On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 9:04 AM, Derek Smithies <[email protected]> wrote: > On 25/11/11 22:51, Volker Kuhlmann wrote: >>> On asking the store >>> attendant that you want more memory, they will look at you and try to >>> tell you that there is enough >>> memory in the box for your task at hand.. >> I don't quite understand your problem (maybe that's why it's a pet >> peeve?). If you know what you want, ask for it, and then there's not >> much point in listening to the clerk's torrent. Interrupt politely and >> ask whether they are able to sell XYZ, they get the point pretty >> quickly. Or you trivially shut them up with "Thanks, I use Linux, can >> you tell me anything relevant to that about the stuff you're selling?". >> I've come to think of local shops as just a mailorder place where I can >> pick things up from quickly (well excluding Tastech who decided they no >> longer wanted to sell to me, so drop those from the options). I'm unable >> to say when the last time was some shop gave useful advice, so the >> difference to mailorder is zero. The advantage of mailorder is that I >> get what I want (and nobody argues). >> > Ah.. The wonders of email, where the full story is not told. A relative > asked me for > advise on what computer to buy.. I said, it does not matter, but simply > make sure > that you ask for lots of memory. Just demand 4GB. Sadly, she did not > have much > success. > It was not helped by going into one shop and asking for 4 millibytes > of ram. > Anyhow, the shops (without exception) were unhelpful. > > I was simply starting a email dialog in an effort to > a)verify that lots of ram is the best thing you can do for performance - > in terms of bang for buck.
Yep and buying at the time of first purchase is the most economical. Once "the next big incompatible thing" comes along, the old technology gets in short supply and the price goes up. > > b)inform uneducated readers that the simple+sensible+wise thing to do is > get more ram. > > ============================= > As far as shop assistants go, I lost all faith in them a while ago. > a)One shop assistant told me that dual cores is better, cause then there > is one core for audio, and one core > for video - so things go faster. > I elected not to give this assistant a lecture on what actually > happens inside a computer, and on what the > multitasking system does. One of my programs can run up to 300 threads > of operation. > > b)Another shop assistant told me that the reason the photokiosk machine > could not read the usb stick was > that it was a copyright thing issue, and the best thing to do is > regularly reformat the usb stick. > --In that case it was the keys left hanging on the usb stick, so it > was not making proper contact.. LOL it makes you wonder how these people get trained (or not). I often feel like interrupting when I hear shop assistants talking to complete strangers. However the few times I have, it leads to a whole afternoon of discussion, I just keep quiet now. Often what I want to say is "you can get that for 2/3 of the price at X shop|trademe|etc". _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
