[continued from previous message]   
      
   > guaranteeing that it would work for everyone. Meanwhile, the iOS edition   
   > is still available and works great.   
      
   Agreed; there's strengths and weaknesses to try-2-be-it-all-for-everyone   
   architectures.   
      
      
   >>> I wouldn't play too many games on it, but I suppose that matters less   
   >>> and less now.   
   >>   
   >> Understood & agreed; I suspect that a lot of the "Power User" PC club   
   >> has historically been younger guys who still have good eyes and   
   >> reaction times who want to play GPU-intensive games at home.  As one   
   >> migrates away from playing "twich" games, one learns that something   
   >> like Civilization 5 doesn't really need a huge GPU/etc.   
   >   
   > And it's not a worse game. Heck, some people believe that Civilization 4   
   > was the best and others think the 6 was the peak. Whether you can play   
   > the 7 or not means nothing because if you even play 2 from the late 90s,   
   > the game concept hasn't changed that significantly. It looks better and   
   > some things are neat, but if you need your Civilization fix, even the   
   > first one ever made will do the job. Only Freeciv is completely awful.   
      
   I think it was Civ 3 and/or 5 that I had squandered many an hour on; was   
   a good diversion at the time.   
      
      
   >>>>> In the end, their machines weren't actually capable of anything   
   >>>>> more than the competition, though I believe that the Apple ][ felt   
   >>>>> more robust than machines from Atari and Commodore. Of course, I   
   >>>>> wasn't old enough to even own one at the time, so I'm basing myself   
   >>>>> on what other people have said.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Clearly, you never had to use a Timex-Sinclair keyboard! ;-)  Apple   
   >>>> has been more solidly built, and they also have a better dealership   
   >>>> network for providing customer support (which isn't free), long   
   >>>> before they started their own retail stores.   
   >>>   
   >>> I have to admit that I would have found that attractive if I were a   
   >>> computer user in the 80s and the Apple ][ and/or Mac were available   
   >>> for purchase. OF course, living through the 80s, the only computer I   
   >>> really thought was awesome was the Amiga.   
   >>   
   >> The Amiga was a good attempt at a GUI centric OS that was competing   
   >> against Apple and had its fans.  I don't recall why why it flamed out.   
   >   
   > Commodore kept selling the same machine since 1987. The upgrades were   
   > few and far between and even after they were released, developers   
   > targeted the lowest common denominator in the Amiga 500. It was the same   
   > problem with the Atari 520ST being targeted despite many improvements.   
   > People wanted something superior and only the PC and Mac developers were   
   > bothering to develop for the latest technology.   
      
   That makes sense.   
      
      
   >>>> Depends on one's level of geekery.   
   >>>   
   >>> Well, I can tell you that back when my Dell died in 2010 and I had to   
   >>> shop for a replacement, I had no idea what the heck an i3 was. I just   
   >>> knew that the Core 2 Duo Apple was offering was very outdated.   
   >>   
   >> There's been a lot of creaky cheap stuff on minimal spec systems.  I   
   >> have a Celeron based PC sitting around that I need to figure out what   
   >> to do with it, or turn it in for recycling.  Maybe a linux server box   
   >> for a bunch of tiny old Hard Drives...if its power consumption isn't   
   >> too bad.   
   >   
   > You can always give it away to a needy family.   
      
   If I could figure out the Windows password to do a good secure wipe, I'd   
   consider that; my recollection is that it was (barely) running Vista.   
      
   > I'm going to start doing   
   > that with older laptops I use at work. A ten-year-old machine is a piece   
   > of crap unless you put Linux on it and give it to a kid whose family can   
   > barely afford to eat. Luckily, I work in a school where there are tons   
   > of poor families and they would appreciate the gift.   
      
   More the reason why I'm debating the Linux-or-scrapheap route.  I don't   
   recall its precise vintage, but since its Vista, its pre-2010.   
      
      
   >>>> Material aging properties like this are why the Engineering plans   
   >>>> ahead for in the design.  Shortsighted and cheap-ass outfits who cut   
   >>>> corners will invariably get burned by that decision later on.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> I've participated in some Li-Ion powerpack development; the last one   
   >>>> that I was closely involved with was originally delivered in 2010   
   >>>> and as of the last time that I personally saw it in Summer 2022, it   
   >>>> was still doing fine:  that's 12 years & counting.   
   >>>   
   >>> That's why I'm thinking that some companies get a higher quality   
   >>> metal than others. Alan is suggesting that it's the chemistry and   
   >>> I'll accept that, but Apple doesn't make its own batteries as far as   
   >>> I know and buy them from someone else. The question, for me, is who   
   >>> does Razer buy from for theirs to blow up within two years and who is   
   >>> Apple buying from?   
   >>   
   >> Its probably an "all of the above" situation, where some chemistry   
   >> specifics apply (good enough vs best practices), ditto the   
   >> manufacturing & tolerances, and then the supplier/supply chain which   
   >> does a better job of preventing shoddy counterfeits from getting snuck   
   >> in.  For example, the stuff I was using was primarily from SAFT; their   
   >> VL30P had the specs we needed...and we paid for it.  After subtracting   
   >> off their NRE fee for the first unit, its 2010 cost was a shade over   
   >> $1000 per kW-hr.   
   >   
   > I honestly don't know enough about how they produce the batteries to   
   > comment, but I know that once the original battery of a typical PC   
   > manufacturer's machine wears out, you are likely to get a terrible   
   > counterfeit if you seek to get it from anywhere but the manufacturer   
   > itself. I had what turned out to be a complete piece of garbage in my   
   > old MSI GT72 when I replaced the original battery and the experience was   
   > almost traumatizing.   
      
   The one thing that Elon did right with Tesla was to employ what's   
   basically a consumer electronics battery in his car design ... but the   
   trade-off is that doing health monitoring and power tailoring down to   
   the individual cell level is onerous (& probably skipped).  That's a   
   corner that can be cut for a product with a 3-5 year lifespan, but   
   becomes increasingly problematic (and a higher fire risk).  It almost   
   goes without saying that therefore, I'd never risk parking one of his   
   inside of an attached garage...and while I've not done a detailed check,   
   I suspect that the same probably also applies too to his power walls.   
      
   -hh   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)