++ 03-Mar-05 08:00 +0000 (+0000) - Brian J. Beesley: > > For instance, you _used_ to be > able to obtain a laptop system which was _really_ rugged - would stand > immersion in water, being run over by a truck, etc, etc. Now for a lot of > users (icluding those who want to use a laptop in conjunction with e.g. a > telescope, outdoors in the dark with little if any protection from > environmental accidents; landscape photographers who have converted to > digital; ...) that makes a lot of sense - even if the system specification > numbers are very low in comparison with current systems. But no, the > marketers seem to have decided that laptop systems are not computers but > fashion articles, and enough consumers have decided that's what they want > too. That might make the bulk of consumers "suckers" in _my_ opinion.
You still can get ruggedized laptops. They're expensive. Most users do NOT need them. For the vast majority of people, even those using their systems outside, it's more cost effective to buy a commodity system and replace it more often. I wouldn't suggest a ruggedized laptop for amatuer astronomers or professional photographers. Overbuying features you don't really need is a very valid definition of "sucker" in my book. > I could also rant about all current laptops needing a flat surface to run a > mouse on, as trackpoints seem to have become extinct and trackpads are IMO > totally and absolutely useless to drive a WIMP interface. Another example of projecting your own preferences on the market as a whole. Most users prefer touchpads to points. That's why most laptops have touchpads. The market decided. That said, there's a good number of business-class machines that have both pads and points. > It's also very > difficult if not impossible to buy new laptops without paying Windows Tax; > discarding the pre-loaded OS in favour of linux is not always practical due > to many of the built-in devices being software driven rather than hardware > devices with a proper industry standard interface; and, even if drivers are > available, using these devices drains CPU power. All of these factors appear > to be driven by marketing pressures (including marginally legal lock-in > strategies) rather than genuine customer demand; I call BS again. Just because YOU don't want windows doesn't mean there's been a market failure. > in fact the "digital rights management" built into Windows Media > Player acts directly against the requirements of many customers. A) most users don't care about DRM. B) you're shifting the debate > Finally, even a >3GHz P4 desktop system _can_ be almost if not > entirely silent, whereas a laptop system generating comparable > performance is very likely to sound like a fully-loaded Boeing 747 > making a takeoff run right outside the window, at any rate for the > rather limited time before the battery runs flat. You obviously haven't used any of the new Pentium M systems. Even when I'm pegging this system with Prime95, the fan only comes on intermittently, and even then it's very quiet. When doing "normal" work, the single battery lasts as long as two batteries did on my previous laptop. Also, you're missing the obvious trade off you make with "silent" desktops - they've got room for massive heatsinks, etc. You want to lug that around in your carryon baggage? > Performance cannot > be maintained without cooling; in a laptop case, cooling means small > fans running fast, and aerodynamic noise is proportional to the > eighth power of the jet velocity, whereas cooling is proportional to > the mass of air moved - using a half size fan requires quadrupling > the velocity of the air stream, multiplying aerodynamic noise from > the fan by a factor of 65536. Again, you're showing your ignorance of modern laptops. -- Paul Victor Novarese KF4ZLI http://gammatron.novarese.net/ find / -user you -name "*base*" -exec chown us {} \; _______________________________________________ Prime mailing list [email protected] http://hogranch.com/mailman/listinfo/prime
