IT CAME! IT CAME!

[I get Taurens]

Yes, I was thinking about the whole have to replace keyboard if its Chinese and not Thai and the pixel thing. For those who buy a Thinkpad G or R Series, bad pixels and non-top of the line keyboards would seem reasonable to be par for the course based on their pricing. But for those who buy a T42p, they really shouldn't send out a single one for the price range they are in that have a bad pixel or a cheap keyboard or a battery that doesn't fit just right.

I disagree, the built quality SHOULD be comparible among ALL IBM machines, this reflects a company's attitude towards product quality, some machines may come with low spec due to the low pricing, but the built quality should always be consistant among all models that IBM makes, I am lucky enough to own a T series, but how would you feel if you hear about this when you only have the budget to own a G or R series?

[Plinkerton]

Yeah, I agree with I get Taurens. I think they should make everything kick [censored]. They are IBM ya know...

Seriously though...

[lfeagan]

Note: I need to preface this by saying I wish things weren't this way, but I live in the real world and realize how things are and how businesses operate, as much as it might peeve me....so, anyways....

I think that is possibly one of the more blindly wishful things I have ever heard unless you think Utopias are realistic. It has nothing to do with a companies attitude and everything to do with real dollars and what makes sense. When I buy something that is less expensive, I expect it to have some things that differentiate it from a higher end product, and often times this comes in form of things like perhaps the edges not being as cleanly removed of burrs.

Surely you don't expect to get an absolutely flawless Yugo. But if you were buying a Maybach you would expect nothing less than absolute perfection. I am not saying IBM is going to intentionally screw up a G or R series notebook, but in the end I think we all live in the real world and acknowledge that there is some difference in the build quality of the systems.

From a pricing standpoint, the actual machines don't differ nearly as much in price as one might expect. A lot of the price really is getting "cherry" components. This is the exact same thing as with CPUs and their speed grading. CPUs near the edges are more likely to be flawed and as a result tend to be lower speed grades that may only get rated at 1.7GHz. CPUs near the sweet spot tend to be more flawless in their production and are the 2.1GHz models that sell for more. It isn't that the other CPUs are broken, they just aren't as good. Not all notebooks are created equal. If they were, then they would all virtually the same. We all pay more for our IBMs because on the average they are better quality and better build machines than a Dull is. And Dull is better than eMachines and so on...

[I get Taurens]

Thanks for pointing that out, lfeagan, saddly, this extends to many other aspects in life, but I don't like you call that:

one of the more blindly wishful things I have ever heard

please let me point it out, don't you have more reasons to believe in the perfect world when you are 20 years old?

[Plinkerton]

I believe in Utopias. My life is one, because I make it that way.

As far as other things go, yes, it's wishful thinking. My cynical side doesn't let me get away with thinking otherwise. It would be great if all computers were created equal, but alas, it is not the way.

But, there's no reason why your own life can't be your own little private utopia...

Now where did my harem of women go?

[lfeagan]

Yeah, well, I'll admit, I am a bit of a pessimist as far as other's perception of me. I call myself a realist on the other hand. Life experience has led me to believe that if I make a conclusion about something, then I go with a slightly less favorable view, then I end up being just about right on the money in terms of predicting how things will turn out. I am very sorry if I offended in any way. My faith in comanies was lost long ago. Quick note, I am 24 years old, not too much older than you are in all likelihood. But I am an engineer, so I get paid to be a pessimist (realist) basically lolz

A perfect world would certainly be nice...at least from the outset it sure seems tempting. But even a "perfect" world has issues because not everyone's conception of perfection is the same. This could lead us into a fascinating discussion of the rise of fascism in America and how American's are still fascists in their subconcious and do not realize that their quest for perfection, among other things, is representative of this view of a somehow perfect being as something to strive towards. America was and still is in many ways a fascist country, but it is far more subtle now and people are unaware of it as it is veiled much more carefull. I find it all very disturbing. If interested I can dig up some interesting papers on the subject. Needless to say, America's large fascist population in the 30s is what led Hitler to try to get the American's to join him and in fact we almost did.

Down with fascist views in ALL their forms. Yucky, dirty thoughts are they.

Oh yeah, and if you want to look up stuff on this, it helps to know about the eugenics movement in America. Eugenics literally means "good genes".

[Plinkerton]

See, I'm 22, and I'm a student at UCSB. I pay a crapload of money to learn how to be an idealistic optimist.

In all reality though, I really am a cynical [censored]. I just don't let it bother me.

I have the same thoughts about corporations and big companies. I feel like it's dog-eat-dog, and I don't play nice with them if I don't have too.

I use windows, and like MS stuff, but it's really because I haven't been exposed to anything better. And no, I don't consider Macs better. I don't know anything about the *nix stuff.

But, I still think MS is a horrible monopoly whore, and they bully every other company into doing what they want. There is a small issue about this with regards to Bungie's release of Halo 2. It is dissapointing for many people, (not me though, I think it's a great game) but many people believe, and quite plausibly so, that MS bullied them into an early release, and to cutting out A LOT of the game, storyline, etc.

Anyhow... I'm gonna start going into real estate development, so maybe I'll start seeing how the "real world" is.

[Plinkerton]

Just wanted to let everyone know that I just installed SP2 after updating my BIOS and everything seems to be fine.

So, add me to the statistic of people who have updated with no problems, and am currently happy with the update.

[Aramitz]

I would test out the wifi, but my dog just chewed my router power cable this morning...

Hooray!

You've to feed your doggy before computing !