quote:

Originally posted by umbrarchist:

I am mosly sick of the silly graphics bullsh!t. It is just a waste of disk space and processing power. But that is the problem the computer industry, how do they get people to buy so much power that they don't really need and can't do anything practical with? More graphics and more games.

quote:

Originally posted by umbrarchist:
I have Mepis, a version of Debian on one computer, SUSE 10 on another and an old version of Red Hat on still another. I used to be a HP-UX (Hewlett-Packards UNIX) administrator. In my opinion UNIX has been deliberately made a rather esoteric operating system which is difficult to learn so the gurus can guard the gates of nirvana. 5 CD's to load SUSe 10 and it doesn't automatically load the C compiler or ask if you want it. Slackware did that years ago. I have been talking about Black people worldwide standardizing on Linux for 4 years to little effect.

Our IT Manager looks at me like I have two heads if I mention Linux or open source.

I think the question is how do we, be it the human race or Black people, intend to make a future culture with this technology. I am mosly sick of the silly graphics bullsh!t. It is just a waste of disk space and processing power. But that is the problem the computer industry, how do they get people to buy so much power that they don't really need and can't do anything practical with? More graphics and more games.

I'm with RicardoMath. Let the gamers drive the market. Because the prices are coming down, I will soon have a Quad Core Mac Pro in my hot little hands! Besides, what does need have to do with getting cool stuff like computers?

Do you hear anybody suggesting mandatory computerized accounting in the schools?

umbra

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DOMS is my friend.

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Originally posted by ricardomath:
I'm all in favor of people wasting disk space and CPU cycles on bloated operating ststems and video games.

I could never afford to create the sort of consumer demand to drive the market towards faster and more powerful machines.

Without all those video gamers who need to run those games and bloated operating systems, and are willing to part with so much cash to do it, I wouldn't even be able to purchase a machine powerful enough to be useful in my research for under a couple of thousand bucks.

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Environmental and Social Impact of Computers

Without a doubt, computers have brought us great benefits in terms of communication and productivity gains. As a society, we would be foolish to wholly reject computer technology, yet we must recognize the folly of treating computers as an unvarnished good to be endlessly consumed anew without thought for their environmental and social costs.

The environmental impact of each new power-hunger, polluting computer is significant. A recent UN University study found that 1.8 tons of raw material are required to manufacture the average desktop computer and monitor. Roughly 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 22 kilograms of chemicals and 1,500 kilograms of water are used to make a desktop PC and a 17 inch CRT monitor.14 The environmental costs become alarming when considering how precipitously new PCs are being produced. Over 1 billion PCs had been produced in the world by the end of year 2002. The Computer Industry Almanac predicts that cumulative total will double within six years to over 2 billion by the year 2008.15

When we think of pollution, we generally think of the industries of the past based on steel and coal industries. Yet, in Southeast Asian countries such as China and Malaysia where environmental standards are lax, electronics manufacturing in the modern information age can be just as polluting as the dirty industries of yore. Even with tighter regulations on the use of toxins to prevent leakage into the environment, silicon chip manufacturing has hardly been benign in the US. In 1995, the production of a single six-inch silicon wafer required 3,200 cubic feet of bulk gases, 22 cubic feet of hazardous gases, 2,275 gallons of deionized water, 20 pounds of chemicals, and 285 kilowatt hours of electrical power. In the process, 25 pounds of sodium hydroxide, 2,840 gallons of waste water, and 7 pounds of miscellaneous hazardous wastes were generated.16 Most of that industrial waste was handled responsibly, but some has been released into the environment. In 1993, 44% of the 122 million pounds of production-related waste from the US electronics industry was released into the environment or transferred off-site. Released chemicals such as acetone, xylene, and toluene deplete the ozone layer, while xylene, acetaldehyde, and dichlo9 contaminate the ground water. The most commonly-released chemicals for the semiconductor industry were hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid which are used in the etching and cleaning process.17 Because this industrial waste was handled irresponsibly in the past, the Silicon Valley is dotted with 29 superfund sites caused by the pollutants spewed by the stars of the modern high-tech economy. Intel, AMD, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Fairchild Semiconductor, Teledyne Semiconductor, Raytheon, Siemens, Owens-Corning, and Westinghouse all have superfund sites to their name in the Silicon Valley.

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A 2 TFLOP cell processor is over kill for what I will end up doing with it.

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Originally posted by umbrarchist:
{SNIP}
I think the question is how do we, be it the human race or Black people, intend to make a future culture with this technology. I am mosly sick of the silly graphics bullsh!t. It is just a waste of disk space and processing power. But that is the problem the computer industry, how do they get people to buy so much power that they don't really need and can't do anything practical with? More graphics and more games.

Do you hear anybody suggesting mandatory computerized accounting in the schools?

umbra

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DOMS is my friend.

quote:

Originally posted by umbrarchist:
Aurora™ mALX
Advantage
* Windows® Vista™ Home Premium
* Dual Graphics SLI Technology
* Expansive 19" Wide Display
* Dual Hard Drives - Up to 400GB
Standard Features
* Exclusive Air-Brushed Artwork
* 1.3 Megapixel Camera

$4,499.00 as low as $135/mo.* Price is before all applicable rebates.

FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS

I bought a used car for less than that.

Tee Hee! By the time I ws done tricking it out, it was up to $5,589!

You will of course have to buy insurance on a laptop that expensive.

True, true. There's a guy at my office who actually has LoJack on his laptop.

That toy is too rich for my blood.

Mine too. I should set up one of those sites that begs for a dollar from each visitor.

I have one of these coming from eBay.



http://www.lordpercy.com/archos_pma400_review.htm

Ooo. I was looking for one of those when I was shopping for an MP3 player, but noone had any. Not even Fry's.

Of course you have to wonder about the state of the hard drive on a computer off eBay. It isn't so bad with more generic equipment.

umbra

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DOMS is my friend.

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A mainframe in your pocket. Who cares about video?

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In January 1983 Byte Magazine did an article of benchmarks on numerous computers in multiple languages.

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I've logged into AAOrg with the built in opera browser, it's usable but annoying because of the small screen.

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DOMS is my friend.

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D@mn, you must be old like me. 1