I leave out those prices because I reuse components. Same Case for years, same power supply for years. Same SBLive! from 7 years ago. Same speaker system. SAME INTERNAL CABLES.
Go to pricewatch.com. Even NEWEGG advertises on Pricewatch, and they don't show up very often at all in my searches for the exact hardware I want.
Naturally it weighs more. 13" laptop versus a 17" laptop - that is A GIVEN. I'm comparing hardware features for the price, not mass for the money like an airline would. Let's not change the focus.
For that $40 bucks I don't have to download software, I just point the BIOS to boot from USB first. That's ease of use, worth paying for.
I didn't mention other parts because I do the SMART thing and reuse parts that still work, like case, DVD, and I can bet you don't have half a clue on where to get the good stuff for dirt cheap.
Quit being a pretentious assuming prick. I can do it for that price because I've been in this industry for nearly two decades. I know the good sources, I also know where I can find the same stuff probably cheaper from someone else second hand. Are you that ignorant of where you can go to buy things? You can find similar systems in pawn shops for $150!
God, you have a lot of growing up to do if you don't know about things like pawn shops and second-hand merchandise.
Having worked as an Apple laptop repair tech, and as an HP laptop repair tech, and having repaired many other brands of laptop as side jobs, I really don't want to touch another Apple product.
For $999 you can get an HP laptop with equivalent specs of a mid-end Mac product with more features like dual hard drive bays and multiple video outs (HDMI, VGA, Component and S-Video) on-board.
My DV9825 was only $999 ($1300 with extended 3-year "You shoot it, we'll fix it for you" warranty.)
Let's see, here. Let's find a $999 Apple Laptop to compare with my HP. Well, there's only ONE on the entire site that "starts at $999" so I have to use it.
There it is - 13-inch White Macbook. Let's go over the specs, shall we? $999 Macbook first mention in each line, $999 HP DV9825 second mention. To start, Screen - 13" screen. 17" on my HP Processor - 2GHz Core 2 Duo. Okay, that beats my 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, just barely. Memory - 2GB PC-5300 DDR2. Mine came with 4GB. Storage - 120GB HDD - I have 320GB and have an additional hard drive bay. Keyboard - The Macbook doesn't have a 10-key pad, mine does. Mouse - I can turn mine off with the touch of a button if I want to attach a real mouse. Not really much of a 'feature' but handy for gaming. Video - 512MB 9400GS nVidia card. Mine is a 512MB 8600GS, *BUT* mine's an MXM card so I can actually upgrade. Hooray discrete graphics! Adapters - Video out on your Apple will cost you. My HP has all outputs built into the laptop as separate ports, with the exception of the S-Vid and Component, which has a dongle that comes with the laptop. Remote - $19 extra for it for your Macbook. Standard with my HP. Both have a webcam and such built into the screen bezel. I have an extra strip of buttons for controlling audio and video playback on my system above my keyboard. I also have a LightScribe drive standard - I get special discs and I can burn the label directly on using the laser. Also, there's an additional expansion port on the HP to allow for far more stuff attached. Warranty - $249 for Applecare with no mention of user-inflicted damage, $299 for mine and it covers user-inflicted damage. The Macbook would probably stomp my HP in battery life. Maybe not if I could put an equivalent load on the Macbook (run Fallout 3 or L4D on it and we'll see how long that battery lasts!)
Overall, the HP gives you way more for your money.
My HP laptop with exact specs to the MBP (when I bought it) cost $1000 less and came with more features (dual hard drive bays, an actual upgradable graphics card, etc.)
Your Apple laptop can't natively boot any other modern OS without either the OS being modified to boot in an EFI system or by using a VM or other software. For $40 I can buy an EFI bootloader stick and install OSX on my laptop.
The rest you said isn't FUD - plenty of development on Apple machines (Pixar, anyone?) and ease of development is mainly dependent upon the programmer's skill.
I suggest you look here and see just how wrong you really are.
Oh, and I actually get MORE options with a regular PC - MenuetOS won't work on an EFI-based system. So a PC gives me MORE OS choices than the Mac will currently.
My PC - Sextuple boot Vista XP 98 Menuet Ubuntu OSX.
Anyone beating that yet on their OSX machine without the need for a VM or other software?
That doesn't mean jack. I can find an HP laptop with the EXACT hardware specs of any Apple laptop, for approximately $700 cheaper, and for the additonal $40 for a USB-EFI loader drive and another $150 for the OSX install disc, I can install OSX on my PC AND GET THE EXACT SAME EXPERIENCE FOR LESS.
Do we have PV that can actually collect that amount of energy, or even a fraction at decent efficiency? For that matter do we have the means of transmitting such a large amount of power? If we're using microwaves, that means conversion with a magnetotron, and I'm not aware of a magnetotron that can handle more than 100 kWh.
And when one stray screw crashes into it - how much will it cost in energy, money, and man hours to get that replacement up in the air? You do realize how much energy goes into sending just ONE KILOGRAM into orbit? What happens if deployment fails the first time? Shit that's a lot of energy wasted!
Easier to keep it on the ground. Until we are actually living in space, space power is not really a big concern. Once we're in space, energy usage will likely be far less as we don't have gravity to fight against. Mining would probably be easier as well because most places we could mine have significantly less gravity, like the asteroid fields.
I always look at ROI energy-wise, and then calculate risk. right now, ROI vs risk - risk wins, and it's far better to keep it on the ground.
Plus, we've already had people use the internet to gain control over a nuclear reactor. You think that satellite is going to be secure? Give me a break. Man makes it, man breaks it. That's the way of things.
Here's one for you - triple-band wah pedal. I've made one through running four SBLive! cards, if you can make an actual adjustable pedal version you'll be my god.
Want another? Cannabis-specific horticultural lights, with extra UVB output for increased THC production. There's not a single one out there. I've looked all over, the best you can do is supplement with reptile bulbs, or remove the outer glass shell of a MV or MH lamp, or pull the glass filter from a halogen lamp.
I don't give a fuck. I can come up with them on an hourly basis. Take all you want.
It's more a simple combination of two existing methods of gathering energy. The research has already been done and has been around for decades, I don't need to do any more.
Take a wind turbine, make it from lighter carbon fiber composites, dope some of the carbon to form conductive paths on the blades, use Nanosolar's spray-on PV tech and coat the wind turbine blades, support tower, everything, turning the entire wind turbine into a solar collector. Capture wind and solar in one structure. With the use of carbon fiber instead of aluminum, you can have larger blades at the same weight as the smaller aluminum blades, and have more surface area for both wind and solar. It's all in the design, the principles are pretty basic, and the research backing it is already out there.
We could go better - forget trying to collect in space - if we're doing beaming of power, I think that it would be far easier to build a combination solar/wind plant - wind turbines redesigned to be solar collectors as well. There is much high wind and loads of unobstructed sunlight beaming down in the desert. That is a bunch of potential energy ready to harvest. Beam the power to repeater stations which also act as collectors. Even running a long wire to send the power elsewhere would be easier to maintain and probably less costly to construct in the long run.
And just WHAT is the efficiency of this? I've got far better ideas than this nonsense. How inefficient is this going to be? It's already bad enough you're having to fight the inverse law on the light to begin with, why not let it hit the surface and capture it there? Hell, PG&E is full of morons. I *GAVE* them a damned idea that would save MILLIONS and cost very little to implement. I even did the research myself.
And THIS is what they're getting? My idea would've generated ten times the amount of power, at FAR LESS COST.
Obligatory mention of 1996 Telecommunications Act that these fuckers still have yet to deliver upon, and it's past their deadline. What did we give out 200 billion for, again? To get screwed over?
This would be a perfect FML post from our citizens as a collective whole.
"Today, We paid $200 billion to the telecom companies to deliver bidirectional 45mbit internet and 500 channels to our houses. They told us to fuck off, capped our data rates, charged us more, and sold our asses out to the NSA. FML."
NEXCESS NET is about to lose in arbitration over their EULA, the end result may be total nullification of their EULA.
If things continue the way they are against EA concerning Spore, odds are their entire EULA will be null and void.
I actually participate in the CA court system. I've watched EULAs get knocked down. I just helped a guy in a small claims court concerning his EULA from his Volkwagen Auto Group computer diagnostic software. He doesn't have to abide by the EULA because he was duped into purchasing the software when he didn't need it - the EULA was found individually void for him because of the dubious nature of the sale of the software.
Because I did and actually found it worth paying to use. Even the free package is okay.
Youtube, no matter what they say, does *NOT* display in HD. I'm on a 32" 1080p monitor and I'm about 6 feet away. I can guaran-damn-tee you that "HD" is *NOT.* Taking a forced screenshot through my framebuffer and then counting the pixelated blocks gives me a resolution of 640x272. Perfect 16:9 widescreen, NO HIGH DEFINITION. Totally false advertising.
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I leave out those prices because I reuse components. Same Case for years, same power supply for years. Same SBLive! from 7 years ago. Same speaker system. SAME INTERNAL CABLES.
Go to pricewatch.com. Even NEWEGG advertises on Pricewatch, and they don't show up very often at all in my searches for the exact hardware I want.
Naturally it weighs more. 13" laptop versus a 17" laptop - that is A GIVEN. I'm comparing hardware features for the price, not mass for the money like an airline would. Let's not change the focus.
For that $40 bucks I don't have to download software, I just point the BIOS to boot from USB first. That's ease of use, worth paying for.
I used to work as a repair tech for both companies.
YES, I CAN.
See, your problem is you're shopping at Newegg. Newegg isn't even close to being a first-tier source.
I didn't mention other parts because I do the SMART thing and reuse parts that still work, like case, DVD, and I can bet you don't have half a clue on where to get the good stuff for dirt cheap.
Quit being a pretentious assuming prick. I can do it for that price because I've been in this industry for nearly two decades. I know the good sources, I also know where I can find the same stuff probably cheaper from someone else second hand. Are you that ignorant of where you can go to buy things? You can find similar systems in pawn shops for $150!
God, you have a lot of growing up to do if you don't know about things like pawn shops and second-hand merchandise.
Quality of customer - as in easily misled?
Having worked as an Apple laptop repair tech, and as an HP laptop repair tech, and having repaired many other brands of laptop as side jobs, I really don't want to touch another Apple product.
Look here.
For $999 you can get an HP laptop with equivalent specs of a mid-end Mac product with more features like dual hard drive bays and multiple video outs (HDMI, VGA, Component and S-Video) on-board.
My DV9825 was only $999 ($1300 with extended 3-year "You shoot it, we'll fix it for you" warranty.)
Let's see, here. Let's find a $999 Apple Laptop to compare with my HP. Well, there's only ONE on the entire site that "starts at $999" so I have to use it.
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MB881LL/A?mco=MzE2NjMyOA
There it is - 13-inch White Macbook. Let's go over the specs, shall we? $999 Macbook first mention in each line, $999 HP DV9825 second mention.
To start, Screen - 13" screen. 17" on my HP
Processor - 2GHz Core 2 Duo. Okay, that beats my 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, just barely.
Memory - 2GB PC-5300 DDR2. Mine came with 4GB.
Storage - 120GB HDD - I have 320GB and have an additional hard drive bay.
Keyboard - The Macbook doesn't have a 10-key pad, mine does.
Mouse - I can turn mine off with the touch of a button if I want to attach a real mouse. Not really much of a 'feature' but handy for gaming.
Video - 512MB 9400GS nVidia card. Mine is a 512MB 8600GS, *BUT* mine's an MXM card so I can actually upgrade. Hooray discrete graphics!
Adapters - Video out on your Apple will cost you. My HP has all outputs built into the laptop as separate ports, with the exception of the S-Vid and Component, which has a dongle that comes with the laptop.
Remote - $19 extra for it for your Macbook. Standard with my HP.
Both have a webcam and such built into the screen bezel. I have an extra strip of buttons for controlling audio and video playback on my system above my keyboard. I also have a LightScribe drive standard - I get special discs and I can burn the label directly on using the laser. Also, there's an additional expansion port on the HP to allow for far more stuff attached.
Warranty - $249 for Applecare with no mention of user-inflicted damage, $299 for mine and it covers user-inflicted damage.
The Macbook would probably stomp my HP in battery life. Maybe not if I could put an equivalent load on the Macbook (run Fallout 3 or L4D on it and we'll see how long that battery lasts!)
Overall, the HP gives you way more for your money.
I call FUD on your FUD.
My HP laptop with exact specs to the MBP (when I bought it) cost $1000 less and came with more features (dual hard drive bays, an actual upgradable graphics card, etc.)
Your Apple laptop can't natively boot any other modern OS without either the OS being modified to boot in an EFI system or by using a VM or other software. For $40 I can buy an EFI bootloader stick and install OSX on my laptop.
The rest you said isn't FUD - plenty of development on Apple machines (Pixar, anyone?) and ease of development is mainly dependent upon the programmer's skill.
I suggest you look here and see just how wrong you really are.
Oh, and I actually get MORE options with a regular PC - MenuetOS won't work on an EFI-based system. So a PC gives me MORE OS choices than the Mac will currently.
My PC - Sextuple boot Vista XP 98 Menuet Ubuntu OSX.
Anyone beating that yet on their OSX machine without the need for a VM or other software?
Didn't think so.
That doesn't mean jack. I can find an HP laptop with the EXACT hardware specs of any Apple laptop, for approximately $700 cheaper, and for the additonal $40 for a USB-EFI loader drive and another $150 for the OSX install disc, I can install OSX on my PC AND GET THE EXACT SAME EXPERIENCE FOR LESS.
"If you want to play any games from the last couple of years you would have spent at least 670 if not more on your PC."
WRONG!!! You are the weakest link!
$350 for my 2.6GHz AM2 Athlon64X2, 4GB PC-5300 DDR2, 2TB HDD space, and a 512MB 9800GTX+ superclocked with a 700w Rocketfish PSU.
You must be a Best Buy consumer.
State cops?
In other words, highway patrol? Because that's the ONLY State-level police, then everything else is Federal.
I doubt the HWP is going to bother with college.
City and county-level cops I could believe more. The University of Redlands (private college) has local police.
"Then come back (if you can) and tell us that registration and inspections don't increase safety!"
Someone obviously hasn't lived in SoCal.
Nope, sweet basil.
http://vimeo.com/kalikitsune/videos
Jo momma.
Do we have PV that can actually collect that amount of energy, or even a fraction at decent efficiency? For that matter do we have the means of transmitting such a large amount of power? If we're using microwaves, that means conversion with a magnetotron, and I'm not aware of a magnetotron that can handle more than 100 kWh.
And when one stray screw crashes into it - how much will it cost in energy, money, and man hours to get that replacement up in the air? You do realize how much energy goes into sending just ONE KILOGRAM into orbit? What happens if deployment fails the first time? Shit that's a lot of energy wasted!
Easier to keep it on the ground. Until we are actually living in space, space power is not really a big concern. Once we're in space, energy usage will likely be far less as we don't have gravity to fight against. Mining would probably be easier as well because most places we could mine have significantly less gravity, like the asteroid fields.
I always look at ROI energy-wise, and then calculate risk. right now, ROI vs risk - risk wins, and it's far better to keep it on the ground.
Plus, we've already had people use the internet to gain control over a nuclear reactor. You think that satellite is going to be secure? Give me a break. Man makes it, man breaks it. That's the way of things.
Sure, I give them away on a weekly basis.
Here's one for you - triple-band wah pedal. I've made one through running four SBLive! cards, if you can make an actual adjustable pedal version you'll be my god.
Want another? Cannabis-specific horticultural lights, with extra UVB output for increased THC production. There's not a single one out there. I've looked all over, the best you can do is supplement with reptile bulbs, or remove the outer glass shell of a MV or MH lamp, or pull the glass filter from a halogen lamp.
I don't give a fuck. I can come up with them on an hourly basis. Take all you want.
It's more a simple combination of two existing methods of gathering energy. The research has already been done and has been around for decades, I don't need to do any more.
Take a wind turbine, make it from lighter carbon fiber composites, dope some of the carbon to form conductive paths on the blades, use Nanosolar's spray-on PV tech and coat the wind turbine blades, support tower, everything, turning the entire wind turbine into a solar collector. Capture wind and solar in one structure. With the use of carbon fiber instead of aluminum, you can have larger blades at the same weight as the smaller aluminum blades, and have more surface area for both wind and solar. It's all in the design, the principles are pretty basic, and the research backing it is already out there.
We could go better - forget trying to collect in space - if we're doing beaming of power, I think that it would be far easier to build a combination solar/wind plant - wind turbines redesigned to be solar collectors as well. There is much high wind and loads of unobstructed sunlight beaming down in the desert. That is a bunch of potential energy ready to harvest. Beam the power to repeater stations which also act as collectors. Even running a long wire to send the power elsewhere would be easier to maintain and probably less costly to construct in the long run.
And just WHAT is the efficiency of this? I've got far better ideas than this nonsense. How inefficient is this going to be? It's already bad enough you're having to fight the inverse law on the light to begin with, why not let it hit the surface and capture it there? Hell, PG&E is full of morons. I *GAVE* them a damned idea that would save MILLIONS and cost very little to implement. I even did the research myself.
And THIS is what they're getting? My idea would've generated ten times the amount of power, at FAR LESS COST.
Obligatory mention of 1996 Telecommunications Act that these fuckers still have yet to deliver upon, and it's past their deadline. What did we give out 200 billion for, again? To get screwed over?
This would be a perfect FML post from our citizens as a collective whole.
"Today, We paid $200 billion to the telecom companies to deliver bidirectional 45mbit internet and 500 channels to our houses. They told us to fuck off, capped our data rates, charged us more, and sold our asses out to the NSA. FML."
From toothpaste to DE Filters to solar cells.
I love nature - if mankind paid more attention to it we'd be so much more advanced than we are currently.
NEXCESS NET is about to lose in arbitration over their EULA, the end result may be total nullification of their EULA.
If things continue the way they are against EA concerning Spore, odds are their entire EULA will be null and void.
I actually participate in the CA court system. I've watched EULAs get knocked down. I just helped a guy in a small claims court concerning his EULA from his Volkwagen Auto Group computer diagnostic software. He doesn't have to abide by the EULA because he was duped into purchasing the software when he didn't need it - the EULA was found individually void for him because of the dubious nature of the sale of the software.
Umm, yes, you send them a counterclaim and put the legal pressure on them.
Did it and won twice, and got fed up after that and took my ass to Vimeo.
"switchtovimeo"
Because I did and actually found it worth paying to use. Even the free package is okay.
Youtube, no matter what they say, does *NOT* display in HD. I'm on a 32" 1080p monitor and I'm about 6 feet away. I can guaran-damn-tee you that "HD" is *NOT.* Taking a forced screenshot through my framebuffer and then counting the pixelated blocks gives me a resolution of 640x272. Perfect 16:9 widescreen, NO HIGH DEFINITION. Totally false advertising.