| WIKI | FAQ | Tech FAQ | |
 http://csua.com/feed/ | |
| ||||||
| 2004/8/28-29 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:33196 Activity:very high |
8/27 I'm a pc person and I need a laptop. From what I've seen I really
like the apple laptops: nice wide screen, slim form and they don't
weigh a ton. What's the closest I can get to that with a pc laptop?
\_ I _highly_ recommend the IBM X series. The lack of floppy/
CD doesn't bother me (easy to PXEboot/install any OS) and they
are tremendously robust. Battery lasts an age, and the built-
in bluetooth/wifi/IR is pretty well supported under non-Windows
OS. I would not buy another Vaio, as the ones I've had fell apart
very soon due to piss-poor quality. Likewise with my Toshiba
ultralights (although the regular laptops were good quality.)
I currently have a Thinkpad X31, dual-booting XP and Debian, but
I've had FreeBSD running very well on it as well. Oh and the
keyboard is superb to use, if you don't mind the nipple (I like
it.) Mail me for more info. -John
\_ Sony Viao? Fujitsu? I'd go to frys first to browse their
display, and then buy on-line.
\_ My older brother bought a Fujitsu S7010D from http://newegg.com for
$1,430. He likes it a lot.
$1,430. 14" screen, 4.2 lbs. He likes it a lot.
\_ Do you want an optical drive? If not, Sharp has a super-light
(1 lbs) super-thin (~ 1/2 ") Transmeta powered laptop w/
built-in 802.11b. It costs btw $1200-$1400.
Sony has some thin and light laptops but everyone I know who
has one has experienced problems with them b/c of qa issues.
IBM has some light ThinkPads and most people seem to like them
but I don't know where you can check one out though.
BTW, why don't you want an Apple laptop? The 12" iBook is
a great deal (esp. if you buy a refurb) compared to most PC
laptops with similar specs. -iBook owner
\_ He said he uses PC. It probably doesn't make much sense to
have your laptop be a different OS from your main system.
Although that could be interesting for impractical geekitude.
\_ Using PC could mean anything these days. I primarily
use PCs running FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris x86 at
work, but my laptop is an iBook.
I'm not sure why having a laptop with a different
OS than your main system is a problem. My brother
primarily works with Windows and Solaris systems
but he uses a Powerbook. I know many people who
chose Powerbooks/iBooks over PC laptops even though
they are primarily in a Windows environment.
\_ Well it's a new software set to deal with. It may not
matter to some people depending what you use it for.
I think it would matter to me. And besides software there
is a need for learning how to do stuff with a new OS.
Just all the details you know from using an OS for a long
time. So a Mac would have to really kick butt to consider
switching.
\_ The software is sort of different, but things
like Photoshop, Acrobat, Word, Windows Remote
Desktop, FireFox, iTunes are identical to the
Windows versions.
Some of the software included with OS X is
better (X11, emacs, perl, XCode, terminal, ssh,
java, &c.) than what is bundled with Windows
and are on par with what is bundled with SuSE
or RH. Also most *nix programs now build with
no difficulty on OS X.
Arguably some stuff is worse (RealPlayer and
WMP come to mind), but I don't use these so
its not a big deal for me.
I'm not telling you to switch. I'm just saying
its not as bad as you might think, so it could
worth your while to consider the option as it
will probably work out cheaper for you overall.
\_ Well you can't buy one copy of office to use
on both. And Pentium-M is better than G4.
\_ Certainly this is the case if you
have to buy two copies of everything,
but most students (and employees) get
site licenses to software such as word
that allows them to use it on their
home systems, so you might have to buy
the Mac copy yourself.
In what way is the P-M better than the
G4? The battery life on my iBook G4/800
is about 5 hrs. Most people I know who
have a P-M get less than 3 hrs. Perhaps
the P-M is faster, but what do you do
on your laptop that really needs that
extra cpu speed?
\_ I get close to 5 hrs on my Dell, and
Thinkpads can get 8 hrs with 2 batteries.
\_ I agree with the iBook owner. The fact that you're even
looking for something comparable to iBook says a lot
about iBooks. I have 5 PCs at home and one iBook. All
my required X11 programs run on them, so I'm happy with
all of them. iBook is just so... practical.
\_ I think the closest is the IBM T41; similar in weight, can get
15" screen size, and quality construction (unlike most PC laptops).
-tom
\_ how is HP?
\_ For quality LIGHT notebooks, I'd only buy IBM or Toshiba.
Sony "look" nice at first, but if they break down (and they do
esp. those with 90 day or 1 year warranties) it is a big pain
to get fixed. Make sure you try out the keyboards first or
at least look at hi-res online pix to see the keyboard layout
if you buy online.
\_ Second on the ixnay on Sony.
\_ IBM Thinkpad.
\_ How about waiting a little bit for a handtop PC? That'll be
even smaller. Though I decided to go with an iBook and am
quite pleased. http://www.flipstart.com |
| 2004/8/28-29 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers] UID:33197 Activity:high |
8/28 2 Firefox 0.9 questions: where is the DOM inspector that was
supposedly installed, and how do I kill a javascript that keeps
throwing up popups at me?
\_ I didn't install dom inspector on firefox, but on mozilla,
you can start it under tools > web development. Ctrl-Shift-i
also works.
\_ What platform? My firefox on FreeBSD has DOM Inspector
right in the Tools menu.
\_ Popup blocking is somewhere under the prefs menu |
| 2004/8/28-29 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers, Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:33198 Activity:nil |
8/28 Has anybody ever used /etc/libmap.conf (FreeBSD) to map .so deps
to a newer/older revision number? It looks like it avoids that
nasty business of adding 30 new symlinks everytime you pkg_add
firefox.
http://www.freebsdchina.org/utils/phpMan.php/man/libmap.conf/5 |
| 2004/8/28-29 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:33199 Activity:very high |
8/28 Statement of RADM William L. Schachte, Jr. USN (Ret.) on
Kerry's 1st PH
First hand account of the night in question
http://nationalreview.com/document/document200408280010.asp
\_ the rear admiral is angry cuz he got no lunch
\_ can I get some of that?
\_ We all know this already. There was no hostile fire before Kerry
shot his grenade launcher, he got a sliver of grenade that was
probably from his own shot (Kerry says he didn't know where it
came from, seeing as it was his first combat assignment), and
he applied for the Purple Heart, his CO said forget it, he got
it any way since this was SOP at the time, and the CO was
admonished by higher ups for not granting it. Purple Hearts are
given, even if the wound was self-inflicted, as long as it was
sustained during an action on an enemy.
\_ Is this in the NYT? WP? LAT? Any reputable news media? No.
Don't you think someone credible would have covered this if this
were real?
\_ Dewd, the gist of it is true, as I posted above. -liberal
\_ Moreoever, those "reputable news media" are so far left
\_ I've only been a conservative a few years, but the media's
distortion of the Swift Vet accusations and evidence is
the most brazen bias I've ever seen. It's really incredible
how far the NYT, WP, and LAT, and major broadcast
networks will go.
\_ I'm just wondering why many in America have been duped
by the Swift Boat Vets, and the smart people of the world
(including editors at the NYT, WP, LAT, and the network
news) are probably wondering the same thing. The SBVFT are
liars with a vendetta. I have no idea what you are talking
about when you say "accusations and evidence is the most
brazen bias I've ever seen" -- but I suppose this is why
we have the most polarized electorate anyone can remember.
-liberal
\_ "they don't understand the allegations" --sbvtroll |
| 2004/8/28-29 [Computer/Theory] UID:33200 Activity:high |
8/28 Hey, someone posted a vaguely interesting scifi story that some
socialist wrote. It started with the computers taking over
management at Mickey Ds and then the world. Anyone have the
URL? tnx.
\_ I think the author was Cory Doctorow.
\_ That guy had a breathtaking understanding of economics. -- ilyas
\_ It was Marshall Brain. Here's the URL:
http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm
I'm interested to hear rebuttals of his economic ideas, if only
for the sake of having an argument. This is the motd, right?
As I understand it, the problem with his argument is that if robots
caused 50% unemployment, the economy would evaporate and no one
would have any money to buy robots.
\_ In a nutshell: any increase in efficiency is a good thing, not
a bad thing. That's why the industrial revolution and the
computer revolution made us better off. -- ilyas
\_ Actually, I think this is the URL requested:
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
\_ It depends on how smart the robots are and how easy they are
to make. If you could create a system where robots make more
robots from harvesting the raw resources through final
construction then why would it be necessary to charge money
for a robot? Anyone who didn't want to work wouldn't have to.
Farm robots, digging robots, maid robots, builder robots. This
is one version of social utopia. Everyone would have all the
time they wanted to pursue art & leisure instead of slaving
away a large fraction of their life doing a job they don't like.
I see nothing wrong with that. I'm for 100% unemployment.
\_ I think we're already at the point where people can spend
as much time as they want on art. What we get for this
is a whole lot of really crappy art. I think 100%
unemployment would just lead to even more rampant
hiedoism. And more motd trolling.
\_ And poor spelling. |
| 2004/8/28-30 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Politics/Domestic] UID:33201 Activity:very high |
8/28 RIP, Laura Branigan.
\ Ever see "Self-Control" Music video. William Fredkin directed it.
\_ I got it off the net. Wasn't it banned by MTV at the
time? It's a little dated now, but still wonderful.
\_ Please copy it to /csua/tmp/. I'd like to see it.
\_ Done.
\_ having trouble playing the file... with rp8/linux
"General error" -- with mplayer, segfaults.
\_ plays fine on Windows. Try the site directly:
http://www.laurabraniganonline.com/sc20ann.htm
\_ They're down for the count.
\_ I got an mpeg version off a file sharing
network a while back. It's out there.
\_ Thanks.
\_ Now, that's a name I haven't heard in a while. Several years
back, I somehow got to thinking about that song Self Control and
sought out a used copy from the $2.00 bargain bin at Amoeba.
I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but other than the
title track, the album is unfortunately a turkey. Oh well.
\_ Absolutely, but Self Control is still one of the best cover
songs ever, so I guess that's worth the price of admission. |
| 2004/8/28-29 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:33202 Activity:nil |
8/28 Even Karl Rove has figured out this is stupid, why can't you?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3609312.stm
"I think him [John Kerry] going to Vietnam was more heroic than my
flying fighter jets. He was in harm's way and I wasn't." |