[dba-Tech] So long, Norman

Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
Tue Jun 5 00:03:47 CDT 2012


There is no such thing as a piece of hardware that has not had issues. No
matter what platform you are running on, it could quit at any time...your
only true safety is a reliable backups...and then backups on the backups.

You just can not have enough hard drive space.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hans-Christian
Andersen
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 8:53 PM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] So long, Norman

Regarding the battery, batteries get recalled all the time and the power
cable got chewed up from wear and tear. In addition to that, the ethernet
port was not longer functional (you accidentally tore out the network cable,
if you recall).

But, like I said, this happens to all hardware - desktops and laptops. Its
not indicative of anything.

If you give me the model number of your laptop, I'm sure I can find people
complaining of defects online.

- Hans


On 2012-06-04, at 7:14 PM, "Jim Lawrence" <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi Hans:
> 
> Ask how many games I have on my system...
> 
> The battery was shot from the Git-Go and the power cable soon followed
suit.
> 
> 
> That aside please note that most Techs, who support Windows PCs, sometimes
> hundreds, on a single site, do not and did not have your experience. The
> systems may not be great pieces of hardware but they do the job, for the
> mostly reliably and without issues...and Business just loves them.
> 
> Jim 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hans-Christian
> Andersen
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 1:23 PM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] So long, Norman
> 
> 
> Jim,
> 
> You are wrong. I'm looking at the machine as we speak and it has only 4
> games installed:
> SimCity 4
> Diablo 2
> Civilization III
> CivCity Rome
> 
> None of these are resource demanding games, even for a machine like this.
> 
> The rest of the software installed is all the usual stuff. CuteFTP,
> OpenOffice, PDF Creator, Skype, Canon Printer Utilities, Google Picasa,
all
> the Microsoft applications like MSN Messenger & Silverlight, Chrome,
Firefox
> etc, and some paint / photo manipulation software.
> 
> The system specs on this machine are:
> 
> HP Pavillion DV2714CA
> 
> Intel dual core T2330 1.6ghz, 1mb L2 cache, 533mhz FSB
> 2 gigs of DDR2 ram
> 160 gb sata hd
> 
> You can read the rest here:
>
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF06b/12139188-78299199-78299212-782
> 99212-78299212-81135007-81575996.html?dnr=1
> 
> It has only started falling apart in the last year. The chassis frame
around
> the screen is coming apart, but this is superficial. Hardware-wise it is
> still fine. It could probably be fixed and it would be as good as new.
> 
> So, the user of this system has neither been installing weird applications
> like crazy, nor is this some hacked together cheap laptop from some little
> known company.
> 
> Hans
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 2012-06-04, at 11:49 AM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
> 
>> Let's be honest, without mincing words; the hardware you are talking
about
>> was a cheap unpowered piece of junk. It was physically falling apart and
> was
>> suffering from a dozen pieces of game software... Nothing frys a system
> like
>> high resource demanding game software on flaky low-end hardware.
>> 
>> My personal experiences have been quite different. I bought a good solid
>> laptop, not cheap but definitely not over priced. That laptop is six
years
>> old and it has virtual every communications, web-design and software
>> building product, graphic design and manipulation software, database and
>> testing software running on it. It has been dragged to every office, in a
>> dozen towns, that I have worked in and it has been used to setup servers,
>> stations, router, switches, burn software, connect remote techs, testing
>> software, storing data and manage documents. I work on this computer 8 to
> 12
>> hours a day, almost every day. It is a little unpowered for the new age
as
>> it is Tosiba Satellite, only has a dual core, has two GB of RAM and 120
GB
>> HD.  
>> 
>> It runs like it always has; solid as a rock.
>> 
>> When it comes to Windows computers you are a really a terrible tech and I
>> think it is more willful than by accident. ;-)
>> 
>> Jim
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
>> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
Hans-Christian
>> Andersen
>> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 9:02 AM
>> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
>> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] So long, Norman
>> 
>> 
>> John,
>> 
>> These are mostly just observations of other people lately and my
> experience
>> supporting it at my company. I haven't been a Windows user since 2005 or
> so,
>> but it was also the reason I left Windows back then.
>> 
>> I'm not sure it is specific to gaming. As a recent example, my wife's
Win7
>> laptop had very few games installed (its graphics card was the Intel GMA
>> sort, not powerful enough to run most games) and really only just a
> handful
>> of additional applications. She mostly used it for surfing, but its now
>> un-usable. No blue screening, just lots of pausing, freezing and general
>> slowness to the point of frustration for her, but there is nothing
> obviously
>> wrong with it.
>> 
>> This is probably the 4th reinstall of Windows on that laptop (HP) in the
>> last 4 or so years, but she's got a new laptop now, so I may just throw
>> Linux onto this machine to extend its life.
>> 
>> I'm not saying that every Windows machine will eventually be completely
>> crippled, but I always known them to develop quirks over time and become
a
>> less stable system overall (not stability in terms of blue screening, but
> in
>> the sense that it is not behaving as expected ie. applications not
> starting,
>> freezing or crashing), often for no identifiable reason.
>> 
>> If this hasn't been an issue for you, then you are obviously doing
> something
>> right, but it's not clear to me what is being done wrong in the cases I
> have
>> witnessed/experienced.
>> 
>> Hans
>> 
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