On 8/27/2014 5:20 AM, Chris wrote:
On Wednesday, 27 August 2014 at 03:00:26 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
Nice. I've heard that a lot of the scenery is stunning over there,
too. Slow and expensive electronics importing AIUI, but maybe that'd
be in my best interest anyway...biggest thing to raise my blood
pressure lately was my last trip to MicroCenter[1].
Take it easy. The most important things are the ideas and the software.
The latests gadgets are for users :-)
Unfortunately I need to use those gadgets in order to write software
on/for them. :/
Heh, man, all I wanted was to find a reasonable inexpensive laptop, that
won't choke on Linux, and be certain VT-x was supported in the big
three: CPU, mainboard and BIOS. (And the CPU I was looking at supports
VT-d too, so I was curious to see if it was actually *usable*, ie not
blocked by lack of support in mainboard/BIOS, 'cause that could
influence my choice of exact model.)
Back in the 90's that all would have been trivial: Slap CPUID (or some
90's equivalent thereof) onto the machine and run it. Heck, published
specs used to be detailed and, well, somewhat less unreliable.
But these days everyone's so afraid of their own shadow, they've got
everything locked down so tightly that the demo units may as well be
cardboard props. And expecting published spec to be both complete and
accurate? Pfft. No buzzwords == hide the info.
And then there's having to hear all of the dumb things coming out of the
sales monkeys mouths. Like the password-protected windows admin account
being referred to as a "firewall". Or the word "cloud" used for freaking
*everything* (with no utterance of the *real* word: "Internet"). And
*all* the verbal nonsense always coming with a heavy dose of
suited-smugness and self-assuredness. 'Course, I blame "portlandian"
silicon valley for that whole "cloud" bs. But whatever.
And then there's all the glare-magnet fingerprinted glossy half-height
screens, DRM and lockouts to deal with even *after* you buy it,
basic-yet-still-missing features that some suit decided I don't need
because it saves twenty cents, etc, etc...Ugh. Computing used to be fun.
Now it's just corporate paranoia, warring and idiocy.
And that's just *real* computers, I haven't even mentioned "phones"...
As soon as I finally snap and go all luddite hermit or something,
maybe that's where I'll retire ;) New Zealand that is, not MicroCenter.
Swapping your chip for sheep.
Sheep are fuzzy!! And tasty! I like! :)
