Best desktop replacement laptop? Any advice appreciated

On Dec 9, 2:46*pm, Paul <nos...@needed.com> wrote:

>
> I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be broken.
>
> You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of newsgroups.
>
> For example, alt.windows7.general, for a Windows 7 question.
> (Not available from Google. Use a real news server - details at *www.aioe.org.
> The nice thing about aioe.org - it prevents excessive crossposting :-) *)

Right. I only use Google, not a "real news server" so
"alt.windows7.general" is not available.

>
> Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
> laptop ? Mind boggling...

Well that presupposes that Linux OS is so radically different than
Windows7 that it requires special hardware. Even I, a Linux basher,
am not prepared to go that far! :-)

>
> And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
> Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
> a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
> a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
> cloth".

Two issues: so you like "plenty of cores", eh? But my experience is
that two cores vs a quad core is not that big a step, yet you pay a
premium. Second, "cut from the same cloth" meaning Dell = Intel =
Acer because they are all made by the same OEM, namely one of these
five? "In the ODM world, the top five manufacturers of 2006 were
Quanta, Compal, Wistron, Inventec and Asus, whose total shipments
accounted for 86.6 percent of the total market for laptops". Well
that was news to me! If that's what you mean, I learned something.

>
> If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.

No I heard that Windows 7 likes to "bip" the HD with a 1 second burst
"log file" and these excessive writes will wear out your SSD. Some
dual traditional mechanical HD + SSD try and get around this problem
by having the trad. HD handle these "bips", but it's still
experimental. SSD is still 2 to 5 years away from being mainstream.

Thanks Paul.

RL

RayLopez99 wrote:
> On Dec 9, 2:46 pm, Paul <nos...@needed.com> wrote:
>
>> I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be broken.
>>
>> You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of newsgroups.
>>
>> For example, alt.windows7.general, for a Windows 7 question.
>> (Not available from Google. Use a real news server - details at www.aioe.org.
>> The nice thing about aioe.org - it prevents excessive crossposting :-) )
>
> Right. I only use Google, not a "real news server" so
> "alt.windows7.general" is not available.
>

why am I not surprised.

You don't know very much about computers do you?

>> Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
>> laptop ? Mind boggling...
>
> Well that presupposes that Linux OS is so radically different than
> Windows7 that it requires special hardware. Even I, a Linux basher,
> am not prepared to go that far! :-)
>

But you keep telling us how you have real problems putting linux on
anything and windows 'just works;' so obviously any piece of old shit
you can get will run brilliantly with windows.

I dont see why you need to ask.

RayLopez99 <raylopez88 gmail.com> wrote:

> Paul <nos...@needed.com> wrote:

>> Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a
>> Windows 7 laptop ? Mind boggling...
>
> Well that presupposes that Linux OS is so radically different
> than Windows7 that it requires special hardware. Even I, a
> Linux basher, am not prepared to go that far! :-)

That's a good troll, Ray, but (maybe intentionally) it misses the
point.

Paul <nospam needed.com> wrote:

> RayLopez99 wrote:

....

> I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be
> broken.

lol

Do understand, Ray is a Google Groups user...

> You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of
> newsgroups.

> And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
> Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get a
> computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have a
> lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same cloth".

The major difference is probably upgrades/service difficulties.
The simple answer is probably "the more you spend, the closer you
get to a desktop replacement".

Going further off topic, and getting smaller...

Currently, a handheld like the iPhone and others hardly even do
copy and paste. They are interesting though, if you don't mind
making payments for two years. Besides a mobile phone, they
function as various other handheld devices, with $2 software. For
example... A GPS (very useful here, with the iPhone's big display
screen). A radio scanner (plug your speaker minijack into the
earphone output, stream music from the Internet through your
wireless router, to save smartphone bandwith, and you have hi-fi
FM stereo radio). A barcode scanner (going to try that one soon,
like for comparing prices at the store by scanning the barcode and
then looking it up using the built-in Internet connectivity). A
television schedule. Some might find it very useful for Internet
messaging. Maybe a few other significant applications, and a dozen
lesser applications. It is growing on me. It is useful for doing
little computing stuff especially when my desktop computer is off.
And then there is the weather radar. Before I got a smart phone, I
was thinking how cool it would be to have weather radar,
especially for in-line street skating. I had noticed some fancy
car commercial that appeared to have five day forecast weather
displayed on the dashboard screen. Then I got the smart phone and
noticed it had weather applications. A recent application is
called WeatherScope (maybe USA only). You can get it for your PC
for free from Oklahoma University (it takes some configuring). And
they made a version for the iPhone. It is $10, but it rocks. When
you turn on the iPhone and tap the WeatherScope application icon,
using almost all of the screen, it downloads the most recent
rainfall radar frame/picture for the location you had last
displayed. Tap a single control button, and it downloads and
displays an animated view of the most recent rainfall for that
favorite location. I thought that technology was years away, not
realizing the availability and application of handheld Internet
connectivity.
--









>
> If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.
>
> Paul

On Dec 10, 8:42*am, John Doe <j...@usenetlove.invalid> wrote:
> Paul <nospam needed.com> wrote:
> > RayLopez99 wrote:
>
> ...
>
> > I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be
> > broken.
>
> lol
>
> Do understand, Ray is a Google Groups user...
>
> > You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of
> > newsgroups.
> > And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
> > Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get a
> > computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have a
> > lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same cloth".
>
> The major difference is probably upgrades/service difficulties.
> The simple answer is probably "the more you spend, the closer you
> get to a desktop replacement".
>

Any models appreciated. You own a laptop?

> Going further off topic, and getting smaller...
>
> Currently, a handheld like the iPhone and others hardly even do
> copy and paste. They are interesting though, if you don't mind
> making payments for two years. Besides a mobile phone, they
> function as various other handheld devices, with $2 software. For
> example... A GPS (very useful here, with the iPhone's big display
> screen). A radio scanner (plug your speaker minijack into the
> earphone output, stream music from the Internet through your
> wireless router, to save smartphone bandwith, and you have hi-fi
> FM stereo radio). A barcode scanner (going to try that one soon,
> like for comparing prices at the store by scanning the barcode and
> then looking it up using the built-in Internet connectivity). A
> television schedule. Some might find it very useful for Internet
> messaging. Maybe a few other significant applications, and a dozen
> lesser applications. It is growing on me. It is useful for doing
> little computing stuff especially when my desktop computer is off.
> And then there is the weather radar. Before I got a smart phone, I
> was thinking how cool it would be to have weather radar,
> especially for in-line street skating.

Weather radar...ppfft. You need to have a fast internet connection,
which here in Greece is lacking, even and especially with ADSL (PPPoE
version) which is throttled due to inadequate hardware. Be happy you
are in the USA where you have decent fibre optic infrastructure.

Oklahoma is ... OK.

RL

On 10/12/2010 01:21, RayLopez99 wrote:
> On Dec 9, 2:46 pm, Paul<nos...@needed.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
>> laptop ? Mind boggling...
>
> Well that presupposes that Linux OS is so radically different than
> Windows7 that it requires special hardware. Even I, a Linux basher,
> am not prepared to go that far! :-)
>

I think the point is that Linux users are fond of looking at
alternatives, learning about what's available, and choosing the best
tool for the job. Windows-only users are fond of buying whatever they
are told, paying as much as is asked, and being thoroughly impressed
just because their purchase looks shiny.

There is therefore little doubt that one can get better quality
technical advice on computer purchases from a Linux newsgroup than from
a Windows newsgroup. Whether /Ray/ will get useful advice or not is a
different matter. And whether he can understand the advice or not is
yet another issue.

>>
>> And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
>> Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
>> a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
>> a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
>> cloth".
>
> Two issues: so you like "plenty of cores", eh? But my experience is
> that two cores vs a quad core is not that big a step, yet you pay a

Windows doesn't do multitasking very well, and windows apps typically do
not make much use of multiple processors. Two cores are definitely
better than one, but most windows apps will not scale with more cores.
There are a few programs that /will/ benefit from more cores even on
windows - some games, some photo of video editors, etc.

>>
>> If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.
>
> No I heard that Windows 7 likes to "bip" the HD with a 1 second burst
> "log file" and these excessive writes will wear out your SSD. Some
> dual traditional mechanical HD + SSD try and get around this problem
> by having the trad. HD handle these "bips", but it's still
> experimental. SSD is still 2 to 5 years away from being mainstream.
>

I'm sure there must be some way to fix this fault in Win7. But it is
certainly true that Windows writes regularly to the disk in various
places, with little or no user control.

However, your "knowledge" about SSDs is several years outdated, and even
then applied only to low-quality SSDs. A decent SSD can be written to
continuously at full speed for years without failure - they are orders
of magnitude better than hard disks for reliability and endurance. And
they /are/ mainstream in every case where the price-per-GB is acceptable.

<http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html>

RayLopez99 <raylopez88 gmail.com> wrote:

> John Doe <j...@usenetlove.invalid> wrote:

>> The major difference is probably upgrades/service difficulties.
>> The simple answer is probably "the more you spend, the closer you
>> get to a desktop replacement".
>>
>
> Any models appreciated. You own a laptop?

Aren't their laptop groups, or groups with users who mostly use laptops? I would think so, since there is even a group for iPhone users.

>> Going further off topic, and getting smaller...
>>
>> Currently, a handheld like the iPhone and others hardly even do
>> copy and paste. They are interesting though, if you don't mind
>> making payments for two years. Besides a mobile phone, they
>> function as various other handheld devices, with $2 software. For
>> example... A GPS (very useful here, with the iPhone's big display
>> screen). A radio scanner (plug your speaker minijack into the
>> earphone output, stream music from the Internet through your
>> wireless router, to save smartphone bandwith, and you have hi-fi
>> FM stereo radio). A barcode scanner (going to try that one soon,
>> like for comparing prices at the store by scanning the barcode and
>> then looking it up using the built-in Internet connectivity). A
>> television schedule. Some might find it very useful for Internet
>> messaging. Maybe a few other significant applications, and a dozen
>> lesser applications. It is growing on me. It is useful for doing
>> little computing stuff especially when my desktop computer is off.
>> And then there is the weather radar. Before I got a smart phone, I
>> was thinking how cool it would be to have weather radar,
>> especially for in-line street skating.
>
> Weather radar...ppfft.

Before leaving home or leaving for home, whenever there is any
doubt about rain, I use weather radar. It accurately helps me get
from here to there without getting rained on. Very useful. If you
have current rainfall radar, you can tell whether and how long the
rain will take to get there, unless it develops overhead (but that
is rare).

> You need to have a fast internet connection, which here in
> Greece is lacking,

The rainfall frames/images are very small. But you must have
weather radar stations and the application must be programmed to
use them. That is why I said "maybe USA only". I suppose Great
Britain or France might be other places for such an application,
any country that has publicly broadcasted weather radar.

In Greece, you need angry-mob radar
--











> even and especially with ADSL (PPPoE
> version) which is throttled due to inadequate hardware. Be happy you
> are in the USA where you have decent fibre optic infrastructure.
>
> Oklahoma is ... OK.
>
> RL
>

> A barcode scanner [smartphone app]

Tried one... Scans easier than the crud machines at Wal-Mart, even
without a macro lens.

On Dec 12, 6:03*am, John Doe <j...@usenetlove.invalid> wrote:
> > A barcode scanner [smartphone app]
>
> Tried one... Scans easier than the crud machines at Wal-Mart, even
> without a macro lens.

Do you have any hand-held barcode scanners in mind I can buy off the
internet? Models and makes and links appreciated.

RL

RayLopez99 <raylopez88 gmail.com> wrote:

> John Doe <j...@usenetlove.invalid> wrote:

>> > A barcode scanner [smartphone app]
>>
>> Tried one... Scans easier than the crud machines at Wal-Mart,
>> even without a macro lens.
>
> Do you have any hand-held barcode scanners in mind I can buy off
> the internet? Models and makes and links appreciated.

The "devices" are applications being made for iPhones and probably
other smart phones, for about $1 US. Apparently eBay bought
"RedLaser" and made it free for the iPhone (and maybe other
smartphones, I dunno). Used it today at Wal-Mart, worked well. And
I have an iPhone 3G, that does not have a macro lens like on the
3GS or higher.

Besides running typical applications, you can simulate other
devices with a smartphone (most common might be GPS). Quite cool
IMO. It ain't cheap, but the price for smartphones will fall with
proper competition. For a barcode scanner simulator application,
you need one with processing power, a camera, and Internet
connectivity (for price comparisons).