From: ibuprofin@painkiller.example.tld.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 07 Apr 2013, in the Usenet newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandriva, in article   
   <5KidneOLRawus__MnZ2dnUVZ_u2dnZ2d@posted.lerostechnologies>, Jim Beard wrote:   
      
   >Moe Trin wrote:   
      
   >> Jim Beard wrote:   
      
   >>> I still am holding off on the laptop, but it looks like I may be   
   >>> able to get an hp with an AMD AM8 cpu and a 17.3-inch screen for   
   >>> under $1,000 or vicinity.   
      
   >> Holy Toledo - HOW MUCH?   Items seen in various newspaper ads noted   
   >> in my files (from Frys Electronics, Best Buy and OfficeMax here in   
   >> PNX):   
      
   >> HP ? 17.3" AMD A8 Vision 6 GB 750 GB Bluetooth $550   
   >> HP ? 17.3" i7 8 GB 1 TB Bluetooth $800   
      
   >The above two would be contenders, but with Walmart charging $650   
   >for their "special" from hp, I suspect the $550 does not buy much.   
      
   Those are both from Frys Electronics, which is a fairly high volume   
   electronics super-store chain headquartered in San Jose, CA (guessing,   
   the two here in Phoenix are both over 150,000 square foot).  They tend   
   to be the "Low Price Leader".   
      
   >I tried to find a Walmart that had the machine listed on   
   >their website so I could check what it actually had in it, but   
   >nowhere in Northern Virginia or vicinity could one be found.   
      
   Yeah, the Walmart stores here tend to have a poor computer selection   
   here, and the staff is equally limited.  I only glanced at their   
   selection the last time I was in the Cave Creek superstore, but they   
   might have had 4 or 5 laptops displayed (Gateways and ASUS, I think).   
   I don't remember if any were the 17.3 inch size you're looking for.   
      
   >> Sony ? 17.3" i7 8 GB 750 GB $898   
   >> ASUS ? 17.3" i7 8 GB 2 TB, BluRay, Bluetooth "GT635 2 GB" $1248   
   >> Toshiba Satellite ? 17.3" AMD A6 6 G 640 GB $400   
   >> Toshiba ? 17.3" i7 8 GB 750 GB $800   
      
   >Keyboards, choice of manufacturer, and for ASUS an even higher   
   >price tag rule these out.   
      
   Three of those are Intel i7s, and the ASUS was advertised as a home   
   entertainment system.   I guess you'd use it to watch movies and do   
   gaming on a long flight.  ;-)   
      
   >The $400 is almost certain to be an i3 or i5 cpu or maybe AM4 or AM6.   
      
   AMD A6, but the speed rating wasn't listed. Should read "6 GB" RAM.   
      
   >>> I'm hoping it will have space for a second hard drive (one hp   
   >>> laptop I looked at did)   
      
   >> I'm slightly curious why you feel that desirable (as opposed to just   
   >> a larger single drive).   
      
   >Back up.  If the main drive goes kaput, disable/disconnect it,   
   >reconfigure, and continue using the backup drive.   
      
   I can't say that I've seen that many actual hard drives fail in the   
   past few years.   Yes it happens, but so do failures of the controller   
   and other components on the motherboard.    Laptops tend to have a   
   rougher life than a desktop, but we tend to not keep "valuable" data   
   on the laptops.   
      
   >I may be pipe-dreaming, but one of the things I have been thinking   
   >of doing for a couple of years is try to get access to and scan   
   >some old genealogical records.  If I get access (highly uncertain),   
   >it will probably be only if I provide high-quality imagery of   
   >whatever records their owner wants scanned.  I do not know what   
   >that might involve, but speculate it may be both cpu and storage   
   >intensive.   
      
   Not sure a laptop is the ideal device here.  Perhaps using a decent   
   digital camera (certainly not the built-in one on the laptop) to take   
   pictures of the documents (in the 35 mm SLR world, it would be nice to   
   have a set of lens extension rings, or a macro/close-up lens) - then   
   transferring the pictures to the laptop and at the very least viewing   
   them there sounds reasonable.  A separate page scanner doesn't sound   
   practical.  Tweaking the picture with something like GIMP shouldn't be   
   that CPU intensive.  Rough numbers for storage?  I dunno - 8x11 at 600   
   dpi is 3.168 megapixels, and even at 24 bit color, your RAM alone would   
   hold a lot of shots ;-)  What I'd probably do is immediately save the   
   documents/pictures both to disk and to a removable media of some kind.   
   A USB memory device is relatively inexpensive (under a buck a Gig, and   
   that's a lot of pictures).   
      
     SanDisk 16 GB USB2 flash $10   
     SanDisk 32 GB USB2 flash $20   
     SanDisk 64 GB USB2 flash $40   
     SanDisk 128 GB USB2 flash $80   
     WD MyPassport Essential 500 GB USB3 $70   
     WD MyPassport Essential 1 TB USB3 $90   
     Seagate 2 TB BackupPlus USB3 $100   
     Seagate 4 TB BackupPlus USB3 $150   
      
   Those are "Best Buy" in Phoenix, and Frys (above) is a bit cheaper.   
      
   >The cost of travel will be enough that speed, reliability, and   
   >recovery when Murphy strikes are considerations, yet all has to be   
   >done on a "retiree household budget."   
      
   That's why you want the "removable media".  Thinking about it, the cost   
   of the camera is likely to be "significant", but it has other uses.  I   
   certainly would get in practice at home before going out to copy the   
   originals.   
      
   >That it is even possible is amazing.  I can remember in the late   
   >1970s when an Army Colonel was greatly vexed that he was going to   
   >have to travel to WDC and appear before a Congressional committee   
   >(or, more likely, the staffers, with one or two Congressmen in   
   >attendance), to justify why his new Cray had to have 64-bit   
   >wordlength when 32-bit was so much cheaper!   
      
   And there was a LOT of it - something like a million words (8 MB).   
   At least it wasn't 'core'    I vaguely remember that the 360 in the   
   computing center at NASA Ames had 512K of memory.  The RAM chips I   
   was working with on some flight test hardware were 256 by ones  256   
   bits in a 14 pin DIP.  WOW! (There were 64 on two cards giving a total   
   of 2048 bytes arranged as 1024 16 bit words.)   
      
   >I think I shifted to 64-bit maybe 7 years ago... No Congressional   
   >interest at all. :)   
      
   Yeah, but they weren't paying an arm and a leg for it either.  Neither   
   were you, That Cray 1 wasn't exactly cheap - if you want to go to   
   "boggle" mode, it was then about a third the "list" price of a 747.   
      
   >> HP UltraBook 14" i5 6 GB 500 GB 32 GB SSD  $648   
   >> Sony UltraBook 14" i5 6 GB 500 GB 32 GB SSD $748   
   >> Sony Touchscreen Ultrabook 14" i7 6 GB 500 GB 24 GB SSD  $948   
      
   >Nothing here that would work nicely with my aging eyes.   
      
   I know what you're saying, but that's a bit of a trade-off. The laptop   
   tends to wind up with the same basic resolution (I'm using about 6   
   lines of text per vertical inch of pica - 12 characters per horizontal   
   inch) on laptop and desktop.  The difference is my desktop may have   
   more xterms per screen.   
      
   >When I have the keyboard, the cpu (i7, or AM8, latest linewidth   
   >to minimize heat), the 17.3-inch display, and the usual   
   >requirements (DVD burner, ethernet and wireless), anything extra   
   >is whipped cream on the strawberries.   
      
   For me, the laptop isn't the main computer, so most of those features   
      
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