a check each month to deposit in my lunch account, and I ate from that. However, I also had a lot of friends whose parents just gave them some money every morning. A lot of these kids would avoid the cafeteria food and instead spend their money at the snack bar.
Now, I'm not saying that the cafeteria food was tasty eating, but it was moderately balanced. For my $2.10 each day, I got a half pint of milk, a main item like a cheeseburger or pizza, and two side dishes like french fries, canned fruit, pudding, or mixed nuts. The people spending the money at the snack bar would get a can of pop, a cookie, and either a bagel or a bag of chips.
Pretend you are a parent, and your kid is choosing between these two meals. I would assume you want to raise your child to be healthy and to make good choices. If so, you can probably see the benefit to forcing them to eat the school meals instead of the snack bar stuff. If not, your parenting license is hereby revoked and you'll need to leave certain body parts at the front desk on your way out.
Sheesh, I hate the "I have no idea what I'm talking about but I have a very strong opinion about it" attitudes of some people in this country.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a friend with a massive DVD collection, containing over 200 titles, all legally purchased at normal retail prices. This is despite the fact that he downloaded all of those movies as well - he finds something interesting, downloads it, and then goes on to buy the DVD for the higher quality.
He's by no means typical, but it's proof that it can happen.
One of the many reasons I save documents as PDF before I send them on an adventure. I like having my undo history and the like, but I don't really want other people to have it as well. When I save as a PDF, nobody can change my document, most everyone can open it, and I know they are only getting what I want to give them. However, saving as a PDF is a separate step, and one most users won't take.
I don't want my save button taken away, because that's something I'd like to have control over. It's easier for me to save when I want than to write a program to read the user's mind and save appropriately. I'd also like to keep my undo history past a save. So, let's think of it this way. Saving saves a file as well as its undo history. This gives the user complete control. However, if the user tries to exit without saving, the program will sneak a save in without the user knowing, and offer to bring that file up the next time the program is run. Finally, saving as PDF should be offered by more programs. It's a very nice tool to have.
No, a Celeron is not in the same class as an Opteron
Xeon = Opteron
Pentium 4 = Athlon
Celeron = Sempron
Pentium M = Turion
Of course, your point still holds, because the AMD names sound much better than the Intel equivalents.
How exactly does this make the computer more secure? Most people won't even go to this level of effort. The issue here is that people ignore that balloon, which happens to be an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT balloon. We don't need to make the thing go away, we need to make the users follow the instructions in it, or make the secure settings default and do away with the balloon altogether.
While it's true that Run As... has been around for some time, the functionality has never worked all that well. You can run your Windows computer as a limited account, but it doesn't provide the same level of functionality as running a limited Linux account. Under Linux, a limited account is allowed to do basically anything but modify system settings. Windows perhaps does the same thing, but this breaks as soon as your program tries to save a setting to the registry. And programs do this. A lot. As a result, a limited account under Windows doesn't only keep you from changing system settings, it prevents a great many programs from running.
Under Windows XP, trying to run as a limited user, I have had everything from games to wireless networking completely fail to work. The Run As doesn't work for some of these things, and you're left with a crippled computer. So, when I work with Windows, I choose to play as Administrator and be very careful with what I do. That's not ideal for most users, however. Windows will be much better when priveledges work properly, and I hope they really have pulled it off in Vista.
You do make some interesting points. However, you also pointed out a move that'll never happen:
Worst case scenario, future PCs will cease to run Linux or any other alternative OS.
This won't happen, for several reasons:
1) Microsoft has escaped serious monopoly charges in the past simply because these alternatives exist. I assume Apple will still be around in the future, but with everything else completely gone, I expect Microsoft would have a lot harder time avoiding a monopoly charge.
2) Linux may not have a massive chunk of the market, but it does have quite a few users, especially once you start looking at servers. If hardware manufacturers start building things that prevent all non-Microsoft programs from running, there will be an uprising, and it'll be bad for the hardware makers.
3) Consider how much of the internet is served by Linux/UNIX systems. If these were all replaced by Windows Server , do you think the internet would function as well as it does?
However, your comment isn't entirely impossible. I see it working, with just a small modification:
In the future, you will be able to assemble computers to run Linux, and even a small number of systems will come with Linux preinstalled, just like today. There will be a big change, however: Any system that is sold with Windows will be incapable of running anything else. While all the suppliers who cater to the DIY crowd will continue to make plenty of usable, unlocked products, the companies that supply Dell, HP, and similar will have products heavy with DRM. These products will only run Windows. Perhaps only the version and copy of Windows that came with the computer.
Anyway, all the editions will probably come with everything on the install CD and will solely differ for one or two bytes in the registry...
Did you ever see XP Home and XP Pro on the same CD? Are you crazy? Selling 7 different versions is pointless if they all come on the same CD. If you read the descriptions given by the first poster, you'll find that the Ultimate Edition is expected to combine basically all the features available. If that came on the same CD as all the lower versions, who would install the lower versions?
An honest man keeps himself out.
Locks keep honest men honest.
Though you didn't mention superconductors by that name, you did mention a circuit with absolutely zero resistance. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course, but I always understood that to mean the same thing.
5. DECREASED prices on things that shouldn't be as expensive as they are. For example, why do floppy disks often cost ten times as much as CD-Rs?
The price here isn't related so much to the usefulness of the product as to the complexity. A floppy has two shell halves, a sliding door, retained by a spring, and a moving disk in the center, with a metal hub in the middle of that, and a movable write-protect switch. That's seven parts, most of which move. A CD, on the other hand, is a few layers of plastic.
I'd much rather see CDs that could be written as easily and used in the same situations as floppies, thereby destroying the need for floppies altogether.
Naturally, floppies will still be useful on the old machines which were produced at the height of floppy popularity. The drives on there are still outdated, because the whole computer is outdated.
Sure, the computer is still serviceable, as is the floppy drive. And since you needed floppies when that computer was new, you'll still need them to work on that computer now. But when you look at more modern computers, you see that floppies are truly useless.
There are better alternatives. For yourself, use a USB key. For sharing documents, use a CDR. Even if it's going to waste an entire CD on a 5MB document, the media probably cost less than a floppy, and you weren't going to get the floppy back, either.
Well, I managed to get the video. I will admit, the scene is probably worthy of an AO rating. However, since it's hidden so deeply in the game, I don't think it's justified. If some little kid playing the game could accidentally unlock that scene, then the AO would be fine. However, if you have to download and install something to get the scene, the rating is foolish. Remember when Tomb Raider 2 on PC was popular? As I recall, someone released a hack that allowed you to walk around with a naked Laura Croft. That didn't earn the game an AO rating, because it wasn't really part of the game.
I think this is basically the same thing.
Well, I can't watch the video because the site hosting it is really feeling the slashdot effect. However, from the screenshots, I am inclined to agree with their original rating. Though they are having sex, the characters in the screenshots appear to be fully clothed. The description of the M rating provides for some sexuality, provided there is no nudity. I'm pretty sure clothed sex qualifies as sexuality. Now, if they were naked, then and only then would an AO rating be justified.
A touchscreen probably wouldn't work very well. With physical keys, you can be feel around and locate keys by touch. With a touchscreen, you would have to exactly memorize the layout of your keys, or you would have to keep looking at the board to figure out what you were doing. Especially if you are using it for gaming, this is inefficient. Plus, there's something very nice about tactile feedback, and touchpads just can't provide that.
I've noticed a lot more registration links on Slashdot lately. I wondered if it was maybe because more people are using the BugMeNot extension for FF and don't think much of it.
I put up with the terrible spelling, punctuation, and capitalization from anonymous cowards all the time, don't I? People get mighty opinionated when they have no identity.
Really, though, this falls under my comment that if you don't do anything illegal, they will have no reason to search the apartment. The policy is similar. They aren't going to search my apartment every day, just like they aren't going to read my email every day. However, if they have reason to be suspicious, they can do either. And they won't find anything, so it will be nothing but a small annoyance to me.
Google caching web pages for decades is really an interesting practice. I know I have found sites and images cached in Google that have long since gone from their original locations. They are like ghosts in the night, or like finding an empty treasure chest that wasn't on the map.
As for caching email, though, I don't see why everyone gets so uptight over privacy. Your emails are still quite private. I doubt there are many people at Google with access to the information, and even if they could read all your email I have to think it would be a singularly boring pursuit.
The US Government can still look at your mail, though. So? If you don't do anything illegal it won't matter. These people already know your tax information. They know your social security number. They know all the places you have lived and all the cars you have owned. They know all the crimes you have been convicted for. They know all of this because of services they provide.
If you're doing nothing wrong, it's unlikely the government will request your emails. And even if they do, you're safe. They aren't going to care about personal anecdotes, and they already have most of the information they would find. On the other hand, if you actually are doing something illegal, I would hope you had a better way to communicate about it than email. There are lots of programs which offer encrypted instant messaging. There's a plugin for Gaim to use it, and there are personal network clients like WASTE with encrypted chat capabilities. You could even create a Yahoo account with false information. So be illegal on those, and not on Gmail.
Ok, I'll be nice. To be fair, I don't have any score modifiers set on my relationships, so it doesn't actually do anything but change the color of your dot. Anyway, you're neutral.
Here ya go/ lcddisplays/xseries/vx924/
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/desktopdisplays
4ms or (1 second) / (4 millisecond) = 250 htz.
250 htz is much more then your 60/72/75/80/100/120 htz your crt does.
Don't try to convert response time into refresh rate. The response time is how long it takes a pixel to change colors, and the refresh rate is how often the monitor gives instructions to a pixel. The two measurements are not related, and you cannot find one given the other.
Refresh rates in Hz are pretty meaningless for LCDs, actually. The measurements on monitors are response time and refresh rate, and they each have their place.
The response time on an LCD is the amount of time it takes a pixel to change color once it's been instructed to do so. This is a meaningless measurement for a CRT, because a CRT pixel is lit only when the electron beam is on it. For this reason, you never see a CRT advertised with a response time.
The refresh rate of a monitor is the number of times a pixel is redrawn per second. On an LCD, the refresh rate is almost always 60 Hz. That's high enough to present smooth visuals to the viewer. However, because the pixels in an LCD keep their color for several milliseconds after each refresh, they don't need to be refreshed any more often than that. On a CRT, on the other hand, the more often a pixel is refreshed, the smoother the image will appear. This is because the pixel only has color when it is being refreshed. If the refresh rate is too low, the pixel and therefore the whole image will appear to flicker.
LCDs are frequently set at a low refresh rate like 60 Hz, because that's all they need to present consistent visuals. For an LCD, a much more important number is the response time.
CRTs are often set to a much higher refresh rate, because that enables a more consistent image. The response time is irrelevant.
No, you seem to be mistaken. That's not a 2.66ghz P4, that's a 2.66ghz Celeron D. Celeron processors are the work of Satan and that computer won't perform nearly as well as even a Mac Mini.
My dad has a Dell with a 2.0ghz Celeron, and my brother has a computer I assembled with an Athlon 1100. Due partly to hardware and partly to all the crap that comes installed and poorly configured on corporate systems, the Athlon is a much faster computer despite being half as fast.
So, sure. You supported the argument by finding a computer with all the peripherals for only a hundred or so more than a Mac Mini. However, you failed to get one which would match or exceed the performance of the Mini.
My post was in direct response to a post which said "for roughly the same amount of money you can get a much faster and all round more powerful pc _with keyboard and LCD monitor_."
Therefore, I chose to stick with that.
32mb vram pretty much rules it out for most games.
Yes, because 32mb of dedicated video memory is so much worse than the shared system memory that integrated video uses. If you hadn't noticed, you have to spend a significant amount of money on a new PC to get away from onboard video.
90% of the additional software that comes with osx (ilife, bleah) is forgettable junk. there are free (or dead cheap) equivalents on linux and win32 for most of that stuff.
True. However, most people won't try Linux because they have preconcieved notions that it's hard. So Grandma doesn't care if there's a Linux equivalent. And sure, there are Windows equivalents, but they cost more. Windows is alone among operating systems in that once you get the operating system, it's still amazingly useless because nothing is bundled.
for roughly the same amount of money you can get a much faster and all round more powerful pc _with keyboard and LCD monitor_.
Then you'll be pirating Windows, I take it. Let's take a look at where you are putting your money, shall we?
Keyboard: $5
Mouse: $5
LCD Monitor: $175
Case with low-quality PSU: $30
256mb PC2700 RAM: $20
Random Motherboard: $45
Athlon XP 3000+: $115
40gb HDD: $30
DVD-ROM/CD-RW: $30
Hmm, I guess we are only up to $455. Then again, it's a pretty useless computer. I mean, it has a nice processor, but Windows will use well over half of that RAM at idle. Then, since we are running off of onboard video, we won't be able to play games, especially with that tiny bit of system memory. Well, let's do some upgrading.
512mb PC3200 RAM: $45
Radeon 9800: $115
Whoopsie! We just hit $595! Yeah, it's not a bad computer at all. Then again, we still don't have any software at all. Just for fun, let's toss on XP Pro and MS Office, since that's what the salesman is going to convince Grandma to buy.
Microsoft XP Pro: $150
Microsoft Office: $130
And here we are, at $875. It's not a great deal at all, is it? Now, to be fair, I talked about Grandma in there, and she won't need some of the things like that nifty video card. She'll probably buy that computer from a major retailer and pay about the same, though. And since you mentioned Linux equivalents, you'll probably be able to stop at our $595.
But did I make my point? The Mac Mini is really pretty nice performance for its price, and is far more attractive than our $595 behemoth. Also, when Grandma buys a Mac Mini, she can just plug it in and go. No extra installations and no worries about viruses and spyware. Did you notice that I didn't even put antivirus software on the Windows computer? That'd push the price even higher. Remember, when you compare things to the Mac Mini, you ought to take into account the software that you'll need to add to the other computer, that's either packaged or unneccessary on OS X.
You've apparently never used OpenOffice.org before. It does an excellent job of creating .PDF files from just about any word-processing format.
I just taped my 'pinky' finger to the one next to it (2nd from index) , that way, it puts less stress/stretch on your tendons in your wrists
This solution might work fine for people who don't type enough to need a solution in the first place.
However, if you type enough to have wrist problems, I hope you type properly. My pinky and ring finger are separate entities, each pushing their own set of keys. Combining the two fingers might give them more strength, but it also means you have to relearn how to type with fewer digits.
Also, it's inconvenient to have to add something to yourself in order to type. If your solution is integrated with your keyboard, it's only there when you are typing and therefore need it. It doesn't take extra time to use and doesn't interfere if you get up to get food or use the restroom.
You must not be a parent or a recent high school student/graduate.
When I was in high school, I always ate the relatively healthy meals provided by the cafeteria. My parents gave me a check each month to deposit in my lunch account, and I ate from that. However, I also had a lot of friends whose parents just gave them some money every morning. A lot of these kids would avoid the cafeteria food and instead spend their money at the snack bar.
Now, I'm not saying that the cafeteria food was tasty eating, but it was moderately balanced. For my $2.10 each day, I got a half pint of milk, a main item like a cheeseburger or pizza, and two side dishes like french fries, canned fruit, pudding, or mixed nuts. The people spending the money at the snack bar would get a can of pop, a cookie, and either a bagel or a bag of chips.
Pretend you are a parent, and your kid is choosing between these two meals. I would assume you want to raise your child to be healthy and to make good choices. If so, you can probably see the benefit to forcing them to eat the school meals instead of the snack bar stuff. If not, your parenting license is hereby revoked and you'll need to leave certain body parts at the front desk on your way out.
Sheesh, I hate the "I have no idea what I'm talking about but I have a very strong opinion about it" attitudes of some people in this country.