From: jdbeard@patriot.net   
      
   On 04/08/2013 11:25 PM, Moe Trin wrote:   
   > 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.   
      
   Year, that would have been ballpark.  And the machine would be   
   built on premises, not a "works out of the box" piece of   
   machinery.  About 6 months were required for assembly and testing.   
      
   And pity the poor guy who reversed the polarity on power supply   
   to all of that expensive RAM hooked up to a machine. I have   
   forgotten whether it was a Cray 1 or a later XMP-4, but a guy did   
   that.  (Elsewhere.  Not to the Colonel's machine.)  Cray flew in   
   a team with foot-lockers filled with RAM, and they rebuilt the   
      
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