I typically reboot my Dell laptop running Win XP Pro every month, at most. It'll get put into hibernation 3-4 times a day, but actual reboots occur rarely. Been quite stable as my main machine for 3 years so far, other than a HDD failing, and replacing a keyboard.
Rebooting a computer to fix a problem should be viewed with the same suspicion as burning down your house to eradicate an infestation of insects.
No, it should be viewed as fumigating your house. You all move out, wait a few days, then move back in. When you reboot you don't lose the computer, you don't lose the archived data, and all the users can return in a short amount of time.
Burning down your house loses all the contents and ensures you'll never return...
I've sat in the back of 2006 Prius enough to know that I have to cock my head to the side since there's not enough headroom in the back. And when in the front, I need my knees in the dash unless I put the seat all the way back, leaving about 4 inches between the seat back and the rear seat, forcing the person behind me to bury their knees in the seat.
The Prius is a subcompact car; anyone claiming that a subcompact can carry 4 American (or Northern European) adults really likes torturing their passengers.
In America, the Prius IS a two-seater... I defy you to get four, 1.85cm tall, 130 kg guys inside the vehicle without someone's chin literally resting on their knees...
For most people, the rear seats in a Prius are as useful as the rear seats in a Porsche Carrera - yes, you can call it a 4 seater, but two of those seats are really just convenient places to put groceries.
GSM quad band phone - communications and 3G connectivity. WiFi for non-cell 'net access. VGA screen so browsing is actually usable. MicroSD cards so you can have several 4 GB cards to store pretty much anything. Built-in camera. Windows Mobile Pro so you can read/edit Word docs, use PDF readers, etc. GPS so you don't get lost. And the keyboard for when you need to type for more than a few minutes.
You'll get all the media player capability you want, all the connectivity you could want, hours and hours of battery life, and it all fits in your pocket.
Interesting to note that Pinochet lived in Chile as a free man, even after he voluntarily stepped down and turned Chile back to the Congress and a newly elected President.
It was only when he went overseas that he was "arrested" for crimes against humanity. Seems his own people weren't too upset with him.
Spend a year or two in Chile, and talk to the people about that time. You'll get a pretty dramatically different view than what you read about and hear about outside of Chile.
See, I lived in Chile for the better part of 2 years. Pinochet didn't "step in" to free the country, he was ASKED to overthrow Allende by the Congress AND the Supreme Court, after Allende dissolved both because they opposed Allende's plan to nationalize everything.
Sure, Pinochet killed 2,000 people; a lot, but still a piker compared to Castro. But 99% of the Chileans I met, worked with, and befriended would say that Pinochet will answer to God for what he did, but there is no denying he wasn't good for Chile.
Based upon the number of iPhones available for sale in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Beijing I'm pretty sure there's a lot of extra production going on...
Restricting a component is a good approach, as long as you can guarantee restriction of that component. You know the back-channels of China, though! A cousin of the senior engineer happens to work at that component vendor and over dinner at the New Year's celebration a deal is struck...
Personally, I've found it better to control on deliveries to the destination market (usually the US and the EU), and incentivise the Chinese factory strong enough that they make the same amount of money AND don't have the headaches of extra production to just play ball from day one.
BTW, for those others reading this little piece of lint (that is what a small, sub-thread is, right?) the problem is bad in China, but about 5X worse in India, based upon my experiences (consumer electronics products).
I've been working with and in China for 10 years now, this is how it works...
Company A from America contracts with Company C in China to build product I.
Company A orders 100,000 I's every month.
Company C builds 120,000 I's every month.
Company C ships 100,000 I's to company A.
Company C sells the other 20,000 I's domestically at a higher profit.
Happens all the time. That's how most IP/knockoffs in China come about. Same product line, same product, they just build a few extra (at their cost, their customers know what the BOM is, and can quickly figure out overcharges) and sell them locally for more profit.
The key to keeping IP "protected" in China is to partner with a strong Chinese manufacturer and give them financial incentives to police the market for you. It's what I do with my IP; I have two "blessed" factories in China authorized to build with it, and they get to maintain that "blessed" status as long as:
1. The products they build meet quality standards
2. The products they build meet typical BOM and profit margin costs
3. They monitor and police the Chinese market for me to watch for knock-offs
The carrot? They get a virtual "lock in" of clients. They get to charge a few percent more profit because my IP carries a premium.
The stick? They would lose the lock in, and either lose their "blessed" status or end up having two, three, or a dozen more factories so blessed and then lose their premium profit.
The key to China is pretty simple - make it worth their while to do the policing for you. It's all about the RMB, folks...
A benevolent dictator would be someone in the mold of Pinochet. Takes control at the behest of the Congress and Supreme Court, modernizes and updates the entire country's systems (infrastructure, economy, and political organization), then voluntarily steps down when it's done.
Fidel is no Pinochet - there never was any effort to move towards open political or economic systems, and no one got ahead save those who were close and completely loyal to Fidel.
Re:If you want to see the real Cuba, go now...
on
Fidel Castro Resigns
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· Score: 1
Yes, those "free elections" in those places are certainly the paragon of democracy! And nothing like having to pay all those bribes each and every month to keep your business open to spur that capitalism.
None on your list are democracies OR capitalistic.
Look to Chile, or Peru, or Columbia, or Belize, or Costa Rica if you want to see the results of democracy and capitalism in central and south America. Your list is a really good list of fascist and/or oligarchies with virtual control over all aspects of life.
Well, you get up to 21 pounds of CO2 from a pound of crude oil - a 21:1 increase in "stuff". This sponge apparently can do a 1:83 reverse, so the whole system appears to be a 21:83 savings in space underground. Why not pump it right back into the ground?
Perhaps you should review the distribution of those warming measurements. Note that the blue points have a full year of measurements; the red ones have partial year data available. Huge regions of the Earth with zero or incomplete data sets, yet from these measurements (clustered predominantly in the US, Japan, and around Denmark) we extrapolate the entire Earth is warming.
Then when you add in problems with the measurement sites and equipment themselves - this station, for instance - we should have even less confidence in the conclusions drawn from the few and far between measurement sites.
Bottom line: Apple hardware IS more expensive for comparable PC systems, and their much-vaunted AppleCare is more expensive than comparable warranty/service agreements for PC vendors.
Apple has style, sure. But beyond that, it's really not a good value.
So never mind that I spec'd things out, because YOU made an assertion and YOU didn't want to go and look, YOUR assertion still holds up...
Apple MacBook Pro, entry model at $1999 has a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 MB shared cache, 800 MHz FSB.
Dell Vostro LOADED with more peripherals AND software AND is $75 less uses a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 MB shared cache, 800 MHz FSB.
Face it, Apple computers carry a PREMIUM price for nothing else than style and the name. If the style matters to you, so be it. But to say that Apple's are cheaper based upon hardware specs is demonstrably false. Take a quick look at the Dell, Fujitsu, or Lenovo pages to see what hardware REALLY costs... Remember, drop the price of Office 2007 and you have comparable - OR BETTER - hardware for 75% the cost of the Apple option.
Of course, you used to work at Apple, so you're probably a bit biased...
Yes, Dell's are grey. Or White. Or Black. Or Blue. Or Red. Heck, there were even pink and yellow shades available, too...
Or the carbon fiber options on Sony's. Or brushed aluminum of Panasonics. There's lots of options out there in the PC world, you don't have to live with the two colors that Steve decides are "hip", you know...
Yes, AppleCare for $349 for 3 years where I can take the laptop to a store. Or with the Lenovo I can plop down the SAME $349 and 4 YEARS of next day ON SITE service, where they come to me. More convenience AND 33% longer coverage.
I guess you're right, you can't get the shorter duration and less convenient service of AppleCare...
You can order a new Dell Vostro with better peripherals, same processor/RAM, bigger screen, more HDD, full Office 2007, and throw in a Verizon EV-DO broadband modem and STILL come out nearly $100 less than the Apple (yes, I know about OpenOffice but try to live in the business world without the ability to read AND write MS Office apps and you'll find living quite hard - or we can drop the Dell price by $329 and drop MS Office to "make it equivalent").
Or get a Fujitsu A6110 with the 15.4" wide screen. Yes, only a 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo, but with 3 GB of RAM, 200 GB HD, and all the other goodies (including Office Pro 2007) for $240 less than the MacBook Pro.
Or a Lenovo T61 with the same processor, RAM, HDD, display as the MacBook Pro, but adds Office 2007 and enough savings for a round trip ticket to Las Vegas.
Or the same thing from HP... Or Toshiba...
Apple's look nice, and have a "coolness" factor to them when you open them up at your local Starbucks. But in terms of value or components versus price? They come up short, every time (note that ALL the PC alternatives above included Office Pro 2007, which the MacBook Pro doesn't; drop that SW and drop the prices by $300 to $500).
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I typically reboot my Dell laptop running Win XP Pro every month, at most. It'll get put into hibernation 3-4 times a day, but actual reboots occur rarely. Been quite stable as my main machine for 3 years so far, other than a HDD failing, and replacing a keyboard.
No, it should be viewed as fumigating your house. You all move out, wait a few days, then move back in. When you reboot you don't lose the computer, you don't lose the archived data, and all the users can return in a short amount of time.
Burning down your house loses all the contents and ensures you'll never return...
Hey, how are you reading my inbox???
You get laid once a month? You obviously aren't married...
Don't be silly - you have a Slashdot account, the chances of you ever getting laid were zero before you ever started the game!
Umm, yeah... Go ahead and put away your "wand" there Hairy...
The Prius is a subcompact car; anyone claiming that a subcompact can carry 4 American (or Northern European) adults really likes torturing their passengers.
For most people, the rear seats in a Prius are as useful as the rear seats in a Porsche Carrera - yes, you can call it a 4 seater, but two of those seats are really just convenient places to put groceries.
GSM quad band phone - communications and 3G connectivity. WiFi for non-cell 'net access. VGA screen so browsing is actually usable. MicroSD cards so you can have several 4 GB cards to store pretty much anything. Built-in camera. Windows Mobile Pro so you can read/edit Word docs, use PDF readers, etc. GPS so you don't get lost. And the keyboard for when you need to type for more than a few minutes.
You'll get all the media player capability you want, all the connectivity you could want, hours and hours of battery life, and it all fits in your pocket.
It was only when he went overseas that he was "arrested" for crimes against humanity. Seems his own people weren't too upset with him.
Spend a year or two in Chile, and talk to the people about that time. You'll get a pretty dramatically different view than what you read about and hear about outside of Chile.
Sure, Pinochet killed 2,000 people; a lot, but still a piker compared to Castro. But 99% of the Chileans I met, worked with, and befriended would say that Pinochet will answer to God for what he did, but there is no denying he wasn't good for Chile.
Restricting a component is a good approach, as long as you can guarantee restriction of that component. You know the back-channels of China, though! A cousin of the senior engineer happens to work at that component vendor and over dinner at the New Year's celebration a deal is struck...
Personally, I've found it better to control on deliveries to the destination market (usually the US and the EU), and incentivise the Chinese factory strong enough that they make the same amount of money AND don't have the headaches of extra production to just play ball from day one.
BTW, for those others reading this little piece of lint (that is what a small, sub-thread is, right?) the problem is bad in China, but about 5X worse in India, based upon my experiences (consumer electronics products).
Better for both of us - me and my partner factories in China - than just me by myself...
Company A from America contracts with Company C in China to build product I.
Company A orders 100,000 I's every month.
Company C builds 120,000 I's every month.
Company C ships 100,000 I's to company A.
Company C sells the other 20,000 I's domestically at a higher profit.
Happens all the time. That's how most IP/knockoffs in China come about. Same product line, same product, they just build a few extra (at their cost, their customers know what the BOM is, and can quickly figure out overcharges) and sell them locally for more profit.
The key to keeping IP "protected" in China is to partner with a strong Chinese manufacturer and give them financial incentives to police the market for you. It's what I do with my IP; I have two "blessed" factories in China authorized to build with it, and they get to maintain that "blessed" status as long as:
1. The products they build meet quality standards
2. The products they build meet typical BOM and profit margin costs
3. They monitor and police the Chinese market for me to watch for knock-offs
The carrot? They get a virtual "lock in" of clients. They get to charge a few percent more profit because my IP carries a premium.
The stick? They would lose the lock in, and either lose their "blessed" status or end up having two, three, or a dozen more factories so blessed and then lose their premium profit.
The key to China is pretty simple - make it worth their while to do the policing for you. It's all about the RMB, folks...
Fidel is no Pinochet - there never was any effort to move towards open political or economic systems, and no one got ahead save those who were close and completely loyal to Fidel.
None on your list are democracies OR capitalistic.
Look to Chile, or Peru, or Columbia, or Belize, or Costa Rica if you want to see the results of democracy and capitalism in central and south America. Your list is a really good list of fascist and/or oligarchies with virtual control over all aspects of life.
I bet candid beach photos of Angelina get a LOT more downloads than candid beach photos of Castro...
Well, you get up to 21 pounds of CO2 from a pound of crude oil - a 21:1 increase in "stuff". This sponge apparently can do a 1:83 reverse, so the whole system appears to be a 21:83 savings in space underground. Why not pump it right back into the ground?
And Climate Audit is also your friend - very eye-opening, unbiased, scientific and statistical examination of a lot of the global warming debate.
Then when you add in problems with the measurement sites and equipment themselves - this station, for instance - we should have even less confidence in the conclusions drawn from the few and far between measurement sites.
Bottom line: Apple hardware IS more expensive for comparable PC systems, and their much-vaunted AppleCare is more expensive than comparable warranty/service agreements for PC vendors.
Apple has style, sure. But beyond that, it's really not a good value.
Apple MacBook Pro, entry model at $1999 has a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 MB shared cache, 800 MHz FSB.
Dell Vostro LOADED with more peripherals AND software AND is $75 less uses a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 MB shared cache, 800 MHz FSB.
Face it, Apple computers carry a PREMIUM price for nothing else than style and the name. If the style matters to you, so be it. But to say that Apple's are cheaper based upon hardware specs is demonstrably false. Take a quick look at the Dell, Fujitsu, or Lenovo pages to see what hardware REALLY costs... Remember, drop the price of Office 2007 and you have comparable - OR BETTER - hardware for 75% the cost of the Apple option.
Of course, you used to work at Apple, so you're probably a bit biased...
Or the carbon fiber options on Sony's. Or brushed aluminum of Panasonics. There's lots of options out there in the PC world, you don't have to live with the two colors that Steve decides are "hip", you know...
I guess you're right, you can't get the shorter duration and less convenient service of AppleCare...
You can order a new Dell Vostro with better peripherals, same processor/RAM, bigger screen, more HDD, full Office 2007, and throw in a Verizon EV-DO broadband modem and STILL come out nearly $100 less than the Apple (yes, I know about OpenOffice but try to live in the business world without the ability to read AND write MS Office apps and you'll find living quite hard - or we can drop the Dell price by $329 and drop MS Office to "make it equivalent").
Or get a Fujitsu A6110 with the 15.4" wide screen. Yes, only a 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo, but with 3 GB of RAM, 200 GB HD, and all the other goodies (including Office Pro 2007) for $240 less than the MacBook Pro.
Or a Lenovo T61 with the same processor, RAM, HDD, display as the MacBook Pro, but adds Office 2007 and enough savings for a round trip ticket to Las Vegas.
Or the same thing from HP... Or Toshiba...
Apple's look nice, and have a "coolness" factor to them when you open them up at your local Starbucks. But in terms of value or components versus price? They come up short, every time (note that ALL the PC alternatives above included Office Pro 2007, which the MacBook Pro doesn't; drop that SW and drop the prices by $300 to $500).